Bolt Action try out (pic heavy)

Managed a few hours to play through a few solo turns using Bolt Action rule set on table I had set up what seems ages ago.
Simple meeting engagement type scenario with late war British in Company strength with 2 Troops of armour in support taking on slightly less numerous Germans with 2 Tigers a JgPzIV a PAK40 and couple of 81mm Mortars.
Simple advance on from opposite sides type game.
Initial reaction to Bolt Action system is that its a sort of skirmish/lower level Rapid Fire and about same relative level of complexity.
But it is fun with the 1 dice per unit activation system coupled with picking an order with selected dice.
Makes for a lot of tooing and frowing of  'initiative' within a turn.
Movement and shooting and morale all fairly simple systems but plausible.
For shooting its basically a 3+ hits (with some modifiers) a hit causing a PIN (which need Rallied off) and potential damage.
Very little Infantry action so far but have a few Sherman vs Panzer encounters.
One Sherman advanced (ie move and fire) on a Tiger but missed to have the Tiger hit it only to see damage being a Fire which crewed put out (left with 2 PINs and a 'Down' marker which is sort of Suppression/Halt status).
A JgPzIV got an Ambush of advancing Sherman which it brewed easily and then survived following attacks by 2 Sherman and a Firefly unscathed !
Tanks and guns are graded fairly broadly from Very Light to Super Heavy but it does seem to work with more nuance than in Rapid Fire.
Certainly a quick playing system although I have yet try Indirect HE fire and Assaults (which are an all or nothing affair).
Whether its has enough detail to sustain interest compared to Battlegroup Normandy or Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier sets etc remains to be seen but so far enjoyable time with the toys.
Think it would be fairly easy to teach.




Initial British advance

Sherman troop heads into village street

Fellow troop behind a rise

Panzer Grenadiers about to trample wheat

Tiger moves down road

British consolidate in village

Jagdpanzer IV brews a Sherman but outnumbered

Panzer Grenadiers arrive in force (Order dice showing)

Tiger and Sherman duel (M4 lucky to survive)

Overall views

Christmas goodies

Busy past few days with Christmas and work so not much done but did manage to acquire couple of tasty looking board wargames namely:

















No Retreat! The North African Front

The Hunters: German U-Boats 1939-43 (in post) a nice looking solo game

Am now off for a full week (huzza) so hoping to get a game going on the table I set up, which seems ages ago, with at least a couple of WWII sets as planned.

Field Of Glory Napoleonics game

Played a game of FOGN today st Stephens using 1814 Prussians against his 1814 French.
French were attacking but got no extra units and the terrain feel rather well for me (although I had two open flanks.
I placed a Cavalry Division in Reserve status (ie off table).
French moved against my right flank with Light Horse forcing me into Square with French Infantry bearing down on them. However my Reserve Cavalry Division arrived at earliest opportunity (ie successful roll on turn 2 arriving on turn 3) and with a unit of Hussars and a large unit of Cuirassiers supported by a Horse Artillery Battery the French approach on my right turned into a tout suite Retirement away from my fresh units.
Both lines then battered each other at Medium range with French unwilling to assault my units on hills and evading the Cavalry.
We ran out of time and so as defender 'winning' draw was mine. Really enjoy FOGN although there a lot of tactics we are still learning with attachments and suchlike.

Rather poor bunch of iPhone pics (and I forgot to take image of my Cavalry)

WWII rules play test set up

Set up a fairly intricate Normandy style table today with a view to testing out a couple of rules sets I have not tried or only dabbled with/neglected using my 15mm British and Germans.
Hoping to get some time over holiday period.
Have not selected the actual forces as yet as need to decide which set to try first.
Also gives me a chance to field some newer terrain bits I have obtained recently including a 4Ground MDF church.

That was the easy part now comes the much harder choice of which of these rule sets to test out !!!

Fantasy interlude

After failing to get together with RPG group the last few weeks due to work (and they have just started a Runequest game which I am interested to see in action) I did manage a little fantasy-fest with my son and father. Steven home from University for holiday period and arrived back with a simplistic but fun Hobbit game (sort of Talisaman-lite) and several decks of Magic The Gathering (a game I have not played in couple of decades).

Hobbit was nice short little interlude/filler game with nice components but very luck dependent and minimal strategy input by players.

Magic was however a very satisfying game (we played three 3-player games).
I used a 'black' Swamp manna deck (sort of undead based) my Dad a 'blue' Water manna based deck and Steven a couple of different decks (Green and a mixed type).
Seemed to be a fairly recent version so don't know how much if anything has changed from early version.
Has put me in mind to dig out my old Battletech card game was has similar game play with addition of some dice rolling in combat.

Combat Commander again

Another two Combat Commander scenarios played with my Dad tonight. 

Both rather tough scenarios for one side it seemed to us. 

I had Russian airbourne in 1943 who had a torrid time against superior numbers of Germans and two of those damn MG42s (HMGs). 

In the second scenario it was my Dads Germans who had a rough time again in 1943 against some tough Russian Commando types in a built up area.

Usual mix of events and occurrences that Combat Commander generates for fun game time though.

Hoping to try Pacific version next time.