Bolt Action Firefight Game 1

All,

I can't even remember the last time I was able to say this, but... dice have been rolled, and a winner has been declared!  I set up the table Friday night; a 28mm table, for the first time ever and, quite frankly, I was a bit daunted.  Everything is pretty damned big.  I found myself thinking about unit density and frontages and how the heck do you do this without looking like a parade ground, and just kept adding more and more terrain to it, then thinking I want to add more but I need to buy/make more but maybe it's too much...  Lots of fretting how to go about doing this.  Rather than looking through rules and getting everything ready, I found myself sitting on the internet, looking at other people's Bolt Action tables, trying to make out if I was doing this right.  Not sure what all my trepidation was about, can't really explain it, just had a horrible feeling that everything was not right.  Even had a moment of panic, thinking "I'll just sell all this crap off, go back to 10mm" (which I'm still not convinced isn't the best idea, but anyways).

Saturday some unforeseen stuff popped up with the kids, so not really much time to ponder and fix the issue, or even to get ready for Sunday afternoon, which was the planned D-Day for finally getting a game in.  Sunday afternoon rolled around and I still hadn't gotten anything ready, was still sitting on the internet looking at Bolt Action, Battlegroup, and Chain of Command tables and scenarios, trying to figure out how to do this.  My intent was to umpire a game between my two sons (ages 15 and 10) using Bolt Action, at either platoon-reinforced level (as per usual with Bolt Action) or at company level (slightly modified).  I just wasn't feeling it, until I came across a skirmish version, called "Bolt Action Firefight!", which apparently started as a fan-driven thing but has now been embraced by Warlord Games, where they host the rules and various supplements on their website.

It was perfect; quick and easy, breezy, no headaches, no more overthinking, just throw a couple of squads on the table and let the boys go at it.  And it worked, a tremendous amount of fun was had by all, they quickly got the hang of it (well, not quickly, but they are knuckleheads, like their father), with an excess of trash talking.  We shall definitely do it again, but don't worry, it's not the destination, just a step on the path of getting up to platoon- or company level.

So, in honor of the 81st anniversary of D-Day, 6 June 1944, we played out a game set in Normandy, seeing my older boy running a squad of British Airborne troops running into a squad of German Landser run by my younger son.

I had set up the full 6' x 4' table on Friday but now, just running a squad vs squad action, I cut it down to a little corner of the table; too small, as it turned out.  What you're looking at is about 3' x 3', but in the event, the left-hand side of little swamp/pond at right top turned out to be the right boundary, so the actual fighting space was only about 32" x 22".  

The opposing forces, Germans at top and British on the bottom, with some casualty figures laid out on the right.  The squads are laid out to be about as even as they possibly could.  

The Germans have a squad leader with MP-40, an MG-42, two men with Stg-44s, one man with a G43, and five men with Mausers.  I gave the bolt action rifles one firing dice each, the G43 two, the Stg-44 and MP-40 three, and the MG-42 five.

Bolt Action Firefight is set up as a man-to man skirmish game, where each man (as opposed to each squad/weapon crew) has an orders dice in the bag, which you draw out and activate a man from the side represented by the pulled dice.  It's also got a cool mechanic for automatic weapons that allows you to use full firing dice on your first target, then shift to additional targets and keep rolling, losing a firing dice for each additional target.

First look at my German casualty figures.

The British have a section leader with Sten Gun, a trooper with Bren Gun, three more troopers with Sten Guns, and five troopers with Lee-Enfields.  I gave the bolt action rifles 1 firing dice each, the Sten Guns three dice, and the Bren gun four.

First look at my British Airborne casualty figures, so you finally get to see what my Red Devils would have looked like if I painted them with Contrast paints.  I think they look pretty cool.

Initial set up, with Brits at bottom right and Germans at top center/left.

Opposite view, Germans at bottom center/right, Brits at top left.

Too small a table, with too much open ground (between the buildings, no covered route to get at the enemy) to facilitate any real maneuver by the boys.  My fault...

And please forgive me, this isn't a real battle report; this was a learning game to get the boys into it and start figuring things out, so I didn't take hardly any photos, and there's not really a narrative.

At the end of the first turn, you can see each side has a man down, the Germans have a few pin markers (left center).  And you can see how this is shaping up, both sides scrambling to the wall and shooting it out.  The older boy, running the British, tried to maneuver a team of three guys (far right, in one of the fields) but, as you'll see, it didn't really amount to much.

Turn 2 saw the Germans unleash a helluva fusillade on the Brits, dropping the Bren gunner and his assistant, but a rifleman dashed forward, scooped up the gun, and returned fire...

Returning the favor on the German MG-42 team!

The end of Turn 2; bodies are stacking up at the wall.  The younger boy, running the Germans, makes no attempt at maneuver, it's just get to the wall pour fire into the enemy.  The older boy, running the Brits, is trying; he's got a submachine gunner up to the upper building and his Section Leader into a building (right center), and his three-man team is still pushing to the left flank (just off camera to far right).

I've done a good job; both boys are laser focused on keeping their machine gun in action.  I joked that they're not familiar with the tenets of Maneuver Warfare: we don't reinforce failure ;)

The Germans have the British main position in a crossfire and are just mowing the Red Devils down, but the Brits just keeping passing their Morale Tests.

As a matter of fact, only one Morale or Orders Test was failed the whole game.

When one of the British submachine gunners (bottom center, with Section Leader in building, above him) hopped the wall and opened fire on the German MG position...

The ensuing casualties forced the Germans to take a Morale Test, which they promptly failed!

I must admit, the youngster was feeling a bit hard done by after knocking so many Brits out of the fight and still losing the game 'on a technicality,' as he keeps putting it, and it's not helped by the older boy continuing to talk trash to him, but ultimately they both had a great time and want to do it again.

Some thoughts:

-Need a little bit bigger table with more cover to facilitate more maneuver

-I figured out that I screwed up the Orders Tests and Morale Tests, making them too easy to pass, so I'll fix that.

-I was thinking that the game was pretty bloody, that it was probably too easy to take out guys in hard cover, but now I'm not so sure.  We're talking about twenty guys blazing away at each other with modern, high-velocity weapons at point-blank range.  People are going to go down.

-The game took almost two hours!  I had planned on playing a series of three fights, but we only played one because (I moped around until late, not getting things ready, and) it took so long.  Some of it was due to it being our first game, where even I didn't fully understand the rules, and some of it was the boys overthinking things, measuring things five different ways, etc...  I love the fact they were examining things in depth, so I don't want to push them too much, but I was pushing the idea that this is a fast-paced firefight, so we've got to keep things moving.  I'm honestly wondering if I need a punch-clock, and if you don't get your move in on time you forfeit that activation.  It could be fun ;)

Lots of fun, and we can't wait to get back to it.  Now that baseball season is over, we might even get in a weeknight game.

V/R,
Jack