Sunday 7 October 2018

Bolt Action; Last Night A D6 Saved My Life

The General's musings, mutterings and general ramblings about a love rekindled

(Editors note: Apologies in advance. The word "love" appears quite a lot in this post; I have just recently married and my view of life in general is quite rosy hence it's probable over use. My apologies if this makes you, the much treasured reader feel slightly icky but hey, I love you just the same. Jimbob)

      A love rekindled indeed. The game I have played most and blogged most about of late is Bolt Action. Which comes as a surprise to me as I had recently, to be honest, started to lose interest in Bolt Action. The reason is I was (was? am!) playing a Chain Of Command campaign, Operation Martlet (based on the attempts by the 49th Division to capture the Raury Spur in the build up to Operation Epsom in the battle of Nornandy) which I'm really enjoying because, plain and simple, I love Chain of Command. 
      
      What I love about Chain of Command is how the force lists reflect the actual platoon set ups and tactics of the various belligerents at various periods during WW2, as an ex soldier I find that really attractive as I can relate to it. Also I love the way you are forced to "play the hand your dealt" in each phase of the game. I love how Chain of Command attempts to reflect the realities of movement and morale of the soldiers in battle. These and many other factors are what draw me to Chain of Command the game. All very different to Bolt Action. 

       Over and above that, I really love the pint size campaigns that Too Fat Lardies produce like the aforementioned Operation Martlet . These pint sized campaigns (so called as the campaign PDFs cost the same as a pint in Rich Clarke of Two Fat Lardies local pub) have the scenarios set out to represent different phases of an actual operation, the terrain layout, the historical background, maps, specific platoons and support lists that are based on the real options the actual combatants had. That I find incredibly appealing (and not just because it means I have to buy more, specific units, vehicles and weapons....though it's nice to have an "excuse" ) These pint sized campaigns also have a built in progression system and a time scale in which the attacker has to accomplish his over all mission. All tasty fodder to a narrative game nut like myself.

       Now all these pint sized campaign have a depth that Warlord Games' Bolt Action supplements didn't really have and Bolt Action was beginning to lose it's lustre in my eyes.             
        But recently things have changed, Warlord have started producing actual campaign books. I confess I didn't even look at the Road To Berlin, glance at Battle of the Bulge or even face in the general direction of the New Guinea campaign (that's a fib, I have skimmed through this one). I had heard about the many scenarios and new rules in the New Guinea campaign but the only Far East theatre troops I have are US Marines and they weren't involved in the  New Guinea campaogn (at least I don't think they were) so my interest wasn't piqued.

      Anyway I can see like a whisky soaked old blabber mouth I am straying away from my point...or am I? Well, no, I'm just getting there in a round about fashion. The fact is I bought a copy of the Warlord's Campaign Market Garden supplement a few weeks back as a wee treat to myself and, quite frankly, it blew my socks off! The range of specific scenarios, the unit rosters, the background all drove me into over-froth! 


Reference and inspiration

      What blew my socks off (don't worry, they came back) was the specific scenarios with recommended force lists and terrain layout, similar to TFLs pint sized campaigns. As I mentioned above, I love playing with historically themed forces because that gives me a greater chance of a narrative game and now Bolt Action was giving me the scenarios and s campaign on which you build narrative games.

       Another reason for my socks making an explosive departure from my gnarly old feet was that I had recently purchased from Colonel Bill's a whole platoon and a half's worth of the fantastic Foundry British Paras. I had bought them with the intention, no let's be honest, with the hope of someday playing the Too Fat Lardies Kampfgruppe Von Luck pint sized campaign. But as that seems a distant (though not impossible by a long chalk) dream at this point in time what better excuse to paint them than to have them ready for a Bolt Action Market Garden campaign which is a wee bit more likely to happen. So the Campaign Market Garden book is a God send in my eyes.

Foundry's fantastic British Paras. This is about two thirds of what I have so far; the painted part 

       But what Paras I have painted so far aren't enough to really fight a nice, narrative campaign with either Market Garden (or Kampfgruppe Von Luck pint sized campaign) just yet. I need supports (no, not surgical ones due to all that campaigning as a young subaltern out in Waziristan, which takes a toll on your manhood, let me tell you!!):No I need airborne medium machine guns, medium mortars, recce jeeps, more recce jeeps, light howitzers, 6 pounder anti tank guns etc etc. All of which takes time and money to purchase, prepare and paint. 

        Now I know I have sufficient German infantry and armoured forces to reproduce a few of the German lists in the Market Garden book (and there are some very interesting force lists in there for the Krauts)  but in all likelihood I will be playing the British when I get started into the Market Garden campaign with my erstwhile opponents so I decided to dig out my all my British infantry figures and vehicles and see how I stood in comparison with the list for the  Guards Division Battlegroup Reinforced Platoon on page 31 of Campaign Market Garden.

         In the Campaign Market Garden supplement there are some 26 scenarios, which is staggering. Amongst these 26 I almost have sufficient forces to play scenario 20 The Breakout From Neerpelt. A scenario which calls for a troop of three Shermans and a Firefly and two platoons from the Guards Reinforced platoon lists!!  

