theforger

I feel your pain. Pg 331 of Worst's brilliant book on Knittel, Knittel insisted the attack went in on foot.
"He [Coblenz] was in favour of an old fashioned motorised attack on Stavelot, one which would see his company forcing its way into the town to capture the bridge in a lightening strike at full throttle. In Coblenz' opinion it would ensure that the American defenders had very little time to react. But Knittel believed that the vulnerable 1/2 tracks were unsuitable for street combat and opted for an attack on foot.
Coblenz argued that his company was too weak to act as infantry. He explained, "Once dismounted the reconnaissance squad was smaller than an infantry squad. The driver and another trooper remained in the vehicle....so there were only 6 fighters in each squad.
But Knittel dismissed Coblenz complaints, the attack would go ahead as planned."
Coblenz's approach may not have succeeded, but with the additional firepower and mobility it would have offered a better chance of success IMO.

I feel your pain. Pg 331 of Worst's brilliant book on Knittel, Knittel insisted the attack went in on foot.
"He [Coblenz] was in favour of an old fashioned motorised attack on Stavelot, one which would see his company forcing its way into the town to capture the bridge in a lightening strike at full throttle. In Coblenz' opinion it would ensure that the American defenders had very little time to react. But Knittel believed that the vulnerable 1/2 tracks were unsuitable for street combat and opted for an attack on foot.
Coblenz argued that his company was too weak to act as infantry. He explained, "Once dismounted the reconnaissance squad was smaller than an infantry squad. The driver and another trooper remained in the vehicle....so there were only 6 fighters in each squad.
But Knittel dismissed Coblenz complaints, the attack would go ahead as planned."
Coblenz's approach may not have succeeded, but with the additional firepower and mobility it would have offered a better chance of success IMO.

(About 'Sterway to Heaven')
I feel proud now that I managed to get a minor victory on my first attempt. However, I was close to throwing in the towel about midway. In the end, I decided to only go for the bridge and the railway station, leaving the centre and outskirs in Ami hands.
The fight for the train station turned out to be way harder than I had realised. But eventually I did manage to clear the station decisively. Both Tigers s lost all weapons and optics by the end (as usual) and this would come back to haunt me in the following mission.
Stationary at Stavelot... well, I managed to get the first objective, but the second was impossible without the KTs. The defenders behind the big square building decimated one of my two remaining platoons, and the other platoon was destroyed trying to flank through the woods. In the end, I got desperate and tried wheeling a howitzer into position to take out the enemy tank at 125m range from the bridge. Needless to say, the tank remained invisible but immediately spotted my cannon.
I did manage to take the little village in the centre of the map though - without any tactical importance. Ran out of ammo doing it. One minor issue with this map is that the briefing says ammo has been resupplied, but in fact it hasn't.
Overall, I found the KG Knittel missions very difficult and exhausting.. pretty sure that's exactly what you were aiming for. I do think the nighttime one felt a bit too gamey though, in that the defence seemed set up in a way that maximised the quirks of the engine (targeting issues etc) and also that many of the buildings seem suspiciously devoid of windows on exactly the side that I would need for observation and support by fire..

it is one of the toughest scenarios in the campaign.
It took me 3 or 4 attempts to come up with tactics to win without heavy losses..and I knew where the enemy were!
The Ami arty can be devastating. Whilst your own is very much not.
It can give adequate smoke cover, but you need the tanks with HE and machine gun fire to suppress and remove the threat of the the TD/ATs and machine guns of the Amis before committing the Grenadier/FSJ. It can be tricky to achieve local fire superiority without bunching the troops making them vulnerable.

And so it ends. The remnants of KG Nickenkopf and their prisoners, devoid of the big cats that they had to leave behind in La Gleize, wade the chill waters of the River Salm to safety through Ami lines.
Despite failing to cross the Maas they have still scored a "Total Victory" (aided by @theforger's generous scoring system). In their wake they leave over 3000 dead and wounded Septics. And the Ardenne hills and valleys ring to the sound of Belgian scrap metal merchants shouting "Je l'ai vu en premier, vous con" at each other, as they fight over the Shermans and other Ami vehicles that litter the countryside.
This has been such a great campaign to fight. The quality of the maps, and varying nature of the missions both in force size and the number of objectives meant that it never got stale. It has been the most fun I've had since the good old days of the  CMx1 "Operations".
For the time being I am off to CMBN and the recent "Antwerp" campaign to see if I can get to John Martin's before Paddy has drunk all the Guinness (deliberate historical inaccuracy for comic effect).
I don't know what @theforger has in the pipeline, but I for one would love a US campaign based on this map.

If I'd have been Ed "Stinkpot" Stewart I'd have given Little Jimmy Osmond a smack in the mouth. Ah no, that's not quite what you meant.

Fantastic effort.
I gained a new respect for Stuarts. Words I doubt you'll ever say
 

Columns of thick, oily, black smoke rise from the Chemins des Minieres. Proof that cornered cats have very sharp claws.
I certainly wasn't expecting the Amis to throw in the towel with an hour still on the clock. When the news gets back to Versailles Ike will go and hide under Summersby's bed again.

