Unternehmen Stachel: Operation Sting After Action Report

Guten tag!

Well, as some of you know, this past weekend was Operation Sting... the biggest and best Bolt Action tournament in the greater Chicagoland area outside of Adepticon. This year saw the player field increase to 24 players, some from as far as North Dakota don't ya know. As you'd expect, the army painting, display boards, and tables were all really excellent. The whole thing is a Swiss style grand tournament, three games on Saturday and two on Sunday. Each is a slightly modified version of the scenarios in the main rulebook, and each player has six special missions to choose from to pick up a few extra battle points. Armies are restricted to a single reinforced infantry platoon, no vehicle flamethrowers, no units from the campaign books.

I went in with my early war Fallschirmjager list, a light infantry platoon: 1st Lt. and friend with SMG's; forward air observer calling in a Ju87; 2 x 9 Fallschirmjager w/ SMG, LMG, anti-tank grenades; 9 engineers w/ SMG x 2, flamethrower, anti-tank grenades; MG 34 MMG team; Anti-tank Rifle team; Medium mortar team w/ spotter; Sniper team; LG40/1 team... all veteran. My plan was to stick to cover and, if faced with tanks, just ignore them until I could close and use anti-tank grenades. No assault rifles, no panzerfausts, no vehicles of my own... just airborne and glider-borne FJ's with their tenacity and determination!



My first game was against newcomer Chris. Chris automatically won my respect for rolling out an early war Polish platoon... yeah, lancers are pretty awesome and he did take a heavy howitzer, but he took an equal number of infantry squads, medic, MMG, marksmen, mortar team, and MMG tank, and an ATR tankette. Nothing too overpowered, and all well themed so all good in my book. The DOWNSIDE of this was that I was facing him on a Captain America/Hydra-themed airfield. That was a nice 18" of open space on either side of the center line and there was the objective, bang in the middle. If I didn't lose every single unit in my army I'd be happy. Chris was a great guy, played a clean game, and well deserved his win. My airstrike landed on my own troops, which didn't do me any favors, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. My secret mission for the game was called "Tora! Tora! Tora!" which gives you up to five points for destroying the most expensive unit in your opponent's army, especially with an airstrike. This would have been his heavy howitzer, but the poor sod had no tow for it... chose to be the attacker... and could only deploy infantry in the first wave. His howitzer (thankfully) never made it. So, as I figured, my guys got chewed up by the lancers (though they made a good account of themselves, those Lancers limped home) and I couldn't get my special mission objective so five points of a possible 30. Ouch. As a side note, Chris is a combat veteran of the 82nd Airborne, so much respect for that as well. I'd play him again any day.






Game two was versus fellow newcomer and Chris' mate, Matt. The mission was to capture as many of the objective markers as possible (one in the center of each table quarter plus one dead center) on the table. Matt was rocking a late-war Waffen SS platoon (based on the 9th SS Pz. Div). Matt got credit by not taking an excessive amount of assault rifles, taking an MMG, an LeIG, and a StuG versus a StuH 42. We were playing on a North Africa airfield with a decent amount of cover. My special mission was "Currahee!" which gives points for controlling the largest piece of terrain on the table. The game went really good, and Matt was a great opponent too. It weas really give-and-take, and my one unit of FJ's going for the center objective made it to 8 pins!! They still made their tests until nearly the end... gotta love that! My airstrike came in excatly when and where I needed it, wiping out a unit of assault-rifle armed soldaten running up the flank and going for an objective. Another highlight was my LG40/1 hitting a quonset hut with another squad of soldaten and bringing it down on them with 12 hits! I could not, for the life of me, mitigate his StuG.. and I began to question my anti-tank solution. In the end, Matt had more objectives and I didn't get my special mission so the game was a loss for me. Well fought, though... good, clean match. I'd also play against Matt again any time.





