Alsace 1st January 1945

Scenario played : 3rd August 2009

Around 1100 hours, a couple of companies from the 70th Division was patrolling the dense forested area of the Alsace area when the distinct sound of German voices could be heard in the distance further north up the forested road. The US greenhorns took up covering positions in the woods and waited. Unknown to them, the Germans had sent some forward artillery observers and these had soon spied the American troopers. Suddenly, on the stroke of midday, the Americans were hit by some unexpected artillery bombardments followed by an immediate assault by German grenadiers. Though casualties were light, two lieutenants were captured by the Germans.

With the loss of a couple of such charismatic officers, the novice US infantrymen were forced to hold their line but with little direction from senior ranks. All the while, on a kilometre frontage, the enemy were piling small arms fire at them, and with the bullets pinging all round American ears whilst they could only fire back in a ad-hoc manner, the Americans allowed their German counter-parts to manoeuvre around them. Still the German artillery rained down on the holding American line and by 1245 hours, around 70 GI’s had been minced or shot by their enemy with precious little offered in return. By 1300 hours, the casualty toll had risen to around 120 losses for the Americans, and, happy with the bloody nose administered upon their enemy, the Germans melted back into the woods content with their raid and it’s effect. With so few officers of note remaining in the American infantry companies, their Major decided not to try and follow and was happy for the let up. His new GI’s would need to learn quickly to avoid such a repeat shallacking !

Both sides advanced along the road until meeting near the middle of the board. Both sides were tentative and spent a few turns exchanging two hex shots with little effect. The victory conditions dictated the Germans had to be more aggressive so they moved forward and withstood the initial American close range fire. The Germans had two leaders with a morale rating of two and used them to good effect and were able to eliminate US steps while taking none of their own. The Germans then assaulted three American hexes and were eventually able to drive the remaining units southward. In the end the Germans had eliminated ten US steps while losing only two of their own, securing a German victory. A fun little scenario I could see going either way.

Two companies of absolutely green Americans stumble up a road and into three companies of roughly equivalent Germans who have the luck to have some off board artillery. A classic meeting engagement where really neither side wants to meet anyone. In this case, however, something goes horribly wrong for the Americans.

For the first half hour the two forces proceed on a collision course without any real knowledge of what is facing them. The Germans know that they must clear the road from north to south so they are moving with some urgency. The Americans also feel some urgency as the further north they can move the more likely that they can have more than one line on the road and try to block the Germans.

45 minutes into the action the Germans get a look at some Americans starting to set up a line in the light woods. An artillery strike causes the American units to become demoralized adn ultimately run away. The Americans move up some troops to fill the position.

At this point and for the next hour and fire fight at 400 meters takes place with both sides causing some disruption and demoralization to the opposite side. As the Americans are terribly outnumbered given the loss of an entire company to a retrograde movement to attempt to recover morale, the Germans are able to move into assault positions.

The following turn the Germans get the initiative and run two assaults that are extremely effective. In the next 45 minutes the Americans lose 8 steps and 3 leaders including their major, decapitating the entire remaining force which is then destroyed to a man.

The key here is that, although the leaders looked to be superior to their green troops, apparently the edginess rubbed off on the leaders who failed their morale checks constantly.

This is a fun, quick scenario which could easily have gone a different way. The Americans did not have one demoralized unit recover during the entire play. The Germans were not taking losses but at the end of the play 5 platoons of Germans were demoralized. This one is well worth a "3" and would score higher but for the limited strategic options for the players. They both have to race to contact in order to have the best chance to acheive their victory conditions.

A small infantry battle with low morale Volksgrenadiers vs. "green" US infantry. As the forces meet in light woods and hill terrain, the units more or less go toe-to-toe at each other with the column shifts for light woods and hills balancing the +2 adjacent shift.

The German OBA really made the difference. With 30-col bombardments, this gave the Germans a chance to inflict compound step losses on US forces. Also, on balance it appeared the Germans got the better of the morale checks (had three leaders with +1 morale bonus whereas the US only had one). One sort of crazy scheme was a stack of US units that consistently were hit with M or M1 checks, would fail, but then recover with absurdly low recovery rolls (e.g. a pair of '2s' in a row!). This went on for three turns before finally a few demoralized units failed and had to flee. The Germans likewise had their pair of units that refused to recover.

Ultimately, by game end (turn 16) the US had not been chased off the N/S road, but the Germans had inflicted more that twice the number of steps losses (11 vs. 4) thus a German victory. Really, the two sides looked like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. Someone won, but neither was a pretty sight.