One Page Bulge

 Regular readers may recall that I was frustrated by apparently losing my original copy of Steve Jacksons 'One Page Bulge'. I tracked down a replacement copy on ebay, and having got it, I thought I may as well give it a play. The original will no doubt turn up now, presumably tucked inside an old copy of the AHGC General or something. 

This is all very familiar, although I last played this over 30 years ago. The map is a pretty decent representation of the battlefield, the Meuse is that long river running across the northwest corner. There is a well represented road net, one wrinkle being that mechanised units can only enter or leave the numerous areas of 'rough ground' via roads, coupled with the many rivers, it severely limits movement and combat options in some areas. The rivers aren't impassable but impose a significant movement penalty unless at a bridge. 

All set up for turn 1 (the turns are days) and pleasantly surprised to find all the counters are there. The seller had even provided a custom turn marker (which isn't provided in the base game, I used to use a coin) ! The Germans are a coiled fist ready to strike west, while the US has a rather gappy centre but Elsenborn Ridge in the north  and the south around Diekirch are strongly held. Sorry, it is hard to see the white Allied counters on the map. 

The units (regiment sized or equivalent) all have designated setup areas marked on the map, sadly they don't have individual unit IDs and are very generic indeed. All infantry have a combat strength of four, while the armour is a bit more varied. Mech infantry are four (Allied) or five (German) and armour is eight (Allied) or nine (German) and the Germans have two 10 factor units which apparently represent 1st and 12th SS Panzer Regiments. The Allied units are all significantly more mobile, representing their greater provision of transport and fuel. The Allied infantry are faster than the panzer units!

One of the reasons for the generic units is the reinforcement track, there are more Allied reinforcements than counters, so you are supposed to use counters from the dead pile. It is a play balance mechanism, as if the Germans haven't destroyed enough units, the Allies wont get extra reinforcements. Clever.

The CRT is quite eccentric. Terrain gives minuses to the dice (towns and rough ground -2, rivers -1), which is a very powerful effect, far more so than column shifts or doubling, although 7:1 odds is an automatic victory. Combat is mandatory unless across a river or out of a town, and while units can soak off, entire stacks must be attacked, so it encourages stacking rather than distribution. The CRT also includes 'no effect' results, and if a unit is unable to retreat due to ZOC, the attack is re-rolled with DR treated as DE, while exchanges are on a unit not CF basis. These sorts of things all favour the defender and make attacking quite frustrating.

After turn 1, 5th Panzer Army has gained a foothold over the river in the centre, 7th Army has locked down the south but is too weak for major offensive action but 6th SS Panzer Army have had great success and largely cleared Elsenborn Ridge and Camp Elsenborn. St Vith held out though as the Germans couldnt bring enough force to bear. 

The Allies get 1-6 Air power points power turn (representing variability in the weather), and even just one point can be enough to shift the odds of an attack down as it is applied after the Germans declare their attack. It was air which saved St Vith.

I'm not being overly precious about min maxing the SP of the various attacks, as far as possible I'm stacking up units in divisions and fighting with those, although I am more careful with the allocation of regiments in contact to specific combats. The road net and terrain preclude fancy manouvering anyway.

The red counter behind Elsenborn is the US blowing up a fuel dump. The victory conditions are harsh and require large German forces to cross the Meuse for even a marginal victory, and my recollection is that is almost impossible to achieve. One optional rule is to use various supply depots marked on the map. These are worth varying amounts of VPs and may be captured outright, blown up or evacuated. The Germans get half VP for demolished ones but none for evacuated ones, although it is very hard to evacuate larger dumps due to the time (measured in movement points) required. 

Behind the demolished dump is a large fuel depot northwest of Malmedy, if the Germans capture it intact, it will give them a movement bonus. It is worth 10VP and would require US units to spend 10 MP to demolish it (or 30 MP to evacuate it).

Day 2. St Vith falls and 2nd Panzer Div makes good progress towards Bastogne. 7th Army grinds slowly forward, reinforced with 15th (?) Panzergrenadier Division. In the far north the US dont quite have enough units to demolish the 1st Army fuel depot, and instead the survivors from St Vith focus on shutting down the road routes west as it really isn't far to Liege from there.

In the centre, the US defence has now become a screen to impede German road movement, but it has taken the Germans too long to get across the rivers, and US reinforcements are well on the way to Bastogne now.

