Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Winfield



Well the 2-104th and 3-104th had been braced for action after 2nd SS armour and infantry had rolled up last turn. I think Indragnir was going to use his armour to soften up and then assault until he saw my armour to the south.

He used a little artillery on the 2-104th (-6 men) and then brought up 15th PGD Recon and used that to fire. (-15) He then launched an assault against the 2-104th using both 2nd SS infantry units. The result was pretty horrific. He lost 58 men but the 2-104th lost 164 men, was disrupted and pushed back.
In total the 2-204th lost 185 men and went from Green Fatigue 2 to Red Max fatigue.

I spoke to Cesar about this and he admitted that one of his units took a hefty hit in Fatigue. (90+?) But he said that two elite german panzer Grenadier hitting a US battalion should cause a lot of damage and I had to agree with him. I guess if the 2-104th had been disrupted before the assault his losses would have been smaller?

Anyway after the assault the way was now clear for his Panthers to visit my M4's. The Panthers weer joined by armour from the 15th PGD. One blast and I lost 4 tanks. 2nd blast and a further M4 was lost. (probably just Panthers on own) The 707th went from 23 runners to 18 and its fatigue jumped from 7 to 114! My mistake for putting them in the front line but it was to ensure the infantry to the south got away. Hoever I do get to use my heavy artillery on his StuG's and Jagdpanzers which are in Clear terrain. 

Apart from that this sector was quiet. My patrols have picked up his SS Recon still digging in. 

Having looked at things I think the units south of the 707th/2nd Tanks will have to move south. One unit is still disrupted. I'll T mode them out south.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Pratz



The 212th keep on coming. I can now see just about the whole Division now witht he appearance of a VGD Bn in the north by my 19th Tank Bn. (6 VG Bn's, 1 Pioneer, 1 Fusileer)

My 19yh Tank Bn lost a tank when his 'reserve ' armour appeared. The 17th had taken 3 shots at the 212th which moved first so did not fire. 

His main Pz lehr armour has moved around to link up with the 5th FJD. My losses against the 212th were pretty light but he hasn't started to press yet. 

The 53rd Arm Inf bore the brunt of his artillery. Heavies, light, werfers...kitchen sinks....he threw everything at it. i think this was another of my crystal ball predictions from last turn and he didn't let me down. <g> The unit naturally disrupted but recovered??? 

After the artillery deluge he moved his spotting FJD units ajacent to the 53rd away and brought up more. 

It looks liek I was lucky here because IF he had moved the 5th FJD first and bumped into 1-12th he might have used his artillery against this and may have had enough MP's left for an assault??????

Situation is still grave. Too many targets for my artillery to stop although most of them are in clear? I think I may have to sacrafice the 4th Combat? I also may have to start bringing the 10th Armoured back from Mersch. I've started moving the 54th Arm Inf already.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 German - Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Mersch

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Last picture. I'm up to my limit which means I'm back on photobucket which is a bit of a pain. I'll have to see if I can delete some things as I'm pretty sure some pictures I've loaded are not linked to posts. I'll maybe ask for some help to do this.

Anyway back to the game. Crystal ball time 2. I predicted he would counter attack my 2-11th (poor play by me) and thats what he did.

A) After a short barrage (-14) he hit me with direct fire (-25) which disrupted the 2-11th. He assaulted with one Bn and won the hex despite taking heavy losses. The AI picked the worst hex to retreat (really?) and my armour was cut off. 

B/C) He attacked the 1-11th then and despite losing heavily he achieved his aim. Not only am I isolated but I am Low Ammo because I returned fire. Its a double whammy I've already talked about. Surely only isolation is required at this stage. Ammo test should kick in now so that I can decide whether or not to fire???? 

D) He attacked then all down the line inflicting heavy casualties on my units in Clear terrain. 

Lastly he had TWO successful carpet bombings against me. Cesar and I have discussed German air being able to carpet bomb and we both agree that its 100% steak mince......which is Scottish for rubbish. 

Anyway on the replay I only saw one attack which reported -17men and -1 gun but when I opened the file I can see that I lost -58 men from two HQ's and -3 guns? Cesar mentioned that he checked after the attacks and saw his VP's had jumped +10. 

So the good news is that my Engineers have built a bridge in ONE turn. (4 hours) Unbelievable. The bad news is that because of his assault I can't get over the stupid bridge. I need to push him back obviously to restore supply to my armoured group and to start evacuating.  Time to start planning. I have 5 air this turn (3 carpet) so thats my first option. 10th Armoured artillery is not available as I don't have los now. I maybe thinking that if I fly an air recce (I have one available) then this wil allow 10th to fire? Yes?

Stay tuned. I'll play from south to north so maps should be a bit easier to follow.

Edit: bridge is from wrong engineer unit. It should be the unit above. I'll correct picture.  Corrected now.

