Bolt action armoured medley

I have been assembling two Bolt Action forces now for a few months, both US and German, and have greatly enjoyed assembling and painting their plastic vehicle kits. 

This first one is the German StuH 42, assault howitzer. A birthday present from my family 😀. 

Fitted with a casement mounted medium howitzer, it can really hurt enemy infantry. 

But it's not terribly good against enemy armour as the HE round doesn't have the greatest penetration, but can at least pin down the armour.

Next up is the Hetzer. A tank hunter fitted with a heavy AT gun. 

It does however have weak side armour so you really need to watch it's flanks.

It also has remotely operated MG with 360• field of fire. 

Next up is the Hanomag. I've done this one before but this time have toned down the decals with a brown wash as Millsy suggested.

An armoured personnel carrier, good for getting your troops into the table with a degree of protection from small arms fire. 

Capable of carrying 12 men and fitted with an MG for supporting fire. But you need some in it as passengers to fire. 

Next up is Panzer IV H. Again shown before, and again decals toned down. 

Fitted with a heavy antitank gun and two machine guns, it can hurt enemy armour, and infantry. 

Schurzen side armour gives some protection against bazookas to its flanks. 

The Puma is up next. An armoured reconnaissance vehicle, fitted with a medium AT Gun and MG. 

Equipped with dual steering positions it can reverse as quickly as it advances making it get out of trouble fast.

But that big gun tempts you to be bold with it so you have to remember it's not armoured like a tank! 

All the German armoured arrayed below.

Next up, the yanks...

First up the M10 tank destroyer. Fitted with a heavy AT gun, it can deal to enemy panzers very well. 

It also has a pintel mounted HMG, so can hurt infantry too. 

But it is lghtly armoured for a tank and is open topped so small arms fire can pin it.

Next one of my faves, the M3 half track. 

Bristling with MGs it can spit out fire from its passengers.

An armoured personnel carrier capable of carrying 12 guys. 

I can't help thinking of Kelly's Heroes when I see it. 😀

An HMG covers the front fire arc.

Next, the classic M4 Sherman tank. 

A medium AT gun with a nifty HE rule, and two MGs and an HMG. It can really bring the hurt to enemy infantry.

But it's prone to catching fire if hit... Leading to the nickname ' Ronson' after the lighter... It always lights first time...

For some yank armoured recce  we have the M8 armoured car.

A fast wheeled reconnaissance vehicle fitted with a light AT gun, MG and pintel HMG ... They stick 50cals on everything!

And finally all the tank armour arrayed.

I have been steadily working on the infantry side of these forces and will detail these in future posts. 

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying the game.

WIP - Another farmhouse for Bolt Action

Been breaking out the styrofoam again and have another building on the go. A little more ambitious this time, a two story farmhouse, with two seperate levels and removable roof. 

 

Balsa for floors, matchsticks for windows, card for roof. Just need to card shingle the roof now and then on with painting. A door and chimney pot will complete the build. 

Will post more when finished. 

It's WWII Jim, but not as you know it...

Ste kindly invited myself and fellow POM migrant, Ashley, round to his mountain top pad, for a demo game of Bolt Action.

I finally arrived, having negotiated the uphill slalom course to reach his top of the world eerie, having taken the last section on foot, and despite missing my cramp-ons, did successfully attain the summit!

NZ never ceases to amaze me, and with land at premium prices to be near the 'Big Smoke', they build houses anywhere they can, even if they could be compared to the north face of the Eiger!

But the view from the top was very impressive, and well worth the effort.

Back to matters at hand, and after introductions and good bit of chat we got on with the game.

Ste had prepared a simple skirmish to give me and Ashley an easy run through of the game, on a 4 x 4 board.

Ashley took the Krauts with a Leutnant, 2 Infantry platoons or Zugs, a medium Mortar team with observer and a MG42 team.

I got the Brits who had an Officer commanding, 3 infantry platoons and an artillery spotter for off table supporting fire.

We each had an objective on our own side of the board, which we had to defend whilst attempting to capture the enemy one.

All platoons started off table and had to be brought on.

Here's the game after first couple of units move on, I am Brits from the right side.

Ashley had got a platoon up against the church wall, and pinned my platoon opposing them in the corn for several turns. I started an end around with a flanking platoon...

As the game progressed Ashley got his MG42 set up on the road, Mortar behind the Church and eventually the second platoon behind the church to reinforce the position.

I managed to get my 3rd platoon up the right flank of the corn field to support the pinned platoon. But the ace up my sleeve was the artillery observer, who called in fire, which when it arrived killed the MG42, and pinned just about all of the Krauts...

