Bolt Action - Somewhere in the Western Desert

The scene was set for another run through of the Bolt Action rules for Roo's benefit. An 8th Army v D.A.K clash (sticking to my preference to fight with historically comparable armies) we were playing this time the "Surrounded" scenario from the main rule book (number 11). 

As the 8th Army player I decided to be the defender which required half of my available units to be set up in the centre of the table, in this case they would deploy in the village and try and hold their positions until relieved.

I  must really iron out the creases in that mat

It was only after deploying the units in the village that I realised that I had already made a number of mistakes. Firstly, in this scenario the attacker gets to try and call in a preparatory bombardment, something that the Brits have an advantage in that they get to roll twice on the table and pick the best result. Secondly I realised that I didn't have a MMG team in my list so that had to be removed and replaced with the light mortar team. Finally, Roo, as the attacker would have to launch his first wave of troops from his table edge. I had misread the scenario special rule which said that after the attackers' first turn any other unit can come in from any table edge (provided an enemy unit had not come in from that table edge that turn). Accordingly I had set up my 6lb anti tank gun facing my table edge thinking Roo would be sneaky and try and come on that edge with his Panzer III, but no Roo had read the rule properly and so the Panzer III was duly deployed on his table edge on the opposite side of the village from where the AT gun was deployed.

Roo called in his preparatory bombardment and scored pins on every unit in the village.

Battle then commenced, with the aforementioned Panzer III coming on to the battlefield and with a hail of machine gun fire killed one member of the light mortar team.

However, the early appearance of the Panzer meant that when I decided to bring on my M3 Lee tank there was only one place for it to go -

However, my point blank range shot, on the rear of the Panzer with both my main gun and the turret gun were spectacularly unsuccessful.

And of course, having brought my tank on it was an easy choose for where Roo would deploy his anti- tank rifle team, with inevitable results: -

Didn't even get a chance to roll to see if the tank was vunerable to fire - a straight up kill by the AT rifle team - boo!!

At least the artillery strike brought in by the British Artillery Observer had some succes scoring several pins and taking out the German Mortar team -

The gallant defenders of the village bravely repelling the forces of tyranny!

Despite the randomness of the dice draw and the scenario rule that let you deploy reserves from any table edge both Roo and I failed to grasp the reality that deploying too close to a corner would lead to trouble as shown by the Lee v AT rifle situation above and then in the other corner of the battlefield, Roo having brought his AT gun on from one table edge near the corner, I brought on my CO and an Infantry section from the perpendicular table edge -

The scene just before the AT gun crew were mown down by the point blank fire of the Desert Rats.

Meanwhile, I had brought my AT rifle team on to the battlefield in the hope of doing the same to Panzer as Roo's AT rifle team had done to the Lee. However, in a very unsporting fashion, Roo decided to face the AT rifle team head on with his Panzer -

Unfortunately the shrubbery was inadequate at providing cover to the AT rifle team who were quickly dispatched by the Panzer.

Back in the centre of the battlefield a fierce firefight was developing between one of the Desert Rats infantry sections in the village and the bulk of the D.A.K Infantry who were taking cover in the shallow gully -

A FUBAR result forced one of the German squads to run back to the table edge -

Not to be outdone, my sniper team which had now entered the battlefield, instead of trying to target the D.A.K AT rifle team, FUBAR'd and ending up taking out the remaining member of the Desert Rats light mortar team in a "friendly fire" incident -

With game time running out the Desert Rats decide to concentrate their fire from the Western side of the village.

After several attempts to bring it on from reserve, the Puma armoured car finally made it's appearance  -

A combination of poor dice rolling by Roo and good saving throws by me, meant the infantry section were not destroyed so that in the next turn they took the battle to the enemy -

4 hits scored on the Puma, a roll for damage and scratch one Puma

However, this shouldn't really have happened as I had forgotten and Roo didn't know that the Puma has the "Recce" special rule and as such could have evaded away from the assaulting infantry. Ah weel, we'll remember the next time.

The Panzer looking for it's sniper team pray. In fact it might as well have let him be as the only thing the sniper team hit all night was his own mortar team!

The Panzer finally breaches the village defences -

But it was not enough to secure a victory.

Scene at the end of the battle.

As both sides had lost 4 units each giving 4 VP's each, under the scenario rules the game was declared a draw (although with the faux pas over the "Recce" rule Roo, technically would only have lost 3 units, but victory was only claimed if you had scored 2 or more VP's than the opponent so it didn't make a big difference in the end.

So another enjoyable game. Roo is cracking on painting up his Finns. I'm debating whether to borrow Kev's Russian forces to go up against them or to go down the slippery slope of getting my own. He may be a wee while getting the Finns painted so I have a bit of time to decide on that one!!