The Secret is Out

After last weeks debacle on the Eastern Front we returned there last night, a straight up fight over some secret plans which had been left in an aircraft which had had the misfortune to be shot down, not having a crashed aircraft a quaint Italian truck had to do.

I upped the points value so that we could get some vehicles on the table, also as there were four of us we needed to have a couple of decent units each, this turned out a mistake in a three hour club game. I have come to the conclusion that we have to fight Bolt Action as it was intended at the club, a one vs one game, in order to get something finished in the time available and leave fully satisfied it has to be done that way. I can do much larger games at home with multiple players but the club is not the place for it.

Anyway, that being said the secret plans were in the centre of the table, it was presumed we would fight long ways but I didn't see the point of that so we merely came on across from each other, another mistake. Although to be fair long ways with transport would have resulted in pretty much the same result unless we ditched the roads.

The Russians got the first dice out of the bag and before you could say Jacques Merde were at the objective, a gnashing of teeth followed. I threw my little armoured car towards the objective with the idea of shooting the Russians before they could find the papers, it only managed to put some bullet holes in the truck before it fell victim to some captured panzerfausts, not what I had in mind. We recovered as the game progressed and threw everything into the Soviet squad at the objective, so much that it went to ground, it then became almost impossible to hit it.

A T34 rumbled on in support and loosed off a few shots but didn't do much in the way of damage, I decided to be a devil and moved my Panzer IV up to take a shot at it as the Russians now had nothing near enough apart form the T34 to knock it out. Paint chips flew from the T34 but it was immobilised, my second shot killed it dead, revenge for my 222. We lost a squad which was out in the open but the Russians around the objective were taking a lot of heat and the pins were building up. The bell went and we found we had only completed three turns, the Russki's therefore had more than enough time to run off with the secret folder. I thought we had a slim chance of either killing or pinning whoever had the papers if we got the right draw on the dice thereby preventing an escape but I was clutching at straws.

I did manage to get several vehicles on for this game, I had the tank and armoured car along with a PAK 40, a truck and a Hanomag, it was nice seeing these on the battlefield at last. Elsewhere we had another WWII game with Battleground Normandy, Frostgrave and Dave and Clive with their usual boardgame.

I am hoping the dour postman is bringing me more goodies today, also I did the right thing with Gripping Beast they are processing my order as I type, so I am going with the cavalry. I am going to try a black primer with the horses this time, something I have not done before, so that will be interesting, everyone seems to have nicer horses than me, mind you, I do not like painting horses, who does?

Here are my first Foederati unit, although there is a fair bit of armour and shiny metal on them they are not the Nobles also the back rank when I get the figures will not contain any armoured troops at all, this should differentiate both warbands nicely.