Bolt Action AAR - Meeting Engagement

After finishing some big boardgame related campaigns on my regular Wednesday gaming night and with our Bolt Action and other miniatures collections wanting more use, the regular Wednesday night gaming will now become a night for miniature gaming.

This past Wednesday I got together with Roy Scaife to play some more Bolt Action - wanting to follow up our recent game with some more fun.  In this game we just played a regular "meeting engagement" between veteran Fallschirmjager (my first really "full" game with them on my own) and US army regulars.

GERMAN FORCES (Fallschirmjager - Veterans)
1 x 1st Lieutenant
1 x Medic
1 x Forward Artillery Observer Team
1 x Sniper Team
2 x PanzerSchreck AT Teams
1 x Medium Mortar Team with spotter
1 x Medium MG Team
2 x Infantry Sections (with 1 x SMG, 2 x AR, 1 x LMG, 1 x Panzerfaust, 5 x rifles each)
1 x Panzer V (Panther)
1 x StuG III G
1 x Sd.Kfz. 222 Armoured Car

US FORCES (Army - Regulars)
1 x 1st Lieutenant
1 x Medic
1 x Forward Air Observer Team
2 x Bazooka AT Teams
2 x Light Mortar Teams
1 x Heavy MG Team
3 x Infantry Sections (with 2 x SMG, 1 x BAR, 9 x rifles each)
1 x 75mm Sherman
1 x 76mm Sherman
1 x M10 Tank Destroyer
1 x M8 Greyhound Armoured Car

This engagement was a blood bath.  The US Army pulled out a minor victory by the end of the game after having a large swing turn (turn 5 - last turn played) that saw a bazooka team do massive damage on the Panzer V (Panther) - hitting it the flank, the second air strike had a ground attack aircraft come in and blew up the StuG III G, a Fallschirmjager section was wiped out, and the second infantry section was whittled down to just a few guys.

Another allied air strike backfired, with the call coming down on the Sherman 76mm --- but it was not a ground attack aircraft and only managed to put a few pins on the tank and some of the infantry units nearby.  At this point I'm happy with my artillery ... at least it will not land on my own troops! HA!

I managed to get a clear shot with my sniper on the US officer and killed him - but it was too little too late (last turn). In retrospect, I did a stupid move with the Sd.Kfz. 222 --- I realized it right after I completed my action --- when I moved it forward on the first turn, I should have positioned it "sideways" (parallel with the street between the houses) so that I could recce back out of sight of the Sherman in the woods ... forgetting to do that (by default I try to keep all enemy in my front arc for vehicles ... need to remember I don't always have to do that for recce vehicles) cost me that 222.

I had a PanzerSchreck hit the 76mm Sherman in the ass ... and rolled massive damage, but I only rolled a "1" and a "3" on the table and he passed his morale test ... so just 3 pin markers there.  My parting gift, before the end of turn 5 (finished it out, even after the US had already won), was landing a medium mortar round on the medic, and hitting two infantry sections at the same time.

Anywho, another great game was had!  Pictures below ...

Fallschirmjager section advancing!

The Panzer V getting ready to do some serious damage ...
of course, that wasn't to be ... I missed every single
shot with it before a bazooka blew the crap out of it.

The big guns ... 76mm Sherman and M10 tank destroyer.

I should have positioned the 222 so it could have
recce'd back down this road out of sight of the Sherman.

The StuG III G would make short work of the M8.

PanzerSchreck!

My costly mistake with the 222 ...

Fallschirmjager move to reinforce the center.

Allied air strike ... ka-pow!

I've also built my stand to hold my airplanes to use for marking the air support location (when the air support decides to show up!) ... since the planes are die cast and fairly heavy I needed a really sturdy base ...

Overall a great start to our Wednesday night miniature gaming nights!  I'm looking forward to the next one.