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

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End of turn 2

On turn two it got bloody. The Germans were intent on killing as much US troops before the end of turn 3 to deny victory points. So we first saw the charge on the right flank from a squad of Gernadiers through the minefield (it was an anti vehicle minefield) into the US squad guarding that flank. The GIs got annihilated but killed 7 Grenadiers in the process. The Grenadiers failed their moral check and retreated. The Score was 2:0 for the Germans and the entire right flank was open besides the minefield.

Motivated by this the veterans in the middle also went for a charge. But they lost too many men in defensive and ambush fire and then completely wiffed their rolls. They got annihilated, killing 8 of the non-combatants in the process. Now the advance in the middle was almost stopped, so the Americans could focus on reorganizing their troops to the right flank.

Realising this the Germans had to push hard before the Americans could get into position. They had to clear the minefield. The Pioneers dismounted from their halftrack and got their mine clearing gear out. An American MMG lay in ambush and got a few shots of killing a single Pioneer. But the Pioneers still only had to roll a 3+ to clear the minefield. And they rolled a 1. Meaning they tripped a mine. 2 more Pioneers got blown to pieces and they dived for cover with 4 pins.

To add insult to injury an empty halftrack got blown up in the minefield aswell, as it was trying to get through. It’s not looking good for the Germans. The score is still 4:0 in their favor, but at the end of next turn, the Americans would score a lot of points if the Germans can’t take out a few more units.

End of turn 3

Realising their dire situation the Germans threw everything they had a last desperate effort. They still had 4 flame throwers left and a few vehicles. If they could first kill a few more US units and then leave the field over the opposing edge they could squeeze a victory out of this. This could work. Especially as the Germans got all the order dice at the beginning of this turn.

First of all the Pioneers (now too few to clear the minefield effectively) had to get up and bring their flamethrower to bear. They had 4 pins and failed the order check. Diving for cover in a minefield. Great idea.

Next up the single flame thrower team in a smaller SdKfz had to drive around the minefield to get into position to deliver it’s deadly cargo. It rolled a 1 for the snow ditch next to the minefield. Meaning it got bogged down immediately and blocking the path for the flame SdKfz.

In a last ditch effort the flame SdKft (this could easily kill two units of Americans per turn) tried to run the minefield. And blew up…

Everything went wrong that could have gone wrong for the Germans. Seeing this the German officer called for a full retreat. The Americans scored 10 points at the end of turn 3 and won the game 10:4.

We talked a lot about this scenario afterwards and decided that we liked it despite it being very one sided in our case. It was just a few single dice that completely screwed the Germans over. 3+ to clear the minefield (was a 1, killing the Pioneers), 4+ followed by 4+ to blow up the first halftrack (succeeded), 3+ to drive through the snow ditch (was a 1), and again 4+ and 4+ to blow up the flame halftrack (succeeded). If just the Pioneers cleared the minefield in the second turn, nothing of the above would have happened as the road would have been clear. And then four flame throwers would have made short work of a lot of the defenders. Unfortunately there are no Command Points in Bolt Action…

This makes it 3:0 for the allies. Until next time.