I met Wayne on Sunday afternoon for an intro game of Bolt Action with my recently completed Canadian infantry. He used a Fallschirmjager platoon, better quality troops for sure, but not as many of them.
We very simply used the terrain as printed on the game mat he had set up. We played in "late summer" so the fields were dense and provided cover. We each placed an objective for the other guy to capture. Wayne of course buried his deep in a field on his side of the table. I placed the German objective on the crossroad since it was an obvious location of interest and value.
Most of my force was deployed in the woods in the center with one squad and the Bren carrier off to the right flank.
The first shooting of the game... my mortar team's spotter calls one in on the Puma right next to an FJ squad.
Miraculously, it's on target. Even more miraculously, the Puma catches fire and the crew bail out and run! The Puma was out on shot #1 and all of a sudden this was an entirely different situation. The Fallschirmjager squad also took a hit and received some pin markers. Wow.
I worked the Bren carrier and rightmost squad forward. The mortar kept a steady stream of bombs falling on the German infantry while the UC's machineguns kept constant fire at the hard-pressed paratroopers.
Over on the left, Wayne left me an opportunity to move out of the woods which I did. Again, some miraculous dice and miserable German rolls saw that FJ squad run for it! The halftrack was to be another story. I had a PIAT nearby and was trying to get that set up for an easy kill.
The infantry on the right assault Wayne's command section, easily winning that combat.
But back on the left I messed up and announced an Advance order when I should have said Run. That poor squad was shot to bits by the FJs which had rallied and the 251's machinegun. My lousy PIAT was still struggling to get a rocket on target.
But on the right, things were still rosy - my infantry section wiped out the remaining Fallschirmjagers in a brutal assault, capturing the objective in the process.
While those assaults were going on, I relocated the spotter to a new vantage point. The mortar's incredible steak of murder and despair continued, smashing rounds down on the German infantry on the left and even briefly rattling the halftrack which suffered no permanent damage.
But it wasn't enough and the last of Left Section was cut down.
We called the game there. A solid Canadian victory, 5-1. The mortar's ruthless hot streak made 100% of the difference. Killing the pricey armored car right out of the gates was huge. All of a sudden, my Bren Carrier was the nastiest thing on the table with two LMGs, whereas I'd started the game assuming it would be running for its life for as long as it lasted! My dice were well-behaved when necessary, whereas Wayne's betrayed him at a few key moments. I also had a 2:1 order dice advantage for much of the game which allowed me to what I wanted, whenever I wanted.
It's tough to learn lessons from a very successful game, but I made a couple mistakes that I'll not make again. For starters, I placed an immobile MMG in a position in which it couldn't fire at any enemy all game. Also also mishandled the section on the left and was punished for that error. All in all though, Wayne was a gracious host and opponent and I'm sure he'll run me ragged next time we face off!
Be well and good gaming!
