534 - Another Bolt Action Game! (Bat Rep)

Hullo!

Last Friday I got the chance to roll out my fledgling 1250pts 28mm Bolt Action list to see how they would fare on the actual tabletop against some Germans. It was also a chance for a sneaky wee back-door entry into Cameron's brilliant Firestorm Caen campaign! [see here: link]

A not unpleasant corner of Normandy in which to scrap. That's my lot on the right, with my 6pdr in the foreground.

I had an absolute blast, and I'm pleased to say that the Toms did rather well...so well in fact, that my opponent (whom many of you might just know) has asked to be masked in anonymity. Let's just call him G-----.

Mission and Forces:

My centre at deployment. The MMG team is the objective.

In a nutshell, we rolled for the mission and got 'Demolition' (essentially 'Capture the Flag'), so we had to set up half f our forces each with the rest in reserve. My 'Reinforced Platoon' was outlined in my last post (here: link), but G----- had the following - roughly speaking - all veteran: an officer, an air observer, two 8-man squads, a sniper, a flamethrower, an MMG team, a grenadier squad mounted in a half-track, and a panther tank - not by any means 'tournament-ready'! Objectives were his turretless command tank and my rear-facing MMG team.

At the jump-off.

Sneaky Germans sneaking up, sneakily.

Streetview.

My sneaky sniper...being useful for once!

The Game:


This bit's quite easy. The opening turn saw the Germans do very little of note beyond the sniper pinning my 6pdr. In return, my sniper killed his Flammerwerfer - yes! The troops moved up into or towards the buildings. Airstrikes and barrages were placed.

My Arty observer spent much of the game lurking on the right flank. Watching. Waiting.

In turn 2, the troops moved up a bit, my vehicles failed to arrive, and both the airstrike and the artillery barrage were delayed. His panther arrived and only had 3 Section to fire at, but didn't kill anyone. In an exchange of musketry, the Germans came off worse, with his two 8-man squads both losing three for only one of mine. Credit here goes to 3 Section, hunkering down in the wheat on the right flank for their staunch stance and withering fire.

The very stoic and surprisingly well-camouflaged 3 Section at deployment.

In turn 3, G------'s luck really took a hammering. Firstly his airstrike backfired, and sadly for him der Luftwaffe mistook his own Panther tank for my infantry. Obviously. Easy mistake, right? This hit him hard, but my artillery strike followed imminently, and extremely close by, hitting him even harder. Both his nasty MMG and his assault-rifle-wielding grenadier squad took the full whack of damage, and were wiped out; everything else nearby was, of course, heavily pinned - *sad face* . Then my vehicles roared on, adding some mobility but failing to hurt anyone. 

To add...well...injury to injury, my sniper, having moved position last turn, popped-off his sniper.

Sniper's gonna snipe.

Turn 4 seemed a bit like rubbing salt into the wound, with G----- down to 5 dice against my almost undented 12, but we struck on. More of the same happened, with the indomitable 3 Section finally pinning one of G-----'s two remaining inf squads to death and scaring the half-track off the table. In a cheekily desperate last move, G----- sent his last five infantrymen sprinting forward into the heart of my lines. We figured we'd give them a chance of fighting through if G----- got the first die in turn 5.

With 2 Section inside the house, the Arty officer sprints to cover against the wall.

Really, of course, 2 Section should have been heading towards the objective...

Turn 5: I got first die, and we called it. All the Germans had left was an air observer, five very endangered infantrymen, and a pinned and isolated panther. I had lost only four men, and realistically there wasn't much stopping me from dashing to the objective... although, frankly, I am terrible at remembering to do this.

In grey, the Germans try to sneak right into our lines past the AEC III. They fail.

The Result:

Yeah...a thrashing. The Toms gave old Fritzy a jolly good six-of-the-best, trousers-down, and I was very happy with them. Some thoughts:

• G----- really was very unlucky with his dice, especially when it came to actually killing my men. He played well though, and was - of course - a tremendously Good Sport.
• I was quite lucky with my rolling for the most part.
• I was happy with most of my decisions (except forgetting to storm the objective sooner) and I feel I played my troops to their advantage.
• The 6pdr - despite not firing - served as a great deterrent all game, and channeled his vehicles away from both objectives, which was the idea.
• The mortar had some fun and ranged-in, which was encouraging!
• Veteran troops are sweet!
• Flamethrowers are very scary.
• Very pleased with my sniper. Two shots; two dice taken.
• The AEC III looks absolutely great roaring along a road!
• 4-Ground buildings really are astonishingly brilliant.

My 6pdr. Fearless. And on a looooong 'Ambush' order.

With thanks to G----- for hosting me, and with thanks to you for getting this far,

I remain, Sirs, your most humbl. and obt. servt.,

- Drax.