Bolt Action: Testing some house rules

I think Bolt Action is basically a good set of rules, but there are a number of things that are just silly.  The house rules by boltaction.net fix some of them & these are used at Cancon so we have been using them for a while & have no problems with them.  But they missed a few item which we are addressing.  Two of them came into play in today's game:

Defensive Fire:  The defender always gets DF at PB range if assaulted frontally.  With RAW the attacker has the advantage in most combats - which is just silly in WWII.   In this battle our rule didn't stop any assaults, but no one made any assaults against units without a few pins on them - which is how it should be done.

Armoured Assault:  Veteran mechanised infantry like panzergrenadiers & US armoured infantry can assault from  their HT provided it did not move this turn. It's odd that anyone can charge out of a house, but veteran armoured infantry can't attack out of their HTs.  In this battle both Hanomags got destroyed before their passengers could assault & the rule didn't come into play, but that shows that the fix isn't over the top - just another tactical option to use in the right circs.

Jim's Panzergrandiers v. Chris's Soviets
1000 pts each.   We played half of our Doubles Breakout Scenario - so lengthwise on a 6x4 table.  The scenario has a deployment turn 0 where players deploy in their deployment zone (up to 24" in) without any movement or shooting as the command dice are drawn.  Then each gets 1VP per enemy unit destroyed, 1 VP for getting any part of a unit into the enemy's deployment zone & 2 VPs for exiting a unit off the far side of the table.   

After deployment & ready for turn 1. The Germans are on the near side.

The panzergrens attacked on the left.  The T34 popped one of them, the mortar got lucky & popped the other.  All the PG's bailed out with not too bad losses.  The Soviet vets loaded up with smgs charged out of the wood and destroyed one of the PG units, but they got a 1 for their regroup move & didn't back into the woods before the surviving PGs + HQ destroyed them in turn with their assault rifles.

The Russian push down the near flank has been destroyed by the German MMG in the house & the LMG squad behind it.  A great deal of MAD ocurred in the centre.  The Russians got 5 VPs for destroying units.  The Germans got 7 for destruction & 2 for getting the PGs & HQ over the touchline on the left, so 9 total and a decisive win.