Home Schooling for Wargamers (Bolt Action)

This past Sunday I decided to teach my 11 year old how to play Bolt Action WW2.  He had asked me last weekend but I needed to do some tidying up and such so I made him a deal.  If he read the core Bolt Action rules during the week, we would play a game this past weekend.  Sure enough he read all the core rules!

I wanted to keep this simple and somewhat balanced, but also include armour and infantry.  We played British airborne vs. German Fallschirmjager.

British OOB:

1 x Sherman Firefly
2 x Cromwell
1 x Para Infantry Section
1 x Para Officer (+ Rifleman)
1 x Para Medic
1 x Para PIAT Team
1 x Para MMG Team

German OOB:

1 x Panzer IV
2 x Panzer III
1 x Fallschirmjager Infantry Section
1 x Fallschirmjager Officer (+ Rifleman)
1 x Fallschirmjager Medic
1 x Fallschirmjager PIAT Team
1 x Fallschirmjager MMG Team

He elected to play the Germans, mostly because I think he liked the camo pattern on the tanks.

I also decided to use a 4 foot by 6 foot table with a simple setup of just trees and fences/hedgerows.  No buildings or built up areas.  You can see the setup below.

So off we went.  My dice were more terrible than normal ... I don't recommend facing off against the luck of kids!  By the end of the game I had only managed to knock out one of the Panzer IIIs --- yes, just 1!!!  He destroyed all three of my tanks, killed my PIAT team and my Officer.  Tis a sad day when you have to actually use your officer to try to kill enemy units, but I was throwing everything I could at him by this point!

So, massive victory for the offspring.  I think the seed has been successfully planted.

Crappy phone pictures below of the action ...