Battle Report: USA vs German & French

BATTLE REPORT CARD

Date: July 25, 2025

Game: Bolt Action

Size: 1600pt

Mission: Seek & Destroy

 
🟥Red Player: Alex & Matt

🟥Faction: Waffen SS (Alex) & French Foreign Legion (Matt)

🟥List: Stormtroopers and Jagers (8 + 13 Order Dice)

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🟦Blue Player: Jeff

🟦Faction: US Army

🟦List: Mechanized Infantry (18 Order Dice)

Prologue

I was really craving a Bolt Action game, and the local meet-up group and my schedules aligned! Leading up to the game, I reached out to the meet-up organizer to see what armies were likely to be played, so I could bring one that either integrated with or made thematic sense to play against. I was bouncing around between running an American tank destroyer list or a German Waffen SS StuG list. 

 

Eventually, I was told most of the people who show up run Allies, so I opted to bring an Axis list so there wasn't any Blue-on-Blue combat (if you read the battle report title, you can see how that went). Thinking I was going to run an 800pt StuG list, I 3D printed a kubelwagen. At the last minute, I decided to pivot my list, removing the StuG and replacing it with increased veterancy and load out on my infantry.

 

Round 1

 Round 1 began with a meeting engagement deployment, meaning no units started on the board. The US Army had a M24 Chaffee light tank and two M8 Greyhound armored cars in their list, and that forced me to deploy my halftracks in safer, less aggressive spaces. 

 

Our team was slightly concerned with our opponents armored vehicles. The French Foreign Legion didn't bring any anti-tank weapons and I only had a Panzerschreck team and my Jagers carrying two panzerfausts. We needed to keep them alive and nail each of our shots, something that was going to be difficult with all the Recce armor in the other list.

Score: 🟥0 - 🟦0

 

Round 2

Round 2 started off with our team still trying to play cagey and not get shot off the board. Red made some early gains by shooting a truck off the board and pinning down the squad inside. Blue shoots up a truck and some men inside and KOs a light artillery piece, but still the Germans hold pretty steady. Plenty of good pins are put down on Blue.

 

Waiting till the end of the phase, the panzerschreck team hops out to take a shot at the Chaffee sitting back waiting to activate. They dismount from the 99 halftrack (pink one) into the ruins to take their shot and hit the mark! But then they roll a 1 on damage roll and fail to penetrate the Chaffee's light armor! They will not live to see the next round. 

 

Score: 🟥1 - 🟦4

 

Round 3

More armored transports move up from the US side and dump plenty of veteran rifle squads. They do a good number on the French forces on that side of the line. The Waffen rifle squad deployed too defensive and is having a hard time moving up to support them. Another Blue truck was KO'd and spilled out another veteran rifle squad.

 

On the right flank, the Chaffee dodges the first panzerfaust shot from the jagers, recce'ing out of line of sight (I should double check if you can recce through ruins next time, I didn't have my rule book so I couldn't check). The advance on the right is doing OK, putting pins down on the midboard US and keeping the Bofors autocannon pinned down. The Bofors took a lot of shots with a lot of poor wound rolls and stuck around for too long. 

 

Score: 🟥4 - 🟦5

 

Round 4

By now, the left flank is in dire straights. The Greyhounds have found a flanking position and when the Strosstruppen are dumped out of the 99 halftrack, they are promptly shot off the board. They put a hurt on the veteran rifle squads, but they cannot cope with the volume of fire the Greyhounds can put out. It doesn't help that the Waffen rifle squad in the back fails an orders test to move up and help push some damage through.

 

On the Right side, the odds are looking better, but the last panzerfaust shot I have misses the Chaffee. The French Senegalese are keeping it tied down with assaults, but its just causing nuisance damage rather than anything harmful. The US rifle squads in the middle are taking a lot of hits, but it isn't amounting to much damage.  

 

Score: 🟥4 - 🟦8

  

Round 5

Nearing the end of the game, the US have out numbered the German and French forces. They start to mop up some of the smaller units, leaving not much left Red team's order dice (8 of the original 21 order dice remaining), mostly associated with transports and light artillery units. Having no way to deal with the Blue's 4 remaining armored vehicles, we called the game halfway through round 5. 

 

Score: 🟥5 - 🟦13