A few weeks back my friend Doug and I played a game of Bolt Action. He had only played a few times a long time ago so we did a refresher/ learning game. We literally spent all day talking and only got through about 3 turns, yes you read that right lol.. oh well… it was a good time and now he’s a pro ready to kick my ass in our next game, though he did a fine job of it in this game already.

We did Soviets vs. Germans somewhere near Cherkassy, Ukraine in December of 1943. I busted out the Ardennes board for use as a Eastern front winter landscape. I try to make most of my boards a multi-functional as possible to get the most bang for my buck.

As it was just a learning game for Doug we kept it simple and just did a straight up fight for destroyed units. I don’t remember all the details, but some highlights- His T-34/ 85 snuck up to the ruined factory to challenge the Tiger from around the corner. It ended badly for the Tiger with a well-placed shot by the T-34. Needless to say if this would’ve been a competitive game that wouldn’t have been good as that was a 1/3 of my points up in smoke! He also made quick work of the 222 armored car as well with his KV-1 tank.

The village firefight was a bit of a ping pong match without much progress if I recall. Despite having a number of inexperienced troops the Red Army performed solidly. I can’t remember much I did well except driving back a Soviet attack from the ruins of the factory and initially taking out his artillery observer, which was pretty huge play. It kept the massive Soviet artillery bombardment from coming down on my head.

All in all a good time teaching the rules and telling stories. Doug is working on his Soviet naval troops so looking forward to seeing those in action. Maybe back to Stalingrad! Looking forward to the next game.

Drew