Thursday Gaming, "The Bridge" Bolt Action British Paratrooper Objective...

Straight back from Hols and ready for some dice rolling and Figure shoving.
Andy was busy last evening and couldn't make the game, so myself and Glenn decided to have another run out with Bolt Action.

I had seen a few games recently on the BA Facebook page and thought we could have a go at something similar.

With the thought of the Para's at Pegasus Bridge in mind, I set the table and came up with a typical scenario.
Take and Hold the Bridge, simple's.

The Bridge was fairly well defended with two MMG's covering the Bridge and a medium mortar providing support.
The Germans had the chance of re-enforcements and the chance to Blow the bridge if things went a bit tit's up.

Things never go according to plan.

All is peaceful as the unaware Germans go about their daily routine

The Bridge is well defended if an attack should happen.

Two Sentries go about their usual mundane tasks.
One heads out from the farm as another heads towards him from the
Bridge.

The Para's arrive and advance, undetected on the bridge.
German sentries fail to spot and movement as the Para's
get in to position. 

Still oblivious to the presence of the enemy, the lone sentry goes his way.
It is now Dawn , the light is still dim as the morning mist starts to lift.
The sentry from the farm fails to spot a squad of Para's cross the road
ahead of him.

The Late arrival of the last Glider (the rest were off the table) manages to
land unseen and the Para's dis-embark and get into position on the
left flank of the Bridge defences.
The sentry from the bridge is mugged silently just before he turns
the corner to meet his buddy from the farm.
No shots have been fired, the Germans are still oblivious to the
presence of the British.

A flank charge from the Glider Para's screams into the Bridge  defences.
The Mortar team is taken out silently.
The MMG team in the next trench fail to spot them again.
The Para's sneak in to position to assault the Bridge.

The MMG team is also assaulted and yet still no shots are fired.
The MMG team falls under the Para's quick assault.
This time though, the Para's luck runs out.
A sentry at the road block spots them and opens fire.
The Para's fail to go down and suffer as two SMG's open up on them.
Shots have been fired and the German defenders are now aware of the
assault.

Their are Two sets of explosives on the bridge (sandbags).
The Para's have to disarm these (5+ required on a D6)
Para's that had positioned themselves in the wood to the right of the
roadblock house now charged and despatched the hapless defenders.
The Para's now controlled this end of the bridge and the rest of
the squads now moved forward to assault the Village.
The Germans now fully aware of what was happening, called
for re-enforcements, They will arrive in 3 turns.
Glenn now activated his Partizans, who headed through the wood to
ambush the soon to arrive re-enforcements.  

The German squad from the Farm now met up with their sentry and headed
towards the bridge.
They spotted the Glider and the Para's deployed Mortars.
Opening fire they took out the Medium Mortar, forcing the light Mortar to
run for cover.
Para's attempting to rush the Bridge are cut down by the MMG on the
village side.
Para's returning fire, take out the MMG team as the German squad from
the village appears and open fire on the few remaining Para's trying
to disarm the explosives.
The Germans fail 3 attempts to blow the bridge.

The firefight on the bridge is intense.
The Para HQ unit is wiped out as the Para 2nd squad arrives to aid them
disarm the explosives.
The German squad from the village charge the Para's in a vain attempt
to stop them.
They are cut down in the melee (no match for the well trained Para's).
The Disarm attempt fails again and the Germans fail with two
attempts to blow the damn bridge.

The Para's on the bridge manage to disarm one of the two explosives.
With one explosive still on the bridge, the Germans can still blow it.
But two more failed attempts aid the Para's who now concentrate on
disarming the last of the explosives.
The partizans ambush the re-enforcements, pinning the truck.
The occupants manage to dis-embark and engage the Partizans.
The Partizans suffer heavy casualties but hold the needed
German troops in place.
The German squad from the farmhouse are pinned by the Para's that
are now dug in the bridge defences that were once held by the bridge
defenders.

Para's cross the bridge to secure the village.
The German high command are still waiting for the re-enforcements
that are now in a firefight with the Partizans.
They are the only German troops in the village.
With the German squad from the farmhouse pinned and unable to
move.
Two more attempts to blow the bridge are failed, as is the Para's
attempt to disarm the last explosives.

