So in efforts to get more gaming at home I asked my wife if she fanced playing some Bolt Action "yeh sure" she says. It's also an excuse for me to invest in a 2nd Army. She picks British Paras - jolly good!

So to demo the game I went with the following selectors and forces a nice even spread of units and weapons (Sorry Jack - no tanks (yet!)):

Brits - Market Garden (’44) selector - 508
· All Para Units - must be taken as Vets.
· 2nd LT + 2 Men
· 1 NCO + 5 Vet All SMG
· 1 NCO + 5 Vet all rifle
· 1 NCO + 5 Vet rifles + 1 lmg
· Sniper Team Vet (2 men)
· Flamer Team Vet (2 men)
· Free Arty
25 Men total
Rapid Fire rule, for every 3 men in a sq roll 1 extra dice on shooting if all equiped with rifles.
Stubborn - pins dont detract from break test morale.


Finns – Continuation War (’44) selector – 505
· 2nd LT – Pistol
· Continuation War Rifles, 1 NCO + SMG, 6 Regs, 1 SMG, 1 LMG
· Continuation War Rifles, 1 NCO, 6 Regs, 1 LMG, Tough Fighters
· Sissi Recon Squad – 1 NCO, 6 Vets, 1 LMG, Tough Fighters
· MMG - Reg
· Sniper Team – Vet
27 Men total

Board layout:


Bit sparse of scenery but the objective was to capture and hold the small building in the middle.

Turn 1
Snipers on both sides and Her Arty setup.

Helens setup hidden, while my sniper brazenly sits atop the hill.

D1 - 3 H runs on 3 units in a row trying to cover some distance.
D4 - My first dice and my sniper springs into action.... *KRACK* One of her riflemen fall.
D5 - Her sniper returns fire revealing himself but taking out my spotter!
D6 - 9 we both run on units vying for good postions
D10 - H paces her Arty marker slap bang between by MMG and Rifles.
Rest of the Turn is spent running the remaining squads into position.

State of play at the end of Turn 1:

Awesome. That's always good!

Turn 2
D1 - Turn 2 starts with my MMG opening up on H's rifles out in the open, BAM! One kill and a pin.
D2 - The Sisi recon continue their move up the left into an ambush position with los to the buildings entry points.
D3 - My sniper seeks vengance! aaaaaaand fails his check, clearly too rocked at the loss of his buddy.
D4 - My rifles & LMG openfire on her rifle squad, rifles at long range - lmg bang on. Rifles score 1 kill, LMG scores 2 ratatatatatatatata.
H's rifles need a break test... but whats this Brit Paras are Stubborn? No pin deductions on break tests? Passed like a boss the remaing rifles stand strong!
D5 - H's flamer makes a dash for the next available cover making it easily.
D6 & D7 - H's LT & SMG's takes cover behind the crashed Rhino woods - avoiding the Sisi ambush.
D8 - H's sniper can see the Fiin LT! BOOOM H-H-H-HEADSHOT he falls.
D10 & 11 - H's remaining rifles take cover in the shadow of the building while my 2nd rifle squad flanks round the fallen KV-1
D12 - Arty HIT! blowing my MMG to fleshy chunks and dealing 3 pins to my rifles behind the wall *its at this point we clock it should have hit at the start of the turn... oh well live & learn.

View from either end at the conclusion of T2.

Turn 3
Arty rolls a miss/delay - the marker gets moved between my 2 rifle squads on the right.
D1 - H runs her flamers from cover into the building, dangerous times to be getting close to that place!
D2 - I rally the rifles and remove the pins from the Arty.
D3 - Sisi Advance and ambush again with a better view of the house, hoping to keep the LT + SMG's at bay.
D4 - H's 2 remaining rifles open fire from the rear of the building on the Sisi and miss shooting way wide, Stubborn they may be but they're too shook to shoot straight.
D5 - My sniper fails his test again, he's still crying and clutching the bleeding remains of his spotter!
D6 - H's sniper shoots at my sniper missing!
D7 - My closest rifles open fire on H's sniper team taking their number down to 1.
D8 - H's rifles down the right open fire on the flanking Finn rifles - LMG hits and kils 2.
D9 onwards - I've not noted thes last few dice DOH - but H's LT flanks round the trees, more fire is exchanged between other units without casualty.

End of Turn 3:

Turn 4
Arty miss/delay again but the marker remains firmly next to my Finns!
D1 - Helens remaining 2 rifles regain composure and land a hit on the Sisi - just a pin this time though.
D2 - H's LT + Men finish their flanking manouver and inflict casualty and pins on the Sisi with some rapid SMG fire.
D3 - My sniper regains his sences and takes a snap shot at the Para sniper, *kechow!* it zips off the stone by his head inflicing only a pin.
D4 - The flanking Finn rifles take out the remaning 2 para rifles who bravely faught on.
D5 - My Finn rifles behind the wall open up on the building inflicting one casualty on the flamer unit.
D6 - H's Para SMG's move out of cover and fire on the advancing Sisi 10 hits! Only 2 kills resulting on these Finns of stone.
D7 - Sisi all fired up after being fired upon pass their test & assault the SMG squad and yet only manage to topple 1 Para - then promptly get destroyed in the return battle by the SMG Paras.
D8 - H's flamer fails to pass it's test to move upstairs.
D9 - H's sniper is made of stone - none of this crying over spilt spotter blood. Shoots but misses my sniper.

No pic here I FORGOT.

Turn 5
Helen rolls a 6 and the Arty hits! She follows this up with another 6! 12" of heavy howitzer pummeling ensues o_O

All my remainging units are hit in the blast radius and wiped out. Every. Last. Man.

Helen also looses her lone flamer in the building & her heroic SMG squad.

She wins. I have nothing but small shreds and lumps of my men covering the countryside.

The final shot:


As a result an outstanding demo game, she enjoyed it so much it's now a bi-weekly feature on the calendar. She's also invested in some troops lightening the burden on my pockets somewhat The only downside is it's more for me to paint!

Great report. Those Arty's are deadly when they hit.