"Wacht am Rhine"

The Series Replay begins.

The opening guns indeed provided mixed results. Any Engaged vs an infantry unit in the south is a minor German coup. This result vs 28/109 was countered by the one hex advance vs 14AC, allowing 106/422 to move to Schonberg. I don't place quite as much importance on an advance vs the Bloody 110th as do some others, but Tom's built bridge on the first turn certainly helps him. The Firefight vs 102AC in Monschau was unfortunate but offset by unremarkable results vs U.S. 99th.

After the trouncing Tom's Yanks gave me in the final round of the AHIKS Bulge Theme Tournament, I promised him I would try to come up with an unorthodox reply on my opening move in this game. I will attempt something I have not done since the early days of playtesting and that is to defend the Our River line in the far south in an attempt to prevent the encirclement and elimination of 28/109. This could backfire on me, but will require Tom to gamble on getting the right sequence of combat results and willingness to draw some of 5th Panzer Army away to assist 7th Army. Hex 1218 is a bulwark of my opening defense and Tom has denied me access to it. The result is my defense along the Our River line is a little less stable in the center than I like. The remainder of my opening defense consists of positions that minimize the German die roll modifiers and gives me the best chance of minimizing losses to the U.S. 2nd Inf Div (the cornerstone of the early American defense). I could have placed a stronger unit in Monschau, but I'm hoping Tom will use all or part of 12th SS to attack the town. Any stronger defense and he may settle for a low odds attack to firefight or engage the defender, and I would rather it be a 5-3-4 than a 6-5-4.

-- Randy

LQ Rating:  3  (No attacks but the surrounded element of the 106th survived an isolation roll.)