319 Achtung Panzer

December 23, 1944 - The offensive of the Ardennes, the backlash of the German army in the face of the allied forces now arrived at the gates of Nazi Germany, has now failed.
The Kampfgruppe Peiper, originally made up of most of the tanks of the 1.SS-Panzer-Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" has now run out of fuel and supplies.
The German commander, Lieutenant Colonel of the Waffen-SS Joachim Peiper, after deciding to abandon the heavy equipment and retreat to the borders of Germany, must cross the small town of La Gleize, defended by American elements of the 30th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division.

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319 Achtung Panzer

Playtest this one last night, it was quick and fun
The shallow stream is a major obstacle for the Germans (and consequently a boon for the Americans).
The only access point to the exit hexes seems to be the bridge... well defended even by tank traps.
Hard one for the Germans.

after some playtests the scenario changed as follows:
- replaced the German Panzer IV with a King Tiger tank (This Tiger 213 from Obersturmführer Dollinger is one of the vehicles left by Peiper's 1st SS Panzer Regiment in 1944 when it had to withdraw from la Gleize)
- replaced the stream with a road (an oversight in interpreting the original map)

Given the ability to setup anywhere on the map (except gray hexes) the Americans have tried an aggressive deployment.
The idea was to keep the neutral command point for a few turns and gain a small initiative advantage.
On round 1 (US initiative) the American tried to concentrate fire vs german halftraks but unfortunately AT gun plus 6 infantry squads only managed to slightly damage 1 halftrack (instead of destroying 1 with a squad loaded on it for a hypothetical partial score of 3 points).
The AT gun exploded at the first German counterattack, which started along the road to the west and descended almost undisturbed (thanks to buildings cover and smoke created by their engineers).
At the end of turn 3 the German managed to exit with the 2 tanks on the west side of the map (partial result US 3 / GER 4 points) and moved both halftracks following the same path, thus trying to avoid the American machine gun on the bridge (with the tank trap).
The Americans managed to retake the neutral command point to the north and gain some valuable points to play both in initiative and in strategic cards.
In the last 2 rounds the halftracks arrived close to the exit point but were heavily damaged and once the initiative was lost even the infantry squads were unable to reach the exit.
Considering that the Germans score by going out and the Americans by eliminating their opponents the game ended in an American victory.

Surely if the 2 German tanks (king tiger and stug) hadn't gone out in turn 3 and had waited for their comrades protecting them both from suffering opportunity fire and suppressing the US squads, the outcome would have been decidedly different.

Excellent scenario, concentrated in 4 boards.
Definitely to be tried again with the Americans all lined up in defense!