If you're gonna die...

Finally! Finally, after many attempts since before Christmas, finally The Bob and I were able to play a game of Bolt Action. Bonus: we were joined by the notorious Screech. Both of them agreed to play 500pts of Germans vs. my 1000pts of British. We rolled up the Mission and got No Man's Land.

1000 points of British soldiers, ready for glory!

The British line.

The German line.

 The No Man's Land scenario begins with a massive preliminary bombardment. The first unit struck was my Sherman Firefly, and after some astounding dice rolls from Bob, the tank was reduced to a burning hulk. Considering how many points this thing is you can imagine what a loss this asset will be for my army for the rest of this battle.

Serious first blood.

Most of our units accumilated Pin Markers and some units even lost a guy or two, but Screech's tank was also hit hard by the shelling and was immobilized. The bombardment left a smokey haze on the battlefield reducing viability to 24" for the first game turn.

Pinned down by Jerry! 

For some reason I didn't take a lot of pics between the 1st and 5th Turns. I guess I was focused on trying to find a break in their lines but this proved to be a futile gesture . By the time we reached Turn 5, my right flanks was crumbled, my other Section was bogged down in a crater. Before they were murdered, both my FOOs had called in strikes but neither was as effective as they had been in other games. My Bren Carrier was fairly effective chewing up its targets and causing Bob's Germans a bit of frustration. It had been carrying the PIAT Team, who managed to deploy and hit a target only for it to fail to kill anyone. They were gunned down for their efforts.

Early part of Turn 5

Despite the unrealistic odds my 2nd Lieutenant held firm and continued to support the Section stuck in the crater.

"This way lads!"

After his men had finally moved his artillery into a more effective position, Bob was finally able to get rid of that Bren Carrier.

KA-BOOM!

It was getting bleak as Screech's Germans just hadn't died like they should have and they swarmed the crater shooting the Brits until they broke. This left my 2nd Lieutenant standing alone and prepared for a final blaze of glory. He took a shot at the Unit Leader of one of Bob's units as he was the sole survivor of that squad (and I'll be damned if I didn't want at least 1 VP!)

"Rally around me lads....lads?"

He failed to kill that officer, who in turn returned fire and killed him!

It was obvious by the end of Turn 6 that the Brits were done for. Leaving only my Geneva Convention-cursing medic and a single member of a mortar team alive. I'm sure the Germans let them sit out the rest of the war comfortably...

"Think we can take 'em doc?"

Regardless of the crushing defeat, I still had fun although my dice were extremely random in this game. That Bombardment in the beginning really changed the course of the game for both sides. Missing that VC Firefly's support made for a world of difference. Using my Bren Carrier more aggressively was a lot of fun but ultimately I got a little wreckless with it. Once Bob was able to bring his big gun into position it was done for. In the end I plan on finally retooling this list, maybe drop some of the 2-man support units and use the points for Vet. Upgrades instead. We'll see. But this isn't the last those Jerrys have seen of us!