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Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's 
With Rich Baier
Saturday July 30 saw eight gamers (and 3-4 other visitors) play the “Peiper's Charge” scenario from the Bulge German book. The game was played at Legion's Hobbies, and most of the terrain provided for by the store's owner  Rob Pernell.  Andrew Hubert printed up some fuel dumps for our use, and all the figures were provided by various players. All three tables were modeled, but in the end we only needed two as the Germans were defeated before they could reach the last one.

The “damned engineers” repeated their heroics from the real battle! They held the German advance for five full turns, dooming the German advance. There were heroics on the German side, though, as the Fallschirmjagers withstood withering fire (hit 9 times by 9 shots with defensive fire and losing ONE team!) to set up the final assault by tanks. By turn 5, they were down to two teams but would not retreat from the field for several turns. Similarly, the US defenders were down to a single stand who also refused to run!.

By the time we finished playing 12 turns into the game, the Germans had barely crossed onto board two with two infantry platoons, the first of which was decimated by withering US MG fire and simply disappeared in a turn.

German losses were not high for their tankers with no full platoons lost. Two infantry platoons were destroyed. The US lost all the Lanzerath defenders and most of the rifles in Bullingen. The Shermans and M10s, after giving out some damage, were also lost. The battle was sealed as US engineers blew up two bridges at Trois Ponts.

This scenario proved very daunting for the Germans. All non-road vehicle movement is in difficult terrain so many vehicles refused to move more than once. The US players were skillful on defense and the combination of the two really hurt the German chances. In retrospect, perhaps an all-out assault on Lanzerath with the Fallshirmjagers and two other Panzergrenadier platoons may have had better luck in forcing the US defenders out. As it was, it just took too long to clear the village. Honestly, though, with infantry being the only units able to move without penalty, they would be hard pressed to move the twenty four feet needed to exit for even a minor victory.

We all had a great time with the game as it was a big change from our normal Friday night one-on-one games. Give it a try in your group!
~Rich

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's

Pittsburgh Peiper's