508 - Belatedly, A First Bolt Action Battle Report

...well, of sorts.

At the end of last month, I finally got to go to Kirton Games (link) and finally got to PLAY my first proper game of Bolt Action! Huzzah!

I cannot for the life of me remember what mission it was, but the central idea was that 1000 points' worth of my British infantry had to defend against an advancing horde of John's Russians: a broadly similar force, in fact - except for my four little universal carrier runarounds.

The Plucky Brits of 4KSLI

My left flank. You can see John's T34 rumbling on. The two UCs on the left soon pushed up.

The centre, with depleted sniper team in the eaves, Arty FOO hiding (job done) and the Lt lurking at the bottom.

Sneaky 6pdr. Sneaky, sneaky 6pdr.

Preliminary bombardments whittled me down a little bit and cost me two men...but honestly, it pretty much all went my way after that point. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but after my ginger arty observer called down an LP-sized stonk of high-explosive, which essentially pinned down those Ruskies charging my left flank beyond usefulness, the Brits had a really steady run of things.

One of my fire teams, on the left flank...

...and one on the right, feeling a little more supported.

Whilst our snipers exchanged comically ineffectual 'BANG!' flags in the centre, my four plucky little carriers essentially surged forward and machine-gunned the will to fight out of the rest of John's line: four lots of six LMG shots against troops trying to advance can make anyone think twice. I was also fortunate in that John's T34 rumbled on straight into the sights of the 6pdr I'd dug-in to some ruins. Ouch.

One of the stars of the show. Seriously.

Long story short, John's attack faltered, then withered. Even my Lt felt the urge to nip out with his Sten gun to polish off the last man of one of his units: a great and successful idea, although he completely forgot to bug-out again whilst light mortar rounds burst around him. He remembered in time.

The OC, leading by example.

"Up and at 'em!"

...and the same on the left. These four surging forward actually looked fairly cinematic...if fairly ill-advised, tactically.

In the end, I only lost four men in total before time and inevitability obliged John to gracefully concede...and one of those bravely gave his life in order to show me how assault works in Bolt Action. It was successful - his fate notwithstanding.

Indicative of John's rolling.

John was a great opponent and a real gent throughout. It was a delight to face off against his Russians, and something new for him too, as he'd never before faced Brits. I'll probably post again with my thoughts on my first game, but for now, suffice it to say that I had a real blast!

More soon,

Cheers,

- Drax.