Bolt Action - German Medium Machine Gun Team

The Germans were equipped with two excellent machine guns  in the MG34 and the MG42 - known to Allied troops as "Hitler's Buzz Saw" because of its distinctive noise. Unlike other armies, the Germans used the same machine gun both as a squad weapon and as a tripod-mounted support weapon. The tripod mount provided a much more stable firing platform and made it easier to keep up a sustained fire using a belt feed. Therefore, the tripod-mounted machine gun is treated as a medium machine gun, while thee squad weapon is treated as a light machine gun.

The Warlord Games Panzer Grenadier Medium Machine Gun team for use in Bolt Action consists of a gunner, loader and spotter all in prone poses. The  machine gun is mounted on a tripod.

German Medium Machine Gun teams are either regular or veteran troops. The MMG has a range of 36" and because of the "Hitler's Buzz Saw" special rule gets 6 shots per turn instead of 5 shots. It is classed as a Team and Fixed weapon. This is a very powerful support weapon.

Vampifans Views 125 - Monthly Musings 95

It is time for another of my Monthly Musings and I start with another Jim Silke panting of Vampirella. It has been an interesting month for me. Of late I have been doing a lot of painting and modelling but hardly any gaming. That changed this past month. I have played many games of Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter (it's very addictive!), a few games of Wacky Races and even a game of Zombicide:Invader. It felt so satisfying to play so many games.

On the painting and modelling front I have been concentrating on my German Panzer Grenadier army for Bolt Action. I have just about finished painting 30 plastic Warlord Games Panzer Grenadier infantry, a Panzer IV Ausf. H, an Sdkfz 251/10 Hanomag half track with 37mm gun and two Sdkfz 251/1 Hanomag half tracks. All vehicles were produced by Warlord Games. Speaking of them, I made use of their Black Friday sale and bought a King Tiger tank, 3 Tiger 1 tanks and an American M10 Wolverine tank destroyer. The reason for buying so many tanks is that I bought the Tank War supplement for Bolt Action earlier this month. I do plan on buying more Sherman tanks later. I was most impressed with Tank War but my main focus for Bolt Action still remains infantry vs infantry with just a small smattering of vehicles. However, playing Tank War will be an interesting diversion from the norm.

The big news for me is that yesterday I received my Mega package of the Judge Dredd: I Am The Law skirmish game from those fine folk at Warlord Games. A full review of it including the rules and figures will appear on my WOIN blog. Initial impressions are highly favourable. The figures are absolutely first rate although they are rather large at 35mm tall on average. Some may see this as a bad thing and yet another example of scale creep. This does not bother me at all as it means they fit in well with some of my older Judge Dredd miniatures and scale creep has never bothered me that much. As I keep saying, people come in all shapes and sizes so why shouldn't our miniature figures reflect that?

Having played Warlord Games' Strontium Dog sci-fi skirmish game before I am very familiar with the new rules in the Judge Dredd game, which are based on them. By the way, my Judge Dredd WOIN campaign is ready to go and will be played alongside any Judge Dredd: I Am The Law games. I haven't decided yet if they should be connected by running them at the same point in time with the same characters or not. Most likely I will. It would seem to make sense.

There's not much more to report here so I'll sign off and remind you to check out my WOIN blog for all my Judge Dredd news. Cheers, folks!

Bolt Action - Geman Sniper Teams

During the battle of  Stalingrad, Russian snipers took such a heavy toll upon the beleaguered  Wehrmacht that the Germans began to train and equip their own marksmen to undertake a specialist role as snipers. A variety of rifles were used for sniping including the standard KAR-98K and the semi-automatic Gewehr 43, all fitted with the high quality ZF39 telescopic sight, and equipped with precision-manufactured ammunition.

These four 28mm scale figures are produced by Artizan Designs and are classed as German Late War Snipers. I was a bit surprised that Warlord Games do not make any Panzer Grenadier sniper teams. They do make a Waffen SS sniper team, which could be used but I'll be using those in my SS army. These Artizan Designs figures are perfect for a couple of Panzer Grenadier sniper teams.

In Bolt Action sniper teams usually consist of a sniper and a spotter and these figures represent two snipers and two spotters. I do like them a lot and snipers can be very deadly if used well. These will certainly see action in my Western Europe games of 1944-45.

Bolt Action - German High Command

This set of three 28mm scale German High Command figures is available from Warlord Games as part of their Bolt Action range.

 They are poring over a map spread out on a small table, which is also included in the set.

Although they are shown all grouped together on a single 60mm diameter base on the Warlord Games website I have based them all individually.

These are not named characters but I probably will name them some time soon. As well as using them as possible high ranking leaders (Captain level or higher) for your German forces, they would make for a fine objective, much like the downed RAF pilot I showed recently. An Allied mission could be to capture one or all of them, or perhaps an assassination mission in the style of the Dirty Dozen.

Wacky Races Deluxe Edition Boardgame

I recently received the Wacky Races Deluxe Edition boardgame produced by CMON. The Deluxe Edition differs from the standard edition in that it comes with pre-painted cars, which was a huge deciding factor in me buying it. I wanted the pre-painted cars - they are gorgeous (see photo below). Painting all eleven cars would have been far too time consuming for me, especially considering how many other projects I have on the go.
The game is really simple to play and I've found it a lot of fun. Although designed for 2-6 players I've been playing it solo by randomly choosing three cars to control and adding three random neutral cars. There must always be six racers plus Dick Dastardly (whom no one controls) in the game.

Here are the game contents - rulebook, a deck of 40 racer specific cards (four per racer), a deck of 64 movement cards, a deck off 16 Dick Dastardly trap cards, a quick play rule sheet, 11 miniature cars, 10 racer dashboards, assorted terrain tiles and the starting grid. The components are very well made and produced.

Here is a close up of the 11 highly detailed pre-painted cars. I love them!

Each racer starts with a dashboard to place their special cards on. They can be played at any time in the game but once played are turned over to show they have been used. They feature various tactics that are specific to each racer and as such are very flavourful.

Here is an example of the board layout. The terrain tiles are placed randomly to make the race track consisting of four different terrain types. Players  each receive three movement cards per turn and must match them with the tile they are on to advance. For the first tile they move to each turn they can play any movement card, ensuring they always move at least one tile per turn. After that they must match the ties they are on with the appropriate movement card, so they could move one, two or three tiles per turn depending on the cards they pick. No dice are used in this game - it is entirely card driven. Tactic cards play a big part of the game. Knowing when to play them is key. For example, when I was playing the Red Baron in his Crimson Haybailer, I kept his advance 4 tiles card to the finale and won with it as he overtook the two cars in front of him who were closer to the finishing line!
Race cars are placed at either side of a game tile when they move. If both sides are occupied the car advances to the next available tile. Dick Dastardly, however, moves along the centre of each tile.
Dick Dastardly randomly moves by moving onto a tile that matches the movement card on top of the discard pile at the end of each player's turn. If he moves into the lead, he stops and lays a trap card then retreats to the back of the pack of racers. Note that he can never win the race but he does cause much mayhem.
I really like  this game a lot. It brings back so many happy memories of watching the cartoons. Indeed, I also bought the DVD with all 34 episodes of the original Wacky Races cartoons on three discs. So who is my favourite racer? Obviously it is the Creepy Coupe driven by the Gruesome Twosome. It is the only car with a vampire driver!