Ben- Sometimes hobby pals are a bad influence, sometimes they are a good influence. To be honest it’s hit and miss, but this time Evan scored a direct hit. I will take some credit as I had been whittling down Evan’s wargaming will power reserve for several months. I knew he was into history and much to my surprise he wasn’t currently playing any WWII rulesets. I made it my mission to find the most beautiful battle reports, tantalizing products, historical articles, and wargaming rulesets as I could and drop them on his lap. Honestly, I think I should be getting sponsored for the amount of product I’ve gotten him to buy! But long story short, I introduced him to Chain of Command and Bolt Action. We have been planning to meet up and play a game and apparently I had rubbed off on Evan enough to get him to suggest he jump into Bolt Action (and Chain of Command) in the best way ever: jumping into the deep end with a major gaming convention event!

Evan- It’s not sometimes with Ben, he’s too consistently a bad influence for that to be accurate. I don’t mind though, as I secretly wanted someone to give me a push over the edge into the abyss of WW2 wargaming. Ben is correct though; he did whittle me down over a period of months. I have been attempting to get to Adepticon since 2017, yet each year a new circumstance put an end to that idea. In December 2022 I once again set my sights once again on Adepticon but quickly found myself with a quandary of which game to play. Age of Sigmar was my go to but I haven’t really had a chance to be up to speed on the third edition, but I was willing to suck that up to go to Adepticon. I’m not really sure how it came up between Ben and I, but we ended up on the topic and he suggested a doubles event he wanted to go to there for Bolt Action. I had already been eyeing some WW2 minis for Chain of Command, so I offered to be his partner and well….. here we are.

Ben- This is the first of a collaborative article series on my and Evan’s first major Bolt Action event, Adepticon Doubles 2023. Adepticon is one of the largest gaming conventions in the United States and has a reputation for being one of the most fun Bolt Action events around. Andrew from Chicago Dice runs the events and it’s no surprise that the events are themed and look tantalizing to a history nerd like me. For 2023 the Bolt Action events’ theme is The Rising Tide 1939-1940. The army lists are restricted to theater selectors and this very much intrigued me. Typically events are structured to have players bring a Generic Reinforced Platoon (GRP) which was specifically not allowed unless okayed by the tournament organizer. Fluffy bunny historical list here I come! Between the two of us we needed to have 1400 points. We could have a swing of 100 points to either list to qualify for the awards, which we weren’t concerned with but wanted to conform to the event standards.

So what armies did we consider?

Evan- I’m new to historical wargaming, which means all I had in my possession when we made the decision to attend the event was a box of Warlord US Marines. If left to my own devices in the broader subject of WW2 I will inevitably gravitate to the Pacific Theater (and the adjacent C-B-I Theater). However, after a discussion with Ben about some early war Imperial Japanese we somehow came to a consensus on doing some early war Germans. This was on my future want list, as I’d like to have both a French and German force for playing some European-focused early war scenarios. I was pretty clueless on the subject matter so I turned to Ben for some guidance….

Ben- Well, I had some limited options for an army from 1940 in my roster of 28mm forces. I could choose Italians, as I had a North African Italian armored platoon and Bersagliari platoon. Both are fun and flavorful, if not underwhelming for Bolt Action. I had a Japanese infantry platoon from several years ago that I could doctor up and bring up to my current painting standard. I could also do a large Russian Winter War conscript army, but that would be a rather large undertaking just due to the sheer number of minis I would need. All of these options would require Evan to make a new army as well. When Evan mentioned he would like to do a Blitzkrieg German army and a French army at some point, my eyes lit up. One of my goals for 2023 was a German infantry platoon representing the Barbarossa Campaign as well as the following two years; 1942 and 1943. Barbarossa took place in 1941 but the force was relatively identical to the one that invaded France in 1940. Equipment could be fudged a tiny bit to represent both forces. The German Heer uniform of 1940 included the very distinctive stone gray trousers. Funnily enough I found in my research that the German Field Gray uniform trousers were accepted and began being issued in 1940 prior to the invasion of France. As such infantry in field gray trousers wouldn’t be out of place in the fields of France. In comparison the stone gray trousers were seen as late as 1942 so they could also be used for Barbarossa but wouldn’t be theme appropriate for 1943. Consider me sold. Hugo Boss would be chuffed.

So Blitzkrieg Germans, lets sprinkle them with some historical flavor.

Ben- Once we settled on Blitzkrieg Germans I cracked open my Chain of Command Blitzkrieg 1940 rulebook. I wanted to find a fun force to represent on the table top. After a perusing I settled on a Panzer Division Schützen Platoon from Operation Fall Rot, the German code name for the Invasion of France. The Schützen were the predecessors to the well known Panzergrenadiers. These motorized troops accompanied the German armored units and worked in close coordination with them. Accoording to the Chain of Command Blitzkrieg book the 1st-4th Panzer Divisions’ Schützen were allocated a standard compliment of infantry arms, notably only one MG34 per squad. The Schützen in the 5th-10th Panzer Divisions were more heavily armed being allocated two MG34s per squad. Double LMG Schützen squads are actually not allowed at the Adepticon events due to the ease at which they are abused. In light of this fact Evan and I went with the 4th Panzer Division as our inspiration for the platoon.