My British forces on parade
      And it turns out I stand quite well in comparison with the list in the book, However, it's not enough...or rather it's not all that I want. The options are for a platoon commander and two infantry sections as your "must have" core of the platoon with the option for another section. As these are Veterans and can take two LMGs I have that covered.
      
       
The core of the infantry platoon; NCOs, riflemen and Bren Gun teams
 And then some...
..broken down into sections ; four sections of 10 with two LMGs per section,
   one 10 man section with one LMG and one of 8 men
 Platoon commanders a plenty though one can be either a captain or a major...

Platoon commander; a sergeant and two lieutenants. 

Platoon supports. MMG, two PIAT teams, FOO and radio operator, medic and sniper team
 Okay, I can take the medic from this lot above and the artillery observer though for the Breakout From The Neerpelt scenario he needs to be mounted in his own M5 half track!! I think I have a way around that though
light mortar, medium mortar and 6 pounder
 ..and the 6 pounder from these guys...

Transports....but somethings missing...and it's half tracked
The Jeep and Ram don't make the list.
                 Now this is where desire meets reality. I can take a Universal Carrier for the 6 pounder and can take the two trucks as troops transport as I have the models buuuut the list in the book also says I can take M5 half-tracks as transports for my infantry sections.....I don't have any M5s for my British but, dash it all, that's what I want! Armoured personnel carriers for my British..and  what more compelling excuse do I need to buy some of these kits than an army list that...ahem...demands it
        So I have bought two M5 half tracks from eBay for my British to carry my troops forward into battle. Question is, do I get more M5s and also another Sherman? (Damned clever piece of marketing by Warlord; hats off to them for helping me to part with my money. Me, I'm just happy have an excuse for all these toys). If I have two platoons of armoured infantry I should really have enough armoured personnel carriers for the majority of my infantry sections....and if the Sherman troop is 3 Shermans and a Sherman Firefly I should really get a third one, shouldn't I?.......Decisions, decisions...
Sherman troop...definitely needs a third Sherman V, don't you think
Left out of battle; AEC Armoured Car and MMG Carrier
 (self...propelled....gun...really Warlord?)

Baled out tank crew....Can't take these guys...well, I probably 
can as I'm sure we could finnagle them in somewhere...

Churchill AVRE and Cromwell. Neither will figure but for
completeness I thought I'd include them
         So, in the short term, this is what I plan to do next; put together and paint my two M5s (or is it three...or 4? and another Sherman) to build up the forces to play The Breakout From Neerpelt, as it'll be easy enough to put the finishing touches to my forces and they will then be "complete" which is what we all like in our hobby, isn't it, a completed army.

         But that won't be all that I am doing, hobby wise. I have another Sharp Practice event coming up in January; French Indian Wars this time so I'll be putting together forces for that as well as for Bolt Action in the Western Desert; however in the meantime, time for a quick snifter of brandy and a cigar as I contemplate the task before me and count the shekels to see if I can purchases the necessaries and still have enough left for my mess bill!! pip pip for the moment...
The General

7 comments:

  1. Glad you're enjoying the Market Garden book - I'm the author. If you have not tried it can I suggest Bill Buckingham's 'Arnhem'? Also, 'The Cauldron' by Zeno, which is a great insight into 21st independent Company; you can pick up either from Ebay or Amazon for a quid or so.

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    1. Chris Brown? Thanks for dropping in and for such an outstanding book. I'm looking forward to getting some of the games played out and linked together. By the way,, can I heap the blame on you if my missus starts querying all my new tank purchases?
      I'll keep an eye out for those two books for future reading,
      Jim

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    2. Of course you should blame me. I blame me for everything and so does anyone who knows me. You can also blame my wife Pat. If she did not have such an enormous collection of Germans and a huge raft of XXX Corps stuff she would n't have driven me to write the book. Of course what is really, really sad is we do Market Garden in 54mm too.

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    3. Tut! Wimmin, eh? You gotta love 'em especially if they have lots of toy soldiers. Any chance of seeing some photos of your 54mm forces in action? We hope to start the campaign in a week or two. I now have sufficient forces for the Breakout from Neerpelt. Working on putting enough figures together for the First In and Where The Hell Are We scenarios as we'd like to play the campaign through in a fairly chronological fashion.

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    4. We hope to have a big game with the 54mm kit before we sell it off, so pics can be forthcoming. I know sod-all about computer stuff, so the best bet is to send me an email and I can send them back to you. There's pics in a few WI back numbers and if you google 'byJohn54 photobucket' you should see lots more. I think you know about our event at Arnhem last month? We are looking at doing something similar for Normandy next June - only in Nottingham, since Normandy is expensive to get to and very expensive to stay at that time of year.

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  2. Your froth over the subject is infectious as always :), here's hoping warlord continue to bring out such inspiring theatre books! Will have to discuss a swap of my paras for some of your marine sprues to aid in your list building Jim :). Red was never really my colour anyway...

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  3. Great looking forces for Arnhem. Looking forward to pitting my plucky German chaps against them. I had another read through of the Market Garden book and it really is top notch stuff. Plenty of varied scenarios and interesting historical forces to use. The BA campaign books, especially this recent batch, have been great for inspiring new gaming ideas.

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Empirical Army update #1 plus a little bit extra

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