Club Night 19th April - Bolt Action: Hold Until Relieved III

Turn 5

The Dingo continued to pile the hurt onto the squad pinned just in front of it (aided by the mortar)while the nearby Pz IVH carried on ignoring it.

The 222 was performing a similar trick against the poor remnants of a British section...

The real drama started on the German right as a long range 'schreck shot lit up a Sherman; the Ronson rule guaranteeing it's distruction.

The Firefly took more pins from the opposing panzer effectively taking it out of the game

Turn 6

Boom! The right flank Sherman was set on fire and went 'all inferno' (Ronson!) thanks to the continuing efforts of the Pz IVH. In the graveyard the pinned Brits failed to make their dash to the objective. Not so the German platoon HQ who sneaked up to claim it, using it as cover.

The central Pz IVH rolled up and the German MMG went into ambush covering the road.

Oblivious to the now ineffectual Firefly the right flank Pz IVH moved to cover the objective as the 'schreck team eyed up the British mortar position.

If the game had ended now the Germans would have won, but no, the dice gods said play on.

Turn 7 (Final Turn)

There was no way the German HQ could be winkled out of their position behind the bunker so the only hope for the Brits was to contest the objective for a draw.

The graveyard section refused to move again, (probably saving their lives) so it was down to the fresh section that had moved in from the left flank. If they took the shortest route they would be Advancing (6") through a hedge and would fall short. However, Matt had correctly eyeballed the distance and was planning on Running (12") around the hedge to reach the objective but alas, the next order die was German... This allowed Keith to display the low, underhand, gamey sort of cunning that makes him ideal to play the 'vile Hun'.

He drove a Pz IVH up to the hedge and parked with his 'bumper' against it. The Brits now had to go around the tank and could no longer reach the objective!

 Game over. German victory!

 

Thus ended our biggest and best game of Bolt Action yet. We all enjoyed it and (at least up to turn 6...) felt like realistic tactics were used and rewarded. A club noobie who joined in liked it so much he invested in a whole 20mm WWII army at Salute the next weekend!

Several of us, me included, expressed disatisfaction with the Recce rule. I know I've seen it slated on a few forums. The ability to repeatedly escape from fire encourages unrealistic offensive action. House rules incoming...

Club Night 19th April - Bolt Action: Hold Until Relieved II

Turn 3

The British pushed forward aggressively on their right flank trying to move into the graveyard which would make an excellent jump off point for taking the objective. A Sherman moved into the cover of the wall to trade potshots with the Pz IVH opposite. The Germans were content to hold the hedge line along the road and exchange shots.

The British were also the main players on the other flank. The section that had been cowering behind the house started to move towards the centre and a Sherman along with the PIAT team moved into a forward position. The German Panzerschreck team arrived and moved up their right flank covering the Pz IVH that was sitting there engaging the second Sherman and Firefly.

 

Turn 4

 

The British surged into the graveyard and the Sherman accompanying them continued to unsuccessfully engage the Pz IVH, taking a couple of pins. The cheeky Sdkfz 222 moved up again putting a few rounds into the troops that hadn't made the cover of the walls.

 

Shortly after, a third Pz IVH arrived which took up a position covering the objective, totally ignoring the Dingo that was taking point blank shots at the infantry nearby, (knowing that it could simply 'recce away'.)

The Pz IVH on the German right managed to put a pin on the Firefly and the 'schreck team continued their wide sweep

 

Part III will relate the final three turns. Maybe later tonight, maybe not...

Salute 2013 - A Show Report - Part 2

The last photo's:

5 Go on Holiday? And burn and pillage a Trojan town?

A large Waterloo game. That's Napoleon top left, honest.

Wolsung skirmish board, a very well filled 2' x 2'.

Ninja skirmish game.

Mars and... Martians. Oh, and Earthmen.

Japanese castle siege.

Hordes and Heroes. Medieval in the foreground, Dark Ages behind.

Stoke Wargames Group's Wargods of Aegyptus skirmish game.

New fantasy skirmish game system and model range, Twilight.

Snit, from Dragon Magazine. I love it.

Sound El Deguello. Oh, too late. Mexicans parade around the Alamo.

Da Clash! Intriguing.

54mm action from Victrix. Gorgeous.

Back home by 9.30 p.m. and my lift is already sorted for next year...