A big turn for the Germans in the north and centre. Volksgrenadiers capture the 1st Army fuel depot giving the Germans a short lived move bonus. 1st and 12th SS Panzer are halted at Trois Ponts and Vielsalm however, the US defences were just strong enough to hold them as the German infantry is lagging behind.

Panzer Lehr pushes back 9th Armored Div in front of Bastogne and 2nd Panzer starts to bypass from the north, also pushing back an armoured Combat Command. 5th Panzer Army isnt going to get to Bastogne first though.

Two more panzer divisions arrive from reserve (I guess these are 9th and 10th SS?), I assign one to each panzer army.

The US decide it is time to cut and run rather than fighting in the open. Bastogne is strongly garrisoned while units in the south fall back to key road junctions. Other units fall back behind the river northwest of Bastogne, blowing fuel dumps as they go.

The real US problem is in the north where they are very thin on the ground, however in the nick of time a fresh infantry division (3 x 4-7 units) arrives and added to the remaining US mechanised units, locks down the roads through the rough ground west of Trois Ponts.

The Germans have two potential road routes to the northwest though, both north of Bastogne. The Germans have to stay within three hexes of a road to remain supplied, so the road net is crucial.

Another important turn. 7th Army continues to grind forward slowly in the south. 6th SS Panzer Army makes contact in the north but isn't strong enough to do more than push one US stack back. They are now thoroughly enmeshed in the horrible terrain up here. It may look there is a big gap opened up, but until the SS can clear the road junction in front of them, they cant move through the rough ground to exploit it.

In the centre, 2nd Panzer suffers a catastrophic defeat as it attempts a river assault. US airpower intervenes to dropthe odds to 1:1, and they they roll a 1. Attacker Eliminated! Ouch! Panzer Lehr doesnt like the look of Bastogne at all and bypasses to the north but naturally the rivers and lack of roads make this a slow job, although the fuel captured by 6th SS helps.

Fortunately 9th and 10th SS Panzer are now arriving at the front to bolster the attack.

German losses mount. So far I've managed to mainly take exchanges from German infantry who have kept up due to the generally slow progress. Most German infantry divisions only have two units, so that is four divsions gone. The tank casualties are from 2nd Panzer.

The Germans are  largely ignoring Bastogne now, instead focussing on setting up 7th Army to screen the south. This in turn allows the US to route reinforcements up to the centre, using their superior mobility and access to the roadnet.

In the centre and north however, the Germans score some successes now their infantry and the two extra panzer divisions have caught up. Panzer Lehr and 9th SS push forward in the centre, while 1st and 12th SS score big tactical victories in the north with (unplanned) 7:1 attacks which annihilate the US defenders and finally open up a route out of the awful terrain.

Large US reinforcements arrive from the north,  they don't have any option but to defend Liege (with a 20VP main supply dump!) and to attempt to limit progress down the roadnet by holding key junctions. There  is a big gap in the US line south of the Meuse, but fortunately no roads through it.

1st SS Panzer Div reaches the Meuse! They push the US defenders across it. The rest of 6th SS Panzer Army is struggled forwards, but they've even managed to keep two infantry divisions with them.

5th Panzer Army thinks about going for Celles and Dinant, but there are just enough US and British forces in the way to make that unattractive. They instead focus on moving parallel to 6th SS PA, and mass armour and infantry ready to advance northwest. The US focus on screening the route west as it will take two turns for 5th PA to reach the Meuse going north.

US forces cluster around Liege to limit the extent of any river crossings.

1st and 10th SS bludgeon their way across the Meuse, but 12th SS is repulsed from Liege.

Panzer Lehr and 9th SS approach the Meuse but strong Allied forces deny an easy crossing to the north west. The Germans start to worry about their ever extending southern flank as more US infantry arrive from the south, allowing US armor to concentrate.

5th Panzer Army closes on the Meuse but fails to cross. However a massed assault sees Liege fall to 6th SS Panzer Army, but not before the depot is demolished. All the available panzergrenadier regiments are assigned to support 7th Army protecting the southern flank, and a final panzer division (9th? 116th?) has been released too.

US and British armour is now advancing east along the northern bank of the Meuse to limit the size of the German bridgehead,

Allied counterattcks north of the Meuse push the Germans back but don't inflict many significant losses. The German front is looking quite solid, and has two supply routes leading back to Germany.

In the south more Allied armour concentrates around Bastogne. The German lines look quite sketchy here. The two critical points are the towns north of the 5-6 panzergrenadiers as they control 5th Panzer Army's supply route.

