by Keith Tracton, 5 June 2026
Continuing our battles in the Winter of ’44-’45 during WW2.
In the south the fighting is knife-close in the mountains. Turn 1 sees the Americans (in green) push their numerical and support advantage, balanced versus the good mountain defensive terrain column shifts for the Germans. The Americans have more Leaders (their pictures are on the counters). At start, the leaders have artillery and other reserves stacked under them. The artillery adds strength offensively.
click images to enlarge
The Panzers group in the center and advance across open terrain, leveraging their own local artillery superiority to bust a hole and head southwest along the open terrain on the east side of the Meuse river to go straight at Maastricht (out of frame to the left).
Unless I misread the rules and charts, there are no zones of control across the Meuse itself. So I opted to use the German infantry at the north of the line and assault across the Meuse to pin the allied units on the opposite bank and put them out of supply. At least I THINK I read that if infantry start next to a major river they can cross one hex and end their move.
The 9th Panzer Division attacked through the center of the Allied line on the seam between the British (in yellow (and the Americans ( in Green). The British Guards armored (see the ‘G’ on the Yellow counter highlighted in the picture) sends a regiment to assist the American 7th armored division in a massive tank-versus tank counterattack. I spread out the pieces below so you can see what was involved.
The attack fails with some losses mitigated by the Allied retreat, as 9th Panzer Division pursues their erstwhile attackers into a “mini-bulge”.
In the south the Americans adopt the northern German forces’ tactic of pinning the German troops against the river and map edge. The Americans have numerical superiority and an artillery advantage but it is still a tough fight! The pursuit rules say that if you are pursuing after combat you can ignore zones of control! So if your enemy retreats 3 you get to advance 3 hexes in pursuit regardless of ZOCs!
At the end of Turn 1, if I played this correctly after translating as I went, casualties were excessive on both sides, relatively speaking: more than a Division lost each by the Germans and Allies.
Verifying the English Translation with the original rules as I needed was VERY helpful. I learned the turn sequence, the terrain effects and combat results chart (and result explanations!) pretty quickly as this game turns out to be easy and fast. Also I was easily able to go back to the rules and translate the original if the English version seemed unclear at spots.
The game system is very bloody though if you are unable to retreat, and that influences your regimental and brigade tactical choices. You want to break through, pursue, then surround your enemies so instead of retreating they are forced to take losses. It may seem readily apparent yet some games struggle to get this basic mechanic of WWII mechanized warfare into a playable set of rules. This game succeeds. Once I understood the rules, I had a great time!
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Enjoyable couple of pieces, thanks!