Band of Brothers "Day of Days" Part one 6th June 1944

 

 

A few months ago me and my friend Steuart, decided that we would do a series of scenarios based on the great tv series "Band of Brothers." Due to my having the figures already in 15mm before I discovered the rules "Bot action", we used them and kept the measurement for shooting and movement the same as 28mm. 

 

Steuart played the U.S playing the 1st Platoon of Easy company using the historic strength and organisation of the Platoon rather than a point system. I played the German forces that were spread out over the battlefield but were entirely unknown to the the U.S player and were not activated until discovered by the paratroopers, also there were a few surprises thrown in as well.

 

The U.S mission is to lead his Platoon from the landing zone and secure the village of Saint Come-du-Mont and to blow up the highway bridge over the river Douvre. The Intelligence Corp had informed them that there were a few German squads of mixed abilities in the área and also a pillbox that due to being well camouflaged they have failed to locate. The Platoon would be transported by 2 Dakota C47s, The Jump would be at night at around 02.00 a.m, also they must  careful there would be other platoons landing in the área so they would have to watchout for friendly fire.

U.S force consists of as follows

Platoon HQ 1 officer with SMG, 1 NCO with SMG , 4 Pvts with rifles.

Mortar Squad 60mm Mortar 6 Pvts with Rifles

1st Rifle Squad  1 Sgt with SMG, 8 Pvts with Rifles, 2 Pvt with LMG, 1 Cpl with SMG

attached 2 Pvts with Bazooka. Squad also include antitank grenades

2nd Rifle Squad  1 Sgt with SMG, 8 Pvts with Rifles, 2 Pvt with LMG, 1 Cpl with SMG

attached 2 Pvts with Bazooka. Squad also include antitank grenades

3rd Rifle Squad  1 Sgt with SMG, 8 Pvts with Rifles, 2 Pvt with LMG, 1 Cpl with SMG

attached 2 Pvts with Bazooka. Squad also include antitank grenades

Attached from Company HQ  4 Pvts with 2 LMG.

The topography of the terrain, with the photos that air recon have been provided below

 

 

 

The German Force misión to  hold and secure the village of Saint Come-du-Mont and to defend the Highway bridge over the river Douvre.

 

German Forces consists as follows

 

Ostruppen Squad of 6 Pvt with rifles and NCO with SMG,

 

Regular Heer Squad 6 pvt with rifles, 2 pvt with LMG and NCO with SMG in a lorry.

 

Fallschirmjager Squad 7 pvts with SMG, 2 Pvts with LMG and officer with SMG.

 

2 MMG teams

 

SDKFZ 222 Light Armoured car.

 

SDKFZ 251/1 Half Track "Hanomag"

 

Panzer IV.

 

With it being a night drop we used the Bolt action night fighting rules for spotting enemy units before being able to fire.

 

The mechanic we used to simulate the parachute drop was the old method of dropping tissue paper over the drop zone, each piece of paper had a number on it to correspond to the actual figures. We used two boxes to simulate the two different Dakotas.

 

The first Dakota "flew" over and most of the paratroopers landed in the correct zone. If the paper landed in rough terrain or the road, then Steuart had to throw 1D6, if the score was 1 then the paratrooper was injured badly and removed from the game. If a paper landed in wáter or marsh then a 1D6 was thrown and if a 1 or 2 was thrown the paratrooper was removed fron the game. If the paper fell off the table a 1D6 was throw each new turn and they would be allowed to enter if the result was the same or less than the current turn number.

 

The Paratroopers from the first drop succesfully land with only a couple of troopers going astray. 

 

The second Dakota flys over the landing zone.

 

This landing is more spread out with a couple landing further north of the table and one unlucky paratrooper drowning in the marsh área.

 

Because Bolt Action uses dice to give activation to groups of soldiers. I introduced a Regroup phase where the dispersed paratroopers would move to their NCOs. This meant when any U.S Squad was activated it could only move or fire etc with the troops within 1 inch of the NCO. 