The Allied counter offensive breaks the German line north of Bastogne. The writing is on the wall as unless the Germans can get a blocking force in the way, the Allied armour can cut off the entire German armoured spearhead in one move  now.

The Allies counterattack north of the Meuse and compress the German bridgehead but again fail to inflict decisive losses.

And with the Germans firmly established around Liege, the game ends on 26th December. Even without the VP for the blown or captured fuel dumps, it is a decent German win, although with Allied armour pushing up from the south, it is likely to be quite short lived!

Well, I think that is the first time I've seen quite so much German armour over the Meuse, my memory is more of the Germans beating their heads against huge Allied stacks sitting in bad terrain. I'm probably a bit rusty on running the defence, but the Germans maintained a high enough rate of attrition that it was very difficult for the Allies to accumulate enough reserves for local force superiority. They barely had enough to maintain a line, and were constantly playing reactively, although the US could probably have been a bit more aggressive in the south once the main panzer spearheads had passed.

Anyway, that was a lot of a fun and I'm glad I played that again. It is a lot of game in a small space and manages to capture the essence of the campaign in a playable format. I'd originally intended to play it over an afternoon and a morning, but in the end it only took three hours including setup, so I got it down in one session. I'm not minded to try it again immediately, but I may revisit it at some point. It has got me thinking about playing some of my other old boardgames though, probably not Third Reich, but I do have some other fairly accessible games.

Tigers at Minsk - Neuville au Plein

 Time to crack on with Tigers at Minsk and the US para scenarios from Fireball Forward. This time it is Neuville-en-Plein on 7th June 1944. I first came across this engagement in Practical Wargaming in the late 1980s as it was included with Andy Graingers lengthy article on his 'Bocage Battle' rules. I ran it some years ago (umm, maybe 25 years ago....) with Johns As 'Platoon Commanders War' as it is an interesting battle.

Battlefield from the west. St Mere Eglise is off to the right, otherwise it is typical bocage type terrain. Lots of hedgerows, small lanes and a small orchard near the 'church' - actually a two story building but I used a church to represent it. The two story building can see over the small hedge next to the orchard, but otherwise all the other hedgerows block LOS, regardless of elevation.  The FF scenario uses a 4x4 table, so I did this using 7x8 hexes for a bit more elbow room. It made it easier to represent the lines of the hedges, which are tactically important.

There are three building hexes, the Germans win if they capture two and get either one SP gun or a complete rifle platoon off the southern edge or if they take all three. The offroad going is poor, vehicles have to take a mobility test if they cross a hedgerow or per hex moved cross country.

The mighty US defence force! A platoon of US Paras under Lt Turnbull from 506 PIR iirc, supported by a 57mm AT gun and an MG team. These guys are all veteran and have high firepower (so 3D6 per squad), each squad also has gammon bombs and they have a bazooka availability number of 4. They start dug in and their force breakpoint is three.

And marching down the road from the north, an entire Grenadier company from 91st Airlanding Div, supported by a platoon of tank destroyers!

Three rifle platoons of three sections each, plus the company SFMG42 section and 81mm (kurz) section. The TDs are a Stug and two Marders, although in Andys original scenario they were a platoon of four French tanks. I'll go with the FF scenario for now.

These guys are all average, so force morale breakpoint of seven. Each TD and the 81mm mortars have a single round of smoke.

The original scenario is 7 turns, which becomes 14 turns for TaM or a whopping 98 minutes on the game clock.

With all the blocking terrain and only a rifle platoon, the defence is quite dispersed! One squad and the MG in the church, another squad behind the hedge in the top covering the big field and the third tucked away bottom right to cover the field and also the covered route along that flanking hedge below the churcb. The 57mm is dug in at the crossroads and can shoot down all the roads to interdict sneaky SP gun infiltration. 

In the real engagement the Germans came marching down the road in a column, until the US sprayed them with MG fire. The scenario setup lets the US deploy the lead German platoon on the road to simulate the ambush, so I put them in a big clump two hexes down the road right in the LOF of the MG. Andy Graingers scenario had a similar setup. 

I left a hex behind them as the assault guns have to enter on the road on turn one and I wanted to leave room for them so they could be ambushed too! 

The US take the first turn and spray the Germans in the road with the MG and Squad. Both fire with 5D6(!) due to the bunched target. The 57 hasn't got any other targets either so opens up, even the lousy 57mm HE gets 3D6 due to bunching. 

Every single German squad is pinned and they are lucky to get away without anyone routing. That has evened the odds a bit. 

