Easter Front Round Up

The first two day Bolt Action tournament in Melbourne for a long while ran as part of Conquest over Easter. It was ace and a genuine pleasure to roll dice with gaming friends once again. Some I hadn’t seen since last Easter (or before)! Winners and pictures of the fabulous tables and armies can be found on FaceBook. Search for Cast Dice page for heaps of photos. Bravo to Leigh and Brad for a terrific weekend.

As you might have expected, running an army for the very first time in an actual tournament was a steep learning curve. Partisans don’t get quite as many toys as many other armies, so you need to consider how co-ordinate your units to achieve mission objectives.

A large squad of Nationalist Chinese militia. They died in droves but held on to secure an objective.

I played five of the six games, lost two and had draws in the other three. All but one was a close affair, but in the end I couldn’t do enough to pull out a victory. Very historic, I guess. Without support from regular troops, Partisans rarely fared well in a stand-up fight.

A Soviet T-26 Tank in Chinese service.

Brad used this beautiful Nationalist Chinese as a gumby army. We played a mission called Nuts!, where there are 5 objectives: one in the centre and one in each table-quarter. Up to half your army can start on the board.

Partisan Guerrilla fighters ambush veteran Chinese fighters, catching them in the open.

I gave Brad trouble early on, but they just kept coming and in the end contested or held all the objectives.I placed my bombs poorly and spread my army too thin to support each other. Lesson: make a plan and focus on the mission.

Ben’s Soviets are are terrific and balanced army. Top-notch painting too.

Ben and I fought to a draw in turn 6. A 50% chance of a seventh turn didn’t occur, which would almost certainly have been a victory to the Soviets.

The Soviet barrage falls on target

Half of my army spent most of the game heavily pinned and down, ceding the initiative to Ben on one flank. But while I couldn’t shoot, dug-in troops are also hard to shift.

Lesson: don’t be afraid to go down or take a rally order to keep unit in the game.

Elizabeth borrowed this fine looking Sherman from Tristan for the tournament

Elizabeth and I fought each other to a draw in one of two missions unveiled on the weekend. In Punch Through there are 4 objectives deployed in a cross 12″ from the table centre. Each player can move one objective up to 6″ (possible the same one). Every one starts off the table, with at least half your army arriving in the first wave.

The British kept on coming but neither of us could keep enough units together to secure an objective by the end of the game.

Lesson: use the bombs to control a fire lane or protect a flank; don’t just spread them out.

The only Axis power I faced on the weekend was Johnathon’s late war German list. The mission was No Man’s Land, straight from the rule book. His veterans were rock hard and steadily took a tally on my grab bag of inexperienced units, leading to my second loss in the tournament.

Lesson: use your army special rules or you just leave points off the table.

Supply Drop was the other new mission on the weekend, and one I think will become a favourite. It is a variation of the classic Kittyhawk Down (itself inspired by Thunderhawk Down from Australian 40K circles). No objectives start on the board. On turn four, three objectives drop from the sky. They land in a straight line through the middle of the board, with the angle of the line and the distance apart randomly determined.

I played long-time buddy Consto, who had a marvelous looking veteran US force (a mix of rangers and paratroopers, plus a Sherman).

Captured inexperienced tanks are pin magnets. The R35 made me laugh the whole weekend.

The objectives landed near perfect for me, taking pressure off my units as the paratroopers made a dash for their own baseline, leaving me in control of my own. A cannier player might have sequenced their final turn orders differently to grab a win. In the end it was another tight draw. Highlight was an IED taking out a veteran paratroop squad trying to dig me out of the centre of the board.

Lesson: Air Support can be random, including having it make a bomb run on your own units. But so sweet when it works.

There you have it: Easter Front 2022.

Maybe I’ll see you across a table one day soon.

Garibaldi Brigade

As winter set in on the chaos of Northern Italy in the later part of 1944 Partisan morale collapsed. Many partisans returned home or took advantage of fascist amnesties to lay down arms.

However, a dedicated core held on and continued to fight to throw out the nazi occupiers and smash the fascist rump-state.

My list is inspired by one such group, the 28^th Garibaldi brigade, who in December 1944 joined with the singular Popski’s Private Army to liberate Ravenna.

Most accounts focus on Popski’s British Special Forces troop, but the brave members of the Garibaldi brigade were essential as both a blocking force and as part of the assault.

The army has 13 order dice (units):

Like nearly all wargames, Bolt Action requires a force leader. While Partisans don’t have a structured officer corps (despite the many self-appointed titles and ranks!), I have selected the equivalent of a second lieutenant with regular morale to lead my Partisans. He is accompanied by additional one man, and both are armed with SMG.

Yes, the remaining photos are all ones I have posted already!

I also have a liaison officer. While some liaison officers wore civilian clothes, most wore uniforms, especially out of the towns. My OSS officer wears a US uniform. Once per game he can attempt to call in air support.

The core of the army are four squads of rifle armed Partisans (of either 9 or 10 fighters). Two of the squads have squad LMG to provide a little extra reach and fire power. One is also armed with Molotov cocktails, which will give some defense against tanks.

Partisans can take a squad of veteran Guerrilla Fighters. I’m taking a squad of 6, armed with SMG.

There are 3 teams with support weapons: an MMG, sniper, and PIAT. Of these the sniper is probably the most useful, but don’t underestimate the other two teams.

Actually, the PIAT team is inexperienced. They will supply an order die for the bag and otherwise likely spend most games hiding.

The last two units, a light howitzer and a captured tank, are both somewhat of a stretch historically. In games terms both will be useful. Both will play the important role of being able to throw out pins on enemy units. Both will also most likely die horribly. This is sad for the crews involved but will at least mean my core units are not being shot at.

