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Introduction

Hello everybody, may i take you on a little ride with kampfgruppe Peiper to the Meuse ? This has already been done here by HansBolter, but I find interesting to come back to it for a few reasons. Firstly because I love this battle, already went to this battlefield (good museum in La Gleize). This scenario is a very interesting one to test the capabilities of the CO engine. The map is huge and you dont have a lot of units, so you cant defend everywhere and there is a lot of open space to manoeuver. Finally I said that I will write a french doc with BftB's new features so I need a good test game with in depth analysis to be able to write it. An AAR is the good way to go !

Two keys difference to note between the actual scenario and the one used by HansBolter :

• The scenario begins december 18th - 6:30 instead of december 17th - 17:30. Historically, Peiper stopped before Stavelot for the whole night instead of attacking it directly, allowing the Americans to reinforce themselve and losing precious time. The old version let the german side try to change this. Now you are forced to start on the 18th.
• A few key bridges are already primed. This means that if I approach a primed bridge and an american unit is near, they can try to blow the bridge. And believe me, they will try.

So the scenario is now more difficult for the german side. More interesting also. Actually, I may be screwed up early in the game if things go wrong. We'll see. I will write updates as I play the scenario, so no idea what will exactly happen yet.

Coming later today : The plan



Tiger II in La Gleize

The plan

One could just start the game, fire the scenario, try whatever inspiration he has and pray. But this is the sort of game where you can spend even more time planning than playing, and this is the most rewarding way of playing it.

So this is what you see when you start the scenario :



Your forces consist of most of KG Peiper :

• one mechanised infantry bn
• one panzer bn (Panzer IV and V)
• a few support units (flak, engineer, para)

The rest of KG Peiper will arrive during the day (artillery, heavy tank bn with tiger II). On day one you will also see 1 SS Div HQ with KG Knittel (recon bn).
KG Sandig arrives on the second day, it is an infantry motorised regt, minus one bn which is with Peiper from the start.
Lastly, KG Hansen arrives on day four with its whole infantry motorised regt.

On the american side, nothing in sight except two small units in Stavelot right in front of our troops. Our attack caught them by surprise but reinforcements will rush from the west and the north the coming days.

The objective is quite simple : you start from the east and you have to exit a maximum of units from two exits objectives on the west (Werbomont) and north-west (Aywaille) of the map. Those objective have an "AE" beside them, meaning that the game will end with a decisive victory if I can exit enough units through them.
Other objectives includes taking important bridges and destroying the enemy, but all of these smaller objective are of much less value than the exit objective.

So my main idea will be to achieve decisive automatic victory via the exit objective. I can do that to Werbomont or Aywaille or both. I prefer Werbomont : not only is it shorter, but also enemy counter-attacks from the north will have a longer way to go and I can use the Amblève between me and them to slow them down. That is, if I come there first



Now, how to go to Werbomont ? The best road is Stavelot - Trois Ponts - Basse Bodeux - the bridge on the Lienne south of Chevron - Werbomont. A first problem is the US units in Stavelot. They cant blow the bridge because it is not primed, but I need time to setup an attack and repulse them out of the town. A second bigger problem is Trois Pont. There are two bridges there, and both are primed... Perhaps there will be no Americans, perhaps the explosive will misfire, but that's a lot of "perhaps". I need at least one other solution.

A first solution is to stay on the northern bank of l'Amblève, cross the bridge in Cheneux and go back to the main road. This is the historical move. Another solution is going south using this smaller bridge in Petit Halleux, then rejoin the main road in Basse-Bodeux. There should be less enemies there but the road is not that good.

One last problem is the primed bridge on la Lienne before Werbomont. I have to get there first if I want to have a chance ! If this bridge is blowned, I will have to use the one next to Bra in the south or going north to Aywaille.

Both cases will be very hard, so speed will be a key factor in this battle.

My first order : the mechanised inf bn will attack and secure Stavelot, while the panzer bn will split in half, one half will go directly to Trois Pont on the track south of l'Amblève and the other half will take the south road to secure the bridge in Halleux. Then I will see which road is open.

Now let's start the engines !

5 game hours later. If I say "blown bridge", you understand the problem ?

December 18th - 6:30 -> 11:30

Battle of Stavelot

An assault is immediately launched with the inf bn. Max aggro and losses, we want to dislodge those US as soon as possible.



At the same time, orders are given to the Pz bn to move to Trois Pont and Halleux. Two hours later, the enemy forces break and my infantry advance in the centre of Stavelot. This is good, but what is not so good is the fact that my KG supposed to go to Trois Pont was blockled behind, even taking part in the fight as you can see with the blue dots. Not really what I wanted, I should have given them an intermediate waypoint south of their starting position before the drive to the west. Now they're starting moving west anyway.



News from the other KG heading south to Halleux were much better : they discovered no US forces and took the bridge. I send an eng co to defend the place, allowing the panzer to continue their road to the west. Direction : Bodeux !



Now we get at the first turning point of the battle. While my infantry clears Stavelot, 23 Panther led by an enginner Co move forward to Trois Pont, hoping to take the bridges intact. Unfortunately, a few minutes after engagement with two US platoons, here's what happened :



This means that the main road Stavelot - Trois Pont - Werbomont is now cut off. No motorised units, no supply can pass through Trois Pont. I have my two leading Pz Co in Basse-Bodeux, but they are now more than 10km away from the bulk of my troops. So what to do now ? Time's turning, I have to go forward. My advanced KG will go on to the bridge on La Lienne. The mech inf Bn will go north to Cheneux. If it arrives first, it will set a blocking point against counter-attacks coming from the north. If not, at least it will delay the enemy. I leave two inf Co plus one flak Bty in Stavelot. This is not much, but I cant afford more before reinforcements arrive.
For my units in Trois Pont, I will wait a few minutes to see if they can take the northern bridge and take the La Gleize - Cheneux - Rahier road. If they cant, I will have to redirect them to Halleux and then Bodeux.



Note that the enemy is behaving historically. Stavelot's bridge was taken intact, Trois Pont's bridge blew up. Had I not diverted two Co to the south, I would be in the same situation as Peiper. Now it's basically a race to Habiémont and Cheneux, and I better get there first !


Bullets impacts on a house from Stavelot, still visible today

Very cool. [8D]

You seem to have a flare for writing AAR.

Have you done them in the past?

Not really, this is my first AAR, and what's more it is in english which is not my first language. But I am used to write things on other subject in french. Thanks for the comment ! More to come tommorow, too much work today. You should have automatic vacation when such a game come into store [8D]

Bravo keep up the good works! [:)]