First Bolt Action Game

Now then,

The Youth surprised me this morning, when as he was going out the door to school, he asked if I could set up a game for when he gets in!!!  He wants to be the Soviets, which is fine by me.

Gaming with non gamer's or young uns!

Here's my take on it. The most important thing is preparation. To that end I have made some bits and bobs, to make things as easy as possible. Obviously the armies are sorted out, points worked out and reference sheets all done and ready.

Pin markers. These are actually blast markers that I made for epic, but they will serve nicely I think.

Dice cup. I couldn't find anything else, so my "Dads Army" teacup will have to do!

 The cup easily hold about 20 of my homemade BA dice.

German platoon, Pl HQ, 3 squads Grenadiers, MMG team, and a sniper team.

Soviet forces. Pl HQ, Free 12 man conscript squad, 2 LMG squads, 1 10 man SMG squad, MMG squad Light Mortar team and a sniper team!

The massive stone Die, turn marker!.

The mission we will play will be Scenario 2 from the rulebook, Maximum attrition. This one sounds like it will provide suitable carnage. The game needs to as straightforward as possible, so no extra rules etc.

In this mission, no forces are set up initially, half your troops are in reserve and the other half are in the first wave. When troops receive an order, they move onto the table, with either an advance or run.

The beginning of the game saw both sides running into position, The German platoon commander ordered his MG42 team over to his left, to cover that side and the remaining forces moved into the center. The Soviets hastily moved their support weapons into position, with the Soviet sniper taking up a position ready to threaten the MG42 next turn.

The Soviet sniper got the first shot off, and shot one of the MG42 team,  placing a pin marker on it. The return fire was way off its mark. The rest of the troops on both sides moved onto the table, or moved into
position ready for next turn.

The MG42 team took another casualty from sniper fire, before the remaining gunner went to ground. It was to stay that way for the rest of the game, all the while harassed by the sniper. On the soviet side, combined rifle fire and a little bit of help from the light mortar pinned down and hampered the Grenadiers.

The game turned into a long range exchange of fire with the Soviet forces taking heavy casualties, but in the end Soviet manpower overwhelmed the Germans and by games end the German platoon was in a desperate position and withdrew.

Thoughts

The game flowed along at a good pace, despite it being our first game, and trying to teach it to the lad, however he still beat me in the end, the little git. We got a few of the rules wrong, such as order tests for pinned troops etc, but it was good to push some figures about and roll some dice!

He wants another game tomorrow too, we have decided on a Spartan vs Athenian battle using basic impetus.

Cheers
Steve