Game three was against my good friend and frequent opponent, Duane "Kibitz" Zoldak. Duane was rolling with his Norway-themed French Foreign Legion, models by Gorgon and expertly painted by Mr. Zoldak. This mission would be "Demolition" on a decent table with a good amount of cover. Having played Duane's list before I knew what to expect. Duane's also just THAT much better than I am, so I figured it'd be his win but I usually give him a good run for his money. As always, the game was exceptional and some really awesome Hollywood moments. Turn one, die one my sniper pops off Duane's medium howitzer spotter. My anti-tank rifle spent several turns plinking rounds off his H35, but in the end it was one of my infantry squads charging the tank and blasting the hooey out of it that did the trick. My mission for this game was called "Fury" and so I got points for destroying an enemy armored vehicle. Towards the end, Duane ran three full squads of FFL from cover and rained rifle, LMG, VB launcher, and SMG fire on my units guarding my bunker. My engineers charged over the hill and laid waste to one squad with flamethrower and rifle/SMG fire... and then next turn charged another squad, wiping out all but three before losing the back-and-forth close combat. Those three survivors would, unfortunately, charge my bunker and destroy it. The game was intense, and both of us were relying on our dice coming out of the bag first. Awesome game. My anti-tank grenades showed they were somewhat viable, if risky. My airstrike never showed up. Duane, too, is a combat veteran (10th Mountain Division) so massive respect for that as well.



Game four, first on day two, was against John (of Plastic Legions). Now, I took a THRASHING at the hand of John's Arnhem-themed British platoon last year so was looking for a bit of revenge. The fact that John's a top-notch painter and a fantastic opponent to play against makes a loss to him all good. This year, John was rocking the opposite side of his Arnhem force... the 9th SS Panzer division. John was running something of an expirement this year... He had two infantry squads, LMG's and a few assault rifles, sniper, SdKfz 7, flakvierling, and Panther. Yes. Panther. In 1,000 points. That's 7 order dice total. Our mission was to capture two pieces of intelligence on the table and then do a roll at the end to see if the intel was actually good. John's a canny opponent, and covered one objective with the menacing profile of the flakvierling. I covered the other with a sniper, MG 34, and ATR. The table was a sort of Normandy feel, with TONS of walls, hedges, craters, and ruins. I was thrilled for this table, though a little worried by the Panther and flakvierling. I am sad to say, the dice gods were absolutley against John this game and he just could not get a break. My airstrike went off perfectly and pinned one of his two infantry squads out for all but the 5th turn... my mortar team was ACE, destroying his sniper, SdKfz 7, and all but one of his Flakvierling crew, and then he couldn't get morale checks to save his life. Like I said, John's a great guy so despite this he remained cool, and never gave up. I'd play John again any day, though I don't see him playing this exact list again any time soon. I captured one objective, only to be flat-footed in open ground the one turn he got his flakvierling to fire... poof! one squad obliterated. I couldn't get anything else close to get it again due to a lot of close range firefighting. One squad did, after three turns trying, manage to blow up the Panther with anti-tank grenades. Never thought that'd happen, but it was awesome. I thought I had the game in the bag, controlling one objective on the other side, till fellow attendee Jeff stopped by and asked if either of us had read the rules because we were doing the objectives wrong. Well, that set up a last-minute scramble but in the end neither of us got an objective. We both managed our secret mission, ironically both choosing the mission where your goal is to capture/kill the opposing commander in close combat. So... a draw. I really felt bad about John's luck though. Never a good feeling when a decent dude is undone by something outside his control.



The last game was everyone's favorite... Maximum Attrition. My opponent was Dan, who discovered only four days prior that an opening had become available and he was able to participate. He brought a late-war Panzergrenadier platoon.. well researched, thematic, and expertly painted. He had two infantry squads with a good mix of weaponry, an SMG/FT engineer team, sniper, medium mortar, panzershrek, medic, and StuH 42.... most of which were regulars. Many, many, many kudos to Dan for his force selection. We played on a table reminiscent of a French town with buildings everywhere. I'd been itching to play on this table since last year and I finally got my change. OH. MY. What a difference it makes, having buildings. Fully half our models weren't actually on the table due to them being in buildings, running from one to the next. Lots of crazy shots, some super-sixes actually hitting. Dan made a suggestion about my ATR shooting at his StuH 42 that dealt ONE pin. Dan failed his next four orders checks and the tank rolled all the way back to his table edge. Some of the highlights were my airstrike coming in and levelling a building on top of one of his units, some close-quarters fighting, cinematic ambush fire as units ran around corners... another excellent game, and another where both of us were anxious for our dice coming out of the bag. It was a real nail-biter but in the end I had a win solely on my special mission. I'd chosen "Saving Private Ryan" which gives points for chosing a single model and making sure it's alive at the end of the game. Dan had chosen "Blitzkrieg" which gives extra points for getting units into your oppenent's deployment zone. It was really close. Again, a really awesome game, and I would definitely play Dan again.







