First Normandy WWII Bolt Action game

I have been a bit busy these last few months painting my first World War Two figures in 20mm. I hadn't actually considered WWII, but since most of my painting time is spent with other members of the Miniature Modeling Mayhem community during almost nightly Paint & Chat sessions, I was soon intrigued by our historical discussions about the period. Much thanks or perhaps blame to MadTinHatter and Hengist for this diversion they set me on. Also a shout to Jack Sarge down in Tasmania for parting with a large assortment (at great deal) of AB Wehrmacht to get me started.

During the Christmas holiday last year I was able to read a couple of excellent books (well, I read one just before the holiday) written about the United States 82nd Airborne division and the German 6th Fallschirmjager Division.

I can't recommend these two books enough. I really enjoy painting both sides of any period/conflict I plan on gaming as well as researching both armies to broaden my perspective. These two titles won't disappoint if you are interested in the parachute slugfest that preceded the D-Day landings.

When I started down the World War II road I knew I wanted to stay with my favorite scale of 20mm. I already had some terrain I could use and the price and place to store my armies would be a bit more reasonable in 20mm than 28mm. It's no secret I am a fan of skirmish style games with figures based individually. I had already been playing a modern version of Bolt Action thanks to Jay's Wargame Madness who took the time to modernize the system so to speak. So Bolt Action would be my rules of choice for my World War Two gaming. A very generous infusion of military budget from General ze Wife and the Queen Mother during the holidays helped supply the troops and some basic armour needed in the Laundry Room Barracks. The majority of the figures are from AB Figures which are absolutely stunning figures and a pleasure to paint.

Sometimes keeping up ones motivation can be hard when you are working through an entire army, let alone two.

Motivation is a good thing.

This is now actually four because of an errant click in Google that sent me spiraling into the desert war in North Africa. Well at least I am know the proud owner of a  totally unique French Foreign Legion force and some of the Perry's 20mm Afrika Corps figures from their days at Wargames Foundry. Anyway, back to France. I knew I was going to need a good terrain board for France. After reading about the battles for the hedgerows in northwest France I was going to have to get busy. Plus Mark (Hengist) is always talking about the importance of a great 'set' as he calls it. It's true. The more detail your board has, the more immersive the game experience becomes. The only problem was I had never made a terrain board before. Up to this point I have always used some sort of terrain cloth and a few trees and odds and ends scattered around the board. I have made a few buildings for my moderns and my F&I War projects but never anything like a church or multi-level stone buildings. This was going to be interesting. As I do, I started with some research. This only led me to be more confused at how I wanted to create my own board. So after looking at copious pictures I just went out into the barn and started drawing out some roads etc. Just a small note-I have created pieces of grass/field that will cover my road(s) so I can use the board for different periods and such. I wanted a board that would not totally lock me into just playing the same patch of grass every time.

Carentan was a bit of my inspiration.

Early on in the board build. This is the first 4x2 panel. Key ingredients are loads of white glue (PVA), sand,
flock, fake grass, bits of carpet and a bunch of fake fur.

What WWII action didn't involve some in-town fighting and machine gun fire from the bell loft?

A beat up old stone house. 20mm AB figure for scale. The house and the church are made from those tile cork boards you can buy in packs 1'x1'. They are easy to cut and harden right up once given a good coating of 50/50 pva & water.

An early view of the second 4x2 panel.

 The base of the boards are those pink foam insulation panels each measuring 4'x2'. When put together the board measures 4'x4'. I tried to create the road system so I can add additional panels and they would line up to create different terrain or enlarge the playing surface at some point. I should have taken more in progress photos but I never intended to do a tutorial or anything. I wasn't even sure I would be able to pull it off. But I do think I was able to get it into a playable state.

The hedgerows are removable but the hills, fields and roads are
built onto the board.

The race was on to finish the board for late June and early July because General ze Wife and the youngest Teenage Spy had been granted two weeks of r&r at the Queen Mother's home with a small side trip and beach siesta at Colonel Sis N. Law's compound. I was tasked with guarding the fort and minding over the other two Teenage Spies. Furious evenings were spent in the barn preparing the table and finishing off some Sherman's.

Finally the day had arrived. Board set-up day! This actually started exactly 10 minutes after arriving home in the General's staff car after her departure from the airbase in New York. I was giddy. Two glorious weeks for terrain to be spread out on the dining room table complete with air conditioning, coffee, beer, a bathroom! I had hit jackpot and it included a five-day stretch of no work to celebrate our independence from those opium hawking, tea drinking island dwellers with their penchant for fried fish and curry (no offense Gary and Mark you know I love you both dearly). FREEDOM! and victory were mine for the taking.