Historically, the Germans recovered quickly from the surprise of the ambush, these guys are from a regular division, not static troops. They fanned out either side of the road taking advantage of the extensive cover and that is what they are doing here.

I'm never quite sure what to do with blocking terrain in TaM, in this case I allowed the units to move two hexes 'behind' the hedgerow, they would only be exposed if they actually 'moved up' to the hedgerow. That may be overly generous. Three squads and the company weapons platoon head left to line up along this handy hedge. Someone must have been exposed as the casualty shows one squad being gunned down despite the hedgerow cover benefit. I'd planned to put the mortar spotter in the hedge and sent a squad to absorb any pins, and he obviously got hammered. 

The real disaster is on the road as the SP guns roll on and the 57mm proceeds to make its ROF roll and opp fires every single one! Both Marders are destroyed but the 57 misses the Stug. Combined with the lost squad, that is three German morale chips already gone. After all that, the 57 hasn't even got an opp fire marker! The odds of that happening are 1:8 but even so, it seems quite devastating. I might have a think about that, maybe limit MGs and AT guns to a maximum of two opp fire shots?

Otherwise, two German squads move on going right, one into the open field and one in the hex with the knocked out SP guns. I keep a reserve of one squad.

The ambushed platoon self rallies, with two squads recovering. Not a bad result.

The US open up on the ambushed platoon and proceeed to re-pin all the rallied squads! Well at least they are absorbing the US fire. The 57 opens fire and knocks out the Stug as well, and that is the end of the German armour. The Germans lay down covering fire and manage to pin both the squad and MG in the church. On the other flank, one squad and the MG42 lay down suppressive fire, then the 81mms drop smoke in front of the US position, blinding them. Two squads hop over the hedge and advance 2 hexes as they are screened by hedges or the smoke - all very professional!

The ambushed Grenadier platoon self rallies again, recovering another couple of hits.

The US relocate their left hand squad back towards the buildings (you can see it moving in the bottom right). In the church the US rally the MG but the pinned rifle squad keeps firing at the ambushed Germans, along with the 57mm who hasn't got any other worthwhile targets.

Between them they inflict enough hits to rout one German squad and pin the other two.

Over in the field, the leading German squads hop into the smoke, and the MG/rifle group advance up the left flank behind them. The Germans in the smoke are now spotted, the US squad fires at them but misses due to the smoke cover.

Sadly for the Germans, the combined fire of the church garrison and the 57 wipes out the ambushed platoon on the road. I should have moved them out of the way instead of sitting there trying to rally (I forgot pinned squads can retreat).

This tips the German morale over the edge, and there are a series of cascading morale failures as some Germans on the baseline leave the table, causing further morale checks.

When the smoke clears, the German attack in the centre has completely collapsed and on the left the German have retreated to the hedgerow. 

And there we are at the end, the Germans haven't a hope of winning now, and I call it with 18 minutes on the clock, out of a potential 98!

Well, the was a resounding success for the US and an utter catastrophe for the Germans. tbh I played the Germans really badly, I wasn't very focussed and kept muddling up in my head how the terrain worked.

Really I need to run that again, and this time I'll keep it simple - I got in a real muddle with hedgerows, LOS and cover so I need to re-read the rules carefully. I also need to get the Germans in the road out of harms way instead of leaving them to be mullered. Even just spreading them out into one squad per hex would reduce their vulnerability. Lastly, I'll stick with the opp fire rules as written, but next time I've got a rather better idea where I need to drop some smoke. Basically I was rushing, when the Germans have time for a more measured deployment.

Right, lets try again. Same US setup as before, but this time I'd actually read the rules on hedges, bocage, LOS and cover. The thing I'd missed is that unlike Squad Leader, hedges etc are IN the hex not along it, but only provide cover if the line of fire crosses the obstacle. That makes it much easier to adjudicate, even if it generates some apparently odd looking situations. In-hex terrain is more like the way PBI treats terrain items.

Quite an interesting first turn! The leading German platoon was duly ambushed on the road, but this time got away with just two pinned squads, despite being in the open - they don't benefit from the hedge around the churchyard as that is 'in' the hex in front of the church.

One of the the squads moved forward into the orchard, a second rallied in place and third tried to move south to reduce stacking but was gunned down by opportunity fire from the US .30 cal. The MG failed its ROF roll which let more German squads march on with relative impunity.

