Battle Report: 4/13/2014 Bolt Action 'Soviet Union vs Germany and United States vs Germany'

After our game of X-Wing yesterday morning, it was time to throw down some Bolt Action.  After reading a battle report from AdeptiCon on the Bolt Action tournament and seeing a min/max Soviet Union army with two tanks, I thought to myself  'I'd like to see if I have the models for a cheese list'.  I did not have the exact models that player played, but I came close with a list.  I wanted to give it a try and see how it would do.  The Soviets have two Late-War theater lists that allow two tanks, so a second 'Reinforced Platoon' is not needed.

Officer:
1 Jr LT w/SMG
1 Infantry w/SMG

Infantry Squads:
Vet Squad 1
1 NCO w/Rifle
1 Infantry w/Rifle, Panzerfaust
3 Infantry w/SMG

Vet Squad 2
1 NCO w/Rifle
1 Infantry w/Rifle, Panzerfaust
3 Infantry w/SMG

Vet Squad 3
1 NCO w/Rifle
1 Infantry w/Rifle
3 Infantry w/SMG

Free Rifle Squad
1 NCO w/ Rifle
11 Infantry w/Rifle

1 Medium Mortar (Inexperienced)

Artillery:
1 ZiS-3 Divisional Gun

Tanks:
1 ISU-122
1 OT-34/85 Flamethrower Tank

Sunday 4/13/2014
Points: 1000
Scenario: Maximum Attrition
Objective: Destroy the enemy.
Armies: Soviet Union (Dean) vs Germany (Dragi)

Turn 1:
During the first turn, we saw all three tanks in the game fail to hit.  Infantry from both armies were advancing onto the battlefield.

Table setup.

Table setup.

Tanks fail to hit.

Turn 2:
OT-34/85 misses point blank on the StuG III but flames a Germany Veteran squad with 3 kills and 4 pin markers.  The Vet squad fails the morale test and is removed.
The ISU-122 also missed the StuG III.
StuG III hits OT-34/85 and knocks out.
Soviet ZiS-3 shoots German Veteran, kills 3, and they pass their test .
German Sniper takes another shot this turn and misses again.

OT-34/85 misses point blank on StuG III.

After Turn 2.

Turn 3:

ISU122 knocks out StuG III.

German Sniper finall hits, fails to wound.

Soviet Mortar zeroed in on Sniper causing 5 hits 3 wounds and removing the Sniper.

German Veterans kill 2 Soviet Veterans.

German Flamethrower Team no shot that they can see.

ISU-122 destroys German StuG III.

Turn 4:

German Flamethrower Team kills only 1 Soviet Veteran but causes 2 pins, Soviet fail Morale even with the ability to re-roll.

Soviet ZiS-3 failed fire order.

Soviet and German Infantry shooting back and forth.

Soviet Free Rifle squad outflanks on my right.

Soviet Mortar hits German Veteran squad, 6 hits, 4 wounds (2 alive and pass morale).

Soviet Free Rifle squad outflanking.

Turn 5:

German Flamethrower kills a Soviet Veteran and they pass their morale.

Soviets ambush German Veterans, kill 1.

Soviet Veterans assault German Flamethrower Team, 7 attacks only kill 1 but enough to win combat.

ISU-122 howitzer and kills all 5 German Veterans.

Turn 6:

German Officer assaults, fail to wound, Soviets attack back and kill both men.

Soviets assault Germans, combat tied, round 2 of combat, Soviets win.

ZiS-3 finally passes order and fires at lone German Veteran and kills.

Game Ended on a roll of 3.

There were only 2 lone Germans left on the battlefield.

Soviets: 8

Germans: 2

After the battle.

This Soviet list was made for this scenario, even though we did randomly roll for the scenario.  Would I play this list in a 'tournament', not sure, I know there could be a little more 'cheese' added to it.  I usually like to play well balance lists.  It is tough to say what really is 'cheese' when technically this list was made from a "theater list".  Yes it was fun playing with 3 big guns, most likely in friendly games I will stick to the 1 tank.... but I can see both of them coming out together in some big games.

After lunch we decided to play another game.  Now I was going to be playing Germans, and my son was going to be playing with his US army.  We once again randomly rolled for a scenario, and rolled "Hold Until Relieved".  We have yet to play this scenario before, so I was not sure exactly how to play it.  I did make a few adjustments to the German list and added in some more Assault Rifles.  I was going to be playing the Attackers and my son was the Defenders.

Sunday 4/13/2014
Points: 1000
Scenario: Hold Until Relieved
Objective: Control the objective at the end of the game.
Armies: Attackers Germany (Dean) vs Defenders United States (Dragi)

I did not take turn by turn notes for this game as I wanted to speed it up a bit, but did take a few pictures.

Table after Deployment.

Germans approaching the Objective marker.

Seeing how I never played this scenario before, I was unsure exactly on how I should deploy the Germans.  I think I made some big mistake deploying them.  Turn 1 I had already lost 2 squads to the Americans so it was not looking good.  Plus the dice were not good for the Germans.... I would either hit and then fail to wound, or failed to hit.....  In the end the Germans were just about wiped off the board with only 1 squad left in the game and the Americans were holding the objective.

One thing about this game that I am taking from it is; we learned more about the assault rules, especially when directly behind an obstacle and assaulting over it (obstacles are not 'rough terrain') so if you are directly behind an obstacle, you can assault over that obstacle the full 12 inches.

So at the end of the day, the country of Germany had lost both battles in this War.