Friday afternoon Bolt Action at good Games

Jim's Australians v. Chris' Japanese
1,000 pts Domination scenario.
Chris' newJaps get their first run.

The objective are the 4 hills and the village.  The Japs are on the left. The troops have been deployed in a Deployment Turn where the units are deployed, as drawn from the bag, in their deployment zone 12" back from the centreline but not moved or fired.

Both sides made their main thrust down their left flank but also both had strong centres.   The Oz's called an artillery barrage down on the Japanese left centre.  The barrage dice was a 1 so a miscalculation (this clearly wasn't the front where my Dad was a FOO).  One of the house rules we have adopted is to randomise the miscalculation rather than allow the enemy to move the aiming point up to 24" in any direction (making friendly fire happen an absurd 25% of the time).  In this case the offset was 2x2D6" = 2x11 = 22" and the direction indicated by an arrow dice landed it right on the Oz unit in the central rubber patch.  So the rule didn't save the Oz from friendly fire, but it also didn't seem unfair.  Definitely a better way to it.   

The Japanese attack on the far flank was stopped dead by ambushes as it charged out of the patch of jungle.  The light tanks exchanged ineffective fire in the centre until the Japs decided they had to use their tank to support their right.  The gamble didn't pay off.  The tank severely mauled the infantry on the far side of the house & the Honey missed again, but it copped a PIAT round up its exhaust pipe.  That's 2 weeks in a row my PIAT man popped a tank).

With the Jap tank out of the way the Honey helped clean up the Jap centre & the main Oz attack on the near flank swept forward to take the hill objective as well as the village.  With the Japs reduced to 3 men the mercy rule was pulled at the end of turn 6.

The other house rule that got a run was Defensive Fire always being allowed.  It changed nothing as in every case the attackers had done the right thing and got the defenders so pinned down that their fire was ineffective.  So the house rule doesn't prevent attacking, just makes you do it properly.

The Mahdi saves Khartoum !

Anglo-Egyptians (Jim & James):
4 British inf brigades of 4 units each, British cavalry brigade of 2 units, 1 cannon, 1 Maxim gun.
1 Egyptian infantry brigade of 4 units,  1 Egyptian cavalry brigade of 2 units.

Fuzzy Wuzzies (Mike, Mark & Chris):
4 infantry divs of 4 warbands & 2 skirmishers each.
2 cavalry divs of 6 cavalry units each.

The Anglo-Egyptians march over the plain towards the oasis.  The Egyptians are on their right (left in pic). The Mahdi has a division in the village and the rest are behind the ring of hills each side of the village and down the short table edges.

The action started with a swarm of Arab cavalry charging over the far hill at the Egyptians, supported by an infantry division on their left flank.  The Egyptians turned to face the onslaught while the Brits sorted out into a battle line and plodded forward.

The camera has been moved behind the Egyptian line.  It was the Egyptian first battle.  The figs are plastic British colonial infantry or US cavalry with fezes salvaged from Zulu & Arab boxes.  The usual form here at camp Cromwell is that new figures always run away in their first battle, but the Fezes broke the rule.  To everyone's surprise they beat off the first charge of Mahdi's cavalry.  

The Mahdi's cavalry charged again as more Arabs appeared on the far end of the table.  The British cavalry was sent over from the left to support the Egyptians.

Once again the Egyptians held firm, but Shock! Horror! the Brits on their left have broken & the Mahdi's horse has made a hole in the line.

The British cavalry charge in to plug the hole as the Egyptians hold on.  Some poor command dice are mercifully delaying the Mahdi infantry.
The British brigade on the left of the Egyptians have been destroyed.  Two Mahdi infantry divs have now charged home on the British infantry in the centre. Another is advancing out of the village and the last is still blundering around on the far hill.

The Mahdi's charges have now all been repulsed all along the line.  On the near flank the gallant Egyptian cavalry have finally broken, but the Mahdi's victorious horse is too shaken to exploit this & the Egyptian foot is still pouring fire into them.

The near flank has now stabilised, safely held by the Egyptian foot while everyone's cavalry is either broken or too shaken to do anything.  But on the far side the Mahdi's men still want their virgins and are charging again.

On the far flank the Brits are finding out that a bad Break Test for them makes a hole in the line, while the Mahdi's Broken units are just replaced.

 Quite suddenly the British line collapses & the last two units form a forlorn square.

 The square is swamped form three sides.

Only the Egyptian infantry and the British cavalry in te foreground escape the carnage.

It was a very enjoyable battle as these colonial actions always are with Hail Queen Victoria, our colonial version of Hail Caesar.  I was so pleased to have a newly painted division actually do well for once.  But they do look pretty scruffy in their dirty white tunics - maybe the dice gods didn't realise they were new. 

Men o' War: 4 ships a side

Chris' British fleeet v. Jim's French fleet

The Brits had 1 2nd rate & 3 3rd rates, all elite crews.
The French had 1 1st rate, 1 2nd rate & 2 3rd rates, all regular crews.

