I see the briefcase is safe. Tell me, did you happen to kill a red spy on the way here? No? Then we still have a problem.
The Russians are determined to recapture the briefcase!
The 2nd game at Small Unit Tactics IV was to capture 3 para-dropped objectives. They would show up on turn 3, with one the in middle and the other two in a random line direction across the battlefield. The armies were only 850 points in size, to allow 3 games in a single day at The Gaming Arena in Melbourne. The table was again excellent, I want to buy one. My first game was a loss covered here, and my army list here. My infantry is is from the Bardia range from Slaves2Gaming, my tanks from Warlord Games.
I was playing the Russians 1943ish and the terrain looked to be in the Soviet Union. They had one Su-76 (with AT shell), a light tank with autocannon (a mirror to my VIc Light tank), two rifle squad's, an inexperienced light mortar, two MMG's and two assault SMG squads in trucks.
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| The battlefield looking from my left flank, after my first wave has run forward. Russian MMG teams are in the fields and 2 rifle squads in the centre |
I won the dice off and decided to attack from the side that had greater cover. I could see a ruined building and hedges that would provide good cover to take the first objective when it landed in the centre, and some hills I could use for cover for my tanks.
I deployed my two rifle squads in the centre, with one Matty in support, and one on the far right flank, as I hoped to use both hills to their front as hard cover in a hull down position. I was worried about my left flank, and thought I would probably need to bring my light tank on there. I was confident I could take the first objective when it landed, and would need my light tank to possibly get cover for the second. If I could take 2 out of the 3, I win.
The Russians deployed one Rifle squad behind the building and another in the forest, light mortars and MMG's in the fields at the back and a platoon commander behind the forest. The MMG's had good fields of fire, but I think they were too static for battles that needed you to move to objectives. I knew he had 2 trucks full of SMG's ready to run in from the flanks, and his tanks from reserve.
What I SHOULD have done is put one tank on either far flank, in a position to ambush his tanks when they came in on the field, or target his trucks when they came into flank up the roads. A trucks speed on roads means they could get all the way to the centre of the battlefield and the objective that was going to land there, so I needed to stop them before they could get there and offload a huge amount of SMG short range fire. His tanks were not a threat to taking the objectives, only the 2 squads of rifles and 2 SMG squads. They needed to be my priority targets!
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| My rifle and armour run forward to cover the parachute landing zones |
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| I advance to the road and get in soft cover of the bushes and forest |
His light mortar in the fields got pinned by the co-ax machine gun from centre Matty, and being inexperienced, couldn't do much for the first half of the game. I should have left my Matty in a hull down position, I didn't need to advance to be the top of the hill.
I also found once again I didn't need the movement trays, as I get more experience I think I can move my infantry fast enough without them.
One of the Russian rifle squads moved into the house to the left, I brought up a LMG squad to hold the ruins on my side of the road. His MMG fired at my rifle squad in the fields but only got some pins. I dueled with the enemy rifle squad in the forest.
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Target, Tank 20 degrees right!
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His SU-76 came on the road in the back right corner, and spent the rest of the game dueling with my Matilda II there. I got several penetrations but only enough to stun, slow and then immobilize his engine. Being in cover I had the advantage here, though his gun was more powerful and got one penetration but didn't do anything I can recall. I stopped his tank moving, which he later mentioned afterwards then BLOCKED the road for one of his trucks to come on! He didn't need to bring the tank on there, so it was a poor choice to do so.
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| A Matilda II covers the landing zone |
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| Light tank VIc covers the left flank |
I brought on my Light (unpainted) tank on the left - I was very worried about a truck full of Soviet SMG's rocking up on that side. I should have stayed hull down though. I got some more fire onto his squad in the building.
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| The objectives have landed! |
I rolled for where the parachutes would fall and one landed right on my troops on the right! The other landed close enough to the building his rifle squad was in to be able to claim it, though I didn't realize he was close enough till later. I was in a position to secure the blue briefcase.
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| Safe and Sound |
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| LMG squad gets into the ruins |
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| My 2nd LMG squad comes up to support the main objective. Despite being under MMG and rifle fire, my squad in front has had no casualties |
Being in cover and having veteran troops resulted in that I didn't take a casualties until turn 3, half way through the game. His MMG fire in particular was ineffective. Meanwhile his regular rifle squad in the building and trees took many losses. The one in the trees got knocked down to one man left, though his belief in the motherland was stronger and didn't rout from multiple morale rolls.
