Miniature Wargaming with Spudnick: AAR: Bolt Action: Farm Villiage Fight.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

AAR: Bolt Action: Farm Villiage Fight.

Flanking carnage!

Well, it was another Tuesday for another round of Bolt Action against my friend, Danny. This was going to be his third game of Bolt Action after a year without playing. Until work interrupts our gaming time, Tuesdays have worked out for the both of us. Danny was already on a win streak before we fought, which is funny, since he originally wanted to play Germans when he first started collecting his forces. Now, that he has experienced a lot more success with the Americans, it seems he is warming up to them. I was hoping that maybe this game would change that. I have noticed that armies that are well liked, tend to do better. Of course, this has no grounds for that theory what-so-ever. The same goes for the "painted figures fight better" theory.
Danny has been running the same units for the three games: one 1st Lt. with two riflemen, four 10-man squads of Airborne, and six Sherman tanks. Everything has been rated as "Veteran". The next game, we might change the force make up. I ran a 1st Lt. with two riflemen, four squads of 10-man Fallschirmjaeger squads with four Panzerfausts each, a Panzershrek team, one Jagdpanther, one Jagdpanzer IV L70 (v), and a Stug III. Again, we rated it all "Veteran". This was all played out in a "Maximum Attrition" mission on a new, mostly finished mat I was making for my friend, Andre. It probably would have been finished, but I got distracted watching "We Were Soldiers."
The game started out in my favor with the first turn hitting a Sherman tank to pin it and burning another. Danny mentioned that this game would not be going well for him. And at first glance, it might have been so. He did roll a lot of "ones" and "two"s. He also was having a hard time rolling for morale to preform certain actions. A couple of units spent most of the game down. Most of these American problems seem to be a early game thing.
It was not long after turn three when the flanks came out. I had the Jagdpanther and the Jagdpanzer IV in "Ambush" to answer these threats, since three Shermans were to be flanking in this game. The Jagdpanzer IV hit the Sherman tank only to catch it on fire! The American crew had no problem putting it out. Since the Jagdpanzer IV answered a flank attack, the crew exposed itself to a rear shot. Another Sherman tank came out of reserve to shoot a close ranged shot in the ass! The Jagdpanzer IV exploded. The Panzershrek team fired at point blank into a Sherman tank, killing it. After that, the an Airborne squad decided to kill the Panzershrek team with success. Then, a Sherman arrived to hit a Fallschrimjaeger squad in a building next to the said Airborne squad. The building explosion took out five Germans with ease.
By the next turn, the Jagdpanther tried to kill one of the Sherman that exposed it's side armor, but failed. The reason for the side armor shot was based on my flank attack against an Airborne squad at point blank. Two men died in that Airborne squad, but the Germans lost everyone in one attack from the Sherman tank. The remaining Germans in the building tried to assault the Americans, but died on the way. The last blow came to the Germans when a side shot to the Jagdpanther destroyed it. At this point the game ended, even though, there was a roll that continued the game for a seventh turn. It was decided by both sides that this was the end, since no one could reach each other to kill with the exception of two long ranged Sherman HE shots.
So the day ended with another German defeat. I am thinking that Danny is going to want to play the Americans even more. I am just wondering how the game will change with version to of the Bolt Action rules!