The French fleet with its Damage & Command Logs.  The wind indciator   

The two fleets started sailing line ahead, the French close hauled on the starboard tack, the Brits close hauled on the port tack on converging courses.  As they approached broadside range, the Brits (on the far side) turned into line abreast with the wind abeam while the French turned round into a running course.  As a result the French got in the first broadsides.

The first 3 French ships shot past the British bows.  The Brits had chain shot loaded and caused some significant damage to the French rigging, but the French with standard shot got off more shots & did some serious hull damage to the Brits.  Les Misrables bringing up the rear went right through the fleet.  It copped some damage, but gave out plenty with raking shots from both broadsides as it went through.  

When the smoke settled both fleets had a ship critically damaged.  Le Couchon Noir peeled off to leeward on the right & HMS Impossible did likewise in the foreground.

Two of the French ships (now on the far side of the table) had rigging damage preventing them going to windward, but they have wore ship to turn back towards the enemy.  One British ship has also got rigging damage and has wore ship downwind while the other two ships have tacked to turn towards the French with the weather guage.

Despite the rigging damage the French have formed a neat line and caught the Brits spreadeagled.  HMS Catastrope is about to live up to her name as all French ships pound her and she sinks.

A fortuitous wind shift now helped the French to wheel around and pound HMS Repulsive into Critical Damage.  Now with only their flagship fit to fight but their rigging intact, the Brits keep going downwind and concede the battle.

Since the last battle I've gone back to separate damage logs with the ship's bases having their ID prominent on all 4 sides so it's visible in all directions.  It worked well.  A squadron of 3 or 4 ships per player is enough to have a really good game with these rules. 

Bolt Action at Good Games

Jake's Germans v. Jim's Brits
1,000 pts (using boltaction.net mods), Domination scenario.  There  are 5 objective on the table worth 1 VP each.  If tied on objective VPs, enemy units destroyed are counted & if one side scored 2+ more kills than the enemy, they win.

The scenario starts with a Deployment Turn 0 where the units are deployed as Command Dice are drawn in each side's Deployment Zone (within 12" of base line) without firing or moving.  The Brits are on the right.

On the far flank the Hanomag has dodged a fight with the Honey and joined in the heavy firefight in the centre.  Each side has grabbed a house to contest the far objective.  The Stuh 42 is giving fire support to the centre.  The Brits have seized the central objective.  Both sides are hunkered down in ambush each side of the crest disputing the objective on the near hill.

The Stuh 42 has advanced and its tank rider gone ahead to attack the centre.  But the Piat team in the woods popped out the side and did the old 6,5,4 dice trick to blow the Stuh & the German plan with it. 

The Brits behind the central hill popped over to shoot up the tank riders & the honey finished them off firing through the hamlet.  The 25 pdr had already taken out the HMG on the left.  The Germans in the house tried charging the Honey, but failed.  The Germans on the near hill moved up, but were badly hurt by the ambush.  With only 4 shot up units & a Hanomag left the Germasn conceded.

Once again the Armoured Assault rule on our play test list was not used.  Our Defensive Fire was used & looked good.  The Brit were hopping to see the trial Barrage Miscalulation rule happen, but instead their barage was delayed and only arrived after the Germans had moved on.  The proposed rule is that instead of the enemy moving the barrage point on a 1, it is moved 2x2D5 in a random direction).  The RAW has friendly fire happening 25% of the time - yes it happened, but nothing like  that often.

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.

Gorodeczna 1812

This was an unusual Napoleonic battle:  Austrians & Saxons v. Russians on the flank of the French advance past Smolensk.  The French Allies have more troops on the battlefield, but the Russians are the rearguard of the main army and their objective is only to hold out until nightfall to cover it's retreat. Rules: Hail Frederick, our Hail Caesar adaption for the era.

French Allies (Schwarzebberg)
Austrian Corps (Frimont): Mark: 3 Infantry divs of 4 inf & a battery.
Saxon Corps (Reynier): Jim: 2 Infantry divs each of 4 inf & a battery + 1 cav div of 4 light cav.

Russians (Torrmassov)
IX Corps (Kamensky): Chris: 1 inf div of 5 inf, 2 batteries & 1 hussar + 1 cav div of 4 light cav.
X Corps Markov): Mike: 2 inf divs of 5 inf, 2 batteries & 1 hussar.

The 2 French Corps commanders have Comand Rating 8.  All the rest have command rating 7 on the grounds that the Russians were incompetent & the Austrians & Saxons didn't want to be there. 

The Russians could have deployed anywhere in the rectangle bordered by the river & the perdendicular line across the table from the nearest swamp.  They chose to deploy back from the river, Kamenski ofn the far flank. The Saxon infantry are on the road in the foreground, their cavlry is off table over the near edge.  The Austrians are on the two roads leading to the bridges from the LHS of the table.  They chose to put 2 divs on the near road, 1 on the far road.  They all colud start using command dice to enter the table deployed in battle formation on turn 1, 2 or 3 as decided by dice.

