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The Latest: Midnight December 31st, Day 17 of Wacht am Rhein. End of the Campaign, end of the game: did the Germans get their Major Victory? Don’t ask Sepp, he fell asleep!
Previous: December 30th to the start of round 60, the morning of the 31st, Day 16 of Wacht am Rhein. Four words: The Battle of Huy.
Previous: December 28th and 29th to the start of round 57, the morning of the 30th, Day 15 of Wacht am Rhein... Patton charges north in the south and costs me -7 VPs for starters. Two days left.
Previous: December 26th and 27th to the start of round 49, the morning of the 28th, Day 13 of Wacht am Rhein... and it's snowing Gott sei Dank.
"Der Metzger" flubs it again! But Peiper finds his Meuse.
Previous: December 24th and 25th to the start of Round 41, the morning of December 26th, Day 11 of Wacht am Rhein. Merry Xmas in the Ardennes. More clear skies: verdammt noch mal!
Initial start: I’m going to kick off with this AAR having reached the morning of Day 7, 22nd December 1944, round 25 and it's time for a breather and to take stock of things. Depending on the time I have I will continue with it to the end (I invariably do) but for myself now, as always: when the Muse is giving you the inspiration there will you go... to the Meuse in this case.
The basic plan I will enact is different than the historical of course. The SS are not going to engage in a veritable “Pickett’s Charge” against Elsenborn ridge. It is not clear what detailed intelligence the Germans had about this area but the fact that the Americans were intermittently attacking from Monshau north along the front should have obviously indicated they are rather strong here, as in able to transfer reserves rapidly. Add to that heavily wooded ridgelines and the multitude of reports on how effective American artillery was, it should have been a no-brainer to give this area a miss… but clearly not for Sepp Dietrich, commander of the 6th (SS) Panzer Army. Sepp alter Kamarad woran hast du gedacht?? (“Sepp, old comrade what were you thinking of??”).
I’m giving it a miss and will set up a formidable defensive line along the Warche River on the right flank of the main advance. As it did historically, 1SS.Pz with Peiper out front will push hard with as many command perks as I can apply, hopefully drawing in the main US reserves to counter it. But meanwhile, the 12.SS Hitler Jugend fanatics will mysteriously disappear, sent SW away from Elsenborn like a halfback to reappear from behind the lines in a surprise running play direct to St Vith and will then move NW to support Peiper with a new major supply dump set up in St. Vith behind them. 3.Fallschirmjäger as fullback will create the opening needed for the Hitler Jugends to advance on St Vith and the FSJ division will then will head due north to man the aforementioned Warche R. line as well as push west supporting 1.SSPzD.
116.PzD will advance on Houffalize, 2.PzD will drive down the main paved road to Bastogne to encircle Bastogne from the north and east, and Fritz Bayerlein’s Panzer Lehr will drive on Wiltz to capture the supply dump and cut across south of Bastogne with the redoubtable 5.Fallschirmjäger division following close behind. 2.Pz and Pz Lehr are basically the wide receivers here for an early long bomb: these are the initial stars here, not the potent SS Armee that was largely wasted at start in this battle historically; however in this alternate history it is to be hoped their time will come after both SS Pz Korps are set up and driving west. Manteuffel’s 5.Pz Armee’s task is to envelope and take Bastogne before the US Airborne divs truck themselves into the area. Light infantry really, in trucks racing to run into Bastogne, they will hopefully have the distressing task (and hellish surprise) of having to face two panzer divisions in the open blocking their way into Bastogne--the Grail of the entire operation in the centre and south if ever there was one.
Following this Wilhelm Bittich's II.SS Pz Korps (SS Hohenstaufen and Das Reich), will slot in driving NW from St. Vith.
"Bradley" is set to slightly enhanced performance and slow pondering time. I'll try sending extra supplies and replacements forward incrementally to see how that works out; however much hinges on taking US supply dumps. 11.PzD and motorized divisions will likely support 7.A in the south with a view to meeting Patton's expected advance on Bastogne through Martelange as needed, but maintain the drive to the NW past Bastogne.
