First Impressions of Bolt Action

All images stolen from Warlord games (Thanks!)

So in my last blog post you'll find that I got to do my first real play through of the Bolt Action rules. I wanted to spend some time today looking at the different bits of the game and what I like and don't like about it. Overall, It's a great fun beer and pretzels sort of game that will motivate me to get some 28mm Dubya Dubya 2 mini's painted. Something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't had any excuse to get started on. Mostly, I think the rules are good and the game play is loose, fast and fun.

For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, Bolt Action is the new 28mm wargame from Warlord Games. It focuses on the concept of the "reinforced platoon" as the primary format for building your armies. This means that you'll have in every army 1 foot hq of 1 to 3 guys and two footslogging units of (normally) around 5 to 10 guys. Each of your basic platoons can be geared up with all the gubbins you'd expect from a nationality. Germans get a bevy of AT and machine gun assets, Americans get the BAR, the Tommie Gun and what not. After you've figured out your base units you get to pick from a pretty comprehensive list of additional assets to reinforce the basic two squad structure. Everything from snipers and medics to infantry guns and artillery piece armored cars, jeeps and tanks are yours to choose depeding on the list/army you're going for.

Armies are built with the traditional point value system and you can expect a 1,000 point game to have anywhere between 5 and 10 units.

Bolt Action Bat Rep: Rangers Vs. SS (Noobtastic!)

Today, we re-enter the NEWB ZONE as I am very excited to bring to you our first attempt at a Bolt Action Bat Rep. Me, and new Throck of Warfighter (and very old friend) Amok decided to throw down 750 points of SS vs. Rangers and just fight over victory points to test out the rules and the feel of the game. Bolt Action seems fun, and is certainly a lighter lift than Flames. But, after a couple of reads through the rule I'm a little worried about the abstraction of the rules.

For the uninitiated, Bolt Action is all about the "reinforced platoon" as its basic unit. That means a solid core of a couple of squads of PBI (with about 5 to 15 dudes each) with an HQ and then support elements like a tank, machine guns, mortars, armored cars etc...

For each list you pretty much need to buy an HQ (1 to 3 dudes) and the two squads of grunts and then add on whatever else your army list allows (although, no more than 1 tank per platoon). There are all sorts of ways to pimp your basic guys such as giving them SMG's, Panzerfausts, Assault Rifles etc... Also, with the new German Army book the level of vehicles to choose from runs the gamut from early war to late. I'm looking forward to the rest of the army books to get everyone on an even footing. The good news there is there isn't that long to wait. The new Wargames Illustrated has these coming out every two months between now and November 2013 with the Americans in January and the Brits in March.

I feel very much like this when ever I open a new rule set.

To be honest, I love painting in 28mm and so that is the biggest draw for me for Bolt Action. That, and you get big tanks, much bigger than their 15mm equivalent. There is something cool about pushing that Sherman or Puma around the field on the 1/48 scale.

Another great bit about the 28mm form of the hobby is that there are so many great companies making excellent mini's for the WW2 period. The BoltAction.Net forums have a good list to get you started. But today's bat rep features a Puma by Italeri, SS by Victory Force and Warlord Games and Rangers and Shermans also by Warlord.

For this first game I'll be playing the SS (why do I always get stuck with the Bosche?) and Amok will be handling the 2nd Rangers with Sherman support.

Lastly, apologies for the unpainted-ness of the models. I'm working diligently on getting both armies painted up (in fact, since this bat rep was photographed the rangers are now almost half done and the Sherman is nearly complete!) So without any more ado, the Bat Rep!

Aaaaaand, we're back! (with Bat Rep!)

The Throck of War Team, back from some needed R&R
I'm that saucy minx in the center.

