Bolt Action 3rd Edition "Market Garden" Battle Report!

Well! It's been a minute since we've posted a battle report but we had a great game last week. My copy of the Bolt Action 3rd edition rules arrived on Tuesday 1 October (thank you Tista Minis) and we got the game on the table on Thursday 10 October. Happy birthday (on the Friday) to me!

I had decided to have an Arnhem/Market Garden game to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the campaign that had just passed. The game was a scenario from the 2nd ed rulebook pitting 1st Battalion,  British 1st Parachute Brigade (1,136 points, at left) against elements of the SS-Unteroffizierschule "Arnheim" (1,008 points, on the right). Each side had 12 order dice. The fictional encounter took place on 17 September, the campaign's D-Day. The British were on the move towards the Arnhem and Oosterbeek bridges from their (rather distant) drop zones, and the Germans were mounting a hasty defence to block them. Victory points were scored by the Brits for destroying German units (1 each), for getting units into the German deployment zone (2 each), and for units exiting the German table edge (3 each). The Germans scored one VP for each British unit destroyed.

The Germans deployed first (on the near long table edge), mostly hidden. Here we see the heavy weapons platoon commander with two MMGs and a sniper team.

On the German left was a rifle squad and medium mortar.

Over on the right there was another rifle squad. The Germans left their Puma Sdkfz 234/4 armoured car, two rifle squads and the company commander in reserve. 

The British all came onto the table at once. They had a limited number of turns and had to maximize movement.

On the British right a para section moved forward, taking heavy fire from the German MMG. These weapons are even deadlier in 3rd ed (one more shot than before) PLUS the German special rule gives each MMG another shot again, for 7 shots total! Yikes! It was a good thing for the Brits that their troops are veterans and only wounded on a 5+.

Over on the British left more paras advance, covered by the other MMG and a ranging-in mortar.

Waffen-SS squad enters from reserve to intercept onrushing Brit paras.

The Puma came on from reserve on the German right as well, as the Brits were really putting on pressure there. Unfortunately the PK-berichter missed some of the vital parts of the fight over here. The Puma drove up to the low wall at top centre of the photo to pour some fire on the advancing Brits. Unfortunately neither the armoured car nor the infantry squad were able to eliminate a two-man British PIAT team crouching on the other side of the wall... they put a PIAT round through the side of the Puma and blew it sky-high. Men of the match no doubt.

Over on the German left the Brits mostly got chewed up in close combat, but a platoon commander and the remnants of a para section escaped off the table. 

The company command section shown here also just managed to make it into the German deployment zone. Shooting is nasty when your targets are in the open (no saving throw) but you still have to wound... and this roll failed utterly. Veterans are tough customers.

Anyway the game went seven turns... and at the end, the Germans had destroyed six units for 12 VPs, but the Brits had exited two units, gotten one in the German zone, and destroyed 6 - totalling 14 VPs for the British and a victory for the Red Devils.

The game was really fun, I like 3rd edition a lot. As referee I did fudge one ruling in favour of the attackers for the sake of a cinematic game - allowing the company commander to issue an order to a unit that was more than 12" away at the start of the leader's activation (albeit within 12" after the commander had moved). That was technically contrary to the rules. But it added to the game as it really increased the tension on the German right - and I could justify it by relying on Major Brown's bugle extending the command range slightly... right? And the new command rule was one change that met mixed reviews from the group... commanders now can draw FOUR extra dice from the bag when activating. That can make a real swing in a game with only 10 or 12 order dice. But it worked well in our game.  

The game also inspired me to revisit the models to be used. I painted the group above for the game, 10 Paras (including some excellent new sculpts by Paul Hicks from the recent Kickstarter) and four passengers for the jeep (which was included in the British list but was LOB by the British players).

I'll also make a note for posterity here on the paint colours used: Denison smocks are basecoated Vallejo Khaki, the brown is AK acrylic Dark Brown, the green is GW Caliban Green highlighted GW Warpstone Glow, the whole thing washed with Agrax Earthshade. Webbing and gaiters are Zandri Dust, washed and re-highlighted.

I'd also noticed that some of the Battle Honours (and Foundry?) Paras I'd painted (something over 20 years ago) could use some help with their helmets. The sculpting never pleased me (the helmets were just too small and didn't have nets or scrim) and my "fix" at the time was to apply some very coarse texture gel that I painted like scrim. Well this had to go. So I scraped off the gel and sculpted helmet nets out of greenstuff. Much better I think. 

Maybe we'll have another Market Garden game soon. I shelled out for the Bolt Action 2nd Ed Market Garden campaign book (now obsolete, but the scenarios are useful) and I'd love to get the Red Devils out on the table again. We'll see.

Until next time, or as the Paras would say "WHOA Mohammed!" :-)