This opened the way for me to move up and stick it to 'em... they don't like it up 'em Sir!

I was successful at dislodging and destroying the platoon on the church wall as my pincer move closed in, and managed to pressure the last defending German platoon, thus getting ready for the finally assault on the objective...

But at the crucial moment on the last turn with it all set up, my dice turned to custard, and my assault was repulsed.

We called it there a draw.

I was pleased to have pressured the kraut position and kept the heat off my own.

The game play was indeed interesting, there were similarities to several games, from different aspects... it did feel a little like "WWII-40k", but then the order mechanism broke up the play from the typical IGOUGO mechanism which I liked.

The pinning mechanism was certainly interesting and seemed to be a primary part of the game, and how you managed or mitigated its effect. Assaults were very bloody affairs and resolved quickly with no messing about!

I did feel there was a lot of building up, for a final flurry of dice to decide the matter, and that final dice round I felt a tad frustrated when I exhibited my classic "Bowman-wargaming-dice-luck" skills when it mattered most... I was left wondering whether the assault phase should be better to go 'back and forth a bit' more reminiscent of FoW perhaps?

I'll still happily play it again, and see what I get from a second experience. Not sure whether I will be diving in with both feet, as I have admittedly tried to narrow my wargaming interests, rather than widen them adding another game to the list of things to buy and paint. I wasn't over awed by the figures but there are may ranges to choose from, from what I understand, but I did like the 28mm scale tanks, that Ste had on the side, though we didn't get to use.... (reminiscent of my youth building Airfix tanks...)

I was wary of the fact that this may eventually head towards some 40K-Armageddon induced arms race to buy, build and paint as many tanks as you can, and have then lined up track to track along your board edge...

But Ste assures me game play remains enjoyable enough, without getting silly, if you kept it primarily an infantry game, with the odd bit of tank support...

I'll certainly give it another whirl, and thank Ste for hosting and Ashley for being a fun opponent to play against.

I would have stopped to chat over the game afterwards, as is the wargamers norm, but
I had to leg it promptly home then however, as I had long drive home and didn't fancy turning into a pumpkin half way up the highway... glass slippers and all that ;-)

-----o0o-----

Having experienced WWII in 28mm, it was time, the following day, to get back to the period in a scale I am far more familiar with, and face my Kryptonite!

Yes, I played Flames of War again!

ValleyCon is just around the corner, and is set for 1500points in MidWar. A last minute decision by Bryan had him deciding to enter!

Bryan hasn't played in probably over a year, much like myself, and we both had probably forgotten half the rules. But I offered to host a game for him to give him a practice refresher before being dropped in the deep end of the two day tournament.

Bryan was running German grenadiers, from Tunisia, with HQ + Mortars, 2 infantry platoons, Pak38s, LeIG7.5cms, LeFH105mms, a pair of StuGs, and some halftrack AAA, and Stuka.

I don't have much Allied stuff, so just ran a Canadian Sherman Company, with some UCs and a Kittyhawk.

Bryan wanted to try out Breakthrough, so we played that mission.

Here's the game after first couple of turns...

I started in top right corner heading for bottom left (telegraph pole markers). I got a reasonably good start and in first turn ran over the leading Gren platoon, as Bryan hadn't got any AT support near them, and they didn't have any integral AT weapons.

Then things start to go pear shaped... the IGs and Pak38s opened up and I lost a Sherman. Here's where things went wrong... instead of avoiding the guns and skirting the terrain, I decided to engage the AT guns , thinking, they'd fired, would be saving on 5+ and I had semi-indirect fire, so would have a heap of shots, and re-roll misses... I just needed to get some 6's... Shortly after, and 14 dice rolls later, I was looking at my dice, just to check there were actually 6's on them somewhere...

Cut a long story short, I pressed on and eventually sorted out the IGs with the carriers and CO. But not before I'd lost a platoon of Shermans.

My reserve Sherman platoon came on, and went straight for the un-dug in grens who had just reached it, hoping to hose them off... but my dice were crap as usual and then I also realised I had just missed a chance to deal with the StuGs... things went from bad to worse...

Air support for both of us did little all game, but had the potential to be annoying...

I kept trying though, and didn't give in, and even managed to kill the kraut CO, the mortars, the IGs and a German Gren platoon and managed a do or die, last turn assault on the objective, with the CO and 2 Shermans, but my dice still were not to be and I was beaten off, with Bryan holding on for the win, Bryan taking it 4-3.

By end of the game I had lost just about everything in my force, with just the CO left... who will shortly be attending a court martial and firing squad for ineptitude...

Not too bad to get back to the game. I quickly got the hang of the rules again, despite a year long gap.

