AAR: Bolt Action Sicily Game.

The British on a nature walk.

     As new homeowners, Kalissa and I have had quite a few people over in the last month. This can be a little disruptive when you are our cat, Izzy, who has seen more people this month than the rest of her entire lifetime. But she better get used to it, because we have been having fun, and will continue to have people over! After speed building a table, I had it ready to go for the first game bright, but not too early at 10 A.M. for friends who came over. We had a bunch of our local gaming group of Cape Fear Miniature Wargamers: Hugh, Bill, Andre, Tim and his wife, Nicole, and ourselves. And our cat was terrified!
    However, the whole affair was rather nice. It was more of a social affair than a gaming one, since everyone had been off doing their own things. And with a bunch of vacations and Historicon, it has been a little more than a month since we all had gathered together. We were not really focused on multiple games or any games at first. We just sat around a chatted about new games, showed off figures, got new unofficial blue-prints for the house I thought was ours, but is now a new miniature storage area, and watched random war movies I put on, such as, "The Eagle has Landed" and "Where Eagle Dare."

    But despite the social affair, we still kicked off a game of Bolt Action in Sicily. This turned into a multiple player game with Bill and Tim as the Germans versus Kalissa and I as the British. I still think this was a planned strategy, since Kalissa is usually against me. Andre ended up being the strategic coach for the Germans side. And because of all the various happenings with my wife happily distracted, it was really a three versus one game. I like the odds!
   For a roll off, we were going to play a "Three Point Defense Mission". I have been playing this mission a lot, it seems. The Germans decided they would attack with a 1st Lt. and two men (I just realized they never brought them on), four squads of regular infantry, a medium mg team, a medium mortar with a spotter, a Panzer II, and a Panzer III. And they are painted as DAK. We will just say they just escaped Tunsia. As for the glorious Allies I usually kill, we had a 1st Lt. with two men, three squads of infantry, one medium mg, one medium mortar, two BOYS AT rifle teams, two universal Bren gun carriers, and a Crusader tank. And all the British had to do was hold out for six turns, which led to seven.
    The whole plan had all of the British covering across the board keeping the enemy in check. Our Crusader tank was the only unit left in reserve to follow where the armor went. A BOYS AT team was on both sides of the board covering the flanks. We had the Vickers mg set up between to objectives covering the open ground shared with the Bren carriers on the right side. The Germans got an artillery barrage before the first turn with some nice pinning power. The first turn had a lot of failures to motivate. The Germans decided to attack the right flank. I think they must have saw the sign on my head for "Rolls Badly." And since it was my side of the table, and the strategy was to "not attack the lady ordering food", I was going to take the brunt of the violence.
   Throughout the rest of the time playing, the Germans were doing a rather nice job sweeping the flanks. There was not much stopping the Germans other than speed bump Bren carriers on fire. The Crusader tank came on soon after the Panzer III arrived to fail to destroy the Panzer in the side at point blank, but disabled it.. But the Germans got distracted enough to assault all of these vehicles to learn that they were not in position to take more than one objective. This meant that no matter what, they could only get a "Draw" in the game. This was bad news for both Tim and Bill, since they had killed five units at this point. And the game ended in a draw after turn seven was rolled for.
    We ended the day with some good times and a good game! We were happy to have everyone, and we are aware that we will have some games next weekend. That the beauty of a game room!

Left Flank.

Right Flank.

The center objective for the British.

Germans players left to right: Tim and Bill. I think they might have been assigning troops.

Bill and Andre, the German Strategic Coach. 

German artillery barrage.

The advancing German infantry.

Panzer II. 

Lots of craters when the smoke clears.

On the right, a Bren carrier and a BOYS At team attack up a knoll.

The Crusader tank flanks the flanking Panzer III and disables it's movement for the rest of the game. It shoots back later and misses.

The Crusader is in flames because of constant attacks from German infantry assaults.

Closing in.

The British start shifting forces.

The German capture one objective point.

The rest push in.