Home Brew Bulge Selector 2; Tested To The Limit

Introduction
      The great Al Green once asked "How do you mend a broken heart?" Well Al, there are more than a few ways but one I would heartily recommend after the last two games of Bolt Action that I have played is to chuck away your old dice and buy new ones!!!

     The testing of the home brew US Cavalry Group theatre selector continues and boy is it a bruising, steep climb of a test what with the dice gods throwing rocks at your head while you drag your sorry, battered and bruised ideas up into the bright, clear light of Got It Right.

     For our latest game we chose a scenario from the Battle of the Bulge supplement, in this case Scenario 3 The Battle Of St Vith with the terrain set out something similar to this

Suggested scenario layout

Our interpretation of the layout with the right side 

of the table being the US Forces side. Very tasty

looking. It's an annoying convention of the Bolt 

Action terrain layouts that the buildings and roads

depicted on them look suspiciously like a 6'x4'

table layout for a 20mm or 15mm game rather

than a 28mm game.

     The scenario has the following specific special rules;

• Preparatory Bombardment: Attacker receives a preparatory bombardment on a roll of 2+
• Poor weather: Due to low cloud, no air support is available to either side
• Fog: Visibility reduced to 18"
• Mud: All terrain is classed as muddy and therefore Difficult Ground. We replaced this with the Snow rule as were using our winterized terrain.
• Minefields: The US player, who is the defender, can position a free anti tank minefield anywhere on the table at least 6" from the crossroads.
• Bolstered Defences: The US player receives a free 10 man Inexperienced non-combatant squad with no NCO and equipped only with rifles. 
• No Surrender: In light of the Malmedy Massacre, all US forces are classed as Fanatics
• Dug In: All the defenders units who start the game on the table can be dug in which gives them 

      As we were trying out the Cavalry Group selector list we ignored the rule for all infantry being rated Inexperienced as the cavalry units had seen some service before deploying to the Ardennes and so are all rated Regulars. To offset that we agreed that the cavalry group wouldn't get the free Non Combatant squad as per the Bolstered Defences rule.

"We're here because we're here because we're here....Bazooka
team, dug in, freezing their nuts off and and waiting for the
Krauts

     For this games I took the following 1000 point force to try out;

• M5 Stuart with pintle mounted MMG
• M5 Stuart with pintle mounted MMG   
• M8 Greyhound
• First Lieutenant plus runner
• 5 man Rifle Squad 
• 5 man Rifle Squad
• 5 man Rifle Squad
• Bazooka team
• Bazooka team
• MMG team 
• MMG team
• Jeep armed with an MMG (this also had the Recce rule, which I costed at 10 points)

My aim (hope) was to try this historically themed mobile force in a defensive battle similar to the kind of fighting that the US Cavalry Groups encountered in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944 when the Germans launched Operation Wacht Am Rhein.

     These were up against Rich's 1250 points pared down Veteran Waffen SS Force; An Oberleutnant plus runner, three 8 man squads (one of which is an assault squad armed primarily with assault rifles) a flamethrower team, a Sdkfz251/1 halftrack, an Opel Maultier and a very tasty looking Panther.  I should also mention that Rich was taking a departure from his more usual reinforced platoon for this game and went for a historically viable assault force by leaving behind the usual sniper team, MMG team, light howitzers and medium mortars and focusing on firepower and mobility and, by jingo, it paid off.

Deployment
     So to the game. The US player deploys at least half of his forces in the zone between 12" and 24" from his edge of the table. Any units not deployed are in reserve. The German player starts off the table and must bring on at least half of his force in turn 1. The Germans also receive a Preliminary Bombardment
   I elected to go with deploying half my units; with the good chance of a Preliminary Bombardment coming in I decided not to risk my armour and left off all my vehicles plus one rifle squad figuring that with no -1 on my reserve roll my chances of bringing on my reserves were better than the chance of Rich rolling low dice in the preliminary bombardment phase. As it was Rich rolled a 1 and no preliminary bombardment came in. From the scenario perspective it was one of my very few breaks. Rich opted to bring all his force on in the first wave   

An abandoned farm in the freezing Ardennes, now being
used as a defensive base for Troop C, 144th Cavalry Squadron

Troop B's left hand defences; dug in bazooka team and a 5 man
rifle squad in the ruined log cabin 

Centre of their defensive line: 5 man rifle squad dug in in the
farm yard with troop commander just behind them. An MMG
in the top floor of the barn, behind the door and a bazooka team
in the adjacent field 

Right hand defences: a dug in MMG in the sandbagged
emplacement

   

The anti tank minefield on the road, covered by the MMG. The
US player gets a free anti tank minefield that can be placed
anywhere 6"away from the crossroads.

