Market Garden – A British bridgehead at Son Czwartek, Wrz 8 2022 

Bolt Action and Germany and UK and USA and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 01:54

Yesterday we played in Bolter first battle of Market Garden campaign, our first battle had place in Son, close to Eindhoven. Before game we had great prelection done by Piotr Galik from association Semper Fidelis. So it begun on 17.09.1944 – when American and British paratroopers when dropped down to secure bridges and allow Allied tank divisions moving thru them to the heart of Germany.

Prelection before the game.
British sapper unit with support deployed close to the demolished bridge.
Last German survivors hidding in the forest.
Acht coma acht waiting.
German Heer vs American paratroopers.
German reinforcements arrived in small numbers at start.
More British arrived.
Royal Engineers managed to build part of bridge.
More parts of bridge were done. Veterans losed they hand to hand combat on riight against German regulars.
I forgot about second wave in turn two, so they started run on turn three.
Germans tried to stop British advance.
Bridgehead completed.
Everyone get out to cover bridgehead.
The beginning of the end.

Summary:
– thank you all for great game!
– Karol tested bridge building with me in one of our games beetwen Red Army and Germans. I was again builder of a bridge – now for British.

 

Duel in the sun: British vs DAK Czwartek, Sier 11 2022 

Bolt Action and Germany and Rubicon Models and UK and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 22:45

Today we played in Marian estate small game which happened in the African desert not far away from Tobruk. Both sides seem similar – jet Germans were a little bit more mobile. Marian played DAK (Deutsche African Corps) and I took his British 8th Army.

Main target were to take and hold lone 8,8 anti air gun – holding it to an end was worth 3 VP, each unit was worth 1 VP. Half of units were placed 20″ from each corner and other half came in second turn as wave.

British arrived on the field.
Germans did the same.
Tommy – give artillery fire on Jerries position, hurry up!
Hans give me one more cartridge!
Matilda II slowly arrived on the field.
British attempt to got cover.
Some support from SAS arrived.
Germans took 8,8 and prepared for British assault.
Germans on BMW motorcycles arrived.
Hand to hand combat beetwen German pioneers and British infantry. Few Germans survived this combat untouched.
Almost in the cover.
Artillery barrage called by observer arrived pinning many troops and destroying German HQ.
1,2,3 feuer!
SAS and Matilda crew tried to save a day, but it was too late.
Matilda was immobilized by Panzer III, it crew left the tank as battle was over.

Summary:
– it was DAK victory over British Commonwealth – 10 to 3 VP.
– thank you for great game Marian from Maniexite.

 

Bolt Action: Assault in area of Termoli Środa, Czer 8 2022 

Bolt Action and Bolter.pl and Germany and IPN and UK and USA and Warlord Games , tancreddebeauville 23:44

Today (06.06.2022) we played 3rd game of Italian campaign – battle of Termoli – town which has port and road to the north and south Italy. It’s part of games played in Bolter and supported by Polish Institute of Remembrance (called shortly IPN – Instutut Pamięci Narodowej).

Thank you Michał for representing IPN and IPN for support..
Thank you for prelection Mr Piotr.
Uboat blown up in secret raid of British commandos done on Monday.
Left flank covered by British troops.
American infantry advance to take control over harbour.
Germans have the same plans related to harbour.
Right German flank.
M10 heading toward railway.
Sniper took position.
Americans advance into the harbour facilities.
Germans try to prevent them.
More M10 arrived on the battlefield.
British reserves arrived.
Panther covering road to the town.
Duel beetwen M10 and German tanks of different types.
Commandos emerges from they hidenout.
Sniper switched position.
Panzer from the church.
British commandos arrived in poontons.
Ubboat started going down.

Summary:
– spliting table for several zone areas for Order Dices was great idea, we played six turns.
– thank you all for game and for borrowing models for me.
– thank you for interesting prelection before game started!

About Audie Murphy – the most decorated American soldier. He took part in Italian campaign.

