Celles

[mikeh]

Well, after reading the rules through and watching a play through by Stuka Joe the game is off and running. The object for the Germans is to get to the Meuse river and capture several towns along the way. This is the high water mark for the German Offensive in the Bulge and takes place over Christmas 1944.

The Germans move first exploiting a hole in the line of the American 84th Inf. Div. between Marche and Rochefort. The Germans push elements of 3 Panzer Divisions, 2nd, 116th and Panzer Lehr into the gap. For this turn the 116th has no activation chit in his cup to pull out this turn and so remains stationary holding the right shoulder of the advance. Panzer Lehr and 2nd Pz. Div. begin their advances. Panzer Lehr moves it's armored units up around Rochefort while 2nd Panzer moves up the middle running into strong elements of the US 2nd Armored Division.

[mikeh]

Activation and Tactical chits, these are the ones that go into the Allies cup. Tactical chits remain the same throughout the game Activation chits change from day to day, also divisions can have multiple activation chits for the same division.

So, let's say the Allies win the initiative roll and decide to go first. They will begin to choose chits from their cup one at a time. Say the first one is a tactical chit. That chit will go in it's Tactical Available box and the allied player will then pick another chit from his cup, as long as he picks tactical chits he continues to pick chits until he picks a Division Activation chit at which point he issues orders to that division moving and engaging in combat until all units of that division have moved or conducted combat or passed. When that's done the other side begin his draws.

Tactical chits give you certain bonuses as long as they have been picked and are in their Tactical Available Box on the map. Should you pick all you Activation Chits first then you would not be able to use any of your tactical chits because they have not been drawn. Also even if drawn all tactical chits are not able to be used depending on time of day, as an example Allied side can not use their airpower chit at night nor can they use their replacement chit at night. The Germans can not use their replacement chit during the day. One big bonus of using the Airpower chit for the Allies is that not only do they get an air attack on any German unit but the Germans lose 1 division activation, which of course means the Germans can end up with a stranded division or lose a second activation for a division. Now both sides can, if they want, instead of activating the drawn division choose to move 1 and only 1 unit from any other of their divisions on the board.

This is a pretty good way of creating fog of war even playing solo.

[mikeh]

Christmas morning 1944 and not much has changed. The dice gods have been hard on the Germans, didn't seem to be able to roll higher then 4 and even had a -1 on one roll. On the other hand the American 2nd Armor bloodied the nose of two regiments of the Germans 2nd Panzer Div.

I was reading about the battle for Celles last night in the Samuel Mitchum book Panzers In Winter and from that I can see the Germans have a success rate of 50/50.
Historically Panzer Lehr took Rochefort on Dec 24th in the game it's Dec 25th and Lehr has still not taken the town. Meanwhile the 116th Panzer is still being held short of the victory point towns of Marche and Hotton. This is also historically accurate. Where the Germans are up is with the recon battalion of 2nd Panzer being on the Meuse River, historically this battalion came up a little short.

[mikeh]

My mistake, it's Panzer Lehr that has it's recon unit on the Meuse.

[mikeh]

Chaotic situation on Christmas Day.

[mikeh]

Christmas Day. 9th Panzer Division moves up to Marche.

Peace on earth and goodwill to men

[mikeh]

Dec 25th, end of day turn. The Panzer Lehr takes Rochefort. A day later then historically. (Bottom center of map) But just to the Northeast is the US 2nd Armor Division about to attack a unit of their German counterpart near Jemelle.

The 116th and 9th Panzer will be hard pressed to take Marche let alone Hotton.

2nd Panzer has become pretty spread out yet most are in contact with units of the US 2nd Armor which has become just as spread out.

[mikeh]

Dec 26th night turn sees the 2nd Panzer try a dash for the Meuse River with replacement units of US 2nd Armor driving down from the north to intercept.

[mikeh]

Also on the night of Dec 26th the Germans get reinforcements from the Fuhrer Belgiet Brigade (sp?) or FBB. The FBB is only on the board for this day turn before being withdrawn tonight. Hopefully it gets activated so it can use it's 2 strong units to attack towards Hotton. The Germans have 5 activation chits in their cup but only 3 can activate this turn so we shall see.

[mikeh]

Turns out the Germans captured Hotton. Looks short lived though.

[mikeh]

Well the game is over with the Allies winning.

An enjoyable game that ticks off certain mechanics from my "Likes" list. Small footprint and not high counter count. I like the initiative roll for who goes first and the tactical counters each side gets can make things unpredictable. You never know if either side will even be able to activate their units in any given turn.

I also like the way combat is tied into movement with different modifiers depending on far you move or don't move.

The whole games is played with a single D10. The Allies rule the skies during the day and can really upset the Germans plan. Playing the Allied Air Counter not only allows 1 attack on any German unit on the map but it also takes away one German activation stranding even more divisions on the map.

Road and highway movement is straight forward but should you run into one of your own sides unit on a road it costs you 2 MP's to get around it, river crossings even over bridges cost an extra MP also so planning out your route movement can be important.

All in all an enjoyable time even solo with so many things beyond the players control. I am going to setup the game again tomorrow and enjoy another game.

[Whiterook]

What a marvelous looking game! (…and I like Stuka Joe”s work on videoing games, btw!) I love the graphics, and the counters a nicely done, too! What kind of panzer is that in hex 2410?

I love your AAR, and the explanations of key mechanics, particularly the chit draw system, which is exciting. I see your point of it being a nice solo experience, given the overall game mechanics. I also like your bringing in the historical perspective and the equation in your games’ timeline.

The Bulge was an amazing battle and this covers the early stages so perfectly. You can almost feel the freezing weather!

[mikeh]

Hi Em, the unit in 2410 is a recon unit.

With this latest playing I concentrated on taking the VP cities of Rochefort, Marche and Hotton. 2nd Panzer has been pretty beaten up at Marche and the 116th aiming at Hotton has not had an activation chit pulled and is sitting there idle. (Out of fuel) Rochefort fell to Panzer Lehr early on.

I cannot believe this game was only $13.57 on Amazon from Fine Games. I thought for that price how could I not take the chance. Turns out it is probably my best buy ever.

This was the supposed to be the first of a couple games on the bulge but apparently it ended up being the only one. Really cannot figure out why Roger Miller didn't expand on it. Great reviews on BGG. Although if interested in the mechanics and interested in the desert war Gazala also by Revolution Games uses the same mechanics.

[Whiterook]

Jun 15, 2022 12:14:06 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Hi Em, the unit in 2410 is a recon unit.

With this latest playing I concentrated on taking the VP cities of Rochefort, Marche and Hotton. 2nd Panzer has been pretty beaten up at Marche and the 116th aiming at Hotton has not had an activation chit pulled and is sitting there idle. (Out of fuel) Rochefort fell to Panzer Lehr early on.

I cannot believe this game was only $13.57 on Amazon from Fine Games. I thought for that price how could I not take the chance. Turns out it is probably my best buy ever.

This was the supposed to be the first of a couple games on the bulge but apparently it ended up being the only one. Really cannot figure out why Roger Miller didn't expand on it. Great reviews on BGG. Although if interested in the mechanics and interested in the desert war Gazala also by Revolution Games uses the same mechanics.

That was a great deal! ….looks like it’s up to $26 now, if it’s the same game (the one I see is Revolution Games). And yes, isn’t it a great feeling when you stumble into a game that ends up becoming a favorite! …Raid on St. Nazaire was the game for me.

[mikeh]

$26 with may as well say $20 for shipping! I payed $9, it's a ziploc game for Pete's sake.