Edelweiss: Clean and Bright
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
November 2014

By the 1980s it had become firmly established that role-playing games are sold on what's called the "core-supplement model." Most role-playing games are built around a core rulebook, that has all the rules you need to master sessions, and supplements that give you the actual adventures to run, extra cool "crunchy bits," and suchlike items.

We package our wargames the same way, with boxed games as the "core" and downloads, books and booklets as the "supplements." In theory, the boxed games cover the most popular topics, the books the next most recognizable, and the now-discontinued downloads the odd and obscure.

Panzer Grenadier: Edelweiss was easily the best of the download line and probably the best product out of all the supplements; I'm very happy that we were able to bring it out in a book edition. Edelweiss is a very satisfying product, with a lot of play value in those 32 scenarios and a strong historical narrative running through them. I think you'll like it. Here are the final dozen scenario summaries:

Phalari Pass
19 September 1943

With Italy bowing out of the war, the Germans moved to disarm their former allies as quickly as possible. On Cephalonia, Gen. Antonio Gandin of the 33rd “Acqui” Division faced a dilemma. His government issued clear orders to cease hostilities against the Allies, but maintain his unit in a state of readiness. The 11th Army command ordered him to turn his weapons over to the small German unit on the island. While Gandin discussed his options with the island’s coast artillery and naval commanders, ships carrying a German battle group drawn from the 1st Mountain Division, 104th Light Division and some independent units appeared offshore. The Germans opened fire, the Italians returned it, and bitter fighting exploded. To get to the island’s capital, the Germans would have to force their way through a number of rocky passes.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge and Road to Berlin, and pieces from Afrika Korps and Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The German battalion forced its way past the Italian defenders, inflicting severe casualties on their former allies. But the Italians fought resolutely, and caused quite a few German losses as well. Anger over these combat deaths would lead to tragic consequences a few days later, as the fight for Cephalonia grew more heated.

	Antonio Gandin, a hero before Penelope Cruz came along.

Gandin’s Attack
21 September 1943

Acqui had not seen combat since 1941, and many of its veteran soldiers had been rotated back to Italy. After years of garrison duty, some of Gandin’s young troops wavered in their first combat. Reinforcing them with coastal artillery and anti-aircraft guns, the division commander took personal charge of the II/17 Infantry Battalion and counterattacked the advancing Germans.

Note: This scenario uses a map and pieces from Afrika Korps, and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

Despite the undoubted bravery of their officers, the inexperienced Italian infantrymen could not overcome the German assault gun support. The German infantry proved little better, but heavy Stuka support and their armor repelled the Italian attack.

Design Note: The high point of the Italian resistance, and the only scenario of the 32 not featuring German mountain troops. But it needed to be in there to make the Cephalonia set complete.

Argostoli: Edelweiss Stained
22 September 1943

For days the fighting raged on Cephalonia, with the Acqui Division’s six battalions holding their own against five better-armed German ones. Using their greatest advantage — mobility — the Germans set out on a long flank march through the rugged hills in the center of the island, to strike the capital from the south. During the 20-hour march the Germans overran a compound where the Italians held 470 Germans prisoner. All had been treated well — a fact that only highlights the crimes that followed.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Road to Berlin and Battle of the Bulge, and pieces from Afrika Korps and Eastern Front.

Conclusion

After breaking through Italian lines south of Argostoli, the Germans took the town from several directions. When resistance ceased, the massacres began. The Germans had already killed 75 officers and 2,000 soldiers (many after they had surrendered). Acqui’s leaders apparently did not realize the extent of German crimes, and directed their troops to yield. Another 155 officers and 4,700 men were murdered after Acqui headquarters capitulated. Gandin, 193 of his officers and 17 sailors were shot by firing squads over the next few days.

Design Note: The last battle on Cephalonia, one well remembered in Italy. War is not fun, and it is not a game, and it's always difficult as a game designer to maintain that underlying truth while trying to give your players both enjoyment and historical insight.

Garibaldi's Heirs
2 December 1943

In the mountains of eastern Montenegro, the Italian troops of the Venezia and Taurinense Divisions went over to the Yugoslav partisans rather than trust to German mercy. Those wishing to fight the Germans formed the “Garibaldi” Division of Tito’s partisan army. They became involved in heavy fighting when the Germans launched an operation to clear eastern Bosnia. Near the town of Goradze, destined to become infamous 50 years later, the Italians and their partisan allies squared off with the SS.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front, a board from Battle of the Bulge, and pieces from Afrika Korps and Sinister Forces.

