The SS move up on mass, as the Heer are destroyed in hand to hand




The Stuka (Thanks Dad...gone but still gaming) pounces on the Mortar team

Turn 3
*out of game* To update, Gazza had to call off his attendance of the game but Chris (irollones)took his place, knowing that he had interest in the system I called up Karl (2karl) to take my place, I was then on notes duty and left to do the report so here it is. As you may know Bolt Action uses a Dice selection system, where they are drawn from a bag I will note what colour was pulled then add a little embellishment of action, RED is soviet and BLACK is German/SS.

RED
The Heavy machine gunner gritted his teeth and opened up on the Stuka as it began to pull out of its dive (+1 pin)

BLACK
SS squad on the right side of the road NCO screams at his men to charge the LMG squad hiding in the woods, the closing fire takes out enough to make the difference and the brutal hand to hand sees the end of the SS. (5 of the 11 LMG remain)

RED
The remaining two mortar crew fire on the instruction of the spotter but miss wildly.

RED
The rookies (free rifle squad) open up on the advancing SS and nail one of the swine.

BLACK
The Medium machine gun hidden in the creator opens fire on the hated NKVD and wastes another 2 as they dive in to the wooded cover

BLACK
MMG no 2 fires again at the weakened NKVD and another falls, after testing for morale they hold their ground.

RED
Advancing the Cavalry Squad open up on an MMG team killing a crew member.


RED
NKVD which had suffered a lot of damage failed a command and hit the deck.

RED
Assault engineers race on to the battlefield and head straight for the bridge.

BLACK
The mortar crew fire blind into the woods and miss soviet troops by the smallest of margins.

BLACK
SS lieutenant and his lackeys move up and fire on the Soviet cavalry squad removing one.

BLACK
SS Flamethrower crew move into the woods and walk into an NKVD ambush, they are totally destroyed with out firing. ( thats NKVD 1...Flamethrower 1)

RED
With the smell of frankfurters in the air the Soviet lieutenant sets to ambush.

BLACK
The second SS squad on the right charge the remaining troops from the LMG squad and wipe them out then follow up further into the woods to gain a lot of ground.


BLACK
SS squad to the left open up with everything they have on the rookies.....who were not made for war, they hit the deck then started to run as they were mercilessly cut down by the hun.


BLACK
Stuka pilot finally got his plane out of firing line and pulled out ready for another attack.

End turn, tired to show how a turn worked with this, hope it helped. Don't worry all, sure Gazza will be back for turn 5 and 6. Turn 4 to follow soon.

Turn 4

So post tea break and general chat turn 4 could begin

first out of the bag

BLACK
The mortar crew let loose but end up churning up the road some more.

BLACK
The SS squad on the right who had killed the LMG squad pushed on and neared the far side of the woods.

RED
Clocking the move the large NKVD squad in the middle fell back and manged to take out an SS trooper.

RED
The Soviet engineers worked hard and got 3 of the 4 detonators laid in a single turn.

BLACK
The SS lieutenant and company opened up on the Cavalry squad who chose to hit the deck resulting in no deaths.

BLACK
with the terror siren screaming the Stuka dived from the sky and tried to take out the engineers but due to the engineers being down they took no damage, not even a pin.
( we discussed bombs but decided they couldn't be used for risk of blowing the bridge)

RED
The over worked Soviet mortar crew angled themselves towards the nearing SS but missed wildly.

BLACK
The SS MMG locked on to the downed Cavalry squad and managed to mow one down.

RED
The Stuka was to much of a juicy target for the Russian HMG who concentrated hard but still only put a pin on it.

Check out Chris`s bridge great work.

RED
The Soviet leader ushers his flag bearer back towards the bridge fearing a pincer cut off move.


BLACK
The SS on the left flank charge the two lonely NKVD and barbarically slaughter them, leaving the Soviet mmg as the next port of call.


Victory points at this stage are
Soviets 3
SS 5

With that turn 4 was over and it was two turns of vicious fighting with many dead on both sides. Roll on section 3.

So this:

Was a real bad move, I got caught up in the fanatical approach Gazza has been preaching and forgot they were all armed with guns and were well within range to open up with gunfire. My main thought here was just to get booking down the table - punch a hole open and keep going! Damn closing fire!


