Battle of Luneville
17/9/44
The battle of Luneville started on 15th September when two troops of the 42nd Recon Squadron had attempted to take the town by coup de main, however it was strongly held by elements of the 15 Panzer grenadier Division. One the 16th their was fierce fighting in the town elements of the 4th Armored Division's reserve combat command together with elements of the 42nd Recon Squadron slowly pushed the Germans out of the town, though they still hung on tenaciously in the south east corner. On the 17th the German XLVII Panzer Korps launched a counter attack to re-take the town. Unfortunately this was badly coordinated and the new panzer brigades lacked in training and experience
The scenario depicts the attack by elements of XLVII Panzer Korps to re-take Luneville
Deployment
Forces are deployed as indicated on the map. 111 Panzer brigade enters the board turn 1. TF Hunter; elements 113 Panzer Brigade and 1st Plt B/42nd are reinforcements
A/35 Tank Battalion and CCR are deployed in Luneville north of the railway line. No US forces are deployed on the southern edge of the town, though the FFI may be so deployed
10th Infantry are on the heights above Luneville. They must be deployed within 6" of the contour which the unit symbol is straddling. All elements are dug in
B/166th Engineers are deployed adjacent to the two roads bridges. Each bridge must have at least one engineer stand adjacent
TF Hunter enters along the road indicated on the 15:00 turn (turn 10), or at any point along that boards edge north of the point indicated. The unit enters in column; march order is player's choice. The TF may not enter within 12" of any enemy in LOS. If there are no safe entry points wait until there are.
At the start of turn 2 roll for the 1st Plt B/42nd. Roll 2d6. They arrive on table on an 11 or 12. Roll at the start of each turn until they arrive. The jeeps arrive anywhere along the southeast board edge or along the Southwest board edge as far north as the lake. The jeeps may not enter within 12" of of any enemy in LOS. If there are no safe entry points wait until there are.
15 Panzer Grenadier Division, PG Abt starts in Luneville anywhere south of the railway.
115 Panzer Abt starts south east of Luneville
111 Panzer Brigade enters the board turn one along the road indicated. It enters in column. March order as the player wishes.
The 113 Aufklarungs Kompanie is a reinforcement. Roll 2d6. They arrive on table on an 11 or 12. Roll at the start of each turn until they arrive. The kompanie arrives anywhere along the northeast board edge north of Jolivet. The kompanie may not enter within 12" of any enemy in LOS. If there are no safe entry points wait until there are.
Terrain
The table is 9ft x 5ft (5.4km x 3km). North is towards the top of the page
Gray areas are towns, the buildings are stone built
Green areas are open woods
Red lines are roads, only main roads are indicated and these are tarmac.
The black dotted lines are railways. Within the town the width of the railway is considered open ground
The blue lines are rivers. They are about 20m across, and for the most part have wooded banks, indicated by green dotted lines. the rivers are impassable. The black lines crossing the river are foot bridges which way only be used by personnel stands
The blue areas are lakes and are impassable. They are surrounded by trees
The green dotted lines are tree lines, these provide light cover an break LOS
The brown dashed lines indicate the edges of escarpments. The terrain at the top of the table is much higher than that at the south. The escarpments break LOS with the exception that anything touching the northern escarpment can see over the southern escarpment. Stands touching the escarpments can see over intervening terrain other than woods that touch the escarpment. Stands touching the escarpment edge can see over intervening terrain to the edge of Luneville, the Meurthe river or the railway line, whichever is closer.
Special Rules
The game starts at 11:00 (the German attack has slowly pushed CCR back in to Luneville and US resistance is starting to stiffen) and ends at 20:00; 20 turns.
The bridges adjacent to the stands of B/166th are wired for demolition. They are class VI bridges so a 6+ damages and a 10 demolishes the bridges
10th Infantry may not move south of the Vezouze river until Luneville has been cleared of all enemy stands.
To simplify the town fighting the following rules apply when fighting in Luneville, town block are not used for Luneville
Town Fighting Rules
The town is considered one homogenous built up area (note that the railway is open space)
Roads are considered part of the BUA and only aid movement, they do not count as open space.
LOS is 2" within the town, including down the roads
Anywhere in the town personnel stands, excepting those manning towed guns, are considered in medium cover (-3). This includes troops on the roads. Vehicles and towed guns are not considered in cover (they have to remain on the streets).
Movement, except along the marked roads is halved for all stands
All vehicle weapons have a ROF of 0 so may only fire in opportunity fire. The exception are H class weapons which may fire in prep fire with an HE factor of 0
Only mortars may fire IDF out of the town
Vehicles and towed guns do NOT get the cover bonus (+2) when in the town as they are operating without cover in the streets
When forced back personnel are only forced back until out of LOS of enemy forces. Vehicles are forced back a standard move
Victory Conditions
For a victory they each side must capture a road route from the south east corner of the map to either the exit next to Mehon or the exit west of Faubourg de Nancy. To count as captured there must be no enemy stands closer to the road than a friendly stand. The enemy stands must be within 6" of the route to count as blocking the road. In all cases shaken and demoralised stands do not count towards the victory conditions
Damaged bridges do not block routes for victory purposes. Destroyed bridges do.