My second game in my own little Bulge Fest, this scenario has a battalion + of German grenadiers with a single StuG IIIG unit, 50mm and 75mm AT guns, 2 mortars and 30 column total of OBA. US troops are holding the large town on board 11 (hills dont exist so lines of sight/fire are pretty clear) with a company of combat engineers, a single infantry platoon, 3 M-7 Priests, a Sherman company, an M-8 scout, a Scott SP 75 howitzer, an M-5 Stuart,M-15 & M-16 AA halftracks and 2 M-18 Hellcats. I rolled an awful lot of 8s in this and the last game, when firepower should have been wiping Grenadiers out all around, but the Germans approached from both woods on board 8 trying to get to the town from one or the other. Germans in the northwest fared slightly better, coming to grips with and taking the single town hex in the woods west of the big town, chasing off the M-15 that had been holding that town and then moving through the woods to assault the M-15 and M-5 that it had stacked with, finally eliminating the M-15 before being decimated by the M-16 in the next hex. The troops approaching from the northeast ran into fire from the M-7s very quickly, and then fire from everything on the edge of town as they got closer. The German AT guns stayed in the southernmost town hex on board 10 where they could just manage shots at the Shermans, finally taking a single step of them before the Shermans fell back, but it wasn't much of a victory as the StuG III lost both steps. German troops and leaders were falling all over the fields between the northeast woods and the town. As one stack got in position to assault, the defender dice suddenly got hot and all leaders and half of the units in the stack died on more than one occasion. Suddenly the majority of surviving German leaders were trying to rally in the woods on board 10 as small stacks of leaderless troops slowly fell back to what little cover the light woods gave. With the Germans having lost over half of their starting force and the US having lost just 8 points, I called the game, US victory. Good game.

This scenario is one that portrays the very end of the bulge expansion. The Germans have no more units to attack so they scraped together as much as they could, but with limited armor any attack would require alot of infantry that the Germans did not have. So from that respect this is historically accurate, but in my play there is not much the Germans could do. They must assault a town that is heavily defended with a mixture of armor units. But without infantry AT weapons the German infantry needs to group and assault. The Americans have good Op fire capabilities. From my old notes the Germans got wiped out just trying to get close to the town. The nine German steps were loss by turn twelve without even getting close to the town. So historically I give it a 5 but game wise a 1. This would also be a good one to try again with infantry AT capabilities.

In this scenario, the German must take two or more town hexes on Board 11 (south town). The US must eliminate nine or more German steps. The German has little time, and must make a direct attack without the benefit of cover. The US can’t move until a German unit is within three hexes of a US unit.

As the Germans approached, they were spotted, and soon they were being shelled by M-7 Priests. Meanwhile, long-range fire by US M-18s resulted in the destruction of half of the STUGIIIs. In only 30 minutes, the German had lost four steps.

The persistent Germans captured the northern hex of the town by 1545, but at significant cost. By now, they had lost 12 steps, which satisfied the US victory conditions. Many demoralized Germans were scattered north of the town, and the US was maneuvering to push the Germans out of the single town hex. Fifteen minutes later, the Germans were able to assault a second town hex, but lost the first one! The US was looking to reinforce the engineers battling the German assault. Meanwhile, American armor was moving to pursue the scattered German units in the north. The chances for the German to even get a draw were looking very poor.

At 1615, the surviving Germans withdrew. Their forces had been decimated and most survivors were disrupted/demoralized. US forces had experienced comparatively few losses, and had established a strong line of defense north of town. The reduced STUGIII platoon finally recovered, but US armor dominated the battlefield. This was a quick US victory.