Hold Until Relieved

Having recently had my Pegasus Bridge painted and completed by my good friend Joe Simeone, we both decided to baptise it with a game.

This is the Warlord games bolt Action Pegasus Bridge set.

Joe added some details like the wooden boards for the walkway and main bridge.

Adding the detail.

Base coat of grey.

Base coat of brown.

Main brown colour.

The finished product with weathering.

Time to put this baby to good use.

We played this game in two parts.
First part would be the British Paras gliding in and trying to take the east end of bridge from the German garrison.
Second part would be the British Commandos arriving to relieve the Paras and trying to stop a German counter attack.

East side of bridge that the British Paras had to capture.

British end to the left and German end on the right.

The German forces were made up of the two parts.

FIRST PART, Guard Garrison.
1 x HQ.
4 x Five man squads.
1 x Puma armoured car.

SECOND PART, Counter attack force.
1 x HQ.
2 x Ten man squads.
1 x HMG Team.
1 x Stug III.
1 x Panzer IV.

German Forces.

The British forces were made up of the two parts as well.

 FIRST PART, Paras.
 1 x HQ.
 4 x Five man squads.
 1 x PIAT team.

SECOND PART, Commandos.
1 x HQ.
2 x Ten man squads.
1 x HMG team.
2 x Sherman tanks.

British Forces.

German Garrison sets up.

German Garrison HQ in the control tower.

First Paras land.

The battle begins.

More Paras arrive.

"Up and at'em lads."

First squad of Paras wiped out.

Major Howard and his HQ arrive and get straight into the fight.

Major Howard's HQ winning the assault.

Objective cleared.

Puma opens up.

The Germans had a squad up on the bridge that was cutting down the Paras.

More bloody hand to hand.

Major Howard and his HQ press on to take on the German Garrison HQ.

"Press on lads."

Puma ahead.

Puma takes aim.

The fight goes on.

Garrison HQ gone.

The last of the German Garrison fights on.

Puma getting closer.

After suffering heavy losses the Paras take out all of the German Garrison....

...forcing the Puma to back off and await for  re-enforcements.

With the east end  of the bridge secured, Major Howard gathers what's left of his Paras and awaits Lord Lovat and his Commandos.

"Hold until relieved.'

Puma awaiting re-enforcements.

The German counter attack arrives.

First of the Commandos arrive with the HMG team.

First Sherman arrives.

Second Sherman.

Panzer IV joins the Puma.

To the sound of  Milan's bag pipes, Lord Lovat  and the rest of the Commandos arrive.

Push on.

Commando HQ  with Milan and his bag pipes centre and Lord Lovat on the right.

Commandos.

German counter attack in full swing.

The Commandos push on.

Germans taking aim at the Commandos.

German main blocking force.

German HQ.

Tank dual.

"Keep moving lads."

The tanks kept missing each other.

Second German squad makes it to the bunker.

German HMG team moves in.

With the Germans in the bunker on there right and the German HMG team on there left, the Commandos start to take casualties and get pinned down.

Lord Lovat takes the lead and presses on.

First Sherman taken out. Things start to go bad for the British.

The Commandos rally and push on.

One squad of Commandos tries to assaults the Puma. Having  passed there test for tank shock, all they needed was anything but a one...

...they got a one and fall back after being cut down by the Pumas MG.

Things are not looking good for the British.

The Stug III moves up to add more to the carnage.

In a bold move one squad of Commandos charges forward and assaults the German HMG team...

...whipping it out...

...only to be cut to pieces next turn.

With Lord Lovat and his Commandos wiped out, Major Howard surrenders to the Germans.

Not quite the way history went, but a fun game it was.

All Day Bolt Action.

Saturday just past was an all day Bolt Action day.

First of it was down to my good friends at the Combat Company for a few sessions of Bolt Action with the fantastic team from "The Demo Gamers", who put on a fantastic game of the airborne drop of, "The Battle for  Sainte Nere Eglise".

Then it was of to Joe's place were we play a game of US forces vs German forces.
The forces were pretty balanced with three squads each mounted in half tracks, two tanks,HQ and support elements of HMG's, snipers and AT Teams.

The objective was to captures three points on the main road.
My Son Evan and Joe played US Forces and Andrew and myself the Germans.

The game came down to the wire as most squads were wiped out and needing three men or more to hold an objective, all squads were out, except for a lone three man team of  a German HMG squad, who captured a single objective on the final turn just winning the Germans the game.

First point was the end above near the tree and bunker.

Second point was the cross road to the left.

Shot of same cross road to the right. Third point was the opposite end of the road not in view.

German Forces.

US Forces.

German Mortar Team.

German AT team

US Forces move in.

German Sniper team.

German's rush to the front.

US armour support

German Stug.

German first squad rushes for the cross road.

US first squad not far from the cross road.

More Germans head for the third objective.

US forces heading to third objective.

Another US squad heading closer to cross roads

German squad making there way to the third objective top right.

US HMG team.

US Sniper team and Mortar team in ruined building.

German HMG team and HQ in bunker. This would be the HMG team that would win the game as it was the only squad consisting of three or more men on either side that could hold an objective.

A Us squad moves into bunker at the cross road.

German squad and Panzer near the third objective.

The Cross road in the centre. The first objective was at the bottom of the photo not in view, and the third objective at the top, not in view.

German sniper team takes position on top of a bunker not far from the cross road.

Germans reach the cross road first. 

What's left at the third objective after a bloody close combat round of what was a squad of US and Germans. The Germans won the round but were reduced to two men with three needed to hold the objective.

The battle for the cross road, were both forces would be wiped out in close combat.

First objective were once again over time both forces would be wiped out.

The Panzer tries to take out the Sherman only to keep stunning it.

Whats left at the cross road.

Us squad holds the first objective for a short time...

...only to be wiped out under heavy MG fire from the half track and then failing a roll for morale.

The Stug and half track try to put up a defencive wall of cover as the lone German HMG squad rushes to the first objective on the last turn. While doing so a lone US Sherman tank was in ambush and took a shot with the result of a pin. All hope was lost as all the Sherman needed was one kill to end the game in a draw.

It missed and the German HMG squad made it by the skin of there pants winning the Germans the game with the capture of the only objective.