Blitzkrieg commences

So, with the completion of the Desert Campaign, Terry and I decided to start the Fall of France campaign book as our next WW2 theatre. The opening scenario is a 500 points match-up between Germans and French in a recognisance patrol.

Basically, this means our forces are looking to spot what troops the enemy has in the local area. Victory points are gained for spotting the enemy and even more points if you are able to capture some of the enemies. The scenario also uses the night fight rules in the back of the Bolt Action Rulebook.

This is a simple D6 roll, and you what the game is like. For us, dawn broke early and so there would be no need to use the night fighting rules. A bit of a relief, and it would make it a lot easier to spot those dastardly Germans. 

The game was tight, with Terry (as the Germans) wiping out one of my veteran French squads in combat, taking one of them prisoner. I was also, able to do the same, in the next round. We both managed to spot all of each other's forces and the game ended in a draw.

It was a close game, and hard to see where either of us could have won the game. We suspected that if we had used some of the night fighting rules, which limit the distance you can see, it would have been a very different game.

One week later, we replayed the scenario. Terry as the French, and I, taking my freshly painted Blitzkrieg Germans. We agreed to keep the same scenario rules as we used the previous week. i.e. no night fighting, to see if we would get the same result.

This time, I was able to select a 500 point force, with 4 squads of Germans, along with my trusty officer and his man. This time around the game was different, with myself gaining a victory by the skin of my teeth. I had approached the game knowing that I was going to have to face a strong force, with Terry's veteran French and that I was going to have to do something fun to break through.

So I decided to concentrate on two plans of attack. Wiping out his officer, so that he could not get the victory points from spotting my force, and concentrating my fire on one or two squads, so that I could soften them up, either through kills or pin markers, to take them out in a round of combat. 

Surprisingly, it worked quite well. His officer got wiped out in a hail of light machine gun fire (you got to love the extra dice German machine guns get) And I was able to destroy a squad in combat, taking one of them prisoner.

However, it was a closer game than I would have liked. Terry, despite losing the spotting bonus, was able to destroy two of my squads and captured a man, earning 5 victory points to my 7. 

A good, fun, start to the campaign, and now we are on as the Blitzkrieg commences and the Germans enter into France.