Battle of the Bulge Campaign, Fight #1

 All,

0600-1400 local time
16 December 1944
Losheim, Belgium
US 14th Cavalry Group vs 8th Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjager Division

So, this is it, the first battle to kick off our extraordinarily ambitious campaign to play out the "Battle of the Bulge."  I will admit, before playing even the first game, that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  This is a campaign that lasts ten days, with three phases per day, involving 27 different 'battlegroups' on each side.  There is no set number of battles per phase, but the first phase is set up and there are a total of eight tabletop fights scheduled.  If that holds to be the average, that puts us somewhere in the neighborhood of... 240 fights to finish this campaign.  Not sure I could actually pull that off, but let's get this going and see how it works out.

So this is it, the very opening of the German offensive in the Ardennes (historical note: I know that, chronologically, this fight occurred after numerous other fights beginning around 0530, but I'm playing the campaign in eight-hour phases, and from that standpoint it doesn't matter what order I play the ames in).  In this fight we shall see German paratroopers, backed up by some light armor, attacking a US Cavalry unit consisting of some light infantry with some light armor.  Somehow it has ended up that my older son is playing the Americans, while my younger son and I are playing the Germans.  We are playing this game using a mashup of Ivan's 5Core rules and Warlord's Bolt Action rules.  I'd intended on adding Battlegroup Wacht Am Rhein's "Battle Rating" and chit-pull morale system as well, but I did not as I wanted to keep the game moving as quickly as possible in an attempt to keep the boys' attention.

This might seem funny, but long before I ever got into miniature wargaming I played wargames on the computer, and my favorite computer wargame(s) was "Close Combat," particularly the 2nd one, "A Bridge Too Far," which is definitely on the docket for stuff to game.  In any case, I also had the 4th Close Combat module, "Battle of the Bulge."  It doesn't cover the entirety of Wacht Am Rhein, but a good portion of it, and it has an outstanding campaign map and details all the units, their composition, their locations, and the reinforcement schedule.  So why not use it?  Here is the campaign map I grabbed from Close Combat 4.

Here are the unit rosters I made up (US on left and German on right) using the game's battle editor.

The campaign will start at 0600 on 16 December 1944.  I made up counters in Powerpoint, printed them off, cut'em out, and now the US forces are in place for the German onslaught.  The Yanks begin with 11 of their 27 battlegroups on the board.  Strangely enough, both sides have a total of 27 battlegroups.  "Battlegroup" is a general term for roughly regimental-sized combat teams, which will field a roughly battalion-sized force during each tabletop battle it's involved in.  

So we'll move these counters around on the campaign map, and when opposing forces land on the same map sector we will fight a tabletop battle of approximately battalion vs battalion.  Battlegroups will suffer casualties in each of their tabletop battles, and so each battlegroup will be able to fight between 1 and 6 tabletop battles, depending on the results of each battle.  I'll be rating each battlegroup's tabletop performance along the lines of Breakthrough-Major Victory-Minor Victory-Stalemate-Minor Defeat-Major Defeat-Route, which will directly impact how long the battlegroup can stay in the campaign.  I'm thinking something along the lines of each Battlegroup having six 'strength points," losing them as follows:
Breakthrough -1 or 0
Major Victory -2 or -1
Minor Victory -3 or -2
Stalemate -4 or -3
Minor Defeat -5 or -4
Major Defeat -6 or -5
Route -7 or -6

I like the latter, except I don't really love the idea of a 'Breakthrough' victory costing the battlegroup no strength points, meaning they could just rampaging on forever.  Having said that, I can't imagine 'Breakthrough' victories will happen all that often.  But something going for the initial stats is it will speed the campaign up, which I'm really going to need.  If every battlegroup fights two battles, well, that's a lot of battles ;)

And here is the Day 1, Phase 1 positions for the Yanks and the Germans.  There are eight 'overlaps,' meaning there will be eight tabletop battles.  So the campaign will have 10 days, each with three phases: Phase 1 is 0600 to 1400, Phase 2 is 1400 to 2200, and Phase 3 is 2200 to 0600.  Reinforcements will arrive in Phase 1 of the day they are scheduled.

When a battlegroup is defeated on the tabletop it will fall back two map sectors.  Foot-borne battlegroups move one map sector and mechanized battlegroups move two map sectors during normal map movement. 

Here is the full slate of battles for Phase of 16 Dec 44:
Krinkelt-Rocherath: 394th Regiment, 99th Infantry Division vs 48th Regiment, 12th Volksgrenadier Division
Losheim: 14th Cavalry Group vs 8th Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjager Division
South Eifel: 422nd Regiment, 106th Infantry Division vs 295th Regiment, 18th Volksgrenadier Division
Habscheid: 423rd Regiment, 106th Infantry Division vs 190th Regiment, 62nd Volksgrenadier Division
Leidenborn: 424th Regiment, 106th Infantry Division vs Kampfgruppe Bayer, 116th Panzer Division
Dasburg: 112th Regiment, 28th Infantry Division vs Kampfgruppe Cochenhausen, 2nd Panzer Division
Hosingen: 110th Regiment, 28th Infantry Division vs 77th Regiment, 26th Volksgrenadier Division
Weiler: 109th Regiment, 28th Infantry Division vs 15th Regiment, 5th Fallschirmjager Division

Here is the reinforcement schedule.  Yeah, kinda goofy, but it works.  Starting at left is Day 1, then moving right all the way through Day 10, 25 December 1944.