A second Para squad crosses the bridge as a final attempt to blow the
bridge is again, Failed by the German command.
By now the German HQ can hear the advancing Para's on the village main
street.
Gunfire at the opposite end of the village tells them that the re-enforcements
are not going to arrive in time.
The squad from the farmhouse is still pinned and unable to move. The
squad fighting the Partizans manages to get the Partizans to fall back.
But it is all to little to late.
The Para's on the bridge finally disarm the explosives.
The Bridge is intact.
The term "Hold until Relieved" springs to mind.
The Para's have taken the bridge and control both sides.
Game over.....

A Great win for Glenn with the British Para's.
Good use of stealth and fast assaults, Oh!, and the Partizans, deffo won him the game.
The Germans just could not get the message through to blow the damn bridge.
Although it did take Glenn ages to disarm the damn explosives (and didn't I know it)
This was our second outing with "Bolt Action".
As a Squad based game, it works great.
It is a lot of fun to play, even though we got it wrong on a few occasions, we are still learning.
Big Thanks to Glenn for playing in the spirit of the game and been very British (up the Ox and Bucks)

New Romans (Thanks KingKit) & My First Game of "Bolt Action"

As most of you all are probably aware, the small group of us are playing "Hail Caesar" in 1/72 (20mm).
We have various projects on the go at the moment and all are doing out bit to expand the periods we can play.
We currently have Imperial Romans, Ancient Britons, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Vikings and the Crusades.
Andy is working on some Biblicals, Nubians and Sea Peoples.
He will also be adding some Egyptians and Hittites at a later date.
He is also currently working on a Parthian force.
Glenn is beavering away at a Carthaginian army when he has a break from painting 3 million Sons of Nippon for the Pacific theatre for Rapid Fire.
I myself have a few on the go.
I want to expand on the Imperial Romans and my Ancient Brits.
I still want to add more to the Crusades, Meglomania kicking in again
I have Dacians and Sarmations to have a go at and now at last, Republican Romans.
The Republican Romans proved to be a bit of a problem.
The HC army composition lists the Hastati, Princeps and Triarii as small units.
Our standard unit in the game is 4 x 30mm by 30mm bases.
This gives a frontage of 120mm and between 8 (light Inf) 12 (med inf) and 16 (heavy Inf) figures per unit.
Thats 2, 3 or 4 figures per base.
A small unit of Republican Romans would be 8 figures on two bases.
I had a few choices for troops in 1/72.
First up are Newline metals.
Very nice indeed, but with the amount I need I was looking at over £200.
Plastics by Caesar Miniatures, HaT, Italeri and Zvezda were the contenders.
I ruled out Caesar as there is no command in the box and to be honest, they are Marian Romans
So is the set from Italeri.
The Zvezda set is gorgeous but pricey at nearly £8 a go.
I went for the HaT.
Readily available, Hastati and Velites in one set and the Priceps and Triarii in another and a nice box of Cavalry.
The Problem I then faced after purchasing 2 boxes of each set was the Punic war Command by HaT.
Although I didn't know at the time, these were becoming hard to find.
I searched Ebay, and the web for weeks.
I found a box of them in Spain but at £15 with postage, my Mrs would kill me.
More interweb searches failed until I found KingKit.
Hooray, 2 boxes in stock at £4.25 each.
Phew!
I ordered these and another box of Princeps and Triarii.

Great service from KingKit, they arrived with a week, even over the bank holiday.
They have some lovely stuff and quite rare items too.
The're website can be found Here
A big thanks to them for letting me complete my purchase, just got to paint the buggers now.

Andy was absent from last night gaming (get well soon bud).
So myself and Glenn decided on a game of Bolt Action.
We have the rules and a few army lists, but had yet to play.
We usually play Rapid Fire, but at battalion level, the game is tough to play in an evening.
With Bolt Action being a platoon level game, it seemed suitable for a evenings gaming.
I chose my usual Germans and Glenn played the British.
I set up the table with the proverbial French village of no name in the centre.

We deployed and with playsheets and the rulebook in hand, we started.
It took us a while to figure out the mechanics and things were a little slow at first.
But it wasn't long before we grasped the basics and lead was flying everywhere.
It is deffo not Rapid Fire.
It does sacrifice some realism for playability, but it is fast and fun to play.
The dice activation mechanic really does make the turns very tactical.
You have choices to make all the time and it does keep you focussed on the game.

The rules are well written and thought out, well done Mr Cavatore.
For a squad based game, it really works.

I think that after a few more games, we would really be able to chug along fairly quickly with this.
Glenn can't wait to get his new Banzai brigades out and that should be fun.

