Combat Patrol at AdeptiCon 2022 was my first ever Bolt Action event. This year I felt much more prepared and I was excited to kick off the AdeptiCon weekend with these smaller-scale, fast and furious games. I was especially eager to debut my trio of Motorcycles with Sidecars. These lightly armed, soft-skin vehicles were a focal point of my force and I hoped they would excel in this format.

My Army – 450pts, 8 Order Dice

2nd Lieutenant – Reg (50) +1 extra man (10)	60
Infantry Section – Reg 7 men with Rifles	70
Infantry Section – Reg 7 men with Rifles	70
Infantry Section – Reg 7 men with Rifles	70
Light Artillery – Reg Spotter (10) Light Howitzer / Light Anti-Tank Gun (25-pounder AP Shell)	65
Early War Motorcycle and Sidecar – Reg Anti-tank Rifle (10) Recce	45
Early War Motorcycle and Sidecar – Reg LMG Recce	35
Early War Motorcycle and Sidecar – Reg LMG Recce	35

The Commonwealth – Ready for Action

Game 1
Prisoner Capture vs Mark (Italy)

My Opponent’s Army

Mark brought a well-rounded Italian force with a Veteran 2nd Lieutenant, two squads of six Veteran Bersaglieri each with an SMG and an LMG, a Light Mortar Team, a Sniper Team, a Flamethrower Team, and an Anti-Tank Rifle Team.

The Mission

For Game 1 we played Prisoner Capture, a mission that had at least half our armies arriving via First Wave and the rest via Reserves with Outflanking allowed. You scored points by “spotting” enemy units by bringing your Lieutenant within 24″ of an enemy unit that was in open ground or light cover. You scored additional points by “capturing” enemies by defeating an enemy unit in close combat, with bonus points awarded for capturing the enemy Lieutenant. You can read the full mission details in the player packet.

My Commonwealth forces facing off against the Italians.

Game Highlights

• I left my two LMG Motorcycles in Outflank, and they were able to deal significant damage to Mark’s weapon teams when they rolled onto the table on Turn 3.
• My AT Rifle Motorcycle faced off against a Flamethrower Team. The single-shot weapon wasn’t able to do much damage, but I was able to use the bike’s recce move to keep out of the Flamethrower’s range.
• A general lack of Hard Cover on our table meant that by the end of the game, nearly all of our units had been spotted. Even though I had successfully captured a prisoner by assaulting one of his weapons teams with one of my rifle sections, I was only up by a single VP.
• We played through six turns and I had his Lieutenant surrounded, so the game came down to a roll to see if the game would extend into a seventh turn. Unfortunately for me, the die came up with a 1, so we ended the game in a Draw.

Result – Draw
9 to 8 VPs

Game 2
Scattered Drop vs Tim (Germany)

My Opponent’s Army

Tim’s German army had a little bit of everything. It included a Regular 2nd Lieutenant with two buddies, a five-man Regular Heer squad, a five-man Inexperienced Osttruppen squad, an Inexperienced Medium Mortar, an Anti-Tank Rifle Team, a Flak 38 Light Autocannon, an MMG Motorcycle with Sidecar, and a Panzer III Ausf. G with a Medium AT gun, co-ax MMG and hull MMG.

The Mission

For Game 2 we played Scattered Drop. There were three objectives spread evenly across the center of the board – whoever held the most at the end of the game won. As an added twist, half of our armies arrived via airdrop and were subject to scatter, the other half would arrive via Reserves without any Outflanking.

Moving into position to claim & contest objectives.

Game Highlights

• There was lots of line-of-sight blocking terrain near the middle of the table, which made it difficult to find a firing lane for my 25-Pounder. I was able to take a few pot shots early, but it quickly ran out of targets and was largely ineffective.
• Each of us made plays to try to block the other from securing objectives, but we quickly realized this game would come down to the final turn and who had done a better job of positioning their units.
• I made a risky gamble near the end of the game, moving my Lieutenant into a building to contest the objective on my left flank. Tim’s Panzer put an HE shot through the window, eliminated my officer, and secured the objective for himself.
• Tim left the objective on my right flank largely uncontested, allowing me to secure it with a rifle section.
• With one of the final order die of the game, Tim moved his Heer infantry just inside the 3″ capture range of the middle objective.
• I had a rifle squad ready to move up and contest the middle objective, but unfortunately, we ran out of time before my Order Die was pulled.

Result – Loss
2 to 1 Objectives

Tim’s Panzer III dominated the middle of the table.

Game 3
Flare vs Josh (Germany)

My Opponent’s Army

Josh’s beautiful Blitzkrieg Germans, for which he won the Player’s Choice award, consisted of a 2nd Lieutenant, a squad of 7 Veteran SS infantry with a mix of rifles of SMGs, a squad of 6 Regular Heer infantry with an SMG and an LMG, a Veteran Flamethrower Team, a Pak 36 Light AT Gun, a Panzer I with dual MMGs, and a Field Car transport.

Josh’s stunning display board.

The Mission

For our final game, we played Flare!. In this mission, we scored points by destroying enemy units and by having units in the enemy’s deployment zone at the end of the game. All units, other than forward deployers, arrived via First Wave. Additionally, at the start of each turn, we placed a special Order Die in the bag to represent the fare. Until the flare die was pulled, line of sight is limited to only 12″.

Game Highlights

• Early in Turn 2, Josh moved his Field Car containing his Lt and Flamethrower up a central road, crossing onto my side of the board. One of my LMG Motorcycles opened fired, luckily destroying the Car and Josh’s Lt, leaving the Flamethrower heavily pinned and surrounded by enemies.
• Josh’s Panzer I and my AT-Rifle motorcycle played a game of cat-and-mouse around pieces of line-of-sight blocking terrain in the middle of the board.
• Our infantry squads slowly wore each other down, with neither side able to make a decisive push.
• My 25-pounder failed time and again to destroy the Panzer, despite multiple close-range shots into its side armor.
• In the end, I was able to hold onto my early game advantage, and by moving a couple of Motorcycles into Josh’s deployment zone late in the game I secured the win.

Result – Win

Final Thoughts

Once again, Combat Patrol proved to be a fun event with fast games, interesting missions, and great opponents. My biggest takeaway from the event is that I need to do a better job of keeping an eye on the clock and making sure I have enough time to put myself into a winning position. If I’d played a little smarter, I likely could have ended the day with two wins and a draw, instead of one win, one loss, and one draw.

Andrew and Tom deserve a ton of credit for all the work they put in to make this event run smoothly. Wrangling 40 players across 20 tables for three, 90-minute games is no small feat and they made it look easy. I’m already excited to return next year!