Bolt Action - The Pass of Misery

It has been quite peaceful in my miniature blog recently. This is due other activities with the club and with miniatures gaming, mainly in shows. And large part of my hobby activity has gone on new gaming and painting project I'll address later on my blog.

After a brief break we went once again back to the desert. This time was time for British and Italians to meet in early war scenario from "the Duel..." book. This was the first scenario from the book,  Beda Fomm, or something like that. Well anyway, in the scenario Italians were trying to escape from British attack, and British were to prevent the escape. The escape route went along the desert road which was in pretty bad shape thus preventing trucks to double their movement for most parts. Other areas were dry desert which also hindered the vehicle movement and made the life of the infantry miserable. So this was the scene and situation where the fight started.

British machine gun team AT rifle and squad of Indian infantry were formed as blocking force on the road. They were to stop the Italians running along the road. And this small blocking force was expecting British flanking force from the reserves. Italians were very aware of that and they were busy to leave before more British would arrive. Battle started when Italians riding in German trucks sped down the road followed by command team in neat little italian field car. As soon as the Italians noticed British roadblock the teams dismounted and opened devastating fire on poor Indian infantry. Many brave boys of Empire fell.  But after all shooting decisive Indians retaliated by fixing their bayonets and assaulting one of the Italian squads killing them by one blow. This was only moments glory since rest of the brave Indians were shot by the other Italian squad. Now there was only machine gun and AT rifle to to blog the escape. Reinforcements were really needed, but there was no sign of them yet.

Almost at the same time when Italian advance squads were having a fight with British roadblock another fighting erupted in narrow pass turning into plateau. There were more Italians riding for escape when they were attacked by first units of British flanking infantry who started finally appearing piecemeal to the scene. Italian truck was shot to pieces and infantry dismounted. More truck piled up on narrow pass and some kind of traffic jam began to form. Even a tank rolled in only to notice that the road was blocked by trucks parked or burning. Italians in the pass were also quite pinned. Then very heroic Italian officer appeared and sorted out the traffic and rallied the troops and Italians were back in the business once again. Now Italians started returning British fire with good effect. Then Italian tanks killed lately arrived British cruiser tank, situation started looking good for the Italians. Now there weren't enough British troops to stop Italians pushing forward for escape because their late arrival from the reserves and those who were present were in wrong place. So by the end of the fight, most of the Italian were able to escape and depleted remaining British force could't really stop that. The day was Italian.

Machine gun waiting.

Italian convoy in German trucks drives through the pass.

Italian infantry dismounts to have a fight.

One truck shot up and troops take cover.

British flanking force hits.

Italians under heavy fire in the pass.

Italian tank rolling in.

Only to meet bad traffic conditions on the pass.

Real pile up.

Italian point units escaping at end of the fight.

British witnessing enemy escape.

Once again nice game in good and relaxed company. Atmospheric game with many near misses, some spectacular successes and some funny happenings all trade marks of Bolt Action at it's best.

And yes, what's probably the best of all. Well painted figures and models on a nice terrain.

And yes, these Duel in the Desert -scenarios are really good!