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[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German results



New day, new weather and losses still high. 

Not as bad as last turn but I was disappointed to see that German losses in men during his phase had gone down as well. He has been averaging losses well over 200 during his turn but they were down to 158.

Good news was I killed a tank and an armoured car! Woohooo. My return Opp Fire finally hit something. Unfortunately Opp Fire never fired ONCE when he moved adjacent to me? It only fired AFTER he had fired....sometimes several times. So nice juicy targets of T mode armour......nah.

24 of my vehicle losses were from M8 Greyhounds. The 28th Cavalry lost 21 and the 6th Cavalry.....well we don't have to worry about them anymore as they don't exist. I lost 4 M4's and 2 M10's at Spa and a tank somewhere else that I just can't remember. Still look at the bright side. 2 German vehicles....... 



Anyway I'll post quick maps of the north and Spa. Have the sunglasses ready as the maps has gone a bit psychedelic.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - north



I think he may have swapped out one of the 326th VGD unit in the north as I did disrupt one last turn. He has set one of them to Digging In. I think he realises that this is a key bit of terrain.

The 326th VGD Bn adjacent to 1-26th (1 Div) is also Digging In.

I'm not sure why he has done this as by digging he knows that I will be able to tell when they are disrupted by artillery and ready for assault? The 326th are D morale units so easily disrupted? 

His artillery tried some counterbattery against mine but only hit HQ units which I had stacked on top. So I think putting artillery under other units does help deflect counterbattery fire? Unfortunately you will have to watch what you put on top as the 394th HQ disrupted. It did recover though. 

The 1-26th was hit twice by werfers and lost 9 men. Still pretty impressive casualties for Forest (-30%) and Improved (10%). My 105mm would probably get 2 and the 155mm 3-4. 

The one good news was that the 124th Combat Engineers dug in the hex to TRENCH. It can be pulled out now. 

I'll see how the artillery goes before deciding on assaults. The 1-26th is out of command and I don't want to push iot further out but an assault is a good way of getting higher casualties and racking up fatigue.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - Spa



He more or less picked the same targets as last time. His Pioneers [C] fired at my tanks 9 times and did sucker them into quite a few Opp Return Fires. He probably lost 20 men. Then the 12th SS hit my M4's and again the 734th Tnk Bn was the target. I lost 4. However my return fire DID hit one of his tanks. [D]

The 23rd Arm Enginers were hit again with artillery and fire from KG Sandig. [D]

The 638th TD lost 2 M10's from the other KG Sandig group but reurn fire killed a KG Knittel armoured car. [E]

At Spa it was bash the 29th Rgt time again. The 1-29th is now wrecked. It loses an average 20 men per firing from his force in Spa. [B] In two turns it has lost 120 men and climb to 160 fatigue. The 3-29th is also starting to wear down. [A]
I forgot to mention my return fire did disrupt a KG hansen unit. [B]

The good news is that the 3-120th recovered disruption and his FJD units didn't. Chance for assaults here? I think the 3-120th and 2-29th will both win and push him back but I'm wary of excess casualties as the FJD units could be big 500 men battalions. So assaults yes?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - Stoumont road



In case anyone is wondering what is happening here the answer is nothing much. 120 tanks and 100 armoured cars sitting going nowhere. 

34th Tank Bde hit pretty badly by commado disruptions plus of course night disruptions. The 9th RTR out front are B rated so pretty good. They need to be as there be dragons out there.........well Peiper Panthers. The other two British tank regiments (Bn's) are D's. 

The 4th Cavalry Group are a decent unit as they are also B rated. Unfortunately with a defensive strength of 3 they are not much use offensively? As the turkey shoot at Warnach has illustrated all they appear good at is giving Indragnir easy VP's. I thought it might be a good idea to put them in the woods here to act as a tripwire and to defend a non essential area. I guess that is what the 14th Cav Gp was doing at the start of the scenario.... The only other thing I could use them for is digging in I guess.

In the bottom corner you can see my crack unit 392nd General Eng Bn sneaking up on the river. Under is the recce unit 11th Hussars which are Corps troops for VII Corps. (actually Br XXX Corps but u/c VII Corps at the moment) Its another 50+ armoured car unit with a defensive strength of 3. Sigh. If anyone wants to play this scenario make sure you get the Recon Spotting setting ticked or else these units are just wasted hiding at the back.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - Chesion - Bra



The British lose 126 men here.

At Chession the 1st Bn Worcester receives the same treatment the US 38th Armoured Infantry received last turn from the might werfers. It loses 76 men and goes from 33 fatigue to 122. Two turns and two units wrecked despite being in Forest. (30%) 
Cesar says he has 165 werfers in this area and he didn't use tham all??? In honour odf this deadly weapon (pita) I've made a new artillery attack sysmbol using w's.

At Bra his northern group continued to dig and sat quietly this turn. The US 17th Tank Bn has still not recovered from disruption but the 7th Bn hampshires did.

His Bra force picked on the 4th Bn Dorsetshires and inflicted about 20 casualties......and his werfers added another 30.

Despite the 'intensity' of the attacks I see no spotted artillery units....sigh.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - Samree



Well the 9th SS armour did not follow me when I pulled back at Grandmenil. He probably was bored shooting up easy targets. The 3-335th was hit by artillery and ground fire. Its sitting in Clear terrain. It was disrupted and didn't recover. The 750th stacked with it did not recover disruption either.

