Taking a break from painting up my Bavarians (and domestic duties various!) just had a great Bolt Action game at Jolt Games in Mitchell so I thought I'd post the AAR and photos of the day. The scenario for the game was loosely based on Operation LIGHTFOOT, an Allied armoured assault on an entrenched Italian held position in North Africa, devised by Andrew our Bolt Action guru. My mate Paul and Andrew played the Allies and myself the Italians (a nervous first for me). Given the Italian propensity for morale collapses and running away - two more unit losses than the Allies and you have to test to see who stays and who doesn't - I was rather worried about just how resilient my Eyeties would be under a sustained armoured assault. As you can see from the following photo of the Allied armoured juggernaut waiting to be deployed - I had good cause to worry!
Another attraction of this scenario was the availability of air cover for both sides. I bought 'Doc's Airforce' along with a Blenheim bomber, Hurricane fighter and Gloster as a scout plane for the Allies and a Stuka and a Macchi 'Arrow' fighter for the Italians - each side diced for which plane and when they came on. Luckily for me I got the Stuka which took at least three turns after I got it before actually coming on to attack, doubly lucky as the Allies did not have their usual Ack Ack - Andrew left the Bofors at home - while the Italians had a 90mm monster mounted on a truck which doubled as either a heavy AA or super-heavy AT gun. Unfortunately for Paul and Andrew they were only able to get a scout plane on at the end of the game (survey the damage I suppose) so I never got a chance to check out the 90's AA capabilities! Not that it mattered, as an AT it is superb - easily as good as an 88 - and had a major affect on the outcome of the game.
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| The 90mm author of much mayhem... 'effin' big gun on a truck! I had no idea the Italians had something like this. |
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| Hot work on the 90 - carting those monster shells up there would have been quite a job in the desert heat! |
The generous tables in Jolt meant that it was also a chance to test out my new desert battle matt - all 12' of it - and given the size of the respective forces, we needed every inch of it! Biggest WWII game - at least as far as armour is concerned - that I've ever been in! The combination of Andrews and my Italian armour gave me a decent force of about five M13/40s, three Semovente AGs (two of them with 75s) and a half dozen L3/35s, one with a 37mm AT gun as well as various scouts - a Lince (as armoured command vehicle) an Autoblinda with a 37mm autocannon (sweet!) and my awesome Sahariana. Together with two full platoons of infantry (3 x sections each) together with two 75mm field guns, 81mm mortars, HMGs and Elefantino AT guns it was quite a large defensive force.
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| Infanrty section with sniper team in the palm grove, next to it a well fortified position next to the other road into town protecting a 75mm field gun, a HMG and an 81mm mortar with a Semovente AG (47mm gun) parked behind the barbed wire barricade next to it |
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| Italian infantry defending a native grove of some sort but behind them a major trench complex bristling with MGs, ATs and mortars AND the command. Strangely I don't think one shot was fired at it the entire game. |
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| Momma mia shes-a burnin'! |
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| Shameful - the abandoned Sahariana goes up in smoke |
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| Op LIGHTFOOT opening shots - and the 90's first victim (this is one end of the table - the 90 is at the other end!) |
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| Under fire the Autoblinda beats a hasty (albeit temporary) retreat - finding that reversing gear rapido as the Allied lights - a gunned up Humber scout and two Honey's race onto the table |
The Allies very nearly drove in my scouts which would have blinded my guns as they were acting as the Forward Observers. Nearly. Actually the 'Blinda performed magnificently and even if it took half the game to discover it was armed with an auto cannon (two shots instead of one) it gave good account of itself, getting pins on the Honeys and more importantly NOT running away but providing a blocking force of its own that meant the only way out of the town was down the road - where all my ATs were ranged in! It was down this road that Paul's Vickers light tanks raced - to their doom (brave lads tho)!
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| The 'light' Semovente AG claims the first Vickers |
As expected the Allied armour poured on in successive waves - so much of it I believed it was only a matter of time before they started to overrun my outer defenses. But that never eventuated as the brave 'Blinda held up the Allied lights in the centre and the awesome 90mm Super Heavy AT gun got into action. The Allies had four Matildas, two Valentines and a Bishop (25pdr on a Valentine chassis - a sort of British KV - and almost impossible to stop with most of the lighter Italian ATs) as well as a Crusader, two Honeys and two Vickers Light tanks and four armoured scouts: Humbers and an ancient Rolls Royce - the later with armour so light it was classified as a truck - mounting a Vickers HMG turret though. Add another two 25pdrs and numerous 2pdr ATs including a portee and there was plenty of fire-power to be unleashed on the Italian defenders. It should have been but much of it never got the chance as an enormous firefight developed in the the centre and the 90mm began to pick off tank after tank as they tried to come down the main road.
