23 December, 1944

Elements of the 212th Volks Grenadier Division vs Company E, 2nd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Divison

This is the introductory scenario for Battle of the Bulge expansion for Panzer Grenadier

American Army Company E advances on the left and attacks north

The game length is only 8 turns and there are some special rules. The goal is for the Americans to advance forward and take 3 hexes that the Germans must defend

The Germans get reinforcements on turn Turn One, which enter from the West of the map. 2 Grenadier Platoons and one Heavy machine gun platoon and a Captain and one Lieutenant

Turn 1, 0930 hours

Americans win the initiative roll 6-3, that gives them 2 actions (difference divided by 2 rounded up) before the Germans can go.

One of special rules is that the Americans cannot move on turn one, so this first turn will be all shooting.

The Americans activate all the infantry they have with the Lieutenant in 0603 and declare a fire action.

The 3 American Infantry Platoons in Hex 0602 will take pot shots at the German platoon and sergeant in 0903. The Germans are staked out on a hill, that is limiting terrain but the Americans can see them because they are within 3 hexes.

The Americans open fire, combining their Direct Fire strengths of 6 to make a 18 point attack. The leader next to them cannot add his attack bonus because he is not in the same hex.

The attack is made on the 16 column, but at -1 column due to the Germans being on the hill. So the dice are rolled on the 11 column. The Americans roll a 5, that means a morale check for the German platoon. Leaders must check morale first, so the German Sergeant must roll under a "9". He passes. The platoon rolls next, they need an 8 or less, but the Sergeant adds +2 (look at his counter, lower right corner) The platoon rolls a 10, barely made it!

The last American unit to activate is the Heavy Machine Gun platoon. It is with a Lieutenant that has a combat modifier of +1. The HMG unit has a STR of 10, so he opens fire at a STR of 11. The column is dropped to the 7 column and the Americans roll a "10". This forces ANOTHER morale check on the poor Germans on the hill and again they PASS!

The Americans cant move and have no one else to shoot, so that Action Segment is done. Remember they get one more. However no units are left. They are forced to pass the last action segment.

The Germans FINALLY get to go!

The Germans finally have one segment this turn. Reinforcements are allowed to enter from the West edge, 2 hexes within 0501. The Germans enter, and then activate and combine Direct Fire on the Americans in the light woods. SURPRISE! That is a lot of attack power, but the woods shift the column -2 down and weaken the attack. Even with the German Captain adding his +1, the Germans still miss and have no effect.

NOTE: I got this rule wrong, reinforcements entering count as a move and they would not be able to shoot

Since the Americans have no one they want to activate they pass. They decide to keep their leaders in the woods. The Germans are now up again and they decide to activate the men on the hill that have taken so much fire.

The German Grenadier Platoon on the hill activates and takes a pot shot at the American HMG crew. Due to the weak attack strength and -2 column shift because the Americans are in the woods, the shot has no effect.

The Americans pass since they are out of activations, and the Germans are out of range of the Americans with the other two units.

That ends the first turn!

TURN 2, 0945 hours

15 minutes has now passed. Turn 2 is starting!

Note that even though some Americans are in Limiting terrain, they fired last turn and are now spotted. That makes them visible from 12 hexes instead of 3. Unless they move into the woods further, they will be spotted and able to be hit. The JIG IS UP!

With a roll of 5 to 4, the Americans win the initiative this turn, and get to take the first action segment

Americans activate the Lieutenant in the woods and he in turns activates all the American units.

He declares a fire with everyone but the 1-1 Lieutenant and the Captain, who will move. The 1-1 Lieutenant moves onto the stack of American Infantry at the edge of the Light Woods (cost 2MP out of 4), and the Captain shifts over (costs 2MP out of 4). Now it is time to open fire on the German Reinforcements.

The American Infantry stacked 3 high will now open fire, one of them adding the 1-1 Lieutenants Fire bonus to his Strength. So that is one unit at STR7 one at STR6 and another at STR6. Combined fire total = 19. There are 3 German units stacked in the hex so the Americans get a +1 Column shift to the 22 column!

The bullets fly and the Americans roll a 5 and force a Morale check at +2 to the roll on that hex of Germans!

The German Captain makes his morale check, barely. He needed a "7" and rolls a 7 The German Lieutenant misses his morale check and rolls a 8. He becomes disrupted!

Now for the infantry to roll. Remember on Morale Checks all Leaders must roll first THEN the troops roll. Since the Captain passed he can use his +1 modifier on the troops.

Every German Platoon needs 7. (8 -2 for the combat result, +1 for the Captain). Rolls are: 7,7,7. 3 in a row. All the Platoons clear.

