Last night we (Clay, Monk, Dan and I (Will)) played our second game using the Bolt Action WW2 rules from Warlord games -
http://www.warlordgames.com/home/bolt-action/
The rules are relatively simple to grasp with standard 'to hit' values, moral/order tests and movement distances that are all effected by different modifiers, each side has an order dice for each of it's units that a selected from a bag. Once your draw a dice out that is your colour, you simply activate your unit and play their order out to completion, then draw another dice out and so on and so forth until all of the units have been activated ... while I have played rules in the past where modifiers have made each turn laborious and slowed the game down we have found that, as long as you keep your summary page open, you can gallop through a game in a few hours.
Yes, that is all incredibly dull ... to the action!!
A small 500 point skirmish was the order of the day and rolling on the scenario generator it would appear that both sides have caught wind of the opposition lurking just beyond the farmhouse and decided to go and give them a damned good thrashing.
Our game was Americans (Dan and Will) versus ze Germans (Clay and Monk), using the mid-war army list (D-day ish), the rule set offers a number of different periods to chose your troops from, broken down further in the supplements for each army released separately.
I'm not going to bore you all with the actual army lists, but basically both sides had an officer, two squads of infantry (the German squads a little larger and tooled up with assault rifles), a forward air observer each and a half track each. The Americans had an additional medium mortar team and Bazooka team.
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| A large Wermacht squad advances toward the American right flank, the mortar team begins to feel a little exposed... |
Both sides put their plans into action during the first turn, the Germans racing their bulging halftrack (Clay) down their left flank and pushing infantry and the Lieutenant (Monk) down their right ... the right flank being matched by the an American squad, forward air observer and medium mortar (Will) and the American halftrack moving onto the German left flank unloading a small squad and the Lieutenant, who raced into the farmhouse and the Bazooka team. That set themselves up to take a pot shot at the Hanomag (German halftrack) lurking behind a wall, hoping to end the war by Christmas... the war was to continue to 1945 with the bazooka round sailing off into France somewhere.
Turn two - German dice the first two to be drawn out of the bag.
With an assault on the house looking rather dice-y (thank you very much, I am here all week!) Clay unloaded his infantry team and opened fire on the G.I's in the house (rolling a healthy 15 dice) ... needing 6's all round to both hit and then to kill any Americans the fire was largely ineffective, the Americans picking up a pin .. Dan fired back with his officer, NCO and BAR getting a slightly less healthy 6 dice but needing 3's to hit and 4's to kill he fancied it, scoring hits but no kills the German infantry team picked up 2 pins.
As soon as a unit picks up a pin they need to roll to follow orders, the more pins the less likely they are to carry the order out..
Remaining fire on this flank was relatively ineffective, and the German right flank consisted of manoeuvring with the Germans sprinting toward the American held copse, the Americans moving to the edge of the trees and digging in (the Germans 15 fire dice, putting the fear into Will ... there would be no John Wayne heroics just yet...)
Turn three - German dice the first two out of the bag (again!!)
This was it for Clay and his grand flanking manoeuvre, the infantry on the right flank were assaulting the house, the half track was going to drop the forward air observer off and then speed off and gun down the bazooka team ... that was the plan ... it was all riding on the order roll, 7 or less on two dice, a double 6 was rolled ... it's 'FUBAR' the infantry panic and retreat away from the action! The halftrack fairs a little better with a successful drop off and managing to kill one of the bazooka team. Dan's response was instant, passing the order test for his bazooka and sending a round careering toward the Hanomag ... only to see it spiral off into the blue .. suppressing fire from the infantry in the house pinning the forward air observation team and the American halftrack opening up on the Hanomag, adding pins, was making Clay's task more and more difficult.
The right flank consisted of the usual manoeuvring, the American infantry staying dug in and the Germans positioning themselves for the big push taking one casualty as they broke cover to cover. The German officer moved off to support Clay's infantry and the American mortar spotter moved to support Dan's flank.
Turn four - German dice first out of the bag (there would have been satisfaction declared if I wasn't the one with the bag)
Clay positions his halftrack as a ten ton roadblock and attempts to finish off the bazooka team .. which he does with relative ease (the bazooka couldn't aim for toffee anyway) .. but the Germans were now leading by 2-0 (2 points for every unit destroyed). Dan once again responding in typical swashbuckling style and gunning down the hapless forward air observer and his assistant, the Americans now occupied both floors of the building and brought everything they had to bear on the two chaps in the open, the half track moved to within point blank range of the Hanomag and opened up with the .50 Cal adding pin markers but not damaging the machine. Clays remaining troops were rallied and went about moving to support Monk's flank .. it would get a little desperate if the advance continued. My (Will's) Americans remained dug in on the edge of the wood (I'm so boring..) and the mortar team took a pot shot at the Hanomag needing a 6 ... and hit!! Yet more pin markers on the hapless vehicle, if we could get it to 9 pins it would be routed (destroyed) and give us two points. In a bold and surprising move Monk swept his infantry up the middle leading towards the farmhouse ... leading to a do or die moment in ...
Turn five - German dice again!!!
A mixture of exhaustion and first game bravery Monk moved his infantry into the open and let fly with three panzerfaust at the American half track needing a 6 followed by a 4 to hit, it was a long shot, in anyone's world, but the new officer wanted to make his mark!! Three dice were rolled ... a 3 a 4 and a 6 ... it was now 50/50 as to whether he was going to hit the vehicle ... the 6 was re-rolled ... a 2 (disappointed groans all round) ...
Dan didn't waste the opportunity, bringing everything in the house to bear the squad lost 5 men in a hail of bullets and the balance ran away ..
With the potential of the game ending in a turn or so, Clay and Monk conceded the field and the battle of La Maison Blanc was over....
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