First Bolt Action Game 500pts

This weekend Matt and I finally got together at the shop and played our first game of Bolt Action, after a record setting race to paint our armies. We decided on a small 500 point game just to get the hang of the rules.

We decided when we started that we would stay away from using tanks in our games, sticking to small vehicles and transports. So I decided on Fallschirmjager, who needs tanks when you have tough Jagers armed to the teeth with the best weapons available. Matt went with a British Parachute force, his guys look great.

500pts of Fallschirmjager, points go fast with two full squads.

My Fallschirmjager consisted of two 10 man squads loaded for bear. The first had two SMG's, three assault rifles, a LMG and loader and a panzerfaust team. The second squad was the same, minus one assault rifle. I also had a Lieutenant with an addition man, and an 81mm Mortar.

I was surprised how quickly I ran through 500pts when adding lots of kit to the full squads.

Matt's British Paras.

Matt's British Paras consisted of two 9 man squads with a Bren gun an two SMG's in each. He then had a mortar and spotter, a medic, LT and the free artillery spotter.

 

The board setup.

I can't remember the name of the mission, but whoever controled the objective in the center of the board when the game ended won. After turn six we rolled to see if the game ended. Two of Matt's Paras started on the board within six inches of the objective half the rest came on the first turn the rest were in reserve. My entire force was on the board.

Fallschirmjager advance on the objective in the center of the board.

A squad of Paras and the mortar protecting the objective.

It's a pincer attack by the Germans.

The German mortar found the Paras on the first turn.

The first pins land on the British.

The second Para squad moves on the board as does the artillery spotter.

Firing on the move.

The mortar loses a crewman.

The first turn saw both my FJ squads move forward, one on the left and one on the right side of the board, the squad on the left fired at and killed one member of the British mortar team. My 81mm mortar ranged in on the Para platoon behind the wall with a six, no one was killed but it placed two pins on the squad. Matt used a down order for them, his mortar failed to range in and his spotter and second squad moved on the board.

The right flank Jager squad.

Casualties.

Pins begin to add up.

On turn two my squads continue to move up, firing at the enemy, not many casualties but more and more pins. I loss two members of the left FJ squad to enemy fire and take a couple of pins. Both mortars fail to find their targets. Matt's Lieutenant and medic move on the board.

As do the casualties.

The British Artillery observer calls in a barrage.

Turn three and my right squad advances and kills three members of the Para squad by the objective including their NCO, they are also hit by my mortar. The British Artillery observer places his marker for the artillery barrage. A few more scattered shots back and forth.

The second squad trading fire with the FJ's.

The Lt gets pinned by the barrage.

Assault rifles on the flank begin to take their toll.

On turn four the advance continues for the Germans with the reduced left flank squad moving up to the objective and the other squad advancing and destroying the British mortar. The German mortar again hit and killed a para and added more pins, the forward Para platoon now had enough pins that it was difficult to do anything. And artillery bombardment gives three pin markers to my Lt but doesn't hit him. The second Para platoon continues to shoot up its opposite FJ squad.

The battered left flank FJ squad makes a go for the objective.

Their full strength comrades come to their aid.

Turn five the full strength FJ squad kills the Para officer, the other squad advances and kills one of the heavily pinned paras. I am directly on the objective. However the second Para squad kills all but two of that squad, but they refuse to run. The artillery spotter again calls in artillery on the German officer and add even more pins but doesn't hit. The officer fails his test to rally and keeps his pin markers.

Moving past the heavily pinned  first Para platoon.

And cutting loose on the second para platoon.

On turn six the forward Para squad is destroyed by the mortar and two man FJ squad. The other FJ squad advances past them to take on the last Para squad. Again an artillery barrage is called in and pins without hits, things look grim for the lieutenant. The Paras kill a member of the full strength jager squad.

They move to keep the British away from the objective, as turn five ends.

The last of the second Para squad.

The game doesn't end and turn seven sees the last Para squad shot to its last man who stays on the board. And once again the artillery lands and fails to hit but the pins it caused finally ran off the German Lt.

An assault ends the spotter.

Leaving nothing but the medic.

Who is taken captive.

The game goes on another turn and the large Fallschirmjager squad kills the last Para and the the remaining two members of the other squad assault and kill the artillery spotter.

The game ends with the capture of the last British miniature, the medic.

So in summary the game was very fun, we took a lot of time and played the game slow to keep mistakes down. My initial worry about only having two squads was balanced out by how much firepower they could put out, especially the assault rifles. I think I'm hooked and am excited about getting some more games in.

Panzergrenadiers vs. Grenadiers (FOW)

Hello everyone, I'm back and hopefully will be updating regularly again.

After taking most of December off from work spending in on the farm, I've gotten back into some wargaming. At home with poor internet and being a hundred miles from any city of note updating the blog wasn't really an option, I was however able to get a ton of painting and modeling done. Also somewhere between building some sidesheds on our barn and duck hunting I  made the trek over to Huntsville, AL and played in their fantastic Battle of the Bulge mega game at the Foundry. A great event at a great store, if you are ever in the area stop by the shop and check it out, it's a gaming store run by gamers. Okay free plug aside, I took some great pictures of the event and huge table, unfortunately my old Macbook Pro decided to die a few days later and I lost most everything, sad face.

