Panzers in Disguise – Bulge German Command Card

Operation Greif was a special operation commanded by Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge. The operation was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, and its purpose was to capture one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed enabling the German advance.

It’s infamous for being conducted by German soldiers wearing captured British and U.S. Army uniforms and using captured Allied vehicles, as well as german ones disguised to look like allied vehicles. It’s other aim was to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines.

Now, thanks to the new Bulge German Command Cards, you too can recreate the mayhem and confusion caused by Otto Skorzeny and Panzer Brigade 150 in your games.

There are six Command Cards in the new deck that relate to this unit and its role in the Battle of the Bulge, three are generic cards that can be taken to support any force and the other three allow you to recreate the units and some of the equipment of Panzer Brigade 150. I noticed some of the Unit Cards referenced are from other books and you may need access to the Bagration – Germans Unit Cards as well.

Let’s start with a look at the generic, open to everyone, cards.

Spread Rumours, Reverse Road Signs and Observe Defences, all enable you to mimic the confusion and chaos caused by Skorzeny and his commandos.
Spread Rumours allows you to auto pin one of your opponent’s platoons in their Starting Step, a couple of these could be handy to have given the card is not Limited.
Reverse Road Signs forces your opponent to reroll their Reserves, this card is Limited but used at the right time could be decisive.
Finally, another Limited Card in Observe Defences, allows you to move an objective 4″ (following the limitation rules on placement) before the game starts; handy when attacking which is what you should be doing with Panzer Brigade 150!

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Next up come a set of three cards to build Panzer Brigade 150.
The first of these is a standard Formation, Build, Title card.  Note this is an SS formation denoted by its black border.
This is an interesting formation as it can be either Fallshirmjager Infantry based, Tank based, or a mix of the two making it a highly flexible, if limited, formation.  It only has an infantry HQ option.

Coupled to this card is the Enemy Disguises Card which you must take as well for certain unit choices in the 150 Panzer Brigade Command Card, Panther (late), StuG’s and interestingly Softskin Transports.
This means your opponent must pass a Skill role to be able to target these units with shooting, including Artillery, or to Assault them.  Fail to identify them and you can’t target them unless they have been shot or Assaulted. But even if you pass the roll, the identifying unit shoots at +1 to hit or Range In. A tip here for your opponents is to use any units which don’t intend to shoot this turn to do the identifying, thus when your other units shoot it is without the penalty.

This card also applies to the final dedicated Command Card, Looted M8 Armoured Cars and is baked into the unit cost. This gives you the ability to field an M8 Greyhound Armoured Card Unit as your formations Scouts. This again is a Title Card meaning the unit can’t be mixed into another formation with a different Title Card applied to them but could be added to an untitled generic force.

So lets take a look at a sample 110 point list for Panzer Brigade 150 and I’m going to be choosing to be the Attacker as my battle stance just like the historic Panzer Brigade 150.

• HQ 2x MP40 SMG Teams @3pts
• Panther (Late) Platoon of 3 Tanks with Enemy Disguises @ 37pts
• StuG Tank Platoon of 4 Tanks with Enemy Disguises @ 25pts
• Full Fallschirmjager Platoon with 2 Panzeshrek teams @ 13pts
• 4x 12cm Mortar Platoon @ 8pts
• 4x 7.5cm Tank Hunter Platoon @15pts
  
• Looted M8 Armoured Cars with Enemy Disguises @ 5pts
• Command Card Reverse Road Signs @ 2pts
  
• Command Card Observe Defences @ 2pts

Well, that’s my take on a Panzer Brigade 150 list. It covers all the gaming bases and has the ability to sneak up on its opponents as well as to potentially delay their reserves arriving, giving plenty of opportunities to sow chaos and confusion in the allied rear areas as I grab the objective bringing tabletop victory!

Martin.