AAR notes. Most of you bothering to read this likely know the map backwards and forwards so the main flow of things will largely be in prose as I am going to try to avoid a plethora of jpegs, but I'll post AM screenshots as well as show some detailed pictures for key battles. I have a penchant for historicity and will sidebar key personages, events and issues at various junctures. I will note these in italics and they can be skipped as desired. Comments or criticisms on the game design will be in square brackets. As well: I offer no apologies for the frequent use of football analogies. Can't help it, not with this battle above all others.
And finally, the overall game plan is to adhere to the drive across the Meuse on Antwerp and no diversions will be undertaken. In any case the Victory Point locations make this a given.
I’m new at this game and have spent about 2 weeks immersing myself in it and I am therefore bound to miss out on some things in a study as complex as this one is. Re the “AI”. In my design work I referred to it as the PO (Programmed Opponent) for an “intelligence” it really is not, not yet by a long shot. But rather than refer to it as the PO I am going to refer to it as “Bradley.” My notes from my “Plan Martin” rather large scenario discusses this:
What with the ever formidable American proficiency with logistics, engineering, and rapid establishment of communication networks, I do not see why Bradley could not have moved his HQ back to Liege or further back, causing some limited command control problems until the located HQ is in place and functioning to be sure; however, a few days of disrupted overall Army Group command while this was done, would likely have been short-term pain for long-term gain. Bradley was not as radical as Patton in his ideas for campaigns certainly, but he was nowhere near the pedantic conservative “set piece” operations of Montgomery. This was borne out historically in the battle as Montgomery’s slow counter-attack developments were a major crimp in what the US might have accomplished if he had not been put in overall command of the northern Allied forces in the Bulge.
But he could be directly ordered south whenever Eisenhower needed him. He had every power to do that and politics be damned: I think Eisenhower erred on the side of caution and wanted this extra back-up while minimizing definite political issues with Monty and the British but it cost him a protracted campaign that was far from a decisive counter-thrust. It seems a precipitous decision for Ike, made quickly and under pressure realizing his intelligence services had failed him entirely. Score +1 for Hitler, der GROFAZ (a German acronym for those not aware that meant "The greatest Commander of All Time").
And as an aside it occurred to me that he might at least have been "The Greatest Boardgamer of All Time" when measured in terms of hours put in over 7 years, but it is instructive to note that the Allies in considering assassination plots on Hitler quickly decided that, no, this compulsive military amateur was one of the Allies' best assets from late 1941 onward when Hitler took over command of the Wehrmacht, dismissing a host of luminaries like Rundstedt and Guderian. From this point on Hitler's hand of doom hovered above his wargame maps, restlessly ensuring defeat after defeat. Kill him and likely get someone like Manstein or Rundstedt in overall command? 'Ich don't think so.' It really is a pity (to put it very mildly) about July 20th 1944 and earlier attempts on removing him completely that failed. Mind you, he was inspired with Wacht am Rhein but once again refused to listen to an eminent strategist like Rundstedt, nominally in command in the West, and Rundstedt's Plan Martin is the big 'what-if' that looms over this campaign.
To be fair to Montgomery he was commanding an army with no real continuous reserves from Britain at this point. The manpower barrel had been scraped clean and he was basically disbanding other British divisions to make do. Serious Hürtgen Forest level losses were the last thing he and his government wanted, especially after the near complete decimation of their premier 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. In any case, as with Plan Martin, I prefer to see the "AI" as Bradley taking over so the PO will be referred to as such. Apart from that, I'm not a fan of the peacock Montgomery.
December 16 morning:
The two big items here are Peiper’s advance at the Losheim gap, and where to build a bridge in front of Manteuffel’s 5.Pz Armee [Besides engineer units one has the limited use of cards to build bridges and I assume these are strategic construction assets; i.e. the Todt Organization and the Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD]. Every am I will go through this OB procedure of starting with Model, Armee commanders Dietrich and Manteuffel, then Corps commands and finally divisions, to see what cards can be played to enhance things. I won’t detail these as it invariably involves offensive or morale boosts at this stage of the offensive along with the odd speed card (which I've taken to calling The Pervitin card).
