Recently I traveled to Maine to practice running our Bolt Action game for Fall-In with Dano. Some of the guys from the area generously volunteered (suckers!) to be our test subjects. We decided we wanted to run a game where both players need to advance on an objective - Demolition fit the bill!
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| The Germans and Americans square-off, a ruined village dividing them. The small buildings in their deployment zones are the objectives. |
Demolition's pretty straightforward - get a unit to the other player's objective, and the game is over. It might sound a little simplistic, but it really plays well with the rules - it's definitely one of my current favorite scenarios!
The forces for each side were pretty similar to previous battles Dano and I have had, and we're not sure exactly what we'll bring to the event; but the forces probably won't look exacty like these. 1000 point lists seemed ideal considering the two-hour limit, and nothing came up during the course of our little rehearsal games that would indicate otherwise.
Roughly, the German side had a couple eight-veteran infantry squads with mixed weapons. They also had a light artillery piece, some small support teams, a Puma, and a StuG.
The Americans had a couple full, regular infantry squads. This American list also had two halftracks, a mortar, a Sherman, and some small support teams.
Chad helped out by taking some extra pictures - thanks man!
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| The American officer looks out from his command center at the approaching Germans, a squad of his men holding the wall before him. |
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| A squad of German veterans holds the wall near their command center. |
The Americans started with one infantry squad, their commander, a Sherman, and a mortar on the table. The Germans started with both infantry squads, their commander, and their artillery piece. The rest of both sides waited in Reserve - no outflankers!
Both sides generally advanced without much in the way of casualties, approaching the ruins in the center. However, one veteran German squad was caught by the American medium mortar in the open!
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| Not a good start for the Germans! The mortar ranged in on it's first attempt! |
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| The start of turn two - German reserve units in the foreground, American reserve beer in the back. |
The German players wisely agreed to hold off on calling their StuG in until after the Sherman had committed itself to coming around the corner of a building.
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| Here comes the StuG! |
And the StuG blasts a hole in the Sherman's armor, triggering its "easily catches fire" special rule.
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| The mortar keeps applying pins to the squad that attempted to advance - even the German leader couldn't get the squad to continue! |
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| Burn, Ronson, Burn! GIs look on nervously, "There goes the heavy support." |
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| The battle unfolds. An American halftrack pushes to the front, while the Puma comes on from reserve. |
The Americans are very aggressive, regardless of the loss of their Sherman.
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| The halftrack is surprised to see a German armored car appear from behind the hedges. |
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| The halftrack's passengers wisely run our of the vehicle after the Puma misses its first shot. |
The German advance, while inflicting casualties, hasn't gained much ground. The mortar continues to keep the mobile squad locked in place and pinned down. The veteran squad near the objective building are forced to stay and defend it from the charging Americans.
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| A German sniper takes up a position in the ruins, hoping to eliminate the mortar that's been so damaging to the German attack. |
The American squad that hopped out of the halftrack ends up dangerously close to the German objective!
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| "C'mon boys, it's just a StuG and a squad of German veterans!" |
Unfortunately, the combined firepower of the StuG, the veteran squad, and the German commander are enough to destroy the charging squad.
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| The mortar is proving deadly! |
While the mortar keeps that squad pinned, a flame thrower moves through the ruins, hoping to sneak up on the German objective.
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| The Puma pushes forward, with one infantry squad between it and the American objective, after finishing off the halftrack. |
Supporting the last remaining infantry squad in its fight against a Puma, the American commander takes up a position within a nearby intact building.
The American's aren't happy about the sniper and flamethrower picking their way through the ruins, and answer with a halftrack, its weapons crewed by an MMG team.
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| The firepower from the HMG and MMG of the halftrack are enough to knock out the flamethrower! |
Then came the realization...
"The American commander. He can take a shot at reaching the objective."
Both of us kept our mouths shut, though, and let the game go on!
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| The StuG moves away from the objective, to support the Puma in its push towards the American objective. You can see the American commander's helmet in the nearby building, if you look closely. |
And the American commander runs from the building, dashing towards the objective!
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| The boss man's knocking at the door! Go, LT, go! |
The Germans are unable to react! The LT's going to take it!
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| The German medic team is too far to be able to assault the commander - he tosses a grenade in the window and earns himself a Medal of Honor! |
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| Sneaky, sneaky! |
