Battle of the Bulge - Bolt Action Campaign by Andre77 and Bothi

Turn 3 & 4 – The Assault

Finally Captain Winters and his assault group arrived on the table. They managed to push in from the east and capture the main objective in turn 4. There were still some survivors left after the heavy bombardment from artillery and airforce for 4 turns, but they posed no real threat only killing a single American.

The squad covering the bridge didn’t fare so well. They put down a lot of fire, managed to kill the 5 man veteran squad crossing the bridge and reduce the pioneers. Only the flamethrower was left. But that flamethrower managed to kill half the squad and set the building on fire. The squad fled across the street into the next building, but another flamethrower team arrived from reserves for the Germans and managed to clear the MG squad. They actually still had a few guys left, but with 10 pins on them they decided to retreat.

Lastly the bazookas arrived and tried to take out the mortar halftrack (as no German armour was coming). They managed to pin it, but that was all. Then 20 green inexcperienced paratroopers arrived for the Germans and tried to take care of them. It took them two turns. Inexperienced vs veterans is no fun. And rolling 1s for being green even less.

The last remaining 5 man veteran squad (earlier deployed to flank the pathfinders) managed to cross the river and get into an assault position on the objective. The Americans had taken their objective, but are they able to hold it?

Turn 5

As offense is the best defense Captain Winters ordered the assault squad holding the objective to push further against the Germans and clear out the MMG team across the street. This meant all the initial defenders had fallen. He then himself took hold of the objective with the second assault squad and the medic team.

The flamethrowers (obviously having packed loads of fuel) went to work on the next MG squad. They were able to kill nearly half the squad and deal a buttload of pins. They only lost one loader in return. The German counter attack suffered a few pins and decided the wait another turn to assault the objective.

Turn 6

Everything was depending on who got the first die. I was lucky and thus the Americans could continue with their push before the Germans were able to counter attack.

The second assault squad (currently occupying the objective) launched an assault against the German counter assault and wiped them out. The first assault squad dealt with one of the flamethrower teams. The green paratroopers (only about a dozent survived the encounter with the bazookas) weren’t in range to reach the objective and had a wall of 20 veterans in front of them. So it was down to the last flamethrower team to retake the objective. They had a realistic chance, as it was only occupied by Captain Winters, Sgt. Lipton, Medic Roe and another soldier (let’s call him Dave).

They charged valiantly, but I rolled amazingly and killed them in defensive fire. Even in a possible seventh turn the Germans didn’t see a chance to retake the objective with only a mortar SdKfz and a dozen green paratroopers left. They sounded the retreat and hands were shook. A stunning victory for Captain Winters and Easy Company…. erm I mean the 82nd Airborne and their heroes of course 🙂