All in all I think my force was pretty solid. I came close in almost all games, and really put losses/draws down to dice rolls more than anything tactical or force selection. The anti-tank rifle, while thematic, was not really worth the points so I think I may scrap it in the future plus reduce the size of the squads a bit so I can get a fourth squad in. The anti-tank grenades were well worth the points. The only times I failed to get tanks was when I simply couldn't get my infantry close enough. I will certainly stick with them for more games and see how they do. The MMG was not as good as it has been in most of my previous games. While a bit disappointed, a German MMG is so quintessential that there's no way I could remove it. Also, I have two. The LG40/1 was great, well worth the points. The mortar team, as usual, was so-so. It didn't hit often but when it did great things happened. I'm hoping to get more friendly games in with this style of force because I am just really fond of the light infantry concept. Also, since there weren't very many Axis players this year (and none of us did very well) I won't be switching sides any time soon... after all, three of my five games were against German players and I think there were only six or eight of us. Given the popularity of Gorgon's figures (they were on-site Sunday) I suspect we'll be seeing some Gebirgsjager next year plus more FFL and if rumors be true, some Norwegians! I don't know about you, but I love that people are delving more into these forces rather than the more common ones.
The stats aren't out yet, but I'm pretty sure I didn't even break the top half of the table what with 1 win, 2 draws, and 2 losses... but I played five of the absolute best games of Bolt Action since the game first came out, and it was great to see the old faces from last year as well as make new friends. The guys that run Operation Sting run a top-notch show and all of us were already talking about next year. There was some AMAZING prize support, too, from a number of vendors and the guys make sure EVERY SINGLE PLAYER gets a decent walkaway prize. Warlord supplied a bunch, an online retailer supplied a starter army, platoon, and box... Crescent Root sent two sets of exquisite ready made terrain (see my game 5 table), plus a bunch of others too numerous to name. For me, I'm really particular about what I want when it comes to Bolt Action and I tend to run slightly off the norm.. but Gorgon Studios contributed a couple packs of their EXCELLENT Gebirgsjager infantry, which was still there when my name was called. I started into them that night and I'm well into a platoon now.

I can't say enough good about this Tournament. It was a truly excellent experience, and I'm really looking forward to next year. Thanks to Brent and Chris for putting on the whole thing, and thanks to all of the players who came out and played some good games. As much hullabaloo as there is about power gamers, there wasn't very much of that here and I think that's a beautiful thing. The guys that do this are also doing the Doubles, National Grand Tournament, and Tank Wars at Adepticon so if you're reading this and not sure you want to go, know that these folks will put on something good.

John, man, I hope you rectify things with Lady Fate brother. You need some luck in those dice again.

From Norway to the Eastern Front: Early War Fallschirmjager

So much for my plan to post weekly, eh? I'll take some measure of solace in the knowledge that it's better than six months.

As I mentioned last time, I've been plowing through some Early War Fallschirmjager for Bolt Action. Having played all late-war games since I started the game (three years ago!) I've been getting a little burnt out on it. The proliferation of veterans, assault rifles, killer tanks, and all that makes for really brutal games. If the opponent is one of those 'win at all costs' types too, it can be no fun.

A buddy of mine had been thinking along similar lines and had started an Early War French Foreign Legion army, based around the intense yet short campaign in Norway (1940). Another buddy had remarked that he'd structured his Soviets to be workable in either early- or late-war platoons by simply swapping a tank. This got me thinking... after all, I DO like the grey look. I decided that I, too, would do early-war. My first inclination was to do a Blitzkreig force... but at the same time, I had a LOT of Fallschirmjager models laying around. I'd start with an early-war Fallschirmjager platoon then. After all, they'd fought in Norway against the FFL. They'd fought in the Soviet Union early on, too. And... of course... there are the absolutely fascinating stories of the Fallschirmjager assault on the fortress at Eben Emael, the taking of the Corinth Canal bridge, or the hellacious campaign for the island of Crete.