 

On the batlefield there was 12 black plastic squares all labelled underneath with either a German forcé or other things that could be triggered into action by spotting moving paratroopers or paratroopers being able to spot them. The first things discovered was a herd of cows and a lorry full of supplies. During the regrouping phase a squad of Obstruppen spotted some running Paratroopers and came out of the house they were billeted in. They killed a couple of Paratroopers only then to be fired on by a LMG that had landed very close to the house. 

 

A Bazooka team advancing on the left flank came across a medium machine gun nest over the stream, but due the the darkness was unable to do any damage.

 

The 3rd Infantry Squad grouped together and began a flanking operation on the right, being careful to use the hill for cover.

 

On the left flank the advance is being held up by the stubborn German MMG

 

With the Obstruppen squad getting doublé pins they are soon routed and the U,S units begin to move up the road in the centre, lead by the platoon HQ squad.

 

A German arnoured car is spotted on the road on the right flank by a LMG squad who are the first U.S unit to be eliminated.

 

As a Bazooka team makes a dash between áreas of cover it is spotted by a MMG team in the Pillbox and eliminated 

 

The 3rd Squad carry on with their flank move and Steuart declares an advance and fire move on a black square ahead and in the open. We work out the firing and the target figures are placed and fire back. Next Steuart then uses a whole squad to fire on the target, this he does with devastating affect with only two surivors. It is now I ask him to look closely at the figures that I had placed before. They are a lost squad from another división commanded by their own Company Commander Dick Winters who had landed off the table . luckily Winters has survived the friendly fire, but not he is not very impressed with his own  troops,

 

The Platoon HQ advance over the hill to spot a truck with a German regular infantry squad just disembarking. The Hq squad gets cut down and retreats with only the Platoon officer surviving.

 

The 2nd Parachute Squad advances over the hill and blows up he truck and eliminates the German squad.  

 

A bazooka and mortar tean both take on the armoured car. The bazooka team hits causes massive damage. But their luck runs out when Steuart throw a 1 and a 3 on the damage table. Only panicking and setting the armoured car on fire.

 

The remnants of the HQ Squad run towards the objective, only to see a German Fallscirmjager Squad on the other side of the river,, racing to defend the bridge

 All 3 Rifle Squads mostly in one piecet, rendevouz near the hill to prepare an assault on the bridge.

The German armoured car's crew pass their morale test and put the fire out. they then fire their light cannon and MMG at the bazooka tean killing them instantly. They next set their sights on the mortar crew.

 

Steuart's fear of tanks is realised when from the village a Hanomag and a Panzer IV roll out to start shooting up the 1st Rifle squad.

 

A Bazooka team that has crept around the back of the pill box and now entered the town prepares to fire point blank into the flank of the Panzer. Steuart needs 3+ to hit, The Bazooka operator must have been nervous because he rolls a 2 and misses.

 

 

The HQ officer charges  heroically to the bridge. Because he has a SMG he throw 2D6 and does extremley well, getting a 5 and a 6 killing two German  Paratroopers. All the German paratroopers apart from the LMG have SMGs which I need one 5 or 6 to kill the officer with 10 dice or I lose the combat and the game. I managed to get about 3 hits and the U.S Officer is cut down and the game, set and match point for Steuart  was gone. 

 

Seeing the heroic deeds of their officer, the rifle squads charge forward, but the 1st squad is pinned by the tank.

 

Whilst one squad shoots and weakens the Germans guarding the bridge, the other squad crosses and assaults.

 

   The Germans sell their lives dearly, but lose the combat due to the tenacity and overwhelming numbers of the U.S Paratroopers.

 

The paratroopers quickly set the charges on the bridge ready to blow it up, missión accomplished.

 

Finally due to me forgetting to move the tank out of the way because I was too busy trying to stop the Bridge assault. The bazooka team get a second chance and finally knock out the tank.