My second historical digression concerns the oft-slighted Volksgrenadier divisions, the reality of which is very much otherwise than is usually assumed. These were formidable fighting formations, and remarkable in this 5th year of war for the hapless German infanterie Soldat. Apart from the incredible restoration of the Wehrmacht by Rundstedt after the Normandy and Falaise debacles, the establishment of effective Volksgrenadier divisions is often overlooked or scanted, but was in fact a signal accomplishment:
“...The organization of the VGD took place in the summer of 1944. After heavy withdrawal fighting in the East and after the Allied invasion had succeeded, which inevitably cost the Wehrmacht countless units, the Reich leadership undertook a further attempt to organize all available reserves of fighting power and utilizing them to wage the war. There arose the infantry divisions…. into special elite units. This was to be established by two points: by a particularly good personnel combination and optimal armament.
In fact, the VGD were equipped with the most modern infantry weapons, production of which was not sufficient to meet the needs of the entire army. In particular, all of the rifle companies were equipped with the new MP 44 Sturmgewehr (assault rifle) submachine gun as well as the self-loading G 43 carbine.
As for their composition in terms of personnel, the VGD were assigned a particularly experienced and battle-tested cadre of officers and non-commisioned officers, which commanded men of the younger age group (17 years and up). The greatest numbers of them were supplied by the Navy, and the Luftwaffe contributed ground personnel.
The VGD actually received the best materials that were available to the Army at that time.
--Roland Gaul, The Battle of Luxembourg: the Southern Flank December 1944-January 1945. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; First edition (January 1, 2004), p.18.
The MP 44 Sturmgewehr was not just another weapon of the time, it was ground-breaking:
"The principle of this weapon — the reduction of muzzle impulse to get useful automatic fire within actual ranges of combat — was probably the most important advance in small arms since the invention of smokeless powder."
--Hallock, Richard R. (March 16, 1970). "M16 Rifle Case Study. Prepared for the President's Blue Ribbon Defense Panel"(PDF). p. 162.
And Kalashnikov owes everything to this. ‘Nuff said.
December 16th continued:
Peiper blasts throught the Losheim gap and penetrates some 15 kms taking care to wipe out remnants to keep the impetus moving forward. Got to love that Tiger Abt.when you can send it in. [Historically Peiper was actually held back behind infantry formations but bulled his way forward ruthlessly and I completely agree with the design decision to move him up to this start line].
12.SS Pz starts it’s difficult cross-grain movement to the SW behind 1.SS Pz and Peiper.
All of the Greif teams and von der Heyde's paras are positioned in front of Peiper's drive, more to scout than block roads for now.
In the centre a bridge is put up at Unter & Uber Eisenbach (117.79) to allow the 26.VGD under Heinz Kokott to charge forward and surprise advance through the US defenses. Engineer units up and down this front and 7.Armee further south are furiously working to erect their own bridges but this will take time.
The 5.Fallschirmjäger DIvision, better prepared, is across the river and pushing forward into a gap to clear things for PzLehr.
Elsewhere German units advance and subject US units to artillery barrages.
Manteuffel's 2.Pz D. and Panzer Lehr finally have their bridges complete and charge across, 2.Pz closing in on Clervaux and PzLehr catching up and starting to pass the 5.FSJ Division.
Design Notes (German recon units):
[It does seem that German Aufklärung (recon) units feel under-effective. They were historically proficient at sizing up enemy resistance and as to when suppressing fire might allow them to slip by. It feels too inhibited here. Suggestions:
--German Panzer recon could get a movement boost at the start of each turn if their supply level is good.
--These units could suffer reduced "stop-hits" when moving and have the option to continue moving with increased losses (die-roll +5-15% or something).
--Focus recon against an enemy position: the ability to target a hex for a "recon in force" with greatly enhanced results.
Perhaps this has already been factored in, in which case my bad. Certainly the numerous German KG units are critical here and perhaps render my point moot. But I also want to know if Skorzeny's 150.Pz Bde have enhanced infiltration attributes.]
December 17 morning:
Bradley has clearly abandoned Bullingen and Peiper will be quick to grab the supply dump there and set up one for 2.SS PzK:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1142452
