Bolt Action: Operation Baggy Rations

By Troy Hill

What do we eat on the Russian Front during Operation Bagration?

Baggy Rations, of course.

At least, that’s what gamers snack on while playing a historical-themed event this past weekend. Anything to support the FLGS, right? Whatever snacks the store had disappeared as our local Bolt Action players munched their way through three rounds of operational madness.

Operation Baggy Rations was designed to be an even mix of Axis vs Allies (eg: Soviets) from the Russian front as Russia began its breakout operation that began to push the Germans back towards Berlin.

However, no operation survives first contact with post-pandemic gaming as gasoline prices soar thanks to war led by the current Russian dictator.

We ended up with more German forces than Soviet forces.  (I had been hoping for German allies that eventually flipped alliances and could be used for either team). But players brought the main forces.

Despite the soaring cost of fuel, we did manage to eek out four tables of gaming goodness despite posting the event across social media in three states (Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.)

The event was hosted by Hot Sauce Games in Fort Wayne Indiana. This was probably our last tournament in the store’s current location on the North side of the city. They’ve just announced a move to the eastern side of Fort Wayne, in the Georgetown area.

Round One
Players were faced with a modified version of the Air Drop scenario from Warlord’s website. The major change was limiting how far the drop would move from the center of the table. I limited it to 12-inches left to right along the center line, and only three inches toward either player’s table edge. This kept the mission mostly even.

Players had fun with the mission, and all tables were able to have one player in control of the air drop by the end of the game.

Another note: I had all games end on Turn 6, or when time was called. That way, we didn’t end up with half a turn seven played right as time was called. Most games finished on turn 6. About a third played to time being called.

Round Two

This mission was a take-off on a takeoff. I believe the gents at SNAFU first talked about using the TOP SECRET mission from the main rule book and altering it.

I further modified that mission for a previous event I ran out in California. I modified it yet again for Operation Baggy Rations. Players are to recover or capture, a courier with mission plans, hiding in one of two buildings.

Two buildings are placed near the center line of the table. Markers are placed into each building, hidden from player view. One of the markers is the courier. The other is nothing. The couriers have Hollywood special saves. They always survive, no matter what happens to their escorting unit. However…

The problem: the courier’s satchel is booby-trapped, and cannot be moved more than 8 inches per game turn. For every inch of movement beyond eight in that turn, there is a chance it goes BOOM! This is cumulative within that turn. So if a squad moves a total of 10-inches with the courier (10-8=2) then the player rolls a d6. On a 1 or 2, BOOM! happens (and the mission switches to kill points). If another squad captures the courier, and moves him another 2 inches that same turn, then the previous extra 2-inches, plus the new 2 inches that same turn = a 1-4 chance of BOOM!

BOOM! is bad!

Fortunately, we had no BOOM! of our couriers across all four tables. Two couriers sat in their buildings and drank a good Russian Vodka while the various squad kept assaulting to gain control of the situation.

The other two tables managed to get the courier out of the building, but only our “Guest Star” Hawkeye made it completely off the table.

Radar was escorted into the woods, but could only make it to the player’s back 6-inches of their table-side. That gave them a bonus on kill points instead of a solid win.

Guest Star Klinger, and Guest Star Sgt Schultz both sipped their vodka, laughing as the players struggled to gain control of the situation.

Round three

We did have two players abandon ship after round 2. However, one player brought his son, who stepped in as Ringer #1. I took over the other table as Ringer #2 (AKA Gumby) with another generic German list.

For this round, we played mission #2 out of the rule book – a straight kill points mission. I’ve heard several of the Bolt Action podcasters mention that round three is always a bit fuzzy-brained, and simple strategies are best. So, a generic Kill-Points mission where players can bring their entire force on in turn one sounded like a good deal. Again, a hard stop at Turn 6. Only one table played until time was called.

Our top two generals – figured on a combination of wins AND player votes for their favorite opponent, were Andy Allcock for the German side, and Eric Morrow for the Soviets. Best-painted forces, as judged by our group’s previous winner (Eric) and Hotsauce Games store manager Tim, was awarded to Andy Allcock, with Nick Leach in Second.

Winners donated their prizes (Thanks Warlord for the support!) to our newer players. Between his father’s winnings, and what other players donated or traded, Nick’s son ended up with a good start to a British force.

Our club’s next event will be an escalation campaign based on the Western Desert book, but expanded to include forces up to Tobruk, to allow American forces to participate. We anticipate recreating a multi-player battle for El Alamein in November for Tanksgiving.