I displayed my usual tactical flare, or lack of (hindsight is great!), and marvelled at my on going "Bowman-wargaming-dice-luck" ...

I think Bryan got something out of the game, learned or remembered a few things, and gave him food for thought on list build options and things to consider for his force, and how to play them in the missions ahead for the tournament.

I half pondered attending the tournie myself, but quickly discounted the idea... that way, madness lies...

Kerr and King - European Mansion

I finally managed to finish off the last of my Kerr and King buildings, their large mansion style house.

I set it in some grounds as appropriate with some of the new bottle brush trees I made and had a quick game to myself :-)

Stately home

Lift off roof and lift out top floor so troops can be placed inside as required. And as before its 15mm scale.

Tradesmans entrance, sorry about the panzer parking lot!

The usual greenstuff and dremelling required before painting, but they come up well.

Its was  good game too, I won for change, but then again, I was playing , myself! ;-)

WWII - 28mm temptation... Bolt Action!

Warlord Games, who have released the great series of mass battle period wargames rules; Hail Caesar, Pike and Shotte and Black Powder, have been steadily releasing 28mm goodies for WWII over sometime now...

And now it appears a set of rules are about to surface..., if they havent already? Bolt Action, written I believe by a certain Mr Priestley.

This fine fellow, has certainly been known to turn out a decent set of rules or two... and I await some web feedback and reviews of these rules before diving in.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my Flames of War gaming recently but this would give another twist to the period, and allow me to paint up forces with my favorite scale figures...

A write up here from Rick.

Plus the plastic figures from Warlord, should I hope be a fair and dare I say affordable (Is the Missus listening?) price too!

WWII in 15mm Redux

I haven’t done much with 15mm WWII Flames of War stuff for many moons now. A little over a year ago or so, it looked like I would be relocating to Palmerston North, and as they have an active FoW community, I started gearing up. However the move didn’t come off and Kapiti looks to be my home for the foreseeable... I wish there were more active Kapiti based FoW players to hook up with…
Still, WWII is never really far from my thoughts, as it always gets so much airtime on SKY’s History Channel, which is just about the only TV I bother to sit down and watch.

Also, the occasional trip to the video rental store has me peering through the WAR section, at the old war movies I remember watching as a kid in the 70s & 80s. Several old ‘classics’ that were so exciting way back then, and would always have me scrambling to get my airfix plastic toy soldiers out to play with…

And yet, re-watching them now as an adult with a more critical eye, often leaves me very disappointed. The main reasons usually being cheesy and wooden ‘acting’, ridiculous Holywood ‘tactics’; – ah look there’s as German machine-gun nest over there, lets just run towards it over open ground without firing…and get mown down. Or perhaps I should stay where I am, but instead of staying down, I’ll stand up to shoot… oh damn I got shot…

The main disappointment though is the tanks used in the movies. What looked great to a young eye, that didn’t know any better, now really annoys me to see what I typically think are M60s or other unsuitable (wrong period) main battle tanks painted up to try and disguise the fact that they are actually completely the wrong tank.

Last couple of movies I hired were ‘The Bridge at Remagen’, which was OK apart from the US tanks used, and ‘Anzio’ – gods that was dire… I gave up watching halfway through…

There are some good classics out there though that at least try and look right, a family favourite here is Kelly’s Heroes, though its not your typical war movie, but at least they had Shermans and what looked like Tiger tanks (though I have since learnt were mock ups on I believe a T34 chassis).

’Saving Private Ryan’ goes without saying and of course Band of Brothers Series, and presumably ‘The Pacific’ though I have not seen this as yet, and I am more interested in the European theatre anyway.

‘A Bridge too Far’ wasn’t too bad either though not sure about the German tanks used. ‘Cross of Iron’ was pretty good too and was one of the first war movies I saw that you actually got to see what looked like ‘real bullet hits and blood effects’. I like ‘Patton’ for the way George C Scott takes the role, but again the wrong German tanks…

I’d welcome your thoughts [comments below] on other WWII movies for their accurate depictions, or just generally what you thought of them.

So with this once again renewed period interest, I decided to peruse the FoW stuff at Maelstromgames where I get most of games stuff from, only to find they are no longer stocking the range.

They are now stocking ranges called ‘Forged in Battle’ which appear to be traditional white metal based, and also the ‘Plastic Soldier Company’ is producing a range in hard plastics. Both in 15mm so direct competition for Battlefronts Flames of War.

I have stumbled across some blog posts on the web featuring some of these products and wondered at your opinions on these ranges in terms of compatibility with Battlefronts products and importantly, cost. I am especially keen to hear from NZ based players as presumably the Battlefront products are readily available on these shores still, yet the others would have to be shipped in.

