Darkness arrives early in mid-December. Visibility is poor due to fog and falling snow. Distant explosions bear a vibrant testimony to the bitter struggle that goes on in the Ardennes.

A reinforced US infantry company is providing local security for the US B/109 FA artillery battery. The artillerymen have been pounding German forces intermittently all day. So far, enemy forces have not been sighted but engine and track noises have been heard in nearby woods.

Crumpled in your overcoat pocket are your latest sets of orders:

Situation:

Enemy forces have crossed the Our River early this morning and have assaulted several villages in our area of operations. Fate of defenders is unknown. Last contact indicated that heavy losses have been inflicted on attackers.

It appears that the German 2 Pz Division is attempting to cross the Our River. Your task is to hold current positions at all cost and await reinforcements for the planned counter-attack. Help is on the way, hold on!

Forces:

3 x platoons A/110 + 81mm, dug-in, perimeter defense
2 x 57mm AT B/630 TD, digging-in
1 x 8 1mm mortar D/110, dug-in
2 x MG D/110, dug-in
6 x 105mm B/109 FA, dug-in
10 x trucks
2 x M4 Shernans, in reserve
6 x mines, emplaced on roads

Administration:

Infantry personnel have been issued with combat rations and water. Artillery ammunition is running low due to heavy expenditure throughout the day and stands at approximately: 105mm: 25 x HE, 2 x Smoke, 1x Illum

Intelligence:

A German Kampfgruppe comprised of an infantry battalion and several armor platoons has been identified in your vicinity. According to Signal Intelligence, expect a heavy assault before dawn on A/110 position, preceded by an intense artillery barrage and smoke screen in accordance with current German offensive doctrine.

Orders:

Hold the village at all cost. Provide security for B/109 FA. Interdict primary road going through the village. B/109 FA will provide artillery support to defenders and to US forces in the area.

Failure Instructions:

Displace Reinforced Combat Team to alternate defensive positions. With little infantry and armor, US defenders must secure an important crossroads against a powerful Kampfgruppe, all the while providing artillery support to other beleaguered forces.

Rule #1: Hedgehog Defense!

The greatest concern is the lack of manpower. Three platoons is an inadequate force to establish a defense in-depth. Isolated strong points must be established in outlying buildings and perimeter village locations in order to keep attackers away from soft units: transports, mortars and artillery.

Infantry platoons are located to interdict the most likely approach paths or the more threatened sectors. MG sections are pressed into infantry duties due to the chronic shortage of manpower and are used to safeguard less likely avenues.

The US defenders must avoid hand-to-hand combat whenever possible, but instead engage the foe at long range where firepower is less effective. Remember, the prime objective is to hold on as long as possible.

Mortars are sited in the village proper. With the artillery, they are the US most precious weapons.

AT guns are sited with the infantry platoons to provide anti-tank protection, and to interdict the roads.

Rule #2: No Parking!

Although very tempting, tanks should not be parked (stacked) in village or building hexes, unless adjacent hexes are mined and they are stacked with infantry!

If the US player sites his tanks in built-up perimeter hexes, the German will smoke the approach path and rush in a couple of platoons to engage the tanks in the ensuing turn with AT rolls at 100m range.

Tanks parked in built-up areas at night, in bad visibility face a +1/ +2 DRM attack (provided friendly infantry is providing close-in security), with a basic 7 (village) or9 (building) required for destruction. This means that a die roll of 5 or 6, with two dice, is sufficient to destroy them. Bad, real bad.

Better to site them further back and to use their long-range fire support, if possible. Where infantry platoons are few, tanks make good reserve. Commit them only when required.

Rule #3: Dig In!

All US defenders should dig-in (by implementing Prepared Defense [PD] op sheets) whenever possible. The added + 1/+2 DRM can mean the difference between suppression and a step loss. A unit benefitting from a +5 DRM is a very tough nut to crack.

Be aware that PD op sheets have long implementation delays. Being caught with no orders is disastrous for the US. Due to the Bloody 110 US op sheet limitation (max: 4), it may prove judicious to add elements to an already existing op sheet and to accrue weighted turns separately.

This point is valid for any TCS scenario where one side or the other is op sheet limited.

Rule #4: Watch Them Mines!

Mines are not expected to defeat the enemy. They are intended to delay the attack er sufficien t y for your weapons of mass destruction (tubes) to engage them while in the open, causing casualties and suppression.

Defenders should be located immediately adjacent to rnines so that they may be able to engage immobilized attackers (200m range at night). Otherwise, attackers would be able to move up to minefields unobserved and breach them.

