We game most genres from historical to futuristic including RPGs, and board games.
I finally finished all of my 6mm buildings I had purchased from Historicon. the Diabolical Terrain French building sets are superb. Once I purchase and finish the US infantry and Greyhound armored cars, I will purchase a canvas drop cloth and paint it up for a Battle of the Bulge game.
My first attempt at a proper terrain board continues. I framed out the first board, used a Mod Podge/Chocolate brown/Coffe grounds mixture to cover the roads. Apparantly the roads were in very bad shape as they were unpaved and heavily travelled. One account from my reading is that tanks were sinking up to their deck as they moved through the village.
I used a lot of coffee grounds to heavily texture the roads. When I complete the snow I will use less texture to reflect less travelled areas of the countryside outside of town.
I didn't use as much paint or Mod Podge as I thought I would so I was able to complete the roads on all 3 boards. I also used some flock for weeds and brush that are sticking up through the snowfall. This should break up some of the white with dead vegetation.
I was also able to get in a playtest game of 5150 for a Terminator game, a favorite set of rules. The terminators are not killed off immediate but lose repuation with each KIA (-2 Rep) or Out Of Fight result (-1 Rep). They start as a Rep 5 so they slow down and become less accrate, when they lose the last Rep point they send off a recovery beacon which draws more Terminators. The goal of the game is for the human players to cross the battlefield and down load information from a Hunter/Killer that had been shut down.
US forces consolidated around the Twin Villages on 12/17/44. Since the US forces were low on Anti tank guns and armor infantry platoons were given 2 bazookas each to aid in the defense against the German Armor.
Col. John Stokes was in charge of the defense of Rocherath. In supprt he had access to Artillery stationed on Elsenborn Ridge.
3rd Battalion of the 38th Infantry was defending the southern edge of the villages with a company of infantry from support services (cooks and Admin) and a few 57mm anti tanks guns.
3rd Battalion of the of the 393rd Infantry regiment was north east of the villages and was reinforced later in the day from K company of 1st Battalion 9th Regiment 2nd infantry Division, when the 3rd Battalion of the 393 was fragmanted and became disorganized.
Lt. Col William D. McKinley arrived to the villages and deployed as follows:
1st Battalion 9th Infantry deployed Company K and 3 AT guns from 644th AT battalion
north of road into Krinkelt from the woods. Company C next to K, Company B dug in on road, Company A to the
South. 15 Bazookas handed out to
McKinley’s men.
1st Battalion 38th Inf (Lt. Col Frank T. Mildren) left Wahlerscheid for Krinkelt in the afternoon.
1st Battalion 38th Inf, aided by smoke and cover fire of 81mm and 4.2 inch mortars moved to Rocherath to reinforce the town left of 3rd battalion 38th east/NE of Krinkelt. Company A was OK, but Company B took some casualties from German Artillery and C company became disorganized as it entered a cross roads 1,000 yards north of Rocherath. They entered Krinkelt at 2130 as German Armor and Infantry attacked from the Northeast and had no time to dig in.
Continuing the 20mm boards I have to add hedges. I stopped by the Dollar store to pick up a pack of scrubber pads. Once the hedge is complete I will paint the boards a textured brown base. Board 3 will have fields and will be more open. When the base brown coat is done I will be adding snow effects..
I decided to put some terrain boards together for a Battle of the Bulge skirmish game. I purchased the blue insulation foam and sketched the layout. I have some left over buildings from a purchase at a train show flea market. The villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt was dispersed in some of the areas due to its rural nature. I plan to build a snow covered village where close quarter fighting was common. I wanted terrain that would be pleasing to the eye as I am tired of playing on cloth, blakets and fabric. I hope to hav this done for Fall In later this year.
To build up the road, field and heavy traveled areas I plan to use silcon mixed with coffee.
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I then added magnets which will secure the boards while playing. The 24 pack will be enough for 3 of the 4 boards.
