“A funny thing happened on the way to Tobruk” a v3 Bolt Action Battle Report

by Matt Varnish

A new edition of Bolt Action by Warlord Games is upon us, we were blessed with an advanced copy, and rather than spill the beans for all the competitive players like everyone else, we figured why not actually play a regular old fun game with fellow No Dice No Glory alum, Scott Roach. We decided upon a desert game, so that he could dust off his Aussies and his Afrika Korps. We tried to incorporate as many new things from the new edition, and as luck would have it we came across a fair amount of questions and sneaky changes.

First big change, the way army lists are built is different. No longer can you take a lone ’88 or Pzr III, now these support units need to be in their own platoons. My own Blitzkrieg army only has 1 HQ painted up so I’ll need to paint up more, since a Heavy Weapons platoon and Artillery platoon need their own Lieutenant or Hauptmann. Speaking of lists, here is what we ran:

My army, Germany 1000pt list (All Regular except FSJ)

Infantry Platoon 1st Lt, 1 extra man 40pts

Heer Infantry, 10 man, NCO SMG, 1 LMG 119pts

Kradschutzen Squad, 6 man, NCO SMG 120pts

Fallschirmjager (Veteran) x6, NCO +2 SMG SMG 88pts Halftrack 62pts (put into Reserves per Meeting Engagement)

Anti-Tank Rifle (regular) 25pts

Support Platoon 1st Lt, 30 pts

MMG 50pts

Medium Mortar 45 pts

8-Rad +HQ vehicle upgrade 105pts

Pzr III C 140pts

996pts total

Scott’s Aussie Diggers (All regulars)

Infantry 1st Lt 30pts

Rifle Platoon, x9 SMG x1 LMG x1 109 pts

Lt Mortar 30pts

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle 25pts

Forward Observer 75pts

2x Bren Gun Carriers (on the old assumption you could split a squad among two Bren Carriers) 100pts

Support Platoon 1st Lt 30pts

MMG 50pts

Medium Mortar w/ Spotter 55pts

Daimler Dingo + HQ upgrade 80pts

Humber Mk II 95pts

Captured M13/40 ( counts-as Light Cruiser) 105pts (put into Reserves per Meeting Engagement)

1002 pts

Scott set up a nice table, and then we rolled up on the three Scenario charts. We rolled Top Secret, with Quartered deployment Zones, with Meeting Engagement. As Top Secret assumes a downed pilot with a briefcase, we added a BF-109 that had engine trouble, landed on a road, and the pilot is holed up in a building as the objective.

“Roight, we were on our way from Tobruk when we seen this Jerry fighter smoking! He turned around and dropped his wheels and landed past a hill, yeah? Our Rupert reckons we go over there and capture the pilot if we could. As we come over the crest, we seen dust beyond the oasis.. a Jerry platoon coming for the rescue! Yeah Naw mate, we gonna get there first!”

We consulted the Desert Weather table but did not roll up any sandstorms (shame, my Kradschutzen already had scarves) and Scott chose his Table Quarter It happened that the road was in my quarter on my side and not his, which put the kibosh on his plan to run the scout cars up. In hindsight this was fine because you need to touch base with the pilot, and as the geometric center was in the building, his vehicles could not capture (nor could my Kradschutzen… foreshadowing)

Turn 1 highlights: Not realizing that I could RUN my support weapons 12 inches rather than the old 6 inch run , I moved my MMG into the first floor of a building while I set up my mortars on either side of the road, using Men Snap To Action Order from my 1st Lt (Reminder, German commanders get +1 units). The idea here was to be able to shell the central building or smoke markers depending on who got in first.

Scott moved his Lt and Bren Carrier infantry 18 inches, so 6 inches from the central building. To riposte, I used my Vehicle HQ 8-Rad to get the Pz III on the board. No penalties for long range shooting meant a 5+ (moving) to hit. I could take out a Bren Carrier. and the Pz III missed.

The 8-Rad also missed.

Scott moved his support platoon into some cover overlooking my table quarter. I moved my Kradschutzen 24 inches right to the door of the objective building, but I would have to dismount next turn to get inside and grab the pilot. Other units moved into position or advanced towards the central building housing the downed pilot. But the big game-defining dice pull would be Turn 2: Either I got first, my Kradschutzen dismount and grab the downed pilot from the building… OR Scott pulls first and the Bren Gun Carrier platoon goes in and captures the pilot.

Turn 2 highlights: Scott got the first dice pull, and indeed dismounted his rifle section to the building and captured the downed pilot, at least an Advance order can now be used to enter a building, but not shoot out the same turn you entered. [Editor’s note: BA3 rulebook, page 153] Presumably because they are too busy kicking down doors?

