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

So. Yesterday we got around to play the 5th Mission of the Battle of the Bulge campaign from Warlords corresponding campaign book.

The Scenario

The scenario tries to recreate one of the multitude of battles fought by Kampfgruppe Peiper a few days before Christmas ’44. At this point the advance of the Kampfgruppe was stopped dead and they tried to get back to main German body of troops. These fighting withdrawals were fought around the villages of Stoumont and La Gleize. The objective would be for the Americans to take the centre building of the town. Simple as that.

Setup

In this scenario we built nearly the entire table as a small village. The Germans had 1000 pts of which 50% were dug in in the village centre. The rest would arrive from the east (behind the river) as support. The US (representing the 82nd Airborne) would arrive with 50% of their troops as their first wave from north and south directions. The other 50% would arrive as reserves from turn 2 onwards. Also the scenario didn’t say anything against flanking moves, hence a lot of the Airborne were dedicated to such a manouvre.

The US plan was simple. Lt Spears would take command of the first wave including the MG squads, the pathfinders, the howitzer and the forward air observer. Captain Winters would take the medic and two assault squads outflanking from the west to assault the main objective. A brick building in the centre of the town. The bazooka teams were to outflank from the east to threaten any German armour support. The chaplain was in “normal” reserves.

Turn 1

Before the game began there was a preparatory bombardment. I managed to roll a 6 on the German sniper team and killed the spotter. As this was 50% of the team Andre (@andre77) had to make a moral check, rolled double 6s and the Sniper was gone. Good start for the US boys.

Now the Germans already were under pressure as the sniper was supposed to cover the southern approach. They shuffled their troops around and occupied/covered the objective with 2 MMGs, a 2cm flak, their officer and a 5 man veteran squad armed to the teeth with assault rifles.

Otherwise the first turn was more or less uneventful. Only a few pins were traded. The Americans moved their first wave onto the table. Lt. Spears and his two MG Squads arrived from the north and took position near the bridge. Their job was to take care of any German reserves arriving on the far side of the river.

The howitzer and the FAO arrived from the north aswell to be well protected. The Pathfinders decicded to arrive from the south to open up a second front for the Germans.

Turn 2

In turn 2 things started to heat up. Literally. First the Germans holding the objective got under a lot of fire as on MG squad, the howitzer and the US Airforce opened up on them. A single German soldier was killed, but a lot of pins were dealt out.

The 82nd had good position up north with one MG squad opening up on the objective and the second one covering the bridge. They took a lot of fire themselves from the German MMGs position in the town centre and the first arriving reinforcements in form of a pioneer squad with a flamethrower and 5 more veterans. The flamethrower was a huge threat. Unfortunately he only managed to kill a single man and didn’t set the building on fire.

The last two pictures show the pathfinders advancing further through the village. They now threatened the town center directly, so the Germans brought on another 5 man veteran squad to flank them. But they still had to cross the river.