Za Rodina

 

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my "summer vacation" post, our annual summer trip across the peninsula to the "fossil beach" is often accompanied by a stop in at that side's FLGS.  The latter traditionally produces some kind of sudden, yet not-unexpected new project, usually centred on a heavily discounted big box.  Last year it ended up being chaos marines (which, along with those from the Shadowspear box, now comprise my pretty much painted World Eaters force).

About to become a hero of the Soviet Union

This year, the new project has turned out to be Bolt Action.  I've played this before, as it was pretty popular for a while in TO, and it was something the Cub showed interest in a while back.  Those games, however, were 1st edition, and I used 15mm figures; collecting Soviets for Flames of War on and off for years, I pretty much always have some kicking around, and it was easy enough to base them individually.  I quite liked BA at the time.  It plays well, gives a decent amount of flavour, and like most of the Warlord-backed games, is relatively easy entry - in the sense that you don't need to do a lot of pre-work to jump in, and can pick up the history etc. as you go.  

Assembled riflemen.  The infantry sprue gives a range of weapons options, but I started with the most basic.

Lots of customization options in terms of heads, gear, etc.

I'm finding lately, however, that 15mm is getting harder for me.  My eyes and my hands aren't what they used to be, and it's getting harder and harder to paint 15mm to a standard I like.  28mm, on the other hand, I can still manage, along with 6mm, oddly enough (my style there is almost impressionist anyways), and I find I've been gravitating towards more projects of that scale / size.

Bolt action Soviets get a free squad of basic infantry.  This one, in fact.

Plus, every force requires a fearless-ish leader.

Then I discovered that some of the local (mostly) GW crew are dipping in a toe, along with a regular gaming buddy who's doing Finns, and even before I dropped in at the FLGS, I'd been pondering jumping up to 28mm.  Stumbling across a Soviet starter box at 30% off simply sealed the deal.

They also need to take the usual minimum compliment of 2 infantry squads.  It's an infantry game, really.

The Soviet box is crammed full of goodies - enough for 60-something infantry in a range of configurations, along with command, a medium mortar, and a T-34/85.  According to the inter-tubes, these are relatively old sculpts in the range, and get a bad rap compared to some of the newer BA kits, but I was fairly impressed.  There's plenty of options, the kits are flexible, and a modicum of patience and low-grade kit-bashing allows for a fair bit of character in posing, etc.  

Although SMGs seem to have been toned down a little, even a small squad of veterans armed with them are murderous at close range.

I put together a 500 point list, and powered through block-painting and washing them in time for a first game against the afore-mentioned buddy.  He took the win, primarily through sound forethought in where he brought in his reserves (although I maintain having my veteran SMG squad FUBAR two turns in a row played a factor!), but it was a ripper of a game, and I've been going back through the Soviets to pick out highlights etc.  While the figures are reasonably details - belt buckles and pockets all accounted for, they are relatively simple, and it's been a pleasure to knock them out.

From the test game

I'm hoping the game gets some traction beyond the initial buy-in.  While f2f gaming for me is probably coming to a close for a bit, there's some hope in the prospect of the local delta wave burning out as our vax rates climb.  In the meantime, I can start to think about expanding the force.  The T-34 is an obvious option, but the /85 is limited to the latter stages of the war, and tanks in BA are pretty expensive - it's going to make up about a quarter of a thousand point force.  There's also some specialized units, like artillery observers, that I'm keen to add, and Christmas might provide the opportunity for a matching German force - at which point, dragooning the Cub into a game should be pretty easy.

AT Rifle.  Not great at killing tanks, but can pin most, and is great for half-tracks, guns, etc.

In other news, I continue to pick away at my ECW pile, expanding some of the existing units to Pike and Shotte sizes.  6mm seems to be on a break for me, right now.  I've had a unit of cuirassier primed and ready for months, but haven't felt the urge, and I've finally learned not to "push" hobby stuff.  I might turn to some of the Vikings after that, or maybe some of the Bloody Miniatures ECW figs I pick up a little while back. They're not a great fit for the Scots, but I can maybe either convert them, or find a role for them in the Royalist force.

FMB

Not actually dead

Hi all,

Despite evidence to the contrary, I am not actually dead.  For a variety of reasons, ranging from being crazy busy, to loss of mojo, to flat-out apathy, I've not updated in some time - really since Christmas, as the Cub has taken to reminding me.  While geek activity has been somewhat curtailed, it's not been entirely absent, so in a bid to get the juices flowing, I figured (and placate the aforementioned Cub), I figured I'd do a catch-up post.

