Another Bolt Action Outing

This week I had Steve, my regular Bolt Action opponent, around to my game room for another session of WWII action.

This time I fielded my 1,000-point Brazilian list in a (very) late-war scenario. The time: April 1945. The place: northern Italy. As German resistance collapses, the Allies surge forward to try and bag the withdrawing Axis forces.

In order to simulate the situation on the ground, we played the "Envelopment" scenario with my Brazilians as attackers. We decided to try another play variant introduced in the Ostfront supplement: Steve took half the points value, but I only had half the normal number of turns to secure victory. Steve took a much-reduced platoon of Luftwaffe Field Division troopers, heavy on the anti-tank weaponry, as he knew I was going to run a vehicle-heavy list.

Indeed, my list has gotten even more vehicle-centric after a bit of play-testing revealed some weaknesses in my original design. Gone are the MMG and mortar teams, along with the (technically illegal) partisan team. Now, everything is vehicle-mounted, which I figured would help me with my race to get off the far side of the table.

(If you're unfamiliar with the Envelopment scenario, the attacker gets 1 VP for each enemy team destroyed, 2 VP for finishing the game in the enemy's deployment zone, and 3 VP for exiting a team or vehicle off the enemy's table edge. The defender gets 2 VP for each enemy team destroyed.)

Steve was considerably worried about his prospects as he saw me pour all my activation dice into the cup, but it turned out that only having half the normal number of turns proved the perfect counter-balance. I ended up winning the game, but only because I was lucky enough to roll for a bonus turn at the end of Turn 3. Had the game ended then instead, I think I would have been lucky to squeak a draw.

And despite my victory, the LFD did manage to deal me a pretty bloody nose, taking out my Greyhound armored car (with a really lucky long-distance panzerschreck shot!) and forcing the crew of my M10 to bail out and run for it.

I wanted there to be plenty of blocking terrain as well so it wouldn't be a total cake-walk.

Because of the river, I was obliged to send most of my forces up the road on my right.

The first wave rolls onto the board.

That infantry gun blocking the road proved a tough nut to crack and really slowed me down!

The Panzerschreck team takes their shot at the Greyhound. They needed a "6" to hit...

Kaboom!

One of my two "close combat" squads debark and engage a German squad on the hill.

After a sharp exchange of fire, the hill is cleared and taken.

The M10 fords the river and attempts to flush out the 'Schreck and a sniper team, with no success.

On the final turn, my units pour towards the opposing table edge, their way clear. The final Victory Point tally was something like 16-6, but the game was much loser than that indicates.