First game of Bolt Action – Battle Report & First Impressions

Last night’s club night saw our first game of Bolt Action, courtesy of Garry from Black Dragon Miniatures in Hinckley. Garry put on a whopping 2000 point demonstration for six of us (well, five, in actuality as I was content to watch and take notes), with lots of beautifully painted toys for both sides (Late war Germans vs US, in this case) to play with.

The set-up for last night’s game. The first turn saw a lot of movement as both sides moved their forces onto the field.

At the start of the game the table was empty – each force would have to activate and bring on their units one by one until everything was in play. One of the things I was most interested in seeing was Bolt Action’s activation system, with the dice drawn at random. It seems simple enough, and adds an interesting dynamic to the game instead of the usual ‘I go, you go’ or alternating turn sequences that I’m used to in other games. It actually works out to be a clever mechanism, and encourages players to be a little canny with their activation and deployment. For those of us used to what I’d call reactionary turn sequences, where the opposing has already moved, and possibly fired, with all of their units, it can be a bit of a challenge – yes, the other player has just placed their tank on your lawn, but it can’t do anything until the next turn, so it’s not as much of a worry as the tank destroyer (or whatever else) that’s still waiting to come into action. It sounds great, in theory, that it’s entirely possible (if unlikely) that you’ll get all of your dice out of the bag before your opponent – but that’s by no means a good thing. In the first turn of the battle we played last night, the American side kept drawing dice, meaning that they had to bring on nearly all of their infantry – any more dice for them would have meant risking their tanks and potentially putting them into danger from the German tanks and artillery that were still be deployed. Anyway, I wrote some brief notes about the action, so here’s a quick and dirty battle report.

---

Turn 1

The early stages of turn one saw relatively little action as both sides were using their order dice to bring on their troops. Things started to heat up when the German motorcycle and sidecar revved into action, roaring onto the field and opening fire on an unsuspecting US mortar team on the opposite table edge, killing one of the crew. The US got their own back when an MG armed Jeep flew towards the German right, killing two Fallschirmjager. An American M8 Greyhound then got in on the action, completely missing the Fallshcirmjager with its machine guns, and also missing the nearby Hanomag with the anti-tank gun. The Germans, surely, wouldn’t play nicely for much longer… In the middle of the field, a Hetzer lumbered forward, but short on targets, had to make do with a Jeep and the M8 as prey, but missed the jeep with it’s MG and the M8 with its mighty anti-tank gun (using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but nuts are small targets!).

The Hetzer lumbers forward.

The American commanders, concerned by the Hetzer’s domineering position in the centre of the battlefield, responded in kind by ordering their M18 Hellcat forward to take on the beast. Bringing their gun to bear on the target, they tore the Hetzer apart, ensuring that it couldn’t be brought to bear against any more American armour. On the German right, a Sherman appeared to lend support to the GIs and the Greyhound, pinning the Fallschirmjager further. A German Puma soon moved up to support the German left, killing one of the US paratroops, but missing the M3 with its anti-tank gun. On the German left, the Americans moved up their own paratroops, supported by an aging M3 tank, which showered the Germans (another Fallschirmjager squad and a Luftwaffe field unit) opposite with shells and bullets, killing two. In the centre, a Panzer IV (closely followed by a Pak 40 anti-tank gun) emerged from the smoke billowing from the hulk of the Hetzer (ok, we took it off after it was destroyed, but I’m trying to build a narrative here!), pouring fire into an American anti-tank gun, and avenging the Hetzer by knocking the Hellcat out of action.

Turn 2

This was where we began to see, and understand just how important pinning is to the game – all of those pinning markers suffered in the first round of action would hamper both sides now the battle proper had started. The German Puma began to bear down on the US paratroopers, but missed with all of its weapons, before it was taken apart by a shot from the M3, which also killed another German soldier. The US paratroopers, taking suppressive fire from another Hanomag, failed to rally and thus hit the dirt.

The German Puma didn’t last long.