There's a few things I should hit from the outset, including a big "thank-you" to Ray for the peltasts I won in a give-away he ran some time ago.  They'll be painted up anon and find their way into the hoplite morph army I've been picking at for the last few years.  Thanks, Ray!

In gaming terms, most of my activity has been with the Cub.  This has mostly focused on  Bolt Action and 40k - for the latter, I suspect his stock of painted stuff now exceeds my own ;)

I've also managed to get out to the local GW, sometimes with the Cub, sometimes solo, when they have big / apocalypse games.  We're generally hideously outgunned at these events (there's a lot of Forgeworld shenanigans ;), but the eye candy is top notch.





Finally, I've fallen down the rabbit hole of MMORPGs a bit of late, having been playing both the online Star Wars (to which Cub has also taken a shine) and LotR games.  I find even when my energy is too low to paint (or at least enjoy it), I can still get something out of them.

That said, the other weekend, the local GW had themselves a birthday bash, and Cub and went.  Got in some games, did a little speed painting, and it seems to have fired me up a little.  We'll see if I can get back in the groove, and hopefully start knocking out some models.

TMtW

Bolt Tomahawks

Hi all,

So, been a busy week or two in Monkeyland.  We had houseguests for a few days, as my sister and brother in law, and my youngest nephew, came to visit.  It was great to see them, as it's been months since we've last seen them (on our trip to Ontario in the summer).  While here, Cub talked his cousin (a.k.a. Hammer) into trying a game of Bolt Action.  I think we may have another convert ;)

The larger red dice indicate objective buildings.

The game was objective based, with Cub's Americans looking to seize a couple of buildings from the Soviet defenders (piloted by Hammer, and consigliered by moi).

Cub wanted to break in some new tanks we'd picked up (thanks, Kyle!), and we ended up running some fairly unconventional forces, with each side fielding 200 points of infantry plus a couple tanks.  As defender, Hammer set up his units in the buildings where they could cover each other and a range of firing arcs, and waited for the American attack.

Soviet Sherman takes up an overwatch position, and searches for prey.

Early turns saw the initial American assault wave, and our reinforcements, come on the table, including the "Soviet" sherman, which took up a hull-down position behind one of the buildings.  Cub countered with his own tanks, and a first wave of infantry (plus his air observer).  The observer called in an air strike on it's earliest opportunity, but the call went unanswered for several turns.  He also jammed his tanks forward fairly aggressively (maybe a hold-over from his experiences with a Redeemer in 40k?), but in Bolt Action, that mostly gave Hammer some nice shots on their side armour.

American tanks charge in.

It took a couple of turns, but Cub's air strike eventually came in, and did its usual amount of insane damage.  By this point, however, the game was getting close to it's final turns, and the Americans still hadn't been able to mount a real attack on the objective buildings.

Air strikes thinned out the table a little.

In the end, even though the Yanks tore up the Soviets a fair bit, they couldn't take the buildings, and the game went to Hammer.  He seemed to have fun, as did the Cub, so who knows, maybe we've recruited another mini gamer?

PTRD, aka, the other Russian sniper unit.

In other news, I finally got around to finishing up the Mass. militia I've mentioned, on and off, for the last year or so.

Second half of the unit, plus officer.

This gives me a full unit of the militia, which is good, because they're one of the primary outfits operating on the British side in the Acadian campaign.

The drummer's a conceit, I admit, but still . . . 

They're not as crisp as some of the other work I've done in the scale, but honestly, I'm happy just to have them finished.  I have no idea why they were so difficult to muster motivation for, but now that they're finished, I'm actually quite jazzed to do something else on the project.

They're actually skirmishing Brit line, but the uniform is close enough.

The officer, I think, turned out reasonably well.

This guys gets all the fun secondary objectives.

With this lot done, I'll likely do either some Rangers (Gorham's were active throughout the region) or civilians, along with terrain - I want to dress up the 4Ground buildings, and a few weeks back, finally picked up some bigger resin buildings from Blue Moon (via last year's Blogger Secret Santa - thanks!), so I'd like to get them sorted for the table as well.

FMB

Progress-ish

Hi,

The last couple of weeks has seen lots of prep work, a little bit of test painting, and a quick BA game with the Cub, all in the midst of end-of-term shenanigans and a visit from my in-laws (sister, brother, and their youngest) which has produced much joyful turmoil in Monkeyland.