The Saxon inf have begun to deploy as their cavalry come on on turn 2. One Austian div has turned up on the far flank.

By turn 4 the Saxons have deployed into lines.  Another Austrian div has come on, but the first one hasn't advanced since coming on..

All the Allies are on the table now, but Tratenberg on the far flank & the Saxon cav have refused to move since coming on.  The steady Saxon attack planned by Reynier has been thrown into some chaos by half one div blundering forward into the mouths of the Russian guns.  The joys of Hail Caesar!

Two Saxon columns have charged the Yegers between the batteries on the corner of the Russian line, broken them & swept on into their supports.  But their cormades on the each flank have not advanced in support.

The Saxon infantry have made a hole in the Russian line at the angle but they still lack supports to exploit it & one of the columns has been broken.  The Austrian advance is depressingly historically correct.  The Saxon cavalry seem to having afternoon tea.

Reynier finally gets some support up to the spearpoint and has taken out the Russian artillery . 

The Austrians are finally putting some pressure on the Russian centre, but Kamensky on the far flank still hasn't even crossed the river.  Russian hussars are covering the withdrawal of Markov's infantry as the Saxon cavalry are still sipping tea.

The orderly Russian withdrawal continues, but the Saxon cavalry has finally advanced - only to he held up by one Russian hussar unit.  Reynier has reorganised his infantry and is following u p the Russian retreat. The Austrians are now pushing the Russian centre back.

 Russian counterattacks with foot & horse have stalled the Austrian advance on the far flank as night aproaches.  Reynier just can't catch up with retreat on the near flank.

It's 10 o'clock real time, so nightfall ends the battle.  The Russians have had 3 infantry, 1 cavalry & 4 batteries broken.  The Saxons & Austrians had 1 inf each broken.  There are a lot of shaken & near shaken units on both sides.  So the result was the same as historical.  The Russians lost more men but held on until nightfall and made an orderly withdrawal.

It was the first time we'd fought a battle with such low command ratings.  Even with a lot of Corps & Army commanders to provide re-rolls it made progress painfully slow.  Kamenski still hasn't crossed the river on the far flank & the Saxon cavalry did bugger all.  But that was exactly the sort of thing that happened in the real battle.  It's frustrating, but realistic.  The battle was great fun regardless.

Muskets & Tomahawks at Barrie's

JohnM has made some house rules to tidy up some of Frenchness in Muskets &Tomahawks & we played two games to try them out - both raid scenarios & 400 pt armies.

Game 1: Barrie's British v. JohnM's French: John attacking

John is advancing away from the camera.   Being busy in the other battle I know only that John managed to burn the village & claim victory.

Game 2: Jim's French v. JohnW's British: JohnW attacking

The British are attacking from the far end.  Their regulars are deployed on the road engaged in a fire fight with the French regulars in front of the village.  British militia are in the woods one ach flanks.  They also have Indians on their right.  The French ahve 2 mCanadian militia in the wood in font of the village & are praying for their Indian allies to turn up on the left.  So far only their chief has showed.

The regulars mauled each other badly and both fell back. The French into the wood while the Brits came forward again through the cornfield.  The British attack down the near flank was held up by the French Indians (who did show up in time to be of use).   The British attack on the far falnk got to the rea rof the village and they began trying to fire the RH house.  But the Indians sent through the wood on the right got a hit on them & a bad morale throw had them recoil out into the open where the Canadian Milita drawn back from the wood into the village blew them away.  The British failed morale due to high losses giving the French a decisive victory.

Bolt Action Doubles at Good Games

We used Camp Cromwell's house rules for Bolt Action Doubles.
JohnM & Chris each had 1000 pts of Russians.
Jim & Jake each had 1000 pts of Germans

Frontal Assault Mission on 8x6' table.

The Germans are defending the RHS of the table.  Jim on their left & Jake on their right.  They have 4 objectives to defend & have deployed up to half their units on their half of the table.  The remainder of their force is in reserve.  To win they must hold all objectives.
The Russians deployed second up to 18" from their table edge.  JohnM on their right, Chris on their left.  To win they must take 2 objectives.

Chris is attacking the objective in the woods on the far side, but also sending a platoon to help John attack the objective in the village.  John is attacking both the objectives on his side.  The German armour has come on in the centre.  

The battle became a bloodbath for the Germans.  Jim's entire force was eliminated while Jake's was reduced to his Panther & one infantry platoon.  At the end of turn 6 the Russians have taken the objective on the hill in the foreground and destroyed all the Germans on the two forward objectives, but they don't have any troops within 3" of them yet (they some within 4" of both).  The dice decreed that there was no turn 7, so by the rules it was  a draw.  But the consensus was that that was a pretty cheesy result & the Russians were entitled to fell victorious & maybe the victory conditions for the scenario should be reconsidered.  Otherwise the doubles system & the scenario worked fine.