This scenario is a short night action where the American paratroopers assault a lone German garrison holding the town of Chernoux. The Germans are on the defensive and have the terrain while the Americans have better morale and slightly more troops. Night plays a big factor in the attack as the spotting range is just 2 hexes. We use one house rule that the Germans would not be on the board until the Americans were within spotting range and the Germans stayed put until the Americans were spotted. This added a bit more tension to the game.

For a setup the Germans placed there units within the 3 center town hexes on board 22. The concentrated their troops to maximize the firepower. Given the Americans had higher morale, results of M or M1 will not do much to slow the advance. It would need to be step losses or possibly M2's to slow them down.

The Americans advanced from the southwest and south along the road. The first units the Germans spotted were the paratroops advancing up the road. Slightly stunned at the advance they tried to Op fire them but was ineffective. The next units up were fired at again but missed. The Americans sensed the Germans were too tired or they forgot how to shoot straight, advance more paratroops up from the southwest into assault position. The American M18 joined the advance, but the German StugIIIG spotted them and put an end to there advance.

The Americans rushed the Stug and their supporting infantry, stunning them with their attack. The Germans seemed posed to be pushed out of the town, but they rallied and repositioned themselves to fight off the American assaults. The German Stug moved to a better firing position, but the M18 took advantage and knock out several assault guns. Looking to follow up the kill the American captured SPW251/20 position for a cross fire shot, but the German SPW251/21 opened up on them killing them before they could fire.

The Americans continue to push the assault on the town, moving up PMG's to join in, but by now the German Op fire had come around and demoralized them as they advanced. The press was still on as the Americans and SS were lock in assault. Repeated tries by the Americans to push the Germans out we greeted by MP44 fire and grenades. Trading disruptions and demoralizations in would come down to who could recover and hold the town better than the other.

As the assault was going on the remaining Stugs pulled themselves together and knocked out the remaining American M18's giving them a significant lead. The Americans countered by moving up their last bit of reserves to attack another town hex. Again the German Op fire failed and the Americans were able to engage in assault with the Germans. This left two town hexes contested and two other in German control.

The Germans looked to recover their disrupted and demoralized troops as well as try to keep recovering American troops from coming back to join the attack. After a bit of time the Americans saw an opportunity to attack the Stug, now alone in a town hex. They pulled out there attack, survived the "free shot", but we hit by crippling direct fire shortly after.

At this point the American commander had seen enough, the Germans were still controlling the town and the American causalities were mounting. In the end a major German victory holding the towns.

We found this scenario very enjoyable and rated it very high. There was plenty of excitement, with the German fire missing and the Americans able to get into assaults. The game went back and forth unit the American armor was lost and the casualties mounted. A good scenario and a great Skype game.

Notes - played over Skype (audio only) with Alan Sawyer (aka campsawyer). Took around 3 hours, not counting a couple of short breaks.

Background

Alan has been one of my key site supporters for a long time, and is even team leader on our Annotated Rules feature, which will go live in the not too distant feature. So we communicate a lot, and it was inevitable that we sit down to play a VoIP game one of these days. My schedule cleared up this weekend, he scraped together some free time, and the stage was set for my first foray into Elsenborn Ridge.

The scenario in question is only 16 turns, takes place at night, and has few counters (though what are present all pack a punch). On paper it's tempting to toss it on the "once is enough, no variation possible" pile with a lot of the Airborne scenarios. That'd be a mistake.

Season to Taste

The Germans are restricted to setting up in or adjacent to town hexes, coupled with the 2-hex visibility, I suggested to Alan that we try something skin to "single-blind" play: he'd (as Germany) set up and play as normal, but I (as America) would enter the board with a blank map. It was up to him to keep an eye on spotting/collision/OpFire situations and announce them accordingly.

Picturing this scenario in my mind, you've got an American force approaching a hamlet under cover of darkness. They know it's defended, so we give the Germans the setup restrictions. The Germans know the Americans are going to attack, so we give them the initial setup and full battlefield omniscience. Because the Germans are either hidden in town or dug-in at night, it's reasonable to expect they'd spot the Americans before the Americans spotted them, so Alan plays with full view and I play with a blank map until I stumble into somebody.

Alan agreed to this arrangement and away we went.

Aggression Can Only Get You So Far

From the get-go I played this scenario aggressively. I split my forces into two groups - HMGs and a few PARA platoons with the best officers would advance straight up the road towards the main town area, and my armor and some supporting PARAs with crap officers would swing west for an attack from the rear. I felt pretty confident with this plan, and I must say it looked great on the map as I spent the first few turns advancing under cover of darkness.

I soon discovered that Alan had concentrated the bulk of his strength in the center of the hamlet, which my 2xPARA + 2xPMG waltzed up to. His "hidden" units got off some surprise shots but to no effect. My western group completed the pincer and I now had all of my forces on either side of the bulk of his. I was still feeling pretty confident at this point.

