Edelweiss: Bloom and Grow Forever
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2007

The saccharine song that shares our Panzer Grenadier supplement's title isn't authentically Austrian, it's purely the work of Rogers and Hammerstein, but our game is as accurate as we can make it. There are 32 scenarios depicting combat ranging from the Greek campaign of 1941 through early 1945. All of the scenarios focus on German mountain troops, from both regular army and Waffen SS divisions.

Edelweiss was the second supplement we issued for Panzer Grenadier. Dave Powell turned in his Chickamauga&Chattanooga game without using all the pieces on that game's third counter sheet. I certainly wasn't going to allow those to run as blank cardboard, and so decided to place a Panzer Grenadier supplement there.

It had 24 scenarios originally, but as the years went by the product became less satisfying. The scenarios did not make use of all the game boards and playing pieces we've issued over the past five years, and none of them had the benefit of Doug McNair's development skills. The publication itself was also a very unsatisfying paper folder, which we've replaced with a sturdy cardstock spiral-bound booklet. As the designer, I'm much happier with it. As the publisher, I'm even more pleased — Edelweiss sold very well for all of its flaws, and should do much better in its improved format.

The heart of any Panzer Grenadier product is the scenario set. We've made it our practice to provide a lot of them, of many types and sizes, and Edelweiss should not disappoint. Here's a look at the first third of them:

Having driven through the Greek Second Army with little trouble, the Germans found a different proposition once they ran into the ANZAC Corps digging in just west of Mount Olympus. Gen. Ferdinand Schörner of 6th Mountain Division ordered his officers to "act with the utmost severity" to encourage the troops through difficult terrain — showing why he would become famed as the most hated commander in the German Army. After picking their way across "impassable" ridges, the jägers found a mixed Australian-New Zealand force dug in behind the Pinios River. They immediately moved to attack.

Conclusion

The German 143rd Mountain Regiment feinted with one battalion while striking across the river with another, penetrating the Australians' right flank and rolling up their position. The Diggers had been shocked enough to find the mountaineers arriving so quickly, but it soon became apparent that they had dragged along a battalion of mountain artillery as well. The Australian 2/2 Infantry Battalion was overrun and destroyed and the Allied position badly broken as the entire corps pulled back.

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

Design Notes: This is one of the new scenarios added to the Expanded Edition. Mountain troops make an assault across a river, with a flanking attack to come in at some unknown moment. With a dug-in opponent with morale as good as their own, this is a difficult task.

Having forced the Pinios River, 6th Mountain Division pressed the retreating ANZACs along with 2nd "Vienna" Panzer Division. Chaos followed, with the Australian and New Zealand units becoming tangled and contradictory orders flowing from brigade, division, corps and expedition headquarters. Near the town of Larisa, the 4th New Zealand Field Regiment — without orders — turned to offer battle and cover the retreat with its 25-pounders.

Conclusion

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

Design Note: Another new scenario. Having spent so much time on Battles of 1866, the tactical situation caught my eye as very similar to that at Königgrätz, with artillery forced to hold the line and make a sacrifice so the broken infantry can escape. It's a difficult task for the Kiwi player but with high morale and powerful weapons it's not impossible.

Undetected by the ANZACs, a reinforced company of the 143rd Mountain Regiment swam the Pinios River, managing to float their machine guns across as well. By nightfall they had reached a key crossroads near Larissa and proceeded to ambush repeated truck convoys rushing away from the front. A confused night action developed as Australian and New Zealand infantry sought to dislodge the Germans, who they believed had to be paratroopers.

Conclusion

Note: This scenario uses a board from Battle of the Bulge, and pieces from Desert Rats and Afrika Korps.

Design Note: One of those expanded scenarios. This is one of the more unusual scenarios I've designed for the Panzer Grenadier system. The Germans are hidden in a forest, coming out to ambush ANZAC convoys as they race past. When they've jumped enough of them, a much larger force starts sweeping the woods to look for them. With all sorts of random allotments and arrivals, it's a lot of fun for face-to-face play and it's a fast-playing one, too.

With no mountainous regions in the Soviet Union's borderlands, the German XXXXIX Mountain Corps advanced into the plains of southern Poland across the same ground covered by the Austrian mountain corps in 1914. As they moved on Lvov, they faced a determined counterattack spearheaded by powerful new vehicles not listed in the pre-war intelligence reports. The gunners of 44th Anti-Tank Battalion had “borrowed” a handful of the new 50mm AT guns and ammunition and now saw their theft rewarded.

Conclusion

German 37mm shells bounced off the giant tanks, and the Soviets surged into the jägers' positions. The 8th Tank Division was considered one of the Red Army’s better formations, with good troops and modern tanks. But they lacked the more mundane instruments of war, and had left their infantry behind for a lack of trucks to move them. This allowed the jägers to close with the tanks and destroy them with grenades, Molotov cocktails and other improved weapons. The Soviets pressed their attack but this only caused losses to mount, and soon 8th Tank Division withdrew.

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

Design Notes: This scenario was in the original set, but has been heavily modified with an additional board, forcing the Germans to advance against the Soviets rather than lying in wait for the tanks. Both sides have to push the enemy off the ground where they start — the Soviet player without infantry, the German without tanks.

