234 Those Damned Engineers!

Details: Written by: Ray Trochim; Category: Western Front; Published: 18 January 2021; Last Updated: 12 April 2021; Hits: 742

Victory Results:

0 %

100 %

Total plays 2 - Last reported by pino on 2021-05-14 23:51:46

On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive through the densely forested Ardennes region. Better known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans caught the Allies by surprise and made early progress. At times, however, the efforts of American engineers caused havoc and much grief as they delayed the advancing German elements, especially those of Kampfgruppe Peiper. American engineer units blew up bridges, planted landmines, obstructed roadways, and did whatever they could to help defend important key positions in the face of oncoming German Panzer columns. Upon seeing another bridge blown up just as his Panzers reached it, Joachim Peiper is said to have uttered, “Those damned engineers!” In the end, Kampfgruppe Peiper was contained and the Panzer crews had to abandon most of their vehicles on their way back home.

	American	German
Division 1	5 Squad Bases - 15 Regular Infantry - 1 Officer - 1 Mortar Crew - 1 Machine Gun Crew 1x AntiTank 2x Demolitions (2x charges) 1x Concealed	5 Squad Bases - 13 Regular Infantry - 4 Elite Infantry - 1 Officer - 1 Machine Gun Crew 1 SdKfz 251 Half-track 1x Medic
Division 2	6 Squad Bases - 18 Regular Infantry - 2 Officers - 2 Machine Gun Crews 1x AntiTank 2x Demolitions (2x charges) 3x Concealed	5 Squad Bases - 13 Regular Infantry - 4 Elite Infantry - 1 Officer - 1 Machine Gun Crew 1 SdKfz 251 Half-track 1x Medic
Strategy Decks	Morale 1 Winter Tactics 1 (shared) (remove the Frostbite and Sniper Attacks cards from the deck)	Command 1 German Reinforcements 1 (No Opel Blitz) Winter Tactics 1 (shared) (remove the Frostbite and Sniper Attacks cards from the deck)
Starting Command Points	2	3
Starting Strategy Cards	2	2
Operations Cards	023 Satchel Charges 013 Desperate Defenders 002 Heavy Fog (shared)	010 Inspiring Leadership 002 Heavy Fog (shared)
Deployment Zone	Div. 1: Any hex on map 31A or 39B. Div. 2: Any hex on map 35A or 38B.	Any reinforcement hex on map 37B or 36A.
Starting Initiative
Objective	The American player wins if the German player is unable to fulfill his victory conditions by the end of round 7.	At the end of any game round, the German player immediately wins if he controls the Victory Objective marker (board 39B).
Rounds	7
Actions per turn	2	2
Reinforcements	-	Status Phase 4: • 2 King Tiger tanks
Special Rules	All the Command Objective Markers start the game already controlled. Place American control markers on the American and Neutral Command Objective Markers, and German control markers on both the German Command Objective Markers. All American squads are trained engineers and are considered to have the Engineer specialization, but do not place Engineer Specialization tokens on the squads. The Americans receive three Instant Mines markers and may place them in three different hexes anywhere on maps 35A and 38B. Bogging Down: A vehicle must check for bogging down for each hex that it enters except while on a road hex. On a roll of 5 or 6 the vehicle immediately stops moving. Mark the unit with a crater token to denote that it is bogged down. A bogged-down vehicle cannot move for the rest of the game, but may still fire. As long as a vehicle is moving continuously along a road, it does not have to check for bogging down. CONCEALED SQUAD MARKERS: The American player(s) receive four concealed markers and may designate upto four American squads as being concealed at the start of the scenario - see American Setup.
Terrain Features	The stream is Deep. Buildings are Destructible. All five swamp hexes on map 37B are woods hexes.

Balance Option

For a less experienced German player, change the number of "Game Rounds" to 8 and have the 2x King Tigers arrive on Status Phase 5 instead of 4. This gives the German player one extra turn

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Posts in discussion: 234 Those Damned Engineers!

alecrespi replied the topic:

#1028

1 year 3 months ago

Here are some comments found online.

boersma8 (Dec 11, 2012)

Based on just one play I'd say that it's a fairly balanced scenario (VERY balanced scenario compared to the vast majority of most of the official ones), although we had the impression that the Germans have somewhat of an edge. My opponent played the Germans and is far less experienced at TOI than I am. For the majority of the game he played far too timidly. Had he been more aggressive we were pretty confident he would have relatively easily pulled out a win. Now it came down to one unit being pinned or not (which in fact happened) causing it not to be able to move onto the objective. Obviously a more aggressive type of gameplay would have resulted in more German casualties, but in this scenario the number of casualties the Germans sustain is irrelevant: as long as you have a single figure on the bridge at the end of round 7 you win. We had the idea that a 6 round game would have made it just that little bit harder on the Germans that it would have been very challenging for both sides. Then again, this may be one of the balance options provided by the author, I don't recall, and also, as I started out saying, all this is solely based on a single play.

I did find the scenario to provide a nice feel of Peiper in the Ardennes trying to cross vital bridges before the Americans manage to blow them up (which is what round 7 could symbolize, or perhaps even does). The winter map also seems to fit aesthetically more so than the Ardennes scenarios that come with the base game and use "Summer maps". All the US units being engineers gives them the opportunity to dig entrenchments and make certain positions into strongholds. This is also what actually happened during the Battle of the Bulge. Finally, recreating a sense of the actual battle is done with a minimum of special rules (the most importnat one being "bogging down": vehicles moving off road must roll for immobilization"). Personally I usually incorporate many more special rules into my own TOI scenarios to make it feel as historically accurate as possible. I'm therefore impressed by the author of this one being able to accomplish that with just a bare minimum of special rules.

All in all a very enjoyable scenario with a good feel for the actual battle.

Balance Option

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