Edelweiss (1st Edition)

During the First World War, Germany fielded a handful of mountain troops but never approached the numbers or skill levels of those from Austria-Hungary or Italy. When the German army expanded in the 1930s, it formed one mountain division, and then two more after the takeover of Austria in 1938. Several more were established during the course of World War II.

Edelweiss is a Panzer Grenadier supplement adding German regular army and Waffen SS mountain troops to the game series. It is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of Eastern Front to play most of the scenarios, and Battle of the Bulge and Afrika Korps to play all of them.

Scenarios take place on all fronts. The mountain troops have the proper Tirolean green-on-gray color scheme, and carry the Edelweiss symbol. In addition to mountain infantry, there are bicycle troops, captured 76.2mm guns and a handful of French-built tanks in German service.

Es war ein Edelweiss.

While the German mountain troops in the scenarios are usually of very high quality (some have the highest morale ratings yet in the series, plus special rules assuring high quality leadership), Edelweiss also includes one of the worst outfits to see combat in World War II, the Waffen SS “mountain” troops.

Two divisions of these men are covered in some detail, the 6th SS “Nord” which collapsed during the fighting in Finland, and the 7th SS “Prinz Eugen,” known by its own men as “the trash division.” The trash division gets trashed by both Soviet and Italian forces in the Edelweiss scenarios.

There are also four double-sized playing pieces. Two of them represent the huge “Karl” 600mm motorized mortars. The other two are Soviet river monitors.

The giant cannon, Karl.

The 24 scenarios range from fighting above the Arctic Circle in the Murmansk campaign of 1941 to the Ionian Islands of 1943, site of the heroic actions of the Italian “Acqui” Division.