I managed to get another couple of games of Bolt Action in at the club last night against Ernie, who was trying out a new US Rangers list. I used my usual 500 point force (Veteran 2nd Leutnant, 4 squads of 6 veterans with AR), and Ernie had a variety of units – a large veteran unit with some SMGs, a BAR and LMG, a large regular unit with SMGs (and BAR and LMG? I think at least one of those options anyway), 2 MMGs, a 2nd Lieutenant and aide, and a medic. We set up the first table using another couple of pieces of our megagame table, and rolled for scenario – Maximum Attrition. The goal in this scenario is simple – destroy the enemy.
Initial table
This pic is after the first turn – both sides start off table and come on in the first turn, then head for each other and try to destroy the enemy while not taking casualties themselves. For each enemy unit destroyed, you gain a victory point – at the end of the game, if one side has two more VPs than the other, he wins. i have a unit in the house at the bottom left, another unit defending the wall next to it, with my commander hiding behind the building there. My other two units are in the woods and the gully to the right.
Moving up to contact the enemy
Not a lot happened in the first turn or two – we were coming on table, making use of terrain, and trying to manouevre around. I took some potshots at one of Ernie’s units, but we were out of range.
Holed up in the farmhouse
I had two of my units take control of this building, one inside, and one manning the wall, so that I could have some hard cover. My tactics were to hold these for as long as possible while my other two squads went for the enemy. If Ernie came too close to try to take these on, I’d have the hard cover to protect me while I tore him apart; if he went for my two other units, they’d be a good distraction so I could move these two units out and try to get around his flank.
Advancing on the village
My other two units moved forward through the woods and gully so that I could enter the village on my next turn – again, taking advantage of hard cover. As my units are only small, I really don’t want to be caught out in the open, so I always try to stick to terrain that gives me some sort of cover as I approach the enemy.
Here come the Rangers
Ernie, meanwhile, was getting his MMG into position to give a good rate of cover fire if I tried to come up through the middle, and one of his large infantry squads was making for the village too.
The rest of the Rangers
His other MMG was set up to give a crossfire if I was daft enough to march into the centre of the table where there was little cover. His other large unit, with officers and medic, marched to the woods and hid behind them.
The action starts to coalesce around the village
I made it into the village (the building on the left) with one unit, and left the other perched in the woods to give covering fire. Ernie meanwhile advanced to the buildings with his large unit and MMG.
The Rangers try to flank my unit in the village
Ernie’s no fool, and while one large infantry unit and MMG was approaching my unit hidden in the village from one side, his other large unit, accompanied by medic and command, made their way through the woods to attack from the other side. Even with hard cover, I was likely to take some casualties from this, and more importantly, pin markers which would stop me from countering.
Sneaky rangers
Ernie’s other MMG tried to sneak around my flank. On the following turn, they popped up under cover of the woods and set up in order to fire on my lads in the house, but luckily for me, I had them on ambush.
Hah!
So that was a victory point to me. 
The battle in the village
Thing were getting pretty hairy in the village – with Ernie diving into the other building and taking shots at me with his other large unit too, I was depleted – down to 4 men from 6, and in a fairly dodgy position – if it hadn’t been for the hard cover, I’d have lost this unit immediately.
Strike Two!
I concentrated my fire on the large unit moving through the woods, with what remained of my unit in the village and the unit I had in the woods giving covering fire. The result was enough casualties done to force a morale check, which failed, so the rest of the large infantry unit legged it. That’s Ernie’s commander and aide and medic there running for safety. I also managed to take out the other MMG this turn from shooting by my men behind the walls, so that was another VP too. Things were looking good – 3 VPs to 0 so far.
Argh!
Unfortunately, the sheer firepower Ernie had poured into my unit in the village utterly destroyed them. Still, I was 3-1 up, so if the game suddenly ended, I’d still win.
Hey! That’s my house!
Ernie then moved up to take over the house I was in, and started having a go at my cover unit in the woods across the gully. This also brought them into range of my other units manning the house and walls though…
The final turn
With the final turn on us, I rather sneakily aimed for the enemy commander before he could run for cover (the nice thing about the random activation – if Ernie had gone first, he could have gotten him to safety, but as it was, I drew first and caught him in the open). With that, it was 4-1 and the end of the game. Hurrah! a win!
Since we had plenty of time, we decided on another game. Using the same table and set up, we rolled for the Top Secret scenario – in the centre of the table was a downed plane containing a briefcase. Both forces started off table and had to roll reserves to bring on troops, and had to reach the briefcase (depicted here by, er…a load of oil drums), then drag it back to their side of the table.
Initial set up
Ernie, despite having a US Rangers special ability that supposedly helps them come on table, managed some truly awful rolling, and I think only managed to get half his units on in the first turn, while I managed to get all of mine on.
Taking charge
I quickly gained the initiative, and managed to get a squad to the objective before Ernie did. My other three units and commander loitered around to give covering fire as they took the brief case back to my side. As you can see, Ernie clustered his units so they could pretty much all fire on any of my units that dared to take the objective.
Ernie’s large veteran unit, an MMG, and his commander and medic all in position to fire on me.
Which they did, destroying the unit on the objective.
Luckily my tactics in getting other units to support the ones that had reached the objective first paid off, and I sent in a second unit to grab the briefcase / oil drums. They also took out the MMG as they advanced.
Here comes the other rangers…
Ernie got his other unit into play too, coming through the woods. A few shots took out a couple more of the men in the unit with the objective, but they managed to survive this turn, and started heading back to base.
Rangers lead the way? Pah! Gebirgsjaeger lead the way!
As my men on the objective prepared to leg it back to my lines, one of my support units climbed up the gully and into the woods, and laid into the flanking enemy unit. That should give them something to think about. In reply, Ernie decided to charge them – you can see some of the enemy unit already having charged, the rest were on their way in.
Close Assaults are short and in this case, sweet.
Despite causing four casualties to my 5 man unit, leaving me with a single man left in the unit (who managed to pas his morale test), I did five casualties to Ernie’s large unit, which meant the rest of them ran for the hills. Yay!
The end is nigh
This left us on the final turn with the state of play as above – the remnants of Ernie’s force were pursuing the depleted unit carrying the briefcase / oil drums, and my final support unit swept down off the hill to cover their retreat. If Ernie’s units were going first, he could advance around the covering unit and take out my objective-laden unit. If I had the first order dice, I could get them off table.
My die came out of the box first, and my unit scarpered with the briefcase. Another victory!
