Hope for the Reich

We were going to be doing Dystopian Wars using Simon's huge collection but his Second Edition rulebook didn't turn up so we swapped for Bolt Action instead. I had hoped to play British as my main force in Bolt Action but that is not happening and more often than not I find myself on the Russian steppes in mid 1943, failing like the real Heer in holding back the Red Bear. I really am rubbish at WWII.

Anyway, I decided to use some of the vehicles which never get a look in so I took three squads of infantry, a sniper, two MMG's, a motorcycle combination, a SdKfz 250/1 and a SdKfz 7/1 with a quadruple flak mounted on the back end, this left panzerfausts as the only anti-tank weapons for my grenadiers. My plan was, as before, to kill the Soviet infantry with massive firepower.

We had three objectives to capture, Simon sat a sniper on one, a house within his half of the table while the other flank objective looked like a shoe in for me, the mid objective on the road junction was going to be a struggle. I decided to send a squad to the house supported by the 7/1 which I hoped would destroy any infantry in its path, the rest of my troops hugged centre right, they hugged it even more when a KV1 trundled along the road. The tank sat near the middle objective for the rest of the game, however it cannot hold it as that can only be done by infantry, and artillery as we found out later.

 I had the right flank objective well covered by machine guns and advanced on the left, only to find that none of my men could hit a barn door, never mind kill it, even the quad was useless, I moved the squad up with the idea of assaulting the building and clearing out the sniper. Simon countered and shot them to pieces as 20mm shells went everywhere but into his men. I had the right flank objective and now moved everyone I could towards the centre, I managed to kill off a Russian squad and hit the tank with a couple of panzerfausts which sadly merely scratched the paint.

As my 7/1 was flak artillery it managed to contest the left hand objective, I also had a squad close enough to contest the centre which left me with the right hand prize and a win, although it didn't feel like a win. I did enjoy getting the vehicles on the table despite the fact only the 250/1 managed to do any damage and I certainly would consider them for support in the future, but with different dice, the panzerfausts are an excellent anti tank weapon and cannot be ignored by enemy armour.

The club was once again full, two boardgames, Sharpe Practice 2, Black Powder Napoleonics and a large Saga Cross and Crescent game. Next week is War and Conquest with the Twelfth taking on the Successors again.

The Soviets try to claim the road junction.

I take the right flank.

Bitter combat around the junction.

The photos once again are courtesy of Simon as I forgot my iPad and camera, I really am getting worse.