Tonight we try out: bolt action in 10 mm!!

[Steve J]

Thanks! to be honest, not being spotted before it's too late is actually pretty realistic, so i have no problem with mising something like that!

Very true, but I'm more worried about forgetting where my own troops are

[fred.]

The towel sounds a good way of getting small undulations.

I do find it takes a game or two to understand what is appropriate terrain wise for different rules.

[petercooman]

Very true, but I'm more worried about forgetting where my own troops are

You could always mark them with tokens or little flags...

The towel sounds a good way of getting small undulations.

I do find it takes a game or two to understand what is appropriate terrain wise for different rules.

i think i underestimated the firepower in the game, the cover i had makes the firing model hit on a -1, but when a squad fires 6 lmg+4  Smg + 6 rifle shots, some are bound to hit even at 6+ . i also forgot about the extra -1 for firing at small teams a few times, the piat team would have survived otherwise.

[petercooman]

So i couldn't resist giving it another go while the table was still set up. I didn't want to reset so i didn't put any raised areas under the throw, but instead i treated the road as a raised road.  You can only see the other side of the board when touching the road, and it counts as +2 cover.I also used a 3"  'dead ground' on the other side of the roadto account for the ditch that would be present. Worked pretty well, and the smaller forces could make more use of the cover available.

a few turns into the game.




The british dug in and waited patiently, forcing the german left flank to constantly redeploy by issuing fire orders from the FAO. When an artillery strike went of target and straight into the redeployed germans, half of them were killed. A recce jeep armed with MMG seized the moment, and crossed into their half of the table while they were still pinned, and mowed the survivors  down!


The hull down 250/9 was proving a nuisance, so the 6 pdr redeployed to take care of it.


But it was a lucky shot of a piat that took it out of the game.


After that the vickers section took out the german mg 42, and their force broke. This was all that was left (+ a panicked 250/1 on the other side of the table)

The british didn't lose a single unit on their right flank!

[bigjackmac]

Love it Peter, thanks for posting!  Though I'd like to lobby for some more trees

I've always been a fan of Bolt Action's activation system.  Simple and effective in terms of forcing decisions while throwing in some friction and drama.

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

Love it Peter, thanks for posting!  Though I'd like to lobby for some more trees

I've always been a fan of Bolt Action's activation system.  Simple and effective in terms of forcing decisions while throwing in some friction and drama.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks!

Well i have a lot of trees, but we are redecorating part of the house, and the boxes with trees are somewhere in a pile of boxes. so no trees at the moment. Only thing i can get my hands on quickly are +- 60 snow covered trees, so i don't bother about that 

[Luddite]

Stirring stuff!

BA is a fun skirmish game for sure (I can only speak about 1st Ed. as i've not played 2nd ed.). 

I'll echo a couple of points you raised:

1. Flamethrowers

Yeah.  Love 'em if you got 'em, hate if you face 'em. 

They are incredibly brutal, even able to take out enemy tanks with relative ease.  Their only downside is vulnerability to enemy fire and short range.  this is why my Russians hide their ROKS2 teams within assault units...

Vehicle flamethrowers are just pure dirty...

2. Small team penalty

That -1 to hit is vital to remember as it keeps your special teams alive.  It also means your opponent, as you found, can miss spotting a couple of models hidden away in a building or behind a tree...

3. Unit speed

Trucks are essential to get your troops forwards.  Mechanised infantry rule BA battles in my view, and as long as you are able to keep the trucks away from enemy fire long enough (and you get the dice pulls in the right order to get the transported units out inb time) rapid advances to close range can be game winning.  Roads make it even better (tip, never have a straight road run for more that about 18" - and for one of the scenarios, a stright road from base edge to base edge makes a win guaranteed for trucks/vehicle heavy forces).



In my basic "Russian Assault platoon" build i usually run three AT rifle teams (2 men each).  The opponent almost always misses at least one of them hidden away on a flank.

I also have two truck-riding, full SMG teams with flamethrowers that can take objectives on turn one and hold them from counter assault.

http://luddite1811.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/bolt-action-russians.html

[bigjackmac]

No sweat, Peter, a great looking game, I'm just joking around!

And I'm jealous: I need to get me some snow-covered hills!

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

No sweat, Peter, a great looking game, I'm just joking around!

And I'm jealous: I need to get me some snow-covered hills!

V/R,
Jack

I use a white throw, only ever need one set of hills 

The trees look ok too: with a 1/72 flak truck

[bigjackmac]

I definitely need to get some.

Or make some.  I've got some plastic green pine trees, been thinking of trying to just dust them a bit with white spraypaint.

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

If you want to buy some, now is the time!

I got those from the christmass decorations of a poundland-type shop for 79 cents per pack of 2! Each pack contaned one big and one small tree see looks varied enough for me.

[bigjackmac]

Hmmm...  I hadn't even thought of that.  I'm sure they've got smaller ones; I'm looking for stuff that will fit with 10mm and 15mm.

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

I've jused these with 10mm and they look OK. ever seen how high they can get in real life?

[Wulf]

I've jused these with 10mm and they look OK. ever seen how high they can get in real life?

Yeah, I bought some cheap railway layout trees and then figured the tree in my garden is bigger... and I planted that!

But if you want to be able to move the little men around there has to be some... adjustment...