Bolt Action - Key Positions

Another splendid game of Bolt Action, this time with good chum Orange Dave, and what a very different kind of game this proved to be.  The recent game with Mike was a close run affair ending in a draw, whereas this battle was a completely one-sided slaughter almost from the off.

Dave and I decided to ‘go large’ and each put 1500pts of troops on my little 6x4 table.  We’d both have plenty of armour so there should be room for the troops to get in on the action.  At Dave’s suggestion we played Scenario 3 “Key Positions”, so I set the table up with plenty of scenery so that we could have some good, close range fire-fights.  I still had most of the scenery out from my game with Mike so I re-jigged the layout and swapped a few things around. The objectives were placed in the Farmhouse, in the Signal Box and in the little wood; far from ideal for the Germans.

A little bit of sleepy Normandy

Both of us chose to field two reinforced platoons: I had German Regulars with a Panzer IV, a Stug and a Kubelwagn (I really need to get my Puma painted!);  Dave had a mix of Regulars and Veterans (his Africa/Sicily/Italy force) with a Churchill, a Stuart, 2 Bren carriers and several trucks bursting with angry Maori nutters – the bane of my games with Dave :-D

Turn 1
With just the snipers and observers/spotters on the table at the start, it was all about advancing. Both of us kept about a third of our force off the table to begin with.  Dave used much of his reserves to stage a flanking manoeuvre. Like the June bride, I didn’t know how big it would be, or quite when I might get it ... but I knew I’d get it!

Straight away Dave bags one objective and is close to another!

Jerry's on the move too

Yikes! A 25lb-er

My sniper in the farmhouse opened the show with an amazing shot at Dave’s sniper in the Signal Box.  Little did I realise that this was to be the high water mark for my chaps.  No, really it was!

Turn 2
My Panzer rolls on, aims at the 25lb-er, misses, the return shot from the plucky British crew is plum on target and the Panzer brews up.

Bang! (Shhh, I know it's a Tiger but I can't find my Pz IV model)

The troops are dismayed at the tank's fate

The Churchill and Stug exchange shots but both crews are feeling edgy and the shots go wide.

The Churchill makes good use of cover

Turn 3
The German 81mm mortar zeros in on the 25lb-er and blasts the crew to bits!

Same turn, my shot from the Stug ricocheted off the Churchill’s thick armour whereas the British crew’s (more carefully aimed) shot tore off a track from the German AFV... if only a Stug had a turret ;o)  The pile of pins they incurred would effectively keep them out of the action for the rest of the game

The crew's view of events was probably as blurry as this photo!

Turn 4
The flanking force arrives! Crikey, I hadn’t realised just how much he’d kept in reserve.  It’s a small flippin’ army!  Some crafty manoeuvring by Dave meant that he was able to maximise the firepower of these chaps and literally shattered the resistance of the troops I had guarding the objective in the farmhouse.

Vroom... Vroom!

The German reserves move through the orchard to prop up the flank but their shooting is appalling.  Just six hits from an absolute hail of bullets and all fail to wound!

The German reply is less than stellar :o(

A German officer (finally!) arrives in his Kubelwagn to get things moving again but as his driver swerves around the pinned Stug.

Achtung! Schnell!

However, the British Boyes AT gun puts a round right through the fuel tank and the little vehicle is engulfed in flames.

Bang goes the Leutnant and kubelwagn

Turn 5
The British artillery support arrives and Dave rolls the maximum blast effect, shredding the troops mustering in the woods as they readied to take the objective in the Signal Box.  Meanwhile, over on the farmhouse flank Dave’s veteran troops de-bus and take the fight to the German regulars – with predictable results.

Where have all the Germans gone?

The sniper in the attic kept firing until the last moment, determined to take a few Tommies with him.
The immobilised Stug receives a second hit, this time in the flank from the Stuart’s light AT gun.

The Stuart's spectacular shot at the immobilised Stug

The shot slices through the armoured hull and detonates both the fuel and the ammo, BANG!

Turn 6
As you might expect Dave’s chaps were now simply mopping up.  Indeed, we didn’t even need to finish turn 6 as the last of my brave Germans fell to the allied onslaught.

This game was full of laughs and good humoured groans - mainly from me. It was also great to catch up and have a good chin-wag. Let’s not leave it so long before the next game mate!