delayed action

Are you sitting down folks? Actual gaming happened! As part of the Conquest gaming convention over Easter in Melbourne there was a Bolt Action Tank Wars event. Ten players participated, so it was only a modest gathering but it was so nice to see some friends again irl and roll dice together.

Tanks Wars is not a form of Bolt Action I have much experience with. I played a few games when it first game out, but it was long enough ago I didn’t remember any of the lessons I may have learnt. It was however an ace opportunity to get my Hetzer assault guns all on the table at the same time.

Led by a Stuart light tank, Chris’ US force heads straight down the middle 50cals blazing. Just the way it should be.

A Hetzer holds the cross road: hull down it stalls an enemy probe on the right flank

Chris’ Marines push forward. Vets or not they couldn’t take the objective in the face machine gun fire from the Hetzers

Last game of the day, and Django’s Soviets withstood my initial shooting to surge forward and sweep me for the table.

This IS2 didn’t do a lot of damage, but I couldn’t stop it either. In the end my guns couldn’t position themselves to pierce its thick frontal armour

I don’t think I managed my assets very well on the day. Aggressive early, I didn’t leave enough in reserve to hold on in the final turns and drew or lost every game.

Thanks to my opponents: Pedro (Soviets), Chris (US Marines), and Django (Soviets), for three fun games.

Hezters gonna Hetz

I spoke too soon that my Budapest Defenders were ready to go. And also that I hadn’t bought anything for the army, that all the models I used had come from my lead and plastic backlog. Well, there were just too many sales on recently, and I ordered a set of three Hetzers from Warlord Games.

The Budapest campaign book has an armoured list with a core of three assault guns, which comes with some fun special rules, or one will fit nicely into to my existing pocket defenders list. The Wirblewind will remain an option, so it is good to have choices.

Hetzers are great support choice in BA. The weak sides rule does make them more vulnerable but also cheaper, and it pretty easy to negate with some decent deployment.

The Hungarian late war paint scheme is pretty easy. Dunkelgelb and some weathering and they’re ready for the front. The Warlord models are OK, although the wheel sections do feel unnecessarily fiddly. The kit is very flexible, coming with the options to make anti-tank, flame or flak versions all in the same kit, and decals for either German or Hungarian forces. Nice.

That means my little Hungarian project is out to around 1,800 points, which is actually quite a large force. It may not be complete yet …

Budapest Defense

Together at last. Basing done and ready to hit the table. A couple of months ago I started on a new project, a Budapest Pocket Defender list for Bolt Action. One of the nice things about this army is that I did not buy anything new for it. All of the models have come from the cupboard. It is an eclectic little group, with models from Black Tree Design, Artizan and Warlord Games, and contains both Hungarian and German units making for something that looks a little different on a WW2 table.

Pioneers (Black Tree Design) in their Hanomag (Warlord Games)

Grenadiers, mix of Black Tree Design and Artizan

Warlord Games MMG

Medium Mortar (Artizan)

The whole force is led by these German officers (Black Tree Design)

Hungarian sniper team made from Warlord plastic Germans

Hungarians with an anti-tank rifle; useful against soft-skins (Warlord Games)

Hungarians from Warlord Games

This force may grow yet, but with the addition of a tank, maybe a Wirblewind (painted but never really had a part in my mid-war Italian theatre themed army), I think we are good to go. And that is a nice feeling.

D.

Support Choices

Work on my Budapest Pocket Defenders continues. These support choices complete the initial models I intend for this Bolt Action list. My plan is to base them all at once in a vague effort to tie the otherwise disparate group together.

First is a medium mortar from Artizan.

I think the spotter is from Warlord Games. He tells me his name is Harry.

Medium machine guns have a mixed reputation in Bolt Action. I nearly always include one in a German list, it just seems right even if they can be a bit fragile in the game. (You can thank me later for not saying they’re hit and miss.) This one is by Warlord Games.

A sniper team, painted as Hungarians but made from Warlord Games plastic Germans. I don’t know why the spotter has a book.

I also painted a pair of forward observers from Warlord Games. I’m not sure if they will get much use, but at least they are not bare metal in a box, which is a win all of its own.

Not far off from a full family portrait. Yay! I’m pleased with how quickly this little project came together. And just in time as the opportunity for actual gaming returns. In a suitably social distanced way, of course.

Maybe I’ll see you over a battlefield sometime soon.

D.

Pioneers

Next unit for my Budapest pocket project, a unit of German Pioneers. This will be a veteran squad, most likely ready to dig in on an objective. In Bolt Action, veterans are hard to shift, and the squad based flame thrower will add a bit of a challenge for enemy units who get too close.

The miniatures are from Black Tree Designs. I took a bit of time with their faces and insignia. I think they came out OK. The basing will wait, I am going to do the whole army at once. Now onto some Heer Grenadiers. The force is very eclectic, both matching the theme of the desperate -and doomed- defense of Budapest. It is also being achieved by not buying anything new, all the models so far have come from the existing backlog.

D.

Hungarians

A project with the working title, “I don’t remember buying these, I wonder if I have enough in the cupboard to make a wee army”. I’ll think of a snappier title later. Anyway, a random squad of Hungarians have moved to the painted pile (bases pending).

I haven’t done very detailed faces, but I’m quite happy with how this squad turned out.

The squad includes panzerfausts, so I’m guessing late war. A brief search found some Germans from Black Tree Design and some support weapons (more Warlord). There is a fun looking list in the Fortress Budapest book, a mixed Hungarian-German Budapest Pocket Defenders. I think I will be able to come close to creating a small army for this list. Maybe I will buy a tank to match, although I my Wirblewind will fit the theme nicely.

See you on the streets.