Bolt Action Demo Table in Action

Maybe you have been following my Tali - Ihantala gaming table project or seen it during test drive games in AAR's. Now the table was finally used for the purpose it was made for. Last weekend was hobby convention Suuri Snadi which translates big small. There was all sorts of scale hobbies on display, doll houses, scale models, model railroads and modeling competition. Among all that our Club put up few demonstration tables and my Bolt Action table was one of them.  From late summer until now I painted bunch of Finnish troops and tanks and finally tinkered the table just before the show. Then I borrowed Russian troops and Tanks from club mates and all was set. Here's some pictures of the table on display.

Russians advance towards Portinhoikka crossroads.

Troop taking cover.

Finnish machine gun firing from forest line.

Finnish armored division point tanks.

Russian armor on the Karelian road. 

Russian point tank on fire.

Aerial view of Russian attack column.

Finns on defense.

Medium howitzer firing.

Finnish sniper in action.

Russians attacking.

Finns preparing counter assault.

Tank hunters getting ready.

One down more to go.

Famous Finnish tank in action at Portinhoikka.

Finnish rifleman in it's element.

Attack finally stopped for a while.

This was interesting project. It lead me studying history of Tali-Ihantala battle more closely which was nice. It also lead me studying history, painting and numbering of Finnish tanks used in this particular fight. And maybe most importantly it gave nice focus for vigorous painting project from summer to autumn. Great immersion!

By the way, visitors liked my table.

Bolt Action - Too Late, Too Little

A change to have a game of Bolt Action appeared  suddenly and with a fellow gamer who had been of gaming some months now. So we had a fight between old adversaries The French and Blitzkrieg Germans. The scene was once a again my new demo table, which is pretty much ready to be presented in a convention this weekend.

We devised up a scenario where Germans were defenders for a while and somewhat stronger French platoon was attacking them. There was German relief force to come to save the day from reserve. But from the start poor German combat engineer squad was to survive French onslaught. So the scenario was a variant of point defense, but for the drama there was much smaller starting force for Germans at start. And drama it turned out to be, or more likely tragedy.

German positons in the ruins.

German engineers squad was entrenched in a bombed out house with light AT gun around the corner. From there they watched the French platoon to appear in nearby woods. The French appeared from woods and approached German positions in line with almost full platoon strength. While Germans readied their guns and took careful aim Lorraine transport and Renault tank rolled in. Steel nerved Sturmpioniers put AT gun in action and knocked Lorraine off and first fire of Germans from ruins did some damage on French on the field. Furious fire fight ensued and French were pouring fire from three squads and Renault over German engineers who started taking casualties. Heavy French fire took it's toll and Germans were busy keeping their heads down and they didi not noticed French mortar which was zeroing in the ruins. It hit with devastating results. There was only few engineers standing after the dust settled. But still the nerve of seasoned fighters held. The officer who had appeared in the yard behind the house helped indeed. But nothing else was not coming yet.

After mauling Germans into small team the French advanced rapidly and actually took good positions around the house ruins and nearby surroundings. So, when the reserves finally appeared (in turn four) they only drove in very bad place where they were fired from good positions. German reserves were wasted in futile attempt to help their already lost friends. All German units that were trying to change the situation were annihilated on attempt, so it was too late, too little. The fight went for the French.

The French approaching in the woods.

AT gun loaded.

French advance in open line across the fields and Lorraine driving in.

Germans open up.

Renault covering advancing troops.

German officers drive in, the only reserves for a while.

French move closer for a kill.

Finally German reinforcements came but too late.

The objective was in French hand.

Last desperate attempt of Panzer to break French lines.

Very one sided game, me having no reserves and opposite having almost all to use. It was truly a massacre for my poor Germans. Yet very good and dramatic game after all. This kind of stuff the stories are told. And there is always a revenge.

Bolt Action - project Portinhoikka crossroads

When I started painting my Continuation War Finns an idea of themed table for them popped up in my mind. So while I was painting the figures I pondered what particular scene should I choose for the table. I like war history and going after real scenery was no brainer. After some hard consideration I chose a scene from the battle of Tali - Ihantala and more specifically Portinhoikka crossroads. It was the place where Finnish armored division stopped Russian push by counter attacking them hard. I's also one of the scenes from Tali-Ihantala movie. It took some twenty odd hours of work, but after seeing it ready, it was worth it.

Drawings and some pieces attached.

The table was made after a real map of the place.

Crass matt clued of boards.

Boards covered with tiling mortar.

Looking like chocolate porridge.

Looking quite ready.

Hill flocked.

Another hill called "Kyöpelinvuori".

Table with trees. This it how it will look like,

Famous crossroads.

Great project altogether. Maybe will start next one soon, it's always so much nicer to have thematic tables for gaming.

Bolt Action - a push too far

After so break I got a change to have outing for my Blitzkrieg Germans when we had nice game of Bolt Action in the club. My club mate took his stalwart Russian in the field so the game was located somewhere in Russia. The scenario was variant of point defense where Russians were defending crossroads against motorized German recon platoon. I also had a change to try out freshly painted models of motor cycle unit and Phanomen Granit trucks.

Germans started the game with a quick push to vital crossroads along road and narrower track. Motor cycles and armored car speeded fast forward only to be followed by truck and Panzer II. German lead elements reached ruin of the house by road crossing and occupied it quickly. Then the Russians made their first moves. Russian armored car speeded along the road forward, but was eliminated by the accurate shot from Panzer II. Now the initiative seemed to be at the hands of Germans when they reached the road from both sides of the crossing. Then there was a change in game...

More Russian troops poured to battlefield with T-26 tank to joint the fight. Two units of Russians who had been dug in the field by the crossroads opened fire with success. Freshly joined troops did as well and the German started taking casualties. So the Russians were actually taking more ground around the crossroads thus dominating the field. Then with some missed command resulted Germans to stall their move. At the same time the Russians were intensifying their fire taking advantage from Germans. Then it got even worse...

To change the situation the Germans started flanking move around Russian left so both motor cycles and truck full of troops pushed around. Leading Germans unit made bold move and dismounted from a truck to open fire to dug in Russians. But they were in too good cover and fire was with no effect. The Russians retaliated and assaulted bold Germans and killed them outright. One full squad of stormtroopers was lost. Motorcycles lost their nerve and refused to move for a while. Then German squad in the ruin was shot about everything else on the field and finally annihilated. Then Panzer II was blown away by T-26 the fight was practically over. Germans lost most of it's infantry and a tank. Russians losses were acceptable. Fight went to brave Russians clearly and German push to Moscow was thwarted for a while.

The Russian infantry moving to defensive positions.

No sign of the Germans yet.

And there they come, motorcycle recon squad speeds in.

Then Panzer II and armored car.

The Russians digging in.

Russian counter move starts passing flaming armored car.

German advance element reaches the ruins by the crossroads.

Taking positions.

After a fierce fight the victorious Russian advance from all directions.

Remaining Germans taking cover and preparing to withdraw.

The Russian infantry securing the road and crossroad.

This was also a test run for my new gaming table which I have been preparing for an event mid October. The table is actually a model of one of the famous battle places in our continuation war. The place is called Portinhoikka crossroads, but more of that in a different blog post.