Conclusion

Short of heavy weapons and bereft of air or artillery support, the Italians and Yugoslavs fell back before the German assault. The SS division held together well in one of its few clear successes of the war, dispersing the Garibaldi Division and securing the area against partisan activity.

Design Note: Italians and partisans face the SS. Designing a scenario taking place in Goradze was a little troubling as well: I would never have guessed, before working on Edelweiss, that a wargame design could be so personally disturbing. I knew people from Goradze. They're all dead now.

Tiraspol' Bridgehead
13 May 1944

The two-part Soviet offensive into Ukraine in the winter and spring of 1944 cleared the Germans and their allies out of almost all pre-war Soviet territory. The leading spearheads even forced their way across the Dnestr River into Bessarabia, Romania's eastern province. Several times the Soviets launched attacks from their bridgehead at Tiraspol' toward Kishinev, the province's capital. The German command ordered the bridgehead eliminated and the Red Army pushed back into Ukraine.

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Eastern Front and pieces from Road to Berlin. Use only Soviet leaders from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

The 320th Rifle Division had taken the bridgehead in April while part of 5th Shock Army, but had been transferred to 46th Army in the interim and the new command doesn't seem to have been as quick to lend support. With only one river crossing under Soviet control, which the Germans soon brought under machine-gun fire, the Soviets found themselves forced back into a smaller and smaller perimeter. "The heroes literally fought to the last bullet," the army command staff reported, "Major General I.I. Svygin, the division commander, together with other members of the division's command group, died valiantly on the field of battle while inspiring his soldiers."

Design Note: Troops from 3rd Mountain Division, along with an assault gun brigade, try to crush a Soviet force backed up against a river. The Soviets are hard-fighting veterans, but are in a dangerous position.

Taking Out the Trash
11 September 1944

After Romania defected to the Allies, the Germans faced a gaping hole in their lines on the Eastern Front. Not only were Romanian divisions no longer fighting alongside them, the Romanians now attacked the Germans with an enthusiasm they never showed when fighting for the Axis. The German command rushed occupation troops to the border between Yugoslavia and Romania to re-form their line. The 7th SS Mountain Division crashed into the advancing Soviet 46th Army near Vrsac, a crossroads just inside the Yugoslav border.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Eastern Front, and pieces from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

Since their baptism of fire at Split, the 7th SS had enjoyed a good run against Tito’s partisans. This hard-won confidence quickly fled when they faced the Red Army’s battle-hardened Guardsmen, and the Soviet division rolled over the SS like a short speedbump. After only a brief delay to shoot what few prisoners had been taken, the Red Army’s advance moved onward. The 7th SS suffered enormous casualties in just a few hours, probably one third of the division’s strength.

Design Notes: The title's pretty predictable of course; I included this to give Soviet players a chance to grind an SS division under the treads of their T-34's.

End in the Arctic
7 October 1944

The Soviet Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive, designed to drive the German Arctic front back and hopefully encircle their front-line forces, kicked off with the heaviest artillery bombardment yet seen on this front. Unfortunately for the Red Army, the difficult terrain limited the supply of artillery ammunition and the shelling barely dented the deep rock shelters dug by the German mountain troops over the previous two years of static warfare.

Note: This scenario uses a map from Desert Rats and pieces from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

The Rainer Regiment held its positions on this first day of the assault, suffering heavy casualties but inflicting enormous losses on the Soviets. The next day would be different, with the division losing its strongpoints one by one and withdrawal orders coming almost too late to save it from disaster.

Design Note: This scenario includes a good bit of "heavy metal" from Road to Berlin, with the Soviets on a short timeline to force their way through an intense belt of fortified hilltops manned by the Rainier Regiment with its 9/8 morale (highest in the series) and hand-picked leaders.

Lost Battalion
27 October 1944

The swift American advance across France ground to a halt when they reached the Vosges Mountains, just north of the Swiss border. The German army command asked for mountain troops to help hold this rough ground, and several brand-new independent battalions were sent to the front. The young mountaineers had a cadre of experienced officers and NCOs, but no combat experience. In short order, they found themselves facing the toughest unit in the U.S. Army.

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Battle of the Bulge.

