Howdy Bolt Actioners! It's been awfully quiet here lately because everyone is super busy with real life. I myself was holidaying in North America for 3 weeks, during which time I managed to swing by
Mugu Games in Everett WA, to play the infamous Mark Dawg and some of the other awesome guys there.
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| One of the other battles raging at Mugu. |
First off, for anyone near the area or ever passing through, I cannot recommend enough, taking the time to stop in. The store is a great, with a big range of Bolt Action minis, amongst other systems and a bunch of tables. The guys who play Bolt Action there are an amazing group of gamers and they have some really nice scenery made by one of their members, the talented Abraham.
Seriously, look at these pieces!
I started off the day (once Border Security finally let me across the border from Canada with my Soviets) with a game against Killian and his US list. We rolled up Point Defense, and I got to choose to be the attacker. As Killian is new and just starting his army we played at 1000 points. He put up a good defense, but my scout heavy Soviet list managed to overwhelm his defenders early. He had a large squad of Tough Fighting US Vets who managed to clear out a squad of SMG armed scouts, but my Flamethrower team in it's GAZ Jeep arrived to ruin their day, flaming them twice before they ran, then moving on to flame his Sherman twice before it's crew bailed out. The Flamethrower team managed to bring enough fuel to last all game and when the dust cleared, the Soviets held all 3 objectives.
My second game was against illustrious Bob (SeattleDV8 on the forums) and his Romanians. We rolled up Maximum Attrition and deployed our 1250 points armies. This was training day for my 1250 Soviet list I intend to take to the Wintercon tournament coming up so I was keen to test my mettle. Bob was smart and he had a tough, but balanced, list. He managed to knock out a few of my units early on which really put my agressive scout list on the backfoot quickly. I think by the end of turn 2, I had lost 5 of my 15 order dice. I tried to turn the tables by throwing my BA-10 and IS-2 straight at him while trying to conserve my battered infantry units. The BA-10 did manage to put a nice hole in the rear of his Panzer IV, but it wasn't enough. I didn't record the final score, but I think Bob beat me by a good 4-5 order dice.
So by now we'd ducked over to the establishment across the road for a few adult beverages and I was 1-1 in my battles against the Mugu crew. The time had come. The boss fight was about to begin. I was to throw dice against Mark Dawg and his Germans. We decided to play Heartbreak Ridge (mission by Old Man Morin) in a cityscape battlefield. My scouts deployed aggressively on one flank where Mark's objective was, while I left my sniper and inexperienced squad to protect mine.
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| The table set up. |
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| Mark's objective is just beyond the church as my scouts get into position. |
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| My Flamethrower Team managed to hold my objective for the whole game, preventing Mark from getting too close. |
As the game started, my scouts lunged towards the church in the middle of my right flank, killed Mark's MMG team holed up there and moving towards his objective. Seeing the danger, Mark brought in his StuH 42 on that flank and obliterated a squad of scouts with it's opening shot.
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| The scouts move forward, backed up by the arriving IS-2. |
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| Mark's German infantry move onto the other flank and in the middle. |
Mark's MMG bike moved on and opened fire, gunning down a scout before I countered with one of my HMG jeeps, who managed to destroy the bike with a hail of bullets from it's DShK HMG. The StuH riders meanwhile dismounted and moved up to clear out the church of the Soviets inside. The church ended up becoming quite a bloodbath, as successive waves of Germans and Soviets charged in or around it over the following turns.
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| The IS-2 diverts to the center objective. |
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| As Mark's Panzer III moves onto the table. |
A squad of Germans killed one of my HMG jeeps, before being blown sky-high by the IS-2's deadly main gun. Mark brought on his Panzer III (the one of Cbax fame for listeners of Speak Easy) to help make a push for the middle objective. By now, most of my scouts on the right flank had been killed or reduced to 1 or 2 man squads and Mark's StuH 42 was still providing overwatch to his objective, so I decided to just focus on the middle objective. I redirected my BA-10 and IS-2 towards the middle, with both vehicles teaming up on the poor Panzer III. It did well to last as long as it did, but finally the fourth hit penetrated and blew up the German tank.
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| The combined weight of the IS-2 and BA-10 takes down the Panzer III. |
As dusk rolled in, it was looking like we both held our own objective, while Mark had managed to run a squad of Germans past my IS-2 (who had already acted) to within range of the middle objective. My final order of turn 6 fell to a squad of scouts to assault the Germans, hoping to clear them off the objective and leave me ahead in case the game ended. I only had a single pin on a squad of veterans so nonchalantly rolled my order check, only needing a 9 or less. Bang! I rolled an 11. My squad refused to assault the Germans and were too far away to contest the objective. We rolled to see if there was a turn 7, but alas! It was not meant to be. Mark had snuck the win right from under my nose, reclaiming the honour of house Mugu!
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| The scouts need to assault those Germans off the objective but fail their order test! |
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| The battle ends with Mark holding the church and the crossroads, while I only hold the building on the far end. |
I had an awesome trip to Mugu games and 3 awesome games. I already have games lined up for my next visit to Seattle. Taggerung wants to pit his ISU-152 against my IS-2 in a battle of the heavy-weights, while Eenis wants his chance at slaughtering my toy soldiers. I got to learn a few things about how my list works, always a good thing for someone like myself who rarely plays the same list twice, and hopefully I can put it to use at Wintercon.
