Boltgun Nostalgia

Earlier this year, a few of the locals started talking about the impending release of 8th edition Warhammer 40K over top of a game of Shadow War I played with dirty Harlequin player Pelarel. They were all very positive. I'll freely admit to being more than a little shocked. I watched some battle reports and read some forum posts and, well, went all in with Pooch, Scotty and Tank. Delightfully, we've also drawn McBeth and Pelarel into the net of GW!

I finally played a game last weekend. It was my first game of 40K since I gave it up at the end of 2nd Edition and I can't even remember when that was. Some time in the late 90s. So 20 years (ZOMG, I have been doing this for that long....!) ago, I last fired a boltgun in anger. And it was glorious. The game is simple, mechanically, but there is plenty of complexity and a surprising amount of depth. There was a lot of complaining on all sides about various delightfully broken things but the game looked good and was a lot of fun.

Scotty, Tank, Pooch and I played a four-player game so that we could get a feel for the rules. Scotty's Imperial Bananas Fists and my Deathwatch against Tank's Tyranids and Pooch's Death Guard. The result was....a win to the bad guys, but there was half a Dreadnought, half a squad of Terminators left at the end of the game.

Some pics:

Death Guard

The horde inbound

The brave, valiant and depressingly few defenders

A wild Mawloc appears! It uses GAK! It's super effective!

The Dreadnought used Powerfist! It was super effective. Then there was no more Mawloc. Instead there were a million fricking Genestealers!

In a battle between Broodlord and Primaries Dreadnought, always bet on Yellow. 

And yes. It's been ages. We know.

You're spending money on WHAT?!?!?!!?

Club day yesterday and what a fantastic turnout we had, we literally ran out of tables! Anywho the big news of the day was McZermof and I returning to our GW gaming roots and playing SHADOW WAR: ARMAGEDDON. This is a relatively new release from GW which captures the real essence of the original Necromunda, and capture it it certainly does. First impressions are very positive. Firstly the models are fantastic, lots of the Regimenters already have figures kicking around their collections, however I had to start afresh. A couple of Tau boxes later and I was off. The models themselves are all plastic but they go together beautifully and I really enjoyed painting them.

With my Tau prepared I took on McZermof's Dark Angel Scouts. The first scenario we played was Kill Team Fight. Within the first couple of turns the Tau specialists had earned their pay by taking out the Scout Sergeant and another team member (unfortunately I had mistaken the weapon I used and it possibly may have been saved - on a six - rather than insta-death). However that didn't detract from the fun of the game and McZermof made a few well timed and accurate Bolter shots (including a Heavy Bolter) and the Tau scarpered.

The second game was Hit and Run. I had a special objective, which was to kill the Scout Sergeant, which I did again. Then all I had to do was run away. Unfortunately McZ picked me off as I was running for my life. A quick and terrific game.

We played two games and had lunch all before 12pm. We also gave the campaign rules a run through and although I lost both games I was able to keep up with McZ's advances, I even came out a little better off with two of my troops getting skills.

The conclusion from the 2 games so far is very positive. The game is completely silly but enormous fun. This is not for the serious tournament player but with a bunch of mates playing in a friendly atmosphere this will be a cracking game.

Mmmmmmm I wonder what my second kill team will be?

Bolt Action Winter Germans- Complete!

After getting my winter Germans onto the tabletop for the first time it gave me the impetus to get the rest of the force finished!

And so, with a minimum of rubbish text from me, below is a whole lot of pictures of the completed army. Click on the pictures for a closer look.

As a reminder, the miniatures are from Warlord's Winter German range, and are all based on some of the fantastic cobblestone bases from Battle Kiwi (if all of our posts recently haven't been clear enough, we really like Battle Kiwi!).

The Infantry- 2 Grenadier Squads, 1 Volksgrenadier Squad, Flamethrower, Sniper, Panzershrek and HQ

The guns- 75mm, 105mm, PaK 40, Mortar, HMG and Goliath team

The armour- Tiger, Puma, Panzer III and 4 Halftracks

PaK 40 looking gorgeous on the cobbled base

Removable crew!