Scott then pulled another dice and had his Humber shoot at my 8-Rad, but failed to penetrate. Scott then pulled a third dice in a row and advanced his infantry and light mortar. Here is where we had a bit of an issue. Light Mortars are not a team with Fixed (90 degree fire arc, Advance order to pivot, Run order to move), only Medium and Heavy mortars are.

Scott issued an Advance order to the top of the kidney-shaped hill, and wanted to range in on a 6 after moving. We found in the rules where it says that you need to issue a Fire Order to improve over time the Indirect fire. so we played it this way.

If anyone can cite otherwise, let us know please!

My next dice pull I made my Support Platoon Lt move the MMG up to the roof of the building on a RUN order, while a fire order on the two mortars into the central building. Hoping some HE into buildings would at least pin the british unit with the Pilot.

They of course missed.

My Pz III has HE so I fired at the building, again Missed. The 8-Rad then fired two autocannon shots into the building, all missing. My infantry sections moved up and fired into the building and caused three pins, and finally the Kradschutzen dismounted and with Point Blank were able to get some kills and another pin.

My FSJ came in from reserve and Scott’s infantry moved up to support the Bren Platoon. And crucially, the Forward Observer ranged in on my cluster of infantry (foreshadowing). Scott’s captured M13/40 failed to come in from Reserves, rolling a FUBAR. I felt it should never come back, as the reliable Italian engineering probably threw a track 2kms from town 🙂 Sadly no further effect.

Turn 3: Well of course the British 25pdrs back at HQ were able shoot at the Forward Observer’s co-ordinates. Scott rolls a 9 inch radius which clips my Lt, 2 infantry platoons, the dismounted Kradschutzen and clips the FSJ halftrack. The British in the building are JUST OUT of range of course.

His bombardment causes 2-3 pins on everything but blows up the halftrack and kills some plucky veteran paratroopers. He then pulls the first dice and is able to successfully order the Bren infantry platoon (with 4 pins) to exit the building and mount up (his HQ was nearby which is how he managed this).

My only hope now was to destroy the Bren Carrier that held the downed Pilot, and I used my Pz III to shoot at the Carrier and I missed. However in hindsight, AT guns now get a +1 when shooting at vehicles when using a Fire order. My 8-Rad activated next, trying for the Autocannon shots into the Carrier, and I scored a Steering hit on the Superficial Damage. But it turns out Bren Carriers have Turn on the Spot and therefore while the steering hit removed ONE of the pivots, it still had one left… and Scotts next dice pull was to Run order the Bren and the pilot off the table for the win.

“with 2 pins and steering damage, the Bren Carrier carries off the downed Luftwaffe pilot to the comforts of Ole Blightey”

With this type of mission, it was always possible for an early win. If I had got my Kradschutzen in and transferred the pilot to the halftrack I could have pulled the same move. So we got to see some of the new rules, just not assaults yet. It was a fun game, and it got us to break out models we had never used and had us poring over the rules to make sure. Some things had stayed the same but a surprising amount had changed. I’ve made a list below of some of the changes. I’m sure we missed some or got some wrong, let us know!

We had great FUN playing, not worrying about min-maxing tournament lists is really the way to play Bolt Action, I mean its self styled as a Hollywood version of WW2 not a super historical sim. But at the same time, all of World War 2 was not won by Min-Maxed Gurkhas in Bren Carriers with Pintle mounts either 😉 For the first time in a long time, I’m excited to paint up more stuff for my Blitzkriegers, and thats always a good thing.

Sneaky changes: every unit or team has an NCO per pg 73, therefore if a sniper or template weapon takes out the NCO, Germans can get around the -1 morale penalty for no NCO by promoting a guy on a 2+ per the Initiative Training rule

Anti Tank guns (team or vehicle mounted) get a +1 to hit on a Fire order or from Ambush when shooting at a Vehicle

Vehicles only get a +1 to-hit bonus for Point Blank, Infantry and Teams get +2 to-hit

Forward Observers can now spot for other Indirect Fire teams. but can they spot for more than one? It isn’t clear.

Light Mortars, not being Fixed, can technically Advance and fire on a 6, but to continue ranging in would need a Fire order, or can advance and keep hitting on a 6…

Halftracks are just Tracked now but gain the Road speed bonus, while Tracked vehicles do not, both get two pivots.

Nebelwerfers and Flame-thrower weapons cause pins on themselves when they fire

Vehicle MG fire is half the number of shots, rounding up.

-1 to-hit Shooting for 1 or more pins, not for EACH pin… no modifier in Close Combat due to pins.

Exceptional Damage is gone except for Snipers… [editor note: technically the sniper on a successful kill with the scoped rifle, can choose the unit leader not any model. This gives weapons teams and artillery units a leaderless -1 penalty to unit morale. Exceptional damage is totally gone. Snipers just have a different rule.]