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!!

The Battle of Hel-Me Boab

Well it's been a long time in the waiting but finally the kingsleypark Desert Rats arrived at the sleepy wadi known as Hel-Me Boab, somewhere in the Western Desert. 

Their long R & R was about to come to an abrupt end, however, when the Dastardly Afrika Korps decided to break their duck and challenge the gallant Brits for the right to be top dog in the Cabin.

Except we weren't in the Cabin. 

Neil, Gary and I had decided to sally forth and set up battle in the home of the Angus Wargames Club, Forfar. Stevo should have been there as well but he was ill (apparently) so whilst Gary was left to fight a surreal German Civil War with his late War Germans against Lindsay's Early War Germans, Neil and I set the scene for a more historical match up. Except Neil's D.A.K aren't painted yet (well not his infantry) so I had to bring my D.A.K along to bolster Neil's vehicular contribution of his Panzer IV G, 2 trucks and a turretless Puma which he had to masquerade as a truck as his truck pusher (Kev) had failed to supply him with a third truck in time.

The once tranquil wadi of Hel-Me Boab, soon to become a Hell on Earth as British and German warriors clash for supremacy.

No, Stevo, it's not the German version of a Ram Kangaroo.

The brave British soldiers, ready to defend their cups of tea from the Hun.

We decided to randomly decide the scenario to fight so a quick roll of the dice revealed that the scenario was to be "Demolition" - each side to protect their base and try and get into contact with the enemy base. The important key word there is "contact".....

A sensible base guardian.

Hang on? Is that a medic with a gun??? Filthy Boche - no doubt more Hun tricks to come.

The Boche sniper trying to blend in with the scenery.

Game on!!

As usual, the first die out of the bag wasn't mine. Neil, with a decisive, tactical decision decided to shoot my Lee tank, with his Panzer IV G with predictable results -

Actually - it could have been worse - at least it hadn't blown up but for the rest of the game the two tanks traded shots with each other. At one point the Panzer having 8 pins on it until a jammy  fortuitous rally roll saved it's bacon.

The red marker of doom as the British Artillery Observer calls in the Arty strike.

Gunner Tommy Atkins turns away in disgust as another AT shot at the Panzer goes wide.....

In fairness to Neil, he did at least come forward, but of course, that was all part of my battle plan - to draw the Boche in, contain them, and then make a dash for his base for the win.

Wait a minute - there are supposed to be 5 guys in there? And where Moe is, is anyone's guess.....

The Brits start to take casualties but maintain their stiff upper lip.

Hurrah!! One dead truck!

The other German truck - which was the turretless Puma - but we swapped it when the first German truck got destroyed - so the turretless Puma became the wreck and the truck became the turretless Puma - makes a dash towards the British base. The brave British commander, Reginald Fforbes-Smithers and his trusty batman, Bert, lead an assault on the truck and stop it in it's tracks, I mean wheels. The German commander Von Plop bails out with his henchman Gustav and falls in a hail of British bullets. However, before Reginald could receive his DSO and bar for his bravery, he was cut down by the dastardly Hun appearing out of the rough ground.

Across on the right flank, the other German truck disposes of it's load in the middle of nowhere. The German mortar, however, continued to whittle away at the Tommies. However, the Tommies kept up their withering fire on the advancing Jerry squad.

And on the hill the British Machine gun and sniper team keep the Jerry head's down

Wait a minute.. Who is that running up from the rear? It's the gun toting medic. A whole series of failed activation rolls due to pins and the damned "Tiger fear" and the Brits were unable to stop the bounder running up and on the very last turn reaching the British base. Game over and a very dubious way for the Germans to win - but did we expect anything less??? (In fact it was such an underhand way to win that we forgot to take a picture of the medic's moment of glory).

And before you all start saying that under Bolt Action rules medic's can't control objectives the scenario win condition simply said get a unit in contact with the enemy base, so I couldn't even call foul for that either.

But well played Neil. We both found that we are still very, very rusty on the rules (first turn forgot all about tiger fear) and other gaffes along the way so we need to get more practice in to get back up to speed with the game. And i think it's important to emphasise the word game here. I don't think anyone would hold out Bolt Action as an accurate representation of infantry and armour tactics in WW2 and provided you approach the rules with that in mind it does provide a good enjoyable game. 

At least I could enjoy the moment when one German squad, when checking morale for activation, rolled FUBAR (that is, double 1) and then had to open fire on the nearest friendly unit which just happened to be the aforementioned Boche Sniper and destroyed it in the most effective German shooting of the night........ 

The Desert Rats will return.