The Second World War, Bolt Action, 20mm

found myself in Edinburgh on Thursday evening, with no game planned, and no lead with me. Fortunately, Bill Gilchrist invited me to take part in a  Second World War skirmish, using his 20mm figures, and Bolt Action rules. I’m still not convinced by Bolt Action, so I was keen to give them another go, to see if the rules had grown on me. Bill of course is the perfect umpire. Being a former civil servant he reads and assimilates rules with great speed and accuracy, so I knew I was in safe hands. This game was a sort of Operation Market Garden scenario, with a small force of beleaguered British paratroopers hiding out in a village to the south of the Rhine, and a relief force of British infantry and armour trying to relieve them. In between lay a mish-mash of German units, ranging from third-rate “feet and stomach” units to hard-core SS panzer-grenadiers, supported by armour. I played the part of the British armoured commander, while Campbell Hardy ran the paras, and Bart Zynda commanded the Nazis.The first few turns were a bit frustrating, as my force dribbled onto the table a little bit at a time, and I was faced by a German stronghold in the shape of a small factory. The relief force wasn’t going anywhere until the factory was taken. Unfortunately I didn’t really have the tools for the job. The British only got two tanks during the whole game (one was a measly Stuart) – neither of which appeared for several turns, which left me a mortar and a machine gun to pepper the factory with. That meant it took a long time to cause any casualties, so the paratroopers had to fend for themselves. Fortunately they did this very well. When a Stug III rumbled past one of their strongpoints it was knocked out by sticky bombs, and a large scale German infantry attack on the village was repulsed with heavy casualties.At that point (9pm) I had to go, so Bill Gilchrist took over the XXX Corps force on my behalf. A German armoured car was knocked out as it tried to support the defenders of the factory, but that was about the only British success of the evening. The British were at a disadvantage in the firefight as they only had soft cover to hide in, while the Germans were defending a building, so casualties mounted steadily, particularly when anyone tried to move closer to the German strongpoint. The game ended with the factory still securely in German hands, and the British armour no closer to the paratroopers in the village.As for the rules, they seemed to work OK. I have problems with some of them, such as some of the crazy weapon ranges, and the anti-armour rules, which are even more basic than in Charles Grant Sr’s Battle, c.1970. However, the game seemed to flow along at a reasonable pace, even though this was a double-sized game, with roughly twice the forces on the table than Bolt Action recommends. Bill quite rightly decided to test the rules this way, as battles were rarely fought between two well-matched forces. I’ll certainly try Bolt Action again, but for me the jury is still out.

Tags: Bolt Action