To represent the lack of support and training, both the tank and artillery are rated as inexperienced. In addition, the Renault R35 has the captured rule, which means it is also unreliable.

Easter Front is a 1005 point Bolt Action tournament being run over two days as part of Conquest 2022 in Melbourne.

les gros canons

You are not going to believe what mon oncle found in this shed. Hid it in his shed at the armistice thinking it might be useful one day. Well the time has come, because it might only be a light artillery gun, but my Partisans are going to find it very useful.

This is a 75mm light artillery piece from the Warlord Games French Resistance range, but it will fit right in with my late war Italian Partisans.

One advantage is under the rules it doesn’t require a tow to come on the board, the poor crew can push it. Not something that actually happened, I suspect.

I have also made a PIAT team.

To reflect the lack of training in the weapon I will make them inexperienced.

I’m sure it will be fine.

Renault F17

Partisans can take a single, stolen armoured vehicle (up to a medium armour). Without the usual logistical support, Partisan tanks must take the unreliable rule, which means it might be immobilised when it attempts to move.

The model is resin, I think from Blitzkrieg miniatures, bought on sale a couple of years ago. It is nice to finally have a project for it, although it has been painted for a while now.

Partially because it looks so funky and a little bit because it will be funny, I’m going to take an FT17. These were a terrible design and obsolete before the war even started. Nothing can go wrong with taking this unreliable, slow, under-gunned tank for my Partisans.

the big guns

Big compared to the rest of the guns in my Conquest Partisan list. I will take some support options in the form of a sniper team and a medium machine gun.

The sniper team is from Black Tree Designs. I’m not sure where he obtained his scope but he is putting it to good use.

The MMG team have appeared before, but this will be the first time they will be deployed. The model is from the Australian Home Guard range by Eureka Miniatures. I guess the guy in the Aussie uniform is an escaped POW, now fighting with this partisan band.

take me to your leader

My Italian themed Partisans for Conquest will need some officers. I have chosen these two grizzled looking fellows.

A feature of partisan warfare, particularly in Italy and France, were missions by the allies to help understand and co-ordinate efforts on the ground. Both the SOE and OSS would infiltrate operatives with radios and money who would then seek to exert their influence. In Italy in late 1944 this could even extend to air support missions. While rare, in game terms the inclusion of a liaison officer will allow me to call in air support, providing some much needed fire support. I am going to use this US officer as my liaison officer.

Air strikes will occasionally fail to turn up or will make an attack run on your own side. Perhaps one of the more realistic parts of Bolt Action, even as some players dislike the randomness.

Easter Front

Live Bolt Action is returning to Melbourne with a two day event as part of Conquest Games Convention. OK, live BA probably never left lounge rooms and garages, but it is returning to the streets. I think the last time I played was Conquest last year, so I’m looking forward to rolling a few dice again.

Triangulating a desire to take something new with least amount of effort, I have decided to take Partisans. A chance to field a somewhat unusual and fun list that only requires me to paint 6 models.

My list is motivated by the turbulent and confusing warfare in the north of Italy in late 1944. Following the surrender of the fascists in September 1943 the situation became more and more chaotic until the final armistice in May 1945. In fact, it continued to be chaotic but that is another story. Many dozens of partisan groups, made up of thousands of individuals took up arms against the occupying Germans and puppet fascist regime. Being Italians, there were multiple political camps, from Soviet-aligned communists to right-leaning groups hoping to restore a monarchy.

Most of the force will be rifles, which is not that different to most Bolt Action armies. The largest potential weakness of Partisans is not the lack of armour, as the lack of anti-armour with real grunt. Part of the solution will be some crazy-brave souls armed with Molotov cocktails.

A Partisan force can include veteran, SMG-armed guerrilla units. My desperadoes will be represented by this mix of girl-power and an on-the-run tank crew.

The models are a mix of Black Tree Design, Warlord Games, and Eureka Miniatures.

Painting them was both fun and a bit of a challenge. The main challenge was creating a coherent looking force without making their clothes look too uniform. By restricting the pallet I used and basing all the models in a similar way I think I have managed to create a force that will look OK on the table. By varying armband and scarf colours I can differentiate squads on the table.

In a straight up fight against a trained army they would be hideously outgunned and out maneuvered. But in the heroic Bolt Action world I think they will stand up OK.

Or at least not loose too quickly.

delayed action

Are you sitting down folks? Actual gaming happened! As part of the Conquest gaming convention over Easter in Melbourne there was a Bolt Action Tank Wars event. Ten players participated, so it was only a modest gathering but it was so nice to see some friends again irl and roll dice together.

Tanks Wars is not a form of Bolt Action I have much experience with. I played a few games when it first game out, but it was long enough ago I didn’t remember any of the lessons I may have learnt. It was however an ace opportunity to get my Hetzer assault guns all on the table at the same time.

Led by a Stuart light tank, Chris’ US force heads straight down the middle 50cals blazing. Just the way it should be.

A Hetzer holds the cross road: hull down it stalls an enemy probe on the right flank

Chris’ Marines push forward. Vets or not they couldn’t take the objective in the face machine gun fire from the Hetzers

Last game of the day, and Django’s Soviets withstood my initial shooting to surge forward and sweep me for the table.

This IS2 didn’t do a lot of damage, but I couldn’t stop it either. In the end my guns couldn’t position themselves to pierce its thick frontal armour

I don’t think I managed my assets very well on the day. Aggressive early, I didn’t leave enough in reserve to hold on in the final turns and drew or lost every game.

Thanks to my opponents: Pedro (Soviets), Chris (US Marines), and Django (Soviets), for three fun games.