*This had a bunch of Tiger II tanks, so I had to try it out. At first look, it looks to favor the Germans with a two to one advantage in Infantry and those large Tiger II’s but reexamining this on paper, the Americans do have a large amount of armor, the advantage of setting up in the towns or dug-in, slow movement due to the snow/weather but most of all the VT Fuse artillery shells.

*The Germans lead down the road with their StuG IIIG’s but the Americans had a line of dug-in armor: M4/76’s, M4’s, & M18’s which easily took out the German StuG IIIG’s. The German Infantry were still making it through the woods, trying not to bunch up too much but realized they must hurry to make three victory objectives, which included control of all the towns, exiting 20 steps of units and eliminating 10 American steps and all in 18 turns.

*Next, to come up the road were 6 steps of Tiger II’s, but actually I made a mistake and putting 8 steps or 4 counters on the map. The Tiger II’s are suppose to be Army type but I used SS type as the Bulge games only have this variety and I didn’t want to pull them from Road to Berlin and they both have the same values just different colors. Well anyway, they headed out of cover and latter took out 3/4 of the American armor. Only one step removed from some cross-fire shots. The German Infantry emerges from the forest all along the front and things are beginning to look good for the Germans.

*Once the Germans start their march into the open all hell breaks loose! The Americans shot their three artillery batteries separately at different targets, as the special +3 column modifier for the VT Fuses makes just about every shot deadly and now I have chances three per turn. The American Infantry and support units join in and soon the German’s 2 to 1 advantage in Infantry means nothing. Slaughtered in the open ground, trying to reach the town hexes and not enough time to reset for a good second coordinated attack or even enough healthy Infantry left for that matter!

*Now the Germans send their Tiger II’s adjacent to the town hexes, hoping to force a better result then their Infantry, which most are retreating back to the wood, that haven’t been KIA. Without Infantry in close support, the American Infantry have found the best way to take out the Tigers that their armor couldn’t, assault. Yes they risk heavy casualties but the pay-off is pretty good and they were the last threat. The trade off was the loss of three American Infantry steps, two halftrack vs. 4 German Tiger II’s steps. It helps to included HMG units with their 10 DF and Engineers with their modifiers in the assaults. At this point, I pulled the extra counter I had mistakenly put on the map. The German only had one step of Tiger II’s left out of 6 and the extra counter would have achieved nothing, as the German Infantry were done as a fighting unit and the StuG IIIG’s and most the Tigers were burning.

*The casualties were high on both sides, so the German only achieved one of their three objectives, giving the Americans a Minor Victory!

*I learned some new tactics in this scenario in how to take out large quantities of German Heavy armor, first slow them with your dug-in armor, using cross-fire but you will still lose a lot of armor, then pull the surviving armor back. Then separate the German Infantry from their armor. Let the German Armor attempt to take the town hexes without support and assault the heck out of them.

Played May 31st