Bolt Action

This week I was introduced to Bolt Action at the Berkeley Vale club. Andy warned us off, using some colourful language in his review of the rules, but we were undeterred. The setting was not the WW2 actions envisaged by the authors but a near future SF setting. Valuable intelligence information was secreted in an artifact in the middle of the table and the objective was to secure the artifact, download the data and leg it. Steve and I faced off against Shaun and Rodger. In game #1 we took out the enemy command team which prevented them downloading anything, and in game #2 we secured the objective, downloaded the data and covered the very rapid retreat of our command team to safety and victory.

My observations of the game were mixed, but in the end generally positive.

I can see why people hate it. As a representation of WW2 small unit tactics it seems pretty poor (excessive squad cohesion for starters) and the morale rules are dreadful. But the simplicity of the rules is such that house ruling is easy and in any case the SF setting we were using made the various rule deficiencies less apparent. the lack of rule density in favour of glossy pictures was also evident, but that seems to be a common trend these days. the game itself was pretty fast and, most importantly, was fun. And it has generated a lot of thoughts for follow-on games. From my own perspective I thought I could cover near-future settings using my 15mm Peter Pig Vietnam stuff with a few SF augments - then I thought about using a developed version to do Vietnam in its own right. Rodger has some house rules for helicopters and I've found some house rules for modern weapons and other changes to improve small unit tactical representation and so we have that lined up for a future game. And Rodg is working on a lovely collection of "District 9" figures and vehicles. I think "Modern / Near Future BA(mod.)" is likely to become a regular item at Berkeley Vale.

All of which is over and above my 2014 plan, which is looking pretty mixed up just now. But c'est la vie and having had this Vietnam collection for getting on for 20 years and not having had them out for a game for at least 10 i reckon a diversion or two is OK :)

Loaches, Landing Craft and Little Friends

Many years ago I built up a sizeable collection of Peter Pig 15mm Vietnam figures, backed up by a load of Roco Minitanks vehicles and Revell Hueys. Of course, "Apocalypse Now" was a great influence, and I always wanted some Loaches to go with my Hueys. Some months ago Battlefront brought out a box set of two Loaches. Lovely models, they go together very quickly and easily, and come with a decent set of transfers (decals to you colonial types) and soe nice flying stands. They were quickly assembled, then languished in the painting pile until this weekend. As I discovered yesterday they are als a dream to paint up. And here they are.

 I'm very pleased at how these came out. But I now have a suspicion that 15mm Vietnam skirmish is about to find itself a higher position in "the plan"

I also finished off the LCM - a basic resin model with some additional bulwarks, a couple of gunners and a covered deck. I have another one of these - not sure what to do to soup that one up.

Finally I've finished off a couple of Siemens Schukhert D.IVs that I've had waiting to be painted for a little while. One painted in the colours of my altar ego, "The Black Hand", the other in a corn snake and purple scheme for Laura. a bit of fun.