The SS advance with outrageous good fortune. They fired on
my dug in MMG and, after weathering my fairly ineffective
Ambush (should really be called Overwatch) firing they
proceeded to not only hit my MMG and then cause two
casualties but also inflicted an Exceptional Damage hit
thereby destroying the machine gun. That's a 6 followed
by another 6 to hit, followed by a 6 to wound triggering
an Exceptional Damage roll (or a "See if I hit something
tasty" roll as we call it around here) And Rich did that not
once but twice during the game!! Lightning strikes not
once but twice in the Ardennes as well as in New York!!

Suitably clad SS on a roll

Told you it was a tasty looking Panther

The half track advances up the road running through the 
woods. Before we started the game I had placed my 
minefield on the other road figuring that as that was the 
straighter it would be the more likely avenue of approach
for vehicles and I had done it whilst standing on Rich's 
side of the table. Just as we started I looked at that road 
from my side and realised I had made a major boo-boo.
...oh poop!

As the Panther looms into view, the squad in the ruin move around
the side, out of view of the Panther and therefore free from having
to take a Tiger Fear test. I'm not a fan of the Tiger Fear test even
though I have two of each

The Germans thrust forward with the 251 pulling up outside the
farm, being shot at by the squad in the farm yard, taking a pin
that they SS troops on board brushed off with characteristic
sang froid. Out pops their flamethrower who misses from
point blank range though he doesn't run out fuel....phew!!
The Panther engages the MMG in the barn roof and
destroys them...bugger

My reserves start to arrive here...

and here....

With a flamethrower team sitting begging to be assaulted I decide
to ignore them and the troop commander issues a You Men Snap
To It and both he and the rifle squad make a bolt for the back of 
the farm and relative safety

M5 Stuart troop commander's tank and recce jeep move up to
give much needed support to the left flank

We used a suitable winter backdrop for some of the photos in an
effort to make them seem even better

The Stuart destroys the Sdkz 251 but with the SS Obersturmfuhrer
and squad inside escaping predictably unscathed. The squad in the
Maultier, untouched by my bazooka teams firing from Ambush,
deploy and fire on the bazooka team. In an effort to hold them off,
the squad by the ruin opens fire on them and needing 3s to hit I roll
six dice and get.....

....this result!! This was a stark though not rare example of
my unbelievably poor dice rolling all game; a direct opposite
to Rich's. I obviously haven't sacrificed enough kittens to the
dice gods whereas I suspect Rich has and also thrown in his
kids guinea pigs for good measure!! 😁

Cutting down the inept bazooka team, the SS take cover in
the dug out

On the right flank, the second Stuart receives attention from the
Panther with predictable results as the Rifle Squad attempt to
plug the gap left by the wiping out of the MMG team

Is there no stopping these guys?

With the Germans in possession of the farm and the US forces
either being overrun, destroyed (my command Stuart was
destroyed at point blank range by a panzerfaust) or forced back
(my M8 and Jeep both had to recce away from incoming fire)
it was all over bar the counting the cost and licking my wounds
(not a pretty sight)

The General points out to his mess chums where it all went
wrong

Conclusions

      Well that was a painful lesson indeed. The conclusions I drew from the game fall under two headings; tactical and selector.