Evan- I’m not ashamed to admit I rode Ben’s coat tails here. He is much better versed in the German infantry knowledge than I am. In fact I decided to essentially build from the same core inspiration as Ben. This would keep our armies in a fun close theme as well.

The lists

Ben- Evan and I both knew we wanted the Germans to play double duty by being a playable force for Bolt Action and Chain of Command. We knew we also wanted to play a historical and “fluffy”platoon. We were not looking to run a “Smash Teeth” list. Fortunately this is encouraged in the Doubles Event. As I said before I wanted to be able to use the same miniatures for my planned Barbarossa campaign. For my platoon I started with a Second Lieutenant (Leutnant) and body guard (Feldwebel). The Leutnant would be armed with a pistol and the Feldwebel with an MP40, as indicated in the 1940 Schützen Platoon Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E). After that the TO&E shows 3 identical squads of 10; an Obergefreiter (Sergeant) with MP40, seven riflemen, and a two man MG34 light machine-gun team. In the end one of my three Obergefreiter was issued a rifle instead of his MP40 to shave points to take the platoon support.

Next I needed at least one indirect fire option. The Schützen TO&E lists an organic three man 5cm mortar team. In Bolt Action this team would be represented as a two man light mortar team. As I had points to spare I chose my old standby indirect HE choice, the Medium Mortar with a spotter. I will always take a mortar for Bolt Action as it gives my opponent a reason to not keep his squads on an objective. The heavy mortar is usually an upgrade I will take if I can afford it as the extra Pen and HE are great for the points cost. Unfortunately, this time I didn’t have that many points. Which to be honest was ok as the medium and heavy mortars aren’t seen on the board in Chain of Command. As I left out the integral light mortar team in the list I will paint it when time allows so I can run it in CoC.

After that I wanted to have some iconic early war vehicle support. I chose the 8-Rad armored car purely for the rule of cool. At 100 points, it offers a recce vehicle with a light auto-cannon and coax MMG. Light auto-cannons are pretty great in BA as they are two shots at +2 Pen or 1″ HE on an armored car 7+ armor chassis. In Chain of Command the 8-Rad is a list 5 support choice armed with a 20mm auto cannon and coaxial MG. It sports an armor 3, AP 4, and HE 6 making it pretty potent for poking at infantry and other light vehicles.

I then chose a Panzerjager I tank hunter. I love the utilitarian look of the Panzerjager I. It is basically an anti-tank gun strapped to the top deck of a Panzer I hull. It screams Blitzkrieg/ Barbarossa to me. It is also a solid anti-tank platform with a medium AT Gun with a +5 Pen on an open topped 7+ armor body. It is close to the definition of a glass cannon. In Chain of Command the stats are similar being armor 3, AP 6, and HE 4. It weighs in as a list 4 support option.

With that I had 701 points for my half of the Bolt Action army.

Evan- Well here I am to ride more coat tails. I expressed my desire to stick to a more historical list than one which is focused on the game, and Ben did not disappoint. I started with the same platoon layout as Ben, but I thought a squad of veterans sounded fun. That gives me three identical squads of 10, except one squad is veterans. Each squad has a sergeant toting a trusty MP40, seven riflemen, and one two-man MG34 team.

Next I knew I couldn’t in good conscious have a force of Blitzkrieg Germans without a Panzer of some sort (right?). I opted for a Panzer III Ausf. E because I like how it looks and for Bolt Action (did I mention I’ve never actually played Bolt Action?) all the machine gun fire it has bolted on seems like good fun.

Finally I had some spare points so I again opted for something I like the look of: the SdKfz 231 Heavy Armoured Car (6-Rad). Some research after the fact taught me they were pretty lackluster in frontline combat, but I’ll take the liberty of saying my unit doesn’t know that yet…..

In part two we will discuss where we got our Pervetin powered Jerries from.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck Pervetin is, it was a non-prescription medication sold over the counter in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. It contained methemphetamine and was used in the opening stages of WWII by the German military. It was a strong stimulant that heightened alertness, suppressed appetite, and increased risk taking behavior. But with the up came the down and the down was in the form of a crash where soldiers became irritatble and easily confused. Soon the substance was still used but limited doses to a few pills at a time. The Skeptic did a very interesting article on the myths and truths around the famed “Panzer Chocolate.” We figured our rapid requisition and painting of the Blitzkrieg Germans would need lots of another stimulant, sweet sweet caffeine.