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After the first few games Bolt Action turned out to be a recurring guest in our wargaming group. Therefore I'll use this threat to post some lines and pictures about the battle we fought here.
Index:
Page 1: Game from 10th November 2012: Germans vs. Americans (28mm)
-> just below
-> Link to Monty's Caravan (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-09th-november.html)
Page 2: Game from 17th November 2012: Germans vs. Americans (20mm)
-> Link to threat posting (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=47914.msg561024#msg561024)
-> Link to Monty's Caravan (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-20mm-17112012.html)
Page 2: Game from 23rd November 2012: Germans vs. Americans "Search and Rescue" (28mm)
-> Link to threat posting (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=47914.msg562478#msg562478)
-> Link to Monty's Caravan (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/bolt-action-23112012-28mm-search-and.html)
I hope you enjoy the pictures and the reviews.
Cheers
Stefan
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Hello and good afternoon,
last Friday I had the great pleasure to play my first game of Bolt Action. Some fellows of our wargaming group and I gathered and played a little game with Americans against Germans. The scenario was set shortly after the American landing near Anzio with a German rearguard trying to guard the surrender of their comrades while the advance guard of the Americans was on its way to secure a route for the advancing troups.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qv_8L4ObYP4/UKFjNbjOuUI/AAAAAAAAAuI/85gBPWWzNxs/s1600/BA-09.11.2012-001.jpg)
The beginning of the game developed rather straight-line. The Germans occupied the buildings and wanted to set up a strong defensive position there. Simultaneously the Americans advanced carefully and tried to prepare a general charge under the covering fire of their machine guns and mortar.
The climax of the battle was reached when one of the American squads prepared to storm one houses. The outcome of next turns was to decide the outcome of the game...
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eoXLo4LQRs8/UKFjfmLNPCI/AAAAAAAAAvg/PQmdYie8ZCg/s1600/BA-09.11.2012-012.jpg)
There is a complete game report with a lot of more pictures on my blog. You're welcome to have a look there:
http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-09th-november.html (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-09th-november.html)
Just some short sentences on the Bolt Action ruleset:
For me it was the first one and I was a nervous because of the new set of rules, but they proved to be really well designed and smooth-running. Espescially the tactical aspect and the challenge to spend the order dice foresightful makes the game interesting. At the end of the game we were able to handle the common situations (ranged combat, movement, initiative / oder-dice...) without looking up every dice-roll. Only the more complex things like air strike were hard to remember. But nevertheless these rules are designed very straight-line and I'm sure that they be remembered well after one or two additional games. Altogether it's a nice ruleset which works great with a group of friends and some beer and brezels. Just perfect for a Friday evening after a busy week. We spent about five hours for a game with around 1,000 points per side, but with better rules knowledge this will drop to three to four hours I presume.
Cheers
Stefan
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Wonderful!
I'm looking forward to m y first game.
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Wow, great Table.
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Great water effect! How did you do it?
I have tried most, the professional two part resin and old fashioned yatch varnish.
Have a look in the inside cover at the painters list, and you will see my name 'Bruce Murray'
They are great boards.
BB
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Thanks for the nice feedback.
Unfortunately neither the figures nor the board are mine. Therefore I cannot tell you how the water was made. I know that it was kind of two-component-material but it didn't harden completely. So we couldn't place miniatures on the river because it has a surface like jelly. My friend ordered a kind of surface sealing to correct that but he didn't have the time to put it on until know. I'm curious how it will turn out...
However if you are careful it's fine for gaming and it looks absolutely marvellous.
:D
Cheers
Stefan
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Cracking looking game :-*
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I enjoyed reading your report, thank you.
Helen
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We spent about five hours for a game with around 1,000 points per side, but with better rules knowledge this will drop to three to four hours I presume.
Holy Crap! I was looking at Bolt Action as a possible intro to WW2 for my 8yo, but not if it plays that slowly. I thought it was more of a fast-play game (2-3 hrs). Does everyone elses experience mirror Monty's?
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Hell yeah! Great looking miniatures on an absolutely lovely table... :-*
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Holy Crap! I was looking at Bolt Action as a possible intro to WW2 for my 8yo, but not if it plays that slowly. I thought it was more of a fast-play game (2-3 hrs). Does everyone elses experience mirror Monty's?
Well... Maybe I guessed a bit too long. Probably you could manage to finish a game of 1.000 pts each in about three hours. Perhaps even less when you play stringently without chit-chat.
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My 1.000 pts games were around 2,5 to 3h.
(German efficiency and no fun!) ;) ;) ;)
IMO BA has a fast learning curve, since all guns and AFVs use more or less the same and very generic rules you get used to the game stats very quickly. Once accomplished gameplay gets very fast if you want.
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Nice report on the blog. Great looking terrain and figures.
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This is so great, so inspiring! Really really good looking board, with amazing buildings and figures :-*
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I must agree with the others posting their praise for this beautiful looking game! :-*
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Love the look of the game.
Very fine figures and terrain.
Love it.
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Thanks a lot for all the kind comments.
Last week I had the pleasure to host a game of Bolt Action for my 20mm wargaming fellows.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8CCubSllRWw/ULCjF5WbRxI/AAAAAAAAAxA/lbx4L5mXOYg/s640/BA-17.11.2012-001.jpg)
Unfortunately my pool of terrain pieces is rather small and our main terrain builder and collector of German troops rejected near-term. Therefore everything on the table was far from the brilliance of the week before. But nevertheless it was an exiting and funny game we all enjoyed.
It was once again a small battle between German and American forces. We used army lists which were nearly the same as the week before (the actual players didn't know them) and the Americans had to take a small village which the Axis troops were defending.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-22x12yd0yMg/ULCjTSaF0pI/AAAAAAAAAyA/TS72rFmjqh8/s640/BA-17.11.2012-009.jpg)
If you are interested in the whole story and want to know how the decisive attack of the Americans turned out, then feel free to read everything on my blog:
http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-20mm-17112012.html (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/game-report-bolt-action-20mm-17112012.html)
Cheers
Stefan
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Excellent after action reports. Thank you for sharing.
Have you ever used Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes rules? I'm kind of curious how they compare.
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Have you ever used Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes rules? I'm kind of curious how they compare.
Sorry, I haven't tried Disposible Heroes until now.
Yesterday I executed my tailback and wrote a short game report about another 28mm Bolt Action Game we had last week.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tVZ1Fbqr70g/ULCkEdXPrhI/AAAAAAAAAyY/5uOO2EKrH8g/s1600/BA-23.11.2012-001.jpg)
The game was a search and rescue mission within an urban terrain. After his aeroplane was shot down a German staff officer hid somewhere in the ruins of a small city. The American as well as the Germans sent some forces to get that fellow because he was escorting some important, secret plans.
Both sides employed some infantry, some support weapons and tanks:
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4De7uBGY728/ULCkNABMDLI/AAAAAAAAAzA/aEqG76gaVwQ/s1600/BA-23.11.2012-006.jpg)
And of course the Americans fielded an Airforce liaison officer whose air strike should be one of the decisive elements of the game...
If you are interested in the AAR and if you want to know whether the Germans were able to secure their comrades or whether the Americans were able to lay their hands on the plan, then have a look at the blog post here:
http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/bolt-action-23112012-28mm-search-and.html#more (http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2012/11/bolt-action-23112012-28mm-search-and.html#more)
I hope you enjoy reading the report as much as we enjoyed playing the game.
Cheers
Stefan
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I hope to be able to test Iron Ivan vs. Bolt Action in January...
Great battle report there!