Battle Record - American Civil War and Bolt Action 25/06/26

Afternoon we've been having a bit of a heatwave and as my shed peaked at 35C I started working earlier so I could get the benefit of the cooler morning temperatures before it all hotted up! One unexpected bonus was Ben's cousin Woll had decided to come up and visit the hobby shed again [remember you can still vote for us in shed of the year]. This meant I could nip along in the afternoon to join them.

And they were playing an American Civil War game called Longstreet. Apparently it's out of print, relies heavily on some card decks which only had one set produced for every copy of the rules. Unfortunately most people bought two sets of cards with the rules and they're now like hen's teeth!

So if you have a set, or even just the rules let us know as Otty really wants to play again. I was just an observer, not knowing what was going on.

It all looked really impressive, although I was disappointed that the barricades seemed to offer no obstruction whatsoever for the charging soldiers. Not even just moving through them normally, it was like they weren't there at all.

And the charge ranges seemed very long so even from a distance these units were getting into combat despite the battlefield obstacles. They had fun though.

Following that we set up another Bolt Action board, which I thought looked stunning. It was a mission where the Germans had to get within 12" of our board edge, or exit the board from our edge for even more VPs.

But the British set up first, having to spread out across the board, while a lot of the Germans [mainly the tanks] were in reserve.

Which meant that as they did come on they could come on in the flanks, leaving the central defenders slightly out of position because which flank could the join to offer support?

One set of engineers or rangers, snuck down the side. Unfortunately mortar crews don't carry any rifles or small arms, so they exited the battle unchallenged.

But look how cool this game looks!

One of our tanks caught fire, with the crew abandoning it. We went a little overboard to represent it was destroyed, particularly as it didn't even explode!

Our Command tank just went round the board taking names, probably the MVP.

The Command doing the business

Unfortunately we didn't get the order draw we hoped for, to block the road and the half-track was making for board edge. Instead we sent two squads in to assault it. 

With the second squad setting it ablaze.

Meanwhile on the right flank our other tank couldn't wound the German tanks that had just driven over a gun emplacement. 

Out tank crashed through the hedges to get a bead on it's rear armour point blank

And another turret went skyward!

While on the extreme right a German tank was intent on breaching our mortar battery.

Squishing the crew, leaving a spotter, then exiting the board for the mission. The infantry were following closely.

And decided to rustle some sheep while they were at it.

Also destroying our tank - a trio of turrets exploded!

The brits had been good, excelling with their ability for commanders to draw 3 or 4 additional order dice. This allowed us to control the game in some places. But the German deployment and Blitzkrieg worked perfectly. Punching through our flanks to secure the mission and win the game. 

We were out of position, outflanked, and with a loss of some units early on slightly outgunned in places. But it was a lot of fun.

So great to see Woll again, but a couple of issues being that the hobby shed was hot, hot, hot. There is almost no air circulation and we accidentally broke Ben's fan that was the only thing bringing cool air in. Couple that with later in the evening having the door open hoping some cool air would come in. It didn't, but we were inundated with flies and other insects.

So, cooling and pest control are new issues that the shed committee must look into solving.