Bolt Action Tournament Battle Report – British vs Americans (2nd Edition) – 1000 Points

Roll a 4, 5 or 6 to hit…

All the numbers are here, except the numbers that would actually hit. 8 LMG shots all needing 4s or better to hit.

…Yep, that is pretty much how the entire game went.

Now this was my second game in the Bolt Action Tournament Series at Council Fires 2016. This is the same tournament as what I wrote a Battle Report about earlier. We rolled to be on the same table as before, but this time, I was the defender in a different scenario. This time we played Surrounded and my opponent was Jeremy.

My forces were the exact same as in the last game…

• One First Lieutenant (Veteran)
• One Forward Observer (Regular)
• Two 5 man Infantry Squads with 3 SMGs each with Anti-tank Grenades (Veteran)
• One 10 man Infantry Squad with 1 SMG and 1 LMG (Veteran)
• One PIAT Team (Veteran)
• One Flame Thrower Team (Veteran)
• Two Universal Carriers as Transports with 2 LMGs Each (Veteran)
• One Universal Carrier as a Recce Vehicle with 2 LMGs (Veteran)
• One Sherman III Tank (Veteran)

My British Tournament Army for Bolt Action.

Jeremy’s 1000 Point American Army consisted of…

• One First Lieutenant
• Three fully kitted out Infantry Squads with the maximum amount of men
• One Sherman

Given the size of Jeremy’s units, I figured that this game would be a blood bath for my forces. My key strategy out of the gates was to take out his Sherman to eliminate his anti-tank capability and go from there. For my deployment, I placed a full sized platoon at the base of the building in the middle, an observer on the second level, a five man squad on the third floor and a five man infantry squad just outside of the building in a Universal Carrier. Jeremy’s first wave came on as pictured below.

Jeremy’s forces came on the board pretty close together. I managed to call in an artillery strike where that coin is. Jeremy fretted for a bit, but the marker floated off the table resulting in no bombardment.

With a nice grouping like that, I called in an artillery strike, but the artillery missed its mark and floated off the table. It would have been a nice hit if the dice were on my side.

At the top of turn two, I brought in a Recce Universal Carrier to flank his side of the table.

Here, my reader can see the house in the middle where my units deployed. Jeremy is pouring fire into the universal carrier just outside the house but has not landed any damaging hits with the big gun on his tank. On the bottom right, my second Universal Carrier enters the field and fires on that infantry squad in the open with 2 LMGs.

I asked Jeremy why he was keeping the infantry squad behind the tank and not rushing for houses or other cover. He stated it was simply to prevent me from bringing my Sherman in behind his. Well played. The tactic worked.

Having Changed my focus to the other side of the table, Jeremy occupied one of the buildings on the opposite side of the board. I retaliated by bringing on a Universal Carrier and deployed a flame thrower team close to the house. I rolled for four chances to hit the target.

Yep… That was my roll. One hit on four dice when I only needed 2s to hit. The Flame Thrower’s target would then execute the team through a hail of bullets.

I laid some covering fire elsewhere looking for 4s or better to hit, but hit nothing.

Above is an image of how my British forces looked at this point in the game. I brought on my tank, but was not being aggressive with it. Instead, I was hid it from the American Sherman. My Sherman spent its time firing at both of the far buildings in the picture above. Jeremy had infantry in both of those buildings. The tank is aiming at the house on the left now as that is where Jeremy’s Command team is hiding. The building in the middle with the roof off has a ton of British Infantry occupying it and the carrier just outside of the building has a few pins on it from the American Sherman’s main-gun fire, but is holding on well.

Jeremy’s forces are concentrated on this area of the board at this point in time. One of his full-man squads is now down to 8 guys and 2 pins thanks to my Recce Universal Carrier and he is starting to move his rear forces up the road. Inside the house is his Command Team.

Deciding it was time to do something about that tank, I rush a Carrier up and popped out a PIAT Team. The PIAT misses and the American Infantry make short work of them.

Continuing its focus on the parked carrier by the house, the Sherman finally lands a penetrating hit and destroys the unit. The occupants manage to escape unscathed.

This is the final image of the game. The command team in the house moved out to make room for a team that is now cut down to seven men. The tank moves forward to take care of my Universal Carrier and my Commander jumps out in the interest of self preservation. My Sherman is still on the board, but has been relatively ineffective. Jeremy would destroy both my Carrier and the Lieutenant this round.

Jeremy walked away as the victor in this game. In this scenario, the win conditions are that one force has to kill two more units than the other side. Jeremy lost no units while I lost 5 (2 Universal Carriers, a Flame Thrower Team, a PIAT Team, and my Lieutenant). Overall, it was a good game, but I think I should have played more aggressively. It is kind of a risky game on my part in that I have just one squad big enough to take on an American squad in a toe-to-toe assault.

I also encountered the issue that my dice just weren’t rolling like they should. I had a lot of really bad rolls through out this tournament series. It is a good thing that I mainly play for fun.As an interesting side note, Jeremy owns Forbes Hobbies (the store that sponsored this tournament) and also happens to be the very guy that sold me my dice. I wonder if he hexed them before I even bought them.  🙂

For those somewhat local to Cambridge (Ontario, Canada), Forbes Hobbies is looking at doing a tournament in late January in their store. Tentatively, the date is set for Saturday, January 28 (2017) and the games are to be with 1000 Point Painted Armies. It would be great to see gamers from the London, Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara areas make it out to this event. Of course, be sure to check with the store before just showing for a tournament.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

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