 

Bolt Action: Salerno – Allied landing by air and sea Środa, Czer 1 2022 

Bolt Action and Bolter.pl and Germany and IPN and Italy and UK and USA and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 23:42

Today we played second part of campaign on Sicily. It was recreation of combined action of Allies forces in area of Salerno, Italy. American and British troops landed by air and sea in area of Salerno. This campaing we play in Bolter and is supported by Polish Institute of Remembrance,

Institute of Remembrance (IPN).
My borrowed force (thank you Dudzio and General).

Summary:
– thank you all for good game.
– as German side we forgot briefing and losed initiative.
– Allied side won this battle.

 

Bolt Action: Italian campaign – A race to Messina Środa, Maj 25 2022 

Bolt Action and Bolter.pl and Germany and IPN and Italy and UK and USA and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 23:52

Today (25.05.2022) we played in Bolter first struggle of campaing on Sicyly – when Allies forces raced up to take Messina. This campaing is supported by Institute of Remembrance (IPN). One table were British against Germans and on the other USA against Germans and Italians. Who would be first in Messina general Bernard Montgomery or general George Patton?

Table of USA and Germans&Italians:

Germans and Italian hidden in the town.
Italians with Sahariana.
Semovente hidden under roof.
Shermans on they way.
Ready to start fire on incoming Sherman.
Shermans crossed a hills and advance forward.
One tank immobilised by German Pak 7,5 cm, other stressed and Fubar was rolled by me.

Table of British and Germans:

Summary:
– thank you for great game to Karol (and for borrowed to me models), to everyone who participated, to sponsor Institute of Remembrance (IPN) and to place we played – Bolter!
– Victory belonged to British, as they were faster than USA – historically general Patton was much better than his British counterpart.

 

Bolt Action: Breaktrough to Tunisia Środa, Kwi 13 2022 

Bolt Action and Germany and UK and USA and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 23:21

Today we played bigger battle where Germans tried to do last attempt in stopping combined Allied forces from taking Tunisia and gaining good position to further assault on Sicily. In this game all Germans vehicles plus unit transported by trucks were first wave and started game on the table, all the others were 2nd wave. Then Allies started coming off board – units without transports were coming then, also as 2nd wave.

Germans right flank in the town.
Germans middle.
Camp was one of achievements and due lack of trucks and fuel, camels could be used to evacuate supplies.
We had two similar platoons of Shermans.
German left flank with famous Tiger I.
Allied left flank were most of Shermans were deployed.
German middle from they own lines.
British and USA advance losing some tanks…
and luckiy destroying German big cat.
Brave Scotts crazily drive to supply depot to prevent it from moving it to German lines.
Another German Tiger join combat.
Desparately fight for water rights.
History is history and we cannot change it – it should teach politicians to build better world, to avoid repeating it. We don’t support any totalitarian regimes.
More Germans took positions in the building and around.
Scotts, British and Americans took right flank with support of two Sherman tanks.
Overall view from right flank. Artillery barrage made most German units pinned to the ground.
Unfortunately valiant German major rallied his troops and they get new spirit stopping one of the Shermans.

Summary:
– thank you all for great time!
– This time Allied troops won!

 

Bolt Action: From Tobruk to Kasserine Poniedziałek, Kwi 11 2022 

Bolt Action and Free French and Germany and IPN and Italy and Poland and UK and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 12:52

As you maybe know in Wrocław, Poland we play many different games – among them WFB, Middle Earth, 40k, Black Powder, many skirmishes – among those games is great Bolt Action from Warlord Games. While last time I had some serious things on my head, which was moving IT stuff from one office to the other, so I wasn’t playing games for last two weeks, but I’ve been on „last” game of African campaign supported by Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (IPN).

On last Wendesday 6.04.2022 we participated in event connected to history, model making, education and reconstruction.