81mm Mortar 

More removable crew!

LMG team on a pill shaped cobble base

75mm Infantry Gun

More removable crew!

Grenadier with a panzerfaust.

Panzer III. I am very proud of my whitewashing

Panzer Bum

Tiger 1!

Side view of the Tiger

One of the halftracks. Looking much better for having crew and a splash of whitewash

Goliath team. For when you absolutely HAVE to spend points on a next-to useless unit

Sniper team for added sniping

Medic!

The boss.

And so there you have it, a Winter Bolt Action army. There are still some things I would like to add to it, mostly in the vehicle department, but for now, it is done!

Pooch

Russian invasion- 6mm Team Yankee

So over the weekend the Regiment got together to play some 6mm Team Yankee. 

The scenario was (pretty) simple, the Soviets had to smash through the NATO defenses, capturing the strategic objectives, towns and the airport. NATO had to hold on long enough for their reserves to arrive and turn the tide!

The Soviet attack was launched at night, which actually caused no end of trouble for both sides.

As for how the game progressed? I will let the Soviet aerial photography tell the tale (with big thanks to Richard for taking the snaps!)

The table. Soviets started on the left, NATO on the right

The view from the NATO right flank. That blob in the centre of the picture is something like 30 T-55s...

The NATO centre- guided missile helicopters, infantry with guided missiles and tracked vehicles with... you guessed it... guided missiles

Chieftans claiming any scrap of cover they can get as they await the Russians

The Russians advance at pace. Barely visible on the left is a Scimitar from the Queens Dragoon Guard

The Soviet centre pushes through

View from the NATO left, three Chieftans holding guard

The Queens Dragoon Guard hold up two companies of Soviet tanks. For all of 30 seconds.

The soviets advance on a broad front

More soviet advancing!

The soviet advance brings them into range of the British guns. Except it is night.

First casualties! The Scimitars of the QDG meet their end....

Planning and scheming on both sides

The Soviet centre is filled with tanks

The soviet right continues forward, hoping to push the British Infantry from the town

The West German commander schemes....

Little wee swingfire vehicles. Tank loved these :)

The arrival of the Afghansty- Hinds vs M109s!

The battle for the airport begins

Harriers arrive to make a mess of a T-72 company

NATO rounds start hitting T-55s and T-72s

Commanders discussing the finer points of dice games

More smoke, more burning vehicles on both sides

Missiles away!

The NATO right flank. Those two Sultan Command vehicles didn't have a chance....

But wait, more hinds!

The NATO left flank. While that is a lot of burning T-72s, there are a LOT of them still active

The NATO right flank, infantry assault!

View of the NATO right flank as the infantry assault goes in

Discussing the finer points of the bayonet charge

Burning vehicles everywhere, as the GHQ relaxes

The Soviet right flank has stalled as the NATO reserves arrive

The West Germans, while under pressure, hold fast

The Soviet centre is filled with burning tanks

The Soviet right flank is filled with burning tanks

And as for the Soviet left? Well... it was much the same story.

It ended up a victory for NATO forces, the blocking forces were able to stall the Soviet advance long enough so that the M1s, Leopard IIs and Chieftans coming on from reserve were able to mop up the rest.

All in all, the game flowed well. We don't know the rules to Team Yankee very well, and so spent more time looking at rulebooks than we (as a group) like. And there was some definite "but it's like this in V4" happening too.

We used cm for all measurements, except for deployment. I think there would be an advantage to mixing/matching even more- the artillery range comes to mind especially. It's a bit odd to have a 2S1, with a range of 15.3km (according to Wiki) not able to hit things....

And I think we would reduce the size of the armies by 25%, the Soviet forces were probably too much of a parking lot.... (which made the artillery being out of range even more painful for me!)

Massive thanks to Pelarel for doing all of the organising, terrain planning, making, cat herding and other tasks!

Pooch