r/boltaction

Had a nice match of german infantry vs british armor and mechanized infantry.
The dice really were against the brits, theey could not killed anything for 4 turns and their reinforcements would not show up. The germans picked them of and their artillery hurt the arriving troops in turn 5.

A clear, but hard fought for victory for the germans.
With the objectives in the last turn and killed dice as victory requirementit was a 14-7 for them.

I didn't get very much, since I was on a bit of a budget and most of the stuff I fancied had been cleared out anyway!

Anyhow, great bunch of lads, offered my kids and me a drink when we went in, were very happy to chat, and I walked away with a free Stahltrupp.

First time doing decals in a while. I like how it turned out!

(Crew to be added later)

Works great, holds all the dice I need can hold 6 shelves each holding approximately 20 infantry models. Files for them can be found of my friends maker work or free at: Mugs Workshop

Just finished the artillery

Finally got the paint where I wanted and gave it a matte clear coat on top. Very happy with how the wash turned out, the paint job definitely “pops” now.

Sitting on top is an unpainted British Airborne NCO. I gotta buy some bases and get a few more paints for that.

First day of the vacation. I don't think I need to disclose my location...

The third Heer rifleman from early World War II. The details are a little softer on this model, likely due to an aging mould. Nevertheless, a delight to paint!

German Riflemen I (3 of 4), produced by Crusader Miniatures. Painted using the Vallejo Model Color range. 25mm base.

Sculpts by RKX Miniatures

Painted up a few platoon commanders for my 3rd Armoured Division.

Took a while but both sides done , based, and magnetized.

Originally, tried to work this in with a different opponent, but because our timing couldn't work out, my other bestie jumped on it as I was telling him about a Grand Tactical game I had been trying to play. He was super enthused and when we saw that we both had the 4th open, we reached out to our FLGS to see if they were planning on being open and what time they would close. Satisfied we could do it, we set to planning.

So prior to army design we talked about wanting to play 2500pts, 8'x6' table, Grand Tactical, and Prepared Positions, because store was only open 10AM-4PM. We talked about ODs, and set no hard limit, but said aim for around 25. With that, we set our lists.

Opponents army: Vets. Vets everywhere. 2 Rifle platoons with Vets. Few regs in specialist slots. Pershing, E8, and a Stuart with Flamer. 25ODs - 1OD (We'll explain this, I promise)
My army: Armored Column with a Recce Platoon and a random M12. Unlike my opponent, I took all regs, one InEx Platoon Commander, and not one, but 2 Veteran Super Pershings. (T29 proxied as a Super) M15 and M16 provided air cover. Every Infantry member had a vehicle to transport them. Recce had 2 Beeps and a Jeep and the main Rifle had 2 M3 HTs. 21 ODs

I thought my opponent was going to bring extra vehicles. He loves his Pershing, so I wanted to punch heavy to survive potentially 2 Armor Platoons. (To the point the original iteration of my list included M36B1 and 2 Hellcats instead of the M12 and 2 Supers. But I hit 31 ODs and decided that was too degenerate.)

Setup, prepared positions, we rolled and got Battle Lines +6". Most of the objectives get centered in the town, one of the KPs is in the tree line. Deployment was fairly back and forth. He stacks the tree side. Pershing, E8, heavy infantry. Then strings along the battle lines and puts the Flamer on the opposite corner. He puts a Bazooka in a 3rd story overlooking the main road and the courtyard. I string out my armor between the tree line and up to the rubble in the "city". M3 HTs were in the center, Beeps and Jeep were in the city. You can kinda see hot this is laid out. Then, he puts out 2 FAirOs and a Sniper. I put out 1 FAirO, mine is hidden because the Sniper got placed after.

Turn 1: Mostly positioning. Because the "short edge" of the table is 6' on this map, we were forced to measure a lot of attempted shots. He creeped to the centerline of the map, and instead of going verticle, I went horizontal to get transports where they needed to go to start discharging troops. FAirO 1 calls strike on T29. FAirO 2 calls strike on M12. Pershing and Super Pershing exchange shots. He misses, I hit but fail to pen. Beeps get the Bazookas close enough to the Flamer Stuart, but could not clinch the deal even though hitting him. Longest term, because neither of us knew where the other was planning. Effectively, taking an hour. We got faster once we had our game plans. He claims three of the KPs, I claimed one.

Turn 2: FAirO 1 plane rolls a 2, doesn't come in. FAirO 2 comes in with a Vet. However, both M3 HTs, M15, and M16 have range. Throw 48 HMG dice, 2 Heavy Autocannon Dice. Plane is Nuked. Opponent now understands the no fly zone. I pop his Sniper, who is in the bell tower overlooking the courtyard in the center of the map, suppressing my FAirO. And his FAirO that called the strike on the M12. No second plane. Infantry and Bazookas exchanging fire in the city, and I lose a Bazooka Team. He makes a heavy, heavy infantry push into the center of the map in an attempt to claim the Top Secret Token. But I've got an Armored Infantry Machine Gun squad in a building overlooking the courtyard and the T29. I now take the most the buildings looking at that courtyard and start whittling down the one squad closest to being able to claim the center objective. The Vet saves doing a ton of heavy lifting, only the lack of cover helping me force him to pick up a model or two per shot, but that's the squad closest to getting Top Secret. 2 more move into the woods with a company commander and another takes a building opposite the courtyard from me. We are set to duke it out over top secret and hold until relieved, but I have a single advantage. The T29. So instead of flanking to the side to hunt his Pershing like he thinks, I push it to the wall and start supporting the middle directly. My FAirO calls a strike on the building on his side of the courtyard. We start exchanging rifle shots on the tree line. Once more, we exchange shots with Pershing and Super Pershing, but nothing. Pins all around. Sniper eats it.