Event was open by no one than director of Wrocław IPN dr. Paweł Rozdżestwieński and head of the branch (in PL called Naczelnik Oddziału) of the Office of National Education in Wrocław dr. Katarzyna Pawlak-Weiss. Then all fluff about Tunisian campaing were told, especially about battle of Kasserine Pass and fights for Mareth Line. In first part one of us – Maciej Molczyk said words about Polish Independent Carpatian Brigade up to the moment were it was changed to 3rd Division of Carpatians rifles, being part of 2nd Polish Corps. In addition there were ppl in uniforms of this unit.

In meantime IPN got great diorama, painted by Bonapartist Paint Studio.

After prelection Bolt Action games on two tables started, I said that I will be there for minutes, finally I left at the end of event.

Below photos are mix of photos done by Wrocław IPN with logo of IPN and some photos done by me. Text was translated from IPN post.

 

Bolt Action: Pre-tournament excercises Środa, Mar 16 2022 

Armia Czerwona and Bolt Action and Germany and UK and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 23:25

Today on the Bolt Action evening we played 1,000 games on tournament conditions – there were four of us – me, Jędrzej, Karol and Marek – we played two different games, me on Jędrzej and Karol on Marek – so it was Red Army on Heer and Great Britain on Heer.

Jędrzej and Marek if I’m correct goes to tournament in UK on May and they wanted to play with someone they want play, I agreed and asked Karol if he can too – with Karol we are not tournament players (I was in past in WFB 5-7th editions).

Table for me and Jędrzej.
First models I painted after I returned to hobby – thanks for Planszóweczka.pl and Rafał and Patryk!
Russian conscripts took position behind solid stone wall.
Panzer IV and inexperienced mortar.
Karol and Marek table.

Summary:
– it was nice to play 1 vs 1 on Jędrzej, we usually play bigger battles in Black Powder, jet we played some WFB game too.
– with Karol we manage to build two nice tables from terrain avaible in Bolter.
– we played scenario from Fortress Budapest – it was to take control over some important things placed on table, in case of my battle with Jędrzej I lost 10 to 5.
– thank you all for game and shop for place to play!

 

Normandia UK vs Niemcy 08.06.1944 Sobota, Czer 8 2019 

Bolt Action and D-Day and Germany and Normandy Campaing and UK and Warlord Games tancreddebeauville 19:37

Dzisiaj zagrałem z Pawłem pierwszą od bardzo dawna grę w Bolt Action – zagraliśmy w kampanię związaną z lądowaniem aliantów w Normandii, etap drugi. Obie armie – brytyjscy spadochroniarze Pawła i Finowie udający niemiecki Wehrmacht miały po tysiąc punktów. Scenariusz był typowy dla naszych gier (nie chciało się nam szukać czegoś konkretnego).

Today I played with Paweł first game in Bolt Action after long time – we played campaing game related to Ally landing in Normandy, part two. Both armies – Paweł’s British paratroopers  and Finns created as German Wehrmach were composed of one thousand points. Sceanario was typical for our games (we were too lazy to look for something special for this campaing).

Nasze siły wchodziły do gry po wyciągnięciu odpowiedniej kości rozkazu. Our forces where deployed after appropriate order dice were taken. On left side was German Heer, on right side were British paratroopers.

DSC_1142

Brytyjscy spadochroniarze na pozycjach. Czarne kości wyznaczały cele do zdobycia dla obu stron. British paratroopers taking positions. Black dices show important objects – two crossroads were target of Allied assault.

DSC_1143

Stug towarzyszący piechocie. Stug advancing near infantry squad.

DSC_1145

Brytyjscy spadochroniarze w natarciu. British paratroopers advancing toward German positions.

DSC_1150

Walka na krótkich dystansach między regularną piechotą niemiecką, a brytyjskimi spadochroniarzami zebrała krwawe żniwo po obu stronach. Fight in close quarters beetwen regular German infantry and British elite took bloody harvest.

DSC_1152

Niemiecki porucznik wydał rozkazy dwóm oddziałom, jeden z oddziałów był na tyle spanikowany, że nie ruszył w ślady dowódcy. German leutnant had given order to two of his infantry squads, jet one of them was so pinned, that did not went on leader example.

