Marnach II Battle of the Bulge #8 |
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(Attacker) Germany | vs | United States (Defender) |
Formations Involved | ||
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Germany | 28th Engineer Battalion | |
Germany | 304th Panzergrenadier Regiment | |
Germany | Heer | |
United States | 110th Infantry Regiment | |
United States | 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion | |
United States | Army |
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Overall Rating, 17 votes |
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3
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Scenario Rank: 745 of 940 |
Parent Game | Battle of the Bulge |
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Historicity | Historical |
Date | 1944-12-16 |
Start Time | 18:15 |
Turn Count | 14 |
Visibility | Night |
Counters | 59 |
Net Morale | 0 |
Net Initiative | 3 |
Maps | 2: 11, 9 |
Layout Dimensions | 56 x 43 cm 22 x 17 in |
Play Bounty | 81 |
AAR Bounty | 153 |
Total Plays | 18 |
Total AARs | 4 |
Battle Types |
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Exit the Battle Area |
Inflict Enemy Casualties |
Urban Assault |
Conditions |
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Off-board Artillery |
Reinforcements |
Terrain Mods |
Scenario Requirements & Playability | |
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Battle of the Bulge | Base Game |
Introduction |
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For most of the 16th, the Vienna Division's engineers labored to build a bridge across the Our River, dropping several vehicles into the waters as spans collapsed. As night fell the Germans finally completed a heavy bridge across the Our. Tanks and heavy weapons were soon crossing the river and driving west to support the attack on Marnach. Only a few could enter the fight at a time thanks to the narrow road leading up from the river. |
Conclusion |
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The one American tank platoon that had arrived earlier in the day had been sent to Hosingen. Without tank support, the arrival of German tanks overwhelmed the defense. The last radio message from the town, noting the arrival of German halftracks, came at 1815. Nothing further was heard from B Company. |
AFV Rules Pertaining to this Scenario's Order of Battle |
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2 Errata Items | |
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The reduced direct fire value of the Heer HMG became 5-5 starting with Fall of France. (plloyd1010
on 2015 Jul 31)
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All SPW 251s have an armor value of 0. (Shad
on 2010 Dec 15)
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A Thorn in the Side | ||||||||||||
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The Germans must take the town and exit several units to the west in three and a half hours. A combination of artillery and armor-supported assaults was the strategy to accomplish this goal. The American strategy was to use artillery and fall back to delay the Germans as they attempted to take the town. Based on my experience in Marnach I and the historical outcome, I expected the Germans to prevail. The Germans cleared out most of the town, but stubborn American defense (aided by several favorable die rolls) of two hexes continued. In the last 15 minutes, the Germans were poised to exit the required units, and were assaulting the final American-held hex (a reduced infantry platoon) with armor, an engineer platoon, and a HMG platoon. A 1 was rolled, and the American leader and infantry passed the morale checks. The Americans denied victory to the Germans. Several factors led to this outcome: 1) the Germans were not aggressive enough in the first few turns, 2) the Germans did not effectively employ armor and engineer units in early assaults, and 3) in many critical instances, the dice rolls favored the Americans, especially when it came to availability of German artillery, morale checks and recovery, and combat results. In short, I did not use employ German forces in an effective manner. I am still learning the importance of armor and engineers and their valuable contributions to town assaults. I am also realizing that with short scenarios, the attacking force must act quickly and effectively to get the victory. |
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0 Comments |
Holy Catfish! Look at all the Germans! (II) | ||||||||||||
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Another crunch on the town. The Americans don't stand a chance. The only socially redeeming factor was that there was a lot of tanks to play with. |
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1 Comment |
OK, I see where I made the mistake. The Mortars are in the compartment with the ground troops and I was looking in the "gun" compartment for a three inch howitzer. (I have things set up in plastic compartmented containers for ease is setting up.) (It STILL takes me a long time!)
Battle of the Bulge Scenario 8 | ||||||||||||
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The Americans set up first in the town on board 11 which is inverted? from the previous scenario. They set up their defense pointing eastward in order to intercept the stream of reinforcements from the Germans, which includes a large number of tanks that will overwhelm them easily unless they are slowed up significantly through poor German rolling. The Germans take advantage of the set up, and place their starting units on the northeast hill on board 11 to walk into the town relatively unopposed. They do this and the Americans redeploy their defense on turn one, but the Germans are already adjacent to the town at this point. The Germans win initiative on turn 2, OBA the Americans and assualt. The Germans tie the Americans into stalemate assaults until reinforcing tanks knock out the Americans. German victory. |
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0 Comments |
Panzers Crush American Infantry |
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A very short and bloody scenario. German infantry start 4 hexes away from the American defenses in town, and due to the hill they can stay out of site pretty well until close. By turn 3 German troops were in the town and in hand to hand combat, two Panthers arrived on turn 4 and by turn 7 the M8 in town was blow to pieces. Overall Germans lost 4 steps, the US force was completely destroyed by turn 10. Not a particularly balanced scenario, but quick and had action. |
0 Comments |