Rolling Start - Bolt Action AAR

This month's SJGA was another small affair, but saw the start of the club's three game Polish Campaign.

As per the chart I developed way back in the campaign's planning, the first game used the "Point Defense" scenario in the Bolt Action rulebook. 

The Polish players had a single 1,250 point platoon that needed to defend three locations. The German players had two 750 platoons that would need to capture those locations. Whoever controlled at least two of the three objectives by the end of the game would be the winner. 

The Poles had deployed their defenses in depth, with multiple hidden units and a variety of armored vehicles defending the village outskirts. They placed their objectives in the fancy building in the bottom left of the above image, in the church, and on the road leading out of town. 

The Polish forces had also set down pre-determined mortar points. While the German players could see where they had been laid out, a few of them were dummy tokens. 

While formidable, the rolling preparatory bombardment that the Germans had managed to place at least a pin or two on most of the deployed Polish units, and even destroyed their armored car outright. 

The Germans were a largely foot-slogging force, with only a single Panzer 38(t), a MMG-armed motorcycle, and a truck for mechanized elements. This meant that they had to trudge across the table to reach the Polish lines, taking fire the entire way. 

There were four factors that ended up assisting the Germans. 

First, with Polish howitzer and German tank on opposite sides of the battlefield, the Poles had nothing to threaten the 38(t) with. They could try to engage it close combat, but that meant passing a tank feat morale check and then trying to damage it without dedicated anti-tank grenades. And the supporting German infantry had plenty of LMGs to keep the tank clear. 

Second, the Germans had two platoons in reserve that were outflanking up the table. While it was a gamble as they had to take a command check to deploy onto the table, one platoon ended up positioned perfectly to capture an objective as soon as it came onto the table.

Third, the Poles seemed reluctant to divert from their pre-planned mortar targets. While most of the German units were constantly moving, a random mortar hit might had been enough to change how the game's result. 

Fourth, plain dumb luck. Had the Germans not had a randomly decided seventh turn, then the game would have ended with the Poles in control of two of the three objectives. Instead, the Germans had just enough time to get a fresh squad of infantry into the church, which was then able to hold against a couple Polish attacks.

With the Germans managing to claim victory at the last second, the next game will see the Germans attempting to push further into the Polish lines with the "Envelopment" scenario.