Club Night - Wednesday 31st August
Last week, Neil and I played a small 'training' game of Bolt Action. I had the Americans and Neil was the British. We both had 500pts forces, which is about half the normal game size and we reduced the table size from a 6 x 4 foot to a 4 x 4 foot.
British Force
Supporting Neil's 3 sections were; an AT Gun, a Vickers MMG and a Forward Observer.
American Force
While may 2 squads were supported by; a bazooka team and a Sherman.
The Mission
I forgot the name of our first mission, but we both had half our force held in reserve and 1 objective to hold and 1 to capture.
My general plan was to use the squad with both BARs along with the Sherman as a base of fire; while the manoeuver group closed with the enemy and finish them off in close quarters fighting!
Neil placed his units first and set up his Vickers on his command post in the ruins, his 6 pdr in the woods in the centre and a section in the woods on his left. All three units were hidden and covering the centre and his left flank.
The Assessment
Now, this being a training mission I made a lot of schoolboy errors.
First was force selection, should of left the bazooka in the barracks and maybe the Sherman too. That said, I was limited with the models I had and also only having 5 order dice! Each unit needs a order dice, so I could only have 5 units. Next mistake was setup! I Shouldn't have setup my fire base squad in the woods with my command post, this spot had limited line of sight and being woods reduced my movement which hindered my ability to relocate. My other big mistake was forgeting about Neil's reserves and running my manoeuver group around the flank and getting jumped by one of Neil's sections coming on from reserve.
That said, even considering all of the above; I pulled of a shock win!!!! Despite my manoeuver group getting caught in the open by the Vickers MMG, a full British section and even some friendly fire from my Sherman. I got very lucky, as Neil lost a section to a artillery miscalculation!; Then he rolled poorly when what was left of my manoeuver group assaulted his full section and wiped them out!!!
We didn't finish the next game which was a attacker / defender game, again with reserves. I was the attacker. It didn't start well, as again I forgot about reverse and once again marched my manoeuver group into a British section deploying from off table. This time Neil took no chances and deployed a second section to wipe them out.
With time running out, Neil had one last shot at my Sherman with his AT Gun................ BOING failed to penetrate again. Over the two games Neil failed to damage the Sherman in about 6 attempts!!!
Cheers
Kev
Cheers
Kev
