Kampfgruppe Peiper Campaign

[Flharfh]

Looks like I am a little late to the party, but I finished this campaign today and I wanted to comment with what a good time it was. Comments - 

First two missions are pretty easy and self explanatory. Third one, the first Stavelot battle - not difficult to win, but difficult to cap the last victory point (the town square) to get the fuel capture bonus. 

Staumont - very difficult but at least you have ample forces. I pushed in directly along the main road and lost 2-3 panthers to the concealed 90mm TDs. 3 mortar barrages failed to destroy them and thankfully I had the two king tigers from capturing the fuel depot in Stavelot 1 to neutralize them. I didn't attempt the Roua objectives and the sanitarium seems too far away to realistically capture in the time given if you don't swing around and go through Roua. I got a 'draw' which allowed me to continue, but that includes me not getting credit for one of the objectives I had captured despite there being no allied troops there. 

Stavelot 2 - the most difficult of the campaign. You are attacking a fortified enemy who has superior forces. At first you think the two KTs and the Panther can easily handle the six vehicle American SPAT battery. They can't penetrate your armor, but a few hits from them will damage your gun, optics, or tracks which is just as good as a total kill. Still, killing them is worth a lot of points so you have to do it. I suggest inching your way up the middle with the ACs and tanks and hoping for good RNG. I admit I had to reload this one a few times. It seems very difficult to actually capture any of the objectives other than the "road screen" one given that you face a superior, dug in infantry force with ATG support. What I did was use my initial artillery to bombard the known ATG locations, advance and destroy the SPAT battery, capture the road screen objective, pick off any extra enemies I could, and minimize my losses. I lost the battle but apparently not badly enough to prevent me from progressing. 

Werbemont -easier than Staumont or Stavelot 2. At this point your forces are depleted but this map is relatively fair. I was able to win a moderate victory on my first attempt by going around the right side and going for the three highest VPs. 

All in all this was a great campaign that I think captures the essence of the difficulties the Germans faced in 1944/45. I tip my hat to the designer. 

 

I know this game and the campaign have been out for years, but here are my constructive criticisms (mostly to the game engine): 

Infantry in small buildings seem very resilient. It seems to take quite a few HE shells to neutralize teams/sections in small unfortified Belgian houses. 

Mortars - don't seem to do much of anything against dug in infantry (buildings, woods, foxholes). 

A few stragglers shouldn't prevent capture of a victory point. The first battlefront games handled this fine . . .as long as you have superior forces at the VP, it should count as captured. 

Forward observer and on-map mortars - basically impossible to use practically on the attack. Might as well expend all ammo on preliminary bombardments. 

Some strange things with infantry. They take casualties very easily, but are extremely resilient - I frequently had 2/8 or 3/10 infantry squads still combat capable. 

Defeated gun/vehicle crews too easily return to battle with small arms. Combat ineffective units should be removed or should rout off the map.

In campaign where losses are not replenished, badly damaged squads should be merged somehow to prevent very small, basically combat worthless units. 

I don't know how it is determined that a vehicle becomes immobilized but it seems to be very harsh RNG. 

 

Edited March 22 by Flharfh

[GhostRider3/3]

5 minutes ago, Flharfh said:

Looks like I am a little late to the party, but I finished this campaign today and I wanted to comment with what a good time it was. Comments - 

First two missions are pretty easy and self explanatory. Third one, the first Stavelot battle - not difficult to win, but difficult to cap the last victory point (the town square) to get the fuel capture bonus. 

Staumont - very difficult but at least you have ample forces. I pushed in directly along the main road and lost 2-3 panthers to the concealed 90mm TDs. 3 mortar barrages failed to destroy them and thankfully I had the two king tigers from capturing the fuel depot in Stavelot 1 to neutralize them. I didn't attempt the Roua objectives and the sanitarium seems too far away to realistically capture in the time given if you don't swing around and go through Roua. I got a 'draw' which allowed me to continue, but that includes me not getting credit for one of the objectives I had captured despite there being no allied troops there. 

Stavelot 2 - the most difficult of the campaign. You are attacking a fortified enemy who has superior forces. At first you think the two KTs and the Panther can easily handle the six vehicle American SPAT battery. They can't penetrate your armor, but a few hits from them will damage your gun, optics, or tracks which is just as good as a total kill. Still, killing them is worth a lot of points so you have to do it. I suggest inching your way up the middle with the ACs and tanks and hoping for good RNG. I admit I had to reload this one a few times. It seems very difficult to actually capture any of the objectives other than the "road screen" one given that you face a superior, dug in infantry force with ATG support. What I did was use my initial artillery to bombard the known ATG locations, advance and destroy the SPAT battery, capture the road screen objective, pick off any extra enemies I could, and minimize my losses. I lost the battle but apparently not badly enough to prevent me from progressing. 

Werbemont -easier than Staumont or Stavelot 2. At this point your forces are depleted but this map is relatively fair. I was able to win a moderate victory on my first attempt by going around the right side and going for the three highest VPs. 

All in all this was a great campaign that I think captures the essence of the difficulties the Germans faced in 1944/45. I tip my hat to the designer. 

 

I know this game and the campaign have been out for years, but here are my constructive criticisms (mostly to the game engine): 

Infantry in small buildings seem very resilient. It seems to take quite a few HE shells to neutralize teams/sections in small unfortified Belgian houses. 

Mortars - don't seem to do much of anything against dug in infantry (buildings, woods, foxholes). 

A few stragglers shouldn't prevent capture of a victory point. The first battlefront games handled this fine . . .as long as you have superior forces at the VP, it should count as captured. 

Forward observer and on-map mortars - basically impossible to use practically on the attack. Might as well expend all ammo on preliminary bombardments. 

Some strange things with infantry. They take casualties very easily, but are extremely resilient - I frequently had 2/8 or 3/10 infantry squads still combat capable. 

Defeated gun/vehicle crews too easily return to battle with small arms. Combat ineffective units should be removed or should rout off the map.

In campaign where losses are not replenished, badly damaged squads should be merged somehow to prevent very small, basically combat worthless units. 

 

 

Glad you enjoyed the Campaign.  It was a good one.  There are many more.  I saw your critiques, you are not wrong in some, but some are harder to complete to make the game manageable.  My guess as far as HE into Houses is, yes devastating but not nearly as devastating as putting SMOKE rounds in a building as they are phosphorus-based.  The Germans did this at Arnhem, and visa versa possibly.  I do find the HE rounds effective, it just may take 2-3 rounds, MG fire is so so, but the German FLAK guns are devastating to Infantry in buildings most of the time.  Stragglers are a pain but they possibly did this because of mechanics... maybe? 

As far as the Campaign is replenished, that is all based on the designer.  I look at how many days is this campaign, and realistically it would be to replenish troops in combat the next day.  Sure in real life you could take a driver and give him a rifle, but honestly he might be too shell-shocked or such to even be of any use.  Anyhow good stuff, there are many scenarios and campaigns out there.