The decisive move was the SP gun platoon, which motored on in road column as directed by the scenario and was shot up by the 57mm. The leading Marder burst into flames, which handily put smoke in the hex, the Stug was hit but no effect and the last Marder was hit but just stunned and on the last shot the 57mm failed is ROF roll so was marked with an opp fire marker and unable to fire in the US turn. 

The burning Marder provided cover on the road for a German rifle squad and the mortar spotter... the stunned Marder managed to rally so the Germans had two operational SP guns in smoke cover. Lucky, lucky Germans.

The US fired at what they could, but the 57mm had to spend a turn removing its opp fire marker. This allowed the Germans to drop 81mm smoke on the road in front of the gun, while the Stug and Marder brassed up the church with HE, combined with every German squad in range.

There was a bit of German dithering (the green marker on the rifle/HMG squad mid left) but the barrage of fire was devastating. I'm using the old Command Decision 2 convention of rolling to hit for HE, and if it does hit, ignores cover modifiers (unless they are well made trenches, bunkers etc). Both the SP guns got direct hits, and coupled with the supporting small arms fire, eliminate the US squad in the church and pinned the .30 cal. 

On the other flank the Germans began to spread out along the hedge. 

Rather than wait to be close assaulted by the nearby infantry, the pinned .30 cal retreated across the fields back to the hedge south of the village. The US squad in the north rolled boxcars and eliminated a German squad behind the hedge.

The Germans had used their 81mm smoke up so switched to HE and mortared the squad in the north to no effect. More German infantry lined up to deploy along the hedgerow and both assault guns made their bogging rolls to cross the bocage hedgerow into the field, worried that the smoke would clear and they would be exposed to the AT gun on the road.

Otherwise the Germans in the centre rushed forward to occupy the church and surrounding area. They got quite lucky with their activation rolls and only one hex dithered. The large and dispersed German force is prone to having hexes fail to activate as the lone command element can't be everywhere. 

The .30 cal made it back to the hedge line, while the supporting squad to the south managed to pin the first Germans who had occupied the church. The US are very dispersed but in the original scenario they have an extra unit activation chit to represent Lt Turnbulls outstanding leadership. In this game the US get the usual leader activation, but they can make (one) double roll for activation for the hexes out of leader range, so generally the US will get to activate proportionately more stuff.

The Germans basically either rallied or moved up. The MG42 section made it to the church. The squad southwest of the church is actually out of sight of the Germans as the hedge is 'in' the road hex in front of it. One of those oddities from using in-hex terrain, but now I've got my head around the idea, that is OK.

In the north the weight of German support fire manages to pin the US squad behind the hedge, but not before they pinned a German squad. The mortars keep shelling and the smoke from the burning Marder still hangs around.

A bit of a stalemate in the south, both sides have got virtual firepower parity as the US squads are more effective - 6D6 vs 7D6 and everyone is in cover, and the firefight putters on indecisively. If that bunch of Germans jumps the hedge, they will just be gunned down. The smoke in front of the 57 clears though, so the road is now once more interdicted by gunfire, and it can fire across the field too.

In the north though, the SP guns manage to eliminate the US squad defending the hedge. This is a cue for the German infantry to advance, and being out of sight in open terrain, that is a scary two hexes per turn. The mortar team and spotter move over the hedge into the smoke. The last German squad was pinned in the open and moved behind the hedge to have a better chance to rally next turn. 

The next turn, the German infantry storm the hedge line! Sadly their supports are rather stuck. The third squad fails to rally, the Stug bogs in the field and the Marder only manages one hex move before bogging as well. The scenario specifies that all off road movement is difficult, not sure why (boggy ground maybe?) but it is quite entertaining. Luckily for the mortar team, the smoke persists, and they use it as cover to start mortaring the 57mm.

Things hot up in the south. Perhaps unwisely the Germans vault the hedge after the US squad is pinned and one squad is promptly gunned down by the .30 cal which then runs out of ammunition! The 57 took a pot shot at the German squad behind the hedge to the north, but had to pivot and missed. The German mortars missed it though.

Things got even hotter. A blazing storm of fire from the church garrison knocked out the US rifle squad as it moved towards the village. The Germans rolled so hot the MG42 ran out of ammunition too!

The US had reached their breakpoint, and sadly it was in the middle of a number of units relocating, so when the cascading set of morale failures had been resolved , all that was left was the 57mm gun, now sitting on the road at the far side.

The Germans hustled to follow up, but a number of units were immobilised by dithering. The German main effort was in the north, although the SP guns were still very wary of the AT gun.

