Battle of Stonne - Early-WW2 Bolt Action Battle Report

So last week I hosted an in-person game here at Conscript Towers - Bolt Action. I'd been wanting to do an early-war game for some time, so I picked a likely-looking scenario out of the early-war Bolt Action book, Germany Strikes!. This was the Battle of Stonne, basically a meeting engagement coincident to the battles for Sedan. The tabletop is pictured above - village of Stonne at centre with the long table edge at the top of the photo being North. The French entry is along the south-west, south of the east-west road and west of the north-south road, while the Germans enter along the short eastern table edge. Victory would go to the side that held the crossroads, with no enemy units within 6".

  

German forces: three sections of infantry each in a Sdkfz.251/1, one Pzkpfw. 38(t), two Panzer IIs, one Panzer IV, one MMG team, one 37mm AT gun and crew, led by a Hauptmann (captain) and command section in a Kubelwagen.

French forces: three infantry sections each in a truck (models are Solido Simca-Unics), one Somua S35, two Renault R35s, one Char B1 bis, one MMG team, one 25mm AT gun and crew, led by a Capitaine and command section in a light civilian car.

The French force quickly moved onto the table on the southern road, trucks with infantry in the lead.

The French tanks and AT gun turned to face off the German Panzer 38(t) just out of picture to the right. The French blazed away at that tank for several turns but the dice had abandoned them - or maybe the crews skipped gunnery practice??

 

To the north, the Panzer IIs and Sdkfz. 251 moved around the village.

The rest of the German force moved directly towards the crossroads at the centre of the village.

The Germans moved into the village from the north and east, and methodically began to clear the buildings of French defenders, assisted by some hot rolling. Meanwhile the last French R35 rolled into the crossroads to prevent it being taken by the Germans.

View from the south. The Germans have taken the buildings to the north of the road; Panzer II manoeuvering around the buildings.

And that's how the game pretty much ended - victory conditions were a draw, as neither side had clear undisputed control of the crossroads. As far as tiebreakers, the Germans were ahead, as they destroyed far more enemy units than the French had.

Early war games are an interesting challenge for both sides. French tanks are heavily armoured (making them hard to kill by German AT) but they also have weak AT guns and are slow. German tanks are relatively lightly armoured and also have light AT weapons, but are faster and more manoeuverable. The problem with this scenario is the emphasis on the crossroads as the victory location - this draws every single unit on the board towards that location and reduces the potential for movement. This game was fun though - it was great to get all the early war stuff out again (including the newly painted early war German infantry) and see the boys for a game. Until next time!

Battle of Orp - Early-WW2 Bolt Action Battle Report

 

 

So last week Conscript Dallas hosted an in-person game at Conscript Towers - Bolt Action. We have been wanting to do another early-war game since October 2021, when we played the Battle of Stonne, so I picked another scenario out of the early-war Bolt Action book, Germany Strikes!. This was the Battle of Orp, basically a meeting engagement that was part of the larger Battle of Hannut. The tabletop is pictured above - the village of Orp at centre with the table edge at the top of the photo being West. The French entry is along the western table edge, while the Germans enter along the eastern table edge. Victory would go to the side that destroys the most enemy units by the end of the game.

 

 

 

French forces - elements of the 3e Division Légère Mécanique: two infantry sections  and one MMG team each in a truck (models are Solido Simca-Unics), led by a Capitaine. One Hotchkiss H39 command tank, two Somua S35 tanks, and one AMD Panhard 178 armoured car.

 

The Somua crews are rated as Inexperienced, and all the French tanks are affected by the "one man turret" rule where they must make an Order roll on the dice to Advance, regardless of any pins. The command tank provides a +1 morale modifier with a 6" range. All other units are rated as Regulars

 

 

German forces - elements of the 3rd Panzer Division: Two sections of Kradschützen, and one MMG team in a truck, one Panzerbefehlswagen Panzer I, two Panzer IIs, one Panzer III, and one Panzer IV. 

 

All the German units are rated as Regulars and the command tank provides a +1 morale modifier with a 12" range.

 

Conscripts David and Hugh would command the French, while Conscripts Bill and Dallas would command the Germans. Neither side chose to keep anything in reserve, so units would enter the board with either a "Run" or "Advance" order as command dice were drawn.

 

A section of Kradschützen races into Orp

French armour concentrates on their left flank

French Dragons Portés dismount on the edge of Orp

A second section of Kradschützen arrives

Dispostions at the end of Turn 1

 

At the end of first turn, the French had deployed the infantry sections on the edge of Orp, and the MMG team in the woods. Having a captain in command gave them a distinct advantage in both the morale modifier (+3) and the ability to activate up to three additional units. Their tanks were concentrated on the left flank, while the Panhard was on their right flank to pose a threat of potential side shots. The Germans had their motorcycle infantry holding the eastern edge of Orp supported by their MMG team, while their armour advanced on a broad front.

 

German and French infantry blaze away at each other in Orp

French armour cautiously advances

Panzer III is destroyed by the Hotchkiss H39 tank

View of the battle from the French side

While the German and French infantry battled for control of Orp, slowly wearing each other down, the French armour slowly advanced to the East. The German Panzers had difficulty getting any traction, primarily due to unfortunate dice rolls. They rolled high when they needed low numbers and low when they needed high numbers. The Dice Gods definitely were kinder to the French. The Hotchkiss H39 was able to knock out the Panzer III, while the Panhard armoured car destroyed one of the Panzer II tanks on the German left flank.  One of the Somua S35 tanks was hit by the Panzer IV which caused some pins. The French tank failed its command role two turns in a row, and withdrew off the board. The breaking point for the Germans occurred when one of the Kradschützen squads got a "FUBAR" result on the command roll and routed to the rear.

French Somua S35 and Hotchkiss H39 tanks

Routed Kradschützen and knocked out Panzer II

Conscripts Hugh and Bill assessing the damage

At this point, the end of turn 5, we decided to call it a night as it was getting quite late. The result was a French victory, with two German tanks destroyed and only one French tank withdrawing from the battle. This actually matched the historical results of the battle rather closely. The Germans had more tanks knocked out than the French, but were able to recover most of them when the French withdrew.

It was good to play another early war scenario, and be able to put some newly painted figures on the table top. It was a tough one for the Germans since only the Panzer III and IV could really stand up against the Somuas, while even the French Panhard had an anti-tank gun capable of knocking out a German tank. A string of extremely unlucky dice rolls didn't help the German advance either. Until next time.