Tank Wars Game at new LGS - Next Ridge Games

Chris and I took a trip to a new LGS that opened in Tampa, about 30 mins away and we opted to pack up some lists to try out while we chatted up the new owners of the store. We had been talking for some time since our home base for Bolt Action shut down due to financial issues.

The owners were great, the store is nice and plenty of space to add product and lots of game table perhaps up to 15 or 16 tables. The AC works nice (in Florida in the summer, THIS is a good thing) and everyone there was very curious about the game.

Chris brought a US list with a few Shermans and a Wolverine along with a Jeep and Air Observer.

My list was a bit more Complex: Panther G, Panzer III J (X2), Paner IV F/G, UNIC (light AT gun/command), Puma, Motorcycle with LMG and a Marder III....

Both of us had 8 dice....

First round was ugly with use posing to take up positions after I won the dice off and took the better side of the table in my opinion. Then Chris drew first blood with a 6-6-6 plastering a Panzer III J in the first round. The second saw both of us throwing pins around. Then reserves crept in on 2 Chris pulled most of his out after the loss of one tank, I had two on outflank, by 3 I had everything on and many good directions of fire setup. It was an exchange up till 5, then Chris was loosing vehicles left and right including an Airstrike getting a 1 and I burned one of his tanks with it. After that it was just ugly watching the dice dwindle down to a jeep and observer as I took out the last tank on 6 and held three objectives with a single loss of a Panzer III J, I did have a Panzer IV immobile along with the Marder but I was ok otherwise. Phew! He plans to bring British next week, let's hope the big guns don't sleep!

A great game and Chris is always a blast to play against. The good point was to show the owners about the game and setup shop as our new home

The table, mat by Deep Cut Studios, rocks and water by my friend Chris. The buildings are Company B resin buildings painted by Chris and Cresent Root MDF prepainted buildings.

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Jeep and Wolverine advance

Puma arrives with a Panzer III with caution.

First blood!

Germans line up for their shooting

What do you mean that wasn't a German plane sir?

Yes sir, I got the right tank this time but I was out of bombs, so I shot it with my machine guns...

(got a 1 for the plane choice, fighter against a tank, Hahahhahaha)

D-Day and Beyond Mega Battle on Sunday at Salty Bay Con!

The Sunday mega battle themed for D-Day and Beyond went off well, history repeated itself as the allied forces crushed the German defenders when we called it on turn 5. It was hitting the point of mopping up for the allied forces and German units were slowly dwindling away. Everyone had a blast and the table looked great.

We had two 750 British and two 750 US lists facing 4 German lists each at 750 also. The mix of Germans was two Heer, one SS and one FJ. We played long wise on two 4x6 tables with the Pegasus bridge in the middle with the US attacking from one side and the British attacking from the other side in a pincher attack.

Some of the amusing highlights:

Early in the game my Tiger I prowls down the road, fires at two squads with the MMGs and then promptly is hit with a flamethrower. No worries, Regular tank, only one pin, 12 for the check to abandon the tank. ARG! There went 50% of my points and one of my 5 order dice! I don’t think I rolled the 50/50 chance to take the pin but in any case I think I would have had to make the fire bail out check.

German Air Strike rolls a 1, they target a house with a unit in it with one of my FJ squads are in, rolls a 3d6 strike on the building. Rolls enough to collapse the flipping house and killed my squad outright. Another lost order squad.

The second Tiger I heads to the British lines, it fires on a British Centaur at close range and misses. The Centaur backs up and retreats from the Tiger. Tiger follows after the tank and destroys it. Then a British AEC flanks in and shoots the Tiger in the rear, making it immobile. The Tiger turns to fire and misses, AEC opted to hold on the new turn to shoot instead of giving up its order dice. The Tiger finally dies; we had a nice daisy chain of vehicles on the British side.

A German Stug takes a mortar hit and is immobilized the rest of the game unable to move. It continues to fire the MMG and main gun killing squad after squad in its fire arc earning the tank crew a promotion to a Tiger…as it seems we need some new crews!

A Hellcat attempts to take on a Puma, it opts to stand and take the shot. It misses as it was a ploy to herd the Puma to destroy it. The Puma pulls up and point blank shoots the Hellcat and misses. Puma is put into a tight spot and escapes the next time and is finally destroyed by the Hellcat.

Downfalls:

The allied forces had two artillery observers and an air observer….my goal was to have one of each but we played with it as is. I feel it really pinned the hell out of the bridge area to the point it made the Germans very I ineffective allowing some easy advances by the allies to objectives.

The dice roll of a 12 on the Tiger early helped also….dice what can I say? If people was worried about the changes to tank pins are worried, don’t be….no tank was any more powerful as we had a mix of both regular and veteran.

Bolt Action Gaming Jan. 5th

Well, this is long overdue to post. I got together with Lee and Chris about two weeks ago to throw some dice and hang out at the new Anthem Games store.

First, the store was amazing. Huge and plenty of space and tons of tables. They have plans for a coffee shop and they serve food. I am looking forward to hanging out there more!

Chris pulled out his British and we had a standard bash where I had to capture two of the three objectives and Chris was defending. He had his usual lot of Brits with this time the Crocodile making a cameo in the game.

Well, this game ended dismal for the Germans in a nutshell, I rolled a 1 for my air strike. Remind me not to allow Japanese exchange pilots to fly my planes. *sigh* Plus the Croc was just a pain in the ass to take on, everything I shot at it just put a pin on it or nothing including not even breaking the armor. Oh it screwed my plans up and the dice was not with me.

Here are a few shots of the game!

The table.

Open turns o the game.

222 takes a hit!

That was where the Japanese Exchange Pilot hit my 155mm heavy howitzer.

BOOM! That was where the gun was.

7 Half Track taken out! Arg! 

Roasting the Croc!

After a few pins on the Croc the flamethrower was finally able to take it out.

My moral victory after the loss.

My second game with Lee didn't go any better against his Americans a straight up kill point mission. Again, I got the suicide pilot from the Japanese exchange pilot program.

heavy  howitzer deploys

Sniper sets up

Americans Advance

ATG sets up...

Towards the end of the game, once the rift was obvious I was able to take the loss with grace.