Albion Triumphant

So last evening I got my second game of Bolt Action in against Bob and his Germans.  We stretched it a bit and played a 1000 point game which let us try out some of the rules that we haven't used yet at 500 points such as Air Strikes, Mortars, Sniper Team, and there was even an infantry close combat.  The mission was maximum attrition with 10 units on his side and 11 units on my side.

The battlefield before deployment

I lost a total of 3 units which included both 5 man squads representing the two halves of Section C of 11th Platoon and the recce jeep.  Bob lost his light tank, 2 of 3 infantry squads, his Pioneer squad (with flamethrowers, thank goodness they didn't get used), his forward observer, his officer, and his mortar team.  In true blogger fashion, after taking the board set up picture, I got so involved in the game that I never took another picture.

We both had mixed luck on the dice.  I had a section of infantry with just one pin marker that didn't activate twice due to being unable to pass leadership of the modified 9.  Then there was the small assault squad that paused to rally and dropped 5 pin markers of the 6 they had picked up.  C Section has taken the most casualties in the two battles by far but they've taken out a light tank in each battle.  I think assaulting with anti-tank grenades is definitely the way to go, though as my opponents adapt to that, it's likely to change.

I'm a fan of mortars now.  The spotter making it a lot easier to hit was a big boost and they really could pile the pin markers on a unit.  My medium mortar kept his pioneers pinned in place while slowly whittling them away.  My sniper team was completely useless.  He took 4 shots and got a total of 1 hit which didn't wound.  I'm in no hurry to take this unit again.  The Medium Machine gun team did ok, but I think I like units that are more mobile.

2nd Lt. Marlowe again did very well leading his troops in battle.  At one point late in the game, 4 remaining members of a German squad assaulting him and his one remaining aide.  The first round of combat saw no injuries taken which lead to a second round where the aide and a German soldier were laid low.  The Lt. then finished off one more German soldier which scattered the other two.  An infantry assault being fought until it's decided is interesting, but I can see losing most of a squad because one man was killed to lose the combat could be annoying.  I'll have to see how it works more in the future.  A bit on the fence on this one.  Going back to the Lt. though, 2nd Lt. Vincent Marlowe was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry as I feel he earned a bit more than another mentioned in dispatches for his performance.  He's also being looked at for promotion to 1st Lt.

The ineffective sniper has been assigned field punishment and is busy digging new latrines and foxholes.  Hopefully he'll learn his lesson.

That's all for now and feel free to leave some input.  I like how my paras are evolving and as soon as I finish moving this month, I'll be ordering the last of my miniatures to get them put together properly and retire the borrowed Naval Infantry from my 40K range.

A Second Bolt Action Skirmish Upcoming

So this coming Friday, 2nd Lt Vincent Marlowe will once more be leading his 11th Platoon of C Company, 2nd Battalion of the 1st Airborne Regiment into battle.  After proving his abilities in the skirmish against the Wylsh rebels (for which he received the minor decoration of Mentioned in Dispatches), he's been intrusted with a larger force this time while probing the German lines.

Our Distinguished Hero, 2nd Lt Vincent Marlowe

2nd Lt Marlowe will  be accompanied once more by his two personal aides and runners with all three having Sten SMGs.  He'll have his A and B Sections led by Sgts Oliver Crowe and Andrew Jamieson, all armed with Enfield rifles and a Bren LMG.  C Section will be divided into two 5 man elements lead by Sgt Paul Halstead and Corporel Neville Barton, each armed fully with Sten SMGs and Anti-tank grenades.

Mortar Team with Spotter and the Machine Gun Team

1st Lt Willard Stowe will be present with two assistants as a Forward Observer for the Royal Artillery of the BEF.  Lt Andrew Candless of the RAF will also be along as a Forward Observation Officer with a pair of paratrooper bodyguards.  A Medium Mortar Team and Medium Machine Gun team will be attached from 2nd Platoon as well as a Sniper Team from the Intelligence Section of the Battalion.  Last of all a Recce Jeep will be sent along from the 3rd Platoon.

It needs a repaint to fit the army, but I love this model

I'll be using this nice model from Dust Tactics to represent my Air Support.  I really like the look of the model and will need to see about getting it into RAF colors at some point to continue supporting my Airborne troopers.
That's all for now and I'll see about getting a batrep up this weekend after the game on Friday.

