Normandy Bocage, Casual Con IV
This scenario of Bolt Action took place during Operation Cobra in 1944 and saw a reinforced US infantry platoon advancing through the claustrophobic bocage terrain in an attempt to secure a strategic crossroad from the dug in German defenders. For terrain we used our 4x8 bocage board which has held up fairly well since it's construction in 2000. I added few updates of more trees and some teddy bear fur grass to give the old board a slight facelift.
Forces were chosen from the appropriate Theatre Selectors in their army books.
US forces - 1944 Operation Cobra:
- Regular 1st Lt and two assistants
- Medic
- Regular Infantry Squad, twelve men
- Regular Infantry Squad, twelve men
- Regular Infantry Squad, ten men
- Regular Infantry Squad, ten men
- Regular Engineer Squad, eight men
- Regular MMG Team
- Regular Bazooka Team
- Regular M4A1 Sherman
- Regular M4A1 Sherman
- Reserves: Regular Infantry Squad, twelve men mounted in half track
German forces - 1944 Normandy:
- Veteran 2nd Lt and two assistants
- Medic
- Veteran Grenadier Squad, six men, two panzerfausts
- Veteran Grenadier Squad, six men, two panzerfausts
- Veteran Grenadier Squad, six men, two panzerfausts
- Veteran MMG Team
- Veteran Panzershreck Team
- Veteran Medium Mortar Team with Spotter
- Veteran Sniper Team
Several special rules were used for this scenario to better represent the difficulty of fighting in the dense bocage terrain. For movement through the difficult hedgerow terrain we used the special rules from the Battleground Europe campaign book.
The German forces were not deployed on the board, but their positions were secretly plotted on a scaled map of the game board. Until spotted by the US forces, the German's movement would also be hidden and plotted on these maps. The German forces could also use the Dug In rules from the Ostfront campaign book. Finally, spotting rules would be used to determine what units could be seen and therefore fired upon. I used the spotting system from the Battleground WWII rules by Easy Eight Enterprises as it was a proven system we had used previously.
To balance out these special defensive rules for the Germans, the US force had nearly one and a half times as many points worth of troops. Unknown to the US players, there was also an additional US squad mounted in a half track that would become available after their first squad was destroyed.
Because of the restrictive terrain and playing down the length of the table, game length would be 8 turns, and on a roll of 4+, we would play one more turn.
With the disposition of the German forces plotted on the map, the Americans placed their units on the board and the battle was set to begin.
The US infantry carefully work their way forward in the Normandy bocage. Leading the way, a US Sherman easily crushes the wooden gate that leads into the central field.Unaware of the battle to come, these Normandy residents munch happily on the long grass.A second Sherman accompanied by infantry support crashes through a different gate and finds itself under attack by a German ambush. A hidden and dug in Grenadier squad fires a panzerfaust at the US tank, causing confusion with the crew (adding multiple pins), but not doing any real damage. At the same time, the hidden squad unloads on the Americans immediately in front of their positions causing multiple casualties.US Combat Engineers, a bazooka team and a MMG team follow up the front line troops.A fierce close range firefight with the ambushing Germans breaks out resulting in the first US squad being wiped out. A second US squad moves up and assaults the dug in Germans, eliminating them and clearing the position.