AAR: Bolt Action: Stalingrad

 

  These are photographs from the second Stalingrad game I played at Nashcon on that Saturday night. This game was after the Bolt Action Singles Tournament ended, so I was surprised to see that Kalissa was willing to play a Bolt Action game after running a tournament. It was a late night for her usually, not included being in a different time zone. But this was a game amongst friends. We knew all of the players involved personally, so there was a lot of "Big Talk" across the board. Whiskey and Soviet Propaganda was the way this game went on our side of the table. I decided to play Soviets on purpose. It was not a norm for me. Also, I do not have a big interest in Stalingrad, despite playing two games in a row for it 

    The Soviet forces were to hold the line against advancing Germans. We held strong for quite a bit. If it wasn't for the free roaming Panzer III's, were would have had a better chance. Do to my propaganda, we were constantly winning the game. We did not win! But we had fun!

The German version of the Dukes of Hazzard!

 

AAR: Battle Ground: Stalingrad "Not One Step Back!"

 

  This was the second game I played on Friday evening at Nashcon 2021 in the Battle of Stalingrad. This was a six player game with Germans assaulting an apartment building complex held by the Soviets. The rules that the gamemaster used was one I never heard of call "Battle Ground". Apparently, these rules have been out for a while. They seemed to mainly use D20 dice with low numbers being a good thing. I thought, well I am good I rolling "ones". This was not true at all in this game. What I had learned about the rules is that it was a combination of Normandy Firefight, Bolt Action, and Rapid Fire. Or at least that is how they seemed. I had fun with the game, but the Soviets punished the Germans throughout the game. One Soviet player was on fire with rolls. I was not shot at until turn six only after two players where clearly out of the game by turn three. Even the gamemaster said that this was the worst he had ever seen the Germans get hit out of the twenty playtests. I am not sure of the rules, because I would want to read them myself. I did mention that based on the ass kicking on the German side might not inspire the other players to get into these rules. My only issue I had was Soviets shooting at me with Mosin-Nagants out of a window at a 20 degree angle. They must have had some serious arm muscles to fire them out the windows to hit my men hanging rifles out the window. I will look into these rules in the future. 

AAR: Johnny Reb III: Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas

   At Nashcon, I was lucky enough to not have to play in any of my wife's Bolt Action Tournament. Do get me wrong, I would like playing in it, but I like to roam and play random games at convention. It this case, I stumbled across a Johnny Reb III game for the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas in March 7th, 1862. It was a two day battle, but this game was in the first day. I ended up on the Union side. The way the game master had it, it was some of the regular rules with hidden markers. The idea was to keep the field problems that the commanders had during the battle. Some of the markers were units or dummy units. The board was mounted on a rolling tables that could separate in the middle. I wish I had taken a better picture for the table, but that picture did not come through.

     The battle was split up in two areas like the actual battle. Confederate cavalry tried to flank Union columns on the way to reinforce a crossroad. It just happen to be bad fortune that I had artillery in the front of my column and spotted them. With my first shots, they ran off. The same happened when they tried to set up their own artillery. I was a rather good thorn. I would like to say that there was more action, but the other side of the battle had so many rules questions and issues, it bought our side to a halt. I still had fun, but I think they both battle locations should have been separate games. Either way, I was nice to play rules I have not played in four years.