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.