Bolt Action in Sicily, Peninsular Dragoons and lots more Panzers

We have had a few busy days recently and our normal rhythm was disrupted when our daughter managed to end up in hospital. Nine stitches later, which have now been removed, and she is absolutely fine. But this crashed some plans we had for last week. Things back to normal this week before a number of holidays which are planned over the summer. There is a danger all this activity might impact on my hobby time and gaming ?

Anyway a mixed post today to catch up before we head to Wales for a week away.

First up George came up for a battle in the dungeon. I had originally planned a larger Ancient game but with my planning time limited I swopped to a simpler Bolt Action game using my Sicily collection. This saw the Americans defending against a German assault to capture three objectives. Just to give some variety and get the battle into action quickly we used the Chain of command patrol phase. This worked pretty well getting the Germans into the assault much quicker. Vehicles were brought on along roads from the baseline. Onto the action.

The two forces were quite different to hopefully ensure an interesting battle, the German force is dominated by Infantry

Some limited artillery but importantly one of the 215th Pamzer Battalion Tiger tanks, we had some special rules for this as they notoriously broke down on Sicily 

The Americans have a more mixed force with a Sherman an M8, mortars and a number of heavy machine guns

The Germans all deploy during the first turn, the infantry including some Fallschirmjager , the plan if you can call it that was to go for the two side objectives and leave the centre alone ?

GI’s in the farmyard 

Not surprisingly the Germans start taking fire immediately some units get pinned but generally the rest are able to keep moving

Knowing that the Tiger would be both scary and hard to knock out it came on immediately and headed down the road to the right

It starts taking fire from the Sherman but they miss as the Tiger takes aim ! It of course hits the Sherman but I roll a 1 for damage so fails to knock it out.

Having rolled really badly at the start George got the first activation dice next turn after some debate he gave it to the Sherman rolling a 6 to hit then a 6 to damage and another 6 to knock out the Tiger !!!!! dismay on the German side 😢

Anyway the battle goes on the Germans are able to respond knocking out the M8 with a direct hit from their mortar. The infantry despite the heavy fire is closing in on both objectives on the flanks. But the rocky outcrop where the objective is sitting is very exposed to enemy fire

We are close to the end of the battle

The Germans get close to both objectives knocking out pretty much all the American infantry but are not able to close for the win.

The GI’s holding the centre can sit pretty watching the Tiger burn in the distance. A fun game, bolt action giving enough challenge without too much complexity, nice to get the Americans on the table again, it does make me think a slight expansion to the force is due at some point. Either some more infantry or perhaps some Paratroopers

Weather in the UK has been unbelievable over the last couple of weeks and although I haven’t charged any photos this was just to show I have been out cycling.

Tanks tanks tanks ! 

Around Christmas we picked up an painted some British for the Western desert campaign. Although the force has only been out a couple of times there are plans to have a bigger battle. At the time I started looking at picking up some German panzers to supplement the force I already have and so they could support Steve’s Italians. Retailing at £90 the flames of war Afrika Korps box set seemed a good place to start if expensive. Searching Amazon you could get the box for around £60. I thought I would wait. Checking in every few weeks the price has gradually come down. Last week it hit a new low at £45 with free postage….this was too good a bargain to miss so I picked up the set, it works out at just over £2 per item a real bargain.

…and some painting in the background I have been working on some British Heavy cavalry

British heavy Dragoons, I gave these the 1812 helmets but the next unit will probably have the forage hats provided.

They are the warlord figures and thankfully the swords are a good thickness. I still need to get a couple more for the second unit so will hopefully pick these up cheap somewhere.

Well that’s the update for now, lots going on, I am taking some painting with me to wales in case it rains and hopefully get a battle with command and colours.

Thanks for checking in

Matt