1985 Company MegaTest - Bolt Action Reality Check

 

Bolt Action Reality Check is the name I give my version of Bolt Action with various house rules particularly for ranges, firepower etc. For the Modern Version I used the stats at Jay's Wargaming Madness.

Presentation

My 4 page BARC QRS and Jay's 7-10 page QRS, all PDF.

Set-Up

Same as Team Yankee, sides reversed from the first two.

BMPs stream into the assault

How It Played

Similar pattern to the others. A tank duel which the British again lost, the Brits getting to Semmenstedt. There was a nice assault from Remilingen  which got bogged down in a flurry of pins from a Fires task. The Brits in the town weathered a Soviet 122mm strike  reasonably well, but a couple of FV432s were lost. A Soviet assault along the bottom baseline into the woods outside Semmenstedt (Bolt Action melees are viscious),  so with only the odd Milan and Carl Gustav to worry about they just stood off and started demolishing the buildings with the 73mm guns on the 8 remaining BMPs.

The attack out of Remilingen bogs down in a hail of 105mm HE

Rules Impression

That played pretty well, I do like the Bolt Action pin mechanic. Still bits of BARC I'd like to tweak and I need to integrate Jay's modern stuff into it too.  Playing it at a Company scale worked well, I activated at the Platoon level but let each section do its own action. I do need to think about pins, as they have to be allocated at section level to have the proper effect, but then when you roll to activate what do you take - I think I took the worst section each time and that seems a reasonable compromise, but then if you pass do you only take 1 off that section? 

Overall

As already mentioned (I think) adding the 7DTTR activation mechanism on top of the BA dice, and then Battlegroup:NORTHAGs Battle Rating ENDEX system could give a very nice game. Good but still worth improving on. Overall 8.5/10.

 

Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 11 - Bolt Action:Reality Check

The "pillarbox Panzer" has its target partially masked by smoke

That's all the rule sets I want to test, so as a finale I played Bolt Action again but with various house rules to hopefully give more realistic ranges, better balance between rifles and MGs, and fixes to indirect fire and smoke amongst other things, I've christened as Bolt Action: Reality Check.

Presentation

3 sheets of A4 QRS covering pretty the whole of the BA rule book and incorporating my changes. Hardly needed to check the real rulebook at all.

British advancing in line from top to bottom

Set-Up

Operation Martlet Scenario 6: The Last Ditch at Ruaray, the final Op Martlet scenario, again with open ground to a mix of wood and buildings giving a good defensive position. The Germans lost their IG, and the Brits lot the 4th Section and UC but gained an MFC as the mortars were going to come in handy!

The Panzer IV lies in wait

How It Played

The Brits just went for it initially, No. 1, 2 and 3 sections in line abreast, moving rapidly across the open ground so they managed to get rounds on target in their first turn. It was then a slogging match, each Section paired against a German Gruppen.  The Cromwell came out to give support, and Panzer IV countered, and got its tracks blown off for the privilege - but became a very useful turreted strong point. Despite smoke coming down No.1 Section began to suffer the most and soon routed, followed by No. 3 Section. The Germans were taking some losses, but had the benefit of cover. With only No.2 Section left and that suffering the Platoon was pulled back. Round 1 to the Germans.

Smoke on the crossroads doesn't save the Brits

The Company commander still had to get his objective though, so the Mortars put down a round of fire on the German position, putting 2-3 pins on most units, and killing the sniper hiding in the farm attic. No. 2 Platoon was then sent forward, again rapidly moving across ground in line abreast and into rifle range. The weakened German Gruppen had to spend a turn recovering pins, and given the order of the dice this meant the Brits got 2 rounds of fire in before the Germans could respond. Again the weakness of the German Gruppen was telling as they couldn't inflict the same damage as the brits, despite taking No. 2 Section  Commander out. 3. Gruppen on the German L was first to go, then No. 2 Gruppen fled, and so finally the Zug pulled back, the Panzer IV firing HE at No. 1 Section which had gone to ground behind a hillock to cover the withdrawal. Game over, Campaign over, the Brits had got the the Ruaray cross-roads on the second try.

No. 2 Platoon moves in to clear the now empty crossroads as the Germans exit stage right

Overall

This played really well. The openness of the terrain meant that it was lacking some of the manoeuvre of the first Bolt Action game, but all the results seemed realistic, and 2 Platoons to unseat 1 defensive Platoon seems reasonable. All my changes worked well too, and this has certainly ended up for me as my go-to Platoon set. Next to try it for SF and Modern, and then next year at Company level. I'd give it 9.5 I think.