Suddenly, the relative quiet is broken by shells thundering just short of the perimeter defense. Smoke! Smoke everywhere! Defenders cannot adjust fire. Shadows are seen darting from hex to hex but cannot be engaged effectively. Damn!

The assault has started!

Rule #5: Turn on the Light!

Units cannot engage unseen enemies. Darkness is the friend of the night stalker. Use mortars to place illumination rounds ahead of the perimeter to allow ranged weapons to engage the enemy during his approach march.

Once the firefight phase of the assault has begun, it is better to let the attacker place his own illumination round, First, this procedure saves your mortar for defensive fire. Second, firing an illumination round counts as a direct fire, which means that the defender now gets first fire on the now illuminated attacking forces. Last, if the attacker cannot place an illumination round (i.e. all his spotters are blinded by smoke), then all attacks will suffer a -3 DRM, which is a great benefit to the defender!

Rule #6: Hold Your Fire!

Due to overwatch rules, it is wise to hold fire until enemy intensions are revealed. If committed too soon, the volume of overwatch fire may be insufficient later to prevent enemy reserve forces from closing in.

When overwatch fire is used, tailor the force to achicve the desired result. If suppression result is all that is required, fire off just enough units to secure a reasonable DRM. A firepower O DRM is most reasonable to suppress manoeuvreing attackers. A single unit should be sufficient to secure such a DRM (or better) in anything but forest.

Rule #7: 1-2 Punch!

Perimeter defenders are few and usually weak in offensive firepower. They are not born killers! The US artillery is. First, immobilize attackers in the open with overwatch fire ermines. Then call in the artillery and clobber them!

If calling down artillery away from defensive positions, use area fire concentrations to engage as many targets as possible, unless the main target is just too tempting. In that case, select linear concentration for maximum effect.

When calling down artillery fire 100m ahead of the perimeter, use a linear concentration to minimize friendly fire casualties. In this respect the defender enjoys a marked advantage due to his fire mode and terrain DRM (defenders should be dug-in, remember!)

Rule #8: On the Proper Use of Reserves!

Lucky is the US CO who has sufficient forces to afford a reserve. Usually, troops are too few to allow anything more than a token reserve (i.e. 1x MG or 1x AT). Armormakes good reserve since it should not be committed to static defense in built-up locations, where it would be targeted by enemy infantry, not to mention German artillery.

Be patient. Do not commit reserves too early. The attacker must be made to engage his reserves first, if possible. If unopposed, a small reserve can seriously affect the outcome of an assault by one of three methods:

1. Hitting attacking enemy forces in the flank,
2. Reinforcing a threatened perimeter sector,
3. Buying time for other defenders to disengage and implement failure instructions or for reinforcements to reach the threatened Perimeter sector.

Rule #9: Don't Panic!

Even though a perimeter position may be overrun, the remaining defenders arc still in position. Tubes are not that easy to overcome while dugin. Check out the artillery direct firepower. Tubes represent a force to be reckoned with.

Artillery should be evacuated if at all possible. Anticipate the need to place transports in move mode, to load soft units and to displace to a safe location. This will require 2-3 turns to pull off. Use local reserves to buy time. Use remaining perimeter defenders to provide overwatch fire while disengaging. Always leave an infantry platoon, or 1-2 AT sections, in fire mode to act as a rear-guard. Retreat in echelon. Avoid headlong flight.

Rule #10: Do Not Overstay Your Welcome!

As the assault drags on, defenders will accumulate losses. Morale will deteriorate gradually. A moment might come when the defense becomes brittle. By brittle, Imean that the next step loss might result in mandatory SYR, additional morale degradation, step loss, paralysis, or even surrender.

When approaching the disintegration point, consider the alternatives: relieve the front line defenders (check your reserves), or prepare a gradual pull-out.

Staying too long may result in catastrophic failure, where defender morale breaks with units streaming back in panic, losing steps on the way or worse, becoming paralyzed! The end cannot be too far off when this occurs. A change of locale is indicated.

The one lesson that TCS has taught me is that dug-in defenders in built-up areas, supported by artillery, arc dam difficult to eject. If a combined arms relief force is available, there is a good chance that an assault may be repulsed with heavy losses.

The attacker must be meticulous in his planning and deliberate in his assault. The proper combination of artillery preparation, smoke, illumination rounds, suppressive fire (usually delivered by armor and mortars) and elite assault teams must be arrived at to minimize losses.