 

This was a great game with plenty of cinematic moments. It had been a few months since my last game of Bolt Action and Steuarts only second game, but we managed to finish the game in the alloted time. The rules for nightfighting were fun and didn't really slow down gameplay. We might have not actually got all the rules right but as it was a scenario and not a points or tournament game, it didn't seem to matter. Next Game will be Brecourt Manor, I just have to get my hands on some 105mm artillery.

 

Napoleon at War Tournament in Gava, Spain

I've had the NAW rulebook for a couple of years now , well two rule books actually because I kept winning them at Lasalle Tournaments but hadn't really looked at them a great deal due to the different basing system. 

It was only after Kevin decided that Lasalle wasn't for him and had wanted to know if I would mind trying NAW with him as soon as he had painted his French Army. That was over a year ago, Kev finally finished painted his army and we played  half a game which had to come to an abrupt end due to my underbuild flooding. (My fault entirely because I had switched off the pump so the noise wouldn't get on our nerves). Only for my wife to discover all the water when she started wading through it with our cups of tea whilst we were sitting there oblivious to it all,  carefully reading our rulebooks. 

Although we only managed half a game, we both liked it especially the special rules that give the armies their distinct flavour, which is certainly lacking in Lasalle. We didn't play another game due to playing Bolt Action and still playing Lasalle at the club with the other guys. Then towards the end of last year the guys in Barcelona announced they were changing the annual Napoleonic Wargame Tournament from using the Lasalle Rules to the Napoleon at War rules. Kevin jumped at the chance straight away and asked if I would play some practice matches with him. 

After the first game I was hooked, although we went slow getting to grips with the mechanics there was hardly looking up of charts but what was the best thing was that it felt like a Napoleonic battle should be, without getting to complex. I then decided that I would enter the competition as well. At first I wanted to enter with my British but because there were more coalition players than French, I volunteered to swap over to the French.

My French Army was from the Hundred Year War book, it consisted of

Young Guard Division 1500 points

Organic 

 1 Young Guard Brigade 4 infantry Units & 1 Artillery

Support

1 Light Cavalry Brigade  2 Light Cavalry units (1 understrength)

Reserve

1 Infantry Brigade 7 Conscript Units all under strength

My Conscript Brigade officer valeur was upgraded

I was attracted to the Young Guard due to it having artillery included in its force therefore harder for the other player getting 1 VP by killing a single artillery unit. 

I used the Light Infantry ability of the Young Guard to give all my conscripts a extra skirmisher base. However this meant that now all my infantry units were understrength. In the three practice matches we played this didn't seen to matter as we could only manage one attack and then no time to rally.

 We drove up to Barcelona from Alicante on the Friday (took about 5 hours) and stayed in a Hotel so we would be fresh for Saturday.

There was twelve of us playing in the tournament,  six French and six Coalition. The tournament was to be umpired by a couple of guys from the Man at War business that own NAW. So there shouldn't be any problems with rule intreptations. 

My first Game was against David who was also quite new to the game. He had a Russian Army containing:

 2 Heavy artillery unit that could form a Grand battery. 

2 Infantry Brigades of 3 units each.

 1 Light Cavalry Brigade of two units

1 Cossack unit

and I think a Heavy Cavalry Brigade of 2 units

The first game was the Fight at dusk scenario. Myself and Kevin had played this game as one of practice matches, so we were quite familiar with it. 

                       My Conscript Brigade advancing.

I was the attacker, so David deployed his Vanguard of infantry around the village. I chose to use my reserve Infantry as my Vanguard and decided to just go for his objective.

His other infantry Brigade appeared on the flank of the village and his Grand Battery covered his objective.

I then bought on my Young Guard to attack his right  flank and hopefully catch him in a pincer movement.

His Grand Battery fired on to my conscripts and severly reduced a couple of battalions. My other conscripts battalions began to move away from the fire zone, the attack on the objective came to a halt.

