The Battle of Sherbert Dab - Bolt Action on the NWF

After a few weeks enforced absence I got along t the Slimbridge Club this week to find that Rodger had organised a North West Frontier game using our modified Bolt action rules. The variant this time was similar to the "Colt Action" variant used for western gunfights; one activation die is drawn per figure - and with seven squads on the table that was an awful lot of dice!

Our first thoughts were that things would progress sloooooowly. However, Rodger was an excellent MC in the opening turns and kept us moving at a steady pace and the game ran very quickly indeed.

The scenario involved a British force sent to the tower of Sherbert Dab to remove a flag that was flying there and serving as a rallying call to the irregular forces in the area. Our Pathans were out to stop the infidels from achieving this aim.

All went well initially and we had secured the tower when disaster - and a marksman's bullet - struck! The flag was shot away from the pole (requiring a treble six to be thrown!) and it luttered away in the breeze Fortunately it fell at the feet of a Pathan tribesman who grabbed it and began a sprint back to the tower. Bullets flew, Pathans were struck down, infidel British and their native lackeys were shot down in a veritable bloodbath quite in contrast to the relatively genteel preceding turns as our brave lads formed a "relay" to get the flag back to the tower. Alas, although we got the flag back inside the tower "last orders" was called before we could get it back to the top and so the game was declared a British victory. Damn the infidels!!

As always Rodger provided some gorgeous 28mm figures and the game was both great fun and extremely funny (that may also have had something to do with the main topic of side conversation - don' mention curry, red wine and yoghurt!!)

All being well its back to the NWF next week too.

Colt Action

One of the things I really enjoy about the Berkeley Vale club is a very strong tendency to apply rule sets out of their intended time frame. We have, in the past, enjoyed Alan's adaptation of "Battles for Empire" to ancient Britain, and recently we've tried Bolt Action for near future SF games (and I'm working on a Vietnam adaptation and another for Pony Wars). Last night we tried "Colt Action", Alan's adaptation of the rule mechanisms to western gunfights.

Rather than activating by squads or teams we had one order die per figure. Wounds and injuries were determined using the drawing of damage chits (although in the end I think we decided that a simple die throw might be more effective). The system of activations, pins, etc. was pretty much as for the standard rules. The result was, I think we agreed, well worth the effort and I expect we'll be fine tuning (aka "buggering about with") the system over the next few months.

Here's my gang from last night. 

From left to right, Cool Hand Phil, Wild Bill Murray, Al the Alien, Big Sam, Tails and Gentleman Jim

Last night's action saw a horde of gold (possibly fools? who can tell?) in saddle bags carelessly left on a horse in the main street of Whitewash City. Five teams of desperadoes sought to cut out the loot and, as always much hilarity and gunfire ensued (plus an awful lot of fisticuffs, once we realised that the system as it stood made hand to hand fighting far more effective than gunfire - an area for mods in the next iteration).

The action, as always, was confused. Rodger and Mike squared off against each other, whilst Alan found himself caught between myself and Shaun. Billy the Kid, one of Shaun's gang, nabbed the horses and made off down the street but earned himself a new nickname of Billy the Bullet Magnet as he was opened up on from all sides, and eventually Billy the Corpse as the inevitable end came. Rodger's gang were next to grab the ponies and they made off along the street away from the station. Unfortunately for Rodger my team of cowboys, deadly ladies and aliens** were in position, having dispatched most of Alan's gang. Rumours abounded that Rodger, Alan and Shaun were planning to team up, so Mike and I decided to split the gold - Rodger's horse thieves were dispatched, Alan's last survivor booked his ticket to Boot Hill and Shaun's survivors decided there were easier pickings elsewhere and made a discrete exit.  

As usual, loads of fun and plenty of ideas for modifications for the next game!

** each gang was supposed to have three gunfighters with pistols, two rifle armed cowboys and another with a shotgun. I was short of one rifleman so "Al the Alien" (actually a Predator) was subbed into the fight. Alas without his usual array of advanced weaponry!

Bolt Action

This week I was introduced to Bolt Action at the Berkeley Vale club. Andy warned us off, using some colourful language in his review of the rules, but we were undeterred. The setting was not the WW2 actions envisaged by the authors but a near future SF setting. Valuable intelligence information was secreted in an artifact in the middle of the table and the objective was to secure the artifact, download the data and leg it. Steve and I faced off against Shaun and Rodger. In game #1 we took out the enemy command team which prevented them downloading anything, and in game #2 we secured the objective, downloaded the data and covered the very rapid retreat of our command team to safety and victory.

My observations of the game were mixed, but in the end generally positive.

I can see why people hate it. As a representation of WW2 small unit tactics it seems pretty poor (excessive squad cohesion for starters) and the morale rules are dreadful. But the simplicity of the rules is such that house ruling is easy and in any case the SF setting we were using made the various rule deficiencies less apparent. the lack of rule density in favour of glossy pictures was also evident, but that seems to be a common trend these days. the game itself was pretty fast and, most importantly, was fun. And it has generated a lot of thoughts for follow-on games. From my own perspective I thought I could cover near-future settings using my 15mm Peter Pig Vietnam stuff with a few SF augments - then I thought about using a developed version to do Vietnam in its own right. Rodger has some house rules for helicopters and I've found some house rules for modern weapons and other changes to improve small unit tactical representation and so we have that lined up for a future game. And Rodg is working on a lovely collection of "District 9" figures and vehicles. I think "Modern / Near Future BA(mod.)" is likely to become a regular item at Berkeley Vale.

All of which is over and above my 2014 plan, which is looking pretty mixed up just now. But c'est la vie and having had this Vietnam collection for getting on for 20 years and not having had them out for a game for at least 10 i reckon a diversion or two is OK :)