Darkest December Wargame
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Darkest December Wargame |
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Box Description During the night, and completely undetected, 116th Panzer Division infiltrated American lines for more than 12 miles, arriving at the outskirts of Hotton. The advantage of surprise was quickly squandered when a German Lieutenant ordered a few mortar rounds to be dropped on the center of town at about 0730 hours - long before an attack was ready to be laid in. An American officer, speeding towards Soy - where the HQ of the 3rd US Armored Division CCR was standing by - reported the incoming rounds to Colonel Howze. A platoon from 'C' Coy, 23rd Armored Engineers was immediately sent towards Werpin, via the hamlet of Melines, to ask local inhabitants about reported Nazi infiltrators. Spied on by a platoon of enemy hidden along the path leading to Bois de la Roumiere, no sooner had the Yanks been warned when Spandau fire laced their ranks, followed by a German armored column, led by a captured Sherman tank. A heroic American Corporal, John Shields, stood up to hurl a grenade at the open hatch of the enemy tank when he was cut down. The rest of the Americans were soon wiped out, their jeep riddled with bullets before its occupants had time to use their radio. All but one of the 33 American soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured, the first casualties in what would be a drawn-out and bloody battle at Hotton... Darkest December is a detailed new ATS system game that tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge from the perspective of the 3rd US Armored Division, facing down the vaunted German 116th Panzer Division. Hitler's Wacht Am Rhein offensive was underway, and the Yanks of 3rd Armored, along with Engineers from the 23rd and 51st Engineer Battalions faced the 'Greyhound' Panzer Division and the 560th Volksgrenadier Division - and were soon cordoned off from friendly lines. Paratroopers from the 517th PIR were ordered to free surrounded elements of the 3rd Armored Division. Free them they did, at the cost of 150 wounded and 11 dead in the process of breaking fanatic enemy resistance at Hotton. Your investment in the Advanced Tobruk System (ATS) will be rewarded as an unprecedented library of new ATS Modules, each covering a different World War II battle, is published. The ATS depicts tactical-level warfare on numerous battlefields of World War II, including Normandy, Arnhem, the Italian Front, and others. Each boxed ATS release is a complete game. There is nothing more to buy to immediately begin enjoying tactical-level wargaming like never before. To keep your investment fresh and exciting, new Battle of the Bulge expansion packs are coming for Darkest December. Darkest December delivers unheralded action and suspense at the scale and level of detail true tactical-level enthusiasts demand - individual squads, weapons and tanks. All the subtle nuances of small unit actions are provided by the acclaimed ATS system: gun duels; separate pivoting turrets; AFV indirect fire; coaxial machine-guns; melee; smoke; armor penetration; morale; AFV overruns, and much more. And it is all accomplished using a detailed yet intuitive system that models tanks using discrete armor values at turret, superstructure, lower hull and track aspects and front, side and rear facings. The ATS system provides for the realistic use of High Explosive, Armor Piercing, APDS and HEAT ammunition. All this without the need for side notes or plotting moves and in a solitaire-friendly presentation. Begin play almost immediately using the provided Basic Game Rules that take minutes to learn - so you can get your men and weapons in action within moments. SOME OF THE UNITS YOU CAN COMMAND IN EXCITING AND REALISTIC WAYS: Pzkw VG: The Ausf G was the third series of the Panther, Germany's best medium tank of World War II. Side armor was increased, and many minor changes were incorporated to improve reliability. About 450 Panthers were available with units of Army Group B at the start of the Ardennes offensive. M5A1: The M5A1 'Stuart' was the US Army's standard light tank by early 1944. It was equipped with a 37mm main armament, and two .30 caliber machine-guns, although many crews replaced the turret-mounted weapon with a .50 cal. The tank had well-sloped frontal armor, including increased armor on the turret-front. Jagdpanzer 38t: The 'Hetzer' (agitator) was the result of Guderian's demand for a light, low-slung tank-destroyer with adequate armor. The resulting design was built on the reliable, if cramped chassis of the Czech 38(t) tank, with extensively angled armor and a roof-mounted remote-controlled machine-gun. |
