Airborne Jump into Normandy…Bolt Action style
The Battle Barn is getting ready for Historicon and our two Bolt Action games. On Sunday JD and Zach came over to play test our Airborne Drop rules.
Both sides had about 700 pts; The 82AB consisted of 9 teams of Veterans (HQ, Medic, Lt Mtr , Sniper, 1Bzk, HMG, Pak 75 & 2 Inf Squads) The Germans had 10 teams and were a mix of Osttruppen, Inexperienced ( 2 sqds, MMG, Med Mtr) and Regulars, (HQ, AT, medic, FWD Obv & I Inf squad) and one French Souma tank (inexperienced) form the local tank school. The Germans were allowed to have only the MMG placed in a bunker near the bridge. The tank could not arrive until at least ½ of the German teams were in the fight.
Bridge Objective, Normandy 6 June 1944
Victory was max attrition with 1pt for each team destroyed and 1 point for each end of the bridge controlled and control of the MMG bunker. Airborne teams destroyed in the drop are NOT counted towards victory points. Game length is 7 turns with a roll for possible extension…
Zach used the "House" Airborne rules and since they are still in play test I will not go into details about them here (if you want to help play test them PM me) Each team drops separately and then each figure rolls for landing. The landing were made at night and we did not start rolling for daylight until turn 3
Paras drop w/ kleenex parachutes. We need to work on this terrain feature
We had to drop the 82d reinforced platoon twice as the first drop had almost 70% casualties just on the landing this despite the majority of the paratroopers landing in open terrain ( a hell of a lot of "1s" were rolled!) We changed the drop rules by rolling for the wind direction first and then place the flight path stick second. This drop was much better and ended with about 25% casualties. These included the sniper and all three of the Para's in the HMG team! These casualties were acceptable and briefed in the G-3 Ops plan (pre game brief).
Para landing "sticks" with casualties!
Once the landings were made, paratroops scattered and casualties taken the 1st turn the Americans basically rallied and organized. The first Germans to arrive (-2 to on reinforcement roll ; 1- of being a reinforcement and -1 on first turn of game due to pre-invasion bombardment. The MMG that started on the board had a pin marker too) The Germans rolled real well and 5 of the reinforcement arrived on turn one to include the tank. (The poor inexperienced Med Mtr did not arrive until turn 4!)
Whermacht Regulars on the attack
Turn 2 brought the 1st KIA when the Whermacht regulars in the chateau killed to paras! The tank and Bazooka exchanged fire but since the Bzk asst gunner died in the drop his shooting was way off and he was also hard to hit. The Bzk and Tank exchanged fired almost every turn with no effect!
"Inexperinced" Souma from the local tank school arrives into battle!
With the first Para squad now pinned down in front of the chateau the 2nd sqd and LT Mtr moved around the woods and toward the bridge. The Airborne Pak 75 entered the board as reinforcement on turn 2 and covered the 2nd sqd flank. But by turn 4 the small gun was shot up and them assaulted by a squad of Osttruppen.
Osttruppen on the attack
PaK 75 in trouble!
In front of the chateau the first Para sqd took wither fire for the Whermacht Infantry and a horrible hit by the PaK 40. They lost their NCO and had 4 pin markers. They did rally one turn and took off 3 pins but the PaK hit them again and gave the 3 back!
Paras about to break?
On turn 5 the 2nd Osttruppen sqd rec'd a deadly volley from the 2nd Para sqd. Giving them 5 kills and forcing them to take and then fail a moral check! That same turn the German FWD Obv called in a strike but blew the roll giving the target the Americans. The rounds landed onto of the chateau and then Zach rolled 3 6s' in a row for effect and rounds falling though the whole BLDG! Basically the BLDG was destroyed and 8 of the Whermacht soldiers died! Two riflemen and the L MG survived!!! The survivors then fired into the remaining Paras to their front killing 2 and forcing them to fail a morale check!
Paras and Osttruppen fight
Over near the bridge the airborne LT MTR finally ranged in on the MMG bunker, killing two gunners in two turns. Feeling lucky LT Zach ordered his HQ section to assault the bunker only to be cut down by the Germans HQ section sitting in ambush!
MMG bunker view of battle w/ LT MTR marker in place.
By the end of turn 6 the paras controlled 1 end of the bridge and had lost two teams (Inf sqd & Pak 75) the Germans still controlled the MMG bunker and lost 1 sqd. Turn 7 the Para moved up the 2nd sqd and now controlled the bridge at both ends. The LT Mtr dropped another round on the MMG but the sole gunner refused to die! The Germans HQ fired and killed one more airborne trooper. A 8th turn was rolled for but did not occur!
The fbattle ended in a draw with the Airborne troopers rec'd 2 pts for bridge and 1 pt for killing one German team. The Germans rec'd 1 pt for the bunker and 2 for killing two teams.
Overall the battle went well…it looked like major trouble turns 1-3 for the Americans but that "Veteran" status bad while the "Inexperienced" rating hurt the Germans throughout the fight! And poor JD this was the 3rd straight game where his own FWD Obv missed his call for artillery and the rounds landed on top of his command!
We did make a few modifications to the air landing rules…one was to add a medic rule. If the medic survives (he will roll first) any Para within 6 will get a re-roll on the landing chart.
We are looking forward to the next playtest.
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
