Monday, March 30, 2020

Home Schooling for Wargamers (Bolt Action)

This past Sunday I decided to teach my 11 year old how to play Bolt Action WW2.  He had asked me last weekend but I needed to do some tidying up and such so I made him a deal.  If he read the core Bolt Action rules during the week, we would play a game this past weekend.  Sure enough he read all the core rules!


I wanted to keep this simple and somewhat balanced, but also include armour and infantry.  We played British airborne vs. German Fallschirmjager.


British OOB:

1 x Sherman Firefly
2 x Cromwell
1 x Para Infantry Section
1 x Para Officer (+ Rifleman)
1 x Para Medic
1 x Para PIAT Team
1 x Para MMG Team

German OOB:

1 x Panzer IV
2 x Panzer III
1 x Fallschirmjager Infantry Section
1 x Fallschirmjager Officer (+ Rifleman)
1 x Fallschirmjager Medic
1 x Fallschirmjager PIAT Team
1 x Fallschirmjager MMG Team

He elected to play the Germans, mostly because I think he liked the camo pattern on the tanks.

I also decided to use a 4 foot by 6 foot table with a simple setup of just trees and fences/hedgerows.  No buildings or built up areas.  You can see the setup below.


So off we went.  My dice were more terrible than normal ... I don't recommend facing off against the luck of kids!  By the end of the game I had only managed to knock out one of the Panzer IIIs --- yes, just 1!!!  He destroyed all three of my tanks, killed my PIAT team and my Officer.  Tis a sad day when you have to actually use your officer to try to kill enemy units, but I was throwing everything I could at him by this point!

So, massive victory for the offspring.  I think the seed has been successfully planted.

Crappy phone pictures below of the action ...




















Friday, March 20, 2020

New LOTR Stuff

Hello everyone from "shelter in place" California.  Fortunately so far both my family and myself have stayed healthy.  I hope your families and yourselves are keeping safe and healthy during these unprecedented times.

The next wave of LOTR miniatures are now complete, in-hand and put on bases as of last night.  I took some pictures using my trusty phone.

Painted by the excellent Mark Brooks.

This will be used for my Charge of the Mumaks
and Battle for the Pelennor Fields games.


Helm's Deep versions.


Helm's Deep versions - these I plan to use similar to how
I used special characters for my Star Wars Hoth game
(on orders boards).


The Three Hunters.








The characters below will be used for the Warg Attack scenario.





A start on my project to do Goblin Town - Thorin's Company ...











There you go.  Lots going on ... starting to get some more time for hobby stuff now.