Bolt Action Tank War Again

We enjoyed last week's all tank Bolt Action so much we did it again this week.  We used the same tanks, but with 5 players.  Card draws were used to allocate the platoons & to determine each platoon's deployment area.  No objectives or platoon morale checks.

The Germans started in opposite corners, Jim's Panthers in the near corner & Steve's in the far corner.  Mitch's Brits on the left mid-table edge, Mark's US opposite him & Mike's US in the near RH corner.  Jim's Panthers set up on the wooded hill to face the 7 US tanks advancing on them.  Mitch moved to try & delay Steve in the far corner. Both Panther platoons scored an early kill, but one of Jim's Panthers is immobilised.

Steve has lost a Panther, but taken out Mitch's Firefly.  Faced a storm of shells Jim has lost two Panthers for no gain & has withdrawn his surviving heavily pinned tank.  Mark is diverting tanks to face Steve.  

Jim's last Panther has been pincered by Shermans going round both sides of the wood before it could be rallied.  Steve's last 2 Panthers have finished off the Brits & are set up hull down or in woods sniping at the advancing US.  

Mark's M10 has popped the Panther on the ridge but not before two more Sherman have been taken out. 

The last Panther put up an heroic fight, but was immobilised & unable to retreat & finished off by Shermans firing at its side at point blank range.

It was a very enjoyable game.  It looked one sided at one stage, but Steve's last two well sited Pussies were only a couple of good dice away from snatching victory in the end. 

Bolt Action Tank War

 With Chris still lighthouse keeping & Mark & Mitch with Lurgis, only three players again tonight.  We decided to have a simple Bolt Action tank battle.
Germans (Steve):  2 Panther platoons of 3.
Brits (Jim): 2 Fireflies & 2 Cromwells.
US (Mike): 3 Shermans & 3 M10s

Random starting deployment: Brits in closest corner, US in RH corner, Germans in far RH corner & centre of other side of table.

On the far flank t3 panthers holed up in the wood.  The M10's traded long range shots while the Shermans advanced.  One M10 got knocked out.
On the near flank the Brits advanced down the LH side of the table.  A Panther came round the edge of the wood & picked off the lead Firefly, but a Cromwell got a non lethal hit & bad morale dice made the Panther retreat.  Another panther advanced to point blank in the woods & missed the Cromwell which shot back effectively.  Then the Firefly took out the Panther on the ridge facing the US.

On the far flank both sides lost tanks as the US advanced to close range, but the US could afford the losses, the Germans couldn't.
On the near flank the Brits swamped the last Panther.
With Brits advancing from one direction & the US another, the Panthers in the wood were doomed.
After taking early losses, the allied ended up decisive winners.

Steve brought along his copy of Warlords new tank battle rules Actung Panzer for show & tell.  The rules go into great detail for individual tanks with data cards, chance cards & lots of counters.  It looked very gamey.  By contrast our game tonight showed how vanilla BA with only tanks makes a really easy to set up, easy to play & entertaining game, where you can concentrate on tactics rather than the rules.  

Warlords are bringing out v3 of BA next September.  We can only hope they just fix the bugs & don't stuff it up like Battlefront did with v3 of FOW.

 

ACW 28mm

 With only 3 players tonight we rejigged last week's battlefield a bit & put out a Union army of 10 infantry, 2 cavalry & 3 rifled guns & a Confederate army of the same size, but in two divisions & with only 1 rifled cannon.  The cards made Steve the Union commander & Mike & Jim the Rebs.

The Union are on the far side, Jim's division on the near flank & Mike's on the Reb right.

On the left, the Rebs have split their infantry & are advancing them on both flanks while their artillery covers the gap between. On the right the Rebs are making a general advance., but their cavalry failed command & was hit in flank by Union cavalry counterattack.

On the far flank half the Reb cavalry was saved by their infantry arriving on the Union cavlary's flank.  In the centre the Rebs have used the ridge & woods to cover their advance into close range of the Union artillery. Union infantry have advanced to cover the guns.   

On the far flank the Rebs have wrapped round the Union flank & are rolling it up. The is a deadly musketry duel.   On the near flank the Rebs have shifted to the right to support the centre.

The Rebs have charged & taken out the gun on the road. On the far side the Union flank is crumbling.

A Reb charge at the angel in the union line has taken out another battery & most of the Union cente has broken causing the Union army moral test to fail & it is a decisive Rebel victory. 

The Rebs learned last week that the Union cannon could be deadly if you let it blast away at long range.  This week they used the terrain to get in close, then pinned down the Union centre while their flanking attack won the day.

 

ACW 28mm

Union:  Mike & Steve, each with 8 inf, 2 cav & 2 rifled art.
CSA: Jim with 10 inf 1 Napoleon & 2 art & Mark with 6 inf, 2 cav & 2 art.  (Rebs with 2 guns rifled)

Each player has a division coming on a different road.  Mike's Union far LH, Steve's Union near RH, Mark's Rebs far RH & Jim's Rebs near LH.

While mostly both sades deployed towards their closest enemy division, the Rebs in the foreground deployed their artillery to their left to enfilade Mike's line.   

Mike pulled his right flank back away from the guns on their flank & charged his cavalry at Jim's left.  On the near flank some hot shooting by the Union rifled artillery blunted the Union advance & helped them to occupy the village.  

On the far flank a Union attack along the ridge was beaten off with loss of a battery.  The Union cavalry attack was beaten off, but the Union rifled artillery forced the near Reb division to fall back behind the ridge on their left.  

On the far flank have significant losses & are pulling back.  In the centre Union doismpunted cavalry are attacking the left flank of the near Reb division.  On the near flank the Union advanced, but are gettign the worst of the firefight.

On the far flank the Union, now outnumbered, have pulled back, but the Rebs are dissuaded from following up by the superior Union artillery.  In the centre the Union attack has been beaten off.  On the right the Union have fallen back into a good defensive line in the village & the woods.  The Rebs have gained the upper hand, but are unable to exploit their advantage & agree to a draw.

Bolt Action

Both sides had 2 platoons totalling about 2,230 points & lots of tanks.
Germans: Armour & mortars Regular, infantry Veteran.  Jim, Mark & SteveJ
Brits: All Regular troops, but 1 more tank & 1 more infantry squad than the Germans .  Mike & Mitch.
Each player had a platoon except SteveJ just had his Tiger.
The three ridges along the table centreline were objectives, counting as held by your side if you have troops on any part of it & the enemy doesn't, otherwise counts as contested.

After deployment turn: The Germans are on the left.  Having three objectives forced both sides to deploy spread out across the front, but the Germans concentrated all but one of their panzers in the centre.

There are three separate battles going on, one on each objective hill.  (There are British infantry off shot on the RHS of pic).

The far flank was pretty much a stalemate.
On the near flank the Germans were outnumbered, but held on to dispute the objective.
In the centre, the tank v. tank fight was indecisive for a long time, fought at close range, but the Brits in cover & the Germans mostly hull down.  But on turn 5 the Germans finally got the range & finished off the 3 British tanks in the centre, leaving them in undisputed control of the centre ridge.
The Germans lost 5 units to 8 Brits so won on casualties as well as objectives.