Skip to main content

Dec 16th 1944 Near the Our River

The weather is bleak wintry fog soup with a side of nasty.  US air is grounded and no one is expecting any movement.  Then the guns begin drumming from across the river and suddenly nightmare weather gives way to nightmarish numbers of German troops on a counterattack.

The US forces near the Our River just a day's march north east of Bastogne are overwhelmed as 8 infantry divisions and 5 armored divisions come pouring across the river.

Four brigades of artillery are dissected like dead frogs due to lack of infantry screens and the middle of the front collapses.  The 106th is quickly pushed to the river and only about half its strength makes it across.  The 14th Cav brigade that was acting as advance scouts is lost, presumed dead.

To the north near Eisenborn and Kalterharberg the 99th and 2nd infantry divisions begin a careful retreat hoping to hold on until the 5th and 7th Armor Divisions and 1st ID can arrive.

To the south the 28th ID is driven off the line but manages to maintain its strength if not its battle lines.  In the extreme south elements fall back to Ettlebruck as they begin to be separated from the rest of their Division.

A few garrison units move up to try and delay the German breakthrough but without more US reinforcements the future looks glum.

=====================================================================
My in-laws moved here back in like March of last year.  One of the plusses from their move is that we have been able to play board games regularly and in between semesters we've been able to get through quite a few.

Here is the game we are currently playing on Day 2, Mid-day, German Turn, US Barrage phase.  I'm about to respond feebly with my artillery(I am the US) after he has burst through the feeble defenses I start with.
The green lines are my basic planned defensive lines now after his break through.  If you click on the image and look closely you will see light green counters(US), grey counters(Germans) and black counters(SS).

The blue circles are the supply depots that I have and will be attempting to defend.  The Grey lines are my perception of his planned attack vectors.

He rolled quite well on his first turn and managed to wipe out entirely 4-5 of my artillery units before they fired a shot.  Additionally he overran several of my blocking infantry leaving the middle of the map wide open to exploitation.

I am pretty concerned because compared to the previous games we've played this one seems like a pretty bad position.

I have a TON of reinforcements coming though and I've been advised the German player is playing uphill in this setting.

Still.... that's a LOT of Germans with no-one to stop them.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Cat is Out of the Bag

I wonder where that expression comes from? There is this fabulous book that can tell you, only I forgot the name of it. Next time I come across it I think I'm going to have to buy it. Anyway. I was going to wait. A long time. Maybe forever. I don't like people coming up and hugging me, smiling and saying congratulations, or asking me questions. But Damm was talking to his recruiter about insurance. And he mentioned something that he should've told the recruiter was non-repeatable, because 5 minutes later the recruiter told Damm's mother (I have no earthly idea why he's talking to her-I keep forgetting to ask). After that I had to tell my mother. We haven't told any extended family members because there are quite a few here celebrating Damm's mother's graduation and that would be the worst form of torture I can imagine. So yeah, I'm knocked up again :P And this time I'm getting the t-shirt. "It" is due August 11. I have not been to a doc...

There be too much history.

For the past couple of weeks Damm and I have been faithfully spending an hour each day working on our respective summer projects-he on his writing and me on Spanish and history. I had previously mentioned wanting to create some sort of series that I’d work on throughout the summer. I did a bit of brainstorming and decided that I should write essays on bits of fun and fascinating history. Then I started thinking up topic ideas and realized that I didn’t have enough time to randomly pick subjects, research them, and then write entertainingly. So I decided to pick one area of focus. It came down to either Modern Russia or the Civil War Era, since these are the two history courses I’ll be taking in the fall. I chose the Civil War. And even then I have not narrowed my focus enough. The essays one could write on the American Civil War … the possibilities are endless. And so I’m in the process of redefining what I will write/research. I’m in the midst of gathering info for a...

Guildless.

Me and Wulfa are now guildless. This came as kinda a shock and with no communication from the deciding party. I'm currently looking for a guild for us. We are not "raiders" and will never be. We do research our gear and fights and in general our classes. We are looking for a guild that we can be a part of, chat with, and not be expected to raid or be on specific times. I think that means we're looking for a "social" guild. We are primarily alliance but once finances get squared away(aka my bonus arrives) we could possibly convert to horde. If anyone knows of any guilds that they would recommend please let us know.