Adventures on the Wargames Table

The new second edition of Bolt Action sees the addition of templates for things like HE, so Colin has produced a superb set of templates and tokens (available here ) to aid smooth game play. Here's my (slightly customised) set :o) Here are the 'turret jammed' and 'vehicle immobilised' tokens. These are the 'snap to action', 'air strike' and 'hidden' tokens. The snap to action token allows you to clearly note which units are being commanded by putting the newly drawn order dice in the token. No danger of muddling them up with units that have already been given a dice. Here is the blast marker template. Note the double 1" token in the centre, just like it's shown in the diagrams for HE in the book. The set also includes dice holders for continuing fire weapons such as mortars - helps to avoid the dice being picked up during play. All that for the very reasonable sum of just £7.50, so why not grab yourself a set?

I like to be able to decorate my tables with a few extra little scenic items to help give the impression that the buildings are 'lived in'. Here are a few I completed very recently. Boxes and a crate of tomatoes. They're a mix of resin (Ainsty and Grand Manner), plastic (Tamiya 1:48) and metal (Foundry) figures. Lettuces and apples... fancy a fruit salad, Sir? The paint scheme was simple block colours, a bit of wash then some highlights. The oil drums were just VMC Russian Green. I may base these as a little vignette. Think I might get some more too! They'd make a great little objective marker. Oil drums and fuel cans... perhaps not ideal cover? A couple of my buildings have proper gardens so I thought a wheelbarrow for the gardener might be a good idea. Clearly the owner of this one enjoys a glass or two whilst trimming the hedges!! I've based it to match the paths on the buildings with gardens. Nice little figure I thought. That Tommy has his ey...

At last I've finally got my grubby paws on a copy of the new rulebook!! So I thought I'd publish a few of my thoughts on the latest incarnation of what has become pretty much my favourite game. There's a superb video from Chris Harris on YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjTgxG-RgDk (well worth subscribing too!!) There's also a demo game from Beasts of War here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aJGzJDiKMg not the most exciting viewing ;o) but quite instructive. Warlord have some articles too:- http://www.warlordgames.com/bolt-action-2nd-edition-the-tweaks/ http://www.warlordgames.com/bolt-action-2nd-edition-the-tweaks-part-2-he/ http://www.warlordgames.com/bolt-action-2nd-edition-the-tweaks-part-3-officers/ The production quality of this hardback book is exactly what you'd expect from Warlord & Osprey. Sumptuous colour photos, superb artwork and top-notch graphic design; it's a pleasure simply to browse through it. In no ...

Wargames Table chums Rob Broom and Orange Dave put on a rather splendid Somme inspired WW1 demo game for Dave's superb Zero Hour rules at the Worlds show, Donnington (01/10/16). Now, I couldn't make it along but I did supply some scenery and troops so I was kind of there in spirit! ;o)  Here's a few pics... (slightly dodgy lighting made good pics quite tricky) British mass for the attack on the German trenches From the German side New technology makes it's debut ... a tank rumbles into the line! Not to be outdone... he comes the RFC Advance! The French also attack The tank proves useful at cutting through obstacles A shattered farm somewhere on the Somme Every battlefield needs a river The British reach the trench lines! Hurrah! Hopefully this demo game will gradually expand and feature at a few more shows!

At last!!! Orange Dave and I have got our calendars sorted and played the first two rounds of the club Saga campaign which brings me nicely up to date. My faction is a Viking War band led by the indomitable Magnus Håkonsson. I rolled for his traits and got "Learn'd" and "Hard Ruler" - both great for boosting my war band before and after battles, plus the special rule "The Conqueror". Magnus is clearly a man to be reckoned with!! Dave has been busy painting some lovely Foundry figures. The photos are a bit shonky but hopefully you can see how good they are! Some of Dave's lovely Anglo-Danes Game One - I decided to raid the territory of Dave's Warlord, the Anglo-Danish Leofstan the Bastard. The scenario came up as "Scout" so we both cautiously advanced in to an abandoned village. Now, it's been ages since I last played (that's my excuse anyway!) so I was a bit vague about how the game worked, but I soon picked it up. ...

With the second edition of the Bolt Action rules almost upon us, Wargames Table chum Steve and I decided to have one more go with first edition! Steve would be fielding his beautiful First Corps Russians whilst I would once again be trying to stem the advance in to Germany with my Panzergrenadiers. Here’s the field of battle. The scenario was simple: German forces must stall the Russian steamroller in this sector long enough to bring reserves up, however this can only be done if the crossroads remain in German hands. So, the usual 6 (or 7) turn game and the winner would be the one controlling the vital crossroads near the centre of the board at the end of the game. Steve and I both decided to commit our entire forces in turn 1 ... no faffing around with reserves here!! First blood went to the Germans as my tank rumbled on to the table and took aim at the only viable target, the Russian sniper in the church belfry... Boom! Steve had an alarming number of troops at his comman...

I already have four 8 man sections* but looking in my boxes of toy soldiers I stumbled upon enough figures for another section. So on to the painting table they went! (*I know that sections are theoretically 10 strong, but I'm allowing for a few casualties) The 'recipe' I use can be found under the Painting tab, see above. I especially liked the Bren gunner with the weapon shouldered and a look on his face that suggests he's having a good grumble about boots / officers / weather, etc. Hard to see at this scale but he has, honest!