Bolt Action - British Airborne - Part 2

Hi there! In our last post we looked at the indomitable Staff Sergeant Harry Walker and the inspiration behind this foray into Bolt Action; those brave men of the British Airborne, the 'Red Devils'...

Through the combination of a comprehensive and well sculpted miniature range and a fast paced, high quality rules set, Warlord has done a great job of carving out a commanding position in the world of table top war-gaming. This is no mean feat.

In a world traditionally dominated by the sci-fi and fantasy offerings of Games Workshop and Privateer Press, Warlord has successfully recruited a swathe of gamers that may have traditionally been quick to quash the idea of investing their hard earned greens in a new game system, least of all one based in a historical arena.

Of course, it goes without saying that Battlefront and their World War II war-gaming heavy weight that is Flames of War, should be given due credit for originally breaking the mold and bringing this particular brand of historical war-gaming to the masses. Owning both rules sets, I am however currently of the feeling that Warlord have kept their foot on the gas harder and have a generally more accessible product. The decision to roll with 28mm minis over 15mm will no doubt be a telling factor in this particular battle...

The 'A Bridge Too Far' supplement is a great source of information
regarding the battle of Arnhem and the troops that fought there...

Anyway, back to Bolt Action. The game has been particular popular with our monthly Gambit Games Club and whilst Brit Paras was always going to be my force of choice, it's been good to watch a few games in progress and talk to gaming mates about what forces they played and what inspired them about the game...

A 500pt list is a good place to start, so along with the Bolt Action rule book, I ordered the 'Red Devils' box set and a 10 man British Airborne Section. This would give me the core elements of an HQ and the minimum requirement of 2 x Infantry Squads. Let's take a look at the minis...

Contents of the two sets...

From clockwise top left: Officers, Two man PIAT Team, Radio Operator & Medic, Vickers Machine Gun Team...

... Rifles, Light Machine Gun Team and SMGs

The minis are excellent. After spending the last few years working with plastic and resin miniatures, it felt quite nostalgic to see so much metal. The sculpts are characterful and crisp and flash levels are at a minimum. The pictures above are of the minis straight from the box, so you can see they are nice and cleanly cast. It's worth noting that Warlord Games have since re-packaged the 'Red Devils' box set, removing the Medic and Radio Operator and adding in a 2 Man Light Mortar Team and water-slide decals. Certainly a good update to the box set. That Radio Operator however, does come in handy for representing a Forward Observer; free pts wise to any British force wishing to take one ;)  

The list itself is derived from the core British list included in the main rule book. There's certainly enough options on offer here, but I'll look to purchase the Armies of Great Britain supplement in coming weeks to expand on the force options available...

The list is based around a fire base of Vickers Machine Gun Team and two Rifle Squads, each joined by a LMG. These troops will look to rack up pin markers on the enemy and provide covering fire to allow the two SMG units to flank, close or press the advantage on weak spots in the enemy line. The Forward Observer will bring the ordnance, whilst the Second Lieutenant inspires his troops as and where required.

I've opted not to include the PIAT Team, which means the force lacks any anti armour capabilities. I'm hoping I won't encounter much armour at the 500pt level... But If I do, I'll either ignore it all together (famous last words?!), or equip some of the boys with a few anti-tank grenades...

This list does aims to take advantage of generating as many order dice as possible, although the small squad sizes could prove to be a mistake as the enemy fire starts raining in...

I'd really appreciate any advice on the list and Bolt Action list building in general - so comment away!

Next up, I need to get the boys cleaned up, based and undercoated, all ready for their denison smock paint job...

Cheers ;)

Bolt Action - British Airborne - Part 1

Harry 'Mick' Walker 1914 - 1997

This is Staff Sergeant Harry Walker. Known as 'Mick' to his mates and Granddad to me. He served in the RAOC Advanced Para Recce Party and fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and North West Europe, most notably as part of the largest airborne operation of World War II - Operation Market Garden.

Tales of Harry's exploits on the bridge at Arnhem, elevated him into legendary status in the eye's of this young grandson and it's the endeavors of Harry and the brave men of Lt. Col. John Frost's 2nd Airborne Battalion that serve to inspire my first foray into the game of Bolt Action...

Harry's medals on display at the Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein', Oosterbeek, The Netherlands

I've been fortunate to make the trip to Oosterbeek to see the annual ceremony to commemorate the Battle of Arnhem and it's a humbling experience. On the same token, it's also a celebration of life and hope, as the veterans (not many left now), their families and currently serving Parachute Regiment troops, meet up and tell stories of bravery, heroism and crazy shenanigans... All of which usually ends up with a fair few whiskies being downed in honour of comrades past and present ;)

The drop re-created each year as part of the commemorations. 

Bloody right.

Harry (left), with Joe and 'Pony' - 1941.