Next the American Heavy Machine Gun Platoon opens fire across the way and rolls an 11! Thats a forced Morale check, normal modifiers. The German sergeant in that hex has a +2 modifier, he is quite the motivator! The Germans need 10 or less to pass. They pass easily. The Americans are out of units and it is now the Germans turn!

The 2 German infantry platoon reinforcements and their heavy machine gun platoon move into the light woods to prepare to assault the American positions next turn. After that the Americans pass due to all units being done, then the Germans take each next segment and beging to dig in the units on the hill (scenario rules state they cannot move until Americans are within 2 hexes)

Pretty uneventfull, so we move now to turn 3.

TURN 3

1000 hours (10:00 am)

It is time to roll Initiative again. Germans win 6-2!

That means the Germans get 2 Action Segments in Turn 3 before the Americans even get to go. That is just what they needed to ensure they can assault that hex.

The German platoons charge in and assault the Americans in the light woods hex.

The assault strengths are German 21, American 19. The Germans suffer a -1 column shift due to the woods, but then get it back for having a regular undemoralized leader in the stack. The Americans get a +1 column shift and use the 24 table!

Germans roll a 3 and get a M2 result, the Americans roll a 6 and inflict TWO step losses!

The effects are simultaneous so lets get the American morale check out of the way first, it has a penatly of 2 to the roll.

The American Lieutenant fails! Disrupted The American Infantry platoon fails! Disrupted The American Infantry platoon FAILS! DEMORALIZED The American Infantry platoon passes

The Germans now take 2 step losses. Also the German player must make a Morale check at -2 on the survivors One German unit fails and is disrupted, the German HMG fails and is DEMORALIZED.

The Germans got really beat up there, and that is not all. Now we must check and see if the leader got killed. The rules for this are: roll two dice, subtract one for each step loss in the hex (2 in this case) if its below a 2 then the leader dies. The Germans roll a 8 all is well.

That turned out ugly for the Germans, but they still have one more free action segment. Not much to do here but finish digging in on the hill.

The Americans get to go now, and the first thing to do is sort out that ugly Assault hex. Each side had so much morale damage that they wont be able to attack and the Americans have an demoralized unit that must be tended to. Needless to say they activate the units in the assault hex.

The Americans manage to get the Rifle Platoon from Demoralized to Disrupted, and the other Disrupted Platoon recovers fully to normal. The lieutenant fails to clear his disruption.

The HMG platoon is also activated this segment and rakes fire across the Germans on the hill across the way. This forces a morale check but the Germans pass easily.

The Germans take an action segment and finish digging in one platoon. The Americans pass. The Germans take one more action segement and dig in the last platoon. The Americans pass, the Germans pass. We now go to TURN 4

TURN 4

1015 hours (10:15 am)

Here we go again with Initiative. 3-2 a German win. The Germans get one free action segment before the Americans go.

I remove all the Moved/Fired markers

The Germans activate the Assault hex and opt to recover morale. The Demoralized HMG crew goes to disrupted and the Infantry platoon fails to recover and stays at disrupted. Play now passes to the Americans

The Americans activate the Captain in the woods and he in turn activates the Lieutenant in the Assault hex. The HGM crew with the other Lieutenant is also activated.

The assault hex now contains some beat up Germans, the Americans will go over to the attack and assault the Germans in that hex. Remember each hex is 200 meters, so that is quite a bit of space.

The Americans add up all STR and it comes to 18, +1 for the leader = 19 The Germans are down quite a bit, but with their leader they come up with a 14 STR

The Americans will have a -1 column modifier for counter assaulting in the woods, but they get +1 for having a undemoralized friendly NON AFV leader. The Germans have no column modifiers on defense so far. The Americans use column 18 and the Germans use table column 13.

The Americans roll a "3" and force all Germans to make morale checks at +2 The Germans roll a "1" and miss with all defensive fire.

This could spell trouble for those weakened German units. The weakened German Infantry fails morale check by 3 and becomes Demoralized! The others all pass their checks. The next activated unit is the Heavy Machine gun platoon and it will fire again at the Germans on the hill, but now they are dug in. It is a -2 column shift and this time they roll a "2" and force another morale check. The Germans clear it with a 7.

That is it for the Americans action segment.

The Germans pass across the board and so do the Americans. We go to Turn 5. However a special scenario rule states:

"Starting at the end of Turn 4, roll a die. If a 6 is rolled, the Americans call in Artillery on the Germans and drive them back, ending the game prematurely."

A 6 is rolled!

Artillery rains down on the Germans on the hills and they are forced to retreat. The game ends in a draw, as the Americans have not taken 2 step losses and they have not captured the 3 hill hexes!

RESULT: DRAW

All in all this was the smallest battle you can play with Battle of the Bulge. The battle took about 45 minutes in game time to unfold, and was a small firefight.