Bolt Action Escalation Campaign: Game One

By Kreighton Long

A bold British jeep rushes into the crossroads surprising a German infantry squad still recovering from an artillery strike.

The morning dew glistens, reflecting the light of the dawning sun. A nondescript crossroad in the countryside is quiet for now. The day before, a farmer moved livestock along the dirt roads. Today, officers and NCOs hasten soldiers towards a fatal encounter. Under the cover of darkness, British paratroopers jumped out of soaring aircraft as flak exploded around them, lighting the sky.

Throughout the night the paratroopers moved through the darkness, slowly gathering more and more men into their merry bands. A few small vehicles roll out of gliders to the delight of the Red Devils. Some miles away, a German commander receives reports of British paratroopers landing and maneuvering in his area of responsibility.

Looking down at his map, he guesses at the paratroopers’ objective, a town labeled on the map as “Colline de L’église”. As reports continue to come into the German headquarters, the officer takes the initiative and dispatches what men he has available to the crossroads hoping to stall the British advance to enable him to organize a stronger defense of the town.

I recently acquired a plastic church for my 28mm terrain collection and upon seeing it, my geek pal Brandon made a point that if we didn’t put together a campaign centered around the church we’d be fools. We’re no fools so we set out to run a friendly campaign. We settled on an escalation style campaign pitting his British Paratroopers against my German Grenadiers. The first game would be made up of 400 points aside, the second 800, and the third 1200. We also wanted to build in rewards and consequences for winning/losing each game.

The first game was centered around a crossroads as Brandon’s Red Devils, also known as the Sons of Brixton, moved towards their objective while the Germans attempted to delay their advance. The first game’s objective was to capture and hold the crossroads. Players could score a Victory Point at the end of turns 4, 5, and 6.

At the end of those turns all infantry models within 9″ of the center of the crossroads would be tallied. The side with more tallies wins the VP for the turn. The side with more VPs at the end of the game wins. The loser of the first game would not be able to bring in vehicles until turn four of the second game — which would end up on the outskirts of Colline de L’église regardless of who won Game One (we just really wanted to use the church). Controlling the roads outside of town would be key for both sides to utilize vehicles and heavy weapon support for the attack/defense of the town — Colline de L’église.

The British Second Lieutenant looked down at his map one more time. He knew the crossroads were just up ahead, and he knows Germans were in the area. Thinking quickly he dispatched one paratrooper squad to his right to come at the crossroads from the German left, one Wasp Flamethrower Carrier would attack the German right, and his Reece Jeep and remaining paratrooper squad would commit up the middle. His Artillery Forward Observer crept forward hoping to call in a strike to clear a path for his compatriots, aiming for a direct strike on the crossroads if they were looking outnumbered.

The German Second Lieutenant chose to keep his men close enough to hopefully support each other if they ran into trouble. Three Grenadier squads advanced abreast hugging cover where possible with the officer among them. A sniper team moved forward ahead of the infantry and took up a concealed firing position overlooking the crossroads. No Brits were going to simply walk up on the crossroads without him seeing them.

Turn One – Both sides arrive at the crossroads and deploy.

Turn Two – The British artillery observer connects with fire control and death rains from above on some unlucky Grenadiers.

Turn Three – The Wasp is too slow on the draw and is hit by a panzerfaust, exploding in dramatic fashion.

Turn Four – The Germans score one Victory Point as the British close in on the objective. The British jeep rushes into the open and is immobilized by the German lieutenant. Though immobile, the gunner continues to let loose with his twin MMGs.

Turn Five – A British charge eliminates the German Grenadier squad on the German left, trading grenades ad close-range fire over the hedgerow. The German right fares no better when a Grenadier squad rushes from the hedgerow to assert dominance over the objective in a shocking display of force. Only to be cut down by the British officer, blowing his hunting horn, and artillery observer. This must have been a fun turn to be British. Tie on models leads to no VP awarded. Germans continue to hold the lead at 1-0.

Turn Six – The German lieutenant heroically (read stupidly) bursts from cover, firing from the hip at a British paratrooper squad, routing the poor buggers. Tie on models leads to no VP awarded. Germans hold on to their early lead to win 1-0.

The fight over this dirt crossroad was fierce and hard-fought by both sides. Regrouping after the encounter, both sides found their numbers significantly reduced. The British maneuvered through the bocage with skill and courage but skill and courage alone are not always enough to win the day. Luck, the ever-elusive luck, favored the Germans more than the British this time around.

The German lieutenant, whose fire immobilized a jeep and drove off a British infantry squad at the most crucial time, walked among the men he had left. Though cratered from artillery and bloodstained, the crossroads were under German control, and for that, his men could be proud. The British were forced to delay their advance towards Colline de L’église temporarily. The time the Germans gave their comrades should be enough to prepare their defenses, for the lieutenant knew the British weren’t turned back so easily.

Scoring one VP at the end of Turn Four, the Germans walked away with a win, albeit barely. Turn Five saw nine infantry models in scoring range for both the British and the Germans while Turn Six saw eight apiece. Without a majority, neither faction scored points in those two turns leaving the Germans with the only point on the day.

Pinned British units contesting the objective towards the end of the engagement.

Brandon was fairly pleased with his list. The force he put together was well balanced, thematic, and played well. A few errors early in the game haunted his platoon for the remainder of the game.

The Wasp took a firing position on the German sniper while simultaneously exposing itself to a Grenadier squad and it’s deadly panzerfaust. Likewise, a rifle squad maneuvered into sniper fire and lost an NCO hindering it’s morale to the point where they broke and ran at the end of the game. Maybe that NCO could have held them together if he wasn’t bleeding out on the road.

Unit placement goes in the “Improve” category in the British After Action Report. A second area of improvement is timing. The random order die mechanic makes timing your strikes difficult and more care needs to go into the timing and coordination of strikes than other, more predictable you go-I go games. As for the Sons of Brixton MVP, that title goes to 2nd Lieutenant Evans. Evans was right where he needed to be to motivate his troopers and was the unit that routed the German Grenadier squad making a move on the objective at the end of Turn Five.

A German infantry squad basks in the glow of the burning Wasp that shortly before threatened the flank of the German positions with a clear line of sight on the sniper team.

The German force did reasonably well. At 400 points, the panzerfausts of the Grenadier squads worked wonders as a deterrent for the British vehicles and in one case served as the vehicles doom. The sniper team was able to conduct effective area denial with Ambush orders. The Grenadiers learned a hard lesson about watching the spacing between squads. Two squads were hit by the same artillery strike which at this low of a points game could have effectively ended the game on Turn Two.

The Germans overlooked two small teams, the British HQ team and artillery forward observer, which surprised a Grenadier squad making a move on the objective wiping it out on Turn Five. That was an excellent example of the risk you take ignoring the little guys. The MVP for the Germans has to go to the 2nd Lieutenant. The lieutenant single-handedly immobilized the British jeep, which while not taking it out of the fight did limit its utility for the remainder of the game, and then when all seemed lost, chased off a British Airborne Squad which was in position to win the British the turn and tie the game. Perhaps he’ll be upgraded to a 1st Lieutenant for Game Two as a reward for his heroics.