Bolt Action: Western Desert Boot Camp Live Blog - Saturday
Gaming With The Boot Campers - Sandy Skirmish
Sep 29 2018 @ 16:15
48 Comments
We’re getting stuck into a bit of an asymmetrical battle here between the British and the Germans. A battle is going on between this very fresh set of Sikh recruits for the British and the grizzled Germans.
Have you played out any games like this where you’re learning the rules and like to feel it out with a scenario or two where you kind of throw the army creation rules out the window?
some great figures on display
Good to some of the hard painters are now going to play hard.
Indeed, @deadhead and @andre77. 😀
It’s a great way to get stuck in the game when you think about it: assemble-paint-play all this over 1 weekend
I couldn’t get my painting done but yeah it is a good idea.
Usually the participants just finish assembly on Friday and then play all day Saturday. Here we had some hard-core painters work a little longer on their models first. Some just paint all the way through.
for infinity i regurlary just play 3-4 ppl groups with 10 orders which goes completly against the rules. but its need to get a feel of all the different actions a unit can take at maximum effeciancy
who dared to burn those matildas! unruly behavior! 😀
Ghosts from previous battles, @Rot6 – perhaps Operations Brevity or Battleaxe earlier in 1941 along these same battlefields.
Those battles look so cool
Those alt. Heads do look very good.
Indeed, @skodamarine – I saw Punjabis, Sikhs, and ANZACs as options – may have been more I didn’t see.
I love throwing rules out the window occasionally, especially when it comes down to army creation. This way it makes it more realistic and can result in some great narratives
Agree 100%
poor tank got blown up
great looking battle
@toricova and @normandyfan – yeah, John and Justin did an amazing job on these tables, complete with wrecks (like these Matildas) left over from earlier battles. Right here along the Egyptian/Libyan border, battles took place on the same battlefields (Fort Capuzzo, Halfaya Pass, etc) over and over again.
stop picking on the mortars
I think it’s a great way to game provided you or your opponent are happy to get thrashed. It creates opportunities for heroic stands and individual moments against the odds.
@wilco92 and @darkdanegan – Poor mortars. But great play between casual forces, i.e., not worrying too much about exact point counts.
“Stuff the points, let’s play with what we’ve got”. Nice approach, lads
@darkdenegan and @somegeezer – truer words never spoken.
I should really try some asymmetric gaming. Attacks against dug in positions etc
It’s a hit or miss, trial and error thing – but once you get the hang of designing the scenarios, the gameplay is challenging and amazing.
Interesting. I like the idea of asymmetric battles. I should ask my friends about trying this sometime.
The more often I see the Sikhs, the more I like them. And also I would like to try some of what they eat. Very spicy food is probably good in the desert. Love Indian food. Really.
Definitely give it a go if you can, @dukeexeter.
Yep, @jemmy – these troops often did so much better than history tends to remember them for.
Well Andrew when you and I played our first game at FOW boot camp I’m going to now claim that your Brits were the veterans and that my Afrika Korps were the rookies! 🙂
Revisionist history now, @silverfox8?
If it helps explain my losses, then you bet ya!
There you go. 😀
Brilliant models.
comment to win
Definitely the right way to learn the rules – forget about a “fair” fight, and just put some figures down to see how things work.
Absolutely agree @georgesealy.
Twas my first ever game of BA. Huge thx to Andrew for guiding me through it. Great first game and the birth of Herr Gerry’s Quavers – the best mortar team……until game 2 :/
Oh no, NOT THE QUAVERS! Anything but the QUAVERS! 😮
Great to meet you, @irishsteve! Thanks again for the mini! 😀 😀 😀
lol – great to meet yourself as well @oriskany and thx again for all the work you put in for what was an incredible weekend 🙂
😀
I tend to follow the rules but just play chaos style so I see what happens.
I love these glimpses into the bootcampers army and games
Well, @woldenspoons – there’s gameplay rules and then scenario rules. I always agree to play by gameplay rules, but when setting up a scenario game, I say whatever the players agree to is gold.
Indeed, @aurorainbag – everyone has a slightly different take on it.
It’s a lot of fun to play around with asymmetrical scenarios. Really like they table they’re on too!
Man, I gotta get over there for one of these sometime. They look amazing.
Indeed, @fireblarney – the tables were amazing – huge kudos to John and Justin for the work on those. And absolutely, @falerox – there’s just no way to properly convey the experience of coming to a boot camp. This was my third. But I heard from many first-timers this weekend that the experience was almost “surreal.”
I have had a few games like that with friends