In the south the Germans did manage to get a couple of squads moving, and one promptly ran into a minefield (the red counter) and was pinned. That was a random event, this game was long enough that I had a few of those.

Now, I probably shouldn't have done this, but I allowed the 57mm to limber up and move into the buildings. I'm not keen on the prohibition of vehicles in building hexes as these are big hexes. Maybe a bog roll to enter might be appropriate? The Germans need to capture all three buildings or capture two and get an SP gun or three squads off.

Once again the Germans put their command effort in the north with a platoon and the Marder concentrating in the field to the north. The Stug made it over the hedge onto the road, but otherwise there was an awful lot of dithering. The squad in the minefield managed to rally, but was still in the minefield. One German squad made it into the village however.

The US had time to unlimber in the last building, and the Germans then struggled to bring enough force to bear to dislodge them. The force in the north reinforced the foothold in the village as covering fire pinned the 57s. The mortar team and a squad marched down the road, but the Stug refused to move. Perhaps it was scared of the AT gun? Similarly the guys in the minefield refused to budge, which seems entirely sensible.

The only bright spark was that the Germans managed to pin the 57mm.

The 57 rallied, the German pinned it again and launched a close assault from the neighbouring buildings. The assault was repulsed! (neither side scored any hits). More German units moved into position but once again the Stug didn't move. Perhaps it has broken down?

The 57mm rallied again and the Germans tried again, this time they'd got the mortar spotter in position and the weight of support fire once again pinned the 57mm.

This time the Germans assaulted with two squads from the buildings west of the gun. 

And on this occasion they were successful and the 57mm guns were overrun. Silver Stars to the heroic gun crews.

And with 92 minutes on the clock, the Germans have occupied all three buildings for a win. The Stug once more refused to move so they aren't in a position to move any SP guns off before the game almost inevitably ends at 98 minutes.

In real life Turnbulls platoon blunted the German attack before being forced to retire, but the Germans were forced to postpone the main attack on St Mere Eglise  until the following day (which we gamed recently using One Hour WW2). Turnbull himself was killed by a mortar bomb the following day. 

Well, that was really good fun and a close run thing, despite the Germans early good fortune  they had to work hard to achieve a win and it came down to the wire in the end. Despite the disparity in numbers, that is actually a very balanced scenario and I think this time I played it better than my  first run where I was a bit distracted. 

Having more units evened out some of the randomness, but there was still plenty of friction, which I feel is appropriate for tactical combat, and the game generated plenty of exciting moments. Despite my earlier thoughts, I'll leave the opportunity fire rules alone for now, they work well enough, and it is right and proper that armour should avoid bunching in the face of AT guns. 

Right, that is it for Normandy, the US Paras are off to somewhere a bit sunnier next.

Foy-Notre-Dame 25th December 1944

As Noddy Holder would say, "It's Christmaaaas!", and what could be more festive than a trip to the Battle of the Bulge 81 years ago almost to the day.

Tim put on another one of his occasional 54mm outings to the Ardennes using his 'Funny Little World Wars' rules. This one covered the high water mark of 2nd Panzer Division, as KG von Boehm was counterattacked by US and British forces at Foy-Notre-Dame on Christmas Day, 1944. The scenario is based on a Rapid Fire one, rather than Command Decision which we normally use. 

Vague overview of the battlefield from the northwest. The Meuse is off to the right of the picture and Foy is where the church is centre left. There is quite a lot going on in this engagement and a lot of players, so we relied on maps and a 'roving camera' so apologies if some/many of the photos are a bit shoddy.

Jim and I were cast as the Germans, I was Major von Boehm himself! 2nd Panzer was known as the 'Vienna' division so presumably we were mainly Austrians. Our job was to hold Foy for a win, or failing that, withdraw at least five vehicles and two companies (ten figures) for a draw.

John, Terry, Simon, Mark and Jerry were the various allies, which were from memory from 26th Armoured Brigade and US 2nd(?) Armored Division. It is a long time since I played the 'Turning Point Celles' Panzer Leader Scenario, so hard to remember!

KG von Boehm was essentially the 2nd Panzer Div recce battalion reinforced with a company of Panthers but minus its tracked armoured car company. So we had an amoured car company, armoured recce infantry company, armoured infantry company, heavy company (with AT and Flak platoons) and a company of Panthers.

