Gaming. And its Bolt Action gaming. The run continues! :)
Rob was unable to make it today, so on arrival I found that Phil & Mark had already decided that we would play a large game of Bolt Action.... 2000pts per side!?! Cripes really guys were my first thoughts....
The two of them with their standard 1000pt forces vs. as much as I could put together for a German force.
It meant I pretty much had everything I own split across two platoons....
I stuck with a Regular force along the lines of:
First Lt + assistant
Second Lt + assistant
4 Squads of 10 (2 smg, 1 lmg).... 2 squads also had 2 panzerfausts
1 Vet squad of 10 (5 smg, 1 lmg)
Medium MG
Medium mortar
Heavy mortar
Light artillery
Nebelwerfer
Sniper team
Panzer IV H
StuH 42
Sd Kfz 222
Puma
Sd Kfz 251/1
Kubelwagon
Medic
20 orders! It was going to be a long game.... but luckily Garth arrived in time to help command the German forces.
We choose Maximum Attrition as the mission. It seemed the best choice with such large forces.
The table set-up:
First turn just saw all the forces arriving on the table. The large number of units meant positioning them could be difficult..
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| The dastardly British FAO on the look out for a juicy target |
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| The nebelwerfer crew prepare for action |
Not a lot else happens through turn 1 & 2. The German HE units are all making their presence felt. The armoured vehicles take a few pot shots, but to little effect.
The start of turn 3 sees Garth and I holding our breathes as Mark and Phil roll for their artillery barrage/air strike....
The nebelwerfer is the target of the air strike.... the artillery barrage aiming point is to the left of the heavy mortar. This could end badly for us....
Mark goes first. The artillery barrage arrives... this is the one I didn't want to see. End result...
The German medic is also obliterated by HE shells. Everyone else ends up with a couple of pins.
Next up is Phil and he rolls for his air strike. I really don't want the nebelwerfer to be knocked out so early...
Phil rolls.... the die spins.... and it's a 1! The air strike has mis-identified its target (again!). It unloads it's ordnance on a USMC squad taking cover in the shell craters..
When the dust settles, the squad has been destroyed, but the surrounding units got lucky with hardly any pins being dished out.
What could have ended so badly for us has now put some pressure on the USMC forces. German HE units continue to do some damage. Infantry units from both sides take a few long range shots at each other whilst both sides continue to advance. A lucky USMC mortar strike destroys the German MMG, but casualties are still relatively light on the German side. The Staghound continues to do very little damage to the 251/1.
Phil now places his second air strike. This time the Panzer IV H is the target. Both Garth and I threaten great deals of mirth if he rolls another 1, but what are the odds? I'm expecting a dead tank.
The next turn starts.
Phil rolls for his air strike..... and the die is cocked.
Try again Phil.
He rolls.
The dice bounces along the table....
And finally settles.
It's a 1. Again.
Cue great deals of laughter from Garth, Mark and I :)
But Mark's laughter is short lived...
His Cromwell has now found itself as the target of the air strike! End result =
But only just! Garth made hard work of his rolls to hit and destroy the Cromwell. Luckily a fire broke out on the tank and all the pins ensured the morale check was failed.
As the turn draws to a close, more USMC/British units are lost. One German unit in the forest should have been lost (especially after going FUBAR when trying to carry out an order), but the Allied forces just can't dish out enough wounds.
The final order die for the turn is German and I move up the Vet squad to deal with a British squad that has moved up through the fields.
The combined weight of point blank smg & lmg fire ensures the British unit breaks and runs after taking heavy casualties.
At this point Mark and Phil concede. They've lost around 9 or 10 orders to our loss of 4 at the end of turn 4. The loss of the Cromwell effectively gives the StuH 42 and Panzer IV H free reign on the battlefield (even with the Staghound still active). That coupled with heavily pinned Allied units due to the air strikes meant that they were unlikely to cause many more casualties.
I think Phil finally understands why we have all been telling him to forget about his air strikes and to take something else instead. It hasn't been effective in any games that I've seen him play... particularly since he seems to like rolling 1's for them :)
The time was just before 4pm, so we ended things there and tidied up. Mark had an updated copy of Rome 2: Total War, so that caught the guys attention for the rest of the afternoon as I hit the road to head home for a beer or two....
Thanks for reading. Until next time :)
