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.

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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.

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...

So I won't forget ..

"I'm a little hunter short and cute. Here is my bow, Here is my boot. When I get all worked up then I shoot!" And I can't come up with the last line. Needs to rhyme with the little teacup song.

A tanking guide.

Here is the situation: Your guild has been busy all day long while your at work. You finally get home and log in and are informed that the GM(and main tank) is about to leave and you are now assigned tanking duty. You start to panic. You don't know what to do. And agro is already spiralling out of control. Ever been in that situation? I have. So I decided I would write a guide for this very situation. Step 1) Are the appropraite debuffs up? Step 2) Do you have the tools? Step 3) Are you practicing the fundamentals? Step 4) Are you prepared for the long haul? And Step 5) How to finish with a resounding silence. Are the appropriate debuffs up? You absolutely MUST have these debuffs up to start and you need to keep them up. There are only two of them and here they are in the order of priority: a) Clean Diaper. If Orclette's Diaper isn't clean you won't be able to contain the agro. I don't care how good your other fundamentals are. This is a MUST HAVE and should be chec...

Two, and three.

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