RangerDane and I met up to play the final game of Peiper's Charge scenario for Flames of War. For those new to this report the previous games can be found in our reports for Game 1 and and our report for Game 2. It hasn't been easy on the Germans, but the scenario does exactly what any historical scenario should...it gives you a feel for the pressures those commanders must have been facing.
Quick refresher...The scenario can be played as a single 3 table game or as a series of 3 smaller one table games. I am entering Table 3 at Point B (Stoumont) at roughly Turn 27...11 turns behind schedules.
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| Massive scenario from Battlefront's Peipers Charge Scenario |
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| Scenario 2 from Battlefront's Peipers Charge Scenario |
The German forces continue with all surviving platoons from the previous game. All of these platoons start Game 3 at full strength. In Game 2 I lost everything except my armor. So I begin this game with:
Peiper in a Panther
Panther Plt (4 ea)
Panther Plt (4 ea)
PzIVJ Plt (4 ea)
PzIVJ Plt (4 ea)
The US forces are table specific and any surviving forces from Games 1 & 2 are ignored (in the single game/3 table version, these troops would be available for use). For this game the US have:
Starting on Board:
Engineer Combat Platoon
Rifle Platoon
Scrapyard Tank Platoon (with 2x M4 Shermans, 1x M24 Chaffee, 1x M36 90mm GMC, and 1x M10 3” GMC (late))
As Reserves:
Parachute Rifle Platoon
Parachute Rifle Platoon
Tank Platoon (3x M4A1 Sherman, 2x M4A1 76mm (late))
Tank Platoon (3x M4A1 Sherman, 2x M4A1 76mm (late))
And Priority Air Support (close Air Support and 5.5” HVAR rocket options)
As you can see this is going to be a hard slog for the Germans to reach the far table edge.
Table as close as we could get it to the Map above
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| US Starting Positions |
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| Engineers ready to blow the bridge |
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| And the Germans entering the outskirts of Stoumont |
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| US get a Tank Platoon in Reserve who come blasting on |
Argh. He got Reserves earlier than I wanted. Oh well....the plan is still good.
...Until that is I lose a PzIV platoon to some awesome shooting on RangerDane's part.
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| RangerDane is closing the gap quickly with great effect |
Now I need to focus on the tanks with the Panthers and my PzIVs go after the Infantry. The Infantry are key to my mobility as their 2in control bubble can cut into the road. This would force me off road and into slow going terrain as Deep Snow is in effect. They had to die.
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| Engineers blow the bridge as expected...good thing I didn't go to the South :-) |
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| I was just outside of the 16in bubble and RangerDane's Air pounced on a juicy target...PzIVs move around towards the Infantry |
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| US tanks close the gap and take up firing positions.
In an attempt to set up lines of fire on the Northern road, 2 Shermans bog entering the woods! RangerDane was also able to get his 3rd US Tank platoon to enter from Reserve
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Situation is really ugly.
My assault into the buildings with the PzIVs fails..barely..but to devastating results. RangeDane gets air again and pulls the Infantry back towards the woods letting the Flyboys do the bulk of the work here. At this point only Peiper is left operational.
Turn 5
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| Even Peiper has had enough bloodshed and calls for the retreat. |
Wrap up:
What a ride....That was rough, even without the imbalances that crept in from doing this as 3 separate games instead of the single multi table game discussed in the previous article.
I do have to say this captured the feel of the actual. Peiper just kept getting delayed and delayed and DELAYED and then had to retreat.
Wow...what a ride. Could I have done things differently...oh heck yeah. I was WAY too timid with the wire and minefields early on. The carnage of Game 2 I would do way differently. Having even a single Infantry Platoon and the Wirbelwinds would have helped immensely here.
RangerDane as always was a great opponent!
There are a bunch of historical scenarios on the Battlefront Website, or you could make your own and share it with the community. They can be a single table, single game or a full blown multi table mini campaign...whichever, they can be a lot of fun....so, go do something historical!
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.
