Tabletop CP: Bolt Action Battle Report- Bulge Counter Attack!

A platoon of Americans attempt to break out of the encirclement around Bastogne. This is a custom mission with some experimental deployment rules.
Get the mat here:
cigarboxbattles...

[@tabletopgeneralsde310]

Very funny, my squad was just there at the right time. When I play with my buddy Marian, he has a phrase, "when Jens fails with the dice roll, it was not important. He just rolls what he needs when it is important". Great game, thaks to the Nerd Cave Crew.

[@tabletopcp]

In this case the phrase turned out to be true!

[@basement1908]

Mechanics worked great. Work in a tempus fugit dice now. Great seeing old school Steve and Andre going at it. Thanks for sharing Gents!

[@lazypiratepainting2947]

Excellent report chaps and really like the mix up of BA & CoC set, worked really well I thought. Can’t believe Steve tried taking those veterans out in hand to hand combat when he had so much fire power he could have pored into them🤔🤷‍♂️, pretty unlucky in the end though losing the Chaffee to the anti tank weapon 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🙂.

[@Nopejams]

Excellent videos!

[@Se4dr4gon]

Nice game and table! GG

[@williamrthompsonjr556]

Yeah,! C'mon Thompson! I'd feel much shame, except I'm dead! lol Fun game. I think it shows how tough it was to fight the Germans, even late in the war.

[@leeyewfai6579]

When the American player went 1st at the 51:42 mark, the M8 has the recce rule, and therefore not needing to activate 1st unless it is the last round of the game. If the P4 shoots at it, it can recce away to safety behind the building and wait for the next turn if any Great and very impressive looking table

[@bazza1carter]

Have to have another look at the deployment idea. Funny thing is I've just add a Chaffee and some volks grenadiers to my collection so was keen to see how they played, not entirely convinced the later are worth the points but since the great shirker shake up these and volkssturm as likely to be the next best thing! Well here's hoping :)

[@SHARK-yq5pr]

Excellent game, gentlemen! Fantastic channel, Tabletop CP! I love it. I am just getting into Bolt Action. It seems like a fantastic game, and lots of fun! However, as a Historian, there are a few things that bother me about the game. Narratively, and/or mechanically. Probably some combination of both. The idea that both forces facing each other are perfectly balanced point-wise, is from a narrative point of view, laughable. I of course understand from a game-view, that players naturally want to be as closely "even" as possible. Having said that, there is still some huge narrative tension. Increasingly from America's entry into the war, month by month, year by year, there was seldom anything equal or "fair" about any battles against the Axis. America and the Allies enjoyed HUGE advantages in superior numbers of everything, at all times, against the Axis powers. In addition, as Rommel stressed in his meetings at OKW, the American air superiority was overwhelming and constant. Those historical dynamics honestly seem to be lacking entirely, or very weak in their representation in the game rules. The Americans especially should always have some bonus artillery, a bonus tank, definitely lots of transport/motorization, and even some bonus infantry troops. Geoffrey Perret, author of "How the American Army Won World War II" goes into great detail about the absolutely gigantic military war machine built by America became, how modern it was, and how incredibly mechanized and well-equipped it was in every way. Games of course like to be one-on-one, even facing affairs--but that ignores the historical reality. The Allies greatest advantage was building a massive military machine that the Germans and other Axis powers really never imagined possible. Semper Fidelis, SHARK

[@rhaivaen]

Fun game, just rough handling of the scenery, players chucking trees over all over the board..

[@rhaivaen]

Also, panzerfausts are one shot each, so complaining about the amount of them is crap, if he misses all of them he won't have any left... Unlike regular AT

[@rhaivaen]

Also, panzerfausts are one shot each, so complaining about the amount of them is crap, if he misses all of them he won't have any left... Unlike regular AT

[@brianshepherd935]

Great game , like the jump off point aspect of the game

[@BattleBunkerHQ]

Great game Travis, I think the Chain of Command Patrol Phase worked quite well.

[@tabletopcp]

Me too. Mat use it again.

[@joeokabayashi8669]

Looking at that board makes me shiver - brrrrrrr.

