Sunday, December 16, 2018

Massive Battle of the Bulge Scenario

As discussed in the CH Wargame Wednesday post play testing for the scenario was hampered by the lack of German mobility.  Something needed to be done as during game play the American side would always fall back in good order after inflicting heavy German casualties.  Eventually, the front line American regiments would succumb but they held their ground until American reinforcements arrived with the front stabilizing well to the east of Bastogne. 

The game engine and scenario conditions would not allow the German player a chance to repeat the historical outcome of two surrounded American regiments. I was able to find a U.S. Army Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory report titled Weather Effects During the Battle of the Bulge and Normandy Invasion by Marvin D. Kays.

Table 1 is copied below and allowed the scenario designer to adjust the weather conditions.  First day (6 turns) is foggy with limited visibility while the weather clears a little the 2nd day.


The amount of work needed to create the giant game map is phenomenal. Click on each picture below for a larger image. The map is at extreme zoom out and I've highlight German units by Corps so that they will stand out in red.

Here are the maps:

I'm playing the role of General Lucht and have the 66th Infantry Corps. This is the sector in which the Battle of St. Vith was fought. The Losheim Gap is in the NE part of the map.


The 58th Panzer Corps has the center:



And the 47th Panzer Corps has the south:


The map is so large that the American and German players taking the southern sector also have the road to Ettlebruck and the advance of the German paratroopers to consider:


2 comments:

  1. Wow, was thinking at first this was Panzer Campaigns, it is JTCS...Wow!!!

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    Replies
    1. Bunch of them over at theblitz.org designing massive scenarios. Recently played on with the Americans advancing on Aachen and another in the Prokhorovka area of Kursk. The Kursk order of battle was researched down to actual strength of armored platoons on the start date. As the size increases, enjoyment decreases but the Bulge scenario makes all the right trade offs.

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Battle of the Bulge 18th and 62nd Volksgrenadier Divisions, 14th Armored Group and the 106th Infantry Division

  Starting Positions Introduction for this series here . This post discusses the terrain, some items considered during scenario design and ...