Well, this one was on my table for 7 months! To say nothing of the fact that I'm finally getting around to writing this up two more months later. My life is so busy that my gaming time gets squeezed into non-existence sometimes. I took quite a few pictures, I may put them up on CSW at some point.

But to the game: Hello, artillery! A scratch force of Americans has to hold two towns ("The Twin Villages") against a literal horde of SS. The one thing in the Americans' favor is a heaping helping of artillery: 5x24 plus 8x18. The task for the U.S. is to make sure the full weight of this barrage comes down on the Germans every turn. Sounds easy, but there are too many Germans for a "just hunker down in the towns" strategy to work. There needs to be some forward deployment to slow down the advance enough to let the barrages take their toll on Germans at the edge of the woods and in the open ground in front of the towns. (Oh, that's the other U.S. advantage, a narrow front of one board.) But there aren't many US units, and, significantly, not very many leaders either. A few too many leader losses and artillery spotting may become a problem.

I'll write a more detailed summary someday, using my pictures, but the gist of it was that the Americans somehow held on for the draw. They were able to disrupt each wave of attacks just enough to hold on to enough town hexes at the end. Had the game gone a few more turns the Germans would likely have taken the towns. There were some epic turns of events in the final few turns, including a point blank Panther assauls on US infantry in the southern town causing a 2X result, followed immediately by an artillery stonk demoralizing the Panthers! The Lt. Colonel recovering from demoralized to good order in one roll only to have his Inf. platoon shot out from under him next impulse. That sort of stuff!

When using the SS in attacks one must accept, somewhat fatalistically, the prospect of huge losses. When the Americans have the size and scope of artillery that they have in this scenario, that expectation must be enhanced. When the area available to the Germans to deploy is restricted to one board and the cover is primarily provided by night rather than trees or towns the outcome is inevitable.

The Germans were not without some success, clearing one entire village and the outlying company of Americans which held the road to the villages. A bold, left hook by the Germans accomplished that much but their losses were such that they had few remaining infantry available to attack the second village and an assault with their armor would be insufficient to dislodge the Americans, especially given the availability of a platoon of M18s which would do much to the PzIVs which accompanied the Panthers.

After the 10th turn the Americans, who started with 2-3 deficit in troops, actually had a superiority of 5-4 in infantry, and retained sufficient armor support to hold the larger village. The availability of 5x24 and 8x18 artillery made this an interesting battle especiallly given the German superiority in armor. Using massed artillery strikes of 72, 3x48 and 32 the Americans shredded the German infantry advance. There appeared to be little else for the Germans but to be comforted with outperforming history, albeit at a tremendous cost.

I remain impressed with the ability of the system to portray such stunningly varied situations. The German attacks into massed American artillery provide a vivid example of the carnage which must have occured. I have heard complaints about PG as a system from advocates of other tactical game systems, holding that PG is just not "bloody" enough. Try out this scenario if you want blood. The losses were numbing to the German commander. I give it a "4" for the ability to provide an insight into the situation facing the Germans.

US ARTY fire caused heavy casualities to German grenadiers but could not prevent German Panzers from destroying US Armor. Spotters in outposts called in fire and eight Pz Gren steps were the first casualities of the scenario. All were eliminated by ARTY fire in the 0630 turn. By the 0715 turn the Germans had lost four more Gren steps but their Panzers eliminated one Sherman unit and one M-18 unit. By 0915 Panzers had destroyed all US Armor. No Panzers were eliminated by US Armor. Two Panzer steps were eliminated by 3" fire and three in assault combat. The Germans concentrated on the south town and took two of the three hexes. By the time the attacks on the northern town took place the Germans had lost so much INF they could not get column modifiers for combined AFV-INF assaults. Control of four town hexes total and two in dispute plus 16vps for destroyed US Armor offset the hugh Pz Gren losses inflicted by US ARTY. US 49vps Ger 57vps. Minor German victory.

Started this game with my son in law, Steve, to get him into the system. He set the Americans up in the center of the main woods near the road in the area of hex 0811, 0911 and 0910, one dug in unit on the hills at hex 1109. He put three platoons in the village near 1006 and two platoons with leaders in the village at 0504. He put one AT gun at hex 0404 and the other at hex 1206. His armor was concentrated in the area of hex 0708. He put one M 4 platoon at hex 0409.

I sent a mixed Armor and Infantry force down the left side of the woods ( German perspective ), a light Armor and heavy Infantry force dow the main road hex 0717 to 0712, and a mixed Armor and Infantry dow the right side. The intent was to push the American center and force the American Armor to fight either the right or left prong. the German main effort was on the left.

The first turns were slow and the Americans picked off a few of my tanks with cross fire bonus opportunities. Steve would fire the tanks first and then the AT guns for the crossfire bonus opportunities. In the center we traded casualties due to Arty fire and then close range fire attack. My leaders showed their true mettle and we pushed the Americans out of the woods by mid game.

When the visibility improved the German tanks destroyed all the American Armor and then eliminated the AT guns. The Germans cleared the village at hex 0404 only after taking heavy infantry losses due to the US Arty. The Germans never took all the hexes in the other village by games end. Minor victory for the Germans. If this was a campaign game the Germans would be in trouble due to Infantry losses.