Bolt Action gaming day 2

Saturday saw our club once again filled with gamers, as we held our second Bolt Action gaming day. 10 gamers took part in three scenarios organized and planned by our games masters. It was great to see a few new faces, who had not played Bolt Action or visited the club before. Fresh meat!

A tight moment in the game. Picture by Kalle Mannonen

There was also a nice flurry of painting before the games to mobilize enough Finns and Russians for our Karelia game. I managed to put together the three T-34/85s displayed below, but undoubtedly the main effort was by Juha, who's put together a splendid Finnish army. Check out his blog.

I ran a re-fight of my Ramelle scenario. This time the Germans mopped the floor with the defending Americans, overrunning their positions and capturing the bridge just before American reinforcements arrived. The Americans were hurt by some lousy dice rolling, but in my opinion their units also failed to support each other sufficiently and did not concentrate their fire enough. 

The Ramelle board, this time using our new 4Ground buildings

German Panzers lead the advance down both roads

German mechanized infantry advance along the flank

The pin markers are starting to mount on the defending Americans

The Americans make a brave attempt at knocking out the tank using sticky bombs

American defenders are falling back on the bridge

American positions on the left are overrun

The defenders flee to the "Alamo" across the bridge

The lead panzer drives into the Alamo, collapsing it on the defenders!

The American position looks pretty dire

The final defenders, outnumbered and cut off on the wrong side of the bridge, are overrun in repeated assaults

The second game was a Karelia-based Bunker Assault scenario, with a thin line of Finns defending several lines of bunkers against overwhelming Soviet forces. The game played out well, although it was a bit slow due to the number of players involved. The first line of Finnish trenches fell swiftly but the second line took considerably longer as the attackers' first wave was worn down and pinned down. In the final rounds of the game the Soviets launched a last ditch effort to seize the third line bunker. The assault came close, but faltered just before the game ended in a draw.

The Karelia table as viewed from the Soviet side

Finnish sniper

Destroyed T-34/85 in front of the second line bunker

Picture by Kalle Mannonen

Finnish reserves

Desperate assault on the last bunker

Final view of the board. Both sides fought valiantly, with the Finns suffering 75% casualties yet still holding their ground.