A côté d'un PBEM avec Vince Hughes, je joue des scénarios à une carte d'Elsenborn Ridge. Dans la série CrossRoads, celui-ci est plus intéressant que le précédent joué (le 13). Il y a beaucoup plus d'unités, et le scénario se joue de jour, ce qui simplifie les détections et spottings des unités. Par contre, pas trop de stratégie ; les allemands attaquent sur deux axes et peuvent être très vite au contact. Seule petite finesse, utiliser les champs pour l'attaque par l'est pour se rapprocher à couvert de la ville.

La victoire allemande semble assez assurée : dans ma partie, les US finissent avec deux unités d'infanterie réduites, sur un hex de ville ! Mais je comprends qu'on puisse avoir un nul avec une défense plus habile.

This is the last in the series on the battles for Dom Butgenbach. This time the Hilter Youth bring Panthers to cover their attack, but it failed to get them into the manor. They were able to get a draw out of the game with the American losses, but their losses was just too much.

To start the Germans have the armor advantage with the Panthers as well as a good amount of OBA. The leaders were OK with on X-2-1 officer. The Americans have the setup and good OBA support. The American leaders are good with all leaders having either morale or combat bonuses, but nothing higher than one. The Americans deploy around the towns positioning armor in the towns anhidingng the AT guns in the towns and fields. Infantry are dugin in the fields and in front of the towns. A slight change from the last scenario is that the Americans are defending the town hex to the west of the board.

The Germans look to use the cover of the morning mist to position on the Americans. A change is that the Americans are defending the western most town, so the Germans cannot sweep to the northwest. But this time the Germans will us the eastern troops to swing north while the southern force will try to pin the Americans.

The first couple of turns have the Germans positioning for the attack. The eastern force moves to the north and positions tanks to fire on the American armor once the mist rises and the GREN's engage them at close range. The first shots are in the south with the GREN's engaging the INFs, but American OBA shot the first kill on a HMG unit. Panthers open fire on the dugin troops and they demorallowingllowng the GREN's and ENG's to closassaultssualt the hex. American OP fire disrupt some, but a GREN and ENG get into the disrupted hex and kill the defending INF. German OBA start to hit the southern town trying to disrupt the M36 in the town. The next turn starts with American initiative and they fire on the German Panthers scoring a kill. The other Panthers open up and kill the M36.

To the noassault assualt starts with the GREN's closing but American OP fire is on target and a full GREN is killed. German Panther cover fire but miss their targets. American M4/76's scores two kills on the Panthers leaving one to return fire, but misses. German OBA comes in and demoralizes some of the dug in the Americans. Continuing to close assault assualt the Germans get into the American trenches an win the close combat.

Half way through the Germans are making progress toward taking the towns but heavy losses to German armor keeps the VC count close. The Americans have lost there M36 and a M4/76 and sevebutINF's biut still control all towns. The southern German attack looks to isolate the western town and a company of GREN's with HMG support look to take the town held by INF and a 57mm. American OBA hits and slows the progress of the company bu eventually they make it next to theassaultnd assualt. Heavy combat occurs and the Germans lose a GREN for the price of the town. The American INF and 57mm are destroyed. Now the Germans have one town hex, but the others don't look promising.

An engineer attack goes bad and the Americans pin a ENG assaultn an assualt. American OBA demoralize reinforcements and isolate the unit. Panthers are sent forward to help but American bazooka teams score a hit. The ENG and reduce Panthers are able to flee but the southern attack stalls. To the north the attack cannot get any disruptions or demoralization given the morale bonuses of the American leaders. The Germans try assaultrate assualt on the town but it fails and the Germans pull back.

In the end the game was a draw. The casualty count was high on both sides and neither could get the required 5 or more VP's to win.

Elsenborn Ridge: scenario # 21, Crossroads: The Last Gasp

I really like the scenarios from Battle of the Bulge 2: Elsenborn Ridge and haven’t played one for years but yesterday I returned to this game and used the winter maps and the upgraded Sherman tanks.

One mess up in my game play for the first turn only as I used the visibility chart on turn one assuming turn one of 2 hex visibility until I saw the first turn starts on 0630 which is 4 hexes of visibility. I am not sure why the Germans would use trucks to bring their infantry on for their southern group but on the eastern group it would help to bring on your infantry undercover of the lack of visibility and unload right before you got into the American’s range of fire.

