Rumble in the Jungle

Last night at Enfield Gamers featured, amongst other things, a number of  500 point Bolt Action skirmishes as we went into intensive training for the upcoming escalation league. Myself and Rich faced off twice taking turns with his Japs and Aussie commandos.

First up the mission was to recover a downed pilot from the centre of the table. For this one I took the Japs who enjoyed superiority in numbers, mainly through two big rifle squads.

Unfortunately the scenario had everybody starting in reserve and one of my big rifle squads became a proper lost patrol continually refusing to find their way onto the table.

Down on numbers against an elite force meant I was soon chasing the game and was forced into a sushi or bust unsupported Banzai assault. Being at close range their was no reaction fire but poor dice and Tough Fighters (2 assault dice per man) was no contest.

Chasing after the depleted Aussies with my Lieutenant and the medic was a grasp at the last desperate straw before it was all over. Pilot saved!

Swapping forces we setup to assault each others bunker, or shrines in our case. The evening running short I went aggressive and charged while Rich went for the outflank.

Once again I must have offended Her Ladyship Dice as my pre-assault artillery when wild and wiped one of my squads from existence. Bundling in with the other Tough Fighters chewed through a rifle and then the command squad with enough spare to crack a tinny.

Meanwhile Rich's flankers almost got bogged down by my sniper and forward observer only to Banzai off his pins onto my shrine at the last to secure the draw.

So all in all a good fun evening. I'm happy that I've got the basics of Bolt Action sorted and can move on to the nuances.

At 500 points elite infantry really kick arse but that's expected. Today's lunch-break saw the 750 point list sorted which means another box of "Geezers" plus an FO and a 3" mortar on the Salute shopping list. 

Not sure how to move upto 1000 yet. Still fancy some recce to keep the force light but a Centaur CS is tempting.

So.....German pioneers then! :)

Bolt from the Blue

Hello people.

Not a lot to post about recently due various reasons but I have managed to roll a decent number of dice with Rich's Pacific Bolt Action setup.

Not one if played before, but heard and noticed a fair bit about, so brace yourself for another, soon to be trademark, impressionistic review. From what I had read and heard I got the impression of a typically Warlord / Rick P open ended system for more open minded "gentleman" wargamers. 

So, games at the club Tuesday and down at TTN Sunday were setup. Rich is our chief system junkie and we'd heard that BA was getting a lot of table-time locally. The other piece of scuttlebutt was that 15mm with the same 6x4 ground scale was the way to go.

In short Tuesday night was a four way affair with two virgins and plenty of flicking back and forth through the rulebook. Initially I liked the feel and the look of the scale but found nothing ground breaking. Squad activation by blind drawing of order dice is cool but hardly unheard of. Solid but hardly inspirational?

By the end of the game the importance of the pinning mechanic became clear as the defining element of the game. Once appreciated this gives the game something of a "realistic" gritty attrition. Suddenly command squads are properly important with proper platoon tactics required. 

Not headline grabbing neon but that's to miss the point, that's not what BA is about!

Sunday's game was, as might be expected, a fair slicker affair as Rich's USMC assaulted my Jap held hill.

The game also revealed a lot of BAs nuances. Lt Nakamakamora was shredded in the pre-game preparatory bombardment with my command squad taking half the game to properly preserve his remains! This wasn't as crippling as you might have fought but with USMC Lt Slaughter leading the assault it provided an effective demonstration of the mechanic.

Along with the usual "what we did wrong last time" FAQ the game really began to shine as the pearl that it is. Not beer and pretzels, far more tea and crumpet!

As for Sunday's game Rich went for something of a pincer, pushing hard on his left while a single platoon was urged up the hill by Lt Slaughter. In hindsight I got a bit suckered into the main battle on my right, successfully blunting the USMC assault but failed to support my left quickly enough as my artillery support continuously failed to come in on either time or target.

In short Rich took the ridge and raised the Stars and Stripes but paid with the destruction of the remainder of the the platoon for an overall Draw. My lack of command did limit me and lead me into being a bit over cautious. The Pinning and Command really came to the fore and defined the game.
I'm really looking to the next outing!

15mm really suits the game and once again raises the idea that if I wasn't so invested across the board in 28mm I'd definitely be trading in! Time to dig out my Jap Naval Marines :)

That's quite a hill...could do with a Flag!

First wave of USMC crest the ridge.

The armour engagement is swift and brutal. Jap win!

The line advances

MUSTANG!!!

Japs pinned, USMC assault!

Flag of your Father?

Final USMC wave breaks cover.....

