Ein Volk, Ein Rubbish.

 Bolt Action this week against Michael's Yanks, not an army I would use myself as I find rules make excuses for them, much like Romans and Normans as if they do not want to offend with an intimation they might not be as good as the general public and movie makers think. I had this mindset when I read my first set of rules back in the olden days, WRG 1925-1950, and could not understand, having been brought up with Hotspur, Valiant and Commando comics why the British would need to take a morale test, and horror of horrors even fail!

I digress as usual, I decided to do something different and took a Volksgrenadier platoon supported by a Brummbar, veteran squad (for which I used my Kriegsmarine in order to only take one box) and a panzerschreck. This was out of my comfort zone as Bolt Action does not do justice, in my opinion, to Volksgrenadiers and their organisation is not historical. They are green and of course carry a fair number of assault rifles whose range is much less than rifles and therefore need to be carefully husbanded yet manouvered close to the enemy. I have the figures so why not.

The scenario involved an aircraft about to crash on the battlefield with important papers aboard, whoever had the most troops closest to the plane at the end would win, where the plane crashed was unknown to both sides. I actually have a nice shot down FW190 but at the moment cannot get to it, a shame. I deployed troops at both ends of the table to use the available cover to get close to the enemy, completely forgetting the plane was likely to come down in the centre area. Michael was more spread out and covered the centre with two squads, he had an anti-tank gun opposite my left and a Sherman opposite my right. I was quite aggressive and moved my men up quickly deciding to take losses in order to hopefully take advantage of my assault rifles to even things up.

My less than enthusiastic boys.

Yanks.

 Bolt Action has this rule whereby troops which, although green, may contain more experienced men, so when a green squad loses a casualty you roll a die and they can suddenly turn to regulars or even veterans, they can also take more pins so it is not all good news, but the odds are you will suddenly have a regular squad at your disposal. Anyway as the bullets flew both my right flank squads became regular, I smirked inside.Then disaster struck, both those squads now failed morale tests and for two of the games' six turns did nothing, on the other flank my heavy assault gun opened on Michaels right hand squad and caught them all under the template, only throwing ones would save them, out of eight dice I got five ones! The scream of an aeroplane engine now rent the air and down came the wounded bird, almost right in the centre where I had nothing but close to several Yankee squads, I stared defeat in the eye.

Volksgrenadiers.

Brummbar.

A very cautious Sherman.

In the Navy.

I now pushed the heavy tank along the road in order to wipe out any Americans near the crash site while attempting to move some men to the site despite their lousy morale. Twice the tank shrugged off hits from the anti-tank gun but just as I needed it to survive and move it succumbed. The game limped into one extra turn and this allowed me to get my panzerschreck team to dispute the objective, but only just, if Michael had assaulted them instead of trying to shoot them he would have wiped them out and won, instead I had managed to tip the scales to a draw, not a very satisfactory one for me though, my report card said 'should have tried harder'.

The Volksgrenadiers were very good and their firepower offset their inexperience, but if the enemy get a shot in first it can really hurt them as they die on a three, I was lucky to turn two squads to regulars but their failing their morale twice meant disaster for me, that and as usual trying to kill the enemy rather than taking note of what I had to do to win.

Last week it was another miserable night and a swine to park for some reason with cars all over the place, we only have one back street at the club, by the time I got somewhere I thought it would have been easier to walk to Lancaster, I had thought of staying in with my feet up but I had told Rob I would take part in his Muskets and Tomahawks game so being a man of honour I drove into the dark to navigate the myriad roadworks affecting Lancashire at the moment. 

I was British and in command of four units of irregulars two of which were Scots, I had to make my way to the opposite end of the table where some boats were being protected by a small force of Regulars and Milita and this would earn me points. In between were some American Militia and opposite me at my end of the table were some Indians and American irregulars. I decided to swamp the latter force with superior numbers then make my way to the boats, I was helped in this as Ed (seemingly bouyed up with enthusiasm by the Happy Fairy) split his forces, two units towards me and a couple towards the boats.

Scots wha hae!

Save the boats.

Ed's boys.

I was very aggressive and threw caution to the wind and it paid off, first the Indians were cut down followed by a colonial unit, I was decolonising you see. Michael, defending the boats was having a hard time and for a while it looked like the Americans were getting the upper hand. Somehow Ed's flank attack was held and pushed back, a boat which had been damaged by artillery was repaired and despite the loss of a couple of units Michael weathered the storm. Meanwhile I now pushed my men to attack the rear of the American Militia which had the added bonus of taking pressure off our stalwart boat defenders. The Happy Fairy had seen which way the wind was blowing, left Ed and settled on my shoulder as I gave a poor rendition of British Grenadiers as I finished off Rob's uppity Militia. A British win.

And we are off.

Scots on the other side.

An excellent club game but very brutal and bloody, the sheer number of unique figures Rob can bring to the table always surprises me, especially the irregulars and indians, very impressive and fun to play with.

On the very quiet painting front I completed the final three artillery pieces which were given to me by Dan at the club, the crews are from Casting Room Miniatures as a change from my usual TAG gunners. Now thanks to Dan I have a very useful artillery train for the Italian Wars, I can also put a decent baggage train into the field as well, although I might get a few more wagons. Friend Charles Singleton is building a French army based on the battle of Bicocca 1522 and as he was in the area dropped in for a chat and to show me his Francis I command stand, almost a unit on its own it is very impressive, beautifully done.

Francis I.

More artillery.

Most of the heavy work is done on the War Room, it is now all the other jobs which have to be done and fall into place, electrics, bathroom, flooring and painting, also the old shop front is still there outside, I don't know when that is going. I suspect we might run into May before I am ready to get a game. 

My Apple TV subscription runs out a few days after the last episode of Masters of the Air thankfully, I have actually enjoyed this series and it has brought home the horror of flying heavy bombers during WWII whether RAF or USAAF. You know me, I could moan about some parts but have decided not to, I am keeping that for Shogun.

I see that Dr. Claire Millington, who? Has declared the new and popular Roman Legion exhibition at the British Museum fascist and sexist (of course it is) and, wait for it, "almost exclusively about the soldiers", who would have thought? Another university education not wasted.