Author	TFGA73
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2023-02-01
Language	English
Scenario	SpDv004

The US 3rd Armored attempts to break through the West Wall, take some towns and forge a breakthrough. It’s a tall order with bad weather and a bunch of German reinforcements standing in the way. This is a big battle using all four Elsenborn maps.

The Germans start with thin forces, many of them half strength units holding entrenchments scattered here and there. The Americans come up from the south and start clearing the frontline trenches, methodically using artillery, direct fire from tanks, infantry assaults and the occasional air strike to clear them out. The US eventually took six of the eight entrenchments in the game.

The German reinforcements arrived on the first eligible turn on the west edge and started moving east-southeast. They moved deliberately but held together, and eventually fell on the US left flank just as they were finishing off a trench and preparing to attack a village on board 22. They hit the US line hard and stalled them out.

German armor pinned the American mechanized units down but the GIs scored a few hits, with the big prize being the Jagpanzer, jumped by a M4 Jumbo from the woods. Eventually the two sides slugged it out on the hill on board 24, with the Germans stopping the US cold atop the hill. Finally the Americans went back to what they do best, pounding the opposition with copious amounts of artillery. Disruptions and demoralizations piled up and in the final turns the Germans started pulling back. However the GIs were too scattered and weakened to press ahead.

Both sides absorbed a lot of punishment—the Germans lost 26 steps and the Americans 29. The US cleared the aforementioned trenches and the towns on the southern maps, but the Germans held all of the northern towns and prevented a breakthrough. Final score 53-44 Germany.

This was a rough, intense engagement that wasn’t decided until the final few turns. The German counterattack held the line but at great cost. Game wise there was a lot going on and the victory conditions are quite demanding for the US. As long as a German player keeps the field covered by the tanks and AT guns, and doesn’t let the infantry get sucked into too many attritional battles he should have the edge.