Boltaction - Great war pt:2

 

 Germany counter attacks, playing the Gas team and Night attack card the Germans surge across no mans land to dislodge the off balance French after their failed assault.

Key scenario rules:

- Night fighting

- Siege artillery, French barrages cause a large blast on a 5+ rather than a 6+

Gas teams are a free and special unit that can only be brought on via a card, they have a 1 in 3 chance of dropping a Gas cloud on the enemy or a 1 in 6 chance of dropping it on their own troops, they get forward deployment like an observer.

One of the unique units for BA: Great war is the Trench raider squad, intended as a forward harassment and assault unit it has tough fighters, field craft and forward deployment. Throughout the game we discussed and argued the pros and cons and decided that the unit should instead get the ranger rule allowing them a 12inch head start as well as counted field craft for wire only and a 5-10 man squad size instead of 5 only. 

 

France started the battle with a volley into the dark, trying to hit the Trench raiders and Gas team, however they were unable to see them. 

The Trench raiders then counter attacked, passing through the wire and defeating a rifle squad in Melee, being unable to fire as they spent their action trying to shoot in the turn.

With the skirmishing over, the German gas shells landed and waves of German infantry poured forward to assault the trenchline as the Gas team tried and failed to pour their gas into the French trenchline.

French Riflemen moved forward on the German left to put shots into the Veteran squad but missing in the dark, the Veterans then moved foward in their activating and the following turn charged, wiping out the French Regulars.

I FORGOT to take more photos, the game ended turn 5 as the German Veterans and flamethrower overan the Trenchlines on the Left and Right flanks.

Germany lost 390pts whilst the French lost 720pts.

Boltaction - Great war pt:1

  Having fought out plenty of WWII I wanted to try out something different so I picked up some Wargames Atlantic WW1 Germans, which are nice cheap models. I 3d printed some weapons teams and modified the unit profiles from standard boltaction to reduce the number of LMG's and SMG's. I also adopted some national special rules for Germany (Improved artillery barrage) and France (Rerolling morale tests) from the soviets.

 The campaign works around a simple 10,000 point resource pool that drains from battlefield losses and losing key strategic points in the trench network, that being the Depots (Additional 1000pts) and the HQ (Additional 2000pts). Drawing from a deck of cards players got bonus' they can use in the battle to try and break the deadlock.

Ace	Forlorn hope	Don’t deduct losses from this battle
2	Shell Shortage	The other player suffers a -1 to their Dice roll to bring in artillery barrages and preliminary barrage
3	Siege artillery support	Units are hit by a large blast on a 5+ rather than a 6+ when an artillery barrage arrives
4	Defensive preparations	Get a free bunker
5	Night time wire teams	Remove or add d3 wire obstacles
6	Infiltration tactics	A single veteran infantry unit can outflank
7	Machinegun company	Add an additional free Machinegun team or LMG to a squad
8	Night attack	This game is fought using the Flare scenario
9	Air support	Get a free forward air observer
10	Artillery corps support	Get a Free artillery observer
Jack	Gas corps support	Get a free Gas canister team
Queen	Hugging the preliminary barrage	3 infantry or teams can deploy like snipers and observers
King	Reinforcements!	Gain 1000points to total manpower
Joker	Reallocated resources	Redraw

The campaign begins with a French attack, using a bonus card which meant they didn't take casualties this turn.

The French preliminary barrage didn't break down any of the wire obstacles, the infantry surged forward any way.

Using their new Gas weapons the French fired onto the German trenchlines and supressed the German infantry, eventually causing a failed morale test and a FUBAR driving a rifle squad from the field.

German reinforcements poured in to control the breach with the Lt. valiantly holding the line, the french tried to move their Flamethrower forward but a Rifle squad of ambush locked them down.

A MMG then poured its fire into the lone advancing French Rifle squad on the left flank wiping it out in 2 turns.