I will have to offer a batrep of this weekends FOW game instead. I had to settle for a blue on blue game this weekend since everyone else was playing X-wing in preparation for a tourney next weekend, I would have joined in but I was jonesing for some FOW. So it would be a battle of German infantry with my Fuhrerbegleit Brigade versus Perry's vanilla Grenadiers. We set up a terrain heavy east Prussian village. The mission was dust up with me as the attacker, here are some pics of our armies and setup.

(Sorry for some of the blurry pictures, my camera is getting long in the tooth.)

My 1780pt Fuhrerbegleit Brigade.

Perry's 1780pt German Grenadier Company.

The board, objectives A and B were my targets while I defended 1 and 2.

My list had two Panzergrenadier platoons, three Jagdpanzer IV/70 (A), three StuH42, four 122mm mortars, four 150mm Howitzers (proxied by 105s) and Remer.

Perry had three Grenadier platoons, two 75mm infantry guns, six 81mm mortars, four HMGs, two Tiger I's and four StuH42's.

A view of the board from the other side.

Half my force on the board, the rest in delayed reserve.

The same with Perry. He had on two gren platoons, HMGs and mortars.

A Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon.

Two of my StuH42's and the Panzer III OP.

The old wooden bridge would not take me where I wanted to go.

The begleit spot something in the buildings across the water.

A few enemy teams go down to the 105's.

My halftracks pushing hard for the right side of the board.

The first few turns saw Perry dig in and move one grenadier platoon through the town in the center on a long slog to my objectives. I pushed everything to the right towards his objectives, and with delayed reserves and limited line of sight the first two turns were relativity uneventful. My StuH's did manage to kill a command team and a HMG in the buildings on turn three.

Perry's mortars watching the mech approach.

A gren platoon on the forward objective.

 Next turn Perry's StuH's arrive and being to move to my objectives, I didn't shift back to protect my objectives Instead relying on the 150mm artillery and the river to slow him down long enough for me to take his objectives, a near fatal mistake on my part.

His StuH's doing what StuH's do, killing guns.

I move my own to get a bead on his infantry.

A few teams in the open were cut down my mass MG fire.

My two mech infantry platoons move to the ford.

He moves up to the river, kills a gun, I fail to range in to the tightly packed assault guns, then next turn they all cross the river with no bogs, kill another gun and I fail two close range direct fire shots, and he finishes off the battery next turn. As a precaution I moved back my 2IC when the StuH's first arrived now he was the only team on the objectives.

The last two 150's missed point blank shots at the StuH's in the open, and were wiped out.

But on the other side of the board my reverses showed up, the second mech infantry platoon and my Jagdpanzers. I quickly moved the Jagdpanzers back to protect my objectives along with my two StuH's, after losing one to a long range shot from a Tiger. Both groups of halftracks moved up to the ford in the river to cross, it would be slow going in the halftracks, but better than on foot in front of six mortars.

IV/70's rush (sort of) towards my own objectives.

The Tigers only action of the game, re-roll misses help him get the shot.

The first platoon with Remer crosses the river.

 The first of my  Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon mounted assaults out of the river, his observer was on the bank, and moves closer to their objectives. In his turn he kills my 2IC holding the objective but loses a StuH to my Jagdpanzers. I then move both the Jagdpanzers and StuH's to contest the objectives, both are short my milometers, they shoot and triple bail the only enemy StuH I can see, but he stays. On the other side of the board I dismount move up and assault the reduced gren platoon on his forward objective, with Remer leading my platoon he doesn't stand a chance and I am on top of his objective. Now back to my objective if neither of my armored platoons stormtrooper I will not be in range to contest my objective, both do, and we keep going.

The little 81mm mortars are about to punish my bunched up halftracks at the ford.

My new Winter Germans prepping for the assault.

Perry's grens had suffered for their failure to dig in for four turns.

My mortars show up as my StuH's double towards my own objectives.

The tank hunters nail an enemy StuH as my own double to cover.

Remer's assault wipes out the enemy grenadiers.

His StuH's kill my 2IC but my StuH's and IV/70's move up and triple bail his commander.

Perry moves up his HMG platoon to contest his objective and the bailed StuH gets back in and move for side shots on my StuH's. His HMG's kill a few of my infantry, enough to drop me below half, but re-rolling for being guards I stay. He kills a StuH and once again guards saves me and the last one stays. Perry then mesures and finds that his HMGs are short of contesting the objective, he rolls for stormtrooper and fails, I start my turn in control of the objective and win.

However since everyone else is playing X-wing and we don't have time to start an entirely new game we keep playing.  In my turn I kill the StuH in the open and kill the HMG platoon. His mortars pound my second mech infantry platoon, and kill two halftracks with their passengers, three teams down, but they pass moral and the halftracks stay.

Perry's HMG's move up to contest the objective.

The victorious platoon.

 We play for a couple more turns with my halftracks and 122mm mortars beating up on his last two infantry platoons as they move over to retake the objectives. The Tigers are cursing the terrain as they slowly move up with no line of sight for shots.
My second mech platoon mounted assaults the reduced 81mm mortars and drive them off the second objective, they dismount and hunker down. His StuH's are hiding in the woods bailed and bogged but don't run. The infantry assault in but are pinned and his mortars fail to unpin, that leaves me in control of both objective and we decide to call it.

My second Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon takes the second objective from the mortars.