May 1942 - Near Kharkov - Bolt Action

This past Saturday was a "monthly" special event day for our local Bolt Action in Maine group. We had 5 or so separate tables set up - different terrain and players for each!  Probably 16+ Bolt Action players in the house.  Crossroad Games. The "escalation League" theme was 1942!

My own battle had a very fluid beginning.  I'm not a "regular" so I had no idea what I'd be doing or even the points.  I'd brought US infantry (1943 Tunisia, 1000 points), and also a 1942 German (750 pt) list. Ends up I was going to play 1942 Germans at 1000 points...I was using BattleScribe to pull the list together on the fly, so the points are suspected to be wrong, but close. I also used the models I have, not the models I wished I'd have.  Plus, I'd never played Germans in Bolt Action before! I also had no idea what my opponent was bringing, much less what kid of mission I'd have. 

My Battle would be against Russian, and I'll call it a platoon engagement around the Ukrainian village of Nepokrytaia, at the beginning of the 2nd Battle of Kharkov.  The terrain was the village center - Russian Infantry units from the 160th Rifle Division were attacking through the village. My force was from the German 6th Army - this was pre-Stalingrad, after all (no particular Division). 

The Scenario we rolled up was simple - destroy each other's local objective.  The Russian infantry was attacking to destroy my local radio communications net, while I was out to destroy a forward supply dump.

My force (German Platoon, 1000 points): 
10 Activation dice
Oberleutnant with two runners, SMGs, Veterans
Heer Veteran Infantry Squad, 10, rifles and LMG
Heer Veteran Infantry Squad, 10, rifles and LMG
Heer pioneer squad, 5, SMGs and LMG
MMG Team, veteran
MMG Team, veteran
Light Mortar team, veteran
50mm pak38 Team, veteran
Marder II inexperienced (note - I used a Wespe as counts-as)
Hanomag transport, forward and rear MMGs

My force - the radioman in the sandbagged position is the OPFOR objective. 

The OPFOR (Russian Infantry, 1000 points - I don't have an official list)
Essentially 2 Platoons, about 18 activation dice.
2 HQs (both LT equivalents)
6+/- Infantry Squads - regular to inexperienced, 5+/- or so men in each, with flamethrowers or LMGs, rifles
1 infantry (free, conscript) squad - 12, rifles
1 Sniper team
1 Medium ATG/Howitzer
2 Multiple Rocket Trucks
+/- 4 AT Dog Teams, 2 handlers and 2 dogs each.
1 medium mortar team with spotter

Deployment
the game requires a 40-inch wide no-man's land up the middle, so we each had 4-inch wide deplyment strips.  My "radio net" objective was placed on my far left. The Russian supply dump was set on the upper right.  The terrain was a dense mix of wooden buildings and a church, central square bell tower, and a N-S road. I was on the north edge facing south.

Table looking west.  I'd be attacking north to south-southwest, defending my objective in the northeast. 

Battle plan
My platoon would split into a defense force and an attacking force.  I intended to send the Heer infantry squads, Hanomag, Marder up the center and left with overwatch from my light mortar, Pak38, and one MMG team. My own objective would be protected by the HQ, pioneers, and remaining MMG.  The Russians deployed more or less into a similar attack and defense force. I was going to need to be careful - the Russian had a lot more activation dice than me, so it would create a huge tactical advantage for them! My biggest concern was the 40-inch distance my troops would need to travel just to be near the objective.  I wanted to leap frog forward the best I could, with one Heer squad on foot and the other by Hanomag.  To that tactical end, the Heer squad on foot would move through terrain for cover, flanking the Hanomag on the road.

Deployment complete. Ready to go! Wespe playing the role of a Marder II.   

Turn 1. 
Everything started to go to south really fast.  I realized that with the dense terrain, the MMG and light mortar were pretty useless, and so I moved them east to support my objective.  Similarly, I decided to move the Marder east as well, so I'd have a lot more defensive firepower there. My opponent used the N-S road as a demarcation point, and with my Pak38 on ambush looking up the road, he just never looked to cross it. My Heer squad on foot immediately came under sniper fire while crossing the village cemetery. In the near center, the Hanomag (running up the road) was immediately attacked by two AT dog teams - which stunned the vehicle crew (I don't think we played it right on damage - possibly forgetting the 1+ for open topped) and added a bunch of pin markers to my attackers. On my right, all of the Russian infantry units rushed forward through the various buildings or fenced yards, but I was able to apply a few pin markers and casualties. The Russian mortar and one rocket truck fired, but both missed.