DSC_1155

Stug, pancerzownica i średnia haubica wspierają idącą naprzód piechotę. W między czasie haubica niszczy haubicę Brytyjczyków. Stug, panzerschreck and medium howitzer supporting advancing infantry. During this time howitzer destroy British artillery piece.

DSC_1156

Stug ruszył do przodu, by wesprzeć walkę o skrzyżowanie. Stug drove forward, to support fight for controlling crossroads.

DSC_1159

Chwilę później, na stole nie było prawie w ogóle Brytyjczyków, a niemiecka piechota została była cieniem swojej dawnej chwały. Moments later, on field of battle there were almost no British troops, jet German infantry were shadow of it’s former glory.

DSC_1160

Skrzyżowanie zostało zajęte, ale przy olbrzymich stratach niemieckiej piechoty. Crossroad were taken, jet with heavy loses in ranks of Heer infantry.

DSC_1162

Podsumowanie:

  • powinniśmy więcej grywać w Bolt Action, nie tylko z okazji toczącej się kampanii z okazji D-Day.
  • nie lubię proxów, ale Finowie idealnie się nadawali by udawać niemiecki Wehrmacht. Może kiedyś, kiedy się ogarnę i pomaluję „szafę wstydu” zacznę 1 Dywizję Pancerną gen. Stanisława Maczka lub amerykańskich Rangersów, a może obrońców Festung Breslau?
  • mieliśmy grać na 1200 punktów, ale Dudzio zapomniał pojazdów i graliśmy na 1000. Te 200 punktów w przypadku Brytyjczyków, to były klasyczne jeepy i bren carriery.
  • musiałem wywalić połowę zdjęć bo były do niczego.
  • jedynym oddziałem który mi zginął był dowódca wraz z adiutantem, poza tym każda drużyna piechota była zredukowana do 2-3 modeli.
  • haubica – fajna sprawa, podobnie jak moździerz, ckm – nie wychodzę bez niego z domu ;-).
  • snajper – udało mu się ustrzelić PIAT’a, następnie ckm – tutaj miałem sporo szczęścia.
  • zdobyłem 9 kości Dudzia, straciłem 1. Pierwszy raz w mojej karierze zdobyłem tyle kości rozkazu. Dudzio pierwszy raz grał aliantami (zwykle gra Niemcami), ja pierwszy raz grałem Niemcami (zwykle gram Armią Czerwona lub Finami). Zresztą, gra inaczej by wyglądało gdyby była na 1200 punktów. Następnym razem zagramy starcie Armii Czerwonej z SS.

Summary:

  • we should play more often in Bolt Action, not only because of D-Day campaing created by Warlord.
  • I don’t like to user proxes, jet Finns were ideal to be used by German Wehrmacht. Maybe someday, when I finish my „wardrobe of shame” I will start 1 Dywizję Pancerną of gen. Stanisław Maczek or American Rangers, or maybe defenders of Festung Breslau?
  • our plan was to play on 1200 points, but Dudzio forgot his vehicles and we reduced to 1000. Those 200 points in case of British, were classic jeeps and bren carriers.
  • I need to improve my skill of taking photos, half of them were crap.
  • my only one unit which was killed was my leader with his companion, almost all of infantry units were shadow of they former glory – 2-3 models.
  • howitzer great thing, equal to medium mortar, mmg – I never leave home without it.
  • sniper from my side, first turn he eliminated PIAT, then mmg. It was luck that he did so.
  • I got 9 Dudzio’s order dices, lost 1. First time in my Bolt Action life I got so many order dices. To be sure, Dudzio played first time using British paratroopers (usually he play German SS). Me – I first time played Germans using my Finns as Heer (usually I play Red Army and Finns). Anyway those game would look differently if we could played it on 1200 pts. Next time we will go to Eastern Front and play Russia vs Germany.