I'm glad that you are enjoying it.
I won't say too much about "Assaulting Festung La Gleize" just yet. But, we do get six Grilles to use which is quite novel. And on Turn 2 one of my KTs picked out a Sherman carrying a load of infantry and took it out with one shot filling the screen with red crosses.

I'm up to Mission #9 (Poteau the Priority).   It's been a lot of fun and am just amazed at the amount of work that went into making this.  It's spectacular!
Thanks to the very generous time allotments, I've been able to win one Total Victory after the next, but the losses are starting to pile-up.  By the time I got to #7 (Butchers of Baugnez) the Spitze had been reduced to a single 4-man PzIV and an empty halftrack.
A few notes: SPOILERS!!!!
 
 
#2 Leaving Lanzerath: An American marksmen team was able to inflict 10 casualties with a lot of them KIA.  Who was shooting that sniper rifle?  Sergeant York?  It took me a while to find that team and then had to use up almost an entire platoon's worth of ammo trying to suppress/kill them.  Those stone Belgian buildings are tough!  On the other hand, Lt. Bouck's platoon didn't put-up much of a fight.  Of course, I knew where he was because the story of his I&R platoon has been featured in almost every Bulge narrative since David Eisenhower made it famous in "The Bitter Woods."
#3 Minen the Gap: this was a neat scenario and an example of how of this was a clear labor of love.  Creating that fantastic map just for the player to experience some of Peiper's frustration in navigating the poor Ardennes roads.  (I chose the "correct" path and, as a result, only lost one Panther to mines.)
#6 Bullingen China Shop: Didn't expect much of a fight especially early on.  So, I blundered right into the ambush.  This was the scenario that whittled the Spitze down to almost nothing.
#7 Butchers of Baugnez:  Massive map!  My tanks destroyed Battery B from a distance.  Unfortunately, I found myself cursing CMx2's inability to provide a "follow-the-road" or "convoy" feature.  Laboriously plotting every single vehicle's road movement and having to use the pause key to avoid traffic jams.  Ugh!  I've hated that since CMx1.  I know BF tried to get a "convoy" feature into one of the CMx2 upgrades, but they had to throw in the towel on it because they couldn't get it to work.  A shame. 
 
Speaking of CMx1, there was a scenario designer for that game, "McAuliffe," whose passion was the Bulge.  He designed a host of well-researched CMBO scenarios with beautiful maps based mostly on the fighting around Bastogne.   This campaign reminds of those scenarios: a labor of love by someone truly passionate about the subject.  That's one thing I miss about CMx1: its scenario editor's ease of use encouraged similar passion projects.   I miss the plethora of user-designed scenarios that one saw with CMx1.  CMx2's editor provides vastly more tools, but it's clear that's proven intimidating to would-be scenario designers.  Thankfully, The Forger wasn't intimidated.

It was great fun. My tank crew commandeered a Kubelwagen to get to the big cat before the Amis could take it out.

"Cold hearts" proved to be an interesting little fight, It ended in a very low casualty Total Victory, which is how I like things to be, except when I'm fighting Stinkpots with long pointy beards.
Next up is "Persistence Prevails" which features a dismounted Konig Tiger, which is not how one would like it be.

US Tank Destroyers could be mobile M10/M36's or 3" towed guns operated by Tank Destroyer units.
Such as the 823rd TD Btn. C Company of the 823rd, had 1x platoon of mobile M10's and 2x platoons each with 4x 3" towed guns.
The AT guns were 57mm operated by Infantry units, AT Companies within Infantry Regiments.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the campaign.

Love the screenshots...and AAR, really capturing the spirit of why this campaign was built, thank you.
Bouck's outfit had spent the week prior improving the ridge position with overhead cover.
A bit tricky to model in the design as you go from foxholes to a more formidable bunker structure.
I went with bunker in the end, to provide some mortar protection, making the scenario more of challenge.
Also the scenario abstracts the fighting in the area throughout the day, showing the earlier bug out of TD teams, leaving Bouck's men to fight it out.
The Devil's Adjutant provided much of the information and timeline within the campaign build... so a good accompanying read to use as a comparison as you progress.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-sn35-katz-und-maus/
All 35 individual scenarios are now uploaded.
I've modified some of the battles to reflect campaign losses, however you may want to do more.
It may be worth amending some and releasing as Quick Battle maps. 

Love the screenshots...and AAR, really capturing the spirit of why this campaign was built, thank you.
Bouck's outfit had spent the week prior improving the ridge position with overhead cover.
A bit tricky to model in the design as you go from foxholes to a more formidable bunker structure.
I went with bunker in the end, to provide some mortar protection, making the scenario more of challenge.
Also the scenario abstracts the fighting in the area throughout the day, showing the earlier bug out of TD teams, leaving Bouck's men to fight it out.
The Devil's Adjutant provided much of the information and timeline within the campaign build... so a good accompanying read to use as a comparison as you progress.

little bit of both really.
Rest and resupply is detailed in the later briefings, but pretty limited. Generally some resupply overnight Day3, 4 and 5.
To help out, the Fallshirmjager do get mortar ammo replenished and some resupply at Bullingen when you capture the fuel dump, SN06.