Our dispositions were sketched on the map above, North is right and the enemy are coming on down those four roads. I put a Pak 40 platoon and the recce company covering the western road in and around the crossroads at Boiselles with the Flak halftracks on the hill behind. In Foy itself is the Panzergrenadier company reinforced with a platoon of Panzerschrecks and the battalion medic. The PGR are in the church and the AT platoon in a building across the way supported by an MG platoon. The southern edge of the big triangular wood is mined, as that is an obvious jumping off point. The Panthers start on the hill at the bottom, they are very short of fuel and can only move a couple of feet in total during the game. Each square is 1 foot square.

In reserve was the armoured car company in the those woods to the southeast, along with KG HQ. We didn't have any artillery support.

Various US Recon units came piling on from the north, here a mixed recce troop with M8 Greyhounds, Jeeps and an M3 GMC standing in for an M8 Scott. These came down the northwest road and turned east. These are all generally 1/48th scale models.

Another recon troop came on from the northeast and for some odd reason decided to stop right under the guns of the Panthers! A bit of command indecision there.

Jim was commanding the Foy garrison and the Panthers and would have to deal with this lot on his own. By great good fortune the Puma platoon in my armoured car company was just in range of the leading M8 and let fly, scoring a hit!

I had other things to worry about at Boiselles as a British armoured squadron came piling down the road from the southwest. A Solido Sherman leads the way, with a resin 3D printed Firefly behind.

Fortunately the British armour was as gung ho as ever and had blundered into Panzerfaust range of the infantry dug in on the ridge covering the road. Here is a heroic panzerfaust operator hoping for another tank destruction badge.

In fairness to the British, it is very hard to estimate distances when giving orders over the 'roving camera' view. At point blank range the PFs knocked some lumps off the leading Sherman. Each model represents around 10 real vehicles, so they can take two hits.

This was followed up by the Pak 40 platoon firing straight down the road and demolishing the lead Sherman! This rather discombobulated the British, and the Fireflies reversed back up the road firing as they went to take up cover in the treeline.

I didn't take a continuous series of photos as the camera was jumping all over the place. Tim was using a 6x5 table and had to run around a lot, carrying his iPad to show us the proceedings.

One of the US Recon troops enters Foy from the northwest, still out of range of the infantry lurking in the buildings.

They are accompanied by a company of M5 Stuarts, and a British motor rifle company in halftracks and carriers supported by another Sherman. Quite a considerable force here!

Back at Mahene Farm hill, a combination of fire from the Puma and Panthers had managed to knock out the M3 GMCs, the damaged M8s headed into the village but the Jeep recce crews bravely dismounted and engaged the Panthers with bazookas! This was ineffective although it did suppress one Panther. The Panthers machinegunned the US infantry ineffectually. 

Simons British cautiously deployed in the woods northwest of Foy. The Sherman has backed up after being engaged by Panzerschrecks, while the infantry have debussed from their halftracks. 

Back at Boiselles, more British armour came piling down the road covered by the Firefles. This time a recce troop of Stuarts was in the lead.

HQ and armoured car company parked up in the woods. There didn't seem to be any great need to move them and this would be four of the five vehicles needed for a draw if we had to pull out.

I did move the Flak platoon across to Foy though. I was worried that the great mass of British armour coming from the west would knock it out and it couldn't really do anything against the Shermans. The US Recon HQ came on and  heard worrying talk about radioing for air support, so I thought it would be better providing Flak cover for the Panthers.

The US Recon units pushed into Foy, and predictably were massacred. A combination of Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks destroyed the leading armoured cars and the German MGs destroyed the Jeep mounted recce platoons. That British Sherman is looking a bit lonely as its infantry are miles back right now. The Sdkfz 251 is parked up behind the church and out of sight.

Back at Boiselles the British came on in the same old way and were destroyed in the same old way. The leading Stuarts went up in flames and the Pak 40 knocked out some of the following Shermans. The gunners luck ran out though as the surviving tanks got the range of the building they were sheltering in and blew it to pieces, knocking the guns out.

Back in Foy the British infantry push through the woods, while the Shermans and M3 GMCs hover nearby. You can see the wrecked Jeeps in the road. What you cant see off screen to the left is that the leading M5 Stuart from the US Light Tank company has just run into the minefields opposite the church!

View from the northeast. You can just see the Stuarts sneaking down the edge of the trees, the minefield is at the bottom (left edge). The Panthers seem to have cleared away all the immediate opposition, and the SP Flak platoon has just made it onto the ridge south of them.

We broke for the night at that point, and everything to play for tomorrow!

