Bolt Action and Bolt Action Vietnam

Looking at my blog the other day I realised that it has been over two months since my last post.
So what have I been doing? First of all I attented the Bolt Action tournament and met a lot of really nice guys. It also confirmed to me that Bolt Action is just a very nice game, that can be played very casually.

After returning from the tournament, I finished up my Russian BA army, and made the decision to sell my Blitzkrieg Germans - the reason being that I wanted to get into Konflikt '47. I made a huge order for some Russian and German Konflikt '47 models.

My Blitzkrieg Germans were sold within a couple of days and I decided to use some of the money on a late war Waffen SS army, that I thought would be more fitting for Konflikt '47.

My friend Michael who normally does not like to play historically based squad games, was persuaded to give BA a try. And to his surprise he was hooked. So when I had finished with the Konflikt' 47 models we tried a few games with them and the Blitzkrieg Germans and Russians, but found out that the normal BA rules just play better, so for now Konflikt '47 has been scrapped.

I went to another BA tournament on June 1st and brought my friend Michael with my. May had been spent painting my Waffen SS and Michael's US Airborne, so we were eager to give them a go.
Funny thing is that I did not really like the look of my Waffen SS army. All the different camouflage patterns that I had painted made the army look very incohisive to me, and when the army itself did not play well, I decided to sell again.

The Waffen SS minis were sold quickly and this time I wanted to get an army that would both look good, cohesive, play differently than the Germans and if possible an army that would not be one that a lot of other players brought to the table. After a lot of thinking and looking at minis I made the decision to go for Hungarians - and placed an order with Great Escape Games for their newly released Hungarians and Mad Bob Miniatures for some Hungarian vehicles. Looking very much forward to painting them.

During May I also got the urge to try and make something with the Vietnam War. And then I stumbled upon an article about adapting BA for Vietnam.

Around 6 -7 years ago I owned some The Assault Group Vietnam minis and I decided to invest in some of their figures again - the others having been given away. I also placed an order with Sarissa for some of their Far East buildings. These were very easy to build and paint. I choose to add some soaked towels to the roofs to make them look more natural.

The minis will also be used for a new roleplaying campaign - Tour of Darkness - that we are starting up.

Last week I finished the Viet Cong minis, but then had to concentrate on getting some of the other minis painting for our Tour of Darkness game, before painting up the GIs and NVA minis.

I think that the BA Vietnam game will be a lot different than normal BA as there will be almost no vehicles and the VC will have some very different National Characteristic rules.

So despite the blog not being update for a long time, I have been very active hobby wise. Painting up an army for Bolt Action to a very good standard is something that I do in about a weeks time, and this has lead to some inquiries from people in the Danish gaming community about whether I can paint their army for them. This is something I like to do, as it helps finance the next project that I want to try.

Therefore if anyone like the look of the minis and would like me to paint for them let me know in the comments.

Bolt Action: Blitzkrieg Germans

At the beginning of the month my interest in Gothic Horror was rekindled and while it is still there it has taken a back seat to a project that I have been circling around since the New Year - WW2 - Stalingrad!

Initially I thought I would be using Chain of Command from TooFatLardies, and while a fine set of rules I was pointed towards Bolt Action as a game which is much easier to get into. After a testgame with my friend Rune I was sold and decided to go with Bolt Action.

Bolt Action also gives me the opportunity to play some Weird World War 2 with the Konflikt 47 rules - models have already been ordered.

Rune also pointed me towards an upcoming Bolt Action tournament in Denmark this Saturday, so I will be going to my first tournament ever.

Regarding the miniatures they are all from Warlord and I think they are of excellent quality and paint of really well. The bases are made with Stalingrad in mind, but I might focus on Konflict 47 later on.

