"Rules for action of Kampfgruppe Peiper" Topic

Hello,

I want to replay the last actions of KG Peiper during Wacht am Rhein: the drive from Stavelot to La Gleize and the counter attacks by the US over a couple of days. As a guide I have the old Talonsoft PC game Battleground Ardennes. I want to play it in 3mm and was thinking of one base is one company. So far I have Great battles of WW2 as a ruleset but I am all ears for alternatives. The layout of Panzer Korps hurts my eyes too much, CD3 is underway. RF looks a bit too simple for my purpose. Maybe Kampfgruppe Commander? What's also important for me is, that the rules have options for battles over several days with reinforcements arriving, maybe limited ammunition and supply in general.
I hope someone has a suggestion I haven't seen yet 😁
Thanks

Hello,

I want to replay the last actions of KG Peiper during Wacht am Rhein: the drive from Stavelot to La Gleize and the counter attacks by the US over a couple of days. As a guide I have the old Talonsoft PC game Battleground Ardennes. I want to play it in 3mm and was thinking of one base is one company. So far I have Great battles of WW2 as a ruleset but I am all ears for alternatives. The layout of Panzer Korps hurts my eyes too much, CD3 is underway. RF looks a bit too simple for my purpose. Maybe Kampfgruppe Commander? What's also important for me is, that the rules have options for battles over several days with reinforcements arriving, maybe limited ammunition and supply in general.
I hope someone has a suggestion I haven't seen yet 😁
Thanks

Take a look at Sam Mustafa's Eisenhower or Rommel.

In Eisenhower a base is a battalion and a game is made up of a number of days. In Rommel a base is a company.

Do you want to fight the multi day engagement as a single operation or a series of linked battles?

Either way, KG Peiper was only a brigade sized force, and I'd suggest a bit small to use with GBWW2.

If doing linked battles, any of the one element = one platoon sets would be fine, Command Decision being an obvious choice given the plethora of CD KG Peiper scenarios (we played Stoumont last week).

If you want to do the whole thing, Rapid Fires campaign format eg the Battle of Hong Kong scenario might give you some ideas or the CD Stolberg Corridor campaign. Few of the lower level rules are geared to multi day games, and higher level operational games tend to have elements of battalion size or larger, in which case poor old Peiper would only have three or four stands.

@extra Crispy thanks, yes I looked at Rommel. Not my cup of tea. I prefer Division commander.

@Martin Rapier I wanted to do the whole operation, so roughly 4 days. So just the last push and the last stand. I want to build the whole Ambleve valley on the table. I have the Stollberg booklet and will take a look at it. Maybe it's easier to come up with some house rules.

What base size has Kampfgruppe Commander?

The Germans had a constant fuel shortage in the Ardennes. You could offer the German player(s) a number of cards to trade for a certain quantity of fuel. Since you of course will create a shortage of cards they will be forced to decide what to move and how far in order to succeed.

If you want to do all four days, GBWW2 is OK, I've done a few of the multi-day scenarios and it has company size bases too.

The hardest thing to do scenario design wise for GBWW2 is allocate the command points and air/artillery factors. There aren't any hints as to how the author got the numbers, although it seems to be roughly one artillery template per battalion I've no idea how he worked out the CPs.

As Porthos suggest, house ruling the fuel/supply problems is probably the best way to go. I ran 10 days of Kasserine Pass a couple of years ago, and just gave the Axis a limited number of division days worth of fuel. There were dumps at Sbeitla etc the Germans could capture with the option for the US to try and destroy them. But the Germans had to choose how many divisions to activate each day, which burned fuel and they didn't have enough to activate everything every turn and reach their ultimate objectives.

A big issue for Peiper was the state of the roads and adjacent terrain, partly why he left the Tigers at the back of the column.

Thank you guys. Fuel and ammunition are definitely restricted.