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

New year, more Bolt Action. We finally continued our campaign and played Mission 4: The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge.

History

In the morning of Monday the 18th of December 1944, the Germans decided to put an end to the very fierce resistance of the Americans. Brigadeleader Krass order his 12th Panzer Division to attack. They faced against some hardened Veterans of the 2nd Infantry Divison: The Indianhead. What followed was one of the bloodiest engagements of the Battle of the Bulge.

Scenario

The scenario from the Warlord book pitches a Waffen-SS army with tank support that is 25% larger than the opposing veteran u.s. infantry army. There are 3 objectives in the middle of the (which is also the US deployment zone). In our case this was the Farmhouse, the Mayors House and the School.

The victory conditions are as followed.

• 0 objectives held by Germans at the end of the game => US Victory
• 1 objective held by Germans at the end of the game => Draw
• 2-3 objectives held by Germans at the e.o.t.g. => German Victory

Setup

The US player (me) is allowed to place half his units on the table. The rest is in reserve. The Germans are not on the table and bring their units on the table with the first wave, which must include at least half their units. They decided to put all their units in the first wave.

I deployed 3 equal infantry squads and 2 MMG teams on the table. One infantry squad in/on each objective and the 2 MMGs in the town centre. I had my Officer, 2 Bazooka teams and another MMG team in reserve.

Then followed the bombardment of the infamous German artillery managing to kill a single loader of one of the MMGs. Not the start the Germans had hoped for.

Turn 1 and 2:

The Germans started their attack with rolling a Jagdpanzer onto the table through the center. This wouldn’t bear well for the MMG that already took a casualty. The German infantry pushed hard through their right flank onto the School and the center.

As nothing was coming over the German left flank. Squad Farmhouse decided to leave their objective and start an early counter attack. A few shots were traded and a few casualties were inflicted.

But then the German combat engineers released a Goliath remote controlled demolition vehicle and started driving it towards the School. It was quite a risk as we decided that if the building was destoryed by it, the Germans can’t hold the objective anymore.

But @Andre77 rolled really well killing 7 of the occupying soldiers in the School. The remaining 5 decided that they had enough and fled. That really put me in a pickle. I already lost the first objective and 1 third of my army on turn two and no reinforcements were sight. And then there is this Jagdpanzer pushing my center. Really not good.

Turn 3 and 4:

The following two turns were more or less uneventful compared to that Goliath hit. The Germans advanced on their right flank very freely having killed all the resistance there already. And I achieved nearly nothing as I failed like every command test I had to take rolling constantly 11s and 12s.

Only Squad Farmhouse got some work done by killing 3 small (6 men each) squads of Germans before being routed of the field (with me of course failing the first morale check they had to take with an 11.

I lost one MMG team to the Jagdpanzer and the other took a lot of pins but stayed their ground. Also my Bazookas arrived on the field in turn 4 (after failing their reserve checks two turns in a row) but didn’t get any work done.

Turn 5 and 6:

This is were the battle would be decided. Would it be an overwhelming German victory or can I somehow pull a draw out of the clutches of defeat? A US victory was more or less out of the question after turn two.

So I had the School firmly in enemy hands with the combat engineers and an MMG holding it. One squad of Germans, a Jagdpanzer, a Flamer and an officer advancing through the center onto the Mayors House and one more squad of Germans advancing on the Farmhouse.

I decided that Squad Mayor had to leave the Mayors House and head for the Farmhouse. They were the only ones who could still defend it. They took some heavy casualties from a direct hit by the Jagdpanzer, but in the end they reached the Farmhouse. As a reaction the Germans redirected the squad attacking the Farmhouse into the center killing my second MMG team there and losing men. This increased the pressure onto the Mayors House by quite a bit, as it now was only occupied by my Officer and two Bazooka teams.

My Bazookas finally managed to do something and killed the Flamer teams transport before it could reach the Farmhouse. My third MMG managed to pin the larger german squad (6 men) and thankfully they failed their command check in turn when they tried to assault the Mayors House.

Now only 3 dice were left in the bag. My officer, the German officer and the smaller remaining German squad (4 men) in the center. @Andre77 managed to pull my dice out of the bag first and I decided to go for a gamble. My officer charged out of the Mayors House with his second in command assaulting the remaining German squad. The dice were really on my side and my officer managed to kill all 4 Germans. His second in command died in the assault. And my officer that was “collected” in turn by the German officer.

It was the end of turn 6. On 4+ there would be a turn 7. This would give the Flamethrower the opportunity to clear out the Farmhouse and the last German squad to assault the Mayors House. This would surely end in a German victory as I only had 2 Bazooka teams in the Mayors House, 1 MMG in the back and half a squad (Squad Mayor that now resided in the Farmhouse) left. The second German player (Sven) took the dice…

… and rolled a 3!

The End

With only one objective in German hands this means the game ended with a draw.

We had an unbelievable amount of fun with really amazing and terrible dice rolls on both sides. Normally I hate draws, but this felt like a victory. A moral victory at least.

Being on the back foot from turn two. Failing so many command checks. But my luck came back for me in the end when I needed it most and I somehow managed to pull a draw.

It was one of the best matches – if not the best match – I’ve ever played. Hope you enjoyed this report.