Return to Bolt Action Game Night

This week saw return to Bolt Action after an extensive hiatus.  There are a few new players in the area, so we coordinated a game night at a local game store, Misty Mountain in Madison, WI.

French List

German List

We ended up with eight players and four games going.  My son Justin, who is home from college, brought his friend Austyn and they faced off U.S.vs. IJA.  Brian K. faced Brian B. U.S. vs British Commandos. Ben fought against Neil with Soviets against Germans.

Battlefield from the French Side

Phil felt up to the challenge of taking on my early war French with his early war Germans.  We rolled for a scenario and came up with Demolition.

French push up the center after deploying gun

I was placed my objective in a building and Phil placed his in a wood line sheltered by a stream.  We both had units in out flank my Vet Cavalry and FFL  and he had a 251 filled with Pioneers.  Phil also put his PzIV in reserve.

Char2C and Gun open on German in building

It was clear we were both very rusty on the mechanics, but it came back quickly with a few book references.  After we were done I realized neither of us had used the officer ability of "You men snap to it" to activate additional units which could have been useful on a few occasions.

Tank stand off

The Germans placed a squad defending the base along with a light gun.  After advancing a 2nd squad forward it quickly became pinned down in a building and was forced to go down as the Char 2C rolled up and concentrated some fire on it.

 I started out fairly conservative on the defense with the intent of leaving a regular squad, MMG, and light howitzer along with the Char 2C to defend my base.  Everything else advanced forward to threaten his base.

French press the center

I had to bring my FFL in on outflank on turn three to deal with the mortar that was threatening what was left of my Medium gun.

The Cavalry came in on turn four to join the FFL, and the remnants of my regular squad pushing through the center to threaten the German base.

German flank is in the air

The tank battle was a non factor with no real A.T. assets to knock them out.  The Germans did manage to pin the Char 2C which neutralized it for 2 turns due to horrible command rolls.

Panhard scores a critical kill

Turn five was critical as the Pioneers had to come in from outflank after failing on turn four.  I felt confident I could deal with this threat and take the German base by the end of the turn.  I did take the precaution of placing my Panhard in ambush.

German offense is quickly stunted

The Pioneers came in and the Panhard took the long range shot achieving a hit and acing the half track.  More importantly, this caused the pioneers to take a loss bail out and go down.

Defenders of France are poised to face any threat

At the end of turn five Phil realized resistance was futile as it was now impossible to threaten the French base and three units were in position to take his base by the end of turn six with little to defend it.

German base on the verge of capture

All in all it was a god game and nice to knock the rust off Bolt Action.  I plan to play in an event at the end of January and Adepticon in March, so I need to refresh myself on the rules.

The group plans to make Thursday evenings at Misty a regular thing again and I hope to make it at least twice a month.