Bolt Action Report - Assault on Nijmegen Bridge (1944)

This month we played a massive Bolt Action game at the Wargame society.
In HK, the Wargame society play once a month at the historic police officer mess and the place is gorgeous.

The battle itself was a free reproduction of the Sept. 22nd 1944 battle at Nijmegen. By free, I mean we did not use any official order of battle even if we use the historical armies: British Armoured, US Airborne, German Fallschimjager, SS and Heer herzats.

Battle setup:
The Allies deployed on one corner, the German in 2 positions. Half of the German force would deploy and reinforcement would arrive starting turn 3.

Result: The German will keep control of the bridge and of the park. The Allies were bringing a lot of casualties to the German. The plan of the German was purely defensive and an interdiction game, shooting the Allies whenever they showed up in the park or on the northernroad. A fun game. Minor German victory, but with 1 more turn, the German would have lost.
Bolt Action is a very fast pace game and we played 2000 pts per side, with 2 commanders on each side within 2-3h.
Few take away: Tanks are very difficult to kill and to kill other tanks. 1 shot per turn is not helping the odds. Mortar are a waste of points. Units with panzerfausts are more effective as long as they haven't shot their panzerfaust, they have a strong fear factor that way.

Enjoy the pictures.

Starting Concept. White Flag are objectives. From Close Combat series

Allies objectives

German objectives

Actual Table. White Flag are objectives

As you can see, we are running on something else than water.

Allies deployment, all US airborne. British will be coming as reinforcement starting turn 2

German deployment. Hetzer, 1 Heer squad, mortar, MMG at the bridge, Flamethrower, 1 Heer squad, sniper in the tower.

Another view of the battle field.

West side street

Northview

West side details, US Airborne are taking cover

British AT gun, it shot and did nothing.

The dreaded bazooka. They will never shot, too far from the German armor

The Allies secured an objective

 

Hetzer using wreck car as cover

Firefly hiding. It will destroy German Wespe

Wespe destroyed. A tough

US Airborne avoiding German as much as possible in the park.

West side, the Allies use the cover of the houses

Centaur ready to fight

German mortar. Mortar are very useless in Bolt Action

End of Turn 4, German are scaring Allies into getting in the park (sniper, flamethrower and squad with pzfaust)

The 4 commanders. German on the left, Allies on the right

East side, German running to support the defense.

German are thinking about their move. Should we go aggressive or defensive

US Airborne are in force

Panther used the Wespe as a cover

Puma will cover the park effectively, banning Allies push in the center

Hetzer covering a wood. Whoever exit the wood will pay it dearly.

Finally, the Allies decided to fight for the park, too late to have any impact. The Heer squad was quickly overwhelmed

 

Allies are taking the North road and use the road to speed up

Allies received few casualties from opportunistic fire

Bunker defending the bridge

Fallschimjager force composition

SS Kampfgruppe with Heer Ersatz

Eastside view, mid scenario

Bridge view, late game

Traffic jam