My winter table, a humble stab at Losheim.  North is up, the Germans will attack from the east (right) and the Americans are defending in the west (left).  It's funny, I may have picked the only map in the whole campaign that is flat!  And the one thing this photo shows me is, you can never have enough trees...

A closer look at Losheim.  I really want to bring out the war-torn ambience for the boys, so I'm using nothing but bombed out buildings.

The crossroads.  Yeah, I put a lot of work into making a winter table, except roads...

Looking west down the main road, towards Losheim.

The German end of the table.

And the American end.  My map actually didn't show a hill, but the table was just too damn flat, so I had to add one (bottom left).  At center left are three sets of winter-stripped trees; what the map shows is a series of snow drifts, like seven or eight of them.

Looking northwest to southeast.

The opposing forces, with the American 14th Cavalry Group on the left and the German 8th Regiment, 3rd FJ Division, on the right.  The Germans actually shouldn't have any vehicles in this fight, but you'll have to forgive me, I wanted to give the boys a relatively even-up fight, so there they are.  The Germans, being the attackers, do have a quantitative advantage, nonetheless. 

The American force:
Battalion Commander (2)
Rifle Company Commander, with Halftrack (2)
2 x Rifle Platoon, with Halftracks (10)
1 x Tank Platoon (5 x M4 Stuarts) (10)
1 x Cannon Platoon (3 x M7 Priests) (6)

BR=30

The German force:
Battalion Commander (2)

Rifle Company Commander (2)

3 x Rifle Platoons (15)
1 x Mortar Platoon (3 x 8.0cm tubes) (4)

1 x Armored Car Platoon (4 x Sdkfz 234) (8)
1 x Panzerjaeger Platoon (4 x Marder III) (8)

BR=39

Overview, now with troops.  The Americans are starting with only a single rifle platoon on the board (crossroads), manning outposts.  HQ has gotten word of something afoot from the Germans and has dispatched reinforcements, which start off table but enter on Turn 1 anywhere on the left baseline.  The Germans are starting with all forces on the table, spread across the east (right) end of the table.

The US presence in Losheim: 1st Platoon, with rifle squads at top left, center, and bottom right.  Their bazooka team is in the building at center, while the command team is just below them.

The rest of the US force, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Denver, waiting to come on the table.

The German deployment on their baseline.

On the German left is their 1st Platoon (in buildings), the Armored Car Platoon (on road), their Mortar Platoon (just below the road), and their Rifle Company Commander (bottom right).

2nd Platoon is in the woods in the center of their line (bottom left), then the Marder Platoon, the battalion commander, Major Wurst, and their 3rd Platoon.

The fight kicks off!  Col Denver pushes his Light Tank Platoon straight up the road into Losheim (right), while the halftracks of 2nd Platoon following in trace, albeit going cross-country (center left).

The GIs of 1st Platoon (far left and center bottom) spot the Germans advancing in teh center (top center) and open fire, to no effect.

Colonel Denver and the Rifle Company Commander move up the road into Losheim (left top), as the Self-Propelled Gun (SPG) Platoon moves up on the US right, rather craftily (bottom right).

The German right surges forward, and the Marders begin hammering away at the town.

As the German Armored Car Platoon pushes forward (bottom center)...

Where they (bottom right) spot the US Light Tank Platoon (top left) and engage with their 20mm autocannons, damaging the lead tank.

But the US Stuarts maneuver within the town (bottom left) and return fire, as one of 1st Platoon's squads moves forward, crossing the road (center bottom).

The lead Sdkfz 234 is knocked out by 37mm armor piercing rounds!

Like the US light tanks, the German armored cars fan out and return fire, but  it's ineffective.

As is the fire of the Marder Platoon (bottom right).

The German infantry platoons on the right push forward, firing as they go (2nd Platoon at bottom left and 3rd Platoon at bottom right)...

And the GIs of 1st Platoon return the favor.

The German 1st Platoon moves out onto the road, following the Armored Car Platoon (top right), but managing to draw some fire from US troops on the far left (bottom left).

The US SPG Platoon (top right) has been spotted and the German Mortar Platoon (bottom left) immediately goes to work...

But the rounds are a bit off target.

The German Armored Car Platoon continues firing on the US Light Tank Platoon...

As do the Marders (far right, with the Stuarts at top left)...

And though several crews are shaken up by the incoming fire, still only one tank has been hit and damaged.

The plucky little Stuarts rally and return fire...

Knocking out a second armored car and suppressing the remaining two!

