The Enveloping Situation

It felt like ages since our last Bolt Action game. About 2 seasons ago. Enough for us to forget a lot of the rules. But that wasn't gonna stop The Bob and I from having some WW2 fun!

See? -FUN!!!

We rolled up quite a fun mission: Double Envelopment. In this scenario we are both trying to get units across the table and through the enemy's deployment zone. If a unit leaves off of the enemy deployment zone that result is worth 3 VPs! If the game ends and you got a unit in the enemy deployment zone, that is worth 2 VPs. If you wipe out an enemy unit that is only worth 1 VP. This mission is more challenging than it sounds.

For some reason we have to put half of our forces into reserve and run them all in on Turn One. The other half is deployed by randomly die pulls.

British deployment force

British reserve force.

German Deployment force.

German reserve force.

 Like that the game was off. Much of the first turn was maneuvering and moving. My Artillery Foward Observer called a strike on one of the German Units and the Firefly killed a few men from the opposing infantry unit nearby, which seemed like an unnecessary waste of it's potential.  But that is about it.

It was a stinming shot.

End of Turn One.

Turn 2 and my artillery barage scatters in such a way as to catch my unit in cover behind the house, killing a few models and loading them down with pin markers. The German squad took no casualties. To make things more worrisome, that unit of mine that I just barraged also had an airstrike called upon it (that is what the larger flame counter is for) so anticipating the outcome of that was definitely worrisome.

Shelling our own troops! 

On Turn 2 the Panzer had moved into a position in which the Firefly could artempt to deal with it. I scored a perfect shot on it but managed to only stun it. Still, that would by me a round in which I wouldn't have to worry about it.

CLANG! Firefly stuns Panzer.

Turn 2 ended with a few more Pin Markers accumulated here and there, with my unit on the left behind the house taking the most abuse. My Forward Air Observer called a strike on the unit opposite the beleaguered blokes behind the house, while they remained Down and wondering when the German bomb will hit them! On the right flank the infantry unit waa making a push into my deployment zone and I sent the Firefly over to deal with them, but that was proving difficult to pull off. And in the middle my Leader in the Bren Carrier was making a push as well and was trading fire with a machince gun nest in the nearby brush.

End of Turn 2

The air strike hits the Brits behind the house, who are very close to being pinned to death at this point. The Bren Carrier kills the Machine Gun nest, and the Firefly survives a tank shell while also attempting to stop the German infantry from achieving their objective.

End of Turn 3 

The Germans close on the farmhouse, ignoring the incoming plane...

Turn 4 and the damned rookie pilot comes staffing in and blasts my own men doing considerable damage to my troops in the center of the table! All of my units there are now weighed down with Pin Markers! Ignoring the PIAT team, the Germans round the house and continue to harass the Downed British Infantry unit. The PIAT Team, bewildered to be alive, fire a shaped charge into the German Squad and actually manage to kill a guy!

Encounter at the farmhouse.

The Bren Carrier tried to stop the German unit that was making a push against my middle forces, but this proved to be a tactical error (I should have gunned it deeper into their Deployment Zone and towards the table edge!).

End of Turn 4

Turn 5 begins and I have a decision to make about my center units. All of which are loaded down with Pin Markers but each had the potential to make it into the enemy deployment zone. But the early die pulls favor the Germans..

The Panzer annihilates the Bren Carrier. The pinned and batter Commander bail out only to be gunned down by the German unit before them. Seeing their chance my middle Infantry Unit runs for the enemy line and makes it into their zone. The medic was about to do likewise but he was gunned down.

"What's banzi in german?"

Done with messing with the infantry unit behind the building, they decided to go for the easy kill (and avenge their friend) and engage the PIAT team in close quarters. It was a quick and brutile demise for the PIAT Team.

End of Turn 5.

With the German Infantry team making it off of the board on my far right flank, Bob was able to secure another 3 VPs making his tally, along with his three kills (Bren Carrier, Command Section. Medic and PIAT Team) a total of 7 VPs to my 3 VP (Machine Gunners, 2 VP for the one unit in his DZ).

Earning that Tiger Fear

It was a challeging and hard fought battle. My FOOs FUBARed their strikes and did more damage to me than they did their targets leaving me in some very dire straights. One of the things I should have done was attempt to get the unit that was behind the building into the damned building but they spent the whole game pretty much Down (and as a result, Out).

It was torture wasting the Firefly on that infantry unit. Even though I was hurting them, it wasn't enough to eliminate them and they were able to make it through my lines. I would have been better served if I had just focused on that panzer.

Again fun, though challenging, mission and game. Thanks again Bob. Hopefully I can get some new units built before I play again. I feel that the PIAT and Light Mortar would serve the war cause better by staying in the miniature box...

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!