As I moved in for the kill on the central town hex, Alan continued to put up a hail of defensive fire which continuously missed. Truth be told, I clearly benefited from the luck of the dice in the first half of our scenario - both when he was rolling for attacks and when I was rolling for morale checks. Another good roll by my men sent his main town garrison into some serious morale trouble and I moved in for assault.

And that was the first real mistake I made. Had I waited one, or even 2 more turns and softened them up a bit more I'd have steamrolled that town and created a force imbalance he probably would never have been able to recover from. As it happened, I jumped in, didn't inflict any step losses, took some of my own, and watched him fully rally all his men.

By mid-game I was contesting the most important town hex, but I clearly lacked the strength to take it with infantry alone. My only hope then was to eliminate his armor while retaining mine, which would restore that force imbalance I needed to root him out of the urban hexes. I took advantage of some initiative wins and moved my armor into a lovely flanking fire position, only to see a brilliant shot by Alan reduce my 2 armor platoons to 1. With the flanking fire threat removed, he quickly finished off the remaining armor platoon and the writing was on the wall.

My men assaulted several more times, but were now doing so at a continuous disadvantage, and even the most lucky of rolls would not have saved the day. It was time to concede.

How To Win This Scenario As America

I've been thinking about this all morning, and I think I've come up with about as foolproof a plan as you can get:

Because the VP weights for steplosses and town hexes are the same for both sides, and because the Americans can move pretty freely due to the short nighttime LOS, you can win this scenario by:

1. keeping your entire OOB together
2. swinging left around the field and massing from the west against the central 1 hex town
3. leaving a stiff garrison there to deflect any German counterattacks from the 2 hex complex
4. mopping up the northern 1 hex town, if it is even garrisoned (it may not be, at which point you're really in the clear)

Why it would work: when you dislodge the Germans from the 1 hex town you're inflicting more steplosses than you're receiving because of your massed firepower, which gains you VPs. Then, having captured 2 of the 4 towns you've negated the German player's VP advantage there. Taken together, you'd probably be +3 or +4 VPs at this point and set to win the scenario. If the German player counterattacks, he's doing so against units defending from towns, and he's doing so with less firepower than you now have.

I'm extremely confident that this would result in a US victory. The only real counter is for the German player to immediately move out of his towns and mount a forward defense to try and burn up the turn count as quickly as possible. I challenge anyone to try this scenario against another human and employ my proposed plan of attack. I'd love to read your AAR!

Final Thoughts

The "single-blind" decision was a good one. Although I quickly uncovered Alan's units, I definitely would have played it differently if I had known his setup the moment I entered the board. The uncertainty did nothing to help my chances at victory, but I play PG for the experience, not for another notch in the win column. I highly recommend this sort of arrangement be used any time it is appropriate to do so.

I'm off to a great start in Elsenborn Ridge. I've already added a few more scenarios to my Want to Play list. Playing over Skype with Alan was 95% as fun as truly playing face-to-face, and I didn't have to clean the house beforehand - that's a definite plus! Mr. Sawyer is a gentleman, and a sharp PG player. Next time I intend to think of a great plan before we play! ;-)

Any one reading Ross Carter's memoir "Devils in Baggy Pants" will recognize this scenario and be reminded of the battle's effect on the author.

The Allies enter on the south edge and get within striking range by 1800. The Axis are set up in the village. Because of the limited time and lack of mobility the Allies opt for a frontal assault with an attempt to slip a company around the Axis left. There was a inconclusive exchange of fire between the M18 and the Axis PSW251/21. Nearly all the Allied Inf were disrupted or demorialized in the first rush into the village. The M18 fired a shot and kept going threatening the Axis rear village in hex 0914. This forced the Axis to detach a platoon from the reserve of 2 platoons and a leader in 0908 to cover the rear village. By 1845 both sides stood face to face in and around the village with the M18 far out on the Allied right trying to create havoc in the Axis rear now that the Axis occupied all the village hexes with at least a Gren. The Allied assault was bogging down until the Axis decided to move their Assault Gun platoon next to the village to gain the 2 col direct fire shift. This seemed at the moment like a good move. It would endanger Allied units in the village when combined with other units present. It could also draw out the Allied armor that was going out of it's way to avoid the Axis Assault gun platoon. But naturally the Allies got the iniative by one on the following turn and assaulted the Axis armor and inflicted a 2 step loss to none. This left the Allied Inf platoons out in the open but it did not matter because on the next turn the Allies captured another village hex via assault. That was how it ended 12 points for the Allies and 8 points for the Axis. DRAW. The Axis 20mm Flak gun and a Lt. held out in a village hex unassisted until the end causing the draw. Rating 4. This turned into quite firefight. The Axis really made a mistake coming within reach of the Allies Inf. Had they gambled and let the Allies get the first AP shot and had survived it this scenario could have had a very different ending. The Axis were fearful of the M18's ability to "Shoot and Skoot". The Axis could take the risk and get shot at and not get a return shot even if they get the iniative. This more than anything influenced the Axis armor's manuvers. Despite the Axis dilemma the Flak gun saved the loss.

