Had my first game of Bolt Action last night with Nathan. He has been playing his German list around a little bit vs Jamie and they looked like they were having fun so I was keen to try it out as well.
We decided on 700 points as that's about everything I have.;-)
The scenario was 'Maximum Attrition', you get the picture; enter the board and start smashing each other.
The board is a good mix of hedges and woods with a couple roads, somewhere in Italy was offered as a location?
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| Wehrmacht Sniper and spotter |
Nathan's army is thoroughly well designed and looks great. A mix of Warlord and Artizan mini's and a Company B Luchs. He also has a ton of panzerfausts and assault rifles!
He has a Lieutenant with Plt Sgt and RTO
Two squads of Veteran Panzergrenadiers with many assault rifles and a few panzerfausts
Two squads of Inexperienced Volksgrenadiers with the same
a sniper team
a PzKpw II Luchs Recce tank
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| USMC Scout/Sniper team |
The game is easy to grasp and pretty fun. I like the dice based orders system it makes it very easy to manage and helps keep you from forgetting which units have acted.
My first kill was a veteran NCO by my Scout Sniper team on the right. (Sadly they spent the rest of the game celebrating this, as it was also their last. Very unprofessional guys.)
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| Grunts moving up on the left |
My Water Buffalo was my only regular unit and it was opposed by the aforementioned Pz II. As soon as we started the LVT was trying to hide from the 48" range of the Lynx's 20mm cannon!
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| A frikkin tank! |
The LVT actually survived the first bursts from the autocannon and tried to threaten the advancing Landsers on their right but couldn't get activated in time. Only one 90 degree turn per move as well. Remember that.;-)
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| Flamethrower team running from the Water Buffalo that's on fire! |
There was nowhere to hide though.
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| Pushing up the middle |
Taking advantage of the distraction provided by the flaming LVT my veteran Marines grab the center. They immediately begin taking heavy fire from their right for their insolence.
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| German Veterans advancing on our left |
As Jerry advances on my left, I have to get my boys moving as well. The 24" range of the assault rifles matches my rifles range but with two dice each!
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| Veteran Landsers and VG advancing on our right |
The inexperienced Volksgrenadiers have a special rule that may let them suddenly advance in experience. Maybe all the way to Veteran status. It never happened in this game though. I also never concentrated my fires enough to finish off a single VG squad. I was playing for position.
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| VG in the center |
The VG as well as the sniper team in the center are providing constant harassing fire once we get into the wood on the left. Not very effective against my veterans though the sniper does bag a mortarman, leaving two Marines to handle the 60mm. I really dislike the light mortar rules so far. 12-24" range, only one die etc.
(I used to be an A-gunner on these things and we could fuck shit up let me tell you.)
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| Jarheads pushing onto the objective, now just hold it! |
On my left Nathan and I are trading casualties. One here, one there and the din would have been huge!
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| The Germans haven't gone far, but are a continuous line |
Shooting is a single die for each rifle and goes up from there. Modifiers include moving (not for Yanks with M1's or BAR's though), cover (ignored by snipers), over half range as well as inexperience.
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| The firing lines face off on the left |
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| After finishing the Marine squad on the right the VG shift to the center |
On the right my rifle squad was finished off by the huge volume of fire from the Luchs as well as the veteran infantry squad facing them. My sniper teams inability to get a single hit after the first was a bummer.
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| "Next turn we are going to waste that damn flamethrower team." |
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| Chesty is merely security here |
First we light up the VG's because they are in range, well one is in range. He burns. We roll and there is still some naplam left!
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| "Now we roast a Luchs!" |
Guess what my, luckily, first activation is? That's right payback MFr! (120 odd points?)
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| Slugfest continues on the left |
And we call it for time. Nathan has wiped out my LVT as well as a veteran Marine squad.
I have merely killed his Pz II. So a narrow victory for Nate and a fun game for both of us!
I'll be playing this again and now I know what I need to buff up and what I need to leave at home.