Salute 2013 - A Show Report - Part 1

Okay, not so much a show report as a bunch of photos. I haven't got time to do this show justice it was so big (and quite good). Even then there was a lot that my camera missed so the photos are just a cross section of 'things' that I found particularly interesting.

My lift arrived at 5.45 a.m. and we reached our destination at 9.30. A trader / display game badge got us in early and by 9.45 I was at the Peter Pig stand picking up almost £100 worth of AK-47 stuff for my fast approaching Mbogo campaign. After that I spent very little; £5 on a 1/100 Mi-24 Hind kit, £5 on a bag of 75 (!) small scale trees, £3 on a pre-painted 1/72 Ferdinand and a couple of quid on some mdf bases. We left at 4.00 p.m. and I just about had enough time to see everything once.

The photos, in no particular order:

The display stand for the official D&D miniatures range. Wow!

Dropzone commander?

28mm Mexican-American War

A peculiar rooftops and viaduct above the smog game. Bizarre...

Views from either end of the Operation Overlord display game. Nice.

Devil's Den as featured in this months WI.

Jason and the Argonauts in 'Action Man' scale.

Busy Stalingrad terrain with very few figures for the table size.

That's about half of 'em, more to come.

Club Night 12th April - Bolt Action: Hold Until Relieved

After painting up the new vehicles I was itching to get them into a game. Our three previous games of Bolt Action were a larger British regular force against a smaller veteran German group but because I'd mainly painted Germans the British were now seriously 'outpointed'.

So for our fourth game the situation was reversed, British vets. against German regulars (mostly old men and boys. This allowed me to squeeze in all my new toys - our biggest game yet.

Scenario: Hold Until Relieved

Germans (Keith and John) 1703 pts	British (Barry and Matt) 1703 pts
HQ	HQ
Regular	Veteran
Sdkfz 250/1	AFO
Regular	Regular
Squad 1	Squad 1
Regular	Veteran
Squad 2	Squad 2
Regular	Veteran
Squad 3	Squad 3
Regular	Veteran
MMG 1	MMG
Regular	Veteran
MMG 2	Medium Mortar
Regular	Veteran
PzSchreck	Firefly
Regular	Veteran
PzIVH	Sherman 75mm
Regular	Veteran
PzIVH	Sherman 75mm
Regular	Veteran
PzIVH	PIAT
Regular	Veteran
75mm Pak 40	Dingo A/C
Regular	Veteran
Maultier
Regular
Sdkfz 222
Regular

Deployment

The Germans set up one squad in a walled graveyard near to the bunker objective and a MMG in the first floor of a building overlooking the bunker. The British then deployed their infantry on three sides of the Germans, only leaving the route to their baseline open.

Turn 1

The British opened the turn by firing their mortar at the graveyard squad; 6! Half the squad dead...
It was the Germans however making all the moves as their 1st wave came on. Taking advantage of the Brits' temporary dearth of AT capability the Sdkfz 222 cheekily rolled up to point blank range and riddle a squad on the British right, causing a couple of fatalities. The squad weighed up the chances of a successful assault and fled around the corner of a hedge instead. A Pz IV arrived on the German right.

Photos from the end of turn 1. Two whole table shots (6' x 7'); first from British left, second from the right.

 

The British left flank cowering behind a house.

German 1st wave arriving...

 

Turn 2

 

The Pz IV went into ambush and incredibly 10 of the first 11 dice pulled were German allowing a relentless advance across the whole front. They did fail a number of reserve roles however so the 'Schreck and the other Panzers were delayed. The 222 repeated it's point blank attacjk but only managed a pin, even with the help of the first floor MMG. Random chance had turned the game into IGoUGo and it was now the British turn!

 

All the British reserves arrived and one of the Shermans opened fire on the 222 but it retreated and hid (recce.). The Pz IV in ambush fired on a Sherman arriving on the opposite flank which returned fire, both missed. Lots of fire was poured into the graveyard but to no effect. This included a cheeky run by the Dingo trying to emulate the 222 but the hard cover of the walls resisted it's efforts.

 

End of turn 2. The Germans advance...

 

Unless they're hiding...

Whole table. Good luck spotting the differences...

The Sherman that saw off the Sdkfz 222 and infantry attacking the graveyard.

The cheeky Dingo.

Pak 40 moves into position.

 

Setting up took a lot of time and it was now 11 p.m. (we talk a LOT) so we called it a night. We'll finish this Friday. Watch this space.