Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Allied - Pratz



At Pratz I fell back from his Indian rush (212th VGD) and used all my air and artillery to try to attrite him. 2 carpet bombing attacks were intercepted but the third got through. I had picked his Pioneers as the target and thats what was hit. (20% chance of hitting the correct hex) I also had 3 normal air attacks which all got through. Unfortunately I must have forgotten to write them all down and have only noted 2 results on the map. 

I've also started to pull out my units pinned by his 5th FJD advance. The 38th Cav fell back onto D/70 TNK company which in turn then fell back. (ZOC to ZOC) I made sure his FJD units were well prepped with air and artillery and the 53rd Amed Infantry also added in its ground fire. The 35th Tank Bn moved up at the end of the turn just in case he recovers from disruption and tries to keep assaulting. 

I've possibly done enough to halt the 5th FJD but will suffer heavily from artillery here. The 212th will keep coming. I may lose some units here. 

At Warnach I used most of my heavy artillery against his StuG's (Fuhrer Greandier Bde) in Clear terrain. 

At Martelange things remain quiet so I shuffled a few units. I have no doubt he has units moving along the Grevils-Brevil road headed here. (another VGD?)

I've no reinforcements for this area and none are due to come on soon. The 4th Armoured will have to fight alone.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Allied - Magerotte - Hotte



A pretty quiet sector. Just me 'bugging out' my troops from the river bend. I know Indragnir has shifted his attacks north but he can easily come back. I cannot afford to be trapped against a river, The trops at Winfield will pull back next turn. I've stacked the tanks (2nd/707th) to allow the 3-328th to pull back next turn as well.

The 2-104th and the 3-104th will have to take the blows this turn. Both are very low fatigue (0 and 2) and are still at their full TOE. (730 and 751 men) They are both dug in to TRENCH level.  Unfortunately they are D rated so I guess they will disrupt when put under pressure. I have left room for them to retreat and the 1-101st is availble, also full strength and no fatigue but also a D rated unit.

52nd Arm Inf is pulling out. Its CCR 9th Armoured and I'm struggling to keep it within command range. I'll pull the 2nd tank Bn back as well if things quieten down, as this is CCR 9th Armoured as well.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Allied - Berogne - Flamierge



The 53rd Welsh Division are still marking time. I guess most people are wondering why I haven't used them. 71st Bde is just south of Flamierge, the 150th Bde is in the Flamierge area, and of course the 158th has now been fed into the front line north of Flamierge. However I'm waiting for their Fatigue to drop a bit before committing them. The average fatigure for most units is 30-40. Too high especially if they will be fighting in Clear terrain.

Indragnir has pulled back from the bridge but I still think his ulterior motive is to blow the bridge. I've kept up pressure on the 3 x 26th VGD units but I don't have enough artillery to disrupt them this turn. Artillery hit the top unit.
Ground fire from 2/Lt Inf and 3-505th was quite effective though. (2/Lt Inf is Low Ammo as its attached to VII Corps and is outwith command....I'll fix this at midnight by transferring to XVIII Corps) It hit the middle unit.

The battle against the Begleit Bde continued. My infantry shot well and the Bunker probably saved them about 4-6 more casualties. 
I moved my disrupted 17pdr unit away (7 guns left) and tried my luck with the remaining 12 against his Jagdpanzers. I managed a Fatigue hit. 

Artillery picked out a SPOTTED SS artillery unit at Bastogne? In Clear terrain and not dug in? I took 3 guns from it. My artillery also went for a soft target. An infantry unit in Clear terrain behind his front line. I scored -13 with two shots.

As you can see from my strength report I have a few high strength units still to commit. 700+ men units are a bit tricky to operate because of stacking rules. (1400 men max) However these units are A rated so I do not have to worrry about them being disrupted and pushed back.

I'm waiting for the best moment to use them.

More maps after tea and I wash my car.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Allied Odeigne



This was another pretty quiet sector. I picked another 'soft' target which was a 9th SS Bn in Clear terrain. I meant to fire with the 1-290th against his disrupted Pioneers but forgot.

Other moves. 

I pulled back my towed TD unit the 629th. He can now see it thanks to the SS Bn he moved up (the one I just hammered with artillery) so although next turn ids Dusk (visibility 1 hex) he might be tempted to go hunting. 

The 3-334th rotated with the 2-334th to make this hex a bit assault proof. I didn't trigger any fire. It looks like Indragnir is digging in and is happy with his gains in this area....but you never know. 