I came home from work to find the Cub had set up a table.  I suggested we redo it with a drop cloth, but he insisted )

I managed to base and prime the "normal" Khorne figures from the AoS starter set (i.e., not the big base lord or khorgorath), and even got some work in on a test figure.  Lots of skin on the Bloodreavers, which will be an interesting change, as lately most of the skin I've been painting has been green ;)

Russians approach the village.  Goal was to get my units across and off the opposite table edge.

I also committed (via a painting challenge) to finish up a unit of Massachusetts militia that have been staring guiltily at me from the the Shelf of Despair since back in January.  Dear god, how time flies.  I didn't realize it's been that long since I've done any substantive work on the Acadian stuff.  That said, the challenge seems to be doing the trick, and visitors notwithstanding, I should have the figs finished in plenty of time.

T-34 spots a Churchill on the hill crest.

The combination of painting the militia, some reading, and the terrain I've either picked up (trees) or been working on (buildings) has my historical urges on the rise.  Once the militia are out of the way, I might turn my hand to some other Acadian figs (redcoats, civvies?  converted Mikmak?). or even further afield.

Not super rigorous history, but a fun read, and unusual in that it tries to tell the story from the perspective of the "grassroots" Acadians.  Grabbed it from the library, but going to try and pick up a copy.

My thoughts have been turning of late to the AB Russians I picked up a while back, but never painted.  While I think Lasalle is off the table now, some kind of flexible basing system that would allow me to play a range of games would be nice, and the figs are too lovely to have sit in the Drawers of Shame.  I had planned out a Russian OB for a Black Powder army (based, on a friend's suggestion, on the Battle of Priesten, a delaying action fought just prior to the battle of Kulm).  The plan's still good, and lets me work in plenty of flags and command  / fun figs, so I might work from that.  I can see the Russians emerging as a dark of winter project, but knowing my inclinations, we'll see.

Conscripts, I mean, heroic People's volunteers, experience pinning.

The more experienced infantry takes shelter in the buildings, while the T-34 provides covering fire.

The new 4Ground buildings in action.

The game against Cub was fun - we used tanks for the first time.  While his Churchill proved too tough a nut to crack (and once again, the Yanks made good use of their air support), the brave defenders of the People's Army were able to squeak out a win.

Air strike takes out the T-34, but not before clearing most of the infantry opposition, and pinning the Churchill into near ineffectiveness.

A medley

Hi,

Got in some kitchen table action with the Cub (and even a little assistance from Puddin') this weekend.  For starters, we put together the first of some 4Ground 15mm buildings I picked up prior to leaving Toronto two summers ago, along with a small bridge.  I grabbed them as part of the planned Acadia project, but we started to put them together because he's showing interest in WWII and Bolt Action.

Kits go together quite well, and once you've done one, are basically intuitive.

Having finished the one, I was promptly possessed by the spirit of geek, and finished up most of the rest the same evening, to go with the house and bridge.

I would like to figure out how to add railings.

 I figure in the grand scheme of things, a wood cabin is a wood cabin, so they're standing in as Mittleuropan village dwellings for our Bolt Action games, the first of which took place this afternoon.

Russian conscripts force the river.  The more seasoned troops are happy to let the new boys go first.

The Cub is using Americans, a mix of plastic Wargames Factory figs he scored at Hold the Line a while ago, plus some U.S. paratroops I picked up back in the day after binge-watching Band of Brothers once too often.  We played 200 points, to keep it simple for learning rules, but the Cub did splurge on a forward air observer, to what proved to be gruesome effect.

Both sides started off the table, but had our forces in play by the end of the second turn.  Cub set up a firing line, and made good use of the American infantry's mobility.

Pins start to stack up on the Yanks.

Cub wanted to use the bridge we'd done, so he scammed some blue paper from the Big Bin of Random Craft Junk, and tore it into strips.  Instant river.  Adaptable, that boy.

Reinforcements come across to help.  In the foreground, a PTRD team takes aim.

Pivotal moment in the game came when Cub called in his two (damn 'Murcans!) air strikes, which gutted one, and completely destroyed another, unit.  That plus his uncanny ability to draw red dice in an uninterrupted streak let to an upset win by the rookie side.

The 5 pins are a consquence of the air strike that ripped the conscripts a new one.  You'll also note I'm down to one unit of regular troops.  Thanks, American special rules!

