German Turn 1 – Here Comes the Panzer Attack

The game starts at the beginning of the combat phase of the first German turn. As they are on the strategic offensive, the Germans have access to a re-roll marker for the first half of the game, allowing them to force any one die to be rolled again every turn. They will have this advantage until the marker gets handed over to the Allied player at the half-way point. So they can deploy this ability to their best advantage, the Germans therefore choose to open with their most important combat and work their way down the list of priorities.

On Turn 1, that combat is right in the centre of operations: Marnach, the gateway to Bastogne. This combat is a river crossing, so -1 to the attacking side. However, this is offset by the fact the Germans have the elite 2^nd Panzer division leading the attack, granting a +1 as their quality is superior to the defending 110^th Regiment of the 28^th US Infantry. The space also grants a defence modifier of +1 to the US, as marked by the brown square in the space (grey hexagons grant a maximum of +2, black triangles +3, but note you need a strength point per possible bonus to take advantage of this).

This being an important fight, however, the Germans have come prepared. They have played an Artillery card to gain +1 for having more of such cards assigned to the combat, and an Engineers card for a further +1 by comparing its quality (Veteran) to the quality of any US combat cards (there are none – the US player doesn’t begin the game with any cards in hand!).

We therefore have a net modifier of +1 to the German side. This leaves us to total the strength of each side in the Marnach space, add this to a roll of a die each, and apply the net modifiers. As you can see above the Germans have a strength of 4, and the US a combined strength of 2 (1 from their infantry regiment, 1 from the Garrison), giving the Germans an advantage of 2. Personally, I then like to take the difference of this strength and sum it with the modifiers previously calculated, so that one side is rolling with a single DRM advantage – I find this makes it easier to calculate.

In this case, the Germans are rolling on a +3 (+1 from modifiers, +2 from the comparison of unit strength). With a final dice roll of 5 to the Germans and 3 to the Allies, we are left with a difference of 4. Hits are then assigned to the losing side. This is equal to half of this difference if the defender loses the combat, or a maximum of 1 hit being assigned to the attacker if they lose. If there is only a difference of 1 or 0 between the final scores, both sides are assigned a hit.

In this case therefore, the US player must assign two hits. The first of these goes to any defending field works in the space, if there is one – and there is (the circle with lines radiating from it). The second hit is assigned to any defending Garrison present, and again, there is one so this is removed. Further hits are assigned to units in the space, but with the option that a combat card can be used to absorb such a hit if one was played. This all leaves us with the following situation:

The German player quickly decides not to use their reroll lest the Allies get a better result. Whilst they might score an additional hit if the Allies re-rolled a 1, a 4 or 5 would allow the Garrison to survive, and a 6 would cause the Germans to suffer a hit as well. So this is a good outcome.

We now move on to the next most important combat space – Lutzkampen. A good result here can see the Germans blow a hole in the American lines, although the most likely outcome is they get pushed back. The starting values are 5 for the Germans vs. 3 for the US. As the terrain modified is 1, the Germans have to lead with their 116^th Panzer division, which means they will have an Elite bonus against either of the US point units – the Veteran 111/28^th or the Green 424/106^th.

As the more expendable of the two, the US will choose the latter to take the brunt of the offensive. Before picking however, cards need to be played. As Germans card play is still unopposed on this initial turn they play a single Artillery card for an additional +1. This results in a final difference, and therefore DRM of +4 to the Germans. The dice are rolled and come up as a 2 for the Germans and a 4 for the US, yielding a difference of 2.

The Germans could do better than this, so they play their re-roll, but to no avail as they reroll a 2. One hit is inflicted on the Americans, who lose their Fieldworks. However, we are playing with the Combined Arms optional rule in this game, and the Germans have an armored and infantry unit in this space whereas the Allies do not, so an additional hit is inflicted. As defenders can allocate one hit per unit to a retreat each combat, the US use this to withdraw the 424/106^th to St. Vith, and the Germans select the next combat. They choose to start with the northern flank, and roll for Bucholz.

With 3 Green strength (-1) against 2 for the US (1 for the 14^th Cavalry +1 for the terrain), the Germans buff their attack with an Artillery and Combat Engineers for a final +2 on their side and roll well. A German 6 to a US 3 becomes 8 to 3, and a difference of 5 inflicts enough hits on the US to force the Americans to withdraw. The Americans choose to retreat to St. Vith again, so that they will have a Combined Arms bonus in that space.

The next combat is Udenbreth. The Germans chose to lead with their Veterans as point unit, and back this assault with an Artillery giving a final DRM of +3 (5 strength + 1 Veteran bonus + 1 Artillery bonus = 7 for the Germans, 3 + 1 Terrain bonus = 4 for the Americans). Another roll of 6 for the Germans is paired with another 3 for the US, meaning the latter have to allocate 3 hits. Again the Fieldworks go, and a retreat is forced, but this time the US unit has the strength to survive – the hit just flips it to its “2” strength side. In this game, every unit’s strength value is also its hit points.

Moving to the southern flank, the Germans have three attacks. Now we’ve had a chance to see how combat works a few times I won’t take you through each one individually, but the Germans roll poorly across each combat, taking hits in each combat in exchange for stripping the Fieldworks out of two spaces. As Fieldworks are removed from contested spaces at the end of the turn anyway, this is a disastrous start for the 7^th Army.

There are no Breakthrough combat phases on Turns 1 or 2, so play now passes to the Allies.

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Next Week’s Article: U.S. Turn 1 — Hold the line!