After a week of slogging up to the Soviet border from their stations in Norway, two German mountain divisions began an attack along the Arctic coastline with the goal of seizing Murmansk. The Austrians of the 137th Mountain Regiment (formerly the “Erzherzog Rainier” Regiment of the old Imperial Army) ran into fierce resistance from the very start but had a secret weapon ready for such circumstances.

Conclusion

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

Design Notes: This scenario appeared in the first edition; for the second, the German leadership rules and poison gas rules have been modified. It's also shorter, to force the German player to attack rather than stand off and blast the Soviets with artillery fire, and the original's bunkers (something we discarded with First Edition Eastern Front) have given way to Strongpoints.

Formed in eastern Germany from Nazi political activists, the SS Division “Nord” had little military capability. Small arms training for the infantry consisted of firing their weapons out the windows of railway carriages while on the way to the front. The artillery battalions had fired their weapons once, and the officers had only a short course of lectures and no practical experience. Nevertheless, the division attacked the Soviet fortified line at Salla in central Finland as ordered.

Conclusion

The SS attack utterly failed, with no Soviet positions falling. Many stragglers fled the battlefield, showing-up far in the rear area. Corps HQ issued a sarcastic order of the day congratulating SS Nord’s commander, Karl-Maria Demelhuber, for his troops’ behavior while regular army troops took over the offensive.

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

Design Notes: This is another original, but has been heavily revised. There's an extra board added, and the SS men now have geographic objectives to meet. I think I've used the title for at least one other scenario — it's a favorite phrase of a former wargame publisher whose admiration for the Herrenvolk was always a little disturbing. But this ridiculous phrase perfectly captures the absurdity of Nazi self-regard.

Following their disastrous baptism of fire, Demelhuber’s shaken SS men rested for two days. The corps commander wanted them out of the line, but his superiors at Army of Norway would not countenance declaring a division unfit for combat after only a few hours of war and knew what Berlin expected. The division would not only remain at the front, it would attack. But before the SS could return to the offensive, the Soviets struck first with a spoiling attack.

Conclusion

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

Design Notes: Another original scenario, but totally re-worked with different boards, set up instructions and victory conditions. I really do enjoy writing scenarios featuring this division, because I really do hate Nazis and this gaggle of goose-stepping buffoons proved the Nazi ideal of an "elite" to be totally ridiculous. Unfortunately, the lesson that ideology and competence are rarely found together would have to be re-learned by other nations in other places.

As the advance on Murmansk became over-extended, the Soviets launched a furious series of counterattacks. On a rocky hilltop dubbed the “Ura Sattel,” the Salzburgers faced repeated assaults by the Red Army’s veteran 14th Rifle Division. Wave after wave stormed the hillside, and the Austrians fought them back with rocks, bayonets and their bare hands.

Conclusion

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

Design Notes: Doug shortened the game and dropped the German victory threshold. I've always been conflicted about having designed and published this particular scenario. My grandfather watched his childhood friends die on the Ura Sattel that day, and was given medals for it because they had to be pinned on someone who was still alive. I don't think I'd publish this again, given the choice, but it's already been out there once so there's not much point to removing it now.

While the German command had decided to suspend its offensive, there still remained a number of Soviet positions to eliminate before the jägers could rest easy. Chief among these was the Soviet bridgehead on the west bank of the Litsa River, a constant threat to the German lines. Accordingly, the Tirolese of the 136th Regiment with a Finnish company and some bicycle troops set out to drive the Red Army back over the river. 

Conclusion

Conclusion

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Eastern Front, and pieces from Arctic Front.

Design Note: This one also needed shortening from the first edition, to prevent the German player from shooting up the Soviets with artillery alone. Victory conditions are completely new as well, and it uses a different set of playing boards. I probably could have filled the entire booklet with "rocky tundra" scenarios from the Arctic campaign, but while I find them fascinating I'm pretty sure the fans want more variety.

With more experience, SS Nord’s performance became slightly less abysmal, though top Nazis in Berlin continued to indulge their delusions of adequacy. When transferred to the Kesten’ga front under Finnish command, the SS men were assigned secondary tasks such as reducing a surrounded Soviet regiment. Their troubles continued.

Conclusion

Note: This scenario uses boards and pieces from Eastern Front.

Design Notes: My favorite armed clowns are back, this time stumbling around in a different sector. While other SS units were just as bad — in fact, most of them were, see our Sinister Forces book for details — they didn't have veterans writing apologia after the war proclaiming their "elite" status. In the new edition this scenario has completely revised victory conditions, so that the German player isn't rewarded for running away.

As part of the same operation that sent the 136th to clear the Litsa bridgehead, the Salzburgers of the 137th Regiment tried to push back the Soviets from a hilltop near the Litsa rivermouth. A strong patrol led the way until a Soviet sniper killed its commander, Oberleutnant Mayer. At that point the jägers lost all control, charging madly into the enemy positions and bayoneting anyone wearing a Soviet uniform. Meanwhile, a grenade-tossing Kommissar whipped his own men into a frenzy, and a swirling fight developed with no quarter asked or given.

Conclusion

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

Design Note: My grandfather was here as well, at a battle where everyone lost their senses. In the new edition the victory conditions are completely new, and now the river gunboat can pick up fleeing Soviet units. With berserk Finns, berserk Russians, berserk Austrians and a gunboat, it's kind of hard to delete a scenario like this.

This preview continues here.

Click here to order Edelweiss now!