Monday, July 24, 2017

More Bolt Action at the Cafe

After Friday's battle where a rules error is probably all that saved me from defeat against a Soviet horde, & having Chris's troops on hand, I thought I should try commanding one myself.

Jim's Soviets v. Steve's Panzers
This was a 5 objective battle so it all revolved around the central objective at T junction.  The Germans sent their panzer grenadiers to take it while supporting them with long range tank fire.  The Inexperienced Soviet armour needs luck to hit, but some early luck gave them a numerical advantage that German quality couldn't overcome.

Jim's Soviets v. Frankie's Germans
The ISU122 taking out the Panther in a lucky shot on turn 1 gave the Soviets an advantage that soon escalated to a such destruction of the whole German force that we decided to have another game.

Jim's Soviets v. Frankie's Germans #2
Yet again some hot shooting got the Soviets on top early, but there were only 3 objectives this time & the Germans had a Panther on one of them (behind the house on the right) & a Puma on the other (on the bridge).  
The Soviet infantry drove the Puma off the bridge & a T34 finished it off.  The Soviets then sat on 2 of 3 objectives but Frankie saw that he still had chance of victory by charging up the road with his Panther.    The Soviets had set up T34 ambushes to meet this threat, but one T34 fell back after being hit by panzerfausts (the grenadiers then fell back to their Hanomag) & the Panther ran the gauntlet, survived the ambush, killed a T34 & took the objective on turn 7.   But the dice decreed there would be a turn 8 & the Soviets got first command dice & with it the valiant Panther was set on fire & abandoned, so the Soviets scrambled to a lucky win.

The Soviet's won all 3 games today, but it has to be admitted that they had plenty of luck on their side.  A lucky shot or two early in the game can make a big difference in tank war against a smaller better quality force & the Soviets got that every time.  But the last game showed that in BA it's never over until it's over. 

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