I moved the 2-290th and lost -8 men. 

I've started moving up Paratroopers to continue the attack on the SS unit adjacent to to the 1-289th. Despite what Indragnir says i think this has high fatigue.

I've also posted strengths for the two main Divisions in this area. As you can see the 75th is pretty much still at full TOE. But is a D morale unit. The 84th is down to roughly 60-70% for infantry but its armour is depleted. (the 771st is Broken actually)

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Chession and Spa



Nothing much happened here. My artillery didn't have much impact against his 88mm guns. 3 Fatigue hits. My tanks made no impact against his Pioneers. I've moved up the 8th Middlesex Bn which is the Divisional MG unit for the 43rd Div. (8 attack factors at 2 range) It will get clobbered by werfers probably. 

I've pulled back the US cavalry...I could do with a John Wayne in this game.....and have moved out the two B Squadrons of the 107th and 9th RTR so they can move down and annoy his VGD. I've left the B/147th RAC digging in with the 3 Firefly sqaudrons. (1 disrupted) 



Spa was relatively quiet as I saved all my artillery for the area just east of Francorchamps. My heavy artillery did get a few armoured vehicles but didn't cause his infantry much of a headache. 

Ground fire went well but I did lose an M4 to return fire. 

I've pulled out the 1-32nd, my largest tank unit  in the area, and moved up the 15th Combat Engineers. 

The 746th has 26 runners and the 743rd which I've not labelled has 28 and a fatigue of 128. Its adjacent to the 1-32nd. So I have roughly 180 M4 tanks in 8 units for this area which is pretty good really. After all he only has 40 King Tigers and probably 40 Panthers..........

Of course I could always bulldozer my way through his flanks. Hmm let me see thats a pretty thick wall of FJD on the left there and some nice elite units on the right. No problems I just need another couple of Divisions. If only this game had Low Fuel effects.....

I'll do Elsenborn tomorrow night. Indragnir has returned the file already. The good news is that my losses were not as bad as this turn. The bad news was that neither were his losses and my prediction for Mersch came out correct.
The Germans lost no tanks again in their turn but he managed to assault and kill about 6 of mines I think just using infantry plus another 5 do direct fire. Indragnir says that during the real Bulge camapign US v German tank losses were 13:1. Thats about the only thing this game gets right. Just as well I get about 5-6 back per turn. The only problem is that most of them go to the wrong units...........

[Plain Ian]

Turn 77 Allied Francochamps



Well this is the first time I've managed to get superiority in one area. I used my artillery to hit the two SS Pioneer units (Company sized both about 120+ men each?)  I then used direct fire from 745th Tank and 2-18th (results not shown on map but another -28) and launched an assault with the 2-16th and 3-16th. 

The picture above shows position after the assault. The surviving Pioneer has retreated onto a stack with the third pioneer unit in the 12thSS and a unit from the 150th Pz Bde. Total losses were in the region of 175. 

I pushed forward the 3-26th and its met his main defensive line being formed by 12th VGD. (they haven't started digging in yet) The 12th VGD are a good unit and will be well rested. The 3-26th will pick up quite a few casualties. Hopefully Cesar will Dig in and fire which will reduce this a bit.

I've brought over the 2-517th Paratroopers as well to join the party. I'm not sure where this is all going but it looks like I will try to push down the west side of the woods.



My heavy artillery worked on his armour and picked off his weaker units. So much for my view that armour are pillboxes.......well maybe Panthers and Tigers.

I pulled back the mauled 2-23rd and 3-39th which are low in men but still actually reasonably well fatigued. (3-39th is disrupted though) 

He left the disrupted 326th in Marsh (+10%) as an assault magnet but I ignored this and just used direct fire from 3-23rd and 741st. The two disrupted units of the 395th (E Morale) attempted to do the same and scored pitiful results and lost 18 men! 

I'm not sure if he will be making any more assaults here but I've tried to ensure I have space to retreat. 

I tried to air recce the clear area to his rear but the Luftwaffe suddenly appeared and frightened away my boys. Maybe it was a seagull? I had 7 air missions this turn and 3 were intercepted. Wunderbar. 

I'll start Cesars Turn 78 tomorrow night beginning in the north and working down to the hot spots.....

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German 



Points and losses at end of Turn 78. I lost a plabne in my phase of Turn 77 and I think I forgot to show this on the Turn loses. 