At Samree it was pick on the 3-333rd time. The reason for this became obvious when a 9th SS (foot) Bn appear in T mode, decloaked and sat there laughing. The two 2nd Panzer armour groups must be sitting on a field of flattened rifle bullets as my infantry fired at least a dozen times during Opportunity Fire. Ping ping ping. Wouldn't it be nice to have a hard attack value of 8 like the mighty Volsgrenadiers. If he had tried that with an infantry unit it would be looking like a collander now.

With a 750 man (B morale?) unit now protecting the rear of the Panther Pillbox, mobile flak unit disappeared. Job done and not a scratch on it. Ah these AMI's will they never learn how to fight war........

The 4 Panther companies also managed to dig in to IMPROVED.  I've had two company sized units digging in the Hoes Venn for a day and they are no deeper than when they started..........

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German - Nadrin - Bertogne



Shock announcement. 82nd paratroopers beaten by panzergrenadiers. NO artillery or WERFERS used!!!!

My shoestring attack finally came unhiged. The 26th VGD stack hammered the 2-505th inflicting 43 casualties and disrupting it. then the 15th Pz Gr Bn assaulted and won easily (14/36) Not only did it assault but it had enough MP's left to fire at the 2-423rd behind? 

A further stack of 15th Pz Gr Bn's moved up and inflicted 15 casualties on the 159th Engineers. (ommitted from map sorry)

So good weather means a B morale motorised unit can move through Forest AND still have enough MP's letf to fire??? This si not good. And of course his B units do not disrupt at night .....unlike mine boo hoo....not fair.

Tricky situation. Not helped by the fact the 2-423rd is broken down into 3 companies at moment. Looks like the French Lt Bn will come in handy. 
Edit Oh and one last moan. Was that a crap place to retreat to or was it crap. 2-505th moved NEwhen NW was the better choice? If that retreat choice was bad there was worse to follow at Warnach......

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German -Warnach



Not the best map and a few labels missing but hopefully it shows what happened.

At Hollange he pulled his 2nd SS infantry back? I must have been putting some hurt on them?

His 15th Pz Gr armoured group [D] stayed in place and fired at my Engineers. 

He did assault with his 15th Pz Gr Bn but it was against my retreating units to the south east and not south as I feared. It worked out well for him though as the AI decided to retreat the survivors south west on top of the 2-317th and B/103rd Eng. instead of south If I had not moved the C/1-104th forward they would all be cut off again.

The 1-112th disappeared under a hail of bullets and was overrun. 

The L/3-110th were easily pummeled and pushed back....soth east? I take it the AI is programmed to retreat units to the WORST place???? Come on give me a break what was wrong with SOUTH!!!! 

He then targeted the A/60th INF because it was digging in I guess and also scored a few casualties on them.

Night disruption doesn't seem to apply to Germans? Maybe they are undead?

In the south at Bigonville he pulled back his infantry rolled up his armour in T mode, unlimbered and killed one of my M4's.......my boys were probably too busy with their perolator. 

And the weather has changed so I can run away faster now, except its still night. Of course the weather now means he gets to make even more attacks and his ninja infantry can move through woods/forest and still fire. Mmmh. I think I'll take a break here.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December German -south and the green fields beyond...



last map of Indragnirs turn. All artillery. 

4th Armoured Div HQ did a great job deflecting his counterbattery fire. I think it was hit about 7-8 times 4 of which were losses. 19 men lost but the two M7 Priest Bn's were untouched. 

Some artillery then fell on units in the Bigonville area which is off map to the north west.

Then right at the end of the turn, he advanced a disrupted VGD Bn and the 24th Arm Engineers was hit by 4 blasts from werfers. The unit is in Clear terrain so casualties were heavy. Thankfully the unit did not disrupt. I guess he was suspiscious and wanted to have a look. If he had done this earlier then the 24th would have been chewed up. The unit is isolated but I have several options to restore a los/loc. The 37th Tnk Bn is one option. The 24th might also be able to assault the VGD unit back, and I can move some units over the medium bridge south east of it. (I have an Arm Inf Bn (on foot) below the M5 tank unit)

The AOK 7 MG unit did not move and you will see that its isolated because Indragnir has blown the Mersch bridge. So its hande hoch for these boys I guess. The 10th Tnk Bn has recovered disruption which is useful.

Mersch well I guess I have to keep advancing. I've 3 units from 3 different CC's of 10th armoured there plus a unit from 4th Infantry. All of them are at the extreme range of command from their HQ's. I will have to move the HQ's east (all Morale C) and none of them are on roads. 

Anyway I've got to walk the dog and then I'll start my turn going from south to north for a change. Not looking forward to Warnach.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied -south



The 20th Arm Inf pushed the enemy MG unit aside with an assault (I lost 1 man) and the unit broke. 20th Arm Inf had enough MP's to advance and I was surprised to find him defending south of Mersch? I think I lost 3 men to defensive fire. 11th tank moved up so it can occupy Mersch next turn. 
Surprised that he is defending south of Mersch because that is within the 3 hex range of the protected Entry hex at Lintgen? The 5th Division is due here at 6.00am. Its 2.00am so he has 2 turns to pull back. 
55th Eng pulled into Boevange. I accidentally left one of the companies still in T mode so will have to hope he doesn't come to check it.
I've moved the 803rd TD (4th Div) unit up as I have 3 Bn's of 4th Div artillery on south map which will be useful for defensive fire. 
4th Division infantry pulled out and moving west.

This is a dead end but I gguess I need to push out.