Dispatches from the Front – Week 8

The Chicago Dice Bolt Action Learning League is well underway. Follow along as we recap our weekly games during the League.

Week 8 – 1,000pts – Tippy Top Secret

The Mission
Hopefully a more interesting version of everyone’s ‘favorite’ Rulebook mission… from the Designer’s Notes

Tippy Top Secret is a variation on the “go get it” mechanic from Top Secret. In this version there are more objectives (d3+4) and units must roll to see if they find the objective. Each time a unit arrives at an intel location, they roll a die. On 1-2 there is no intel to be found and that location is spent. On a 3-4, nothing happens. On a 5-6, the unit found the intel and now takes the token with them. You score VPs for either holding onto the intel at the end of the game (1VP) or escaping off the table with it (3VP). Whoever scores the most VPs is the winner.

Andrew V (Great Britain – BEF) v John V (France – Colonial Vichy)

As John and I were up at a cabin in Wisconsin and both space and time were limited. We did not play a 1k game. Instead we cobbled together opposing 500pt forces and squared off on the kitchen table. Three objectives across the middle, whoever controlled more objectives at the end of the game was the winner. – Andrew

As we were on a family vacation last week we used what we had available for terrain. We had very limited time while our respective babies were napping, so played a quick 500pt game. My Vichy French came out on top against Andrew’s BEF. A devastating failed order test by Andrew’s AEC saw it flee off the table early, which allowed my trio of FTs to slowly crawl forward, doing minimal damage but doing a good job of getting in the way. – John

Terry D (Finland) v Rob R (Soviet Union)

Rob and his Soviets had a good day against the tired Finns. Final was 8-5, close game, could have been much closer if dice had been kinder. With that said, really fun game!- Terry

Russell R (USA) v Logan X (Germany)

The Americans bombed several buildings containing important documents. Find any that remain before they do.

With that, the Germans scrambled for the ruins. Their Sniper dug into the first ruins and exchanged fire with a US Sniper in some distant ruins. A German Platoon Command unit pushed toward another bombed out building, while a squad of US Riflemen moved into a fourth. A German infantry squad piled into a fifth ruined building. Four of these ruins were searched, but nothing of value remained. The German Platoon Commander was shot down in their set of ruins, but an AT Rifle team took up the search for documents there. Seeing an opening, the US M8 Greyhound went flying toward those ruins. The AT Rifle was ready, though. With one blast, the AT Rifleman made the M8 Greyhound keep flying, away from the battle. The AT Rifleman was summarily neutralized. A German infantry squad finished the search of those ruins, finding nothing. At the final moment, a US infantry squad found a box of documents that hadn’t been destroyed in the final ruined building. They loaded them into a Jeep and sent them back to base.

This was a great game with Russell! The momentum swung back and forth several times. He joked that it would almost have been better for all of the searches to come up empty, but he earned this one. – Logan


League Standings After Week 8

PlayerForceGames PlayedWinsLossesDrawsPoints
Zack DYugoslavia (France)722314
Maple SSoviet Union723213
John VFrance – Colonial Vichy63312
Andrew VGreat Britain – BEF751118
Sammie AGreat Britain – ANZAC6158
Dave FItaly – Bersaglieri & France – FFL72511
Zak KPoland & Partisans612311
Terry DFinland51318
Adam SGreat Britain 4136
Logan XGermany833216
Jacky LGreat Britain – Polish Independent Brigade5239
Rob RSoviet Union751118
Lexx DGreat Britain – SAS222
Kevin CUSA111
Giuseppe IGermany63312
Nate BUSA522110
John MUSA521210
Russell RUSA731316
Hayden RUSA531112

Dispatches from the Front
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 – 500pts
Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 – 750pts
Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 – 1000pts

2 thoughts on “Dispatches from the Front – Week 8

  1. Love that first picture! I think we’ve all been there at some point in our wargaming hobby. The only thing I think I love almost as much as a table full of beautiful terrain is a table full of ad hoc terrain made from whatever was available.

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    1. Absolutely! I can’t imagine that any wargamer worth their salt hasn’t played on a setup like that. To be fair, it’s been a long time since John or I have made use of blocks and stacks of cards as terrain but this used to be the default setup back when we first started out!

      Cheers Chris! Thanks for reading!

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