[@rhaivaen]

Also, panzerfausts are one shot each, so complaining about the amount of them is crap, if he misses all of them he won't have any left... Unlike regular AT

[@LonestarWargaming]

Hey great battle report as always! What are y’all using for the base ring markers for officers and NCOs??

[@tabletopcp]

Got ‘em off eBay years ago. Haven’t seen them for a while. Try the 3d print market. People are making things like them now

[@kenc9236]

Brand new to this game + sub. Curious if you can advise me best terrain (houses, barns, roads and what not) to play this game?

[@tabletopcp]

Welcome aboard! There are a lot of choices for m buildings. Sarrisa precision makes very affordable MDF terrain of all types. Easy to put together but you have to paint it. Blacksite studios makes pretty affordable pre painted terrain. Micro art studio makes pre painted terrain as well but are pricier but really nice.

[@kenc9236]

@@tabletopcp Thank you. I will check them out.

[@grzegorzpalach4946]

50:38 "No armor is best armor" ;)

[@Andrew-se4tg]

Hey Travis, I'm getting ready to buy bolt action stuff for the first time. I've been playing fow/team yankee for a while and decided I want to move up in scale. I was looking at the three bolt action starter sets and was wondering if you have an opinion on which one to buy, or should I start with starter army? Great videos as always, thanks man!🤔👍

[@tabletopcp]

I guess it really depends on what part of the war toy want to play. I’d tot Dre looking for just bang for your buck the Soviet winter starter army is very good. But they are the old Soviet minis they are white fiddly to put together. But really you can’t go wrong with any of the starter armies.

[@Andrew-se4tg]

@@tabletopcp ok, sounds good thanks man!

[@davidferns3584]

I got the Stalingrad box and found both the minis and terrain really fun to put together.

[@paulwestern3687]

Meat chopper? M16?

[@masonex490]

really great stuff

[@PowermadNavigator]

I think everything worked out well and presented some additional dynamics. Especially with the Americans added dice which gave them a push an caused some casualties, coupled with the PAK40 and sniper's horrendous shooting. It was interesting. If I was playing as Germans, this would have all worked out well - my luck sucks and this scenario had a taste for good luck.

[@scalehistoryslc819]

"Digman's men are all atheists" hahaha. Great game!

[@iandavies2298]

Where did you get those American minis? They look great are they plastic? I have the winter Germans from Warlord Games but Im hoping to find some winter Americans

[@tabletopcp]

These are all metal. Mostly warlord and Artizan. A couple of Empress minis. I don’t think anyone makes winter plastic Americans.

[@iandavies2298]

@@tabletopcp They look good for metal I might have to pick some up!

[@tabletopcp]

@@iandavies2298 I got a showcase video on this army coming out soon where we take a close look at the entire army all at once.

[@SPD3DPrinting]

that's a good looking and fun tabletop. thanks for another great game and demonstration how to try out ideas for fun game play.

[@Fredeye63]

I don't often see airpower in these BA games anymore. Fun!

[@mikeb4085]

Gorgeous table and armies ! Enjoyed the battle Mike B

[@franztezel8540]

Who makes the roads on this?

[@tabletopcp]

These are the Geek Villain self cut out roads

[@FabledAllele]

man i love that snow theme board and armies, look so great

[@paulhayes7860]

great game really like the sound effects

[@theabobrickshow7599]

What do you put under the hills?

[@tabletopcp]

Andre made up some hills out of wood in his shop. Modular so they can be configured in different shapes and elevations. We put the mat over those.

[@theabobrickshow7599]

Cool Thanks!@@tabletopcp

[@e-4airman124]

a really great game down to the end😄

[@vonSchwartzwolfe]

We talked a lot about using the patrol phase from CoC in Bolt action. It really worked out well. We also talked about using the CoC weapons ranges.

[@mitchcowan1446]

Hope you keep making these. Been catching up on all your BA vids. What do you use to make the snow effect on units and tanks? Simple as a brief spray from a white can, or something else? Thx

[@tabletopcp]

I used the hairspray method. I have a video on it. Should be in the tutorial playlist. Basically you paint the tank, cover it with hairspray then spray white over that. Then use a wet tooth brush to remove some of the white to expose the color underneath. The hairspray is water soluble so allows that top layer of white paint to come off and look like it scratched or flaked off.