"yeh still 12inches away" I thought as I finished the move. MWA MWA.

Other than those losses a decent enough 2 turns for the SS and some very good play from Klaus minimising his casualties and keeping me from advancing the support weapons.

Here's my pics in no particular order:

Unable to have made the previous meeting, I was looking forward to seeing what inroads the stand-in Finnish commander (cheers Chris) had made, in closing the gap to the bridge and what our chances of taking it were.

The previous turns had decimated much of the board but there was plenty of SS men still left to easily contest the bridge, my Finnish counterpart had done a great job and as Turn 5 got under way both sides knew this could be the go that would ultimately decide the battle.

Turn 5. Eye For An Eye.

NKVD aren't a particularly favourite unit of mine. NKVD squads all kitted out with SMG's I like even less, especially as 18 shots suddenly engulfed one of my last SS squads. Red dice out first meant a whole heap of fire-power thrown at me and I was thankful to only see 2 of the squad killed.

As always, German reprisals were swift. With the flanking move down the RH side of the board now stalling and thinning in numbers, the LH side unit now ran, reducing the gap to the bridge and putting just that little bit of self-doubt into Russian minds that they may yet lose the mission at the death . MMG fire then indiscriminately thudded into tree and cavalryman, taking down one of the horsemen and causing an additional pin (the cavalry were now starting to amass a fair amount of pins). Mortar fire landed harmlessly, the Russian flag bearer almost laughing at the ineptness of the SS crew. Overhead the Stuka banked, ready to return for another shooting next turn, as it turned it revealed it's soft underbelly and the Soviet HMG crew opened up on it, but the plane was too swift and the shots all proved ineffective.

Drastic times call for drastic measures, sometimes dramatic moments need to happen. The NKVD squad was destroying anything that came near it and had to be stopped. German and Finnish Generals discussed (over a nice cup of tea) that the weakened SS unit should charge and go toe-to-toe with the dreaded SMG armed unit, it was a 10 vs 6 match-up in the Russians favour! The axis forces were putting there trust in the dice being kind! 9 SS dice were thrown and 6 of the Russians hit the ground, retaliation resulted in 3 SS casualties. But 'Fanatic' meant this was a fight to the death, the final 3 SS men taken another 2 of the NKVD out before the whole Totenkopf squad was no more. Suddenly a unit of 2 NKVD seemed less daunting thanks to devastating Finnish dice-rolling.

The German lieutenant and his retinue took down another cavalryman who were now looking in pretty poor shape, as the 2nd MMG squad began to move up from the rear, thus ending German involvement in the turn. This just left the Russian Mortar to miss and the Red Army Lieutenant to pull back. Which left the Engineers, 3 charges placed, one left, would Rayner get what was needed or would the Germans get more time?

The dice spun a few turns in the box, came to rest and.............well, you'll just have to wait till the beginning of Turn 6's write-up to find out wont you .

Good write up! It's a close game so far, really looking forward to seeing which way the game goes. It's clear the lack of Americans is allowing the Axis forces a glimmer of hope that boost to morale is driving them forward.

turn 5 pics

Soviet Cavalry squad get hammered by Hitlers buzzsaws


Nkvd and SS fight it out.


SS squad advance down the left hand side


The soviet mortar fires as the engineers get to work on the last detonator.

Turn 6. Hurry, hurry, rush, rush!

SS forces now attacked with even more ferocity and haste, the Totenkopf Lieutenant realizing that the last charge had now been set and that the Russian Engineers were moments away from withdrawing from the bridge and blowing it sky high (yep, Rayner had rolled exactly what he needed and the countdown timer was well and truly running).

The LH side unit charged the Soviet MMG, losing 1 on the way in but wiping the weapons team out in yet more brutal close-combat, but the consolidation move was to short and the bridge proved tantalisingly just out of reach. The chatter of an MG34 saw 2 more cavalrymen mown down, there comrades nerve finally broken, the remaining horsemen fled, swallowed up by the dense woodland.

