The story of Peiper's Charge continues!!!!!
If you remember from my last update, RangerDane and I met up to play the Peiper's Charge scenario for Flames of War. This scenario was a great departure from the traditional mission based games we typically play.
A quick recap for those who don't want to click the link above to the previous article for Game 1 of the scenario.The scenario depicts Peiper's famous charge during the Battle of the Bulge. The scenario can be played one of two ways. First you can play it as a single multi-table scenario that runs over 3 tables.
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| Massive scenario from Battlefront's Peipers Charge Scenario |
We were playing at our FLGS (The Foundry) and weren't able to occupy that much real estate. We went with option 2 which breaks the scenario into 3 separate games. Each game is one table from the single 3 table super scenario.
Now, I have good news and bad news. First the bad news. Somewhere after playing the game and taking great photos of the action, the SD card in my camera died and I lost all the pictures of game 2.
I know...I know...but fear not! I have good news! I still can tell you what happened and show some of the action using the table maps from the scenario pack. Even better news is that for the final Game 3 I have some cool action shots! (that's called a teaser hint hint)
The German forces continue with all surviving platoons from the previous game. All of these platoons start Game 2 at full strength. Last game, I only lost the Fallschirmjager Platoon and begin this game with:
- Peiper in a Panther
- Panther Plt (4 ea)
- Panther Plt (4 ea)
- PzIVJ Plt (4 ea)
- PzIVJ Plt (4 ea)
- King Tiger Plt (2 ea)
- SS PzGrndr Plt
- SS PzGrndr Plt
- WirbelWind Plt (4 ea)
- SP Infantry Gun Plt (4e Grille)
The US forces are table specific and any surviving forces from Game 1 are ignored. For this game the US have:
- Roadblock Plt
- Armored Rifle Plt
- Towed Tank Destroyer Plt (4x M5 3in)
- Engineer Combat Plt
For Game 2 the US deployed its troops as shown below and the Germans entered along the road marked with a black cross near the bottom of the map. One key thing to remember is that ALL off-road movement is considered to be slow going due to deep snow and the Germans have to reach the exit point by Turn 8 or turn 16 between the 2 games and in the previous game I had exited Table 1 at Turn 11 so I REALLY had only 5 turns to reach the exit point and stay on schedule.
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| Scenario 2 from Battlefront's Peipers Charge Scenario |
One little twist added to this game was that the Engineer platoon has the ability to blow a bridge. For every team adjacent to a bridge, they can roll a die and on a "6" the bridge is destroyed and can not be crossed. This only impacts if the Germans want to exit the map at Point "C". If they do so they will have an extra point of entry on the table for Game 3 and entry points have been an issue for the Germans.
Like here, as the US Roadblock platoon set up controlling the far side of the bridge in the South. There is a very small area for the Germans to enter the table. I had to clear that wire and minefield. Of all things I led with the Wirbelwinds, Grilles and Infantry dismounted to clear the wire and mines. Turn 1 I got real excited when the Wirbelwinds killed his MGs guarding the wire/mines and my Infantry cleared the wire on the first try!
However that was about the end of my successes. The mines proved resistant to my clearing attempts until turn 3 or 4.The Grilles, AA and one Infantry platoon died horribly to air strikes as every one was bunched up trying to get the mines cleared. The tanks and the other Infantry Platoon moved towards Stavelot where the Armored Rifle Platoon and AT guns were positioned. Here a slug fest began. Eventually the Germans were able to clear enough of the town were they could move out to the exit point but only after having lost the 2nd Infantry platoon and numerous tanks including King Tigers and mostly to Air Support.
Having had to travel cross country for most of the game cost me time wise. I didn't reach the Exit by Turn 5 which would have kept me on schedule overall. I didn't reach the Exit by turn 8 which would have won me this single game. It took me 16 turns to reach the Exit on just this table and I had lost everything except my Panthers and PzIVJs platoons! Now I am 11 turns behind the overall schedule and still have a full table to go and he gets tanks, lots of tanks, and Paras in Reserve in the next game.
After Game 3 Ranger Dane and I will give our overall impressions of the scenario so stay tuned! And I have pictures there, and cookies....well maybe not cookies
SonBae (AKA Jeff Flint) is a long time gamer and painter and runs a blog at Journey Back To The Table where he posts photos of his work, reviews, BatReps and the “Painting Miniatures Declassified” modeling and painting tutorials.