This really showed how much veteran troops are in surviveability. I think my front line troops need to be always veteran's. Not getting shot is better than trying to save afterwards. Add a medic for another 6+ saving through makes them very hard to move out.
I was also lucky the enemy only had an inexperienced mortar to fire HE and the Su-76 busy fighting one of my tanks. His mortar finally got itself unpinned near the end of the game with the platoon commanders support and was able to put down several shells onto my LMG squad in the ruins, but was only hitting 2 men at a time, which was enough to pin them down though.
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| Dueling with the Soviets across the road |
He brought on his light tank to fight my light tank. I then spent most of the game with it pinned and had to rally it later. I should have stayed behind the hill in a hull down position. At the end I did get some penetrations into his and put his tank on fire, but not get a kill.
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| PPSh's! |
With my light tank busy, and my other tank not in ambush for it, one of his SMG squads roared up the road from the left flank and dropped an entire squad on my face. I was very lucky his other truck failed it's orders roll for two turns!
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| Close range firefight |
I was very lucky my veteran troops survived, but I had 3 squads and the tank available to shoot them back so they got pinned down and took more casualties then they gave out.
I only had 1 man survive from my squad, but I had a medic and platoon commander there to help, while his squad did not.
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His light tank is on fire! And the crew decided it was safer to stay in the tank!
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| Here comes in the very late 2nd SMG squad! Too late... |
With the last turn of the game, the 2nd truck finally arrived from my right flank. My Matty on the right could have stayed in ambush, but I knew the truck couldn't get to an objective in time, so kept firing at the Su-76 instead. I'd had my right squad in the forest in ambush for a turn waiting for the truck to arrive, but moved them forward to the hedge on the last turn,
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| The 2nd SMG squad comes out, but too late to matter |
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| Victory for Australia! And my first Bolt Action Tournament win! |
With two objectives to one, the Australians defeat the Russians and secure the briefcase!
My plan worked pretty well. I was lucky with one of the parachutes landing on top of troops in cover to just reach out and grab it, but he was able to secure the other one from the building. The terrain favored me to hold it, but I think the fields favored his MMG and light mortar to cover them.
My right hand Matilda II was in a good location, but I should have put the other one on the far left to cover the t-junction. I could then have put my light tank in the centre, where it can use it's autocannon better than the Matty's 2 pounder. Looking at the terrain I could have put both tanks on the right to fight his tank, but the one in the centre did do good work pinning down the enemy infantry to it's front. But on balance it would have been better to put it on the far left to deal with his light tank...but he could have always kept it with the building between it and mine. It would have been better to keep it on the left to go into ambush and stop his truck coming down the road.
I need a AT gun or tank on either flank to stop enemy trucks full of assault squads rocking up, they seem to be the best way to take objectives. I can get a truck full of LRDG troops with SMG's, but it's very expensive and needs a platoon commander to quick time them out of the truck, so I'm relying on my 2 veteran rifle squads to do it instead.
Also I kept forgetting to snap-to my Platoon Co. I need to do that! And I need two platoon commanders, 1 for 4 squads was too low I think though in this game all the squads were pretty close to each other so he was able to move around to support them.
I need to paint some flags to show I have captured an objective so it looks better than a dice sitting on it.
I'm not happy with the Warlord Games pin markers, they are too fiddly. I'm ordering some Litko fire,flames and smoke markers for next time - small ones for one point, a medium one for 3 or 5. Like the old Epic Space Marine 3rd edition ones were, which undoubtedly helped designed Bolt Action too.
Having veteran infantry was once again crucial and won the game for me. The centre squad got knocked down to one man, but survived again due to the one medic roll that succeeded and held due to the platoon commander. Meanwhile his 2 regular rifle squads in the building and forest got knocked down to 1-3 men, though they were under as much fire as my centre squad was.
The Soviet player had the better army list, and lost because one of his flanking trucks only arrived on the last turn. If it arrived at the same time as the other one he would have taken both objectives with ease - I was able to focus fire on one for two turns before the other showed up. I should have put both tanks on the flanks in ambush until they showed up - they were more of a threat to winning than the Su-76 was, though it would have done a huge amount of damage if it hadn't been dueling with my tank.
I could still have used an FO more I think than the centre Matilda II...
Coming up - the third game of the tournament - A training exercise with American troops in Bastogne...
