Bolt Action Tournament Practice

Around mounting fears of the Corona Virus I was able to find some distraction by driving the almost 2 hours down to Bragg for a day of Bolt Action with my friend Matthew. A fellow Kentuckian, Matthew is helping me prepare for my first tournament game in April. Its hard for me to think about the strategy of the 'game' with in the rules and not the strategy of a real commander fighting out a battle. The former is necessary in tournament play if you want to win. Matthew provided the venue, terrain, and armies for today's games since I did the traveling. 

For our first game he put a list together for me to try. I asked for Paratroopers and this is what he gave me:

First Platoon

> 2nd Lieutenant, Veteran w/SMG + 1 infantry w/Rifle

> 3 x Veteran Paratrooper squads:1 NCO w/SMG, 5 infantry w/rifles, 1 infantry w/SMG, 1 infantry w/BAR. All have the Stubborn rule.

> 1 Regular Medium Mortar team w/spotter.

> 1 Veteran Sniper team, assistant w/SMG.

> 1 Regular M3 Stuart light tank, w/ pintalle-mounted MMG & Recce Vehicle rule.

Second Platoon

> 2nd Lieutenant, Veteran w/SMG + 1 infantry w/Rifle

> 2 x Veteran Paratrooper squads:1 NCO w/SMG, 5 infantry w/rifles, 1 infantry w/SMG, 1 infantry w/BAR. All have the Stubborn rule.

>1 Regular M4A1 Sherman 75mm medium tank.

We played for objectives the first game and neither of us held any units in reserve. First turn all units move onto the table.

Table Setup

There are 5 objectives. 1 in the ruined house top right, 1 in trees bottom right. 1 in center of the cross roads. 1 down each side of the road running length wise.

Turn 1 the Paras make a general advance onto the table.

Mortar team advanced into the woods, both securing the first objective and setting up a good firing point from within cover.

Right flank advance

 Left flank advance

Center/Left advance

My right flank. The guy at the end of the hedge row is the spotter for the mortar team. This spot allowed him to watch both the center and right hand objectives.

German advance on my left. Panzer IV was a big concern as my on AT was the Sherman and little Stuart.

German advance on my right.

Sneaky Stuart managed to get an ambush shot on the Panzer IV as it emerged from between the hedges. While the shot didn't do any real damage it did stun the crew, preventing them from unleashing death on my Paras.

I advanced my Sherman up to cover the center objective but Matthew got me with some Pioneer cheese. Brave Pioneers rushed the Sherman with a flamethrower. The crew managed to hang on and resist the urge to flee.  

I pushed a unit up the right to try and secure the objective before the German Armored car could get them. My other unit bounded down the road poring fire into the Pioneers.

 My Paras on the left just advanced up to cover behind the ruins. 

I pushed another unit up to pore fire into the Pioneers but they had dug in behind the sandbags. 

the German armored car opened up but only managed to kill one of my Paras in the open.

On the left I got my sniper team into the the 2nd story of the ruined building. One unit of Paras took cover behind the ruined half-track allowing them to secure the objective.  The second unit of Paras occupied the other ruins to provide covering fire. The Panzer IV was advancing dangerously close.

The Panzer IV failed and activation causing it to fall back and block the German flack gun coming up behind. Like wise my unit of Paras in the ruins failed to advance and secure the objective. The objective had opened up because I had moved off the unit of Paras to support the assault on the center objective..

The Germans on my right where not going to let me take an objective un-apposed.

Fighting in the center was getting bloody. The Pioneers managed to take out the Sherman and nearly whip out another unit of Paras. However the mounting fire had nearly gotten all of them.

Right at the end my Stuart managed to finished off the Panzer IV once and for all, allowing me to secure the objective. This gave me 2 secured.

Unfortunately I had been unable to fully secure the central objective and it remained contested at the end. This left the game 2 to 2 for a draw.

The Stubborn rule and being Veterans is the real strength of this list. The Paras might not through as much dice as other units but they are really hard to run off. All of my units lost had to be killed to a man, with non routing off the table.  Game 2 will follow tomorrow.