The German 1st Platoon veers left, off the road (bottom center left), heading for the cover of the woods, a move that would seal the Americans in Losheim's fate, as their 2nd Platoon dashes to the wall (center right) and lays down fire.

The US 1st Platoon (center bottom) returns fire...

But the German Mortar Platoon (bottom right) targets them (top left), as the German 3rd Platoon surges forward (top center).

The Marders move up to the wall, where they of them begin slamming 75mm HE rounds into the US 1st Platoon's main position (top left)...

Knocking out a rifle squad (casualty figures at top center), pinning the command team (yellow bead at center), and driving the bazooka team back (red bead at bottom left)!

Colonel Denver moves up to rally his flagging troops (left center)...

But the good Colonel catches a stray round and goes down (casualty figures on the road at top right), which causes one of the Stuarts to fall back (bottom left, from top right)!!!

Nevertheless, the US Light Tank Platoon continues to put up a dogged defense, with Stuarts on the right (bottom center left) continuing to engage the German Armored Car Platoon (top right)...

The damaged Stuart in the center firing its machine guns (bottom left) at the German 2nd Platoon (top right) at the wall...

And one of the Stuarts pushes left, through the incoming German mortar rounds (far left), where it halts and begins firing 37mm HE rounds into the woods containing the German 3rd Platoon (top center right)...

Knocking one of the German squads out!

But heavy German fire has caused the US rifle squad on the far left flank to fall back (top center, from the building at top right), nonetheless...

As the US squad on the right moves up, into the shelter of a bombed out house (bottom left) and begins firing on the German 2nd Platoon (top right).

Meanwhile, on the German left, their Rifle Company Commander dashes forward under fire to rally the two suppressed (and one is immobilized) armored cars.

Which immediately resume firing on th US Stuarts (top center left).

Another Stuart is damaged (far left), as the halftracks carrying the US 2nd Platoon drive right up into the middle of the fracas!

As the German 2nd Platoon hops the wall and moves up in the center.

And the 3rd Platoon moves up on the right (top center).

The Marders move up and fire on the Stuart holding down the US left flank (top right)...

Blasting it straight to hell!

The German mortars (bottom right) sight in on the crossroads...

Harassing the US 2nd Platon, still mounted in its halftracks, and knocking out the squad from 1st Platoon that was in the nearby building!

The German 2nd Platoon keeps up the pressure on the US center, moving up to the road..

And loosing a rocket from its panzershreck, though it missed...

While the German 3rd Platoon moved up on the right (center top, on road, with 2nd Platoon just visible at bottom center left)...

And guns down the cowering US squad on their  left flank.

The German Armored Car Platoon (bottom right) continues shooting it out with the remains of the US Stuart Platoon (top left).

And then the boy makes the fatal mistake; rather than move his SPG Platoon forward (just off camera to far left) to get in the fight...

He pushes the lightly armored, open-topped guns into the woods, where they move up and engage the infantry of the German 1st Platoon at point-blank range.  To make matters worse, they only manage to suppress one rifle squad...

While back at the crossroads, the US 2nd Platoon is suppressed by German mortar rounds, still mounted in their halftracks.

With German infantry nearby, the American infantry dismount on the crossroads.

But the German mortars continue to pound them, knocking out a squad and causing casualties in another!

Th US 1st Platoon is no longer an effective fighting force, with all three rifle squads knocked out and its platoon commander (far left, between two buildings) and bazooka team (in building at center top) suppressed, though the Stuart that had retreated when Colonel Denver was killed (bottom left) finally rallies.  The US Rifle Company Commander, now the acting Battalion Commander, moves up and rallies the Stuarts on the US right flank (right).

Which immediately get back in the fight (bottom left), firing ont he German armored cars (top right).

But then the hammer falls...

The German Rifle Company Commander rallies his 1st Platoon, then sends them into the woods, where the paratroopers bust out their panzerfausts and go to work on the lightly armored M7 Priests...

The American armored crewmen manage to knock out a rifle squad and a panzerschreck team, but all three US vehicles are knocked out!!!

Following the game I discussed proper tactical usage of his SPGs, and armor in general, with the boy, though he apparently didn't grasp it as he made much the same mistake in the next fight, though without the results being quite so disastrous.  Having said that, his deployment area wasn't well suited to the proper employment of tanks.

Which is enough to cause the remaining US forces to fall back to avoid being wiped out!  The German have pushed the Yanks out of Losheim!

A fun fight, and a nice start (for the Germans, at least) to the campaign.  The boys had fun, and my mashup of 5Core Company Command and Bolt Action wasn't bad, but it still took 2 1/2 hours, much too long for my little apprentices...  I'm going to give a try to something I'm calling "5Core Battalion Commander."

The US 14th Cavalry Group has fallen back two spaces (top center), leaving the German 8th Regiment, 3rd FJ Division the sole occupiers of Losheim (right top, wth KG Peiper behind them).  The next fight is, by special request, the US 110th Regiment, 28th Infantry Division versus the 77th Regiment, 26th Volksgrenadier Division in Hosingen (right center, where the little explosion is).

Coming right up!

VR,
Jack