Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Some Bolt Action

While cleaning up the hobby area one thing led to another and the next thing I know, I'm throwing some dice in a quick game of 15mm Bolt Action.

These are some of my "leftover" infantrymen from the Battlegroup re-base operation.  Also, I may have ripped up some individually based infantrymen from Rapid Fire to join in the mayhem.

I played the first scenario from the rule book "envelopment" and the battle featured 2 German and 2 Russian Infantry squads, both led by first lieutenants, along with some recce armor.  The Soviets fielded a T-70 and the Germans a Panzer II "Not-A-Luchs"

Soviet squad at the edge of a cornfield engaging the Germans!

more 15mm Soviets taking the high ground.

My "Not a Luchs" Luchs recce vehicle.  Still without proper flock and decals!
 The game started out slow but turned ugly really fast.  If you don't know what you're doing in Bolt Action, keep your troops in cover.  That's all I can say - they go down really quickly!

Something I like about Bolt Action??  How many games have you played where a 20mm Autocannon was a major weapon system?  BA classes guns and cannon into "light" "medium" and "heavy" categories and has a truly elegant system for armored combat.  In this case, my Panzer II mixed it up with the T-70 and came out on top - but just barely!  The Germans rolled a lucky "6" for the penetration roll which was exactly what they needed to make a dent in that T-70.  Add the 2 for the Penetration value and you just barely match the T-70's armor value of 8.  If you match the armor value (not exceeding it), you subtract from your damage roll.  So the best I could hope for was starting a fire on board the T-70!  How cool is that?

Anyways Ivan failed his morale check and the crew bailed.  No more T70!!
Germans push through the woods.  These are some leftover infantry - but don't tell them that!

Command group.  They would actually prove pivotal by blunting a Soviet push through the woods!


When you roll a 6 for damage, the firing player can select casualties.  I took out the NCO and the other SMG!!  Game Over Man!!

Thoughts:
Bolt Action is a fun and light hearted game which I enjoyed very much.  15mm is a perfect size for my table and I already have so much of it that having a game was a very easy affair.  This game also has tremendous potential for gaming in other periods as well (Vietnam, Modern, Sci Fi etc).

Speaking of other periods, I organized my 15mm moderns today for a proper game of Battlegroup: Modern (for lack of a better name) taking the terrific Battlegroup rules and modifying them for a modern Cold War-Hot battle.  I dont have nearly enough infantry painted/ based for it, but I hope to remedy that soon enough for a Cold War-Hot battle.

I will post some of my ideas on conversions and added rules, as well as my Armor penetration table for anyone who is interested.

Man it has been a long time since I've posted anything!

2 comments:

  1. Well played. I salute you with a hearty harrumph for playing instead of cleaning up. My wife gets very upset when this happens in our house!

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    1. Thank you, Cincinnatus. It was one of those completely spontaneous things where a game just kind of happened!
      Luckily for me she doesn't go into the basement very often!! It's still a complete mess down there.

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