28mm BOLT ACTION: ARDENNES 1940 (2)

　
My first game of 2013 was another Bolt Action 28mm game. We played again at Hugh Wilson‘s house. The scenario like our last one was set in the Ardennes in 1940. This time the scenario was provided by Campbell Hardie - his first wargame scenario. The figures were provided by Campbell and Colin Jack.  Hugh provided all the terrain for the fine looking 12ft by 5 ft table.


Burning German armour blocks the vital bridge

As in our previous game the Belgians (myself and Bart Zynda) had to again slow down the advancing the Germans (Donald Adamson and Hugh) while awaiting the arrival of the French forces (Colin and Campbell).
The game involved fighting for two river crossings. At the first my Belgian infantry and AT guns held up the German advance long enough for the French support to arrive. Though the Germans got some troops across the bridge at the end of the game the Germans held only one building in the village and the vital bridge was blocked by burning German vehicles.



Overall view of table from French approach

At the second crossing the Germans were held away from the bridge by the arrival of some French armour on a side road and a tank battle developed. The French disadvantages of the low velocity guns and one man turrets of their R35 tanks was offset for a time by their heavier armour. Eventually all their tanks were burning but the imminent arrival of a Char B would have prevented a German crossing.

In the end we decided the game was a Franco-Belgian victory. Next time we agreed that we will use more infantry as this game proved a bit of a tank fest but a very enjoyable one.

In our game we used a system of action tokens instead of the action dice as suggested by the rules. The tokens we used I ordered especially for Bolt Action games from Martin at Warbases. We also introduced ‘teatime’ or end of turn tokens, which adds an element of unpredictability to the turns in the game. We started the game with a single teatime token but decided very rapidly that this could end a turn too quickly so we added a second teatime token so that the turn only ends when both have been drawn. This approach is used in Muskets and Tomahawks. I will add a photo of the tokens to this post during the week.


Round tokens used for the draw - rectangles mark DOWN and AMBUSH orders

All the photos of the game were taken by Bart Zynda as my new camera was being used by Mrs Gilchrist to take photos for ebay. You can find a lot more photos at Bart’s Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asienieboje/sets/72157632451598862/
　
Here is the Ordre de Bataille:

Belgians (all troops regular)

Group 1 (Myself):
Force HQ – Officer, 2 rifles, light AT gun with 3 crew
Infantry section – Officer, 7 rifles, LMG, ATR
Mortar section – 3 crew, medium mortar, Spotter
AT gun section – 3 crew
　
Group 2 (Bart):
Infantry section – Officer, 6 rifles, LMG,
Infantry section – Officer, 8 rifles, LMG,
MMG section – 3 crew
AT gun section – 3 crew
T15 tank – light tank (7+), HMG

French
Advance Guard (Colin):
Somua S35 tank – medium tank (9+), medium AT gun, MMG, Inexperienced
Somua S35 tank – medium tank (9+), medium AT gun, MMG, Inexperienced
Infantry section – Officer, 10 rifles, LMG, Regular, Motorised
Infantry section – Officer, 10 rifles, LMG, Regular, Motorised
Mortar section – 3 crew, light mortar, Regular, Motorised

Force HQ – Officer, SMG, 2 rifles, medic, Regular, Motorised
Reinforcements (arrived on turn 3)(Colin)
Char B1 tank – Medium tank (9+), light AT gun, light howitzer, MMG, Inexperienced
Infantry section – Officer, 10 rifles, LMG, Regular, Motorised
Mortar section – 3 crew, medium mortar, Spotter, Regular, Motorised
25mm gun + tow – 3 crew, light AT gun, Regular

Lieutenant 'Ardee (aarived on turn 6)(Campbell)
Renault R35 tank – Medium tank (9+), light AT gun, MMG, Inexperienced
Renault R35 tank – Medium tank (9+), light AT gun, MMG, Inexperienced
Infantry section – Officer, 11 rifles, Green, Motorised
Schneider Half Truck – Light AT gun, Regular – Special rule: unreliable clapped out POS

Germans:
Recce troops: (Hugh)
PzKpfw II tank – commander, light tank (8+), light autocannon, Regular, Recce
SdKfz 222 – Armoured car (7+), light autocannon, Regular, Recce
SdKfz 222 – Armoured car (7+), light autocannon, Regular, Recce
Luftwaffe liaison – Officer, radio op., Regular, VW Van with 2 x Henchel 123 air support available.
　
Group1 (arrived on turn 3)(Donald)
PzKpfw 38(t) – light tank (8+), light AT gun, MMG, Regular
PzKpfw 38(t) – light tank (8+), light AT gun, MMG, Regular
PzKpfw 38(t) – light tank (8+), light AT gun, MMG, Regular
Infantry HQ – Officer, 2 SMG, 2 rifles, medic, Regular, Kubelwagen
Infantry section – Officer, 2 SMG, 8 rifles, LMG, Regular, SdKfz 251
Infantry section – Officer, 2 SMG, 8 rifles, LMG, Regular, SdKfz 251
　
Group 2 (arrived on turn 5)(Donald)
PzKpfw IV/D – medium tank (9+), light howitzer gun, MMG, Regular
PzKpfw IV/D – medium tank (9+), light howitzer gun, MMG, Regular
PzKpfw III/E – medium tank (9+), light AT gun, MMG, Regular
Infantry section – Officer, 2 SMG, 8 rifles, LMG, Regular, SdKfz 251
Infantry section – Officer, 2 SMG, 8 rifles, LMG, Regular, SdKfz 251
Infantry section – Officer, 2 SMG, 6 rifles, light mortar, LMG, Regular, SdKfz 251