Bolt Action - Western Desert Campaign Playtest (Again)

Just wrapped up another good playtest for the Bolt Action Battle of Alam Halfa game I'm hosting at Enfilade in a couple of weeks. We only used about half of the units for this playtest as I wanted to go over some of the rules that I'm a bit rusty. Some of these were indirect fire into dug in positions, infantry assaulting tanks, and a few other oddball stuff. It was very productive and I was able to jot down notes on my GM QRS, so hopefully I'll be able to refresh my memory during the convention. The scenario has the Axis forces needing to overrun the Allied/Commonwealth units in defensive positions. A unit of Ramcke fallshirmjager was able to make it off the table on the Commonwealth's right flank unopposed after the mortar and infantry squad on that side were destroyed. Several other Commonwealth units had also been destroyed up to that point, and the game was called an Axis victory. As there were fewer Commonwealth units for this playtest in the actual game, the defensive positions were admittedly sparse.

End of turn one from the Allied left flank. Note the red markers indicating all of the Allied units receiving one or more pins from the Axis' preparatory bombardment at the start of the game.

End of turn one from the Allied right, with the Crusader tank moving up to concealment behind light cover.

Axis forces advancing. The Panzer III already destroyed by the Grant's 75mm gun into it's side.

The 6 pounder having already suffered a casualty on the crew. They were being targeted from the Axis' mortar and Panzers. It was eventually destroyed.

DAK infantry assaulting the British Crusader after passing their Tank Fear check.

The Crusader destroyed after the DAK getting 7 hits and a subsequent high D6 Penetration and Damage rolls. This was a good refresher for the rules of infantry assaulting tanks.

8th Army infantry advancing along with a Grant tank onto a depleted DAK squad.

8th Army infantry assaulting and wiping out the DAK squad.

As mentioned, the game was called a DAK victory with one of their units breaking through the 8th Army defenses. It was a nice quick game and looking forward to running a slightly larger game using the same scenario in a couple of weeks at our big annual convention, Enfilade. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog and best wishes to you all.