The force I've chosen is sort of like a sampling of the DNA from Norway, Belgium, and Greece with elements from each. I think it's got a decent punch, despite not taking vehicles. Those of you that know me know that I've been fascinated by the FJ's since I first learned of them. This, then, just made sense. Painting... GO!

One thing about painting. Early-war Fallschirmjager jump smocks were a greenish-grey color. Did you know that Vallejo has Green-grey? Perfect! Oh. Wait. They have TWO paints called green-grey. Also, grey-green which is only one number different than green-grey and not at all the same. Lesson learned.

I decided to do flowers on the bases (Do any flowers grow around here?) to add a little color, and because with late war models you typically see a lot of bases with rubble and patchy greens. For me, using green grass, tall grass, and flowers in combination was somewhat symbolic of the early war campaigns... before all the large-scale battles and bombings and other destruction.

So first up, Kurt Steiner.

Seriously? I named my commander? Well... not that I haven't done that before, but in this case, the model is actually Michael Caine's character depiction of Oberst Kurt Steiner from the movie adaptation of The Eagle Has Landed. The book was excellent, and the movie isn't bad at all. Caine is perfect for the role. When I saw Warlord had the model... it was a done deal. If you've read the book, you of course know that Steiner was a Leutnant during the 1940 campaigns before his Captaincy at Crete. Thus, I chose to use him as my Oberleutnant. The fellow with him is, I decided, Ritter Neumann from the book/movie as well. Neumann would eventually become an officer himself. Both models are Warlord.





Pretty happy with how the Steiner model came out. Neumann... acceptable. That figure is the THIRD time I had to order it. The barrel of his MP40 was already broken each time it arrived, so in the end I chopped off the hands and surgically added plastic hands and MP40 from my regular German bits bin.

Next up, my first rifle squad. The squad is predominantly Black Tree Design, but the LMG team is by Crusader. I truly like the BTD models, not so much the Crusader. When one is picky about accurate uniform and weapon depictions, one must make sacrifices. I'm really happy with how these fellas turned out, even the 'test' model which had to be done three times before I was happy. The squad is nine models because that's how many would fit in the DFS 230 glider, or a Ju 52 transport.







The second squad is primarily models by Warlord. I've had these partially painted for almost three years, but in a late-war smock pattern. One bottle of Simple Green and a toothbrush cleared THAT right up. They were re-primed and painted as early-war Fallschirmjager. There were a few models that had open-legged tunics which I felt were too short to be late-war smocks, but not closed-leg in order to pass as early-war so I decided I'd do them as Fallschirmjager that had lost or discarded their smocks. The Luftwaffe blue tunics were a chance to add a little color, too. Warlord's models are a little older and I have to say their sculpts have improved quite a bit since these were done. Some were good... some were a little, um, disfigured.




The kneeling rifleman had a scope on his rifle originally... when I clipped it off some remnants were left on the face, so I decided to paint it as a bandage. After all, parachuting into the midst of the enemy is bound to result in some injuries, right? The LMG team is again by Crusader.



Now, of course, if one is looking at a Fallschirmjager force with references from Eben Emael and Crete, having a squad of assault engineers is a must. Black Tree models again, as they make purpose built engineers. I added some pouches to one figure, and found a couple other models with pouches that kind of fit in.
One of the chaps with binoculars doesn't fit in, for me... so he'll be moved to mortar spotter, and I'll paint up another rifleman.






I tried to get the fellow with the flammenwerfer (a gift from my child) look more sooty than the rest of the squad. I think I got it a little too heavy on his face but.. well... I don't know how many times I'd have to re-do it.

That's it for the moment. From here on out I've got a couple of weapons teams to do... and just about 30 days with which to do it before the Operation Sting tournament. I'd really like to be able to use these guys for that. No assault rifles, no panzerfausts, no armored cars or tanks, taking historically accurate units even if LMG's and MMG's aren't all that great in Bolt Action. May not place high, but I'll have brought a good, clean list.

I'm hoping to at least make a good showing in the best-painted competition.. but wholly accept that there aren't any complicated camouflage patterns like my SS force to really set them apart. We shall see.

Anyway, comments are welcomed. Hope to be back with more soon.

Cheers!