A small force of SS hold four town hexes while two companies of American paratroopers try to root them out. This is a small scenario but the dark and the existence of key armor support for both sides make this an entertaining play.

The first thing to consider is that for a change the Americans do not have the massive artillery support they often have. The Germans have a good chance to hold on for the short scenario if they can cause some disruption/demoralization of the paratroopers as they approach the towns. It is nighttime with some illumination (2 hex sighting range) which means that the opportunity fire is not quite as terrible as it normally would be. The paratroopers also have an 8/8 morale so they are likely to hang on reasonably well even if they take losses.

The tactics of the situation demand that the Americans advance and assault the StuGs to permit the M18 to advance and get into position to knock out some of the fire support that the Germans have. The initial assaults are very dangerous as the Germans have a large amount of firepower but the paratroppers, even though they take some losses, are able to maintain their morale and tie up the StuGs. In retrospect, as the German commander, I should have moved the StuGs out of the assault hex in order to keep the pressure on the Americans and keep the M18s from killing the support halftracks.

In the end, the Germans permitted themselves to be tied down and eroded away by trying to counterassault in the town. This permitted the Americans to defeat them in detail. A quick scenario but it packs a lot of choices in a small package. Well worth the time. Try it out. I give it a "4". Some slightly different die rolls would have had a very different result. This one is balanced from my play.

This is another small scenario, 16 turns with a handful of US Paratroops and SS. The SS set up holding town hexes with a mix of support from a StuG IIIG, a 20mm AA gun and a halftrack AA weapon. Conditions are late daytime with only 2 hex visibility all through the game. US enters the south of the board escorted by an M-18 and a single step German AA halftrack captured some time before the scenario and put to use. I put the German AA weapons on the two outside town hexes of the central town and put 2 SS with leader in the central hex and a single SS with leader in the German left hex and another without a leader in the northernmost town hex just in case the US made it that far. The last leader I put in with the 20mm gun and it's tow vehicle, along with the StuG III. The US advanced for 2 turns keeping the armor out in front where they might trigger hopefully ineffective fire and make their presence known for followup fire. It worked, bringing the StuG out for an attempted duel with the M-18 while the AA halftrack started working on the troops in the town hexes. This is a tough scenario, as there is no cover for the Paras and their support. Once they can see the town, the Germans can see them, so it seemed like the best thing to do a little bit of direct fire damage to the defenders and then assault. In the course of the tank duel, both vehicles lost a step before a para stack assaulted and finished off the StuG so the M-18 single step could get to work on direct fire towards a town hex. The captured halftrack AA exchanged shots for a bit with the AA halftrack in town before destroying it, but then it was destroyed when it went around to try to add it's fire to the M-18 against the German right. While the Paras had near parity in their assaults, German die rolls were slightly better, and turn after turn Paras had to take a breath and repair morale, with one platoon failing morale checks over multiple turns and walked off the south edge of the board. In the end the US had a slight advantage over the Germans in step losses with 8 German to 6 US, but the Germans maintained control of 3 of the 4 town hexes, so were ahead by two points, not enough for a win but securing a draw. Another interesting puzzle, pretty well balanced for those who look for that, but one calling for different ideas for the attack.

This is another one of those scenarios you can start and finish with in one hour. Unless you take pictures and write AAR’s.

On smaller game however, one big dice roll can change events. The turning point in my game was rolling a 2 with the dice, against a stack of Germans defending in a town hex but with a coordinated attack of three stacks of Americans with a Captain, with a plus 2 combat modifier, next to two stacks, one with a Lieutenant and the other a Sergeant. These combine to blow most of the German away with that nice dice roll of a two on Direct Fire, adjacent to the enemy.

Not to mentions, I didn’t move my reserve Germans unit up to help, which was a big mistake, as I could afford to just sit back and defend as the Germans.

Results, a Major American Victory! I didn't even finish the game, as at a certain point the Germans couldn't win anymore.

Germans set up with all units in town hexes and STGIII in southern, two hex town. US approached from south and split up into two groups, one heading west and the other east. The M18 put itself 2 hexes away from the German halftrack which hit it and reduced it. The STG moved out of the town to keep US troops from taking cover in the field. After the Hellcat recovered, it moved in on the halftrack again but a lucky 11 shot from the SPW eliminated the US tank unit. The US paratroopers attacked two different towns simultaneously, but were thrown back in both cases with heavy losses. When the game ended the US didn't have enough viable units left to make an attack. This scenario warrants playing again, however the US player will have to concentrate his attacks to take some of the German units out of the game.