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| Another one bites the dust... the Crusader falls victim to the mighty 90 |
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| A tough-as-nails Matilda succumbs to the 90 - the marker in the middle is for my eventual air strike that I called in because even the 90 couldn't contain all that armour
The third thing that sealed the game for the Axis was the air strike. I got lucky with the dice and got the Stuka rather than the little Macchi fighter but it still circled for three turns before finally striking (trying to communicate with the Italians on the ground - he probably just ordered a pizza with the lot). One more turn and the target would have been too dispersed but it had a second Matilda with accompanying infantry section behind and a newly deployed 25pdr to one side. The tank with its thinner top armour stood little chance with a direct hit. The infantry behind rather than dive for cover stood up and blazed away - very tough boys (Aussies of course) and although loosing two of their number, continued to advance sans tank cover! The 25pdr took the other direct hit and amazingly (bit controversially I think) was not damaged or destroyed BUT the crew were either killed or ran off (whats that? RHA abandoning its gun? Never!!! I hear you say) so quite a result for the Stuka. No wonder the Allied infantry hated them - its been my experience that whenever they've been used in a BA game they have caused major destruction - save once which we blamed on the Italian pilot and on one other occasion when Andrew remembered to bring his Bofors!
  
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The Allies got absolutely hammered on that open road BUT despite their armour losses, pressed home the attack without the tanks. Aussie infantry y'see - tough-as-nails!
The centre of the battle was no better - absolute carnage ensued.
The battered 'Blinda had played cat and mouse with the Humber scout and two Honeys for the entire game - getting shots in with its 37mm - which slowed Honeys down as they in turn tried very hard to kill it off. One finally got around behind an put a shell into the engine compartment that started a fire but either passed right through or failed to explode. The Autoblinda's engine was kaput so she ended up unable to move from her perfect blocking position even if she'd wanted to AND (more amazingly) the crew didn't bail but chose to fight on. That's gotta be a first for a buggered up Italian AV! After taking care of the two Vickers I sent the Semovente to its aid where it dueled with the second Honey but was caught as the Humber sneakily drove OVER the hill and bushwacked it from above. The 'Blinda gave the Humber two in the guts from point blank and brewed it up in turn. The 'Blinda also disabled the Boyes mounted scout that killed my Sahariana as it tried to find a way out of town other than the rather dangerous road. Set on fire the crew abandoned it rather than putting the fire out - just like the Sahariana!
Paul's Rolls Royce AC is a virtual tin-can so light armoured its rated as a truck (thus vulnerable to small arms fire). Despite being vulnerable to just about everything it charged madly forward against the Italians in the palm grove, blazing away with its Vickers HMG. Never has one tin-can fired so many rounds with so little result BUT I'll be generous and say one or two KIA and the entire squad pinned, hugging the dirt for the rest of the game, only a casualty or two away from bolting in my opinion.
The Rolls managed to achieve this despite having every available weapon that could get a bead on it firing at it. It must have resembled a colander but kept on blazing away at its tormentors. At one point no less than four mortars FAILED to range in on it (see coloured dice next to it in photo below). That's one serious bug I have about about Bolt Action - its way too hard to range in with mortars as it requires a D6 to do so. History tells us they were far more accurate than that in experienced hands - more casualties caused by mortars than any other weapon apparently so they were effective. The Italian 81mm was considered one of the best in WWII and the Italians knew how to use them - quite deadly in experienced hands SO I say with an experienced team D5-6 to get on target, only a D6 for an inexperienced mortar team. For a veteran team make it 4-5-6. Gotta make mortars more useful in Bolt Action I say.
But I digress - the Portee (truck-mounted AT gun) deployed and took out my M13/40 sent to bolster the flank. Showed the risk of my strategy of relying on defence's firepower and feeding my armour reserves in piecemeal. Here the effectiveness of the Elefantino 37mm ATs also comes into play - they took out the Portee at long range. Against lighter vehicles and tanks they are as effective as any other AT gun.
At this point we were running out of time as after eight? or more turns the Allies had failed to crack the Italian defences and had lost over a half of their armour destroyed or abandoned for Italian losses of one Semovente, one M13/40 and the Sahariana scout (burned out) and the Autoblinda immobilized (but still shootin'!). One L3/35 had pinned the furthest most infantry and wiped out half a section with repeated twin Breda MG fire. Losses amongst Italian infantry were negligible - two or three - although both forward sections were pinned. The 75mm gun in the middle took two hits from one of the 25pdrs, gaining a host of pin markers and loosing two crew but the surviving gunners remained at their post. Brave lads - a bottle of grappa from the commanding tentente is on its way to their position I'm sure!
The Allies could not get their air cover going at all and in the end a scout overflew the battlefield to radio back the Allied failure to crack the Italian defences and Op LIGHTFOOT was called off. The Allies withdrew also leaving two damaged tanks and an armoured car abandoned for the victorious Italians to recover. Quite a convincing victory to the Axis on this occasion. Dug-in Italians with plenty of AT and armour (even tankettes like L3s) are a tough nut to crack, despite their sometimes fragile morale.
The advantages to me in this game were the extra commander which gave me initiative on all but two or three turns AND the super-heavy 90mm AT gun which in hindsight really should have been targeted by whatever means necessary by the Allies from the outset. Without the damage it inflicted on the that flank I doubt I would have been able to have kept the Allied armour from overrunning at least my outer line of defense. Had THAT happened then the dodgy Italian morale thing would have almost certainly come into it (and who wouldn't run from a Matilda - especially as they're so slow you probably could outrun one if you tried!)
Big thanks to Andrew for organising and both he and Paul for being the most congenial of opponents. A really great day's wargaming was had by one and all at Jolt Games in Mitchell. Do yerself a favour and get down there for a game (and tell 'em Doc sent you!)
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