Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 79 German - Dec 24th 6pm Night - Mersch - disaster on the Alzette



Last map. 

In the far south the sound of German bombers approaching causes confusion? Can't be? But it is and 5 minutes later the 735th (I think it should be 737th) is missing an M4.

The 1-11th is hammered by artillery (and disrupted) then its assaulted by two VG Bn's of the352nd. The 1-11th loses 81 men in the assault and 115 men in total for the turn. One of the enemy Bn's is disrupted during the assault.

The 3-10th further south comes under fire (even though its already disrupted?) then its hit by an assault and retreats......south??? I couldn't work out what hexes he attacked from? Does that effect the retreat path? I doubt it? Anyway whatever it was  the WRONG WAY!

The 2-2nd (and the 3-10th now) are hit in a second assault (no idea what he used) and the result is catastrophic. I lose 663 men and he loses 43.
In total the 3-10th loses 361 men for the turn and the 2-2nd loses 355. Both units are disrupted but amazingly the 2-2nd has only a Fatigue of 16? (3-10th is Fatigue 140)

And that folks is how you lose over 800 men and why I can't see me getting anything but a Draw in this game. Stack to defend and you lose due to overstacking. Spread out and he werfers you one unit at a time. Plus because his frontage is far smaller than the historical Bulge he has plenty of reserves...in fact whole Divisions. Plus I suspect a large part of his armour is still intact.



Just for a change here is the 3D map.



And to finish off a map showing my artillery and HQ posiitons and my escape plan. The one good thing about the turn is that the road and the bridge are still open. If he had advanced in the north then this would have made it difficult to get any units out apart from the infantry which is ready to go on foot and ferry over. However I guess he doesn't realise I have a bridge. Remember it only took one turn to build!

So I stand a good chance of getting a few more units away.....providing of course they don't get hit with Night Disruption. 

I'm not sure what units I will sacrafice yet. I've saved the 818th TD and I'd like to pull out the 735th Tank Bn but I may need it to hold him back? I'm also thinking that I may use the HQ's as road blocks rather than get them to safety, as they will come back when killed. Will have a better look tomorrow night when I start moving things.

Lastly I was actually wodering IF the 9th Panzer were in fact there??? I thought that he was double bluffing me although Cesar and I usually pretty open about our moves in the game. However during the assault against the 1-11th I spotted a Recce unit which probably proves that the 9th is there. I guess he may be resting the 9th to prevent Night Fatigue because he is happy to use the VG to do most of the work? However the number of VG units disrupting is starting to rise. If they do not recover next turn (again) then he might be ready to use the 9th?