Set off to the club last night thinking it was October not June, the warmest June on record seemingly, where, one small corner of Kent perhaps, take an average of the country and you will find nothing of the kind.
Anyway I digress, Rob set up a Bolt Action homage to the Normandy Landings, the scenario was based on a realistic action fought on the 11th June so it was appropriate to fight it yesterday. An ad-hoc force of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne gathered in the village of Graignes and held up the advance of the 17th SS PzGren Division 'Gotz von Berlichengen', this, along with transport shortages and air attacks prevented the SS getting to Carentan before the 101st Airborne, making it easier to take the town and defend it.
The Americans were set up around the village church with mortars in the graveyard, some French resistance fighters were in a nearby boys school while the rest defended the road through the village. As the attacker I had to make an infantry assault first which was then supported by armour from the division reconnaissance battalion and some off-table artillery. Due to the entrenchments which the paras had dug I knew my infantry alone would suffer horrendous casualties trying to get close so I decided to wait for the armour. I did however position three squads for a move on the village when I thought it advisable, As an early support I brought on my light howitzer only to have it blown to smithereens by the Yank mortars, I desperately needed HE back up to attack the foxholes.
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| The church. |
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| The village, minefield and road. |
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| Forward and wait. |
Eventually my armoured cars and halftracks turned up, but I was cautious due to what I believed to be a minefield on the road, also I didn't really need to get close with my heavy weapons. I brought in my artillery observer and a storm of steel hit the American positions, sadly not killing many but putting a lot of pins on units. I now moved my infantry squads towards the village and quickly got the upper hand here. The defending infantry were reduced in numbers and routed by a coordinated fire and assault move, the village was now in German hands.
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| Stummel before it caught fire and the new 234/1 |
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| The Germans about to assault the village. |
The armour did not have it all its own way, two of my support halftracks were hit by bazooka rounds which either immobilised them or set them on fire, apart from giving me a small heart attack these did not unduly worry my boys. Allied Jabo's also turned up but managed only to strafe an empty field. We ran out of time just as I was about to turn my attention to the paratroopers defending the school and church whose ammunition was beginning to run low.
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| The village falls. |
We had an historical result and the 17th had been held up, it had taken me quite a while to be able to rush the defenders around the village and I should perhaps been more aggressive, I certainly put my light howizter in the wrong place instead of somewhere safe. The minefield turned out to be a dummy but it had done its job, I could otherwise have run my armoured cars straight down the road, but again there were a couple of bazooka teams which I could not ignore. Despite these excuses I was still too slow, although in my defence throwing lead at dug in troops who are also Down is pretty useless and time consuming, perhaps we were doing that wrong so I need to just check. The new Down order is by far the worst idea in 2nd Edition.
So thanks to Rob who designed the scenario and Matt who led the Americans. I got several new units/vehicles on the table so I was very pleased, I just need to learn to use them better.
You were certainly handicapped by losing that howitzer so early on in the game, a mortar wouldn't have gone amiss either, but that's the rub with BA it would be on table and no doubt have suffered a similar fate to the howitzer.
ReplyDeleteI could easily have kept it behind the little hill, duh. I did have artillery but it was mainly pins it put on which were swiftly taken off again. We were a bit unsure about dug in troops, but these rules are in the Desert Book (natch) so I have to look at them later. How not to write a rule book comes to mind. Frustrating as the basic premise is fine, mind you I do wonder who play tested this stuff.
DeleteLooks like a great game, splendid terrain and armies...Greetings from France!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil.
DeleteCrackin looking game George. If only you knew the minefield was a dummy ah?
ReplyDeleteOn reflection I should have chanced the mines, but chickened out, I could see a repeat of Arnhem for the recce battalion.
DeleteA grand little tussle there George.
ReplyDeleteIt was David, I enjoyed it, setting up a campaign with my son next month, so more BA on the way.
ReplyDeleteI don't know George, when I read your Bolt Action battle reports it all makes sense, fire and move - yes. When ever I see other Bolt Action games I am dismayed by the apparent tactics that presumably the rules encourage.
ReplyDeleteHaving read a few of your game reports I decided I must be wrong about these rules and so watched the Warlord video on the latest version of the rules. The 1st player sent an unsupported Sherman down a road into a built up area full of enemy infantry! He couldn't make a full move because a full move would have taken him off the table! admittedly it was a small table. To cap it all, the infantry in the built up area jumped out of that, into the road right in front of the Sherman, there were approving nods at this! That's when I switched off.
You obviously find these rules work well, and your games support that view, is it the way you use the rules or do they encourage tactics that are completely unhistorical?
I do not like Chain of Command and I have tried it several times, so by default it was Bolt Action, I like to play historically and everyone I play against is the same thankfully. If you follow the tournament scene there are some shocking takes on WWII and the rules can reward these kind of players. But you have to remember this is a game set in WWII, and Warlord treat it as such, why else could the Germans field the super heavy ridiculous Maus tank. I have come to grips with this but I suspect many purely historical players would not. As you say, they work for me until something better comes along, which might be a long wait.
DeleteLovely little game there George.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can play BA in a very historical way, indeed the game plays far better that way. But the relatively free form lists do allow players (particularly at tournaments) to build some horrible lists, lol!
The campaign books offer lots of guidance on list composition and generally result in some very good games.
Cheers
Matt
I agree, depends on what you want from the game. The D-Day book looks good but to use it you will have to find a beach and a lot of concrete.
DeleteMorecambe? 🤣
DeleteYou'll be back to the original don featherstone's sand table for the landings. I used to have one, but kept losing figures, they would turn up weeks later. Ahh those unpainted airfix figures could take rough handling:)
DeleteWe used to set them up in the garden and throw stones at 'em. That was before my first wargame, toss a coin, heads you are dead tails you miss, ensconced in domino fortifications under the sideboard (I could fit back then). If only Rommel had had dominos :)
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