My Young guard Artillery managed to set a enemy occupied building on fire and in the next turn a Young Guard  Battalion unit assaulted it only to be repulsed. Then  one of my conscript battalions had a go . This time they managed to clear the Russians out of the house.

David rolled for his reserves on turn one and managed to get a  one which also meant Dusk had arrived in the first turn. This was a blessing because it meant his Grand battery could only fire cannister so it had  lost most of its threat. 

On turn three my reserve cavalry finally arrived, unfortunately on this scenario you have to dice where they come onto the table. I threw a five meaning they came on my far right, which wasnt a ideal position because his cavalry were in that area and were able to attack. I could not fall back because it would mean they would retreat off the table and be eliminated so I went into combat. Unfortunately I came off worse and lost a unit and so my cavalry force was exhausted and David had won his first VP. 

Due to a few discussions on the rules we only managed to get up to turn 4 and time had run out. The game ended in a draw with David gaining extra points for exhausting one of my forces.

At this point, I have to mention Kevin's first game on the adjacent table, I know the rules are classed as fast play but he must hold the world record for winning a game, as it only took him five minutes.

His opponent Josep Maria  with his Austrian Army had mistakenly placed his objective near the middle of the table and his vanguard  at the back of the table. All Kevin had to do was advance his cavalry up to the objective and game over. After making a quick  note of the points won, they then carried playing on and the now renamed "the unfortunate General Josep Maria" lasted for another three turns before losing again.

My second game was against "the unfortunate General Josep Maria" so I was feeling pretty confident although it was me who had made a mistake . The scenario was a game I hadn't played before called Flank attack. I opted to be the attacker once again.

Josep Maria had placed his army in a long line with a single infantry battalion guarding his flanks.

                  My Young Guard advancing in column attack

My plan was to create a diversion with a attack on his right flank. Whilst my cavalry kept the rest of his line busy and then my Conscript Brigade would come on his left flank and grab the other objective. 

                       My cavalry keeping his left flank busy

For the first time in playing NAW, I threw a one on turn one for my reserves to come on. Actually I wanted them come on a bit later because I hoped to pin most of his army with my Young Guard, but their was a problem. The mistake I had made was that my Conscript Brigade had 7 Battalion and with a Austrian Battalion positioned in the middle of each flank, my brigade was too large and  could not physically fit on either flank to be able to come on in one go. Like I said this wasn't a great set back at the moment because I was planning for them arrive on turn three.

My artillery firing on his line whilst the Young Guard advance quickly in column.

My objective now was to get rid of the Austrian infantry on his right flank with my Young Guard and artillery to give room for my conscript Brigade to come on this flank instead.

Joseps Maria's Austrian "thin white line" holds up against the Young Guard. 

Unfortunately my Young Guard's first attack was repulsed and because they were out shot in the firefight due to them being in column  two battalions ran away.

I moved my cavalry brigade to support a new attack by the Young Guard. This time I approached in line to make my musket fire more effective. It worked and I managed to eliminate a Austrian Battalion. With my cavalry moving across , the Austrians had no threat to their left flank and centre, so Josep Maria moved them of his "Pratzen Heights" to reinforce his right flank. 

This was the moment and  I saw my chance, he had left his other objective behind the hill unguarded so I advanced a cavalry unit  in the movement phase and support move twenty four inches to capture the it. 

The other objective was still being contested and I needed to eliminate a Austrian Infantry Battilion to do this. It was in front of my artillery so luckily I threw enough dice to kill two bases and eliminate the unit. Now both objectives were mine and I had won with one initial phase left. It truly was victory grasped from the jaws of defeat.

                     The Battlefield at the end of turn six.

A photo of Kevin's second game against a nice looking British NAW army which also ended in victory for the French.

