Bolt Action: Fox killed in the Open, 1941

Before we played our game today we took time to discuss the very sad passing last week of our good friend and fellow gamer Phil. Phil was always a cheerful and bubbly character, good for a laugh and a canny tabletop general. He will be sadly missed from our games. 

 Once again we adapted a scenario from the Western Desert Bolt Action book, substituting my Afrika Korps for the Italians in the 'Fox Killed in the Open' scenario. Playing length ways across the table the Afrika Korps had to break through the British forces and overrun the British HQ. There was a wadi across the middle of the table and we used a small building rather than a tent for the British HQ. 

The table was split into thirds running along the table. Ian had to deploy half his troops in the far third by the building which was his HQ (the main German objective). The other half of his troops were deployed in the central third with Ian making good use of the cover provided by the wadi. His deployment of his Matilda on one flank and the Churchill on the other proved to be a game winner. Both proved to be too tough for the Germans to get past. 

Next came the German pre game bombardment which was not too successful, you can see the few 'pins' scored from this on the photo below. Then the German advance started at the opposite end. 

The next photo shows Ian's Matilda snug behind the cover provided by the Wadi. Ian also made very good use of the 'Ambush' order during this game. 

Nigel took a difficult shot at the Matilda, needing a six to hit followed by another 6 and amazingly he scored the two 6's. Sadly his throw to penetrate failed. 

My Armoured Car ventured into the sights of the Churchill with devastating effect. 

(good shooting from Ian). 

With the Afrika Korps struggling, they had very little that could damage the Churchill so it started a slow advance across the Wadi getting around the flank of the central German troops.  

The German half track did not last long. 

The German centre was getting a little crowded as everyone tried to use what little cover there was. In fact no German troops made it further than the Wadi. 

Nigel was using the mortar to lay down plenty of smoke, which seemed to hinder us as much as the British. 

The Churchill destroyed the half track and then went after the few infantry that had survived the hit on their half track. 

Nigel had the Pz111 still firing at the Matilda and immobilised it and then enjoyed using the tanks MMG on the British infantry which were doing a cheeky advance.  

I tried to get our HQ forward in the kubelwagen but they soon came under fire. 

Then the Churchill took out the Pz111 with it's first shot at it. 

This proved to be the last main action of the game. 

With the Germans failing to get beyond the wadi and only getting six units to the wadi they scored just six victory points. The British scored two points for each German unit they had destroyed scoring 10 points to achieve a clear victory. 

Another fun game and with all three of us now having the rules we are gaining a better understanding of the rules and look forward to more games both in the desert and in other theatres.