"Ideal number of minis for Bolt Action Pegasus Bridge?" Topic

Hey folks,

Contemplating putting on a game at my local club to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day in June this year, and I'm thinking this could be the perfect excuse to pick up the Warlord Games Pegasus Bridge set for Bolt Action. Question is, the Pegasus Bridge set comes with just 20 Germans and 10 Airborne – presumably I would ideally want more minis than that! Does anyone that has the set and has used it with Bolt Action have any advice on how many more figures you would recommend having to pick up? I believe the set comes with a scenario book of some sort, does that have any scenario OOBS in it?

Thanks,

Bob

Warlord ran a huge Pegasus Bridge game at Cold Wars and it looked like they had several platoons per side-- plus they doubled shooting and movement ranges. It seemed to make the game work much better, especially with a big bunch of players being involved.

For the glider landing? For what it's worth, ASL recommends:

British:
7 1/2 squads

German:
5 1/2 squads

Just work from the historical orbat for the British – five weak platoons landed by glider (28 men per glider, iirc), later reinforced by roughly 7 Para, equating to roughly a strong company.

The German orbat is a bit more nebulous – there are a few recent threads discussing the German orbat at Pegasus Bridge, so have a search for those threads. Essentially you're looking at a weak platoon-sized guard force of Ostr-truppen, with later attacks coming from perhaps a company's worth of Ost-truppen, reinforced by a company (possibly two companies) of pioneers from 716 Div, a company-sized group from HQ Grenadier-Regiment 736 and some Marder Is from 716 Div. After daylight they're joined by the 8th Company of Panzergrenadier-Regiment 192, equipped with a platoon each of SP PaK 40, SP multiple 81mm mortars and SP 20mm flak, all mounted on armoured French halftracks, supported by a strong but unidentified infantry element and artillery.

Remember that there were two bridges and 6 total gliders. I don't know how much of the battle you are looking at doing. Three gliders landed at Pegasus bridge. Two of the other three landed at the other (Ranville/Horsa) bridge. The final glider mislanded and its troops spent a day getting to where they belonged.

As mentioned each Horsa glider had two pilots and a 28-man under strength platoon plus equipment. Each glider carried a 5-man sapper team to deal with bridge explosives. The remainder were HQ, medics and combat troops. Each platoon had a two man HQ team, 2 x 7-man section and 1 x 5-man section. Each section had a Bren Gun. There was a smattering of Company HQ personnel and a Battalion Liaison officer. The medical team was a doctor and 4 or 5 medics. The officers and medical staff were dispersed over the 6 glider loads.

Under strength platoon?

Not really.

Air landing platoons were smaller platoons, not under strength ones. The standard Horsa glider couldn't carry a regular rifle platoon, so British Air Landing platoons were smaller than rifle or parachute platoons. IIRC the AL platoon had a command team, PIAT and mortar teams, two normal 8 man rifle squads, and a 5 man recce team. That's about 28 men total. To make up for the loss in rifle strength AL companies had 4 platoons. Howard's D company had 6 platoons for the landing because two more platoons were attached for his assault.

Under strength, but not by too much. Riflemen were picked out here and there to make room for Company and Battalion staff. Also, room had to be made for the medical staffing that Maj. Howard wanted to have on hand.

Examples:
Company HQ went in with about 4 or 5 men instead of the usual contingent. Platoon HQs went in with 2-man teams instead of the usual 3 or 4. Add (or subtract) to that the odd man picked out here and there and you get the "understrength" term. Again, not by too much. They also went in without much of their heavier weaponry. They took Stens, Rifles, Brens, Pistols and a few PIATs. Size, space and weight were traded to allow for taking along assault boats and other toys in the even that they would be needed. Remember also that it is the size of the fight in the dog and not the size of the dog in the fight. They accounted for themselves rather well.

One thing that I have not read too much about is the actions and contributions of the sappers. Once they did their work at the bridges, they went into line to help defend the perimeter. With a total of 30 sappers, you get another platoon worth of men.