.........only to be decimated byt the counter-assault!

Payday Bo-Nan-Za

It's a Friday, it's a Six Nations weekend, i've been paid and I blagged off from work at four this afternoon..........HUZ-ZAHH!!!

I've also finally finished off the Japanese marines, all 75 of them.......... muchos PPs, possibly too many for the effort put in to be honest. I think i'll just call it the 50 plus the 6 for the craters this month.

At the end of the day it's been more of a "bulk" project and I think that the PPs should reflect that. Something to muse upon for the future.
So, five rifle platoons with a couple of HMGs and a pair of small calibre field guns for support. Feels like the Banzai charge may well be a prime weapon, especially if the off-board arty fails to do it's job.
Plenty of hot lead and an inscrutably honourable chap in a grass coat. The bloke with the stick could still do with a flag though really.
Very light on the anti-tank there lads and that's some sort of strange deciduous pacific island that you seem to be marooned on isn't it?
Almost as bizarre as a later series of LOST that :)
Enough to strike the fear of the god-emperor into the saltiest of USMC leather-neck. Not sure that the Grants, Stuarts and Shermans will be too worried though.
Where's that bloke in just a loin-cloth with an HE charge on a long piece of bamboo?

Back into your case for moment lads, you'll just have to sit and wait for the USMC. Le' me hear an "Ah-So Seargent!"

The Scattergun - Part Deux

Ta-Da!

Like any poorly written script, the second installment is hot on the heels of the first. Steven Seagel eat your heart out!!

Give in to the Dark Side:

T'was the finale of the current Star Wars mission on Tuesday night and I finally go to use some proper bad-ass evil types.
Fighting through the lower levels of the mines to the HIDDEN ANCIENT TEMPLE, a-hem, the guys fronted up a bit more than I thought they would and my plan quickly stalled.

We did however manage to roll out a lot more of the rules, following on last session's theme, and presented one of the toughest fights that they've had to date :)

This was mainly provided by a quartet of dark side marauders. It took me a little while to get a handle on the strength of thier powers but my aggression soon increased and I opened a decent sized can of whoop-ass!

I did decided that the LT's Froce Lightening was a bit too keen and went for Mind Tricks instead. Jon's Jedi was being particuarly effective so I managed to "cloud his mind" and turn him on the rest of the group.

Great fun was had...... mainly by me, until the guys finally stunned him to the floor..... boooo!!

Once Jon had been neutralised the HIDDEN ANCIENT TEMPLE had been successfully defended as the remaining eviler dudes legged it leaving our sort of heroes battered and bruised.

Loose ends need to be tied up but once again a very enjoyable night :)

Return of the Pedant:

The Japanese tsunami has been more of a insistent trickle, though one pound thirty of basing has pleased me more than it should.

Looks like a few of us may get some use out of them this Tuesday, multi-player style-e. Meanwhile this lot wait for highlights and basing.
Another 24 PPs within grasp!

The Grinch:

PC Blood-Bowl turned up the other day but for some reason the drive doesn't recognse the disk. I shall have to ask a tech-nerd what to do. I just want to start a Gobbo team of Trolls and fanatics.

Maelstrom have split my Oni order as they are suddnely out of stock of army boxes despite being in-stock when I handed over my cash. Bit poor really :(

Oh well, such is life. Maybe i'll paint some figures!!

Making the hard yards

So, Brand Haskell showed it's full value this weekend. Good-o!

Something of a traditional 6 Nations opening weekend with three fairly scrappy games. I watched all three and was most entertained by the Scotland / France game.

Looks like the Ireland / France game in Paris next week will be pivotal

Not that I was unhappy with England beating Wales. I felt we deserved the win, taking maximum advantage of THAT trip.
That's three time this weekend with the women's team completing a whitewash!

Meanwhile Wasps got back to winning ways despite an injury list growing to almost epic proprotions. 3 penalties to 1 in an LV Cup dead rubber isn't the point. A return to winning ways and momentum for Sale next week is!

Having spent a lot of this weekend working, around the rugby OBVIOUSLY, i've still managed to finish off the first few Jap Marines.

Just the extended command squad so far and yes I need to sort out a flag!

Apparantly late war Jap Marines had ditched the blue, I can see why, but I like it ...SO... my lot have been marooned on some remote island for a while until the USMC have come calling. Bloody yanks!!

I also put the FoW Germans on E-Bay thursday night and, scarily, despite a 10 day listing I was picking up bids before i'd finished listing everything.
My 14 items are currently up to £240.
That's an awful lot of Oni and rugby tickets :)