TTS - Bolt Action Trial Run

Nick and I finally got round to doing some lockdown wargaming last night - and in honour of VE Day decided to give Bolt Action a try on Tabletop Simulator.

It's a credit to the TTS system that Nick hadn't played Bolt Action before, but since TTS is "just" a table top simulator I could walk him through the rules just as though we were playing over a physical tabletop. We used Zoom for the audio so I could guide him through the "find a server" process, and we stayed with Zoom through the game.

This was very much a learning by doing game, and was only my 2nd BA game, and we are using the first draft of my BA house rules - Bolt Action Reality Check (BARC). I could even use TTS's PDF feature to put the rules in there for him. We got through couple of turns pretty well - just the armour facing off, and we'll continue with the infantry fight hopefully later in the week.

It must be said that this particular table (Normandy Farm) looks absolutely stunning and kudos to whoever did it. The pics of the figures moving through the long grass look almost realistic (real world, not wargames table), and there's no argument about line of sight when you can zoom into eye-level with a figure! We're also playing on a 3" grid (my standard for BARC) which removes any measurement which may slow things down a  bit more in TTS.

Anyhow, here are some pics form the game so far - reinforced Pl on either side. I've shrunk the figures ( from a TTS BA "pack") down from ~ 30-40mm to 20mm.

Brits advancing through long grass to the hedgeline

Long shot of the table from the German side

 

Brits reach the wall. Dice nicely for scale. Great "sculpts" too

Nice shot showing the way the ground clutter hides most of the troops 

Germans emerge from the lane - not Brits just visible top left - got LOS then!

Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 2 - Bolt Action

Presentation

Glossy hard-back ~128pp book with QRS pages at the back. Somewhat annoyingly the first ~20 pages of the book are a history of WW2 so the rules don't start til well into the book which makes it harder to find the rules. Vehicles and Buildings (and Artillery) get their own chapters, which actually makes it harder sometimes to find what you want.

Set-Up

As for COC - the "Probe into Fontenay" scenario from the TFL Operation Martlet pint-sized campaign. Same forces. Used the equivalent generic BA scenario to decide things like preparatory bombardment.

How It Played

Having learnt the lesson from the first attempt the Cromwell was deployed well forward with the advancing troops, so when the Germans opened fire from the industrial units the Cromwell just poured HE into them, and HE into buildings in BA is VERY effective. This allowed No.2 Section to leg it down the hedge and assault the buildings and remaining troops for minimal loss. They too some damage from the German reserve section.

Assaulting the buildings

On the other flank it wasn't so good. Brens and the 6pdr made little impact on the Chateau. When No 1 Section tried to advance down the lane they got blown to pieces, just one man escaped back.

The Germans dispatched the PzKfw MkIV to take out the Cromwell. As it pulled off the road and fired its first round too the Cromwell out, but a PIAT lying in ambush fired back and took the Panzer out.

Dead Cromwell

Dead Panzer

Back on the right flank No 3 Section, the Pl Comd and the 2" mortar legged it down the hedge-line behind No.1  Section. When they got to the road the Pl Comd saw the Germans busy with No 1 Section so sent No 3 Section racing down passed the orchard and got the 2" to lay in smoke to cover them - off target but still good. No 1 section failed to do any damage on the Germans but the Germans than had a FUBAR fail on the order roll, and having seen their comrades obliterated and a British section flank them they decided to leg it home. No. 3 Section made it off the board and the scenario was over, start of Turn 6.

No. 3 Sections dashes for glory, smoke covering their rear

Rules Impression

I'd heard so-so things about Bolt Action, and it was a very late addition to the test - I managed to pick up the rules cheap on eBay. But I have to say it gave a REALLY good game. The dice bag activation and activation rolls worked well. Firing was OK, just enough DMs. The Pl Comds extra activations seemed quite natural. Some of the building rules seemed a bit odd, as did the smoke (enemy places it if off target!). I'd be tempted to do a few house rules, for instance increasing the number of pins, differentiate Bren and MG42, randomise movement, handle split Gun Gp/Rifle Gp sections, spotting and suppression, but with those it would be a cracking set.

ENDEX - No 3 Section left, fleeing Germans right!

Overall

For a set I nearly didn't include I think that Bolt Action is now my go-to set for this sort of game. Unlike CoC I really looked forward to the sessions with it, and would be keen to get it out again. Will be interesting to see if any other of the rules can match it. Overall 9/10.