Turn 5 and the Germans have entered the map from the South and partially cleared a route, as well as pressed US forces off of Victory Route C.

Below is a mid turn shot of the US movement on Turn 5.

Yes there is a German unit in Bastogne! Other man units go PAST Bastogne and hunt Arty, forcing Arty to either fire at the enemy adjacent or be attacked. this uses precious US ammo up.

However the US player attempts ejects the Germans from the town, so no VP earned. This did cost a lot of ammo for the US however. So the Fallois units sacrifice is duly noted! 3 PJ from Kemmel also dies in Turn 5 as the move to the South of Bastogne, a lucky Arty hit kills the reduced unit on the Southern tip of Bastogne and another is reduced and DG’d in the German barrage phase.

During Turn 5 Longchamps and Gives in the North are attacked and almost cleared. Route A has just one enemy unit on it. Route C has none and there is a 3 hex gap in the Western defenses of Bastogne. The problem is we still have not got a unit in during the combat phase.

North Area @ start of Turn 6:

During the Exploit phase however in the South KG 902 armor overruns units to press towards Bastogne from the South. Northern Exploit moves push units to attempt to lock up the US forces from Bastogne and from Route C.

In Bastogne proper 2 units of KG 901 enter the town and hunker down.

In the South:

So with the US move to come we feel pretty good that we are now forcing him to react to larger moves in several directions. The attacks North and South of Bastogne achieved 2 goals – distracted the defense of Bastogne and aided the clearing and securing of Routes.

So with the entry into Bastogne of panzers he is going to switch focus again we hope, as the paramount need is clearing Bastogne to avoid VP accumulation to the German. I’m hopeful that he invests heavily in that in Turn 6, so that the Germans can consolidate their hold on Route A and C.

The Primary and Secondary goals have been achieved, in a turn or two the Germans need to assess how to hold their gains.

What will the US do in Turn 6?