Bolt Action v2.0 Battle Report - Hold the Line

So, finally got a great game in ... and boy was it overdue!!

Roy Scaife, Dan Kerrick, and Wade Shows all joined me for a great game of Bolt Action 2nd edition.  The scenario was a British para platoon was holding a defensive line against a German counter-attack.  The British paras were just getting some tank support from British army forces entering the area.  I just had to use the great new church from Crescent Root Studio ... so deployed that on the table at "the edge of town."

The British paras were dug in along a trench line and the edge of the town with the British armour just advancing onto the table (partly coming through the town, part through a field).  The German forces all moved onto the table in turn 1.

BRITISH OOB

Para Platoon (Veteran)

• 1 x Officer (Captain) with 2 x Rifleman (SMG)
• 1 x Medic
• 2 x PIAT Teams
• 1 x Sniper Team (deployed in the church tower, starting the game on Ambush)
• 1 x MMG Team
• 1 x Medium Mortar Team
• 3 x Infantry Section (4 x SMG, 1 x LMG, 5 x Rifles each)

British Army Armoured Detachment (Regular)

• 1 x Humber Scout Car (command vehicle)
• 2 x Humber IV Armoured Cars
• 1 x Armoured Troop (3 x Cromwell, 1 x Firefly VC)
• 1 x Armoured Troop (3 x Sherman V, 1 x Firefly VC)

GERMAN OOB

Fallschirmjager Group (Veteran)

• 1 x Officer (Captain) with 1 x Rifleman
• 1 x Medic
• 1 x Sniper Team
• 1 x MMG Team
• 1 x Medium Mortar Team
• 2 x Infantry Sections (1 x SMG, 2 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, 1 x Panzerfaust, 5 x Rifles each)
• 1 x SdKfz 251/1 (MMG)
• 1 x SdKfz 251/10 (light AT)
• 1 x SdKfz 251/9 Stummel (light howitzer)
• 1 x JagPanther
• 1 x Panzer V (Panther)

Heer Group (Regular)

• 1 x Officer (Captain) with 2 x Riflemen
• 1 x Medic
• 1 x MMG Team
• 3 x Infantry Sections (2 x SMG, 1 x LMG, 7 x Riflemen each)
• 1 x Stug III G
• 1 x Hetzer
• 1 x Marder III
• 1 x SdKfz 234 Puma Armoured Car

A COUPLE OF HOUSE RULES

Trenches - We allowed firing over (enemy and friendly) units in trenches without penalty.  In addition to being heavy cover, we allowed units to increase their damage rating by 1 when in the trenches (much like the new building rules).

Smoke - A change from v1.0 was that originally when you missed with smoke, your opponent could place it anywhere within 6" of the target point.  In v2.0 that is now within 12" --- both the originally and new rule my group dislikes a lot.  When smoke shots are missed with scatter the smoke using a scatter die --- the number of inches depending on the size of the weapon.  E.g. --- for a light mortar we scatter D3+1, medium mortar is D6+1, heavy mortar is 2D6+1.

THE GAME

This was the funnest game of Bolt Action I've played for a long time ... if not ever.  There was a ton of action, it was very balanced, and the result was bloody.

Roy ran the British, with Wade assisting for a couple of hours (he couldn't make the whole gaming session).  Dan took the Heer and I played the Fallschirmjager.  Dan took the German force through the forest across from the trenches (in retrospect, we should have put the two MMG's over there to keep that side busy and thrown all the infantry at the other side ... but hindsight is 20/20).  I took the Fallschirmjager through the golden fields ... which ran red by games end.

We called it a draw, although slightly in the Germans favor because of the damage they had inflicted on the British armour ... but unfortunately, out of the 4 German tanks, three of them were immobilized at the end of the game with the other a smoking hulk.  The Jagpanther and Panther both got immobilized in turn 2 which really took the initial wind out of the sails for the German assault.

All but two of the British tanks were destroyed by games end ... and other than the trench positions, the paras on the town side had very little left to over resistance ... but the Fallschirmjager sections took heavy casualties getting across the field and really didn't have enough "umf" to get the ball over the goal line ... so the attack stalled about 2/3rds of the way across the field in front of the town (one Heer section also joined that assault but didn't fair any better).  I did try to lay smoke several times through the game in the field ... but the most important clouds either dispersed at the worst times or drifted in such a way that it was not very effective.

Overall I'm extremely pleased with the new rules changes and clean up.  Very well done Warlord.  Other than ignoring the turret jam crap (as mentioned before, I took a black sharpie to that part of the rulebook ... redacted) and scattering the smoke misses ... everything worked great!

Lots of (phone) pictures below ...

Alright then, onto the next thing! :-)