Conclusion

The Japanese-Americans of the 442nd had a goal in mind: drive through the German positions to rescue the trapped 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment. An elite regiment in normal times, the extra incentive made the Nisei unstoppable. The new mountain battalion soon found itself surrounded as the Americans pushed past them.

Design Note: This scenario introduced the famous "Go For Broke" regiment to the series before they received their own supplement, also titled Go For Broke.

Another Lost Battalion
28 October 1944

While the Americans surrounded the remainder of the 202nd, the 201st Mountain Battalion tried to rescue its comrades. Another freshly-raised unit, from Garmisch in southern Bavaria, the 201st faced a unit almost as tough as the Nisei: the “Cotton Balers” of the 7th Infantry Regiment, part of the elite 3rd Infantry Division. It would be all they could do to hold their ground, much less advance.

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Battle of the Bulge.

Conclusion

The Germans launched repeated counter-attacks, but the American advance ground on relentlessly. After only a few hours of combat, the German battalion had melted to a fraction of its original strength. There would be no rescue for the 202nd.

Design Note: Both sides need to attack, and with a short game they can't sit around. It's unusual in this set for the mountain troops to have a significant morale disadvantage, but that's the case in all the scenarios in which they face the Americans.

Himmler’s Sword
29 January 1945

Hapless as the 6th and 7th SS proved in battle, neither counts as the worst German formation of the war. In early 1943 the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, hatched a plan to recruit a Croatian mountain division. Volunteers proved hard to come by, and the division was soon enrolling large numbers of Bosnian Muslims (deserters from the Croatian puppet state’s army), ethnic Germans and the dregs of Balkan prisons. Ordered to the front to stop the Red Army, the smarter members of the division promptly deserted. The remnant was posted in front of the key Danube bridgehead at Apatin in southern Hungary, a spot Hitler himself ordered held as a launching pad for a future grand offensive that would destroy the Soviets.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Eastern Front and Battle of the Bulge, and pieces from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

The “Handschar” (“Sword”) Division crumpled under the first Soviet attack. The Red Army swept over the Danube and continued their advance. Handschar remained in the German order of battle until the end of the war, but never again would be trusted alone with a key position.

Design Note: The worst unit ever seen in Panzer Grenadier, topping even the Libyan labor troops of Desert Rats. With enormous advantages in firepower and morale the Soviets must inflict huge casualties and take wide swaths of ground to win, and they have the means to do so.

Attack Without Pause
2 February 1945

Transferred from northern Norway by train, ship and highway, the 2nd Mountain Division arrived on the Western Front in January, 1945. Taking positions in front of Colmar, they faced the tough American XX Corps and the French Foreign Legion. The division set out a thin screen to slow the American advance, but the tactics of Finland failed in Alsace. The U.S. 28th Division, following instructions to “attack without pause,” shredded the German line so quickly the mountain division reported itself under attack by an armored corps.

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Battle of the Bulge.

Conclusion

After more than four years in the Arctic, the Edelweiss Division was a shadow of its former self. The outpost line resisted but could not stop the Americans, by now expert in tank-infantry interactions. The “Bloody Bucket” Division brushed aside the jägers and drove into Colmar, a fortress-city that had defied the French 1st Army since October.

Design Note: The Edelweiss Division isn't its old self by 1945, lacking the morale and leadership edges it holds in other scenarios.

Sacred Mountains
14 February 1945

The Soviet offensive that opened with the new year quickly swept across Poland and into western Slovakia. Around the town of Ruzemberok in the high valley of the Biely Vah river, just below the heights of the Tatra mountains, the 3rd Mountain Division faced repeated assaults. The Soviet 18th Army sought to break through into the Slovak plain and to liberate the Tatras, a powerful symbol to the Slovak people.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Road to Berlin, and pieces from Road to Berlin and Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The jägers fought off repeated waves of attackers, and according to the German Army's order of the day, "yielded not one meter." The Soviets could tell the Reich's end was near and fought to keep their offensive going, but now that the mountain divisions fought in familiar terrain they proved impossible to dislodge.

Design Notes: And we close with a scenario featuring high-morale defenders facing literal waves of attackers — three massive groups of Soviet infantry backed with armor. This one uses all the infantry pieces of both Road to Berlin and Eastern Front, as the mountain troops try to hold a narrow valley. It's a fitting wrap for the supplement, tense to play and fun for beginners with so many Soviet pieces in play.

See the first installments of this Edelweiss preview here and here.

Try out these scenarios. Pick up a copy of the newn laser-cut Edelweiss!