Sunday, February 10, 2013

Barrie's Sunday School: Bolt Action

Steve & Barrie's Germans v. Jim & John's Brits

Points Defense Scenario on 6" square table.  The Brits won the toss and had no hesitation in choosing to defend.
The Brits defended 3 objectives from the front left edge of the table- placing 2 infantry sections in the front of the 2 woods, their HMG near the objective in the centre wood and keeping their 3rd infantry section, Cromwell & HQ in reserve.   The Germans advanced 2 infantry sections down the RHS and 1 infantry section and HQ down the centre.

The Brits used their artillery to delay the advance and kept their deployed troops hidden and reserves off table until the enemy got up close.  The 2 infantry sections deployed at the start were over-run by the Germans, but they took enough with them that the reserves were able to hold the objectives and win the battle.

One of Bolt Action's faults is that the scenarios don't specify a table size and don't have any rules to deal with variation in table size but clearly this has a great influence on the balance.  We made the game 8 or 9 turns as the 6' depth clearly made it too hard for the attackers to get to the objectives.  Even so, it seemed a difficult task for the Germans in this case - though maybe the Brits made it look that way by a sound defense.  So clear was the victory that the Cromwell survived a battle intact for the first time.

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