American Assault : Sicily 1943 : Bolt Action

Two games to share this week. In the dungeon a return to Sicily. George came for a game this morning to break up our ongoing Chain of Command Campaign, a slightly modified breakthrough scenario. The Americans are pushing inland from Gela. They have a mix of Paratroopers and GI’s with heavy support in terms of Machine Guns and an M7. The Germans are slightly outnumbered but are dug in behind a dry river bed and a small village. The Americans will arrive in two waves. The Germans also have some reserves (that’s if they turn up !)

The setup, Americans assaulting from the left with the target to break through the green line.

The first wave of American paratroopers advance on their right flank towards the village, the Germans have located a machine gun in the Bunker close to the bridge, this covers the bridge and river bed but the Paratroopers are looking to outflank it.

The Germans take a bit of punishment during an effective ‘pre-assault’ bombardment

Already the Americans are surging forward and the Germans fail several key activations

Some reserves do arrive for the Germans but it is clear the Americans are focusing on their right 

A unit of Germans Fallschirmjager move into cover the village, but are hit by an American mortar.

The bunker has now been taken out but the paratroopers still need to close to the village.

The focus of the battle is now around the village 

and they are surging forward. If only the German reserves would arrive ! (I should say that to this point it was pretty clear who the dice gods were supporting in this battle. Apart from the M7 which can’t hit anything the americans can hardly miss, it was painful at times for the Germans who take a pasting. The German reserves failing three attempts to arrive)

Now thin on the ground the Germans even need to throw their commander forward to plug the gaps

Close to collapse now the Germans are holding on by a thread, finally they do start to fight back killing a number of American troops by the bridge.

The rest of the GI’s are pushing along the river bed under the bridge, but they aren’t going to be needed

Finally the German reserves arrive but it is too late and after six turns the Germans are down to three remaining units. It has cost the Americans but a decisive win in the end. A fun battle despite the result and played in good spirit. I designed the game/scenario to be unbalanced but hadn’t counted on the dice gods who helped the Americans more than they really needed, without this help it might have been very tight.

At the weekend I was invited down to join the Lancaster Club with one of their BIG Napoleonic battles. I would be providing a couple of British Brigades and a cavalry brigade. Foolishly my Allied commanders voted me to Lead our British allied force, first mistake. Anyway it was a great day gaming, huge battle with many lovely Napoleonic figures on show. The details of the scenario/battle are unfortunately lost to my memory. Basically the french would be attacking, the allies holding three ruined farms would then try to get enough troops to throw the French back. Here are a few photos to show the spectacle 🙂

The table after the first French move as they arrive on the table

My British holding the centre, as is my usual foolishly approach my light cavalry immediately charged across the battlefield to take on some french cannons which they did and then spent much of the rest of the battle floating about.

Being in the centre holding a key objective is bad as that is where the french Guard tend to be !!!!

The french do their best to adavance across the table

At the very far end a tough fight to control the farm house takes much of the day to resolve

The British have Russian allies or is it the other way round ? And we have loads of heavy cavalry who move towards the flank of the French guard

My British fail to activate at the wrong moment and get caught moving up in column !

George ‘Napoleon’ looking content in his throne

The guard assault columns crash into the British we lose a brigade, but my second line holds just about and finally the tide starts to turn. The guard are eventually thrown back. The ultimate result was a draw with 40 VP each side so we diced off and I lost 😂 a great day with lots of banter and I will hopefully get invited back soon.

Finally I sneeked out for a walk on Tuesday, which whilst breezy was a fine day for walking. The prominent hill is Whiteless Pike

And later in the day the view west across the Lake District.

I seem to be keeping busy and hopefully another game Sunday 

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt