A quaint, but deadly, cottage, somewhere in rural England.
The Gen
Enemy forces are driving the British Army constantly backward. Always on the back heel, High Command have issued a hard order, ‘Hold the line’.
They have drawn a line and part of that line includes the Southern Command Stopline positions near Taunton, Somerset.
In order to muster the manpower required a general conscription order has been issued for all males aged between 16 and 60. Whilst these units include veterans of the First World War, they also include fresh-faced youths.
This battle centres around three pillboxes, protected by hastily erected defences.
Set-Up
The bunkers must be no less than 9″ away from the British player’s table edge, no less than 18″ from the German player’s table edge, and should be at least 12″ apart from each other. Other buildings and terrain features should be added, especially as – in the example image above – pillboxes weren’t just plonked in the middle of fields.
The British units can use the hidden set-up rules (see Hidden Set-Up p117).
The attacker’s units are not set up on the table at the start of the game. The attacker must nominate at least half of their force to form the first wave. This can be the entire army if they so wish. Any units not included in the first wave are left in reserve.
Objective
The objective is simple. The British forces must hold the line for the entire battle. If they do, then the German forces will find themselves being outflanked by a local counter attack.
The Germans must advance and either destroy the defending units entirely, capture two of the three bunkers, or force the British to retreat.
Preparatory Bombardment
The German player should apply the Preparatory Bombardment rules from page 118 of the Bolt Action rules.
Defensive Bombardment
The British artillery has a target-rich environment and too few guns to engage those targets.
Each subsequent turn following Turn One, the British player rolls a die. On Turn 2, the player must role 6 in order to receive the bombardment, each subsequent turn that number decreases by 1 so Turn 3 requires 5+, Turn 4, 4+ and so on.
If the player rolls successfully they should apply the Preparatory Bombardment rules from page 118 of the Bolt Action rules.
Special Conditions
The British forces must contain 75% inexperienced troops. This is a bitter last stand in a war of attrition. 25% of them are Green.
The other 25% must be Veterans. Battered and bruised they are determined to win back their honour. They are counted as Fanatics
No more than 20% of the British forces may be armoured.
All armoured forces may only use vehicles suitable to the period.
If a German unit comes to within 3″ of a pinned conscript unit, the conscripts will surrender on a roll of 5+ regardless of the presence of officers. This reduces by 1 per pin to a minimum of 1.
The British player must deploy all of his units prior to the battle commencing, there are no reserves.
Game Duration
This game lasts for 6 rounds.
Victory!
The Germans must achieve the objective as set out above. All the British need to do is hold.
Both sides gain 1VP for each enemy unit destroyed.
Major Victory – 5VP – Achieve the objective.
Medium Victory – 3VP – Destroy more units than the enemy.
Matthew Sylvester 
Discussion
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