Monday, January 5, 2015

Bolt Action & Flames of War... planning ahead!



 When it comes to miniature wargaming, it seems you have a couple of camps: one collects/buys what looks cool and will build a list around what they've picked up, the second will plan out a list, tweak, change, etc before making any purchases.  I definitely fall into the second category, and as such I've recently ordered the Bolt Action Rulebook along with the US & German Armybooks, and really briefly, I'd like outline some of my initial plans for BA and FoW as well...





First up for BA, I already knew I was going to do two forces based off the allied invasion of Sicily/Italy, and in a mirror of my FoW army, I plan to do another set of US Rangers vs Hermann Goring Division.  To go into slightly more detail, all the infantry will be Rangers, backed up by some 601st Tank Destroyers in M10's, and possible some mortars to represent the 83rd Chem.  Actually, I'd like to have an M3 75mm GMC, but I'm not sure if they even have rules for one.  I'll probably replace the M10 with a Sherman if I want to represent Sicily battles.  On the German side, I plan to do an HG Panzergrenadier list, I also wouldn't mind fitting some "arti" in, as well as a Panzer IV or a Tiger.  I would also like to at some point down the road do a Panzerkompani using Panzer IV's once I get the Tank War book.   With the choice of forces out of the way. the next step will be to make up some lists, followed by picking up some models...


28mm US for Bolt Action...


Don't let the scary art scare you!
In the realm of historical wargaming, there are TONS of options, especially so for WWII.  I had a couple of criteria:  Look good, and be affordable... luckily after playing GW, everything looks more affordable!  Originally, I was going to stick to Warlord models, as Bolt Action is a Warlord game.  Looking around at The Warstore, I came across Wargames Factory's Historical stuff.  BOOM, sold!  Don't let the box art fool you, the models themselves look pretty nice, and you definitely get a lot of them for your money.  Which leads me to my first bit of Flames of War info, Wargames Factory also does 15mm, with the same looks and similar affordability.  Thus, I'm thinking of picking up a couple of boxes of the US infintry to use for Rangers in FoW.  I do plan to do a quick unboxing/review once I have the actual models in hand.


15mm US for FoW...


Back on the Flames of War side, I decided to do a little bit list maintenance on my US & German lists in light of finding some different standard points totals listed for FoW tournaments.  I should note, even though I'm NOT a tournament player, I find it always good to build towards the tournament standards just to be safe and as good practice for if i ever do decide to attend one.  I plan to start with my list for my Late War Germans, then move down to Mid War.  The main goal is of course to find out if I need to make any new purchases, though I suspect that I will not need to.  I'll do the same treatment for my US, start in LW, move to MW, although I do not have anything purchased for my US, so it will be all new once I get around to doing them.


Last, but not least, I need to build a fitting table to go along with my planned "Italy Battles" theme, which is a different struggle all together!

... and there you have it!  Keep on the look out for a few armylists in the near future, the unboxing/review of the Wargames Factory stuff, and future BA/FoW hobby progress.  who knows, maybe I'll actually be bale to get in a game one day!

- WuhSawBe -

4 comments:

  1. Good luck with your goals for 2015, sounds like you've got plenty to keep you busy :-)

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    1. Thanks! I'm definitely leaning more towards the Historicals this year, hopefully I'll be able to get some games in once I'm done!

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  2. Spare yourself the money- don't invest anything in Late War Germans. They've been hopeless ever since Blood, Guts and Glory released.
    There's simply nothing Germans can put on the table to compete with US 7 AD. Nothing.

    Since a lot of folks don't believe me when I say this, and I've been saying it for months as my own Germans get dusty on the shelf, I was greatly relieved to see the famous Bill Wilcox step up and say the same thing at WWPD not so long ago:
    http://www.wwpd.net/2014/11/building-better-german-tournament-tank.html

    Spend your money on American Tanks- particularly a box of Jumbos for 'Jumbos lead the way' (the first shot to successfully hit the platoon from EVERY PLATOON THAT SUCCESSFULLY HIT IT is automatically taken by the Jumbo at FA13. Your Panthers won't hurt them), and Easy Eights (AT 13 and Stabilizers- what more needs be said?).

    2 Platoons of that at Vet, or 3 at Trained (you can run Trained cuz the Jumbo will take most hits, the first one that gets through goes on a wound-soak Sherman you include in the platoon), run with Patton so the whole army makes a Spearhead move...

    I very rarely ever lasted into turn 3, and I tried running everything against that list- 14 Panther IV's just melted. They get no save against an Easy Eight.
    :(

    Grab some Americans and hit a tournament! They're great fun and I've met so many cool people at events all over the place. Just don't bring Germans. Trust me- you'll be in for a very, VERY sad day.

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    1. That seems to be a common theme in a lot WWII games, Germans tend to have it a bit rougher, and I knew going into FoW that LW Germans would have the hardest time of all. To be honest though, I'm far from a tournament player, heck, I have yet to even play my first game! That said, Ive already got a fully painted German army for both MW/LW, so no purchases would really be necessary for my Germans. 2,000+ points at last count for LW. Mostly just book keeping/list management, maybe at best some AA. Any big FoW purchases in the future probably would be towards a US force, but again, it would probably be more of a fun, historical theme list than a face-beater of any sort...

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