Finally First Bolt Action Game

So I finally got a game of Bolt Action in.  This past Friday I managed to get up to Johnson City for a game.  My British Airborne took on Cheef's Quar who are impersonating Welshmen.  His Battle Report can be found here.

I took 2nd Battalion, C Company, 11th Platoon of the British Airborne with some attachments.  That meant 2nd Lt Vincent Marlowe with two runners all three with Sten Guns, A Section with Sgt Oliver Crowe and nine men armed with Enfield rifles and a Bren Gun, B Section with Sgt Andrew Jamieson and nine men armed the same as A Section, C Section with Sgt Paul Halstead with four men all with Sten Guns and Anti-Tank Grenades, 1st Lt. Willard Stowe, Forward Observation Officer, Royal Artillery, BEF with 2 assistants, all three with Sten Guns, and then a Recce Jeep with 2 Vickers Medium Machine Guns.

Paratroopers being veterans is definitely a plus.  I only failed one leadership test and had no problems keeping pin markers from getting too bad.  My opponent on the other hand with his inexperienced militia troops had a squad spend pretty much the entire game stuck unresponsive with 3 pin markers on them (caused by his own artillery no less).

Remembering that fortune favors the bold, I tried to go aggressively at him the entire game and had good luck with those tactics.  It also helped that Cheef not only took my artillery strike but his own as well on the same turn.  Assaulting his tank with the anti-tank grenades had WAY better luck than Bob had with his Bazooka team.  In the end I had one squad shot up majorly, a few minor casualties spread around and then my jeep was blown up by the tank.  I managed to finish off 5 of Cheef's 7 units leaving only the lone artillery spotter and the pinned squad left at the end of the game.

I definitely like how Bolt Action plays and am looking forward to more games in the future.  I spent some time yesterday evening and today working on some supply dump scatter terrain to use.  I'm pretty happy with how they came out.  I've got a bunch of fuel drums coming to keep expanding that supply dump theme.  Also coming up is some wheat field terrain that is easy to make that I found on a YouTube tutorial, just have to buy the mat needed to make it my next day at work.

 

 

Thanks for reading and I'll see you later all.

Getting Ready for Bolt Action

So it's going to be a bit before any of my paras are ready for the tabletop.  but I still want to see about some small practice games to get use to the rules and game system play style.  So even though they'll be a bit over sized at 28mm heroic instead of 28mm, I've raided my 40K Imperial Guard 4th Naval Infantry Regiment.  This gives me a 500 point list (494 points actually) of counts as British Paras.  This will be part of 2nd Battalion's 11th Platoon under 2nd Lt. Vincent Marlowe with A and B Sections and attached support.

2nd Lt. Vincent Marlowe with two aides/runners, all with Sten SMGs

A Section under Sgt Oliver Crowe with SMG, section includes 8 Enfield rifles and Bren LMG with assistant

B Section under Sgt Andrew Jamieson with SMG, section has  4 SMGs, 2 Rifles, and Anti-tank grenades

Vickers Medium Machine Gun with 3 crewmen

PIAT Team of gunner and loader

Artillery Observer with two aides, all three with Sten SMGs

This gives me a nice small flexible force for some test games while I get my paras all put together and tabletop ready.  If there are any Bolt Action British Para veterans out there with some advice, please post up.

 That's all for now and thanks for reading.

Battletech Progress

So I had an extra day off work this week for the last of my comp days for the holidays.  It was nice being able to spend a whole day napping, resting, and then another nap.  Normally I spend one day off on errands and such and one day off on laundry and dishes.  One for nothing but lazing about was a nice change of pace.

So on to the hobby front.

First of all, I got the last 5 Battlemechs for the 21st Striker Regiment finished on the painting front.  They would be a pair of Stingers, a Panther, an Awesome, and an unseen Griffin.  I still have loads and loads and loads of basing to do though.

Next up, I finally got started on the aerospace fighter component of the regiment.  I've applied the first layer of green to the topside of two Shilones and one Cheetah.  I'm using the same green that I used on the battlemechs to tie them into the unit.  Then I'll do the undersides of the fighters with a blue like WW2 fighters were done.  I'll give them the same style basing as the rest of the regiment.