We both made bad decisions and had our fair share of good and poor dice rolls.
Glenn missing my Pz IV at point blank with a Piat was a classic (3+ and rolled a 2).
Close combat is deadly, (as it should be)
My rolling of lots of 6's followed by more 6's really crippled Glenns squads.
Oh well!, sometimes the Sarge gets it, the Vickers MMG Jams and your squads get pinned on the road in the open.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.
When we become more familiar with the rules, it should be fast, furious and Fun.
The three F's I look for in a game.

Ps, The Brits got battered for a change.

Last nights WW2 game.

Myself & Glenn indulged in a little bit off "Rapid Fire" last night.
Fighting over the control of a bridge somewhere in France.
The Scenario.
French Partizans destroyed the German company holding the bridge and awaited the approaching British force.
The Bridge must be intact and held.
German re-inforcements are on the way with orders to destroy the bridge and stop any attempted Allied crossing of the river.

British Force consisted of.
1 x Bttn of Infantry with  A/T supports in halftracks and carriers.
Mg Support Company.
2 x Medium tank squadrons, (Firefly and 2 Cromwells) & Firefly HQ.
1 x Bridging tank.
1 x Field artillery battery with Sherman OP, ( 2 x Sextons)
&
1 x Groups of Partizans.

German force consisted of.
1 x Armoured Infantry Bttn (Hanomags)
2 x Engineers Companies.
PzIV tank squardron (3)
2 x Stugs.
1 x Panther (HQ)
1 x Artillery battery (2 x 105mm) with OP in Staff car.
1 x Pak 40 A/T.

In a very hard fought game, by nightfall, the bridge was intact and still in British hands.
The German engineers having failed to destroy the bridge.
Well done Glenn, a deserved victory after all went wrong at the start, lol.
A few pics of the game....

The victorious Partizans advance over the bridge to occupy the
 buildings in the village.

The quiet village before the German assault.

German tanks moving into the village.

Quiet country silence is broken with the rumbling of tracks.

A lone brave partizan damages a Stug as he is gunned down.

Cromwells attempt the first crossing and are stopped.

The British HQ Firefly goes up in Flames.

Carnage on the bridge.

Firefight at the bridge

The British flanking force race into the village after
Crossing the river

The British mow down the German engineers and
take the bridge.

British forces link up and secure the bridge objective.

The Flanking river crossing.

German artillery pound the advancing Brits, but it's
too late.

Recent Thursday nights gaming sessions

The last 2 weeks gaming sessions saw my WW2 Germans soundly beat Glenns British and myself and Karl with Napoleons French totally destroy Glenns Westphalians in a 1813 Naps Clash.

WW2...
The British with tank support advanced on a french hamlet in this Normandy breakout scenario.
The British force consisted of
A full british lorried battalion.
An engineers Co.
A machine gun Co. Both in Carriers.
A 25pdr Field battery, &
A squadron of Churchills.

Facing
A full German Battalion.
A 105mm German Field gun battery.
2 x stugs
1 x Hetzer.

The brits came on, not knowing the deployment of the German forces.
They ran into Hell!
With some great dice rolls on my part and some very poor ones on Glenns part. the brits were wiped out to a man.
A few pics of the action.

The Naps game went the same way for Glenn (bad 2 weeks)
In Glenns words "It all went downhill from the start"
The French advanced and managed to survive the hail of musketry and get stuck in to the awaiting Westies.
Numerous failed brigade tests sealed the Westies fate as they fled tthe battle.
An earlier minor success of breaking through the French centre was quickly erased as the advancing Westies were assailed from all sides and destroyed.
A great win for me & Karl (on the same side for a change)
A few pics of the game as it played.
The final pics are the removed casualties nearing the end.

French Preparing to advance

French Advancing

Glen still deploying

Westphalians Deployed

Glenns right

Glenns Westphalian Battle line ready to advance

French Battle line advancing

My French engage Glenns right

Swirling melee or charge and counter charge

The French breakthrough

The Westphalian right collapses

The Broken Frech centre rallies to advance again

French Lancers destroy the Westphalian cavalry

The French right (Karl) now advances on the Westie Left to finish the job

French Lancers see off the last Westie Dragoons

My French casualties

Glenns casualties with one brigade left on the table (till next turn)

Glenns Left make a last stand

Karls French go straight through them and Rout them of the table.
Game over and a complete victory for Boney.