Bolt Action - our second game

German mortar

For our second game we increased the amount of cover and also added armoured vehicles on each side. In this game 3 * German sections supported by a STUG and a mortar defended a farm house. The Russian attackers had 6 * squads with an AT gun and a KV-1.

   


German infantry on the move

The Germans adopted a defensive position with a squad in the farm, one on the right in a hedge-line, and one in the centre with a STUG. An MG42 in the farm covered the road.
 

German right

German centre

German left

The Russians massed most of their troops on the German left and screen the farm with a single section supported by a maxim and the sniper team.

The main Russian attack



Long view

The Russians pressed forward using the KV-1 as cover and quickly got three squads mobilised against the German left. Fire from infantry and the KV-1 quickly weakened the German squads deployed on that flank. A well -time assault by the Russians free inexperienced squad wiped-out the Germans but at the cost of their own destruction.

KV-1 and SMQ squad advance 

Soviets press forward on the weakened Germans 

Things look bad for the surviving Germans

With the game won for the Russians we decided to have a quick tank-duel. The STUG had the superior gun, but the KV-1's heavy armour proved decisive as it polished-off the German assault gun in the second round of combat

The Russian monster zero's in 



 

As with our first game we found that the Russians greater number of activation dice was a big advantage, and more than compensated for the superior German morale or defensive position.

 

The lack of hidden deployment for defenders really made life tough for the Germans. We noticed near the end the option to be "concealed" but this still involves deploying the figures, but with a reduced chance to be hit.    

 

 

 

Bolt Action - soviet heavy weapons

After a bit if a surge I've now completed my final soviets for Bolt Action. Last off the painting table are the heavy weapons teams. I've used Plastic Soldier Company figures again - one box of heavy weapons and one of early AT guns.

So this gives me; 2*Maxim MMGs, 2*60mm mortars, 2*82mm mortars, and 2*45mm AT guns. The AT guns actually come with three different barrels; M1937 45mm, M1942 45mm (long barrel) and the M1943 76mm infantry gun. I went with the long-45mm version.

Under Bolt Action you are limited on the support weapons, so I have enough for two platoons.

Maxim MMG

Commissar and helper

Mortars

The completed weapons teams 

AT guns in cover

 

 

My favourites are the AT guns, not least because you get some additional bits to decorate the base such as shell casings. So a couple of additional shots of those two. I hope PSC get around to producing some additional artillery in 28mm and perhaps expanding the range to include Germans.

 

M1942 45mm AT guns

Reverse view

So there we have it - the soviets are now completed. I can now return my attentions to completing my Ancients armies which have been languishing for a few months.

 

 

 

 



 



 

Bolt Action - our first game

Now that we've managed to paint a enough figures we decided that this weeks game would be Bolt Action. As it was our first game we opted for smallish forces  (750 points) and no fancy stuff like vehicles or off-table artillery.

The Germans fielded an elite unit of Veteran Fallschirmjäger consisting of 2 * 10man squads supported by an MG42 and a light mortar. This gave 6 activation dice 

The Soviets had a larger, but lower quality, force of regulars and inexperienced troops. They fielded 3*10man squads, an SMG squad, an MMG, a medium mortar and a sniper team. This gave 8 activation dice

We opted for a very simple scenario with both sides trying to capture a  small farm complex and eliminate the enemy.

The Game

The two sides adopted slightly different strategies. The Germans focused most of their troops to their left and centre, using the MG42 to hold their right flank. The more numerous Soviets  place a rifle squad on each flank with the third rifle squad ad the SMGs in the centre to take the farm.

Deployment overview 

The German deployment

The early game saw the Soviets advance in the centre and on their left, using the cover to gain a flanking position. On the soviet right the inexperienced rifle squad went to ground (Going Down in the rules) under mortar fire. Casualties were light but their advance was stalled.


Soviets advance on their left

Soviet SMG squad takes the house

On the Soviet left fire from a rifle squad, the MMG, and mortar all began to take a toll on the German central rifle squad. As hits gradually built they became bogged-down and wavering.

The German left  

Soviet snipers go to work

As the game progressed the Soviet left made further progress, destroying the MG42 and flanking the Germans in the centre.

The Soviet left

 In the centre the Soviet SMG squad grabbed the farm and with support from the MMG and sniper began to ware-down the second German rifle squad.

Tussle for the farm in the centre

After about 2 hours play we concluded that the Germans position was untenable and declared the Soviets the winners.

The Verdict 

Overall an enjoyable game and the core mechanics worked well. Activation of units is done by drawing a dice of the appropriate colour from a bag and then using it to indicate what the chosen unit will do e.g. Rally Shoot, Move etc. So activation order is somewhat randomised but every unit will get a go. Depending how suppressed they are they might not do anything other than  go to ground though.

