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I paint small metal and plastic figures and rarely get to play with them. But that is fine with me.

11 April 2016

1st Confederate Infantry Regiment (And other stuff)

This weekend I was lucky enough to play three small games of Bolt Action and finish up basing and painting my first 15mm ACW Infantry Regiment.

The Civil War minis are by Blue Moon 95% and other unknown manufacturers 5%. No flag on the banner bearer model as I plan to get some printed once all my regiments are painted and playable.


Finishing these prompted me to paint up another general model. This fellow is waving his saber about in an enthusiastic fashion tho I fear he'll be biting Minie ball sitting so high in his stirrups.


My first three games of Bolt Action were learning games, so small and few special rules to worry about.
The first was played Friday evening versus new gaming pal, Travis. We met at our LGS and he brought all the terrain and both armies for the game. (He played German Grenadiers and I British infantry.) Each force was comprised with a 2nd Lieutenant+Adjutant, 3 infantry squads with LMG's, two lorry transports,  Medium Machinegun, Sniper team, a tank each and Medium Mortar team+Spotter for the Brits and Infantry Support gun for the Germans. The lists were played were of Regular quality and the mission we played was Demolition - where we each had to try to reach an objective in our opponent's deployment zone before turn 6. (I think)

Per usual, here are some pics to indicate how the game went.

Here's the set up showing terrain, etc. My objective was placed in the trees to the right with an infantry squad ahead of them, my Medium Machine Gun (Vickers) in the beige crop field and 3" Mortar team in the bottom left corner with their spotter in the center next to my Sniper team. Travis plonked his Infantry Gun (Artillery) in the rear most beige crop field with an Grenadiers squad ahead of them, ready to enter the nearest house, his Sniper team all the way in the back corner hiding in the the trees with a great view of most of the board and his own Medium Machinegun team (MG42) in the trees in the center-rear of his deployment zone next to the objective marker also hidden in the same trees.


Bloody German Sniper takes out one of my poor infantry before they can even react.  I rally don't think that snipers are as effective as they should be in Bolt Action. Their effect on infantry was as suppressible as a machinegun support weapon, yet they only create one pin marker when they hit and kill. Maybe a house-rule is in order here?
My mortar spotter on the left (Yes, with Piat pack...) just misses on relaying the Infantry Gun's coordinates.




German Hetzer Tank-Hunter rolls forward after a glancing hit from my Sherman causes a pin. The Sherman is not made for this kind of fight though....
In turn 3 or 4 the mortar finally hits it's mark!

On the right flank, we both get reserves who drive in on trucks and dismount! Thus ensues a fierce firefight where I took the early upper hand then then.... 
Got swiftly whittled down by Assault Rifle and Hitler's Buzzsaw (Squad MG42) fire. My poor Brit rifles and crappy Bren Gun can stand up to that kind of firepower. :( Here's my Lt and Adjutant wondering why they turned up to this Machinegun fight armed only with rifles?
Hetzer kills Sherman....
And is then assaulted by my infantry squad from a building out of shot....
Who are in turn shot at being out in the open and then sucker-punch-assaulted by Grenadiers from the house in the picture. 
Knowing that the game was really almost over for me, my last ditch attempt was to try to outflank a truck out of reserve with my last infantry squad in the bed to rush Travis' objective. I was hoping wieght of numbers would win out versus that pesky MG42. Boy, was I wrong...

The morning after this game, my good mate Densmol come over so I could show him what I’d learnt the night before. I convinced him to get into Flames of War and now I’ve convinced him to join me in my Bolt Action endeavours. He of course, has chosen to play Germans again….

We played two small games on a 3’x4’ set up in my garage with two mostly equal forces of two squads each plus a 2nd Lieutenant+Adjutant, he took a Medium Mortar and I a Medium Machinegun. (I was now playing Soviets, so with their National rule, I also got to play with a 3rd squad, though it was Inexperienced in quality level). Both our forces were rated Regulars otherwise.