I still need to add the hedges, fences and various terrain pieces. Then I will paint with 1 part Mod Podge, 1 part brown paint and coffee grouns added for texture. This will seal the board and give a base color to build up the snow.
US Forces around the twin villages were the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions.
The 99th infantry Division was holding the villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt with forward elements positioned at Lausdell. Infantry defending the surrounding area outside of the villages were in pill boxes and fox holes. The 2nd Infantry Division arrived in the evening of the 16th to reinforce positions held by the 99th. The Americans holding Lausdell were attacked by a much larger German force. "At Lausdell the German tanks managed to overwhelm the American lines at 08:00 hour and to fire directly at the foxholes. Sergeant Hunt saw from the village how soldiers were mowed down by machine guns after they had left their foxhole. A man lay wounded next to a tank that he tried to stop by putting his rifle between a track. Man to man fighting erupted while the American artillery tried to destroy the German tanks. Lieutenant Truppner understood that his position was lost and contacted the artillery to shell his own line. He and his men would hide in their foxholes. An artillery barrage followed, lasting 30 minutes, after which the German advance came to a standstill for a while. Nothing was heard of Lieutenant Truppner after this."
The American retreat to Rocherath-Krinkelt is as follows:
"around 10:00 hour McKinley received the order to retreat to Krinkelt: the last units of the 2nd Infantry Division had passed Lausdell. An hour later, as support, a new artillery barrage followed, lasting 30 minutes, followed by a counterattack from a recently arrived tank battalion. The1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment started to pull back. When Sergeant Hunt walked past the command post he saw McKinley standing on the side of the road. The Lieutenant-Colonel shook the hands of the passing soldiers and thanked them for their courageous performance. After arriving in Krinkelt, the number of men was counted: of the 600 men that went to Lausdell only 144 were left."
The 1st battalion reached Rocherath and entrenched on both side of the road north of the village along with heavy weapons. 2 battlaions entrenched outside of the villages facing east. The mission was to defend the road to Wirtzfeld and hold access to Elsenborn ridge so artillery could establish a position. The Germans were expected to come puring from the woods in a fast moving assault. The 23rd infantry from 2nd Division was attached to the 99th Division.
Two scenarios come to mind. Either the holding positions outside the villages can be recreated, or the ambush tactics of bazooka teams and hand to hand fighting within the villages can be played out.
Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein", the code name for the attack on the allies through the Ardennes is well known, especially the battle for Bastogne. To game something different I have been researching the attack on the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt.
German Forces
"The German 6. Panzerarmee, commanded by SS-Oberstgruppenfuhrer Josef Dietrich had been equipped with the best that the German army could offer. It consisted of four SS-Panzerdivisions, complemented by five Volksgrenadier-Divisions with a total of approximately 685 guns , divided in three corps"
Infantry units from the 277th Volks Grenadier Division and 12th Volks Grenadier Division attacked from the north east near Lausdell with the goal of capturing the twin villages quickly, then moving to capture the road from Bullingen to Nidrum. On December 17th the 277th Volks Grenadiers were supported by 4 Jagdpanzers drove the Americans from their foxholes and forced them to withdraw into Krinkelt by 10am. The German grenadiers decided to attack enmasse across the open field as waves of assault troops emerged from the tree lines. The sheer weight in numbers was to overcome the American positions but the casualty count was extremely high as Germans fell advancing across the fields. Artillery and rifle fire took a tremendous toll on the 277th formations. The loss of NCO and officers was wasteful, the Germans had to divert armor to the advance. Eventually the 1st Company of SS Panzerjager Abteilung 12 moved into Rocherath and Krinkelt with Panther tanks. initially the movement was covered by fog. The tanks were subjected to ambush attacks by bazooka teams, Shermans and M-10 tank destroyers. The streets and houses changed hands multiple times for the next 2 days.
For a 20mm game I plan on using German Panzergrenadier kits from Caesar and Revell.
Caesar set HB02
The landscape
Scources - https://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_Cont.htm#pix
Plastic Soldier Review
