Miniature Hobby Gaming

I wanted to organize a large game using Bolt Action, but focusing on a scenario that depicted an historical situation and forces, rather than simply a points match, 6-turn game as the group I game with most often does. We set aside a Friday evening (which proved to be too much of a time constraint) and I provided the terrain and the French forces, while another participant provided the Germans. The participating players are pictured with the terrain setup below.

The scenario was a German attack on a semi-prepared French force. The Germans would have their full strength at the start, with the French having half of theirs, with them rolling for reinforcements starting on Turn 2.

The German forces pictured. A mix of Panzers and a halftrack and several squads of infantry and supporting weapons.

The French started off mostly in cover or behind terrain in “hidden” positions (marked by the blue mini poker chips).

The Germans needed to capture the bridge over the stream and take over most of the town on the other side in order to win the scenario.

French reinforcements entered from the “West” board edge and had to get to the town to take up defensive positions before the Germans got there.

The German side focused on eliminating the forward French forces almost entirely before advancing.

German infantry in the woodlined road that was near the front of their starting position.

French units start to activate, including two 25mm Anti-tank guns, one of which scored a ‘mobility kill’ on a heavy (for 1940) panzer.

The Germans advance toward the bridge, as the French are eliminated and slowly forced back.

The decisive moment arrives, with the appearance of a Stuka over the French army…

The French infantry is stunned, and one of the armored cars is damaged in the attack, which breaks the morale of the Army and the retreat is sounded.

I feel that all of the participants had a good time, and have a better appreciation for what fun an historically-based scenario can be. My next goal is to work on my own World War Two Early War (1939-1941) Germans and come up with a different scenario using larger forces with some sort of mechanism for moving more troops on a side. I’ve seen people’s thoughts on that, as the activation method used by Bolt Action is a detriment to putting on larger scale games.