Well, hello there stranger! It's been a good long time since I've been able to do anything with my humble blog, but I'm very happy to say ThrockOfWar is back in action! Having navigated an election, a super storm, getting my car totaled, the holidays part 1 and a pretty nasty illness it's taken me a bit longer to get here than I would've liked. But here I am, nay here we are! The Throck of War team is still in tact and we've even gained a few members.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up a backlog of stuff I've photographed over the last couple of months including:

~An Afrika Corps photo study for my mid war army, with WIP pics of the actual army to follow.
~WIP Picks of my 101st Para's & Welsh Guards for some upcoming market garden fun
~A pic dump from a Tournament at Huzzah Hobbies from late September where I got housed but Loon actually won the darn thing.
~Bolt Action Learn to Play fun and WIP pics of my SS and Ranger armies
~And hopefully much much more!

But first up I bring you a most excellent Bat Rep as last night my boy from the WWPD Forums Pyrrhic Victory and I threw down an epic 1780 point late war battle.

Scenario: Counter Attack
Points: 1780
Attacker: 99th ID by Pyrrhic Victory (Confident Trained from Devil's Charge)
Defender: 12. Volksgrenadierkompanie by Throckmorton (Confident Vet's from NUTS!)
Place: Our FLGS Eagle & Empire, Alexandria, VA.

The Board:

The Board with objectives. I deploy bottom right, Pyrrhic deploys top right. 

Read on for the list's and the actual bat rep!

28mm SS from Warlord Games

The new 28mm WW2 Mini's Game from
Osprey Publishing and Warlord Games

So, Bolt Action officially launched Monday (I think) and I finally got my copy of the book yesterday. Needless to say, I'm pretty jazzed and like what I've read so far. It also got me motivated to finish those SS troops I post up earlier in the week.

These figures come from the Warlord Games Waffen-SS box set and will be the veterans in the German army I'm building. Why did I go for Waffen-SS? Because I'm painting Fallschirm's for my mid-war flames army, I have no plans on doing a 15mm SS army and because they get the coolest toys and the best looking camo, in my humble opinion.

Fantastic Movie about the Hurtgen Forrest

After some research I decided to have them be fall based (think post-Market Garden, just around the time of the Hurtgen Forrest) which mean a brown oak leaf camo scheme, although I may do some in green as well in future batches. And honestly, I think they turned out pretty well.

The one thing I'd change from the paint job right now is the pants. I think I'm going to keep them field grey throughout the rest of what I paint. It may not (or may) be strictly accurate, but in terms of breaking up the model, I think it will help.

One of my original complaints about the Warlord Games models, that the faces look cartoony, turns out to be a bit over blown (I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong!). It all comes down to how you paint them, and even the more stoic faces turned out pretty nicely in end.

I've clearly got some more work to do on my eyes, but after being away from the larger scale for awhile I think they've turned out OK. Overall, I'm quite happy with both the quality of the models and my final product.

As always, I'm looking for ways to get better, so let me know what you think!

Here's the pics!

Bolt... Action? Yep!

The faces on the models kind of look like that.
Wacky right?

Well hello there dear readers! Man I have been sick the last couple of days. Bad for work, but good for you! I got a solid start on some Bolt Action figures I picked up a dropzone games (a fabulous store you should try and get to if you're ever in the DC/Baltimore area).

But! You say "Bolt Action Throck? I thought this was a flames of war site!?" To which I heartily respond "Look to your right good sir! See that blog description? We are primarily Flames but other stuff too!"

Why Bolt Action? Because I like World War 2, the look of the uniforms, the scope of history, the amazing stories. And it's new and shiny. And who doesn't like that?

If you don't know what bolt action is, well, it's a 28mm World War 2 miniatures game. It's published jointly by Warlord Games (who'll make the mini's) and the venerable historical publishing house, Osprey Publishing. Intriguingly, there was a whole line of mini's from Warlord before there was ever even a rule set, in other words, we can buy all we want without the wait! Score!

For those of us chomping a bit more at the... crap... bit. Head on over to BoltAction.Net to check out the WWPD guys take on the game it is, as always, quality. Either way, I was inspired by what I had read and seen to start collecting a couple of small forces. In this case, I'm going to do US Rangers (I'm told they lead the way or... something) and Waffen SS (cause every good guy needs an excellently dressed bad guy to kill).