The Tournament was supposed to be three games but with the first two rounds taking longer than expected, the organisers deemed there was not enough time for the last round. We still had nearly two hours of game time, so I played a quick friendly game with Alex and his British Army. As we were playing, they gave out the prizes and first Prize went to Kevin, I just missed out on the prizes coming in fourth place. Which means our club in Alicante has won the tournament three years in a row.  

The final results were:    

In conclusion, yet again another enjoyable tournament and thanks to the organisers and sponsers with special thanks going to the NAW guys for coming all the way from Murcia to umpire and answer all our questions . Also there were plenty of other Napoleonic demonstration games going on in the hall and trade stands. Unfortunately both my games went to the maximum times so I didn't get much time to have a look around.

The two guys from NAW as well as umpiring had put on a demostration game with their own figures which did look superb. I have a few boxes of NAW Prussians I had been given as prizes at Lasalle Tournaments before and I thought they looked a little to big to mix with my normal figures. However after seeing this demo game, this year, one of my projects is to paint and base a Prussian NAW army hopefully to use in the tournament in Barcelona next year.

Bolt Action Tournament Alicante 2013

For about a year I have been thinking about returning  to the period where I started in wargaming all those years ago, World War 2. Flames of War just didn't look right to me with loads of tanks lined up in a row etc, due to lack of space on the table top. When my club announced they were going to hold a Pachanga (friendly) Bolt Action Tournament, I decided it was time to have a go. I went for the Burma theater mainly I have always liked this era and also if I didn't like Bolt action , I had already another system (crossfire) I could fall back on.

I shouldn't have worried, Once I had read the rules and watched a few demo games on YouTube, I knew it was going to be a good game, I played my first game a few weeks back against  Kevin´s U.S marines. It was a great game and we hardly had to look at the charts (although we still did a few things wrong). Last Saturday I played against a friend from work, it was his first ever wargame and we both had a great time . For the tournament I decided to take my Chindits because I needed a few more Japanese to make a 1000 point list . After my practice game with Kevin , I decided due to my Chindits having no tanks, I would double up on my heavy weapon teams and have 2 Platoons. I made a mistake of thinking you could have 2 free artillery observors.

	Points		Accum
2nd Lt	Inexperienced		35		35
1st   Platoon
Chindit Veteran Section A
NCO with SMG			18
PVT   with LMG			20
Loader			15
5   Pvts with rifle			75	128	163
Chindit Veteran Section B
NCO with SMG			18
PVT   with LMG			20
Loader			15
1   PVT with SMG			18
4   Pvts with rifle			60	131	294
MMG 3 man Team Veteran			62		356
1 PIAT (2 Men) Regular			40		396
Sniper Team (2 Men) Regular			50		446
Medium Mortar Team Regular
3   men + 1 spotter			60		506
Art   Obs Regular			Free

2nd Lt	Inexperienced		35		541
1st   Platoon
Chindit Veteran Section A
NCO with SMG			18
PVT   with LMG			20
Loader			15
5   Pvts with rifle			75	128	669
Chindit Veteran Section B
NCO with SMG			18
PVT   with LMG			20
Loader			15
1   PVT with SMG			18
4   Pvts with rifle			60	131	800
MMG 3 man Team Regular			50		850
1 PIAT (2 Men) Regular			40		890
Sniper Team (2 Men) Regular			50		940
Medium Mortar Team Regular
3   men + 1 spotter			60		1000
Art   Obs Regular			Free

In the end we had twelve participants which was just the right size for the club, any more and it would mean using a larger venue.

The games were decided by throwing a dice and then everyone playing the corresponding numbered scenario from the book. The first round the players were drawn randomly although as we had six Axis and six Allied player we could player Axis against Allied in the first two  games.

My first game even though it was completely random was my Chindits against Juan Marcos' Japanese on the Jungle table using the envelopment scenario.

                                    I  was attacking so threw for pre-bombardment as usual I got a one so the artillery failed to show up.

My right flank was slightly stalled because I was waiting for the Japanese who were hiding in the Jungle to show themselves.

