"Dom Butgenbach, Dec. 20 1944" Topic

We replayed one of the Battlefront WWII chestnuts last weekend, the Dom Butgenbach scenario written by Steve Uden, which takes place during the Battle of the Bulge. It is billed as a "generic scenario", representing the few days' intense fighting that went on in that area in the German attempt to win through on the Billingen-Butgenbach road. It pits a veteran battalion of panzergrenadiers supported by armour against the trained troops of the American 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment. The Americans have some armour and AT support but the heavy hitters are two entire battalions of 105's in artillery support.
The German objective is to clear the Billingen-Butgenbach road, leaving no enemy within 10" either side, while the Americans need to hold on and suffer as few casualties as possible in the process. The game went on for 10 of 12 turns, called at the beginning of the 11th as there was no chance of a German victory.

Here is the full AAR:
link

And here are a few pics:

Very nice looking game and a good write up too. Thanks for sharing!

Your snow terrain looks fantastic. I like how it's chunky in places.

Awesome terrain and models. What rules were being used? Some terms in the report that were unfamiliar to me. Must admit I wondered about a MG stand assaulting anything, much less an AFV.

21eRegt – By clicking on the Battlefront WWII link in the first sentence, you would learn that they are a set of WW2 rules by Fire and Fury games.

Jim

21eRegt,
As Jim says, Battlefront WWII. Generally CC's by MG's on armour don't succeed, I was just incredibly lucky (and desperate). Mostly the rule set gives very credible results.

Very neat looking game. Really like that first shot of the manor. The way the background came out looks like grey overcast sky.
Mark

Bill Slavin:
An outstanding table and Bat. Rep. as usual. You do the hobby proud, sir! Well done.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

Bill…this game is stunning. You have raised the bar very high for any of us unlucky enough to follow such a professionally done AAR. Your terrain is simply superb. You must reveal where you got such outstanding buildings. Well done! Ben

Thanks, all.
Ben, the buildings are all scratch built with foam core. The chateau was probably the most difficult one I've built, but there are so many in the Normandy battles that I really needed something like that. The biggest trick was scale – something that worked with 1/72 but didn't take up too large a footprint for the Battlefront WWII rules.
And for those curious, snow effects come out of a bag of perlite.

Fun report to read.

A few years ago I interviewed Seth Tiberio, weapons plt. leader of F co., 2nd Batt. 26th Inf. Regt. He was at Dom Butgenbach, had a JadgPanther drive right over his foxhole.

He is in several books and articles about the battle, he was also a friend of my mother. Seth passed away 4 years ago.

Seth said that in the attack that broke through their lines, artillery had striped away the SS grenadiers, but the armor punched through. He said there was a heavy fog, you couldn't see very far. His bazooka teams hunted the German armor in the fog.

TMP link

Everyone of his bazooka men were killed, but they ko'd 5 enemy tanks.

Thanks for that, Oddball. It's always facinating to hear the stories of the men that actually participated in these battles and the thought of hunting Jagdpanthers in the fog is absolutely frightening.
Interestingly enough an earlier incarnation of this scenario I played had the fog incorporated, but that has since been removed – probably for ease of play.

As always beautiful terrain and photos Bill…a joy to behold. As an Irishman living in Canada I never recreate snow scenes myself. Too much of the blasted stuff outside ;) But this is extraordinarily well done. Thank you for posting this.

Looks great!

War Panda,

I thought out west there was very little snow. In Ontario the cold has everyone ready to do themselves in…