When we resumed on Wednesday there was much excitement as the US commanders radio finally started working and some P38s turned up to bomb 'Panther Hill'.

Despite the best efforts of the Flak platoon, one of the Panther platoons was knocked out.

Meanwhile back in Foy, the US M5s wisely pulled back out of the minefields while the GMCs shelled the church. The British motor rifle troops advanced on the small building while the Sherman shelled it. German losses suddenly began to mount.

Back at Boiselles the British were content to sit back and shell the recce company with their remaining tanks, having knocked out the AT gun. Rather than sit there as a static target taking losses, my guys packed up and ran for the reverse slope.

The British lost no time in following up, with their artillery observer riding the  back of the lead tank(!). Things suddenly are looking quite bad here, as the British could just hang back out of panzerfaust range. I moved the Puma in the wood to cover the road, it took a shot at the lead tank and missed. 

In Foy the British infantry took heavy losses from the panzergreandiers in the church, but the house had gone strangely quiet. While this was going on, another entire British armoured squadron came motoring on along the north road! Suddenly the force ratios were looking very unfavourable, and it was time to activate our alternate victory conditions - exit at least five vehicles and ten figures from the southeast corner, but only after turn 8. This was getting problematic as we'd already lost the AT gun, panzerschreck and MG platoons, and now the rifle companies were taking hits and they only started with six figures each.

The last Panther was expendable, it hardly had any fuel anyway, and it was still covering the the church and the alternate road from the southwest into Foy. I left the Flak platoon there too as more aircraft engines could be heard. The US M5s had rather unwisely pushed into the wood east of the minefields and naturally come into LOS of the Panther. BOOM! scratch a couple of platoons of M5s.

Faced with the torrent of British armour, I didn't think the two armoured cars stood much chance, so they evacuated, along with the redundant Pak 40 tow and Kubelwagen. That was four vehicles off anyway. The recce rifle company mounted up into its halftrack and headed for home (five figures) as did KG HQ. They are both lurking in the wood now, hiding from the marauding British tanks, which fortunately took a left in Boiselles and are heading for Foy.

The surviving British infantry stormed the house to find all the occupants dead or wounded. This company was fought out now, but the Allies switched their shelling to the church.

The leading tank of Johns southern column approaches the outskirts of Foy, still with the observer on the back! The PGR in the church were down to four figures now, so they too dashed for their idling halftrack and piled in the back behind the church.

The last Panther scored again and knocked out the leading British tank platoon on the road! It also destroyed the observers radio, although he survived. You can see the rest of the British column coming through Boiselles. 

The Panthers success was short lived however, as C Squadron roared down the northern road and emerged from behind the woods to take it in the flank. 

Just in time for another airstrike to turn up. It easily dodged the Flak and scattered bombs all over the area. Danger close! The last Panther went up in smoke, as did the Fireflies in C Squadron! The north east end of the battlefield was carnage with wrecked vehicles and wounded US recon troops scattered over the area.

The Flak platoon didn't have anything else to do so the were ordered to withdraw. Here are the last of HQ company, recce company and the Flak platoon with their activation cards about to leave the table.

British armour pouring into Foy. The leading Sherman took a shot at the PGR halftrack in the town.

Some of the halftracks were hit, but enough were left to carry the survivors to safety. Four figures evacuated, so the 2nd Panzer recce battalion lives to fight another day. In the end we just scraped a winning draw by holding Foy until turn 8 and then evacuating four figures from the PGR company, five from the recce company and two in the KG HQ along with eight vehicles. 

The Allies captured Foy but suffered hideous vehicle losses in the process, seven platoons of Shermans, four platoons of M5s, four platoons of M8s, two platoons of GMCs and many Jeeps whereas we just lost the two Panther platoons along with the Pak 40s and MG platoon. 

As the camera was giving a very 'worms eye' view of proceedings I kept track of where all the units were on my sketch map. There are arrows going all over the place.

That was a great game, very frantic with intense action from the off. Tims flying camera was a very different approach to my own, and even harder work to run, but gave very atmospheric partial views of the battlefield which are probably a lot more realistic than the static eagle eyed view I use. The rules are pretty mature now and we are (mostly) fairly familiar with how they work, I should probably use the card activation more in my own as they are a great way to manage semi-simultaneous movement.

The swing in the tide was quite remarkable, one minute we were blowing the Allies up left, right and centre and the next they were all over us and we only just escaped by the skin of our teeth. Great game, looking forward to the next one.