Turn 3: His FAirO strike comes in.... but because of where he put the plane marker... I got to roll 62 dice. I have small hands. I could barely pick up all 62.... it happened, blew his plane away, and I called mine in. All but one M3HT holds their fire, and he has one pintle in range. He gets 2 hits. I get 0. My plane comes in and does tons of pins and plenty of wounds to the squad overlooking the courtyard in the building. His squad in the middle gets wiped and he pushes another squad forward. However, I am no killbot with a limit. I push the T29 mid center and start dumping fire into the courtyard. My IR sprints and claims the last unclaimed KP. The volume of fire from my side is starting to make some of his units falter. But the crack doesn't fully show yet on his side. He still has fighting units and he's starting to make the city defenses collapse. A Beep gets bopped. My squads holding firm in cover. I do not throw a second target for FAirO because no good one is in line of site. His doesn't call in because it went down from an M15 shot. His infantry in the trees are moving toward my DZE though.

Turn 4: Big cracks form. In an exchange of fire, two infantry teams get picked up on his side. T29 pushes further and the Super Pershing has cover behind a church. We are just exchanging shots. Models are getting picked up, but I'm still stationary compared to his moving, but with a number of squads under 35% manning at this point, he's not holding the center and I can push hard. His FAirO targets my M15. His units move to my DZE in the tree line. He puts my IR squad holding my KP down to 1 guy. Still alive after moral check.

Turn 5: Aircraft comes in, I throw 50 dice again, blow it out of the sky. I put the M16 on Ambush watching my DZE. He tried to gun down my one IR trooper on the KP in point blank, but didn't want to charge. But to get there, he moved, hits on 5s, wounds on 4s, but I make every cover save. The T29 moves forward, and nukes that squad in return. There are now none of his units able to contest Hold Until Relieved and he can't attempt to chase Top Secret. I lose a Bazooka and Beep, but we're still holding on. I call FAirO on the building in the courtyard, but don't realize that was a mistake until I realize I can move my main Rifle Platoon units into the center for Hold Until Relieved and Top Secret. I need to shoot down my own plane if he doesn't.

Turn 6: My strike comes in, we both throw enough dice to bring down my plane. My 16 failed his hold fire check. He dealt enough alone to bring it down, I dealt enough alone to bring it down. It got annihilated. I lose a platoon commander and move all my units to the middle. Gunning down what I can and forcing one of his units to get picked up after gaining 10 pins. I am still not entirely sure who will win though, because as I make him pick up a unit, he runs off the board after the ambush catching the squad in the open only picks up 2 models. However none of his other squads can make it. We decide as the round ends, we will each throw 2 dice in the bag. One for each of tanks and see if they get more kills on a turn 7 and that's it, as we reached our own time limit to allow for match cleanup and to be out of the store on time.

Unofficial Turn 7: 4 Dice in the Bag.
My Dice: I go with T29 which is punched into the face of his Pershing. I hit. I pen with a Super Massive, and blow the Pershing.
His Dice: E8 rolls to the side of my Super Pershing, does the exact same thing and blows my Pershing sky high.

GGs.

Score was
Him:
-3 KPs - 9 VPs
-1 Breakthrough Leave - 3 VPs
-6 Units Defeated for 18 Total VPs

Me:
- 2 KPs - 6 VPs
- Hold Until Relieved - 5 VPs
- 11 Units Defeated for 22 Total VPs

I won, 22 to 18. It was super close and we talked about it after, he should have booked it earlier when he realized I was not throwing infantry to the tree line. I was trying to get to his base for Demolition, but just kept getting stalled by his vets. He had I think two more units at least that if they moved a turn earlier, could have made it to score breakthrough. Also, if he hadn't pushed into the center so early, I think it's a more stalemate game until my T29 gets involved in the center. Him hitting on at least 5s when pushing into the center even though I have a horse shoe of units... if he had the ability to move in< collect and run, sure. But the squad that eventually did claim Top Secret, never moved from that spot as they were gunned down. I didn't have to move from my fortifications once the transports dropped my units off in them.

However, Phy, why did you say he was down - 1 OD? Well dear Reader. On turn 1, after we drew his last order, we were extremely confused. We recounted his activations over, and over, and over, and over again. But we could not figure out why he had an "extra". We "searched" each building, in which when I say "search", I would point at a building and ask if he had anything in that one and he would say yay or nay as he picked it up. However, unlike all of his other units, the Bazooka Team he put in the building was on the 3rd floor of building. And we both forgot it. And looking back, if we had both remembered it existed, I think it would have been annoying to one of the M3 HTs and the M15 as they pushed the church on the main road to cut his infantry counter assault into the courtyard again.

We did not find it until we picked up the terrain. Which, do you know what made that even funnier? Prior to the game starting, we found another local's German Spotter inside on of the store's building terrain as well. We had a pretty good laugh about this.

All in all, a fun game. The only reason we went to 2500 points was because we knew we could take the tables and we wanted to have a wild time. I would love to try a GT at our regular 1250 point count. I highly recommend if you get a chance, try Grand Tactical.

Also, I'm absolutely in love with my T29. I need to finish it because I spent most the game staring at it. It's so gorgeous. Thanks for the read.