Easter Bolt Action

Wargaming has taken a bit of a back seat for a while due to work commitments and some great motorcycling weather but with a wet afternoon looming what better way to while away an afternoon than a fast and furious game of Bolt Action with a mate. Some hasty assembly work and a quick spraycoat by Dave ensured that the Allies could add some armour in the form of a Sherman tank to their force.

The game was a simple encounter between mixed armour and infantry elements of US and German forces somewhere in France.

Once objective markers had been placed on either side we began deployment.

Taking the part of the Americans I made a bold dash forward with my half track to cover the crossroad. Two companies of infantry skirted the forest on the left flank heading for the objectives whilst another headed for the ruined building overlooking the crossroad and the remainder of the infantry and my sherman took a wait and watch approach on my right flank.

It wasnt long before the Germans showed their teeth. Their scout car advanced up the road to challenge my half track but fortunately he only managed to inflict a pin on it. On the German left a Panzer IV poked its nose out of the woods and drew a bead on my stationary Sherman. An incredibly lucky shot tore through the turret completely blowing it off its mounting and effectively putting paid to my armour support on that flank....great.

Dave's Germans took a more cautious approach preferring to defend their objectives whilst pushing forward on their left to seek out my objectives.

By turn 4 Dave still hadn't suceed in dealing to my half track and the half track's HMG was having little effect on his scout cars armour, however my bazooka team made a courageous break from cover to loose off a shot from round the corner of a building at his scout car. Kaboom!... a direct hit.
There's a lesson here...bazookas are lethal. Thay have a handy range combined with massive armour penetration and have the advantage of stealth. I will be adding another team to my force in future.

Meanwhile, on my left flank my one of my companies had made it to the cover of the stone wall facing the copse with one of the objectives whilst the other unit, who were furiously sprinting across the open field wer the target of a lethal fusilade from the forest directly in front of them. The germans inflicted 3 casualties forcing me to go to ground.
Some good news though was that my mortar had zeroed in on the germans in the other copse and landed a round directly on them taking out two of them. This unsettled my opponent somewhat as this would make defence of his objective untenable at this rate.

The Germans, realising that my right flank was weak decided to throw caution to the wind and make a thrust to capture my lightly defended objective. It fell to a company of GI's entrenched behind a stone wall to hold them up. With the combined firepower of the Panzers machine guns and his wickedly effective infantry MMG's the GI's days were numbered.

My only hope of success was to push on with my assaults on his objectives on the Left.
I had three companies in position notwithstanding the fact that the one in the open field was pretty stuffed, despite exhortations and desperate attempts by my 1st Lieutenant to rally them! It was turn 6 and I had to act fast so I threw my relatively fresh company who had advanced to the edge of the copse into a close assault with the fanatical nazis tenaciously defending their objective marker. A furious melee erupted but sadly the GI's were no match for the Germans and despite what I hoped were overwhelming numbers they were wiped out by those nasty men in their pea pattern camo smocks. With no hope of me seizing an objective and Dave with his hands practically on an objective it was clearly a German victory. Well fought Dave and looking forward with anticipation to the next encounter.

I must say that Bolt Action V2 has really rekindled my enjoyment of WW2 skirmish level gaming. It's perfect for those midweek games where time is critical because the forces are small, setup is quick and game length rarely exceeds 3 hours.

Oh well must fly... I have to send off an urgent order for more bazookas ;-)