Lady Luck Continues Her Game

Stewart turned up yesterday for the start of my second go at Two Fat Lardies Operation Martlet but using Bolt Action to fight the battles. Fortified by a lunch of champions, Scottish bridie and beans we set to.

I tried before as I said with these TFL campaigns and didn't get very far blending them with Bolt Action but I wanted to fight something with a plot and they seemed the easiest option, for anyone just visiting I do not like Chain of Command so have defaulted to Bolt Action.

In this particular campaign the Allies (me) have eleven days to take the town of Rauray, their victory or otherwise will depend on when and if they get there, both sides are almost even at the start albeit the German squads have slightly less men, not a huge disadvantage as they are defending, they also get a tank. The British on the other hand get so many points to bolster their forces, you can get two Shermans or one and some other additions. In the first game the British are attacking over a long coverless front. There is a patrol phase in CoC which means you can start fairly close to each other but for Bolt Action I had to compromise and they started their attack a foot from their table edge, the Germans the same, but of course the Germans were almost on top of the decent defensive cover. The game is a Probe and if the British can exit infantry off the German table edge the Germans will withdraw.

So, I turned up with a Sherman, a 2" mortar and a 3" mortar, the plan of course was to stonk the Germans out of their positions. A preparatory bombardment fell on the Germans but really did not cause a lot of harm apart from on the PzIV, as they tried to shake off some pins they panicked and retreated off table, a great start thought I. As my infantry advanced the 3" mortar started firing and missing, my guys still had a way to go so I didn't make much of the retreating Panzer and the crew recovered and came back almost immediately. As the casualties mounted and my men were almost upon the German front line my Sherman got hit and brewed up, it had already hit the German tank twice and failed to penetrate, the German got it with his second shot. I had lost a fair amount of men and with no armoured support and no help from my mortars I decided to retreat. I had lost 8 dead and 4 slightly wounded who would miss the next game, Stewart had lost 5 dead and 3 wounded.

On the second day I took two tanks (the Firefly pretending to be a Sherman, I'm not made of money) and a 2" mortar, it became a dark day indeed, both British tanks went up within a turn of each other, I had again hit the damn Panzer only for the shells to bounce off. We had both lost the same number of men and I didn't want to push it so once again retreated, more than a tad irate with the performance of my armour. We both had 4 dead and 3 slightly wounded. We had dinner and retired to the pub.

Sunday morning I was back in the kitchen to fortify the German with a full English, or fullish, then back into the Post Office, a gorgeous day and the sun pouring through the windows. This turned into the same old story, once again my armour was gone within a couple of moves one knocked out and the other immobilized, this useless piece of metal continued to refuse orders and have no effect on the game, I had kept my infantry back so they had even more ground to cover, shattered I again shouted 'Run Away'. I had managed at last to get some smoke down but it didn't help apart from saving the scrap from brewing up. I had 3 dead and 2 wounded, Stewart 1 dead and 1 missing. I did not push this game with my depleted infantry. We had also both used up one of our replacements rolls, I did better than Stewart with this.

We decided to have another, I pulled up my chin from the floor and again went with two Shermans and a 3" mortar this time. I went hell for leather up the left hand side of the table. My mortar made a surprising opening round hit on the PzIV and again the crew panicked and reversed from their central position, my infantry had made good speed. One German squad poked its head out and managed to wipe out one of mine and I thought I was going to get away almost Scot Free as I knew Stewart was getting worried about his tank, again it got hit at least twice and the rounds bounced off. I managed to get even against the rash squad while the rest of the Germans at last retired from the field. Maybe now Montgomery will get off my back while I have a strong word with 11th Armoured's commander. Oh, the bill this time was 3 dead and 2 wounded for me with 2 dead and 1 missing for the Germans.

So who is to blame, TFL, Bolt Action, the dice or me? I think a combination of them all, the meshing of the first two needs more work, my dice were just abysmal and despite at least half a dozen hits on that bloody tank they all failed to kill it, while my own armour seemed to be paper thin, Stewart says I am exaggerating, but I am not that demented. I have no doubt I could have played better and made some hooters but that's war(gaming). I go into the next game very depleted in infantry so morale in the British camp is not great and my expectations are low and the Jerries still have that damn tank.

No matter, I got my scenery on the table along with some nice wee sojers and we had some laughs, I might need some R+R before the next game.

Some pictures from all four games, in no particular order.