Again I welcome your comments and opinions.

Finally, the last issue I have with 15mm FoW, is terrain. Nearly all my terrain is scaled for 28mm, though hills are fairly generic. What recommendations are there out there for 15mm WWII buildings - resin casts presumably? Where is best place and price to source, especially for here in NZ.
Thanks in advance.

Regards
Scott

German StuG G Platoon - Flames of War

To add some armour support to my Flames of War FestungsKompanie (Fortress Company), I have added a StuG G platoon, to represent elements of Kampfgruppe Meyer, which was the mobile reserve of 352 InfanterieDivision, defending the Normandy Beaches.

To form this formation I will be using them as two platoons; one of 2 StuGs, the other of 3.

The StuGs have the regular StuK 40 gun, and are equipped with Schurzen armour plates to their sides, which help protect the side of the vehicle from light anti-tanks weapons.

I have only added the black crosses to the platoon and have left off other insignia, as this allows them a greater flexibility in future uses. I have mounted the crosses on the hull of the tank, as I was given a tip from a poster to the FoW forum who believed they were never added to the schurzen. I did several google image searches of StuGs and have not found one of a real tank which disputes this theory!

The StuG or Sturmgeschütz to give it, its full name, was classed as an assault gun and also a tank destroyer, helping infantry to advance and knocking out enemy armour it encountered. Its low silhouette, also made it perfect for concealing in terrain and lying in wait in ambush.

It was probably Germany's most produced armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) of the war with around 7500 produced, and saw action in most theatres.

Here's my StuG's:

British Armoured Platoon - Sherman tanks and Firefly VC

I recently bought the Flames of War, Late War British Guards Armoured Sherman platoon boxed set, to give my commando troop a little armoured support.

They were assembled with Araldite 2 part epoxy glue, undercoated black with GW spray, then sprayed with Battlefront's Late War British armoured spray paint. After this all the detailing of stowage and tracks etc. was painted.

Then came the tricky bit - the decals. How to apply them best, and exactly where!?

The bit of "how" was not so difficult; I painted the areas where decals were to go with Humbrol decal fix, and let this dry. Then added decals (after trimming them with scalpel hobby knife) by water-slide method. Then applied FOW/Vallejo decal softener, allowed to dry and then applied another layer of decal fix. Then tanks were varnished in Polyurethane gloss, and finally Vallejo matt-varnish.

Oh, I also glued in the rare-earth magnets to hold the turrets safely in place. These were a bit fiddly and it was tricky getting them right way up. Get them the wrong way round and they repel, not attract!

The interesting bit was learning where to put all the decals.

The boxed set pictures nicely showed the places where the Guards Division symbol, white eye on a blue shield, and AoS or Arms of Service number, the 53, denoting Armoured, went.

After several explorations through the helpful files on the FoW website, and asking many questions to the knowledgeable forum folks, I managed to work out that the allied star marking went on rear engine deck, which I was fairly sure of anyway.

Next came the tactical signs (tacsigns) These are often depicted as various coloured hollow shapes; triangles, diamonds, squares or circles. These normally go on the sides of the turret. However the Guards followed the convention of applying these markings to the hull sides. Also they normally filled in the hollow shape with black, and added a numeral to it. So I had figured out where to put the black squares, with blue edging.

Lastly I added the WD or war department markings; a white number, preceded by a "T" (for tank). I had often seen these on the sides of tanks in pictures, but some confusion occurred here, as one forum poster suggested this may have been a radio call sign that may be added to rear of turret. So I ended up putting one on side of hull and one on rear of turret. At least that way I know which turret goes with which tank and I don't get any magnet repulsions!

So here we have the platoon:








And here's a very handy reference from the FoW website.

The Guards Armoured division took part in may battles through Normandy and onwards, perhaps most famously portrayed in the movie "A bridge too far", with Michael Caine, as Vandeleur, leading the tanks of XXX Corps as the "garden" part of Operation Market Garden.

A good reference is here, again on the FoW site:

Guards Armoured

FestungsKompanie

I have long had an interest in WWII. This was probably brought about by growing up as a child in the 70's, watching war movies on TV and playing with air-fix toy soldiers. My father also has an interest in the period and he most likely influenced me in this too. He was born in '41, so has few recollections of the war, but recalls looking up in the sky as a child and seeing aircraft flying over head.
During his working career he served as a fireman in the north east of England, and told me tales of a colleague the fireman nicknamed "the vicar", as he was an older chap than they, had a round bald head, and always wore the old grandad style shirts with the straight round collar, much like a vicars dog-collar, hence the nickname.
"The Vicar" served in the war as a tank crewman in Normandy, and he told the firemen tales of going up against the Jerry panzers. These tales my father passed on to me.

