Long time, no update: I would blame summer if it was not for the plenty of games taking place! With new Freshman in the society and my election to Warmaster, there is much, much more good coming up however. But first, I would like to talk about the last event of our (Somewhat extended) summer: The Seagulls has Landed 2015, a Bolt Action tournament.
Not everyone loves early mornings and it was quite an early one to make the hour and a half car journey to Lowestoft from Cambridge. Still, once we arrived at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft, there was quite a sight to behold:
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| The top end of the hall |
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| The bottom end of the same hall |
Considering how most of our gaming is stuck on rather plain and droll tables, with the same limited terrain each week it was a pleasant change to see the variety. In addition to the usual European villages (the staple of our Bolt Action games down at the society) we had pacific jungles, snow blasted lands and the desert in both village and airfield variety. Another big addition, one which most of us are unused to, is intact buildings.
Between the "sculpted" base sections, leading to natural hills and dips breaking up the flatness of most boards and the variety and sheer quality of some of the terrain it left me excited for the games ahead.
For the event, I had painted up my Soviets who had sat in brown base colors for quite some time. Armed primarily with SMGs, it was an up close and punchy list. I had even made a small display tray for them and was happy for a few best army votes considering the competition! With a small story of partisan heroism and a look at the organisation of the soviet shock armies (the 3rd Shock Army in my case), I had my list, Historical and painted but still a nasty one once/if it gets close.
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| On display on the day! I might even get around to doing better photos of these guys! |
My first game was on one of the jungle boards, against a very mixed German list.
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| My first opponent's army |
With a noticeably wrong scale Puma and a real mix of colors, it wasn't exactly the prettiest army there. Add in other things like inexperienced indirect fire weapons, a lack of theme of historical context and this was the real tournament army which I think some people in our group worry about. With the jungle board looking good for my style of army, with plenty of cover, it actually proved bad. With plenty of difficult terrain to slow down my men and with all the beneficiary terrain on my opponents side (A pair of watchtowers, buildings and access to the road from one side along with the light cover and terrain which is all I had) made it an uphill struggle. Still, excuses eh!
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| The table, from which I deployed from the right |
Still, I had some luck on my side. A good artillery hit at the top of turn two left my opponents nebelwerfer, heavy mortar and machine gun team with three pins a piece, leaving them useless for the rest of the game. One of my cheap inexprienced partisans, acting as a tank hunter team, managed to snipe his officer despite taking assault rifle fire back from the veteran German since his arrival, in an attempt to get the artillery doing something.
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| Revenge for his dead comrade! |
My ZiS-3 indirectly hit my opponents half track to. The open topped vehicle didn't stand much of a chance. The later arrival of the quad AA halftrack proved deadly, but was itself hit indirectly later to. A good day for the gun crew.
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| Who needs AP shells anyway? |
Ultimately it was all for nought. Between the use of buildings from deployment which I could not use, to the speed given by the road led to the struggle been much to hard, with several of my units left pinned beyond usefulness by a pioneer manned flamethrower leading to the loss of my first battle.
My second game was a stark reversal of fortune however! I was playing against Shaun Reiley's Fallschirmjaeger. Despite him having lost a few models after his own first game and thus needing proxies, it was a very nice looking army. The mission was a somewhat modified version of Demolitions from the main rulebook and a tough one to win by anyone I imagine.
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| The board for the second game |
I left my free squad in a nearby warehouse to guard my base, but soon two units of Fallschirmjaeger were bearing down on them. So to help the inexperienced squad I called up thwe Soviet's next mightiest weapon: artillery, the god of war itself! The Fallschirmjaeger were witlessly moving up when artillery fire struck their position. Perfect shooting ensured they both took a huge hit. One squad lost three men and took a full 6 pins. The other was simply destroyed in the ensuring destruction. The road to the left was quickly driven up by the SU76, which promptly hit and killed half the surviving squad. With seven pins, the remaining men broke and fled.
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| The board in the middle of turn three |
With the attacking fascists dead or routed, my reinforcements arrived. One guard squad moved to guard my base, the other rushed forward towards the enemy's own base. With my officer and medic in tow, they made good progress. However, next turn they were struck down by a passing fighter, but my third squad quickly filled the gap. From there, the German's base was doomed as everything began it's move forward.
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| They lay in wait of fascists! |
My remaining guard squad and the new conscripts in the form of my free squad remained behind, for units still waited in ambush. The ZiS-3, starved for targets turned to add HE shells to the defense. The new unit was wiped out by the Fallschirmjaeger when they arrived, but the guard acted quick and one close range burst of PPSH fire later the last push on the enemy part had failed and the German elite lay dead. My first win of the day!
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| My friend Jack faces off against brits in his second game, on the boards I would be inhabiting later... |
My final game was an interesting, if quick one: I faced off against the Hungarians! I had not faced them at all during my time with Bolt Action, and I can believe I see why: their special rules are nothing to shout about and their units are nothing beyond other armies. Still, it was a challenging if simple game for the first few turns. While I approached the enemy, their was quite some attrition and I lost some units. My artillery even misdirected itself onto me!
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| Hey kids, you want to buy some artillery? |
Still, as should have been expected, the moment the SMGs got close the opposition melted away on the massed fire.
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| The crew of the SU76 faces off against the enemy artillery. |
The ZiS-3 once more showed it's worth, finishing off the Panzer III ausf N. From that point, it was just a game of mopping up the rest of the enemy. A win for the Soviets.
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| The Pz. III arrives! |
The board itself this game was a good looking one, but I had some issues. The trees fell over all the time and the large central area, as seen in the picture above, was impossible to roll dice in, as they couldn't stand flat! We ended up putting our reference sheet over the worst potholes to make an are where we could roll.
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| Niles' Prizes: a turnip cart and some dead livestock! |
Ultimately, I cam fourth overall! Not bad for a tournament of twenty two players! Ultimately, only Niles, who came near bottom, actually won prizes from our small group that day. Still, we had enjoyed a good day out, against (mostly) great looking armies and fun players and some nicely done terrain, and would enjoy coming back yet another year. Next year, third place!