The Engineers were now ready to withdraw to a safe distance, but the screaming sound of the Stuka, once more descending out of the blue skies, had them throwing themselves to the floor as bullets peppered all along the bridge. As the warplane flew past the Red Army squad rose, 2 down! This was a huge point of the game as it now required a test as 25% of the squad was lost, if Rayner failed it the squad would run and the German forces would get at least another turn. Again, Russian, German and Finnish generals watched the dice rattle around the box for what seemed an eternity before coming to rest on a nice low 5. The Engineers nerve had held.

It was a lucky escape, and the lesson learnt wasn't lost on Rayner as with the next Red dice out of the bag he rolled his test for his Engineers to withdraw (they still had a pin on them remember) and again it was nice and low. The Russian unit left the bridge and, BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! For the SS it was indeed, A Bridge Too Far!

The turn was completed by a show of ineffective firing from all units that had still to go. Russian units more interested in retreating and not falling into the hands of the Totenkopf, and the SS tasting failure for the first time in Russia.

Was this the day that the tide would slowly turn?

Result.

Overall Victory: Forces Of Russia.

Victory Points For Units Destroyed:

Russia - 4

Germany - 7

Many thanks to Rayner for yet another quality game. Once turn 6 pictures are up I'm sure there will be the posts pop up concerning the thoughts of the Russian, German and Finnish commanders towards the scenario/game.

Cheers for reading, hope you enjoyed our battle.

Great write up !!!

Excellent write up, close game by all accounts. Have that stuka pilot disciplined, no unit should survive a good dive bombing.

Turn 6 Pics


SS troops make short work of the soviet MMG.


After destroying the MMG the SS follow up towards the bridge.


The engineers move off the bridge and blow it sky hi.


The soviet flag flies in victory!

I'll make a post from a players point of view now and add a writers one at the end when everyone has had a say.

Victory.....so this is what its like,
I owe more to 2Karl than my own skills I think, using the down ability at that time slowed the advance which was already tough for the Germans. I actually build my force round the mission instead of just taking "whats painted" painting the troops as the game went on, it made a huge difference, the smg squads where brutal and stuck fear into the Finnish commander leaving him some harsh choices to make all of which left him cursing.
Although I won on the bridge blow it was far from a sure thing, picking up 3 detonation placements in one turn made it possible, as you can see the blow happened in turn six, if that hadn't of happened the Germans would have won on victory points.
I lost a lot of men but that had to be the case just to hold up and reduce the Germans as much as possible, I had to put all my eggs in to the bridge blow.
Player wise I was very happy with the game, another interesting well fought scenario,if not very tough for the Germans.

Cheers to the other 3 guys for playing. On to the next

German Overview.

Ok, that was hard work for the SS troops and ultimately ended in inevitable defeat, but to just base the whole scenario on the outcome would be churlish of me as it had so much more to it.

Firstly, although it seemed the board was maybe that foot too long and the marshland and road far to restrictive of movement, the game did in fact come down to a nail-biting Turn 6 conclusion. It took a few nerve-shredding dice rolls that this time went for Rayner which had he failed could possibly have seen yet another crushing defeat for the Red Army. Game length/board size all seemed to work superbly.

Another plus was the size of the task taken on by the SS. To play a game where you are massively fighting against the odds is excellent fun, and although it ended in defeat for the Totenkopf the game never once felt a waste of time and continued to be entertaining through all 6 turns.

Rayner pretty much got the whole scenario bang-on. It conveyed the stubborn resistance of the Russian forces, there tactical superiority when it came to fighting in dense woodland, the change in terrain and how it slowed the German advance, and with the Stuka it also gave evidence of the Germans superior air-power.

Could Chris and myself done anymore? Maybe the weapons teams (2 MMG & Mortar) were not great choices, but I picked what I had painted. Also, maybe a bolder approach in turns 1 & 2 may have got me closer (or wiped out) to the bridge, a more aggressive advance instead of the tentative steps that saw me get bogged down slightly in the marshes early on. But in the end, a top notch scenario that could be used in many a games system (Iron Warriors, Iron Cage, Imperial Fists anyone? )

Barbarossa switches to even colder climes for the next scenario. But more on that later................