OK, this is going to be a little hazy because I played this more than a year ago, but I have my record sheet to help me. My first (solo) play of Elsenborn Ridge was #11 St. Vith, Help Arrives. I think I saw Jay Townsend's AAR of this scenario in the Consimworld AAR folder, and it inspired me to try it out, with the winter boards, of course!

As I recall, the US rushed out with their armor to get out to the treeline and hill at the south end of board 22, to obstruct the progress of the SS, who want to clear out the whole N-S road. The poor infantry had to catch up on foot. Unfortunately for the U.S., the Germans used the "Tank Riders" rule to get their infantry up to the front quickly, and therefore had a combined arms thing going. That and armor values of 3 meant massive destruction for the U.S. armor. My notes tell me that I had to put the game away after turn 9 because of an impending conference at work, but I wrote that a German major victory was all but assured due to the nearly complete elimination of the U.S. armor. The U.S. was within 1 German step of meeting their minor victory condition, but were unlikely to stick around long enough (barring some extreme luck and/or gamey "rush the road on the last turn" tactics) to reach major status for the draw.

Overall, interesting, but I clearly have to learn how to handle thin-skinned American armor better.

The Americans won a minor victory, though coming very close to a major one. By having the initiative the first two turns they were able to rush forward to board 22 and make the Germans advance across open ground. The Germans rushed the Americans, leaving their tanks to provide fire support if the Americans opened up during opportunity fire. The Americans did not but fired and moved with their M-18's. Eventually it came down to close combat. By the time this transpired, however, the Germans had lost all their armor and therefore did not get the combined arms bonus. This hurt them as the Americans were mostly in woods hexes. When the game ended the Americans had lost most of their armor, the Germans over half of their infantry, and were only able to prevent a major American victory by moving a unit on the rode (board 25) at the last minute.

This is the third of five St. Vith scenarios following up the "First Assault" which, in my play, ended up with a disrupted and demoralized reduced regiment of Volksgrenadiers. Here, an angry reinforced battalion (or two two-thirds strength battalions; however one wants to think of four companies) of Leibstandarte panzer grenadiers backed up by elements of their panzer and assault gun battalions runs headlong into a company of foot slogging US infantry and armored elements of the US 7th and 9th Armored Divisions. These elements include a company of M18 tank destroyers.

Germans get initiative on turn 1 and enter the north edge dropping off their truck/lorry-borne infantry just south of the towns and parking their armor in the town LT. The US pushes their armor forward, especially the quick moving M18's. Over the next two turns, US tankers trade jabs (as both sides slowly unveil from their LT positions) with the SS panzer crews whilst the grenadiers push all-out to the south to close with the sharp-shooting US tankers. The US commander is conflicted: clearly, German armor is going to wait at longer range and not engage in open terrain with the deft M18s and M4/76's: yet, they have to make a stand somewhere and they hold a light woods edge. What essentially happened is that the Waffen SS was well lined up such that a single activation moved a hoard of units ... US OF simply got overwhelmed; the Germans gained initiative on turn four; and suddenly US armor unsupported by INF were in three assaults. Some fair rolling on assault columns for the Germans along with a few panzerfaust shots suddenly found the US M4/76 elements smouldering ruins. It was clear the SS obersturmbahnfuhrer in command was simply going to take his time moving south with his armor well-screened.

The remaining US forces then fled southwards hoping to establish strongpoints on the road along the 20-m hill on the southern board. The SS, never known for its march discipline, took a few turns to reorganize, and the swath moved again southwards. US armor just never had much to shoot at - finally, the remaining two M18's went "kamikazi" rushing PzIVH units in a dash for a flanking bonus. Amazingly, one platoon skirted several grenadier platoons (read survived four 22-col DF OF rolls) only to get disrupted (i.e. one step destroyed, the survivor disrupted) by OF from the panzers. The second unit managed to get in a kill on the "type IVs," but to their dismay, the SS held morale. The StugIIIG's were not far behind and the brave M18 that had survived all of the OF shots in its mad dash, was swarmed by shadowy SS-troopers in camouflage.

Determined US attempts at dug-in strong points with an INF or HMG + M16 or M4/105 held well for a while, but the SS simply had to bring up their remaining armor, shoot out the US mechanized units, then move in their infantry. It was all over by Turn 15.

The US did gain a minor victory killing off a tenth German step on the final assault. The Germans had a major victory, however, as the road to St. Vith was now open.

En este escenario un batallón de panzer grenadier, apoyados por una compañía de tanques (PzIVH)y cañones de asalto, dos secciones de morteros y artillería fuera del mapa (2 x 16), pertenecientes a la 1ª división SS, atacan a una fuerza americana compuesta por dos compañía de tanques M4 en sus diversas variantes, una compañía de los velocísimos cazatanques M18 y una batería de cañones autopropulsados M18. El enfrentamiento se produce en los alrededores de Saint Vith.

