Monday, November 21, 2016

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! :-)

25 comments:

  1. My friend, that is an absolutely stunning table! Great stuff Jay!

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  2. Very nice and also nice to see each side having a respectable armour presence.

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  3. Looks like a truly stonking time was had by all!

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  4. Love that table, good to hear the 2.0 rules are playing well. Where did you buy the teddy bear fur fields?

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    1. Hey Evan! There is a lady in North Carolina that sells them ... just through email ... drop me a note at sotek486@yahoo.com and I'll give you an intro if you want (they do all sorts of custom projects, and very reasonable prices).

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  5. Beautiful setup Jay. The new fields are gorgeous!

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    1. Danke Mr. Lantz, glad u r back in the country.

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  6. Great table, were the buildings scratch built or purchased.

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    1. All buildings are from Crescent Root Studio :-)

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  7. Sorry just noticed the church was by Crescent Root, were the rest as well

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    1. Thanks Steve. Yes, all buildings pictured are from Crescent Root :-)

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  8. Looks superb! Wonderful pictures, buildings and figures...

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  9. This looks fabulous and fantastic BUT and I hope you take this the way that this is intended ...it also looks too linear..European roads, towns, fields etc are not straight as they are in the states. A few more curves in the terrain would be great.

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    1. lol ... thanks Mr. Shed!! I hear yeah ... I had just got the fields in ... want to but them up a bit for variation :-)

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  10. Hi Jay, great to see you back up and running!! Hopefully you had a nice Thanksgiving break! Love the Crescent root buildings, just curious, did you ditch all your Foreground Buildings? If so, why? What make Crescent Root so much better in your opinion? LOVED the game too!

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    1. Thanks Chris ... good to be back at it :-) Thanksgiving was a much needed break - I hope you enjoyed your time off!

      I still have some 4Ground buildings ... e.g. Pegasus Bridge and the cafe ... and tons for non-WW2 periods, like all my Dead Man's Hand buildings for example. I have mostly ditched them for WW2 because they are a lot of work to assemble, paint the edges and do the roofing tiles. For not that much more money, and in some cases about the same amount of money, I can get Crescent Root, that I don't have to assemble, the edges come painted, and the roofing is custom (no the basic laser finish). I think the Crescent Root buildings have a more "realistic" finish out of the box -- and I don't have to spend any effort, just use them ... versus having to put a lot of work into the 4Ground buildings to finish them (and I'd have to put even more in to make them look weathered/realistic).

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  11. Hello,
    This was a fantastic batrep! Thank you for it! I have one question -- what was the table size! It seems bigger than 6x4.

    Cheers,
    Rob

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  12. Thank you! Again, great table and report!

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