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...

Club Night 1st February - Bolt Action

Three weeks in the planning, we finally managed our Bolt Action game at the club yesterday (Stoke Wargames Group). I left all my Last Valley bocage and trees at home by mistake so we moved the action to somewhere in Italy...

OOB's

Germans; Sean and Keith (Veterans):
PHQ
3 squads
2 MMG's
1 PzSchrk team
1 Pak 40
1 JgdPanther

British; Barry and Jim (Regular):
PHQ
1 FAO
3 squads
1 MMG
1 medium mortar
1 PIAT team
1 Firefly
2 Shermans

Both the British and the German defenders put as many troops as possible into Reserve. The Germans wanted to avoid the Preparatory Bombardment and to be able to rapidly deploy to hotspots; the British planned to send their Shermans on deep outflanking moves as usual...

German Deployment and Turn 1

 

The Germans deployed one MMG in the bunker in front of the southern objective, the JagdPanther and Pak 40 in front of the central objective and one squad with the PHQ in the building complex covering the most northern objective.

Someone FUBAR'd and the Preparatory Bombardment never came! The first wave of British came on in fine style over the whole front; the PHQ and FAO, all 3 squads, the mortar/spotter and the MMG.



Turns 2 and 3

As all the tanks were outflanking the only British Reserve unit to come on was the PIAT.  They advanced aggressively in the south but seemed to forget there was objectives to be accomplished in the north. The mortar spotter moved into the eastern-most building and started to look for likely targets.

The Germans waited until turn 3 to start their Reserve rolls to see how the action was developing. This led to the first shots being exchanged in the south between opposing infantry squads; the Germans coming off slightly worse.

Turn 4

The Firefly burst on to the scene in the south and wasted an awful lot of bullets on the nearest German squad to no effect (other than another Pin marker). The mortar spotter radioed in the location of the Pak 40 and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke; all four crew killed with the first shot.

The German MMG in the bunker opened up on a British squad emerging from behind the church, pinning them; they didn't manage to move again.

A German Reserve squad in the north took a burst from the British MMG who skillfully picked out the MG42 gunner at almost maximum range.

 Turn 5

The first regular Sherman arrived in the north, and also demonstrated the inadequacies of British MG training. The mortar spotter worked his magic again and his buddies annihilated a freshly arrived German MMG with their next shot.

The bunker MMG kept the squad in front pinned but another squad outside of its arc of fire continued to advance agressively. The JagdPanther brashly emerged from cover, driving into the river to take a shot at the flank of the Firefly... missing.

Turn 6

The Sherman in the north took the nearest objective as it's twin arrived in support. In the south the Firefly eliminated the JagdPanther in fine style. AT weapons were fired left, right and centre to no effect by both sides. By the end of the turn the Germans had very little left that could hurt a Sherman but were still holding two objectives and therefore winning... At this point the FAO (who had done sweet FA) came out of his coma and coordinated a barrage for... Turn 7. If there wasn't a Turn 7 then it would never come and the Germans would have won. 1-3 game ends, 4-6 play another turn...

Turn 7

As the bunker was assaulted, destroying the last German MMG, the Firefly took the southern objective claiming a draw; there was no way of getting to the central objective so surely that was it? No, we remembered the barrage and decided to resolve it before calling the game. FUBAR! The barrage scattered onto the Sherman holding the northern objective, if it could be destroyed then the Germans could rush the objective and win. The dice gods decided to let the Sherman off with a couple of pin markers however and the game was drawn.

Three games in now and everyone still LOVES Bolt Action! More soon...

(More piccies from no particular turn...)

Preparing for Bolt Action... action

There's been no Fridays at the club due to first Christmas and New Year and then most recently snow. Last Friday we were supposed to be playing Bolt Action and preparing for the game reminded me how much I like it. With a 'snow day' today and a wave of enthusiasm I set about increasing my late war German forces...

All my WWII stuff is late war Western Front and all the figures are from the excellent Valiant 20mm range. The Germans currently consist of a three squad platoon with HQ, 2 MMG's, 1 80mm mortar with spotter, 2 PzShreck teams, 1 Pak 40, 1 Jagdpanther and 2 Stug III's. I intend to take them up to company strength plus supports and started the process today.

Using the 'Germans in Normandy' box I put together a second 3 squad platoon with it's HQ. These are mostly in Zeltbahn and will be mixed with the existing platoon for variety (though I might use them as SS in small games). The squads are all 10 man to keep my options open but by this period they should be reduced to just 9. I normally field them as 8 man veteran squads anyway...

I also started to work on a little support from the Heavy Weapons Coy., namely 2 12cm mortars. In Bolt Action each is a separate unit with 4 crew and an optional spotter upgrade so this is what I'm fielding. In larger games I'll field them as a single 2 tube section with one spotter and use the other as an NCO.

I've ordered a few resin vehicles from Britannia (first order of many if I like them...) and here's a summary of what I'm looking to achieve eventually...

• Coy HQ
• MMG Section ( 2 MMG's)
• 1st Armoured Platoon: HQ in Sdkfz 250, 3 squads in Sdkfz 251's
• 2nd and 3rd Platoons (same structure, no armour)

(From Weapons Coy)

• MMG section (2 MMG's)
• 80mm mortar section (2 mortars)
• 1/2 120mm mortar platoon (2 mortars) in Maultier

(Support)

• Pak 40 / Maultier
• 1 Jagdpanther
• 2 Stug III's
• 1 Sdkfz 222 AC
•  2 PzShreck teams
• 2 Sniper teams
• 1 Tank hunter team
• 3 Pz IVH's
• ???

We'll see.