"Dad, what's for dinner?" a voice echoed like a blast from a mortar. I was startled. Confused. I had to think quickly. "There are hot dogs in the fridge", I said, "poke a few holes in them and then nuke for 30 seconds." Crisis averted. The raven haired eldest spy glared at me but sensed now was not the time to melee with me over rations.

Now that I had the models painted, board set and the house to myself it was game time.

The scenario called for control of the crossroads to declare a victory. The German 6 Fallschirmjager were garrisoned in the town and it was heavily fortified with MG teams, artillery and a StuG III. The American 82nd Airborne division were tasked with taking the town and securing the vital road link needed to move inland. We decided that starting with turn four each side would roll to see if they could add reinforcements. The Germans could add an additional veteran FJ team while the Americans would have an additional regular infantry rifle team and tank support from three Shermans from Company C of the 756th Tank Battalion. I would be controlling the 82nd Airborne while my opponent Old Man RPG would be in charge of the German 6FJ defending the town.

The forces were set. It would be a paratrooper slugfest. We got a tad over zealous fielding three rifle teams each with support weapons, tanks and a German artillery piece. Go big or go home I guess.

The first go on the board would be scenario two from Bolt Action
which was to control the crossroads. Here was some inspiration I used for setting my own board up for the game.

My first 4'x4' game board.

A member of the Generalstab des Heeres heads to a meeting in the controlled Abschnitt.

                                   

Germans on a patrol.

StuG III makes his way toward the center of the small town.

                                   

The first American paratroopers move cautiously through the hedgerows.

A German Pak 36 mans a defensive position in the town.

The Americans spread out and entered through three separate fields with their command taking a position in an old farmhouse on the northwest corner of the board.

A German patrol halts just prior to entering the open ground of a plowed field. Turn one was spent activating and advancing troops into position. Not much action really.

FJ6 struck first with a patrol firing on the third para team resulting in two quick KIA's.

An FJ6 MMG team in the second story of a bombed house was able to add to the 82nd's problems delivering another KIA to the Americans.

The German Pak 36 team keeps a close eye on their defensive position as the day begins.

The 82nd had a slow go through the hedgerows and realized very quickly that the bits of elevated terrain they needed to cross would cost them dearly. 

The Germans took advantage of the hedgerows and had set up some very good defensive positions.

                                             

FJ 6 had the 82nd in the southern most hedgerow zeroed in and were able to take out the Americans bazooka team and a MMG team in turn three.

                                      

The Germans were able to turn from the defensive and now were bringing the fight to the Americans.

The 82nd tries to hang on with everything they have.

An American rifle team enters the fight from the tree line at the start of turn four to try and support the badly beat up 82nd.

Unfortunately for the American's and additional team of German FJ6 join the fight.

The Germans are surprised when their StuG is taken out from a Sherman that had broken through the tree line onto a road leading into the town.

A squad of paras jump in behind one of the Shermans for a bit of protection from the German offensive.

Little did the Americans know that a German MMG team had them in their sights.

A second 746th Sherman approaches the German left flank.

The Americans were hoping the tank support would get them back in the fight

                                   

The Germans backed off their defensive position across the road for a bit more hard cover of the building.

The 746th left flank and center were closing in on the town.

The Germans kept up a heavy counter attack on the Americans.

Trying to maneuver into the crossroads and seeing the German staff car to his front left this Sherman exposed and gave a well concealed Panzerfaust a close range side shot.

A deadly oversight for the Americans.

The Germans were also able to move the Pak 36 into position to defend the left flank and destroy the second American tank threatening to enter the town.

At this point we were now entering turn seven and with most of the elements of the 82nd eliminated as well as most of their MG support and two of the three tanks from the 746th destroyed the Americans withdrew from the board.

It was great to get the board out and give it a go. I didn't think the hedgerows would be as hard to fight in and get through as they were. They really slowed my attack on the town. I did enjoy having the large variety of troops because it forced me to think about every move and shots were coming in and going out from just about every direction of the table. The hedgerows also created a situation for me, as the Americans, of really splitting my forces and each rifle team was fighting on their own where the Germans were able to move and create blocking positions with much more cohesion. I guess in that regard it played out fairly close to the history.

Sorry for the long post but hope you found it entertaining.