Bolt Action: British Infantry squad 2 (Part One)

Work has slowly progressed on the rest of my Bolt Action models, with focus really being on the 4 unpainted models that I had to assemble quickly for the 1st Game with Bob a while back. These unpainted guys appear in the battle report and they were part of the division that survived that game.

Primed.

Basecoat of English Uniform.

Anyway, I am not feeling terribly keen on rewriting out the step-by-step on how I paint these guys but if you do want to know the steps I use please follow this link to part four of the last series of BA troop posts.

However I will make an exception to that last statement. In the first issue of the new monthly White Dwarf  (the one that came with the free miniature. And yes I will post my thoughts on this new incarnation of WD in a separate post soon), there is a really good tutorial on painting flesh using their current colors. It was definitely different from how I had been painting Caucasian fleshtones over the years. The model is left with the appearance of having a redder skin tone as if he has been in the sun for many days. Also, it seems that the examples of painted soldiers throughout Warlord's products appear to have reddish hue to them also and I wanted to try painting a few models with that look.

I picked up some of these paints on my last trip to the local game store and tried the technique straight out of that WD.

Bugman's glow added as a basecoat for their skin.

Cadian fleshtone added as a mid-coat. 

Adding on a wash of Reikland Fleshtone.

Highlight of Kislev Flesh 

..and with the addition of Kislev Flesh, I have completed this experiment. Before I bought the Kislev Flesh I had been tempted to try it with the old Bronzed Flesh, but I really want to stick with the paint guide just to see how well it turned out. In the end, I think it works very well!

These models are now, more-or-less, caught up to the rest of their division, and I will be working on the them as one group here on out.

Bolt Action Ally combat drills (with live ammo!)

Good day! Last week  The Bob and I got together for another session of Bolt Action. This is likely our (well mine anyway) last game before we all start playing BA 2nd edition (as I write this pre-orders of the new rule book have arrived and there is much excited rules discussion). So we gathered at our local Hobbytown USA, where we were joined by Mike and Screech, serving with the usual bombast as our merry band of hecklers.

Bob showed up with the U.S. Army and I used the same list of Brits from the last game. Whether it was these armies doing war game drills or the War of 1812 rekindled, it didn't mater to us. We chose a mission where we just tried to rack up the most VPs but we start out in reserves. Bob rolled some of his things onto the table and when my Firefly arrived it had a juicy tank to shoot at. And it did so very well and the tank was blown up almost immediately. A drastic improvement on the penetration results from the previous game and an impressive way to begin the game.

BOOM!

The troops continued to roll on but nothing else dramatic occurred on Turn One.

End Turn One

Turn 2 and the pin markers begin to accumulate. Bob's artillery piece was my next item of focus for my Firefly only it was too well protect by the cover that stood between it. This was also when I discovered how awesome Veteran level troops are vs my Medium level troops as Bob's Yanks proved quite stout compared to my seemingly soft Brits. It appeared that attrition would be a winning factor in this game after all...

Turn 2, the Pins begin to grow...

Both sides employed their Forward Observers to call in Air and Artillery strikes. In the next pic you'll see a scatter die, which is the incomong target point, in Bob's side of the field that his troops were quick to move away from.

End of Turn 2

Everything went nuts on turn 3, it seemed that by the end of it almost everything had a pin marker on it.

Under fire!

My right flank was starting to crumble quickly as my Infantry Division was taking far more damage than they were able to dish out.

End of Turn 3

Turn 4, as pin markers accumulated faster than they could be rallied off, my artillery barrage came screaming in and blew away the artillery piece that had been hounding me thus far.

End of Turn 4.

Needing VPs Bob's forces upped their aggression and wipped out the Infantry Division leaving just the Command Section in the Bren Carrier and the mortar team in the back woods. The remaining airstrikes and Artillery came in and I got to issue some payback from the last game by diverting his airstrike onto one of his own units. It wasn't as devastating as I had hoped, but both armies were starting to show a lot of wear.

End of Turn 5.

Last turn of the game and we were in a tie. Feeling bold, the command section raced up with the Bren Carrier and disembarked to attack the rival command section. Although a few soldiers were picked off, it wasn't enough to stop the yanks from charging the limey's for some good 'ol fashioned close quarter action. .

"Bayonets ready lads, 'ere they come!"

And by the time the dust had settled the U.S. was victorious.

"That was for burning the down the White House!"

The last actions of the game, at least for me, were a series of futile gestures intended to eek out another VP to secure lead, but they backfired. Most of my units were trying to wipe out his bazooka team that had gotten a bit too close but they just wouldn't go down! One of my Forward Observers got too exposed as a result of this foolish plan and was himself cut down, securing Bob and the Americans a slight edge in our tied game.

