MOAB 2017 - Day One

German MG Team waiting for the oncoming enemy

The first day of MOAB was very busy for us. 16 new players learned how to play Bolt Action and enjoyed the scenery.

Forces gathering to capture the Station Main Hall

A young player fighting with the mighty Renault

Situated right next to the Bolt Action competition and the canteen was a prime location to capture the attention of any onlookers that expressed interest. As we expected, the presence of the U Boat and Railway station amongst three dimensional terrain gathered a lot of interest.
We ended up not using the concept of "spawning" forces from points on the board, but we did use a combination of 500 (5 dice) and 900 (8 dice) forces depending on the availability of players. That worked our very well.
Typically the smaller forces finished a game in 60 to 90 minutes and the larger in 120 to 150 minutes. So most of the time we had two games going at once that were not synchronised.
The last game was a synchronised game with 4 players using the larger forces with each team waiting until the whole turn was completed.
The game finished in 2.5 hours and players all had a good lesson in how Bolt Action works.
This post has a selection of shots taken throughout the day. Our sore feet and tired voices testify to the busy day and the smiles and thanks we received from the players was very rewarding. We had two Father-Son teams who had enjoyable games, ending in draws which mean both players won!
A couple of players came up to us pointing out the index in their books and saying "Thanks!"
(Here is the link to the index if you don't already have it)

Renault Assault!

Details of the board and some the armies we have used is here.

The Germans were not scared of the Renault

Tanks at knife fighting range

 Now for some rest on on to day two tomorrow.

It was a lazy little cafe - and everyone wants it!

We took a Cromwell along for protection!

Fighting under and around the U Boat

"All Aboard!"

A winning strategy - use the index!

The 2017 U-Boat Railway Station Board

Starting to play test the board

We have been planning a new board for this season's public participation games fr some time. The core idea was to have a board which provided the following features:

1. A certain "Wow!" factor which would attract visitors to investigate the game further.
2. Lots of tactical options
3. An excuse to show off some of our newer buildings and scenery
4. A fun board with plenty of tense moments.

This is in line with our article on How to Run A Public Participation Game.

Here is the link to a couple of short videos we put up about this board as it was too large to capture in one or two photos:

U-Boat Railway Station Board Overview

U-Boat Railway Station - a look inside

Our first play-test had the road down the middle with the Railway Station and Stone Hotel opposite each other along the long edge. While this worked in the game it had one major failing.

The Russians have the Cafe. The Germans really want their coffee.

It's a long way to reach over the Railway Station

No-one actually fought in the buildings other than the cafe. Now that is a waste of good playing real-estate!
So the board has been reconfigured.
Now the Railway Station bisects the board and there are reasons to go into lots of buildings. Now that should make for suitably deadly encounters all over the board!
The other innovation we are experimenting with this time around is to have differing size paired enemy forces with non-synchronised game turns. This means that we will have 8 dice armies (about 900 points) for those that can play longer (about 2 to 2.5 hrs) and smaller starter armies of 5 dice (500 pts) for those that can only play 1 to 1.5 hours.
The forces can still fire at the enemies and work with their allies, but they will find that one pair f players may be at turn 5 and another at turn 2. Other than a most enjoyable chaos and interesting situations, players pairs joining in on an already active board are treated as "reinforcements". We expect to see a longer game in progress and in the middle a shorter player pair starts and finishes before they have completed their game! We'll see how this all works in the real world, but it looks interesting enough to try.
The reason we want to attempt this is so that more people can experience the fun that is Bolt Action wargaming.

The Australians are rushing through the Station gardens

Often visitors to conventions or events only have a limited time to play. "Just give us an hour and you'll get a good taste of how this works," we'll say and once they are in we are sure they will get a taste for more.
As always we provide all the armies and everything required to play.
You will note we haven't added any of the free stuff like Artillery observers or free armies. This is because the games are for new players and the game results in this style of game can be really badly impacted by the apparent imbalances of the free stuff on smaller armies. When they play a proper 1,000 point or greater game then these are all put back into play.

Here are some of the armies we will be using:

Finally not afraid of the pseudo-Tiger, the Allies attack

1 Hour (5 Dice) Armies

500 point 1 Hour Germans

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
125 Heer Veterans (SMG, LMG, 6 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
508 Total: 5 Dice

500 Point 1 Hour British

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
125 Veteran Infantry (SMG, LMG, 6 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
508 Total: 5 Dice

500 point 1 Hour French

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
42 Veteran Renault FT tank
507 Total: 6 Dice

Reworking of the board

A Dalek bringing Tea to the Railway Station

500 point 1 Hour French

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
42 Veteran Renault FT tank
507 Total: 6 Dice

Pz IV and Cromwell facing it off down the road

An Aerial shot of the board

The FT17 "Tank of Fear" fits in the doors of the Railway Station.

500 point 1 Hour Russian

95 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
143 LMG Squad (SMG, 2 LMG, 7 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
55 MMG Team with Gun Shield
503 Total: 6 Dice

The view from the U-Boat tower.

2 Hour (8 Dice) Armies

900 Point 2 Hour German

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
119 Volks Grenadier (5 AssR, LMG, 2 Rifles, 2 PzFst)
119 Volks Grenadier (5 AssR, LMG, 2 Rifles, 2 PzFst)
50 MMG Team
50 Sniper Team
235 Panzer IV H
904 Total: 8 Dice

900 Point 2 Hour Australian

95 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
60 Medium Mortar Team with Spotter
205 Cromwell Tank
902 Total: 8 Dice

900 Point 2 Hour USA

85 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)

120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)

50 MMG Team
50 MMG Team
230 Sherman M4A1
905 Total: 8 Dice

Overall we are looking at having a very busy time!

The conventions we will be attending are:
MOAB - Mother Of All Battles 30 Sep and 1 Oct 2017
Little Wars Canberra 12 November 2017
Goulburn Library 4 November 2017
CanCon 2018 Australia Day 2018