Inspiring stuff. In the next post we'll actually take a look at some minis ;) as we explore the Bolt Action 'Red Devils' box set and begin planning out our first 500pt list 

Cheers.

X-Wing Battles - Mega Photo Drop!

Hi, hope this finds you well :)

I've been sorting through photos from recent games of X-Wing. To be honest with you, the narrative for each battle has been lost on the winds of the warp, but I thought it would be cool to share the pics with you anyway and hopefully they'll tell their own story...

So, set your target locks and pray for crits, as we try to outwit our opponent in some X-Wing gaming goodness. Cheers!

X-Wing - HWK-290 'Focus Factory!'

'I've got my eye on you, Katarn...'

Of the four ships released as part of X-Wing Wave 3, Kyle Katarn's ship of choice, the HWK-290, would appear to have been met with the least enthusiasm.

But like many things about this release, you need to look beyond what you currently know about the X-Wing game and open your mind to new opportunities. And if you do, you'll be rewarded with potentially devastating tactical options.

Today we're going to look at one particular HWK-290 build that plays to the strengths (and addresses the weaknesses!) of the ship and capitalises on Kyle Katarn's awesome focus giving card text ability...

Kyle Katarn provides some serious focus to the boyz and girlz of Dagger Squadron...

Looking at the dial, it's clear that most if not all Imperial ships will leave this thing looking like a bride after her hen night and the reality is, your gonna present a slow moving target. But hopefully, you'll also present less of a threat to the unwary general who'll be far too busy thinking about taking down your Wedge's and your Luke's... Mwahahaha!

The dial of the bride...

But as we'll see in a minute, the fact that the HWK-290 is a bit of a slow coach doesn't really matter, because we ain't going anywhere in a hurry... It's also got four green maneuvers for readily available stress removal and a couple of nice, firing arc dodging, right angle 2 turns. Anyways, enough of the dial, let's take a look at the build!

First up, we have Kyle Katarn and the ability that sits at the core of this build - 'At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign one of your focus tokens to another friendly ship at Range 1-3.'

At first glance, this may look a little run o' the mill. But as any good X-Wing pilot knows, the 'focused - target lock' is the key to smashing seven bells of out of your opponent and ensuring that when you pull the trigger, he's gonna have to try and dodge a whole bunch of hits and crits.

So, whilst your dedicated fighter aces such as Wedge Antilles and Ten Numb are using their valuable action to assign target locks, they are doing so safe in the knowledge that Kyle Katarn is gifting them a regular supply of tasty focus tokens. Cheers Kyle!

The 'Moldy Crow' named ship card is an obvious complimentary choice in this build, allowing Kyle to generate an initial reserve of focus tokens by not having to discard unused focus token during the End phase. Finally, to really start taking the sith, let's also take the 'Recon Specialist' - So that every time we perform a focus action, we assign 1 additional focus token to our ship...  Let's take a look at what this all means:

The diagram above shows the beginning of the game at Set-Up phase, with the Rebel player positioning Kyle Katarn on his table edge as far away from the opposing enemy ships as possible. For the first three or four Planning and Activation phases, Katarn wants to be moving steadily forward using a straight one maneuver, selecting and subsequently banking two focus tokens each per game round. The range ruler gives you an idea of the sort of distance the ship will be moving...

By the time the enemy begins to close on his position, Katarn should have banked a minimum of between six and eight focus tokens, ready to either hand these off to his squad mates or utilise himself. Once the enemy is in range, the last action Kyle needs to perform before the shooting match kicks off, is a target lock. And thanks to 'Push The Limit', this is exactly what he's going to do!

Push The Limit may initially seem like an odd addition to this build, but it helps to ensure that it's not just Katarn's squad mates that get to have all the focused - target lock fun. And it's here that the HWK-290's much derided movement dial comes into it's eloquent own - providing a ready supply of four green maneuvers to shake off that stress token ;)

To round off the focus 'tapping' fun, the 360o 'Blaster Turret'* turns what was once a measly one red die primary weapon ship, into a snarling three red die crit machine. This thing may be slow, but it packs a nasty punch if you get too close...

*Note: Based on your playing style / opponent's choice of ships, you may want to consider swapping the Blaster Turret out for an Ion Cannon... 

With the HWK-290 firing on all cylinders, the only thing left to address is the somewhat unreliable agility value of two. The 'Stealth Device' upgrade brings that up to a more respectable three and coupled with the availability of those focus tokens, provides better odds at negating hits and ensures the upgrade stays around a little longer...

Kyle Katarn plays chicken with Colonel Jendon...

Granted, at 37pts this build isn't cheap. But aside from being a great wing-man and no slouch in a fight, the HWK-290 'Focus Factory' highlights the fantastic new synergies that can be unlocked within the Wave 3 release. It's also great fun to play and leaves an amusing look on your opponents face...

Like all good builds in this game, it starts with a seed of a card text ability and ends up with you creating a monster!

Cheers ;)