Oddleg's Enterprises: Bolt from the Blue

Hello people.

Not a lot to post about recently due various reasons but I have managed to roll a decent number of dice with Rich's Pacific Bolt Action setup.

Not one if played before, but heard and noticed a fair bit about, so brace yourself for another, soon to be trademark, impressionistic review. From what I had read and heard I got the impression of a typically Warlord / Rick P open ended system for more open minded "gentleman" wargamers.

So, games at the club Tuesday and down at TTN Sunday were setup. Rich is our chief system junkie and we'd heard that BA was getting a lot of table-time locally. The other piece of scuttlebutt was that 15mm with the same 6x4 ground scale was the way to go.

In short Tuesday night was a four way affair with two virgins and plenty of flicking back and forth through the rulebook. Initially I liked the feel and the look of the scale but found nothing ground breaking. Squad activation by blind drawing of order dice is cool but hardly unheard of. Solid but hardly inspirational?

By the end of the game the importance of the pinning mechanic became clear as the defining element of the game. Once appreciated this gives the game something of a "realistic" gritty attrition. Suddenly command squads are properly important with proper platoon tactics required.

Not headline grabbing neon but that's to miss the point, that's not what BA is about!

Sunday's game was, as might be expected, a fair slicker affair as Rich's USMC assaulted my Jap held hill.

The game also revealed a lot of BAs nuances. Lt Nakamakamora was shredded in the pre-game preparatory bombardment with my command squad taking half the game to properly preserve his remains! This wasn't as crippling as you might have fought but with USMC Lt Slaughter leading the assault it provided an effective demonstration of the mechanic.

Along with the usual "what we did wrong last time" FAQ the game really began to shine as the pearl that it is. Not beer and pretzels, far more tea and crumpet!

As for Sunday's game Rich went for something of a pincer, pushing hard on his left while a single platoon was urged up the hill by Lt Slaughter. In hindsight I got a bit suckered into the main battle on my right, successfully blunting the USMC assault but failed to support my left quickly enough as my artillery support continuously failed to come in on either time or target.

In short Rich took the ridge and raised the Stars and Stripes but paid with the destruction of the remainder of the the platoon for an overall Draw. My lack of command did limit me and lead me into being a bit over cautious. The Pinning and Command really came to the fore and defined the game.
I'm really looking to the next outing!

15mm really suits the game and once again raises the idea that if I wasn't so invested across the board in 28mm I'd definitely be trading in! Time to dig out my Jap Naval Marines :)