Copyright © 2024, Philip Robinson. All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, in whole or in part without prior permission of the creator

Monday 28 June 2021

A Brief Encounter


For our game here today Dave requested a WWII game using my 28mm late war collection as due to Covid and various lockdowns he had not had the opportunity to command them, again as he had not played any games using Bolt Action rules for the same reasons he chose that rule set for the game.

Folk will no doubt by now know my opinion on Bolt Actions gimmick rules to appease list builders and sell models, so don't expect things like the ridiculous Tiger Fear rule.

Below is a list of my house rules for the game though, with the added Target Acquisition rule. 

Target Acquisition - I will be using the spotting table from Battlegroup and if the target is not acquired the target will receive a pin if hit and if any sixes are rolled one will be re-rolled the usual roll to convert the hit to a casualty will apply.

Morale - When testing for fifty percent casualties form shooting and the unit fails its test instead of the unit breaking it will immediately move 12" towards friendly cover or the friendly table edge if no cover is within reach, it will then be given a down order dice or the order dice changed to down if it already has one.

Mark it as shaken with a suitable marker, its next order must be a rally order, the units morale value will be reduced by one for the test, if it successfully rallies remove the shaken marker but not any pins it may have.

Close Quarters - If you lose a close combat by twice as many casualties than your opponent then remove the complete unit as per the rules, if you lose by less than twice as many then retire as above.



The game will be a straight forward encounter battle, both sides converging on the hamlet of Petit Rawnslie which yet again has been ravaged by war.

The German advance begins well with units stealing a march on the approaching British.

Inertia then struck the German advance allowing the British to make up ground on the hamlet.

Just when the Germans broke from their lethargy disaster struck, a lucky shot from the advancing British Cromwell brewed up the German Panzer IV before it got off a shot.


Again the German advance stalled with the PzIV blocking the road giving time for the British to occupy the remaining three buildings giving them a commanding fire base.



The British had also set up a Vickers MG on the German flank forcing them off the road and into cover meanwhile the building occupied by the Germans came under converged fire from two British squads and the unopposed Cromwell.

The German squad behind the adjacent hedge got similar treatment both squads becoming pinned down.
Lieutenant Bikkleigh peruses the rules for the effect of a PIAT against troops in buildings.

  By turn four it was all up for the Germans with not enough men to oust the British from the hamlet, even if they could be motivated to do so, which was doubtful.

That's all for now folks, keep safe and keep gaming.

TTFN

24 comments:

  1. A wonderful collection that you've built during all this bloody coronavirus malarky, a joy to play with such figures and vehicles. You were deserted well and truly by the dice/card gods today for certain. I was pleased to see my plan unfold successfully for once.

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    1. I think a sacrifice of my dice to the gods is in order.

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  2. That was a brief encounter, for sure. As David states, you do have a wonderful collection of toys and terrain. Good to F2F gaming return.

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    1. Thank you Jonathan, it was brief indeed the gods reserved all the sixes for the British it felt. Great to get back to F2F games I was forgetting what they were like.

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  3. Nice table Phil, I love those buildings. interesting mods on the rules. I have just picked up 'O' Group and with them, when you fire at anything in cover you also roll a spotting die. On 1 - 3 the target is obscured and on 4 - 6 it is spotted. This simply transfers to the damage table, where you roll on a different line depending upon whether the target was spotted or not, with spotted targets suffering worse. I really like the simplicity and cleverness of that.

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    1. Thank you Norm. I couldn't warm to O Group from watching the videos on YouTube although that could be down to the videos rather than the rules. Anything that cleverly simplifies the complexity of modern warfare without abstracting too much has to be good in my book.

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  4. It shows BA can be used for a good game with commonsense. Lovely table and forces.

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  5. Indeed, chop out the silliness and it is not too bad at all, still not quite my ideal WWII set, but then it's how you play really. Tempted to leave the BA FB group, can't be doing all the is it worth taking crap only tend to look for the eye candy and there is plenty of that elsewhere.

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    1. A lot of the questions are ridiculous if you know anything at all about WWII. Case in point cavalry made a come back.

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    2. Ideal for charging all those trucks with LMG's mounted on the roof of course. No good for charging tanks I think horses suffer from Tiger fear🙂

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  6. Lovely to see a beautiful table with miniatures in play. What size miniatures please? Cheers, Helen

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  7. Great looking game Phil 👍 the tweets look very reasonable and we might see them adopted in the dungeon🤔

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    1. Thank you Matt, the "spotting" worked well I thought but did not get the opportunity to try the other two. Had we continued to turn five I we would definitely have used the fifty percent casualties by fire one🙂
      I will be in touch about another game so that the collection can hit the table again.

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  8. Your House Rules are a nice touch Phil and the figures are wonderfully painted.

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    1. Thank you Christopher, sadly it was a tad short.

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  10. Great looking game, terrain and the pzkfw IV at least looked nice!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain. It was pretty but could fight? Didn't get the chance to find that out🙂

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  11. To be fair to Mr.B. Your 28mm WW2 toys are rather nice!

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