German Storm troopers plugged the gap stabilising the front as a huge melee developed on the extreme right flank.

The German Riflemen were spooked by the supporting Storm troopers and fubar'd again shooting the Storm troopers!

The German Flammenwerfer came on as the last unit on turn 6 and wiped out a French infantry squad.

The game ended turn 6, with the Germans winning 3:1 against the French. However due to the French card they didn't take losses, but the Germans lost 300 points from their Global total.

Combined arms - Normandy! Log entry 7

  Mopping up the Channel

With the initial assault scattered or routed the Germans now aimed to reinforce their battlehardened forces, the campaign is counting down with 5 VP's to 1 in Germany's favour with only 9 cards left in the deck, so unless the allies come back absolutely swinging so long as germany can hold the line they'll win. 

The fleets meet off of the coast of England, aiming to cut passage through the channel the Kriegsmarine attacked the reinforcement point fpr the Royal navy.

 The RN won the setup and first turn roll off, the Kriegsmarine set out un dismayed and got off an first turn salvo from the Tirpitz putting 8 damage and a critical engine hit on the Warspite.

The following turns saw the Kriegsmarine using smoke to screen the Tirpitz whilst the Koln and Koenigsburg began shooting apart thr RN destroyer screen.

RAF Hurricanes dove into the swarm of JU88's and ME109's and were throughly chewed up and spat out.

The RN charged the centre alongside their cruisers as the KM cruisers began their fires against the Tribal classe destroyers.

Having swept away the Hurricanes the JU88's closed on the Dido and a Tribal class destoyer, losing a single flight to AA the remaining bombers dive bombed and sunk their targets. The 109's closed with the swordfish torpedo bombers and wiped them out.

Screened against the fire of the warspite the Tirpitz unsuccessfully tried to sink some Tribal class destroyers however the Zestörers and light cruisers succeeded in crippling one and sinking another.

The final kill shot of the game was the bismark annihilating the Leander class whilst the Zerströyers moved into a Torpedo run on the Warspite.

With the final allied fleet sunk the Kriegsmarine controlled the channel blocking any troop transports ending the campaign.

Combined arms - Normandy! Log entry 6

   We rolled No mans land for the land battle, I brought a Brummbar in addition to a Marder III (still have to pay the pts). Instead of using tank war lists, we just get to take an additional tank slot unit in a standard reinforced platoon.

I used the Free air observer card, whilst the allies played a fanatics card making all infantry and teams fanatics this game, however they cannot retreat so will be destroyed if they lose this battle.

Start of the Game, Germany castled up in the corner farm with the Brummbar and Marder III in reserve alongside 2 infantry squads, whilst the USA deployed in the centre, keeping 2 infantry squads, a jeep and a Bazooka team in reserve to outflank.

Ends of Turn 2 both sides had largely rallied from the Preliminary bombardment.

The US Heavy Mortar nailed the MMG team but only killed 1 member and they passed their Morale of a 5.

Turn III the Jeep ran on the threaten the Marder III flank with HMG fire but was countered by Grenadiers in reserve taking 4 Panzerfausts.

Bottom of turn III the German armour had come on, the Nebelwerfer had missed and would continue to miss every shot this game.

The Stuart charged, seeking out a flank shot on the Brummbar only to roll a 1.

Soon afterward the Marder reversed and put a shot into its side blowing it up.

Then the Forward air observers fought it out Hand to Hand with the Germans winning.

End of turn 4 all reserves were on the table with Germany leading 4 Nil

Having wiped one squad ad the AT Gun the Brummbar turned and wiped another squad at point blank range.

Then the LT moved forward with his Batman to mop up the remnants of the US infantry squad after a lucky Mortar strike. 

Ending with an 8 Nil game turn 5 because the BBQ was finished, the Germans now controlled the mainland, the Allies reinforce themselves with a fleet.