Losses for the turn/phase. Bad but not as bad as last turn. Then again neither were Cesars which is the important factor, well for me at least. I think he made one crunching assault but most of his losses were due to artillery. I've read about the deforestation of the Amazon but no one mentioned the Ardennes in 44. Whole areas are being cleared out by his werfers and its raining wood splinters. 

Of the vehicles I lost, 5 were M4's which his Panthers spotted and then rolled up and blasted away. To make this possible I think he was forced to assault my infantry to clear an easy path for them? You will maybe see this when I put up the map of Magerotte.
 
I think I lost 2 more M4's and 3 greyhounds when his Infantry put their underpants on outside their trousers and assaulted my tanks, and of course ran back to their TRENCHES without a scratch. Hmm any chance we could have hard attack factors for infantry only apply on defense? Maybe they do? I'll have to check this?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - north



Cesar was quite clinical and picked the targets he needed to hit. The 2-39th was well werfered and then shot up by by stacks A and B. 

His disrupted units in Marsh above stack A were pulled back. 

At B I think he pulled out a disrupted unit and put in 2 units to support his armour. His armour is busy digging in. 

The 1-26th was digging in and this isn't allowed so again he used werfers to disrupt and stop this. 

Similarly in the south the 291st had been set to dig in by me last turn. He saw this as the biggest 'threat' and concentrated his artillery on it. Fortunately for me he failed to disrupt it AND amazingly they finished their digging and I now have a TRENCH!

The 3-26th was not touched? However that was because at C he abandoned his position south of the 3-26th and moved the 2 VGD units into the hex to the NE which is IMPROVED. 

At D he pulled out the assaulted Pioneer and the 150th Pz Bde infantry and moved in his SS Recon unit. 

I guess I have to return the favour and hit two targets. His armour digging in and the 12th VGD unit at C also digging in. And of course whilst my artillery is doing this ....I dig in. 

The good news is that the 395th recovered disruption and are now fighting fit D units. However his 326th are D's as is his 272nd. The 277th are C's, and the 12th are B's. Disrupting a B unit isn't going to be easy but he did that to me last turn with my 1-26th. But my 1-26th started off with a fatigue of 93 and is now 110. Its disrupted and now a D. His 12th is fresh so I'd need a few turns of artillery concentration for this ...or maybe a few hundred werfers.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - Spa - Manhay



A) the main action at Spa was an assault against my 2-33rd Tank Bn and 38th Cav. I probably exagerrated things in my post above. The German assault was not painless as I implied. He did lose 64 men. So I suppose 64 A rated men versus 5 B rated vehicles probably means that points wise he lost out. However he did not disrupt. I think he probably assaulted with one unit but maybe he used both. Defensive fire was triggered before but he lost only 3 men. I'm not sure how long he can keep doing this but killing tanks are his No 1 priority.

B) the 3-60th lost 25 men from direct fire.

C) he must have moved in a new unit which triggered fire. He withdrew some FJD units here as well. My arrow is in the wrong hex it should be the hex south of the visible stack.

At Chession it was Werfer Time! The 8th Middlesex (I forgot to label) were hit by 3-4 salvos and lost heavily. e must have swopped units as defensive fire was triggered and he lost 3 men but I didn't detect any movement on the replay? It happens.

And that was it for this sector.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - Odeigne - Flamierge



In the Rubble of Odeigne he continues to dig in. Indragnir must be pretty annoyed as these units have been diggin in for a few turns now and its still just Improved. I might have a go with my heavy artillery at his Jagdpanzers. His fire was quite weak but the 3-334th disrupted.

At B) he pulled out Pioneers and put in a regualr Bn. 

The 2-290th paid for its advance with moderate losses.

The 1-289th were hit hard by the 9th SS unit adjacent and didn't reply. It disrupted.

At Bertogne the 291st was digging in and therefore was treated to artillery and direct fire. It disrupted. I did get a few replies from adjacent units and artillery.

At Flamierge he picked the 1-506th.


Artillery was relatively light for this sector?
One thing I forgot to mention was that the Engineers have built a bridge between La Roche and Nadrin to replace the blown bridge. I think that this might help supply in this area? Yes? Not sure how helpful it will be. He has a few powerful 2nd Panzer units here. Maybe this is the area to put 2nd Armoured in?

Won't manage any more tonight. Magerotte/Pratz/Mersch tomorrow night.