Last of all for the progress this week, is Sovetski Soyuz-class  heavy cruise Gyrefalcon.  It is a dark gray base with lighter gray panels like the descriptions I've found and then it has blue panels to show it was built in a shipyard in Lyran space.  This is the first time I've used a light colored wash on a dark model and I think I'm ok with the results.  I still need to do a few details like dry brushing over a few details and figure out what I'm doing with the bases.  I'm starting to lean toward solid black bases and just hope they look invisible on the table top.  I need to do an engine glow effect as well.

That's all for now and I'll see you all later.

Getting Organized With Bolt Action

So I've been studying my Bolt Action rule books and starting to get some models collected.  I've decided that I'm going to be playing British Paratroopers and have started doing my research into their organization.  I like the fluff of game systems.  I like to have organization lists of who is in what role and in charge of what.  So I started looking for how a Battalion of British paratroopers was organized.  It took some doing, but while unable to find a nice simple chart, I did find a site with a good description.  It also mentioned a Ghurka battalion that was converted into a paratrooper battalion.  Can you imagine those scarey fellows coming down out of the sky at night at you?  Talk about a nightmare scenario.

 So I didn't want to use real life names on this, that just seems ... wrong for a game when the men gave their lives in a real war, so I've changed all the names from the real life unit to fictional names for my formation for the game.  If someone reading this sees that I have something wrong in the organizational chart please let me know.  I'd like to get this as right as possible.


2nd Parachute Battalion
Battalion HQ (5 Officers, 22 Men)
Lt. Colonel David Cromarty
Major Jeffrey Brackhaven
Captain Dennis O'Cleary
1st Lt. Elliot Pierce
1st Lt. James Tierney, Medical Officer

Headquarters Company (1 Officer, 10 Men)
Major Peter Abernathy
Intelligence Section (1 Officer, 10 Men)
1st Lt. Ralph Sherbrooke
1st (Signals) Platoon (1 Officer, 26 Men)
1st Lt. Simon Bryce
2nd (Support) Platoon (2 Officer, 36 Men)
1st Lt. John Moore
    A Section (Mortars), Sgt James Watson
    B Section (Mortars), Sgt Duncan McGuire
    C Section (HMGs), Sgt John Cooke
    D Section (MMGs), Sgt Tom Meares
Protective Section (6 Men)
Sgt Ross Osbourne
3rd (Administrative) Platoon (1 Officer, 76 Men)
1st Lt. Nigel MacIntyre

A Company
Company HQ
Major George Foorgate
Captain John Woodson
    9 Aides/Runners
    3 Medics
4th Platoon
2nd Lt. Arthur Forsythe
    A Section, Sgt Charles Winston (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Patrick Fisher (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt James Owens (1 NCO, 9 Men)
5th Platoon
2nd Lt. Kevin O'Donnell
    A Section, Sgt Michel Hughes (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Alister Stanley (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Reginald Conwy (1 NCO, 9 Men)
6th Platoon
1st Lt. Peter Covington
    A Section, Sgt Ian Jacobs (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Edward Price (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Thomas Holmes (1 NCO, 9 Men)

B Company
Company HQ
Major William Howe
Captain Donald Welton
    9 Aides/Runners
    3 Medics
7th Platoon
1st Lt. Alexander Gatesby
    A Section, Sgt Lloyd Bancroft (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Jonathan Hastings (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Stephen Powys (1 NCO, 9 Men)
8th Platoon
2nd Lt. Frances O'Malley
    A Section, Sgt Mark Haig (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt James Prescott (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Daniel Asheford (1 NCO, 9 Men)
9th Platoon
2nd Lt. Franklin Sands
    A Section, Sgt Tobias Finch (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt George Hearns (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Sean Baird (1 NCO, 9 Men)

C Company
Company HQ
Major Todd Mosely
Captain Owen Hydesmythe
    9 Aides/Runners
    3 Medics
10th Platoon
1st Lt. Alfred Hennesy
    A Section, Sgt Paul Sheffield (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Martin Ridgeway (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt James Houseman (1 NCO, 9 Men)
11th Platoon
2nd Lt. Vincent Marlowe
    A Section, Sgt Oliver Crowe (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Andrew Jamieson (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Paul Halstead (1 NCO, 9 Men)
12th Platoon
2nd Lt. Brian Harrington
    A Section, Sgt Byron Lowe (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    B Section, Sgt Sebastian Dempsey (1 NCO, 9 Men)
    C Section, Sgt Albert Trevayne (1 NCO, 9 Men)