Combined arms - Normandy! Log entry 5.1 - Tactical Discussion

I'm always trying to improve my game, having not played very much VaS despite owning it since release day I really love the game and really enjoy that I can play it during the campaign.

Below we see the approximate movements of the fleet during the game and after some thought I can recognise areas where my tactics were weak and other areas where they are strong.

1. (Red Line) Starting with the Star of the show the Tirpitz (BB), During the game I used smoke from the Destroyers and Damaged Konigsberg to mask her from fire from the Warspite, this allowed me to focus my BB fire on the Allied Cruisers as they closed. A bigger discussion came up during the game 'where's the terrain?' and I believe I'm correct to assume terrain in game of VaS are rare, this leads us further to the discussion on how we're supposed to protect or mask our fleet? SMOKE. The Smokescreen laid down by the Destroyers and Cruisers was extremely effective at allowing my BB to defeat the enemy fleet in detail, avoiding the Armour piercing fire of the Warspite until my own destroyers had made a Torpedo run on the Warspite.

2. (Yellow) During the game my use of my Cruisers was Subpar, the Konigsberg suffered immensely from fire from the Warspite and Leander class Cruiser as I didn't effectively screen it and it was force to turn and retreat from the table, causing little or no damage throughout the battle.

The Koln (Orange) Moved far to closely towards the Tribal class destroyers with their 8 Torpedoes each, the Koln was effectively sunk from Torpedo salvoes without causing much harm at all.

This leads my thinking in another direction, their fast track twinlinked Main guns were built to fight destroyers. In the Map below I've drawn an Orange line to show the direction both cruisers should have moved, getting a broadside view of the Tribal class destroyers. A broadside view, plus fast track means at short range I'd be hitting on 4+ whilst myself being hit on a 5+ by the tribals weak (No crits) light guns meaning in a gun duel with the Tribals the Koenigsburg and Koln would have come out on top.

3. The Destroyers (Red) I think I used well, using them to screen my own BB from Tribal class destroyers and once they were dealt with slipping through the centre and launching a torpedo run on the Warspite.

4. Bombers, I wasn't sure how to use the Bombers properly. I disadvantaged myself by not bringing any fighter cover, next time I think I need to bring some to cover the bombers. 

Combined arms - Normandy! Log entry 5

A massive furball of fighting turn 11, the allies reinforced whilst Germany battled. This means the Germans got to pick the fight, I chose not to do an air battle simply mainly because I wanted to play Victory at sea.

Tonight we played Victory at sea, the Kriegsmarine penned the allies into the coast and pressed the attack. The Kriegsmarine rolled Maximum attrition, they had to destroy more of their opponent than they themselves lost. Whilst the Allies rolled priority target and had to try and sink the Tirpitz and cause maximum damage themselves.

The RN had to deploy first, the KM bundled up in a corner to Destroy the opposing fleet in detail.

The Tirpitz began the battle with a long range broadside, hitting the Dido and causing a catastrophic explosion wiping it out turn 1.

The RN Tribal Class destroyers sink the Koln with volleys of Torpedoes whilst the fighters and bombers duelled above.

The JU87's feinting towards the Warspite now turned and bombed the Destroyers closing on the German Destroyers.

The Lumbering bombers now made their run on the Tirpitz, missing with all their bombs and losing 2 bomber wings to AA fire.

The Koenigsburg ran off of the board as it was one hit away from Crippled.

The German Destroyers now began with Torpedo work firing 24 Torpedoes into the Warspite pummelling it, however that torpedo belt did a lot of work.

The Tirpitz continued its work, with its big guns exchanging Brutal volleys with the Warspite

The Battleship dual continued from turn 6 to 8 ending with the Warspite crippled and all turrets destroyed.

The Kriegsmarine lost 137.5 points, whilst the Royal navy lost 606.5 points leading to a clean Kriegsmarine win.

With nowhere for the ship and infantry in transports to run they were both destroyed automatically.

Next game the Germans launch and armoured assault on the Communication bunker!