Turn 1. Pak38 has been targeted and missed by the mortar. I had to dig the crew out of a box during a break. Apparently they were in my car hanging out with the Americans...

Hey, use that radio. What? We can't get any artillery or air support till the next game? 

Go ahead. Cross the road...make my day...

Who is a happy dog? Good boy!

Turns 2 through 4

My attackers were immediately bogged down. The Russians attacked the Hanomag squad with a second wave of dogs, first immobilizing it for more pins, then wrecking it.  The Heer infantry dismounted with about 5 pins on the squad, and went down on their own activation. The Heer squad in the cemetery encountered the same - one rocket found them for a mess of casualties and pin markers. Both squads made no progress. The russian mortar team continued to miss the Pak38, and no Russians wanted to be ambushed by it.

On the left flank, I moved the HQ and Pioneers forward, and immediately engaged the oncoming Russians with some MMG and Marder II support. The Russian rocket truck on that flank switched to smoke to obscure my supporting forces, leaving the pioneers and HQ to fight about three times their number, plus one or two flamethrowers.  At one point I had my pioneers and HQ move up and shoot a 5-man russian squad at point blank range in the open. The Russians went down. With the equivalent of 7 SMG shots and 1 LMG, I was only able to cause two casualties - which was really bad considering that enemy squad had a flamethrower.  Needless to say, on turn 3 my pioneers were roasted through two flamethrower attacks, and my HQ squad was shot up and then assaulted. That left the path to my objective basically open. Adding insult to injury, another set of AT dog teams wrecked the Marder II.

Redeploying to the east...

Advance in the center stalling...most Russian units are inside buildings now...

He's not here to pee on my Hanomag...

Back from lunch break...no Russian Armor in sight...

Gaining the midline of the table - looking to stall the Russians there. 

Viewpoint from the other side of the building...

meanwhile, the attacking force is stalled in the village center. 

Smoke from the rockets are obscuring the support element. 

Turn 5
With smoke obscuring my remaining support elements, and my attack force eliminated through a combination of shooting and rocket/mortar fire, we called the game as a Russian Victory. We ended with my having on-board just the 2 MMG teams and the light mortar team. 

Russians are rapidly advancing towards their objective now. 

The last canoneer at the Pak38 looks on at the rushing conscripts. 

Lessons learned
This is probably my first real loss in Bolt Action besides the first game I'd ever played. Usually Id get a draw or narrow win. 

The battle reinforced my opinion that flamethrowers and AT dogs are amazingly dangerous. For this game, the light mortar was a waste of points.  Since it has no spotter, its just bad in dense terrain.  The Pak38 looks awesome - I'd bought it or won it pre-painted a decade ago and had never used it in a game.  My opponent was more afraid of it than I was...The Marder II was good - I'd shot it into some buildings and such, but it really needed to stay back from the dogs. Overall, my game suffered a bit from my deployment.  I might have easily deployed the same and then just rushed left on all defense for a draw. Also - this is the second time I've seen the Katusha rocket truck in a game, and the guys that have them are getting tactically better with them - in a nutshell, deploy a large amount of smoke (3 large templates of smoke) with nearly no risk, OR it a target and every unit within 6 inches of that target on a 6+ roll.  In the artillery role they can miss a lot, but when you get one hit, it is pretty devastating for each 6+.

In departing, I bought a Bolt Action German Heer medium mortar kit.  I'll need to have that in my quiver for the next time. 

The Hanomag btw is a Solido 1/50 scale die cast model from their "motor pool" collection.  The Wespe is a similar scale plastic model from Bandai.  In my rush to get a list built, I had not realized my Hetzer is a pz38(t), lol, I might have taken that instead of the counts-as Marder II.  Regardless, since I used it, I now need to get a Marder II for the collection...

And a big thanks to some of you who "donated" their photos to my story line above! You know who you are! 

If I'm playing as a German in September's monthly event, I'll have to upgrade to a 1943 list...I am inspired to do some painting and basing repairs and upgrades...

Until next time!

MING