With a new set of rules you are never sure if any funnies are problems, bad tactics, or us just getting it wrong and not reading the rules properly. So the major things to look at for next time are:

1. How does line of sight work over hedges? We treated more than 1 as cover but should LOS stop at the first hedge?

2. Direct fire artillery was very hit and miss, mostly miss. The rules don't allow for accidently hitting other targets and chances of causing kills seemed pretty low. Perhaps we were nt doing it right or perhaps artillery is weak to encourage movement?

3.  Veterans are tough to hit and kill. Not a criticism as it felt right. Hard cover though did nt seem to offer much more protection than soft.

4. Are we doing suppression right? The classic tactics of a base of fire to pin the element down and manoeuvre to a flanked did nt quite seem to work as the pinning was not hugely effective.  

5. The potential for double-entendre was off the chart with units Going Down and people rummaging in their sacks (for activations dice) all over the place. Kenneth Williams would have a field day.

Bolt Action - soviet snipers

Background

No soviet army is complete without a couple of snipers so I did some minor conversions to create to create one male and one female. Some sprue was added to create the sights and cloaks from old hankies with some flock for texture. Both figures are from The Plastic Soldier Companies 28mm range.

The chap was loosely modelled on Vasily Zaitzev, the legendary sniper ace with upwards of 400 kills. Any reference to the figures plastic nature and the acting in enemy at the gates would of coarse be too scurrilous for this humble Blog.

The lady could be Roza Georgiyevna Shanina , "The terror of east Prussia", another sniper ace with a more modest 60 kills.  She rose to some prominence in the Soviet Union during the mid-60's with the publication of her war diaries.

The Plastic Versions

You long-range sniper you 



Vasily and Roza enjoy a country stroll

Jude Vasily takes aim

 

 

 

Russian KV-1: The Beast reviewed

The KV-1

To provide some much needed mobility for my Bolt Action Russian's I've invested in a KV-1. After some consideration I went with the Hobbyboss 1/48 scale kit. At £11.99 it seemed like a great bargain. I knew it would be slightly over-scale compared to the 1/56 models my opponent will be using, so I decided against the mighty KV-2 as it might look enormous.

The Build

Its been ages since I built a model kit so I thought I might do a short review of the kit as well as showing the outcome. Altogether you get about 200 parts spread across about 6 sprues. This includes some brass-etched parts and a some copper wire to make the towing ropes. The main chassis is a single-piece casting with most of the suspension already moulded on. They offer several variants of the kit which I assume mostly feature different turrets, but there are a few detailed parts too that seem to vary.  The instructions were clear with no obvious gotya's or out of sequence steps.



Main body and details



Wheels and turret

As is my custom I painted the bulk of the parts before they were assembled or part-assembled to avoid any tricky painting later. As this was being built for wargaming I omitted one or two of the details such as hatch handles.



Main chassis



Tracks



Turret

The only fiddly part of the build was building the tracks. These are solid plastic and feature tops, bottoms, and individual links to build the sections around the wheels. The tops have some nice looking sagging to suggest weight. It was a bit of a faff but they do provide a jig for the curved sections which helps a bit. Just be patient and take your time. I made some tea, put Test Match Special on the radio and set too.

 

The final verdict 

I was pleased with the final results and at half the price of the official Bolt Action vehicles it was certainly a good buy. It will be larger than the 1/56 vehicles but I hope that can be justified as the KV-1 is a monster and hopefully they will not end-up in close proximity on the table.

KV-1 front

KV-1 rear

KV-1 with 28mm infantry

KV-1 close-up

 

Bolt Action Russians

The last of my Christmas painting burst is my initial batch of 28mm Russians for Bolt Action. I'd gone to Warfare in Reading intent on buying some Carthaginians to complete my Punic force but none were available ;-(

A Wargamer and pocket of cash is a thing soon parted, so I ended-up being tempted by a club mate into buying something that could me mown-down by his Fallschirmjäger. So I went for a few boxes of the Plastic Solider Company Soviets. To be exact one box each of the infantry, heavy weapons, and AT guns - a tidy if somewhat defence force.







The lovely folks at Caliver Books did me a decent deal on the figures so I went away a happy chap. First off the blocks are couple of infantry squads.

The LMG squad - 6 rifles and 2 LMG teams

One of the LMG teams

The NCO

A few of the Ivan's in the ruins of Stalingrad

More rubble



Drafty in here

 I've managed to produced  fairly large amount of ruined buildings during the holidays using my favoured foam core. I have enough for a fairly packed 6' x 4' table.  I will do a later blog on that now I have a few figures to decorate it