The real clincher was when a squad of my infantry assaulted his officer, out in front of his troops, and not only whiffed, but took a casualty in return, and were wiped out.

The assault that couldn't go wrong, but did.

Could I roll a 4?  No, no I could not ;)

He was so chuffed with his win, he promptly sat down to paint up some of his boys.  He's decided to go with "desert camo", and for a first attempt at 15mm, is doing pretty well.  I'm thinking about picking up some kind of kid's history of the North Africa campaign for him - and would be delighted with any suggestions.

Desert 'Murcans.  Going to suggest Cub hit them with a wash.

Although Puddin' had been helping with drawing order dice, she was feeling a bit left out, so we followed up BA with a few games of Animal upon Animal, which I'd recommend to you with little ones (Puddin' is a precocious 4), and even squeaked in a round of Star Realms.  We picked up both games at Halcon a few weeks back, and they're proving to be quite popular.

FMB

Operation Quarterback

Hi,

Thanks to the fact that I have a most estimable and excellent Beloved, I got myself down to the Dueling Grounds yesterday for a highly unusual whole day of weekend gaming.  The club was running a special event, Operation Quarterback a series of linked Bolt Action games set in the period shortly after D-Day.  There were three games over the course of the day; I was able to stay for the first two, but had to miss the third.

The gist of the day was an allied attack on a German-held town.  The initial games focused on the allies securing the approaches, with subsequent games following depending on the initial outcome.  I was running a American force for the day, with the figures kindly lent to me by Watts, who also organized the day; many thanks for the time and effort he put into the day.

My first game was against DaveB, and I was attacking against a fortified position.  There were two objectives on the table, one on each corner of DaveB's side, and I had to take both to win.  My force consisted of a couple squads of infantry, a medium machine gun, and a Sherman (75mm).  DaveB had an edge in infantry and support weapons, but had no armour.



Dave placed his fortifications (about a metric ton of barbed wire) in a dense web around the bridge.  This made it effectively impassible to my infantry, at least within the turn limits we were playing (the wire cost a turn to cross, just in itself, and placed an automatic pin on infantry that did cross).  My tank could have forced it, I suppose, but the combination of the medium howitzer, plus the chance of a mobile panzerfaust response, made me a little leery.  I figured my best bet would be to concentrate on the right, try to force the wall with support, and outflank his position with one of my infantry squads.  Then I could sweep back across, and hopefully take the second objective.

I began by moving on table in the first turn, putting my MMG in the farmhouse to provide covering fire, and bringing up the Sherman to assume a fire-support position.  While the 76mm Sherman is a dedicated anti-tank platform, in Bolt Action, the 75mm is an infantry support tank; it can fire both AT and HE shells.  With no opposing armour on the table, I'd be using plenty of the latter.



The first few turns saw DaveB and I exchange some fire.  I did my best to keep my advancing infantry squad in cover, and to provide fire support.  Every hit on an enemy unit causes pins, and even if you don't get casualties, pins can both limit activation opportunities (units with pins must test to activate) and interferes with combat effectiveness (pins are negative modifiers to shooting).  My main priority at this point was to shut down the panzerfaust team Dave had brought up on my right.  As long as it was in play, my tank couldn't get too close to the German position, and I needed the firing angles it was blocking off.



I eventually managed to clear out the 'faust (I think it was a barrage of MG fire from the tank itself), and then pushed forward.  The next problem I'd have would be to force the wall.  DaveB had a squad in the building on the other side, one in the woods, and could pour in fire from my left as well.  While my troops could take cover from the wall itself, they'd be getting hit from all sides.  What I hoped to do was get them close enough to put effective fire on the squad in the woods, and maybe even draw out the "house troops".  DaveB had, intelligently, put the "woods squad" on ambush to counter my outflank manouvre, but if I could get some pins on them, their ambush could be compromised.



It actually worked out better than I'd hoped.  I moved my infantry up, and they hunkered down behind the rock wall.  As far as the howitzer was concerned, they were in a sweet spot; too close for a barrage, but at the edge of direct fire range.  That, coupled with the hard cover of the wall itself, gave them solid protection from the howitzer, plus enough protection that DaveB moved the squad in the house out, presumably to maximize his shots (the trade-off of taking cover in buildings is that there are limited fields of fire, and not all of his guys could get shots on my squad).