[Plain Ian]

Sorry folks I'm on holiday. No PC just a tablet. I didn't have time to make maps of my moves. It was mostly artillery and tactical withdrawals. At Mersch I did succeed in pushing back his 352nd and did manage to get some units over the bridge.
However as I expected he hit back and I lost heavily.  More German air attacks and zero intrception....
I can't see how bad things are but Cesar has talked of 5-600 POWs (losses due to no retreat locations being available?) and the Vp's have jumped +160.
Will be back in week.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 Allied- Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Mersch



Ok back from the sun to freezing weather. Not feeling great and plenty to do at work. I'm not sure I have all my notes from 2 weeks ago but here goes.

At Mersch I concentrated on pushing his 352nd VGD Bn back so I could begin evacuating valuable units before his 9th Panzer arrives. 

I used my one air attack (-19) plus 5th Division artillery (-15) to hit the hex then used the 2-11th to try and soften him up further....at a cost. 
I then threw the yellow fatigued 2-10th at the enemy hoping that this would be enough. Nope they bounced and suffered heavily. 
I then used the last of my artillery (-8) then went in with my tanks. The 735th tanks won the day and secured the hex. At last I had armour in the hex I wanted to protect the crossing even though the armour is Morale F with Fatigue 129 and still marked up as ISOLATED/LOW AMMO.

Incidentally I've just noticed that there is another 735th Tank Bn in the game? The M4 Tank Bn for the 26th Diviison at Magerotte is also labeled as this? One of them must be wrong?

After the assault I pulled out 5th Div HQ, 10th Rgt HQ and the Divisional TD Bn. (both below 5th HQ) I pulled back 1-11th and 1-2nd so they can either go on foot and ferry over or use the road/bridge to evacuate. 

I've left the 11th Rgt HQ over the river just now as I needed a unit in that hex. I've pulled back the 2nd HQ and hopefully this will get away next turn.  I've manged to evacuate the 155mm artillery Bn but still have the 3 x 105mm Bn's to limber up and try to escape.

The 1-11th was left to try to hold the north and 3-10th/2-2nd are my delaying units in the east although since both are dirupted I'm just really hoping to keep his advance to one hex. 

A second bridging Engineer unit has arrived on the river.

I'm a bit pessimistic about things here. If he shifts the 735th or the 2-11th then the road to the bridge will be blocked again. The enemy unit I pushed back lost over 100 men so it won't be returning to the front line soon.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 Allied- Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Pratz



I fell back from the 212th VGD but the 4th Combat Engineers were left behind. I 've used my armour as a shield so they should have a retreat path if he assaults. 

I'm not sure he will keep advancing here? He may want to push me back from the woods line and use his armour  to secure the clear terrain north west of Redanges which will effectively cut off 10th Armoured behind the river to the south. 

At Martenalge its all quiet. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 Allied- Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Bastogne



The Winfield salient has now been evcuated. Hmm maybe I should stop using that word "evacuated". So I made a small tactical withdrawl at Winfield and basically sat tight everywhere else. I was in holiday mode when I made my moves so I wasn't in a massive counter pushing frenzy as normal. 

The main action was my Paratroopers against his FBG infantry (Fuhrer Begleit Bde). I'm putting a steady drain on this unit. Its probably 30+ per turn or so at least. 

Oh I forgot to mention...top left hand corner of this snapshot you can see the advanced units of 2nd Armoured just arriving. Night next turn so possibly one more turn then they will halt. No point in getting fatigued until I know what I'm doing with them.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 78 Allied- Dec 24th 4pm Dusk (vis 1 hex) - Spa and the north



Sorry but not a lot of detail on the map. Most of my notes have gone awol. 

The Hoess Venn was pretty quiet with only one fire fights and artillery. (artillery fire results missing)

1st Division continued its pressure towards Franchochamps. Artillery mainly hit the 12th VGD (disrupting the unit digging in) and ground fire was directed at the SS. 

Down at Chession British armour and artillery hit the 62nd VGD unit digging in and also disrupted it. 

Apart from that I did not make any moves apart from 2-3 in the Hoss Venn.

[Plain Ian]

End of Turns 78 VP and Losses

Ok chart time. First turn losses. 



Nest losses broken down by phases



And lastly totals 



Not a good day at the office for me. His offensive starting to reap its rewards I think.

However if you think thia turn was bad wait until you see Cesars results for his phase in Turn 79. I'll put them up in a minute. I've not watched the replay yet.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 79 German  - VP and losses



Sorry that minute ended up as a day. Here it is at last. Over half my losses came from 5th Division in the south thanks to the wonderful retreat logic in the PZc game engine it chose possibly the worst retreat path for my units which meant i lost 600+ men due to no retreat path. Slightly...make that very annoyed about this as I spent a lot of time trying to ensure I had a retreat path and it was just a waste of time......

Despite making several assaults his losses were pretty low. I lost an M4 to an air attack and an M7 to counter battery. I've watched the replay and I'm not sure what my other 2 vehicle losses were?



So the Turn totals look as above.