Bolt Action Desert War Bootcamp

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

@damon – great data and confirmation.  So 1:17 ratio between armoured and soft skinned transport?  I was guessing 5% – so 1:20.  Not bad for a not-so-educated guess! 🙂

[oriskany 60771xp 3]

In Belfast City airport, finally beginning the journey home . 😐

[torros 23816xp 1]

You could always just stay

 

I actually thought you were already home

[trewets 4782xp 2]

@oriskany safe onward journey to you and you lovely wife. Hope you had a blast this side of the pond.

See you soon and thank you for your epic hard work at the bootcamp, it MADE the event for us

Stewart and Helena

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Nope, @torros – helping a little with Blood & Plunder week, filming other upcoming content, Weekender / XLBS, etc.

They milk me for all I’m worth when I’m over here. 🙂

… and I luv every second of it.

… wait, that came out wrong … 😛 😛 😛

[torros 23816xp 1]

Safe travels to both of you. Would love to have come up and say hello but we had ex US Marine friends  staying with us

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

No worries, @trewets – it was certainly my pleasure to do it.  I love talking about history, being “on stage” and sharing information.  Definitely had a great time and hope to do it again soon.  Meanwhile, there’s always online community campaigns!  We’ll have to get one sorted and running sooner rather than later.  🙂

[damon 7525xp 0]

@oriskany @gladesrunner safe travels

[torros 23816xp 1]

@damon

 

Did you get to see the Churchill?

[damon 7525xp 1]

@torros yes mate, took a detour on the way home, had a quick nose around at the castle and then wandered over to the tank. It was a pleasant way to kill a bit of time, nice countryside to drive around as well.

[buggeroff 15230xp 1]

safe travels home 🙂

[brucelea 7906xp 0]

Safe journey home @oriskany & @gladesrunner, great seeing you both again and don’t forget there’s a warm welcome if you ever tour the UK and get to North Yorkshire.

[phaidknott 7023xp 2]

I wasn’t at the boot camp, but if I could make a few suggestions to adding to your forces.

At first the typical wargamer response is to get the biggest toy for their list (I know I’ve done it myself), however this will usually end up in an “arms race” where you end up getting rare and unusual equipment to compete.

Over the years now I’ve been practicing “nerfing” my own armies. I no longer opt for the elites or the heaviest equipment, but instead go for the most common thing that was around in the field at the time.

Now if you start to go for things like the Stug or PZer III, you’ve now made your AT rifles ineffective (so now you need to buy the BIG AT guns). But all these things didn’t make up the main elements of the equipment that was available at the time in the field.

Instead by buying things like a PZer II (I know they had these in N. Africa because I had the old Matchbox kit with N African diorama as a kid), or even a PZer I as a command tank you’ve got the more common tanks for this era (and AT rifles can knock them out). Now things like the PZer III become your “tiger” in the field (rather than buying a load of PZer IIIs and THEN a tiger.

For the Brits you have the Vickers light tanks, and the Crusaders (all light tanks) again that use of an AT rifle can keep the tanks playing honest.

..and finally lets not forget the armoured cars that are available during this period. Many were originally inter war designs pressed into service in N Africa by sheer need. Also by “nerfing” your army list you also give the Italian Armour a chance (normal response for an British player is to buy Grants and Shermans and anything with a 6PDR gun). All this means that you don’t have to run out and buy a battery of AT guns, or buy new tanks to knock out these uber tanks. At it’s core BA is an infantry game, so when the tanks start to become invulnerable to the infantry I think BA starts to break down and stops giving you a good game (remember no Bazookas and Panzerfausts until much later).

The early period in N Africa is different from the campaigns in Europe. With a combination of environment, distance and issues with logistics it was a very “make do and soldier on” affair. By just looking at the army lists and going for the biggest toys, you start to lose the feel of the N African campaign and start to make it feel more like a European fight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jackieParticipant 647xp 1]

Quick question Dug in is it -3 to hit and -4 if down order on. Had a game just need son clarification.  And hi to everyone the weekend was a blast. Glen an I traveled 23 hours before we made it home haha long haul but worth it.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 0]

@jackie not sure exactly what you mean about dug in, the best cover save -2 for hard cover, so if they go down it pushes it to -3.

When a unit has both soft and hard cover you use the majority, if it’s equally split then you should use the maximum -2. You never get to add them.

If you’re in a building though you add +1 to the number required to damage on top of the cover mod, so a unit of regulars in a building have a -2 to hit and they are killed on a 5+ rather than the normal 4+, vets killed on 6s become very hard to remove from buildings and can go down if you need to really annoy your opponent.

Anything else ask away

[Author]

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