BFTB AAR: Race for the Meuse

[HansBolter]

Seven hours later Eastern Sector:

It was a quiet night so rather than bore you with screenshots from a slow period we have jumped ahead to dawn.

A full strength company of Sherman is filtering it's way through my line west of Stavelot and will eventually cause me a little
grief but it won't be even close to enough to threaten my overall postion.

The p 1 Pionier Zug (platoon) over at the entrance to the woods south of Chenaux is getting worked over by a couple of Ami
companies looking to push into the woods.

Day 6 0700 hours:

[HansBolter]

Same time Western Sector:

I sent the 2.1 Panzer Grenadier company down to center of the wood to deal with one of the Ami battalion HQs harrassing KG Peiper's base,
but the other battalion HQ is still giving the base a hard time. I'll be displacing the base forward soon to get it out of this new hot spot.

Directly to the north the Amis are probing towards Froidville and the track into the woods east of Rahier. The 10.2 Panzer Grenadier company
has pushed the Amis in that vicinity back across the river to the east side. Still further north the 1.1 Panzer Company is occupying Chession with
an apparent group of enemy units in the woods to the south.

The III.2 Motorised Infanterie Abteilung along with the 1.1 Pionier company have driven into the woods north of Neuville and apparently driven
the paratroopers there further back as there are no apparent enemy units in the vicinity now. To the southeast the I.1 Motorised Infanterie Abtielung(-)
is pushing along the track through the woods encountering an apparent enemy unit. To the northeast the 11.1 Motorised Infanterie Kompanie along with
the 3.1 "something or other" have finished the night's task of overrunning an artillery unit while still further north the III.1 Motorised Infanterie Abteilung has
done the same. KG Knittle has moved off to the north off screen.

Down at Werbomont there are still a couple of Ami direhard units determined to give me grief. Their days are numbered. South of Werbomont the I.1 and II.2
Motorised Infanterie Abteilungs along with Hienz von Westernhagen's 501 SS Swchere Panzer Abteilung(-) have just about wrapped up their night's work of dealing
with the paratroopers in that vicinity.

Day 6 0700 hours:

[HansBolter]

Same time Northwestern Sector:

Kg Knittlle has started it's move to towards the northern exit point followed by the 6.1 Panzer Kompanie.

Day 6 0700 hours:

[lyceum]

Just spent the last few hours reading through the whole aar at work hehe. A great read! Many thanks for the effort put in, I cannot wait for this game! (and also patch 3 for COTA) [:D]

[HansBolter]

Thanks.

Someday I hope to find the energy to complete it.

[GShock]

i suppose,seeing his last message dated over a year ago that things have been quite rough inside the testing phase and many things possibly been changed. What happened to Hans? Did he restart all over? Are we going to see the end of this AAR or perhaps some other AAR in a more advanced development status?

Please wet our toungues again. [8D]

[Rebel Yell]

He still posts, but I imagine there have been so many changes during the development of the game, that it is tough to continue an ongoing aar like this.

[GShock]

Well please have the guy start a new AAR !!! [8D]

[simovitch]

I haven't heard from Merrill in a while - he hasn't posted on the development forum for ages. RL must have reared it's ugly head - I hate when that happens.[:@]

[Heliotic]

This AAR made me rebuy CotA after I lost it in a move (and said I would wait for BftB instead). [:(]

[Henri]

Great AAR, but if I may nitpick the plan...

You made some effort to protect your supply lines, but is this really necessary?[&:]

The German absolute priority was to make it to the coast - it was do or die. To do so, it was imperative that Peiper capture Allied supplies to fuel his tanks, otherwise he would run out of fuel (as actually happened) whether or not he had an open supply line to the East, and the whole effort would be for nil. So units left behind to cover his rear are units that are not available to help reach his objective.

So should not Peiper's plan be "forward at all speed and at all cost" (which I think is what he actually did - although I have not read any detailed history of what he did). After all, getting a few miles farther along or not would make absolutely no difference, if he did not achieve a breakthrough across the Meuse.

Now maybe this specific scenario for this game is not built that way, but if it is not, it would be interesting to make one where Peiper gets no supplies at all unless he captures them from the Allies - assuming the game allows the capturing of enemy supplies...

The movie "Battle of the Bulge" has the Germans actually doing this, which I think was pretty historical - despite some ahistorical aspects of tghe movie, including giving the Germans American tanks...[:D]

Henri

[HansBolter]

Yes, I am still "around", generally speaking.

RL did indeed rear it's ugly head and I seemingly dropped off the face of the planet for nearly a year and a half.

I dropped in once or twice during that period and deeply regret my inability to follow through with my effort at assisting Dave and the rest of the guys with the finalization of this awesome game.

I'm a bit surprised to discover that Dave moved this very old and, now out of date with the current game structure, AAR from the old "in development" forum to the new "released game" forum. Surprised and pleased and honored.

The time I invested in playtesting the earlier versions of this game engine was some of the most enjoyable wargming time I have spent in the past 10 years.

I'm hoping to be able to invest some time soon in exploring the game engine in it's final form.

I did take a look at things a few months before release and recall that this scenario had changed considerably from the form depicted in this AAR.

It would be fun to give it another try and have another go at an AAR..........we'll have to see if it's something I can manage...


Hans


p.s. yes, Henri, you are correct that I did get a little obsessed with keeping my supply lines clear. I believe I even pointed that out some where in the middle of the AAR where I began waxing historic and quoting Patton [;)]

[MarkShot]

Howdy, Merrill!