Nearly two years. It's my first crack at a campaign having issued Mission to Maas V2 scenario in Feb 2020, which ended up like a mini campaign in a single scenario.
At one point I decided to break Rollbahn D down into a trilogy, hence there is a part one earlier this year. I issued it just as Cold War and Fire and Rubble was released...great timing!
In the summer I changed my mind and rolled up parts 1,  2 and 3 together and pressed on, aiming for Dec 16th as a release date, which almost didn't happen.
No idea how many hours went in to it...I do still have a day job... if you do check out famous Ardennes pics from 44 you may be able to recognise buildings, down to even lamp posts and trees in some cases. The Church at Merlscheid, Buchholz Wirbelwind, SPWs and US prisoners being escorted back into Honsfeld from the NW, Church in Bullingen, destroyed Panther at Cheneux, Trois Ponts bridge, destroyed Panthers at Stoumont Station to name a few. 
Fortunately much of the area is unchanged, the exceptions were Malmedy and Recht which were more difficult. For the most part Google Earth and pre war postcards came in handy, along with Duel In The Mist 1-3, Then and Now, Timo Worsts book on Knittel. I even took a punt on spending a few hundred euros on a copy of Roppelts 700 page memoir auf der Spur. So I guess Google Translate deserves a mention too. I hope to make my first trip out there in 2022.
Previous to this campaign, in 2017 I published a couple of CMBS scenarios, Summer In The City and Korsun 2017.

I'm glad that you are enjoying my take on this excellent campaign. As for getting through it quite quickly, it is a result of not being able to get out and about as much as I would like.
Next up will be "No Prizes at Noupre". Elizabeth looks up from the fermenting vessel full of Whitehall No Bollocks Ale and mumbles, "Who needs prizes when I've got this on the go?"

Battle continues.  0430 hours, advancing along forest track through forest, no maneuver options, just have to follow the road.  But it's dark and surprise is still on my side as the Amis probably think it's some american units approaching in the dark.  I am guessing they are half asleep, cold, wet, miserable and have no idea Germans would be coming down this crappy road that goes nowhere.

Scouts forward, don't want to blunder into Ami position. 

Someone yells "KRAUTS!  Hundreds of them!!".   The bleary eyed Amis stare in shock for a second, then let loose with their rifles & BARs!

A couple mad minutes of night firing ensues, I lose a few but knock out the platoon in the foxholes and the house.

The column moves forward, knocking out any opposition, but taking more infantry casualties that I probably can't afford.  And on to battle #5, as Spitze group tries to skirt past Honsfeld.  Again in the pitch dark.  At a road junction, the column collides with some US vehicles entering the same road out of nowhere.  The jeep is destroyed but the fire lights up my vehicles, which immediately take fire from M8s positioned nearby.

The M8s are taken out, but I lose a tank crewman and a 75mm SPW is immobilized.

Every burning vehicle creates a potential death zone of light around it, so I try to avoid those areas as best I can.  I am confident there's no one in the houses ahead so I don't send out separate scouts, surely anyone there would've fired by now -- how many times must I do the same incredibly stupid thing before I learn my lesson??

and the cost of stupid:

What an excellent campaign, just feels so much like what I've read about those first days of the offensive.  Bad terrain, small groups of nasty GIs, a constant whittling down of my infantry & vehicles.
 
 
 

"Violence at the Preventorium". A costly Draw. But at least I made it to Day 6 which I wasn't expecting.

I've just finished the TF McGeorge mission. It was another really enjoyable battle, played out in the fog on a beautiful map. I couldn't quite force all the Amis out of the woods on one side of the objective zone, so I had to settle for a "tactical Victory".
Next up "Closing the Door", which I'm already familiar with have given it a go before Crimble.

"Stationary" was pretty much that. Again my arty performed poorly, and by the time I'd taken the first objective I'd already taken more casualties than I was happy with. So another Minor Defeat.
"Chewin'" was much more to my taste. A battlefield littered with Amis including the cheeky sods who showed up in a captured Stummel.

It's reassuring to know that it took you 3 or 4 attempts at it.
My tanks did perform well when it came to dealing with the Ami vehicles and guns, although one of the King Tigers got it's radio and optics shredding by an AA gun. Also, the number of HE rounds was beginning to run low for most of my tanks.
Possibly the best part of the fight was having a mortar round take out an M10. 

it is one of the toughest scenarios in the campaign.
It took me 3 or 4 attempts to come up with tactics to win without heavy losses..and I knew where the enemy were!
The Ami arty can be devastating. Whilst your own is very much not.
It can give adequate smoke cover, but you need the tanks with HE and machine gun fire to suppress and remove the threat of the the TD/ATs and machine guns of the Amis before committing the Grenadier/FSJ. It can be tricky to achieve local fire superiority without bunching the troops making them vulnerable.