This game was played head-to-head with Wayne Baumber over Skype and represents our eighth chronological visit to the battles on the Siegfried Line. Thus far, the previous seven had been about the Germans defending the Vaterland, but with the arrival of their famous 12th Wild Buffaloes Infantry Division, the Germans were now going to be able to add some offensive punch for a change. The battle revolves around the town of Verlautensheide (not too far from Aachen), and despite the oft heard maxim that town fighting in PG is not that exciting, this provided us with a very very entertaining scenario

The scenario, like an NFL match really was split into four distinct quarters. The first quarter had both sides rushing and jostling for as much of the town as they could grab. The second quarter had the Yanks gaining the upper-hand with a particularly powerful stack doing the damage. In the third, the Germans fought back into contention and slightly ahead, with the final quarter having the Americans doing all they could to hang on for a draw and perhaps even a minor win. Perfect type of scenario really ?

Quick ! Into The Town Men !

About 1000 hours at Verlautensheide an American recon platoon had gone forward to scout the town. Finding it empty initially, they must have felt some shock indeed when reaching the south end of town they spotted a German battalion in strength advancing straight towards them about a kilometer away. This enemy battalion was from the Westwall’s newest arrivals, the experienced 12th Infantry Division, ‘The Wild Buffaloes’. These were here to give the Westwall defenders some offensive punch and Verlautensheide was their first target. The US recon platoon gamely stayed in place as the enemy advanced and waited on their own troops that were now racing forward to assist. As the ‘Buffaloes’ closed, the US 47th Infantry recon platoon’s fire disrupted the lead enemy engineer platoon, but these Germans were soon in the south end of the town and were swarming over the hapless recon platoon. This fight proved short and sweet as the recon troops were very soon completely over-powered.

The Amis Gain The Advantage

At the north end of town, US troops were now pouring and trying to fix-up ad-hoc offensive units to throw into the impending street-battles. Using a platoon of M4’s, a powerful group was sent into one section of Verlautensheide. The Germans, though looking well-positioned were soon under attack from the company sized American task-group, and with the help of the M4’s and supporting M3 HMG fire they were inflicting heavy losses on The Buffaloes. In fact, 4 steps were lost in between 1045-1100, a number that could not be borne for too long by the Germans. To counter this, the Germans sent in some MG and Engineer troops. Now these two opposing groups would keep each other honest for the rest of the battle, resorting to light skirmishing for fear of inflicting a mutual blood-bath on each other. The US foot platoons here had also tired after their earlier exertions and needed to re-group too.

Things Begin To Even Out

Around this central and pivotal face-off, the rest of Verlautensheide experienced the battle as the Germans, who now controlled the bigger portion of the town continued to push against the Amis. One area fell to the Buffaloes when accurate well-directed fire-groups completely wiped out a US platoon thus allowing the Germans to take over those particular streets and buildings. Elsewhere, a US OBA spotter section directed accurate artillery strikes on German mortar platoons situated further back in woodland practically ending the German mortars effectiveness in the battle. On the east side of town, US troops were continually harried by German fire and this left them unable to support other US efforts effectively.

The Germans 'Buffaloes' Go For Victory

In the closing stages in which the Germans could now be said to have had the edge, albeit not enough to claim victory yet, the Americans tried one more opportunistic grab at a section of the town that almost completely back-fired. Two US Infantry platoons launched a risky attack on German positions that were well-set in the buildings. It seemed a good idea initially until the German defenders must have completely outwitted the Amis in the assault, inflicting losses on them and demoralizing the rest. Now, trying to grab a last gap victory, the Buffaloes counter-attacked here. Despite their poor state, these hard-pressed GI’s must have realised how desperate the result would be. They miraculously managed to avoid any serious losses in the German counter-attack and clung on desperately despite their fragile morale. They refused to disintegrate and held on.

The struggle for Verlautensheide ended in a draw with the Germans just ahead, but not enough to claim any victory. Final points tally was Germans 18 points, Americans 15 points.

This scored a very high 4 from the pair of us. Though nothing special in innovation, the balance appeared good and the situation tantalisingly on edge. Especially for 2 player games There were parts of the battle where we both said "if only if", but hey ! They balance out. Introduce a newbie with this one, or better still, two newbies against each other