In the centre I had a problem with an enemy flamethrower team who came around the corner of the house and began to burn one of my infantry units, who luckily survived and stood their ground. However they did receive five pins. In the next turn I had to choose weather to fire or charge, I think I took the wrong action and fired, I past the morale test but with four pins already on the unit my shooting wasn't good enough to get rid of the pesky flame thrower. In the next turn he managed to finish off my unit.

My artillery observer called in a bombardment which this time was sucessful. I was able to hit a few of his units in the centre, But the main success was against his Officer unit who had fifteen hits on them so were obliterated.

In the last couple of turns I managed to get two flanking units off the board. But the problem was I hadn't read the victory conditions properly and didn't know how many points the defender received for killing my units. If I had realised I would have been more conservative with commiting sucide charges with small teams, to try and stop the flamethrower in the centre. In the end the game ended in a draw with eight victory points each.

My second game was against Ronin and his Waffen SS Army. This scenario was top secret and so the objective was placed in the middle of the table. This time I carefully read the misión victory conditions. Realising that I wouldn't lose any points by losing units I decided to go for it and placed my Infantry units in the centre to charge down the road to try to get to the objective first.

My front units of Chindits came under fire from Ronin's Stug but they still past their morale test and manged a run to reach the objective. Ronin sent a unit of SS infantry fanatics to kill off the Chindit section and to take the object . 

 I fired with all my units and weakened the SS unit so I attacked and once again captured the objective. However this was the last turn, because we had run out of time. Which was a pity because it was becoming an interesting game. On a side note I tried to kill his Stug with one my Piat teams they moved 6 inches towards the tank set up there PIAT and fired. Unfortunately they turned out to be 13 inches away from the Stug and out of range (theres no pre-measuring in Bolt action). So the missile flew in the air and landed in an inch in front of the tank.

For the third game, I played against the opponent who was on  the closest to me on points. This turned out to be Coronel Bambu with his British Comando Army. We played the "Hold the line" scenario and I was the defender.

First was the pre-artillery bombardment which killed my artillery observer and put quite a few pins on the rest of my units.

His main attack came on my left flank, I had a sniper in a building that was able to kill a NCO of one of his infantry squads before he was killed by the cannon fire of the Cromwell tank. With no serious threat  on my right and centre flank. I was able to concéntrate on defending my left flank objective. At the end of the time limit I still had all the objectives under my control and so won the game.

                                                  A view of some of the other games going on.

                                                   Kevin playing his final game against Joses' Italians.

             One of the players, Fran, brought his U.S Armoured force. Normally this would not be allowed in a normal Bolt Action Tournament, but due to it being a friendly tournament there was no problem the more the merrier. It contained 3 Shermans, 2 Half Tracks and 14 Marines. The game he was playing next to me looked like he wasn't having much luck. I asked him after the tournament about how he got on . It seemed the lack of activation dice was a major part of his downfall, also his opposition were able to get lots of pins on his tanks. Quite surprisingly he was defeated in all his three games which meant he finished with zero points.

It shows what a good game Bolt Action is , you don't need to pick a so called "uber" force to win games and tournaments. Just pick an army you really like to paint and collect and with sound tactics and a bit of fortune from the dice Gods you can beat any army.  

             Kevin won the Tournament with his U.S Marines getting the maximum 9 points with 3 wins.

Myself and Coronel Bambu in our last game.

                I finished with 5 points out of 9 with 2 draws and 1 win.

The thing I like about Bolt Action is its a fun quick game with plenty of cinematic moments in the game. I am already thinking about other Armies to collect and play. Also the system can be easily changed to other ages and I am definetely going to be writing a variation for  the Plain Indian Wars. As well as using most of the system for ACW gaming.

         Everybody had a great time, and we will be definitely organising a competitive tournament in the near future. Maybe next time though I will be taking my Japanese or maybe Polish Paratroopers or Hmmmmmm.