One such mentioned how the tank he was in, suffered a hit from the side, to the front of the tank. They were able to continue though, and when they later inspected the tank, they found that the shot had torn off both the front towing shackles.

Another such tale recounted how they were forced at one time to take shelter from a bombardment, under their tank. But despite being sheltered under the tank, they found that they still had to maintain a "press-up position", to avoid being hit by shrapnel fragments flying under the tank!

All stirring stuff to a young mind!

But other than playing toy soldiers as most kids too, this never really evolved into a war-game with rules as such, and having become a war-gamer in later years, the period still did not attract me as by then I had been swayed by other influences, including Tolkien.

However a couple of years ago, having come across the Flames of War (FOW) war-games rules by Battlefront, here in New Zealand, I felt I should give it a go as it seemed to be a game lots of folks were playing, and since it was made locally, I should support it, which contrasts with most other miniatures which seem to be made in the UK or USA.

Having made my decision, to play the game, I decided to go with a British commando force, which would be small and tough (which would keep the cost down of assembling a new army to see how it went) and they'd be elite troops so hopefully quite effective.

I assembled a small force of these, and managed a couple of games with local folks, but again this fizzled out, and other periods swayed my attention.

Now much later, my own young son, Christopher now six and half years, has "found" WWII. In part from the computer game Axis and Allies, but also from shows such as Band of Brothers, movies like Kelly's Heroes, and of course all the WWII documentaries on SKY's History channel.

So I decided to look at gaming WWII again, but this time in house with my son. So out came the commandos, which got a dusting off, but then the realization that I'm going to have to get some troops to fight against them!

Having also decided that as a part of WWII, I was most interested in the North West European theatre from Normandy onwards, so Late War, in terms of FOW. The main reason being that by this time most of the armies would be using their best equipment, including the big Jerry tanks...

An inquiry to the FOW forum, elicited the answer that a FestungsKompanie boxed set would be a good way to go, to face off against the commandos and that's where I start here!

So we have a grenadier company, that would have manned the defenses of Normandy, Rommel's Atlantic Wall of Fortress Europe.

I am going theme this force, around the various German forces defending Normandy, which, with a few tweaks could include the 352 infantry division (confident veteran) at Omaha. The 352 also contained elements of the 726 infantry division also at Omaha. 716 infantry division will do for defending Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches against the British. Both 726 & 716 rated confident trained.
There are also the options to represent Kampfgruppe Meyer, the immediate mobile reserve in Normandy, featuring StuG G assault guns and Marder IIIM's.

Flames of War: 716 Briefing

In the meantime I have also made contact with folk over at the Upper Hutt club, who have several FOW players, and I have lined up some "training" games with them, which I am looking forward to, to help me better learn the game.

So far I have managed the Company Commander, 2iC, and panzershrek team, and two full platoons.




Company Commander, 2iC and Panzershrek team. Command teams have been upgraded to SMG panzerknacker.


First Platoon, all teams classed as MG team, (as the coastal units had been issued a greater number of machineguns than regular grenadiers), so that means ROF 3, per team. Again the command team has been upgraded to SMG Panzerknacker.
The platoon itself comprises a total of 30 men; 3 in the command team, then 3 sections of nine men, split into 4 and 5 man teams respectively as per the force list in FOW's Bloody Omaha supplement.


Second platoon, equipped as first.

I have also constructed a small house as a terrain piece made from regular cardboard, and thin card, and some sand textured paint.



The roof lifts off allowing placement of an infantry team inside...




5/5/10 update:
Added a few extras :-
3 Goliath Radio-controlled demolition charges, 3 sniper teams, 3 light mortar teams and the puppchen cannon.



Update 28/5/10:


These are the optional 8cm G42 Stummelwerfer mortars that can be part of company HQ.



Here's the two tank turret bunkers, and four open tobruk MG42 bunkers.



And here's the whole company, comprising HQ, snipers, HQ mortar and Anti-tank options, tank turret and open MG42 bunkers, and three grenadier platoons each with their Goliath. Backing the company up are my StuG G assault guns, which I have just finished painting (they still need their decals adding and varnishing done. I'll show these better in a late blog post).

I have a Mortar platoon, HMG platoon and PaK40 platoon to add to this force. I'd also like to add some anti-aircraft protection, artillery - maybe 10.5cm howitzers, and eventually some heavy tanks. This will then give me more options to field this force.