Towards the latter part of Operation NORDWIND in the Alsace Province in eastern France, the Germans shifted their focus to the Rhine River. In response the inexperienced 12 Armored Division had tried to take the initiative against the German Bridgehead west of the Rhine near the towns of Herrlisheim and Offendorf. Despite initial successes, the American tankers lost a number of vehicles and men. These losses increased as the experienced SS-Panzer-Division 10 "Frundsberg" deployed into the area. The Germans sought to regain the initiative and reignite their campaign. The SS Troops looked to capture the town of Weyersheim before moving on to Strasbourg. Capturing this center would potentially crack the American Defense in the Alsace province, the approach to Weyersheim was a series of water obstacles, patches of woods and open spaces.
Attacker: German (SS) (Bataillon I, SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 21 and Batalillon I, SS-Panzer-Regiment 10, SS-Panzer-Division "Frundsberg")
Defender: American (A, B, and HQ Companies, 66th Armored Infantry Battalion, 12th Armored Division with C Company, 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:14.0 D:13.0
AFVs: A:8
PzKpfw VG x 2 PzKpfw IVJ x 2 SPW 251/2 SPW 251/1 x 2 SPW 251/9
AFVs: D:6
M4A3(76)W x 2 M4A3(75)W x 2 M8 HMC x 2
Guns: A:0 D:1
M1 81mm Mortar M2 60mm Mortar
Misc Rules:
GS (E3.72), Stream is dry (B20.41), All buildings are ground level, rowhouses do not exist.
Map Board(s):
16
72
Overlays:
O5
OW1
X18
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Germans have a ton of smoke in this one. A ton. Four rounds were shot to protect the infantry as they rushed forward. The 9-2 took it on the chin when he and his stack of boys came into sight of my mortar, but he was quick to bounce back. There's not much the Americans can do with their 6ML vs. 8ML except sit there and hope to remain concealed or hope for a rare -2 shot without smoke. The next turn saw the Germans reveal all my dummies and eliminate 1.5 American squads as they just bullied their way forward. They had yet to grab a building, but it was only a matter of time. Turn 3 saw the VBM sleeze fest begin as the Germans killed anouther 1.5 squads plus the 9-1. I managed to burn a HT with a BAZ which had snuck behind me, providing my quickly retreating infantry with at least a little cover. My tanks came on and positioned themselves to await the continued onslaught. By this time it was obviously apparent John would completely ignore the northern building so I ran half my troops down under cover of some mortar-provided WP to join the fight. Turn 4 saw yet another 1.5 American squads lost plus a tank, as I started to drive them into the front buildings to at least give my men some protective smoke when they were undoubtedly flamed up. But there's not much you can do against PB shots from this awesome batch of SS except hope for poor results. In fact I don't recall ever seeing a better-armed batallion than the one here. The last couple turns got to be a complete mess of counters amassed in the middle of the board, and it just degenerated into an even worse VBM sleeze fest than what it had been. It really was no fun for either of us. On the last turn the Germans had to oust me from three hexes to grab control of the last two big buildings. A DC knocked out one pile, massive FP another (except for a tough 8-0), but my fanatic squad in the middle held out. He would succumb in CC, leaving only my 8-0 in control. John had gotten a bit sloppy at the end in just trying to end this POS scenario as quickly as possible and had left a hex open in this last building when he advanced. When my 8-0 ambushed the Germans he was able to safely withdraw here and preserve the exceedingly hollow-feeling victory.
2023-01-23
(A) X von Marwitz
vs
Michael Koch
American win
In fact, this was the first game after a 1.5 year hiatus - the longest ASL-pause since I took up the game in the late '90s. I played the attacking SS which has an OoB with quite some punch. The game did not start off optimally for the Germans, as one of the PzIVs and the 75* SPW failed their SMOKE special ammo on the first roll - an asset that the Germans did sorely miss. Unfortunately, my 9-2 rolled Boxcars on his first MC, surviving wounded but being basically out of the game after taking several turns to recover. Being somewhat rusty after my hiatus, an early move with a PzIV (the one without Smoke) may have been somewhat daring and was immediately punished by being taken out by the HIP American M8.
These early setbacks took out some steam from the German attack. The Americans were quite adept at finding WP time and again, which made it difficult for the Germans to bring their firepower to bear and caused numerous MCs with SS-troops breaking and taking too long to come back. On the bright side, I was able to take out the US 81mm MTR and to eventually capture it. Alas, I broke it on my first shot turning it against a 9-1, 667+MMG combo which had stepped out into the open. Eventually, I was able to kill both M8s and to capture the outer multi-hex building, but within the village, progress was too slow. It took until Turn 4 for the German pressure on the Americans to mount significantly. The Panther with the Armor Leader malfed its MA, the evening was getting late so we called it a day agreeing that the US would have won this shoot-out had we played til the end.
Altogether a nice scenario, though.
2022-12-26
(A) Asad Rustum
vs
Jonas Björkqvist
German (SS) win
Great scenario with lots of action. By end of German turn 5 the Germans had control over the 5 multihex buildings and the four single-hex stone buildings making it impossible for the Americans to achieve a win.
2021-12-29
(D) Paolo Cariolato
vs
Federico Corso
American win
Great scenario, lot of choices for both players and tons of toys. The germans have the numbers and quality to win this one, but they are short on time and the 4th building will not fall so easily.
The first difficult choice for both players is to decide how many assets assign to the lone building on the north side,
Our game was decided on the last CC but unfortunately we discovered at game end that the american mortar exhausted its WP in our previous session, rula A.2 kicks in but it's always a pity to discover that your session built up on a mistake.
Great scenario with great replay value.