Los alemanes avanazan encabezados por sus tanques PzIVH, que cometen la imprudencia de adelantarse demasiado en terreno desconocido, por lo que son blanco de los letales cazatanques M18 enemigos, que destruyen dos steps de PzIVH y dos secciones de semiorugas SPW 251. Los germanos aprenden la lección y organizan sus fuerzas para llevar a cabo un ataque lento y metódico. Hacen avanzar a sus panzer grenadier hacia los blindados enemigos con objeto de hacer que éstos disparen y manifiesten sus posiciones, lo que permitiría que fueran localizados y destruidos por los tanques y cañones de asalto que avanzan detrás de los panzer grenadier.

Para resistir el ataque de la infantería alemana, los blindados americanos se concentran al máximo (tres secciones en un hex), lo que les permite hacer un fuego de oportunidad letal, que produce numerosas bajas entre los asaltantes. Sin embargo, este fuego revela las posiciones de los blindados americanos a los panzer, que con un fuego antitanque preciso y efectivo van destruyendo paulatinamente los vehículos enemigos.

Con esta sencilla táctica aplicada sistemáticamente los alemanes van destruyendo y arrinconando a los blindados enemigos, aunque pagan por ello un precio terrible. Cuando los tanques americanos son destruidos quedan solamente las posiciones de la compañía de infantería, fortificada en una encrucijada de carreteras, pero el fuego de la artillería fuera del mapa y de los morteros alemanes mina su resistencia y son finalmente aniquilados en furiosos asaltos de los panzer grenadier.

Los alemanes cosiguen así la victoria, pero a un precio altísimo, ya que pierden la mitad aproximadamente de toda la infantería. Los americanos obtienen una victoria menor, pero los alemanes consiguen una victoria mayor y con ella la victoria definitiva.

Buen escenario. Si los americans hubiesen dispuesto de artillería fuera del mapa tal vez el resultado habría sido distinto.

I am playing this scenario, as it is a quick one, and my time is short today. After one turn of play, I have rushed my M18's into a blocking position, hopefully they will get to activate first next turn? The American have very little Infantry but lots of armor. The Germans on the other hand have tons of Infantry and enough armor to make them dangerous. Both sides really need to try for the Major Victory conditions first because if both get minor one victory conditions, it will be a Draw. So the fight should center around the Northern part of board 25. Without very much Infantry, this looks tough for the Americans but if I can quickly take out the German armor, I should have a chance.

Those 14 movement factor, really makes the M18's a fun TD to move across the map board first and get into position and this scenario you get to use 3 full strength counters/Platoons of them.

This ended in an American Minor Victory. The Germans never could not get it together to make a finally push. They had terrible recovery dice rolls. I threw in the towel with about six turns left. The American did what they needed to do to get a minor victory but had little chance to get a Major Victory with too few Infantry units and no Artillery.

Continuing on with Elsenborn Ridge, scenario 11 St. Vith: Help Arrives pits several battalions of German SS against a adhoc group of American troops. The strengths of the Germans are number of units, better armor, artillery, morale and mobility. The American get the victory conditions, just destroy 10 German steps without the Germans gaining control of the north-south road up to and including the crossroads on board 25. The German strategy was to just move down the road and kill anything in the way. There movement can be controlled as there is enough trucks/halftracks to keep up with the tanks. Even dismounted the Germans must resist the temptation to rush the tanks forward. Steady, constant movement and firepower. For the Americans, a straight up battle is out of the question with the German strengths. The Americans must hit and run, use the their tank mobility to find and hit weak units and get around the advancing Germans to threaten the road link to the north.

From the start the Americans had problems. The Germans were able to score impressive kills on a couple of advance M18's causing the Americans to lose an initiative point. This lead to the Americans losing most of the initiative rolls and the Germans to match their tanks against the Americans with the Germans taking more kills. 8 to 1 kill ratios we the norm for the Germans as the American weak armor shows why the Americans need numbers to destroy Germans tanks. The American platoon of infantry and HMG tried to digin but the German infantry was able to close and get 3 to 1 assaults on the platoons. The bright spot for the Americans was that a M4/76 dugin on the hill on board 25 was able to disrupt and demoralize the German infantry trying to capture the crossroads. As a final defense the M24 tried to kill the SS as it approached, but it was soon dispatched with a panzerfaust. The final score a German minor victory with the capture of the crossroads on board 25. In terms of step losses Americans 24, Germans 5.

This scenario is one I would play again as the German dice rolls were too good and the Americans we so bad, this seemed to make the difference. I feel a Americans need to be more choosy about the attacks and use the mobility to get around and spread out the German assault.