Bolt Action - A Hotel Too Far ...

Happy father's day to all the dad's out there ... for my day I got together with Roy Scaife and Adam Clark to play a game of Bolt Action.  We played a Normandy D+6 scenario that saw a small section of US airborne hold up in a hotel complex waiting for relief while German Heer and Fallschirmjager worked to push the US airborne from the hotel and cut off any advancing allied forces.

ALLIED FORCES - UNITED STATES
(Roy Scaife)

Occupying the hotel:
1 x Airborne (Veteran) Officer
1 x Airborne (Veteran) Infantry Section
1 x Airborne (Veteran) Medic
1 x Airborne (Veteran) Forward Air Observer

Relief force:
1 x Officer (Regular)
4 x Infantry (Regular) Sections
1 x Light Mortar (Regular)
1 x HMG (Regular)
2 x Bazooka Teams (Regular)
3 x Half-tracks
1 x M8 Scout Car
1 x M5 Stuart Light Tank
1 x Jeep
1 x Truck
1 x 76mm Sherman
3 x 75mm Shermans
1 x M10 Tank Destroyer

AXIS FORCES - GERMANY
(Adam Clark and Jay White)

Fallschirmjager (Veterans): (Jay's Stuff)
1 x Officer with extra rifleman
1 x Medic
1 x Sniper Team
1 x MMG Team
1 x Panzerschreck AT Team
2 x Infantry Sections (1 x SMG, 2 x AR, 1 x LMG, 1 x Panzerfaust, 5 x Rifles each)

Heer (Regulars): (Adam's Stuff)
1 x Officer
1 x Medic
1 x Sniper Team
3 x Infantry Sections (1 x SMG, 2 x AR, 1 x LMG, 1 x Panzerfaust, 5 x Rifles each)
1 x 10.5cm LEFH 18 Gun Team and spotter
1 x 150mm Nebelwerfer 41 Gun Team
1 x Sd.Kfz. 222 Armoured Car
1 x Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) Armoured Car
1 x Sd.Kfz. 234/1 2cm Armoured Car
3 x Sd.Kfz. 251/1D Half-tracks
1 x Sd.Kfz. 251/9 'Stummel' 7.5cm SP Gun Half-track
3 x Panzer III Ausf. L

We played 6 turns that saw the Germans pull out a minor victory.  Due to the absolutely bloody nature of the assaults and combat around the hotel we dubbed the situation "A hotel too far" ...

The Fallschirmjager got chewed up bad assaulting the US airborne in the hotel ... which was finally occupied by advancing Heer infantry sections that dismounted from their half-tracks.  The Panzer III's and the recce armoured cars engaged the allied armoured forces ... to moderate effect.  In fact, the 3 Sherman 75mm tanks survived the game ... after knocking out 2 of the Panzer III's ... however the 3 Sherman's had 5-6 pins on each tank ... effectively making them useless ... very difficult to pass order tests (despite trying).

The one Sherman that was destroyed ... well ... was destroyed by **allied air support** (LOL!!).  Yup, Roy managed to roll a 1 on the air support and we got to place the marker ... many pin markers occurred around the Sherman 76mm ... before it was effectively vaporized by allied bombs.  Mulligan's mortars?

The road in front of the hotel became a parking lot for destroyed German vehicles and very pinned US vehicles ... little progress on either side there.  Some effective shots from the German artillery helped significantly ... with the odd random barrage from the Nebelwerfer.

Lots of pictures below ... note that Adam's tanks (we used all his stuff except for my Fallschirmjager and Roy's US) are 1/48th scale ...

Freshly completed telegraph poles from 4Ground ... I have
several more to put together ...

Fallschirmjager getting ready to assault the hotel ...

Adam has these excellent vehicle smoke markers - they
are "fake candle tops" that light up in the center of
some cotton with a little black paint ... awesome!

Don't go outside ...

The US casualties pile up ... but so do the Germans ...

One comes around the corner to a face full of Shermans ...

A great game of Bolt Action and it was great to see Adam again after many years (he recently moved into the local area ... but both Roy and I knew him from our ... *cough* ... Warhammer tournament days).