Bolt Action - 15mm Late War - The Maus Trap.

Another outing for Bolt Action in 15mm.

I was pointed to the Easy Army Point calculator - A great tool for working out your Bolt Action points you can find it here. which covers every supplement in the BA range.

Essen 1945 and the Russians are closing in on the city and the armaments factory. Both sides have 2000 points to field, we continue to use the Blucher dice mechanism with 2 Command Dice each, giving each side up to 12 Command Dice but only the opposing commander would know what they have to play each turn.

The German defenders can deploy halfway across the table with orders to protect the large red brick factory.

The Panther is tempted by the tiny tin can - the result was as expected.

T34/85's rumble on to the table and in the first turn destroy the Panther dug in....

The defenders are under pressure but help is on the way - in the shape of the latest super tank the Pz VIII the Maus.

The soviet infantry work their way through the ruins and outhouses as the Russian armour pours HE shells into the Volkstrum defenders.

Elsewhere unsure if another Russian thrust would come, other defenders remain in place, but the Russians had massed all their troops in one main concentrated attack.

With the Support from the Maus the Germans throw in their last section in a counterattack.

The Russians rush forwards looking to stem the German counterattack.

The Maus takes several rounds of fire from the T34's who set it on fire, whilst they recover the pins begin to mount. The Maus was stripped of its infantry support as the Soviets closed in on the mammoth vehicle. 

A great game, the Maus with its Supergun could not shake off enough of the pin markers to get a foothold in the game. The Soviets still had units off table which were able to pin the German defenders which allowed the main Russian force to force the breakthrough.

Next up a German counter attack....

Refighting the Battle of Beersheba 1917

Despite regular gaming I don't very often refight purely historical battles, however one of my gaming group was keen to try out a couple of tweaks to the Contemptable Little Army rules to refight the Battle of Beersheba which saw the British Expeditionary Force including the Australians and New Zealanders take on the Turkish Yidrim Army who were holding on to the town of Beersheba and their precious water wells.

The Turkish line filled with Turks and native Arabs - surely no one would be mad enough to assault these fixed defences.

The 4^th Victoria and the 12^th NSW Light Horse Regiments who were in fact mounted infantry used their 18inch bayonets as sabres in the charge.

You would have thought that charging across open ground against trenches would be suicide however the Turks had failed to place barbed wire across their trench line and the MG’s and Artillery was set to long range which overshot the charging line.

Charging across the open terrain the horsemen rushed towards the defenders, true to form the Turkish shooting was terrible and very few casualties were inflicted on the attackers.

Whilst some of the horsemen dismounted and fought through the trenches a significant number leapt the trenches and secured the wells.

The Turks initially held the first wave of horsemen, but the 2nd and 3rd broke the back of the defenders.

True to history the town was captured, and the Turks lost 5 times the number of Attackers...

What difference would a few rolls of barbwire made.

Going Green...... Marines and Irregulars.

Yet again a minor distraction but in my defence it does complete the last of Marines and Insurgent figures on a couple of projects... this pile of lead had been languishing in boxes for several years and going for a common palette allowed me to rattle through them relatively quickly.

These extra's will come in handy for the US Marine selections within the Bolt Action units list.

.50 Cal Heavy Machine Gun team, a useful extra to keep the Japanese hordes at bay.

The 81mm mortar team and forward observers will add a little more fire power to the table and can be used in a direct or indirect role.

Leap forward about 50 years and these last three chaps will bolster the Zikanga Insurgent forces. these were from Spectre Miniatures and their launch kickstarter from a number of years ago... It might be a touch warm in deepest Africa for a balaclava. 

That's all folks......

WW2 Pacific War.... Bolt Action

Somewhere in the Pacific - US Marines and Japanese Infantry fight it out looking to secure the cross-roads. Having painted up the 'spare' Japanese I thought I would give them a run out using Bolt Action and 750 points to give a balanced game.

Wasting no time. The first Japanese section rush towards the cross-roads.

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The US Marines were a little more cautious taking cover behind the sandbag emplacement, the Japanese were more numerous, but the smaller marine sections could throw out some serious fire power. While other Marines advanced from the west.

A further section took cover behind the pig sty overlooking the cross-road.

The Japs chucked everything at the emplacement, knee mortars, snipers nothing would budge the marines.

The rash move by the Japanese saw them forced 'down' and were slowly worn down.

Meanwhile a second Jap sections rounded the native lodge poured fire into defenders.

Just as the game was swinging in the Japanese favour, a veteran section of British Infantry joined the fight, together with Snipers and Flame Throwers evening the odds... The clock ticked down with neither side able to secure the junction.

A fun encounter, Bolt Action is growing on me, especially with our house rules on Hand to Hand and the random order cup mechanism.

Westwind & Battle Honours Japanese - No figure left behind.

A minor distraction..... I really should be focusing on the Western Desert, but with the re-org of the Pacific forces to fit Bolt Action, I thought I would get these completed as they were hiding in one of the storage boxes. It's amazing how quickly you can turn these out when a gaming is looming.....

First up the last of the Japanese, a collection of a few infantry and other odds and end, mostly Westwind's Berlin or Bust Range, with a couple of old Battle Honours for good measure.

Another Officer and/or Forward Observer.

A couple of First Aiders..... They were unarmed so why not sling on an armband.

Two Japanese Infantry pushing an invisible donkey, I am pretty sure I used it in another project, they might be drafted into an Infantry section, but given the choice between painted or discarded no mini is left behind. 

A glimpse of what is entering the paint table - a hard working pair of US Marines, humping a .50 Cal to the front.

A slight detour now back to Vichy France.