This was bloody battle, both sides have about the same amount of off-board artillery but the Germans have about twice the Infantry force and their 3 platoons of Panthers and 4 platoons of Pz IVH are better than the American’s 2 M4/76, 1 M18 and 1 M36 platoons. The American rolled terrible with their armor and lost all of them, in fact the Germans only lost one step of armor to an American AT Gun. The Infantry loses were bloody on both sides but the Germans with numbers, engineers and armor prevailed in conquering the towns on map 22 with a major victory but at a cost to their Infantry.

21st of December 1944: after 2 days of heavy fighting around Krinkelt and Rocherath, the 12th SS Hitler Jugend were stopped cold in their tracks. They veered instead onto the road to the large farm complex known as Domaine Bütgenbach, where they ran into more trouble in the form of the US 1st Infantry Division. Lt Col Daniels of the 26th Infantry Regiment told his 2nd Battalion “to fight and die at this spot”, a phrase that his men would remember for the rest of their lives.

After 2 failed night assaults, the SS attempts a third try but due to inexplicable assembly issues, the attack only gets underway more than 3 hours late. The Germans would rue this delay. Meanwhile, Lt Col Daniels’s units have made a veritable fortress out of the farm buildings. They positioned dug in HMG nests in a star formation, defending the buildings in depth with AFV interspersed between the lines.

The SS are assaulting the farm from the east and south and right from the start things become bloody and messy. The defenders call incoming artillery and first shot promptly kills a full platoon. Moments later the Pershing platoon opens up on the PzIVs and destroys a couple of tanks. The returning fire is equally accurate, a M4/76 unit as well as the M18 platoon are silenced within minutes. But when the Panthers rumble within sighting distance, the party is ended as quickly as it began. Half an hour in the assault and the whole landscape is littered with burning hulks. All American armour is gone and the Germans only have 2 full strength Panther platoons left, with a few reduced PzIV units desperately trying to recover morale to rejoin the fight.

After the debacles of the past few days, it is the Standartenführer Hugo Kraas himself, that is coordinating this attack. So no more running full tilt at the HMG positions this time! Slowly but surely, the German infantry and artillery languish the US dug in positions. But at 8.30 AM, history takes a blow when Kraas is killed by US artillery fire. His 2nd in command is at that moment at the other side of the battlefield and has to sit down when he hears the news. As such, it takes at least half an hour to restore order in the German chain of command. The new commander calls upon his men to fight on out of respect for the fallen Kraas, and his little speech works. At 9.30 AM, most of the dug in positions are brushed aside and a general push for the farm buildings is ordered. A few minutes later, the whole complex is now in close assault mode. But the words of Lt Col Daniels turn the US troopers into tenacious fighting machines.

However, soon it becomes clear that German numbers will clinch the deal. They can throw fresh units into the fray while the US troops are slowly whittled away one after the other. When the most valiant commander on the US side dies from a stray bullet, morale takes another hefty blow. But still, with only 3 more turns to go, all buildings are still contested and the score is still a draw. But those three last turns are “ a bridge to far” for the US defenders. The first building to switch control is the most western one. Here, the SS leave no prisoners, killing the US Major and his staff as well. The dam has now burst and moments later, the easternmost stables also fall into German hands.

Desperate to try to still save the situation, Lt Col Daniels orders one of his last full strength units to exit one of the buildings and dash over to the next. But the sole German 81mm team demoralizes the leader and disrupts the unit. In the next turn, another glimmer of US hope when a nearby positioned demoralized Cpt throws snake eyes for recovery and is fully operational once more! But 5 seconds later he is once again demoralized by a direct hit from that very same elite 81mm mortar team!

The last turn is pretty uneventful (well, at least compared to what we are becoming used to) and is only shook up by the fall of building number 3. All the US units the Lt Col has left on the board is 5 or 6 leaders, 2 reduced infantry platoons (one of them still contesting the last building hex) and a full strength HMG unit that is fleeing for the woods. A resounding German Major Victory!

The battle was as brutal and deadly as in real life. The SS did 44 steps while the US did 39 in return!. No side had any initiative points left only a quarter into the game! In the end, all was decided by German numbers and its commander, who did not make any mistakes and knew he had to destroy the US armour first before slowly strangling the farm and its occupants like a python. This proved to be a small one map scenario with big chunks of meat on the bone. Great battle, great scenario, great game! We score it a delicious 4 out of 5.