FAB: Bulge finished, or what I did instead of going to Historicon...

As the first day in my "Not at Historicon but will instead take two days off to play boardgames" I finished up the game of FAB: Bulge that I have been playing the past couple months (one game day a month, 3 turns a session).  This session covers turns 6.5 to the end of turn 9.

The start of the allied half of turn 6, a refresher pic from the end of the last session.  This will be the high tide of the German offensive.

End of Allied turn 6.  1st Infantry tried to assault across the Meuse (left side of map)  but was thrown back with heavy losses.  A unit also engaged more German units (on the allied side of the Meuse) but since it did not cross a river it was able to abort the attack without falling back.

End of German turn 7.  Left to right, the Germans attempted to attack the the units it was facing (far left), I rolled well and they called off the attack.   The same thing happened a couple spaces over (space with a blue start, an improved position, and the orange filled German unit).  Bastogne was not attacked and finally a couple spaces to the right a third German attack was aborted after what would have been heavy losses.  Note - the attacker has the option to abort any attack and then only has to take one loss and mark his units as disrupted.

Different angle , same game turn.

End of Allied turn 7.  Bottom to top.  Did a switch-out in area C by moving in British units and moving out the US unit that was there.  Fought a battle and took some lumps while doing no damage to the Germans.  Two spaces further up another allied attack is aborted to avoid heavy losses.  One space beyond that (where there is a blue start and two allied units but no Germans) the attack went very well and the Germans fell back 2 areas.  In Bastogne the Allied attack went INCREDIBLY well, they took one loss and scored enough hits in return that the Germans had to retreat to save their troops (out of 8 shots with a 50% chance to hit there was only one hit).  

Another shot of the end of Allied turn 7

End of German turn 8.  Bottom to top again.  Germans retreat across the Meuse leaving the other side to the Brits (who are not allowed to cross over themselves).  That is the only attack I remember them making this turn.  They do put a Greif team on the Allied Airborne unit in Bastogne...

End of Allied turn 8.  Bottom to top again.  Just above the Meuse another attack stalls out.  Just above that another attack goes through but neither side causes enough losses to call it off or change the situation much.  A couple areas further up the allies called off the attack due to defensive fire.  Just north of Bastogne the allies attack to areas and handily win both fights leaving two German units OOS and surrounded.  The Airborne unit in Bastogne tried to move and rolled a 10 (only bad possible result)...  This kept that unit from moving and gummed up Bastogne enough to keep armor units from moving through and getting a breakout.  To be fair this is the only Greif team die roll that did not go my way so I should not whine too much...

End of German turn 9.  The OOS units near Bastogne ATTACK! and call it off after I rolled excellent losses on them, but they have one hit and can stay where they are - now in supply.  I should have sent a single unit in to their area and they would not have been able to do so, opening up their line to a massive breach and forcing them to most likely lose two units.  Other than that they dress the line as best they can and wait for the final Allied move. 

Another shot of the end of the German turn.

End of Allied turn 9 and the game.  The Allies try to create a breakthrough to allow reserve marked armor units to move through.  The Germans used a special action to retreat from one and in the other the attack was one hit shy from destroying the German unit there.  At the top of the map the Allies attack to try and retake the Victory point there but no luck.  At the bottom the Allied attack is called off since they took so many hits (7 of 8 possible with a 50% chance) that they would have lost a unit (a German victory point).  Same exact thing two spaces above that.  Just next to Bastogne the allied fire managed to destroy one of the previously OOS Germans and the other retreated.  Finally the reserve units move in to attack the German that retreated just below Bastogne and others move in to attack attack the one that had survived the previous battle.  The retreated unit lived through the battle but the other one was destroyed.  Totally up the Victory Points the allies had 1 more than the Germans for a minor victory.  A really fun, hard fought battle.  

Close up of the Bastogne area.  The Final (game winning) German casualty is the now empty space with the Airborne and the Armor unit in it, the battle that fell one short is right below it.

The large dead units box.  Each unit of size 3 or more counts as victory points at the end of the game (along with Victory Spaces held by each side).

A preview shot for Tomorrow's game, Lawrence and I had back to the Battle of the Bulge with Ardennes '44.  This time I will be the Germans to Lawrence's Allies.