In the centre, the crews of the American anti-tank gun and mortar had decided that they didn’t like being shot at very much, so kept their heads down, resulting in no fire against at the Pz IV, which, short on targets of worth, missed with all of its weapons. On the German right, the MG armed Jeep, backed up by GIs, and the M8 Greyhound, kept up the pressure on the beleaguered Fallschirmjager, killing another. Much more of this and even the Green Devils would break… Or not, but the combined fire was enough to force them to keep their heads down (with 6 pin markers, and a Lieutenant nearby, they needed 5 or lower to activate… and they rolled a 6!)

The Fallschirmjager take a beating…

All on the right was not lost, however, as a German sniper team, seeing their comrades suppressed by the withering fire of the Americans, managed to take out the MG armed jeep and relieving some of the pressure. The mortar team next to them also chanced a shot at the M8 Greyhound, hoping to drop a shell into the open turret, but the shell sailed harmlessly overhead, as did the anti-tank shell from the Pak 40.

…from the Americans concentrated on the German right.

Turn 3

The Germans were done playing, and were keen to try and deal a blow against the Americans by calling in their artillery, targeting the US paratroopers on their left. Though the artillery barrage failed to cause any wounds, it was enough to force them to the ground, giving the Luftwaffe field unit a chance to distract the M3 while the Fallschirmjager knocked it out with their Panzerfaust. The M3, sensing the ploy, ignored the Luftwaffe troops, and opened fire on the Fallschirmjager, taking out the Panzerfaust, and any chance of them taking it out of action. Now lacking anti-armour weapons, the wounded Fallschirmjager opened fire on the cowering paratroopers, killing one.

The doomed charge of the motorcycle team!

The paratroopers continued to take more fire, this time from the Pz IV, which failed to cause any casualties, and also failed to take out the US anti-tank gun. The Pak 40 also turned its attention to the paratroopers, but also missed. In the midst of all of this fire, a squad of GIs in the centre spotted the German commander, missing, but giving him a fright! The German motorcycle charged forwards towards the GIs, but were intercepted by another squad that jumped out from behind a wall, the GIs clubbing the driver and machine gunner, sending the motorcycle flying into a wall before taking fire from another squad of Fallschirmjager concealed behind the church.

Turn 4

By turn four, the Germans were beginning to struggle, having lost more units, and thus, more dice. It was imperative that they managed to draw first, and took the M8 Greyhound with a mortar shell. On the same side of the battlefield, the Sherman finally found its feet and obliterated a Hanomag, in what would be the start of a bruising round for the Germans.

The Bazooka spies a target…

In the centre, a US Bazooka team took out the second Hanomag, leaving the Pz IV as the only German vehicle on the field. It laughed off ineffective fire from the US anti-tank gun, and was ineffective in its own shooting. On the German left, the Luftwaffe field unit took three casualties from the M3’s arsenal, forcing them to break. They should have stayed in their planes!

The Luftwaffe field unit break in the face of withering fire from the M3.

Since turn four was increasingly beginning to look like a turkey shoot for the Americans as they took out the pesky German sniper team, the German commanders reluctantly surrendered, resulting in a win for the Americans.

Thoughts

Although I didn’t really play an active part in the game, I really enjoyed it. The dice activation mechanic makes for an interesting turn sequence. The only drawback I could see, from the German perspective, is that as you lose units you lose dice, which means that as dice are drawn things can escalate quickly as fewer of your dice are left, but it also means that the likelihood of your opponent being forced to take action before they are ready increases, so a clever, albeit outnumbered commander still has some options when it comes to their activation.

Pinning is another area that I was keen to see in action – if it hadn’t failed it’s rally check for two consecutive turns, it’s entirely possible that the game could have been over quicker as the Americans could have made use of their anti-tank gun against the Pz IV. Since it was only our first game, there’s undoubtedly a lot more to Bolt Action for us to learn, but I think I’m safe in saying that a good time was had by all, and we all left the game feeling positive about the system and looking forward to getting our own armies onto the table. I just hope my Italians can hold their own!

---