Plucky Belgians

This was another game we had along at Colins which was fought between myself as the Plucky Belgians and Mr Ray as the nasty Nazis, poor Colin is in crutches from a gardening accident so sat at the end of the table and umpired. The game was fought with 28mm figures using Bolt Action rules. All the figures and terrain was supplied by Colin.
The general scenario was that the Germans were to advance along the road and destroy the large naval defence gun which is set in a military compound which would then allow German reinforcements to arrive by sea.

Coastal field gun made by a company called Astra

German orbat
HQ, captain +2 men + medic + FOO
3 x 10 man Regular infantry sections inc. Smg and Lmg in Opel Blitz trucks.
1 x Regular Mmg
1 x Regular Med mortar
1 x Regular Med A/T gun
3 x Pz 38t tanks with armour 8, Medium A/T gun and Mmg
1 x Sdkfz222 Armoured car
1 x Kfz 13 Scout car
Belgian orbat
HQ, captain + 2 men
8 x Veteran Chasseurs d’Ardennes inc. Smg and BAR
Chasseurs d’Ardennes Veteran Med A/T gun and 3 crew
Chasseurs d’Ardennes Veteran A/T rifle and 2 crew
9 x Regular Belgian infantry inc. Smg and BAR
9 x Inexperienced Belgian infantry inc. Smg and BAR
1 x Regular Mmg
1 x Regular Light Howitzer
2 x T15 Tankettes armour 7, Mmg
1 x British 40mm Oerlikon A/A gun
Despite having all these troops the Belgian infantry never even got into action, only the A/T weapons, the Light Howitzer and the two Tankettes were actually used the rest were in defensive positions in the town.

The Germans started the battle by racing up the road and promptly spotted the A/T rifle crew at ambush position 1 and reversed back down the road before a shot could be fired at it then they brought on their scout car and sent it into the fields on their right and started spotting for the enemy. On move 2 the German A/C decided to swing round to the left behind the church and promptly ran into the T15’s in ambush at position 3. It fell back from fire from the first tank but was still in range from the second one which promptly pinned it.

The Germans then decided to bring on their big guns and two of the 38t’s advanced up the road and tried to take out the A/T rifle without any luck so in turn 3 they advanced to close range and promptly ran into ambush 2 which hit the lead tank and knocked it out but the second one managed to pin the A/T rifle but no casualties. The rest of the move was taken up with the Germans bringing on their lorry borne infantry.

 

The Belgians keep getting run of the movement dice and promptly launched their Tankettes against the unsupported trucks and pinned A/C causing further hits and chaos and the light howitzer at the red dot behind ambush 4 joined in the fun and the Plucky Belgians turned into lucky Belgians as virtually every round they fired landed on target.

The Germans eventually managed to get their other 38t on to protect their trucks and knocked out one of the Tankettes as the other one still advanced causing panic all along the German line. By this time the other 38t had also been knocked out alongside the lead tank and things were starting to look difficult for the Germans until a good run of the movement dice allowed them to race some of their lorry borne infantry up to the area of their knocked out tanks then called in the Luftwaffe to take out the ambushing Belgian A/T guns. In virtually every game we have played using Bolt Action air and artillery support has been a disaster and this wasn’t going to be different as Ray rolled a 1 which then allowed me to redirect the air assault right on top of his debussed infantry causing multiple pins and casualties and the rest being destroyed by the light howitzer.

 

With the German attack having ground to a halt Colin felt sorry for them and gave them a Panzer IV as reinforcements but by the time it had gotten up to the area of fighting the Belgian A/T rifle crew had rallied off all their pin markers and had advanced into the ruined church and sent round after round into the new tank which then failed every command test to get them off.

At this point the Germans realised this wasn’t going to be their night and gave up the attack without even meeting the main defence line.  The rules had worked really well except that we forgot a couple of points, single crew turret tanks have to take a test to advance every move and vehicles that fail their rally tests fall back but the way we had both been rolling dice i doubt it would have made much difference to the outcome.