One odd thing that I learned that the Intelligence Section was also the snipers of the battalion.  Quite unusual and I didn't expect that.  The recce jeeps will be in the motor pool part of the Administrative Platoon.  Signals Platoon is where you'll find the paras on bikes.  Artillery will be on loan from the Regimental level.  Like I said in an earlier blog post, I'm planning on collection about 1300 to 1400 points at this point to have plenty of options for a 1000 point list.  There are no plans on having this entire list collected what so ever, it's merely so in my mind everything I do have will have a place.

I should have a post up by the end of the week with some progress on my Battletech warships.  Until next time, thanks for reading.

Battletech, Aerotech, Bolt Action, and almost some X-Wing

So, this blog post was originally going to be a battle report on the two versus two X-wing game from last Friday night.  It was Murl and I against Cheef and Vortil.  Vortil got to debut his Decimator and I was trying the Rebel Transport for the first time.  Cheef was first up for taking pics for his blog .... and had a camera with no battery in it.  So that put me up next .... and every single picture I took of the game didn't save on my phone.  No idea why, so the whole thing was crash and burn.  While the rebels took a pretty big beat down, it was fun running over the Decimator and a Lambda shuttle at the same time with the rebel transport.

So, with that out of the way, we'll move on to my Eridani Light Horse.  With the arrival of two Chippewa aerospace fighters and an unseen Griffin in the past few days, I'm now just 4 Aerospace fighters away from completing the 21st Striker Regiment.  The last five mechs (2 Stingers, a Panther, an Awesome, and the aforementioned Griffin) have all got their basecoat green and I'll be working on finishing their paint job this evening.  Once I get the regiment done, I plan on turning some of the unused mechs into an opposing force .... maybe some Kurita Sword of Light scumbags though I've never paint almost all red models before, so might turn out interesting.

Moving onto the next topic, one thing I've never been accused of when it comes to getting into a game system is not going all the way.  So in that vein, I have started an Aerospace force to transport and cover my Eridani Light Horse.  There will be part of the 161st Line Squadron and the 164th Escort Squadron, both part of the 16th Fleet assigned to the 16th Army which the Eridani Light Horse was attached to as an independent brigade for trouble shooting in Kurita space near the Lyran coreward border.

The 161st Line Squadron is represented by the Black Lion-class battlecruiser Fisher King, the Aegis-class heavy cruiser Kearsarge, the Sovetski Soyuz-class heavy cruiser Gyrefalcon, and the Sovetski Soyuz-class heavy cruiser Stormpetrel.  They've gotten their dark gray layer and still need to get some lighter gray sections and a color panel to represent where they were built.

The 164th Escort Squadron is represented by the Essex-class destroyer Oberon, and the Lola III-class destroyers Bellicose, Intrepid, and Royal Oak.  They're at the same level of progress as the 161st ships.  I still want to add another Essex destroyer and a pair of Whirlwinds to round out the force.  In both sets of ships I'm using the clan versions of the vessels due to the fact that I can't stand the cigar with stuff strapped on look of the star league pre-Exodus versions of the ships.

Now, on to Bolt Action and the progress there.  I'm slowly starting to acquire some models for this force and have a Red Devils box, a para recon jeep box with it's two jeeps, and a para medium mortar blister.  Also, I found a nice set of reasonably priced pin markers to use from a place over in North Carolina so they arrived two days after I paid for them on eBay.  They're nice nickel sized metal tokens with a bottom that raises them slightly to make them easy to pick up.  I'm really happy with these and got 3 sets of 10 for a bit over $20 including shipping.  The company is called Battlemarkers and can be found here as well as on eBay.  In addition to Bolt Action, they make markers for a variety of other game systems.

So that's all for now.  The next blog should have see the last 5 mechs finished, some progress on the naval vessels, and possibly some Battletech terrain.  I found about 15 trucks for real cheap that are sized for Battletech on eBay and am planning a sort of supply dump/support battalion base that can act as terrain as well as further build out my Eridani Light Horse.  We'll see how it goes as I'm still figuring that project out.  Talk to you all later.