Sadly pictures for this game were not so exciting as I was proxying most of my Soviet force and Densmol’s own Germans were primed black, so only the one picture to just show you the table setup.

Both games were hotly contested and resulted in me winning the first and he the second. I think both were just played as plain old Maximum Attrition mission which is pure versus with no objectives involved or special rules.

Densmol liked the game so much he went and purchased off Ebay some large Fallschirmjager (German Paratroopers) army so now we’re both fully invested. This means, expect some Bolt Action reports posted up in the future – well, once we paint up enough stuff to be able to play a game worth looking at!



15 comments:

  1. Just wrote a really long interesting comment then accidentally logged out. Bugger. Will try again later when it's not almost 2am. Brilliant work, btw!

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    1. Silly sod. :)
      Looking forward to the redux.

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    2. Well now.

      Firstly, nice work on the ACW troops - lovely!

      Secondly, I'd hesitate to call that first game you noted either 'small' or 'learning' - it seemed far more like a brutal baptism of fire!

      Thirdly, don't tell me that your opponent benefitted from his 'buzzsaw' but you didn't get your free artillery spotter?!

      Fourthly, the rules are simple, but revel in their simplicity: it's a quick game for its type once you get used to it, and the dice-drawing mechanic really forces you to stay alert!

      Fifthly, re. snipers, just watch how brutal they can be against the right targets: one reasonably easy shot followed by a reasonably easy wound roll can one-shot an MMG team, a mortar team and it's gone!

      They're also great threats to 2-man teams, spotters and officers (albeit with the -1 'small team' penalty) and - like with MMGs and mortars - they'll instantly wipe out the whole team on a single wound. They're good for dominating an area of the battlefield and for forcing your opponent's hand and let us not forget...

      ...there are few things so cinematic as a sniper duel.

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    3. [NB: Of course, they might just keep missing...]

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    4. Well:

      1. Thankyou sir.

      2. 750 points. But yes, a baptism of fire of sorts. I think Travis felt I was up to the task though.

      3. O, my Arti spotter was present and did next to nothing... Merely added a single pin to the Hetzer - anything else I was hoping to hit merely ran out of the target area prior to my artillery bombardment coming in.

      4. I like the dice mechanic. I activated 6 units in a row before he even got to get one going. Quite fun!

      5. Well, more gameplay is needed to test these and I do like snipers in general, so we'll see. I'll be certain to blog on my experiences.

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    5. If you need to play a tactical game, have you seen the radius of the smoke bombardment which the spotter gets to call in? It's HUGE!

      Also, you k ow you can move the arty aiming point up to 12" if it's delayed, right?

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    6. Was not aware of the smoke option... I'll read up on that this evening.

      Not know exactly how it happened, but the bombardment came on the turn after I rolled to call it up. I rolled a one for radius tho, so 7" only, which also didn't help.

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  2. Very nice work on the civil war minis, and the game looks like it was a hoot! Those explosion markers really make it cinematic!

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    1. Thanks lots mate. I know, I really want to make some myself now.

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  3. Lovely looking Confederates and a cracking game to boot.

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    1. Cheers Michael. Hope to post up a game involving the Reb's soon!

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  4. Very nice work - particularly those ACW chaps. The comment about the mounted general reminds me of Col. Marshal, CO of the 4th Texas at Gaines' Mill. The officers of the regiment were ordered to dismount for the attack. Marshal was the only one who refused. When they received their first volley, it passed over everyone's heads... except Marshal who was shot five times in the chest.

    Interesting reading the BO report. Snipers seem to be a bit under powered in many games. We had some House Rules for 40K, making snipers a bit more short-ranged but more killy. You could then also shoot in 'long-ranged mode' which was less killy. Made them a bit more versatile.

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    1. Thanks Ed. More to come. And more after that.... ugh. :P

      5 times - silly bugger he was then. A lot of pomposity ended that way.

      I like your house rule. I'd also like to see their mental effect on a squad/platoon be more realistic too. I'll have to think on it.

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