We concluded Day Four of the Campaign, 16 September 1944. The US have captured Stolberg, destroyed the German 353rd Infantry Division which was its garrison and mauled the 9th Panzer which had been sent to its rescue. But now the 12th Infantry Division was about to arrive, and the US forces needed to regroup.
9th Panzer are pulling back.
The lead elements of the 12th Infantry Division have arrived as night falls.
They used road movement which is a first for us in a Rommel game.
The situation at the end of the day.
The table depicts hex rows 18 to 26.
Panzer Grenadiers hold Gressenrich, one part of Eschweiler
and a position deeper in the woods towards Stolberg.
I have orientated the map to match the images and so apologies for the town names being upside down.
The German reinforcements that arrive along hex row 29.
The 12th Infantry Division plus some rebuilt units of 9th Panzer.
But first the 17th of September starts with some US mopping up operations that they hope to complete before the new German forces arrive.
This is Gressenrich on the US right.
Eschweiler in the centre.
Which the US are desperate to clear.
The Germans are down to their last man!
Gressenrich is under continual attack.
As are the Germans in the woods.
9th Panzer try and break through to Eschweiler.
They succeed and then try and surround leading elements of the US 3rd Armoured Division.
On the US right flank the 47th RCT of the 9th US Infantry Division try again to capture Gressenrich.
As CCB try to eliminate the Germans in the woods to their rear.
Gressenrich is about to fall.
The US forces have pulled back into Eschweiler, trying to avoid encirclement.
The 89th Grenadier Regiment of the 12th Infantry Division
make a major assault to capture Eschweiler.
Isolated US forces on the German right are surrounded and attacked.
The 48th Grenadier Regiment of the 12th Infantry Division
make a major assault to recapture Gressenrich.
The German forces being fresh have a significant advantage in the fighting.
They are well supplied with artillery even if it is of lesser calibre than what the US have.
9th Panzer deal with the US troops in their rear
while the Grenadiers continue their attack on Eschweiler.
The situation at midday on the 17th of September.
There are four days to go so we are at the halfway point.
One of the aims of this scenario is to see how Rommel handles a multiday campaign situation. The rule system is very flexible and it would be easy to add things, but the challenge is balance along with ease of play.
For example, support points. These are critical to rebuilding forces. However, it is up to the scenario to decide how many are available each day. I settled on these being saved Ops dice at the end of each day. They are therefore capped at 10 and allow for fighting to die down during the day to allow for regrouping etc. Seems reasonable. One support point fully restores one stand or allows for a shattered stand to be brought back as a shaky unit. In addition two shattered units can be brought back as one for no cost- this bit I added and it might be a bit generous as I failed to allow for the complete removal of shattered stands that were surrounded or already shattered (as such I have not rebuilt an units of the 353rd Infantry Division).
The US still have 16th RCT of their 1st Division, but that is covering Aachen, but are located at hex row 14 on the Aachen side and would only come back into play if the Germans were able to make it that far with their counterattack.
No comments:
Post a Comment