While I did take some casualties and pins, I also managed to put some on the squad in the woods, and my tank got in a good shot with an HE shell, that tore up the German defenders even more.



On my next turn, I brought in my outflanking squad (some scenarios allow for units placed in delayed reserves to deploy further up the table; a player nominates a table edge, left or right, and then can bring them in a distance up the table determined by how many turns have elapsed).  They weathered ambush fire from the remnants of DaveB's defenders, and their counter fire wiped out the German squad.  I now had one of the objectives in hand.



The problem was, I'd taken too long to do it.  It was now either turn 5 or 6 (can't remember), we had at most 2 turns to play, I was down to one infantry squad (the unit at the rock wall eventually broke and ran under fire).  Even though I'd torn the core of DaveB's defenders apart (he was down to the howitzer, an MMG team, and dregs), I wasn't going to make it all the way across the table in time.



The game ended with each of us in possession of an objective, but neither of us in a position to take the other.  Overall, the allies had middling success, with a win, my tie, and two losses.



Game 2 saw me starting the game trying to figure out how to deal with this:



That's a nice, chunky squad of veteran german infantry, entrenched inside a building, with a medic, and friends on the way.  At the time, I didn't think much of my chances, but in retrospect, if not for one serious mis-judgement, and one bit of bad luck, I probably stood a decent chance.

The scenario in question had the defender place 2 units close to the centre-table objective, while the attacker can deploy anywhere more than 18 inches away.  I couldn't bring my tank this time, as I was attacking one of the town sectors, and we evidently hadn't secured the necessary access zones (that tank would have made a hell of a difference to the game), so I brought more support weapons instead; another MMG, a light mortar, and two bazooka teams.



I set up to get as many angles of fire on the target building as possible.  The plan was to use the cover of the buildings to move up to assault range with one infantry squad and the bazookas, and then whittle down the defenders until an assault seemed viable.  In the meantime, I put my other infantry squad on the far side of the table, in a bid to slow up any reinforcements that my opponent (Vonplutz) would bring on.



That last bit was probably a good idea, but in retrospect, putting them so close to VP's board edge that he'd be able to move on-table and fire at them on his first turn was a mistake.  Another mistake was to then have my torn up, understrength squad try to assault the unit that fired on them.  Half-strength regular american squad vs. full-strength veteran German squad with assault weapons is not a winning proposition, and I was down half my infantry by the bottom of turn one.  Not my best move ever.

I spent the next several turns pouring fire into the target building, stacking up pins as I did, while I moved up my remaining infantry.  VP was able to get some good firing angles of his own, and did some damage of his own, but by turn 4 or 5, I had a decent shot.  I still had five guys left in my infantry squad, and his defending unit was at 8 pins; effectively out of the game, and likely to auto-break after another round or two of firing.  I figured I'd assault across the street, clear the medic out of the first floor, and then finish off the unit upstairs with fire support.



I knew that my guys would take some fire in the assault from VP's supporting units, but basically, I only needed a couple of them to make it.  They could take the first floor, I'd clear the second with fire, I'd move up, and unless things got really hairy, I'd end up at least contesting it by game's end.  My guys dashed across the street, and took fire from MMG Vonplutz had covering the alley. 5 shots.  5 hits.  5 kills.

My poor guys never made it across the street.  I still had a shot though.  I managed to clear the first floor of the building (taking out the medic with a bazooka shot, no less), and moved one of my bazooka teams into the building, contesting it.  I then completely whiffed my attempts to put a last pin on the defending unit, VP moved up one of his essentially undamaged infantry units, assaulted, and my bazooka team went down in hand-to-hand.

*sigh*  Like I said, if I hadn't thrown away an entire squad of infantry, and if not for that bad break on the alley charge, I probably had a decent shot.  What I really took away from the day is the extent to which Bolt Action really is an infantry game.  Support weapons and armour are useful, absolutely, but the more infantry you can pack into a list, the more resilience and options you've got.

I had to leave at that point, and missed the last round of the mini-campaign, but from what I've heard, it was the Axis who won the day.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, and due to the fact that we played on the same day as the Dueling Ground's anniversary sale, a fair number of us picked up stuff for North Africa.  I'll likely be working on desert americans in the new year - just need to get my hands on a Grant / Lee in 15mm.

I figured I'd show some pics of the other games from the day as a closer.  Many thanks, again, to Watts for both organizing and for loaning me a non-Soviet force to play.  It was a terrific day.





FMB