"Damn it man, they're RIGHT THERE!!!"

So it ends at officially a tie, but with the advantage to Bob. Had we kept going I am certain total victory would ultimately have been Bob's, as those vets are just very tough to kill. You can see in the pic below that his force was prepping for a final sweep.  It was a fun game, with Screech, who was our neutral dice puller and keeper of the bag, and Mike cutting up and helping us with the rules it was just a jolly good time. Thanks guys!

End of the game.

Comparing these rules to the changes we knew about for the 2nd edition, I am sure we would be in for a far more explosive game with the introduction of the template rules. As it was, the Firefly only really mattered against armored targets. I got my book yesterday and shall begin a proper read through in the coming week.

'Til next time, remember:

Battle! Action! -Bolt Action!

For the first time, I finally got to play Bolt Action. My fellow hobbyist and blogger The Bob, agreed to show me the ropes on Bolt Action. Get my lads 'stuck in' as it were. And a jolly-good show he made of it too.

Brits deployment, left flank.

British deployment, centre. 

Brits deployment, right flank.

Loaded Halftrack deployed with Forward Observer deployed in cover.

The rest of the German deployment.

This report is pretty much going to be a summary with my thoughts on the game.
The next pic below is only relevant in that it documents the first ever action I have ever performed in a real Warlord game. It was exciting stuff (for me anyway).

"Take the ruins!"

End Turn One

Turn One wrapped up with little pain for either side. Both of my observers had called in their strikes. My Forward Artillery Observer called in a strike on the German squad in the German center and marked it in such a way so as to hopefully tag the Panzer as well. The airstrike was called in on the Halftack. My Firefly sent a warning shot (yeah, a warning, that's it, yeah) over the panzer and it returned the salute in kind. The German unit on my left flank took on it's first pin marker.

The lads trade fire with Jerry! 

Turn 2 was a far more brutal affair. My airstrike achieved the game's first unit kill by wreaking the halftrack. Then my artillery barrage killed a few guys in the center and threw pin markers on the panzer as well. My Firefly hit the Panzer keeping it from performing any actions this round. Bob's Germans were not taking it without a fight and pinned down my Infantry in the ruins while his unit in the trees on my left flank eliminated 6 of my Infantry Division in a sick round of shooting. Probably the most effective smallarms combat of the game I think.

End Turn 2, start of Turn 3

Oddly I didn't do much documentation between the last pic and this next one, but I can say that the battle was in full on rage-mode. My left flank was crumbling, despite support from my CO directing the BREN Carrier to dump it's fire into German unit on my left flank, as well as some sniping (so it seemed) from my Forward Artillery Observer . The unit was losing men but still dishing out pain and ultimately my Infantry Division on the left flank were cut down by them. The biggest upset occurred in this period with the German airstrike strafing the German unit in the center and doing so with such efficiency as to utterly destroy them! (Someone is going to have sone explaining to do when he lands...)

The right flank was getting scary as well, as I only started off with the Forward Air Observer and a PIAT team. After trading shots the Forward Air Observer unit was wiped out.

Start of Turn 5

The Firefly kept pounding on the Panzer, almost smothering it in pin markers.

CLANG!

The PIAT Team never had anything come close enough to use the actual PIAT against, but their rifle shots were effective at slowing down the Germans advance on the right flank.

"Take that you gits!"

With the German squad in the center having been torn appart by the Luftwafe, I moved out of the ruins to support the PIAT Team. They did a fine job reducing their numbers but the German resolve was too tough to be break.

Top of Turn 6

Going into Turn 6 we were tied with 3 VPs each (or whatever the BA equivalent is called). My Bren Carrier blasted away his HQ unit over on the left flank pushing my tally up to 4 VPs.

Advancing from cover.

We traded more small arms fire and although there were a few casualties on bith sides no more units were eliminated. His Panzer did hit my Firefly for the first time in the game but it inflicted no damage.

End of the game, full table view.

With that the game ended 3 VPs to 4 VPs.

End of the game, close up of the remaining action.

What did I think of Bolt Action now that I have played it? Well, I loved it! The randomly determined turn based system definitely eliminates alpha strike, table-you in-a-turn shenanigans that has made a few particular games a bit distasteful. Although, yes it's possible to pull one side's dice one after another (this occurred in our game on one of the turns), it didn't have a much of an impact on our game.

I like the simplicity of the combat system. And the Leadership system, and found the game to be easy to grasp. I like that there are some aspects of the game where a roll on a table is required to determine the outcome of the action (i.e. airstrikes). Some people hate tables, but I am old school enough to totally love them.  The only thing we didn't do was a close combat assault so I still need to experience that, but otherwise I am pleased with the game and I am glad I got in a game prior to 2nd edition launching.

Looking forward to the next game!