Bolt Action - AAR: Soviets vs Germans in Maximum Attrition

(As promised, Sr. Craig Baxter has delivered a great battle report, featuring all his recently painted Soviet minis. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! - Judson)

My buddy Joe and I have been busily painting our new armies of Bolt Action and finally got enough troops painted to play our first game.   We settled on 1000 point armies and used up nearly every figure we had.  I was playing Soviets and Joe played his Germans.

Army Lists

Soviets

1st LT + 2 Staff

Medic + 1 Staff

Inexperienced Squad 

   7 x Rifles 

   3 x SMGs

   1 x LMG

   Anti Tank Grenades

   Green 

2 x Infantry Squads (regular) ( 1 squad held in reserve - outflanking maneuver)

   6 x Rifles

   2 x SMGs

   1 x LMG

1 x Naval Squad (veteran)

   6 x Rifles

   2 x SMG

M-42 45mm ATG (regular) (held in reserve)

82mm Mortar + Spotter (regular)

MMG + Gun shield (regular)

Flame Thrower (regular) (held in reserve - outflanking maneuver)

KV-1 (regular)

Germans

(all veteran)

2nd LT + 2 Staff (V)

Medic + 1 Staff (V)

Panzerschrek (V)

Infantry Squad (V)

   2 x SMG

   4 x Assault Rifle

   1 x LMG

   3 x Rifles

Infantry Squad (V)

   4 x SMG

   1 x LMG

   2 x Assault Rifle

   3 x Rifle

StuG (V)

81mm Mortar + Spotter (V)

MMG (V)

We diced up our first mission and rolled Maximum Attrition.

 Somewhere in Belorussia 1944

 Soviet troops advance to retake a village

 Naval troops take up position along a fence, while a KV-1 racks off a round at the German MMG.

 A StuG pulls up and take a shot at the KV-1.

 The 82mm sends rounds down range

 German infantry move into position

 The Soviet MMG sprays the German MMG

German mortar misses the Soviet MMG.

BRRRRRRRAP! BRRRRRRRRAP! (German for "MMG gets a Fire order." - Judson)

 Green Soviet troops take up position in a wood.

 German MMG fire pins the naval troops

 The StuG knocks out the KV-1.  KABOOM!!!

 How sweet it feels

 German infantry rush toward the 82mm mortar

 The 45mm ATG arrives from reserve and rolls into position

 The Soviet naval troops take out the German MMG

 Opening up the center

 Mortar rounds wildly miss the German HQ unit sheltering in a hut

 The StuG takes aim at the naval troops causing a few casualties

 Not wanting to sit around and get killed, the naval troops  redeploy to the right.

 The 45mm ATG puts rounds into the hut

 The green Soviets advance to the edge of the wood

 While the Germans keep advancing toward the 82mm mortar

 The shooting pins the tube, but does not kill any crew

 Suddenly the Soviet flamethrower arrives on a flank march and toasts two Germans causing three pins, but runs out a fuel in the process

 German infantry take up position in a wood opposite the green Soviets

 The Russians in reserve storm the Germans on the left flank

 A mortar round misses the Naval troops

 The Russian pour on the bullets

 The MMG takes a direct hit...

 ...from the StuG and loses two crewmen

 Squads start exchanging rounds...

 ...but I wiff all my hits!

 Armed with SMGs the Germans come out swinging

 But surprise my green troops roll a 6, now they are regulars

 Another mortar round misses the German HQ

 But the 45mm finds its mark

 Soviet troops close with the Germans

 A furious Soviet assault wipes out this German squad


No quarter is given

 A second Soviet squad closes in on the attacking Germans.

 The Germans sustain heavy casualties

 Four Germans armed with SMGs assault my Soviets, but fail to score a single hit

The Soviet make sure it's their last assault

With no infantry squads left on the board we call it a game after five turns - game time about two hours.  We both had a great first game of Bolt Action and spent about an hour afterwords talking about cool Bolt Action stuff we want to buy.  The rules were easy to learn and quick to pick up.  We had it down by turn two.  One of the best first impressions of a rule set I have ever had.

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“Craig Baxter is the Director of the WWPD Northern Research center in Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”