Peipers Charge Game 3..The End

Peipers Charge Game 3....or should that be Peipers Whimper

Game 3 of Peipers charge, the PDF for can be found here: http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=3460.

Game 1 can be found here : Peipers' Charge Game 1
Game 2 can be found here : Peipers' Charge Game 2

THE GAME

Having missed the dead lines for my objectives, the Americans got two instant reserves.

The German turn 1 saw the King tigers with what was left of the Fallshirmjager platoon riding on the back of the King Tigers, along with the panzer IV company and the ever attentive Whiblewinds.

The ME262 put in an instant appearance and tried in vain to stop the American engineers from blowing up the bridge that they were defending it. With the scrap yard tank platoon out of range even to the mighty guns of the Tigers, the turn was handed over to the Americans.

ME262 attacks Engineers trying to blow up the bridge.

Wirblewinds disguised as SDKFZ AA's.

The American tanks arrived from reserve a mere 24" in front of the advancing Germans and started
stripping away the German Air Defence. The German's responded by knocking out 2 tanks and bailing 2 more, but the platoon passed its motivation.

The American tank platoon takes a beating but hangs annoyingly on.

An ominous rumble crossed the field of battle as the US engineers suceed in blowing up the bridge, denying the Germans a valuable route, leaving Peiper with only one other route through the town held by the American infantry and two tank platoons. The USAAF turns up the heat and braves the reduced AA fire and hit the Panzer's hard. Bailing 1 Panzer IV, Destroying 1 Panther and bailing 2 more. Another Pz IV was destroyed by the Sherman's.

Combined Air attack and fire from the Sherman's cause casualties amongst the Germans.

 

This seriously put a crimp in the Germans day. In the previous games the Germans relied on their AA defence now this had been seriously curtailed and the shock of losing two vehicles must have shaken the other crews aim as now they could not hit anything. The German armour regrouped and continued its advance.

Panzers advance

The Germans had to now inflict as much damage as possible on the US armour. The German infantry arrived followed the tanks knowing that they will be needed soon. The Tigers moved through the town, safe in the knowledge that their armour was almost impregnable. The result of the German fire decimated the two US tank platoons to the front, but they still refused to quit the field.
Meanwhile another US tank platoon moved into range on the Left flank of the German Tigers. Try as they might their rounds bounced off the side of the these German monsters, so in frustration their attention turned towards the Infantry, with two transports burning and another flack vehicle bailed in came the Thunderbolts, screaming through the hail of 20mm AA rounds they found their mark and wiped out the two infantry platoons, leaving the Germans with no infantry support.

With their infantry wiped out and the AA cover almost gone the German Armour advance quickly towards the American Infantry, their guns blazing s they went. With the remaining American tanks now either destroyed or routed the Germans had to deal with the infantry platoon blocking their way. The mighty Tigers crashed into the infantry, with bazooka shells bouncing of their armour the Tigers killed one stand which forced the Infantry to retire deeper into the cover of the wood behind the village. All the Germans had to do now was stay out of range of the US tanks on their left flank and clear the woods of the infantry and it was a clear run to the table edge.

Thunderbolts rain down fire upon the advancing Panzer's.

The Germans were in for a nasty shock as two US parachute platoons started advancing up the road towards them, so now the Germans had 3 infantry platoons to deal with. With rounds bouncing of the flanks of the mighty King Tigers, the US needed a miracle and it arrived in a flight of 3 Thunderbolts.

In they swooped and all German hopes for a victory evaporated in one strafing run. The Thunderbolts rockets ripped into the top armour of the Panzer's and as they flew back to base to re-arm It left 3 burning tanks behind them with 2 more bailed. The Panzer IV's had, had enough and quit the field.
The last panther platoon also decided to call it a day and followed the Panzer Iv's back home, Peiper now only had left the King Tigers. Knowing this was not going to be enough he ordered their retreat, He had failed, Hitler will not be too pleased.

Thunderbolts swoop low over the Burning Panzer's

Post Game:

Ouch! that hurt. I made the mistake of bringing all my Armour in on the top road that lead to the town, as I knew I would not make the bridge at the other end of the table before it was blown.
I did not apreciate how close the American reserves would arrive and when they did they targeted my Air defence with good results. My return fire was pitiful and after that the AA was non effective.

The scenario does not favour the single table aproach and should be played as is, with three tables side by side as some of the American deployments and reserves arrival points make the game very difficult to play as the German and favours the Americans.

Okay you have 4000 points of Germans but only allowing 3 platoons a turn on the road hindered them badly. Some of the American deployment areas and reserve entry points need adjusting if played on single tables one at a time.

We may play this again at some point if we can secure the space for the 18 foot ong table that the scenario ultimatly requires.

ME262's: These did not realy hinder the Americans much and failed to turn up most of the time (But that was more to the fact we agreed on a score of 6 needed for them to arrive), so adding them was not as detrimental as we first though.

Blowing the Bridges: This should be reduced to one throw a turn, not one throw per engineer team as it makes it too easy for a bridge to be blown.

Air cover: How historical this is I don't know as I allways thought that theGermans attacked because the weather grounded the Allied air. Yes we know that the ME262 is not realy historical but we used it for fun.

Snow: This has no effect in the game other than to slow the Panzers down. If snow is deep enough to slow a tank down its deep enough to slow a man down.

Woods: The woods do not block LOS as they deem them as being spacious plantation like. I sugest you look into this your selves, as every History book I have mainly shows deep dense forests with the odd avenue through them. This is why the Germans invaded France throug them in 1940 and hoped to do so again with the Ardennes offensive as the Allies deemed them in both cases unsuitable for an Armoued attack.
I sugest that these are played as proper woods, blocking LOS and neededing bogging checks.


Oh one last thing the ME262 models:

My model of the ME262, which you can see in the pictures is an old Acadamy model from 20 years ago.
 Revell have now just released a NEW!? range of 1:144 scale planes and my Oppo has purchased several of these; which one was  a ME262.
Below is the comparison shot of the two models.
Basically the new Revell ones are realy the Old Acadamey moulds from 20 years ago.

Left: Acadamy, 20 years ago. Right: Revell, last week.

These planes can be purchased for under £3 and one source you can buy them from is:

www.themodelshop.org