     Tactically I really should have looked more closely at the ground from my side. With my forces so thin on the ground and their firepower limited, at least until the tanks, armoured car and jeep turned up I should have had a squad in each dug out and an MMG dug in and supporting them on each flank and put my bazookas, my only real threat to Rich's Panther out of sight in the middle of the defensive line. I should have risked putting my M8 in the defensive line to beef up the fire power. Mind you with my dire dice rolling (it truly was horrendous all evening. Apart from the flamethrower team who were wiped out in combat I think I only caused two casualties to the Germans from my shooting all evening) 

     The positioning of the minefield could also have been better placed. As mentioned above the obvious place to put it was on the road leading through the woods thereby blocking off that area to vehicles.Equally, placing it in the open ground beyond the crossroads would have forced Rich's Panther to deploy up the road but meant that his Sdkfz251/1 would either have to follow up behind the Panther and therefore be held back from being effective for at least one more turn or run the risk of facing a bazooka on ambush if it took the route around the wood that the Maultier took

     On the selector side, in my effort to play historically and to avoid creating a force that is too strong I have probably gone too far in the opposite direction and hamstrung the force. With my squads being limited to between 5 and 8 men I am probably being too restrictive in numbers. The maximum men a US regular squad can take being 12 men this seems a rather daft approach and I think a more balanced figure would be 6 men minimum with the option of another 3 men. Also, the squad's lack of longer range fire in the shape of BARs was telling. The US Cavalry group had plenty of access to .30cal machine guns so giving the rifle squads access to a .30cal in the light machine gun role seems a fair exchange though my other idea of only giving LMGs to fully manned squads is also a bit daft.       On top of that, only being able to have 3 dismounted rifle squads is a bit of a hindrance. Whilst this selector is based on the Tank Wars platoon it isn't employed as a typical armoured force so I have upped the limit from 0-3 to 0-4 rifle squads and renamed them Dismounted Cavalry Squads.
     The suggested Recce rule for the Stuart tanks has also been sidelined for the time being. That probably is too unbalanced.

     Historically adding a towed anti tank gun to the selector would also fit as there are plenty of recorded instances of them having a battery of towed guns attached for their specified mission.

     As well as that, and I am probably being very daft here but as the US Cavalry groups weren't supplied with a sniper team I was thinking to create a troop Sharpshooter unit. Basically the idea is to have two guys from the troop who were keen, experienced hunters back in the US before enlisting/conscription and as they are exceptionally good shots they have been deployed by the troop commander as sharpshooters equipped with a Garand rifle and an SMG. The sharpshooter has a 30" range ( he has really good eyesight, knows his rifle's idiosyncrasies and has zeroed it and hits on a 4+ rather than a 3+. As he doesn't have a scope he can fire at targets at less than 12". Otherwise he  counts as a sniper so ignores the gun shield and exceptional damage rule and costs the same points as a Sniper selection.

     So I will factor these changes in to the selector, especially as I have been and ordered 4 US LMG teams from the Empress Miniatures WW2 range who make exceptionally beautiful wargaming figures and also get my characters named; most important that.

So my home brew selector looks like this now;

Command Vehicle; M5 Stuart, M8 Scoutcar, M20 Scoutcar*, Recce Jeep

Vehicle; two vehicles from M5 Stuart, M8 Greyhound, Recce Jeep

Vehicle: 0-1 M10 Tank Destroyer, M8 Scott

Infantry. 0-4 Squads Dismounted Cavalry squads

Officer: First or Second Lieutenant (including the option of taking an Intelligence Officer as an upgrade as per the Battle of the Bulge campaign book) 

Higher Officer; Captain or Major

Medic

Forward Observer
Marksman

0-2 MMG

0-2 HMG

0-2 Light Mortar

0-2 Bazooka
0-1 medium or heavy anti tank gun
Tow: 2.5 tonne Truck, M3 Half Track, M4 Artillery Tractor

Transports; Jeep and M3 Halftrack

     Finally, my dice, my cursed dice, that caused me so much heart ache, are now scattered around the waste land behind Rich's Kampfschule HQ, damn them!

Not only am I going to start employing tactics, I've also
invested in new, more thematic dice; fingers crossed...

...and a more immediate salve to any future bruised pride,wrecked
plans, crap dice rolls and sound thrashings

     And that's how things look so far for the homebrew selector. I don't think there's any further fine tuning needed so the next thing to do is to put together a mini campaign which will take the shape of a narrative campaign rather than one which carries negative and positive effects from the previous battle.

Thanks for dropping by, feel free to comment on my ideas as any advice is welcome

Pip pip,

Jimbob