My Gebirgsjaeger took on Ernie’s Yanks last night at the club, using the new Bolt Action rules. I toyed with the idea of swapping out a couple of teams with my Puma, but since we were sticking with 500 points, I went with my usual list of a 2nd Leutnant with four squads of 6 veterans, all armed with assault rifles. They work pretty well, since they can fire and move without penalty so they’re good in the attack as well as the defence, and they’re excellent in close combat. The only danger is that there aren’t many squads (and so fewer dice in the pot), and that they’re small squads too, so can easily be forced to rout with a couple of casualties. Still, being vets helps.
We set up a table using some of the pieces for one of our megagame display tables, and rolled for a scenario – Ernie rolled a 3, so we were playing Point Defence. I put my squads in hiding, just noting where they were with a single figure, and set up three objectives – if Ernie controlled one by the end of the game, it would be a tie; if he didn’t get any, I won, and if he won 2 or 3, he won. I was fairly confident that I’d be able to hang on. Our initial table looked like this:
Setting up the table. My objectives were placed below the ruined building, next to the wall in the middle, and in the patch of rough ground in front of the woods to the left.
Ernie then had to roll for a preparatory bombardment – he’d be able to launch a strong attack on all my units before he then came on the board. It can be quite nasty, and I was prepared for casualties, which would make my small units much less effective and even more prone to succumbing to rout in the event that he took out another couple of men in a squad. As long as he didn’t roll a 1, he’d be able to do som…oh, he rolled a 1. No bombardment then. Hurrah! Ernie had quite a few more squads than I did (which meant he had an advantage of more dice in the box). I think he had a 2nd Lieutenant, 2 squads of 9 men, mostly rifles but with 2 SMGs and a Browning in each squad, a light mortar, a bazooka team, and 2 MMGs.
Centre objective, with two hidden squads denoted by single figures – one hidden behind the wall, the other hidden in the woods.
Ernie then started to launch his attack, bringing on squads mostly to my left. On the first turn, we put all the dice into the box and drew them out one by one to see who had the chance to move a unit. All of mine immediately went on Ambush, which meant that in the second turn, all the dice in the box were Ernie’s. Even by the fourth turn, I think I only had 2-3 dice in the box compared to his 6 or 7 or so.
Here come the Belgians….er, I mean Yanks!
Ernie first started to bring troops on across the end of the table, but then cunningly realised that if he kept to my left, he could swing down around the buildings and with cover of the woods so that most of my squads wouldn’t be able to see him, so he could concentrate on one or two units, take the leftmost objective and then roll up across the board to take the others. It was a good tactic, and would probably have worked if Ernie hadn’t followed his lack of bombardment with similarly bad dice rolls at certain points.
Ernie’s troops begin their flank march. There’s an officer hiding behind that building.
First blood went to me, however, when one of Ernie’s MMGs broke cover to get into position to mow me down. Being on Ambush, I could fire on them before they got set up. With my assault rifles spitting leaden fury, I poured fire at them. Even though they were at long range, they were only a 3 man team, so rolling twelve dice, needing 4s to hit…
Ouch! Bye bye MMG!
Strike one MMG. Ernie proceeded to march down my left flank, and I opened up in ambush with my other unit on that side, pinning and causing a casualty, but receiving fire in turn and losing one of my own squad members. I should maybe have waited another turn or so until he was within shorter range and then opened up – after all, being hidden in soft cover meant that Ernie was on a -4 to hit me until he got within 12″ and could then spot me. As it was, he was moving several units into range on my sole defending unit on the left.
Ernie’s first squad, MMG, and at the back of the woods, more men preparing to slog down the left flank.
Another turn or so of fire, and I managed to knock out a couple more of Ernie’s first squad, but he was up close now, and had his second squad in position too – I was about to be hit by two squads onto my one depleted squad. Ernie had both in a nice position, where they could both target my leftmost squad who were down to 4 men, whereas only that squad of mine were able to target either of Ernie’s squads. I started to move my other squads over to the left to help hang on there, but prepared as Ernie ordered his second squad to open fire.
Second squad next to the house prepare to open up on my squad.
Notice that die next to the second squad by the building? That’s a pin marker. It means you have to roll to see if you can get your men to follow orders. If you roll a 12 on your order dice, something bad happens. Usually, that means you panic and fall back. If you’re really unlucky, it means you inflict friendly fire on another of your own squads. See Ernie’s first squad there down and to their left?
D’oh!
Can anyone guess what happened with Ernie’s dice? So, that’s 2 SMGs, a Browning, and 4 rifles, all at short range firing at a target in the open. I think it was the only firing move that Ernie made where the dice all came up in the 4s, 5s and 6s.
Still, it wasn’t over. Ernie had ranged in with his mortar, and I was so concerned with getting troops across to help on my left that I kept forgetting that he’d ranged in on my unit on the left, and it was soon down to just a couple of men. On the plus side, I’d got more of my troops in position to help defend.
Here come the reinforcements.
Things were starting to look dicey for Ernie, having wiped out one of his own squads, both his MMGs and his Bazooka having been destroyed, and being down to around half his second squad, a light mortar and his 2nd lieutenant, while I had three squads who were pretty much at full strength as well as my almost completely depleted unit of 2 men left. With only one more proper turn remaining, Ernie went for broke, his officer running down from behind the building in order to contest the leftmost objective. If he could get rid of the remaining two figures on that squad, he’d get a draw at least.
The Yank officer single-handedly tries to wrest the objective from my control.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as my remaining two men were still in position to contest the objective, and as the turn finished, and we rolled for another turn, we came up short. The game was over, and I had succeeded in defending all three objectives. Just for fun, we rolled Ernie’s mortar attack to see if he’d have been able to finish the unit off and take an objective if we’d had another turn…and he did so. It’s scant consolation that he’d have gotten a draw if we’d had another round, but events conspired against Ernie in this game, first with the lack of bombardment, then with several pinned units not following orders when he really needed them, followed by the friendly fire incident in which he wiped out an entire unit of his own men, and ending with him being just short of taking a draw. That was some bad luck Ernie, and the game could easily have had a different result if any of those hadn’t happened as they did.
Meanwhile, on another table, Anthony and Alex were testing out Muskets and Tomahawks. They too decided to use a couple of the boards from our megagame display board, and had a couple of my (as yet unpainted) buildings on there.
Somewhere near the Quebec border.
I sat in on their game for a little while after our game finished, and like the look of M&T. It’s similar to Bolt Action in some ways – the variable activation, using few figures etc. It looked like Alex had a case of the Ernies – the deck in M&T has events that come up, and it seems that every time one came up, it adversely affected Alex, usually by forcing his civilians which he was trying to defend from Anthony’s Indians to go where he didn’t want them.
Alex’s civilians running away from the safety of the building there in the bottom left.
It too looked like a fun game, with Anthony’s Indians winning by capturing or killing just about everyone on Alex’s side and succeeding in his side plot, whereas Alex not only lost just about all his forces, he didn’t succeed in his side plot either.