Modern Bolt Action

I have watched tons of online videos and read countless blogs about everything from painting, basing, rules, terrain, how-to's, how-not to's (I'm sure I'm leaving something out) since I got back into wargaming historical miniatures last Christmas. It's almost a full-time job just trying to absorb the information. I have learned much to say the least, especially that there are more opinions about rules sets than I would have imagined. I've also learned to stay pretty quiet about the subject myself because if you do make a reference about a particular set, you are very likely to find yourself in a back alley knife fight with some rules lawyer. That said I have discovered one thing, I enjoy my models based individually and I like more of a skirmish style game.

My go to rules so far have been Force on Force and Danger Close. Both offer me the kind of quick, modern skirmish game I like to play. I am still experimenting with various rules and have also learned that having an open mind can be rewarding in this adventure. Many of the guys in my wargaming group on Miniature Modeling Mayhem play Flames of War and Team Yankee. I have not played those yet but I enjoy learning about the history of WWII from them during our video chats. I have recently been looking at options for WWII games and 20mm miniatures for WWII skirmish style games. I have a few moderns in 28mm, but I prefer 20mm just for the fact that I can store the models, terrain and vehicles more so than 28mm. During my search I stumbled upon Jay's Wargaming Madness blog. Jay is in California and plays a lot of Bolt Action as well as moderns with some really cool terrain and models. While digging around his blog I found a version of modern rules Jay has created using the Bolt Action rules.

 I downloaded the files Jay posted for free and gave them a try this weekend. They are easy to learn, fast play and very fun. I don't own the main Bolt Action rulebook or the associated order dice but I was able to use some dice I had laying around for this purpose. The rules are fairly complete as they are but I think I might pick up a copy of the main rules as well. I really enjoyed the mechanics of the game and like I said it was really easy to pick up. Of course (this is the part where rules lawyers should close there eyes and skip ahead) I added a few elements from other rules like Random Events ie: Fog of War to add some spice to my solo game. You can download his ruleset for free and he has also created some army lists to go with them. If you are looking for a fun, quick modern rule set I would encourage you to give them a try. That said, I am no expert on anything rules or even weapons for that matter. Some of you might find these rules to simple for your taste, etc, etc. I found them to be fun for me so that is about the extent of my approval. Below are some photos from the other night. Sorry for the quality of the pics. I was more concerned with picking my way through the rules.

Scenario (generic middle east to keep it simple): 

A 5-man US Special Forces team are entering a village to extract a high level warlord from his compound. His compound is guarded by his personal six-man security force. The SopF are entering the town on foot from the west. The plan calls for the team to drop a sniper on a rooftop with line of sight to the warlords' compound as an overwatch element. Once the SopF sniper is in place two Ranger fire teams will enter the town from the main northern road. They are tasked with securing the street and bazaar in the middle of the village and acting as a blocking unit for the SopF. The village is controlled by the warlord and has three cells of militia present. Due to the value of the target of interest, the US forces also have two Apache gunships that can be mobilized if needed for Close Air Support.

Board size: 2'x2'    Scale: 20mm    Rules: Bolt Action Modern w/house rules for Random Events

Turn 1 action 1 saw the US Humvees get hit with a random event (red markers) right out of the gate (this is not a part of Bolt Action). The first Humvee takes incoming sniper fire.

Another action die draw for the US gets the SopF guys activated and running toward their objective.

 I was feeling pretty good about the US forces drawing the first three order die from the bag. It gave me the momentum to get my forces set-up. The fourth one went to the insurgents and the US was back with the fifth order dice which allowed them to get the SopF sniper on the roof. Everything was going well and then I realized that the US would only have one more order this turn while the militia still had four (each unit get's one order die). Yikes. Pretty nerve wracking to know that all hell is going to break loose and you are kind of out of options. Just two order die later would see the demise of one of the humvees and the four Rangers occupying it. I'm not sure I could have played that out any differently, perhaps concentrating on moving my SopF guys but that would have left them totally exposed on the street without the cover of the Rangers. I think what intrigues me about the way the basic order of play unfolds is that once you have played a turn or two, you realize very quickly that every single move you make needs to very strategic. Especially if you only have a few units and they need to get from point A to point B. You can find yourself in a really bad place if you don't think your way through each order.

I'm pretty positive I missed a bunch of stuff during this first game, I hope not. But I stress, although the rules might not be to your taste, I found them to be a very fun game and really quick to pick-up the basics.

Here are some additional photos. Not my usual AAR as I was trying to use the game to learn the rules but I didn't become bored or over confused when playing so I'll be trying this one out a few more times.