Bolt Action Tank War Battle Report - Hungary 1945

Last Thursday the group gathered at Conscript Towers for a game put on by Conscript Greg:

"We'll play 'Bolt Action' - using the 'Tank War' supplement and 15mm models.  The game is set in Hungary, January of 1945, and 50,000 German and Hungarian troops are trapped in Budapest, surrounded by Russian forces. The Panzers of IV SS Panzer Corps have launched a relief attempt, hoping to reach the Danube and the trapped defenders in the city, and also buy some more time for Germany to fight on.  The Panzers have caught the Russian forces by surprise, but Soviet Guards Armoured Regiments are now rushing to block them. Germans will confront the Red Army and the winter as they fight to break through Soviet defences."

Here's the table: German short table edge at top, Soviet at bottom. Germans need to destroy Soviet units, but get more VPs for exiting their own units off the Soviet table edge. The rules used were "Bolt Action" of course, but unlike most of our BA games we played this one with 15mm models, most of which were tanks!

Conscript Mike F and I played the Germans and we had a straightforward plan: foot to the floor and devil take the hindmost! Our first activations were "Run" orders and we used the armoured troop leader's activations to order the other two Panthers with him. That worked well.

Of course the Soviets had to appear and mess up our plans... they had two IS-2s and three T-34/85s with two infantry sections against our four Panthers and two Pionere Hanomags.

Peter Pig tank riders get into action...

We started to run into problems about halfway across the table. The lead Hanomag was picked on by the Soviet tankers and despite surviving being set on fire, it was destroyed in the next turn.

Here the second engineer track veers away from enemy fire in the direction of the Panthers, while one of the big cats burns in the field. Just past the trees another knocked-out Panther is visible - it was supposed to anchor our flank after daringly driving onto a frozen pond. While the ice held, the incoming 85mm round finished it off...

More bad news on the German left as the remaining Panthers are knocked out. We did manage to mislead the Soviets somewhat as to which vehicle was the troop commander's, because we'd lost track of that ourselves and were therefore quite believable... "Oh no, there goes the commander!" "Oh no, that's not him!" etc.

The surviving Pionier zug beside its crippled vehicle...

The game itself was super-fun but Mike and I underestimated the hitting power of the T-34/85s for sure. Those suckers lit us up comprehensively and no mistake. I'm not sure if deploying differently would've helped as the Soviets had several turns to get into firing position while we steamed across the table. This made it difficult for us to maneuver to minimize their firing solutions. The big cats sure looked awesome though.

Thanks Greg for bringing out the amazing looking game and to the boys for playing!

Uncle Joes Ready To Roll

IS-2 tanks from Battlefront

A bit more work on the WW2 Soviets - this is a group (company, I think?) of IS-2 heavy Soviet tanks. The tanks are a box set from Battlefront, and the bases are from Warbases in Scotland. 

Tank commander cupolas had 12.7mm MGs

Armed with 122mm guns, these lumbering beasts are set to blast their way through the German lines and into the heart of Germany itself.  Often seen by us gamer types (myself included) as the Soviet antidote to the heavy German Panzers like the Tigers, I think these tanks were actually more about breaking through the front lines, equipped with very heavy weapons and pretty heavy armour on the front, these things are ready to blast the enemy infantry and AT guns at point blank range. 

Most of the rule sets I have seen talk of the 122mm gun as an inferior to the 88mm German guns.  It might have a heavy shell, but the combo of lower-grade optics, muzzle velocity, power etc. made it a slightly less effective gun for tank duels.  Maybe. But I wouldn't want my ride getting tagged with a 122mm round...

I love these models - they scream late war Eastern Front, one of my favourite gaming periods. Battlefront did a really good job on the kits.  They have lots of little details, like bent fenders and wash cloths.  There is a nice set of decals. You even get little rare earth magnets to mount the turrets. The only problem was the turret cupola MGs - they did not include any versions with the hatch closed.  A pretty mild "problem". 

These would have been nice to have for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Competition, but the tanks were in fact painted quite some time ago - I finally got around to basing them to make them consistent with the rest of my 15mm WW2 stuff.  So no points for these hulks. 

My WW2 Soviet collection is starting to come together.  A company of infantry, an SMG platoon and some HMGs.  Heavy tanks, a platoon of T-34s.  Stay tuned for more to come.