Back to Gothic Horror

Been a long time since I last made a post, but I have not been idle though. Time has been spent painting up a Napoleonic Bavarian army for Sharp Practice 2 for my friend Rune. This was completed just before February arrived. That army on top of my own Napoleonic Austrian army and my Retreat from Moscow armies completely drained my painting mojo - 250 figures in 3 months do that to you. So I really wanted to take a brake from painting, this is despite having just purchased a small German and Soviet force for Chain of Command.

The wargamer's "Uhh new shiny" curse has really gotten a firm hold on me during the last year or so and I find myself interested in so many projects - luckily only investing in a fraction of them. But my interest and focus can easily jump back and forth between 2-3 projects in just a week.

My break from painting lasted around a fortnight then I felt like painting something small scale again. Of all the projects that I ended up with Victorian Gothic Horror was the last thing I thought would get hold of my interest. The inspiration and interest came almost out of the blue. I decided to watch the Animated Batman Feature - Gotham by Gaslight, where Batman hunts Jack the Ripper in 19th century Gotham City. It was a good movie, not great, but somehow I wanted to get back into Victorian Gothic Horror.

Having purchased some figure back in 2016 that I had not painted I started to get out all my boxes with my Empire of the Dead figures. Looking at some of the figures I had painted 7-8 years ago I could see how much better a miniature painter I had become. Still I did not want to strip almost a 100 figures and start all over again. Some of the figures where given some highlights and washes to make them stand out a bit more.

The newly painted figures are all from West Wind - and I have tried to take my time with them, instead of my normal assembly-line speed painting.

 Prof. Moriarty and his gang (still need to paint Irene Adler though)

 Gypsies from Westwind's Vampire Wars range

My favorite of the bunch

I have also decided that I want to upgrade my terrain, and once I have finished a commission paint job - hopefully this week - I will turn my attention to some of the scratchbuilt building I made some years ago.

Ruleswise I have decided that Empire of the Dead is to crappy a set of rules, and have therefore bought the In Her Majesty's Name supplement Gothic Horror, and will hopefully try out the rules this week. I have attempted to recreate all the Empire of the Dead faction in the IHMN rules as I find the factions full of flavour, but just with very bad rules.

This hopefully means that updates on this blog will be more frequent and a mix of both gaming reports, terrain building and painting showcases.

Napoleonic Austrian army

Napoleonic Austrian army finished this evening.

72 figures from Victrix and Front Rank, which gives me the following force for Sharp Practice:

5 x Line Infantry

2 x Jaeger Skirmishers

1 x Third Rank Skirmishers

1 x Artillery + 5 crew

7 x Leaders

1 x Musician

Figures arrived a few days before New Year, and have been fairly easy to paint, so only 2½ weeks work. Looking very cool I think and a lot different than my Retreat from Moscow armies.

1812 Retreat from Moscow - The Count's Tale

Last night I introduced Rune to Sharp Practice, more specific my 1812 Retreat from Moscow setting. This was the first time that I played the setting with my new minis, table, terrain and with Sharp Practice. I lined up the French, while Rune took charge of the Russians.

The table was 8x4 and we had forces amounting to roughly 85 points, so a large game.

The French led by Maj. Stepháne LeLoup had to find supplies and were acting on a tale told by a Russian count, which had convinced Le Emperor that the count's summer residence and his hunting lodges had a large quantity of supplies.

It proved to be harder for the French than anticipated as a Russian detachment led by Maj. Andrei Maximov would be arriving at the scene to try and prevent the French.

What followed was a great game, with many highlights including:

• Cossacks charging into the rear of the French Light Cavalry, wiping them completely out.
• The French Dismounted Cavalry replusing a charge by the Russian Hussars
• The French Veteran Chasseurs standing firm and laying down fire on the charging Cossacks, before the Voltigeurs added more fire.
• Three groups of Russian Jaegers trying to shoot the French Dismounted Cavalry, but despite their superior firepower did almost no damage.

In the end the Russian decided to retreat as their cavalry was more or less disabled. 

It was a fun game and a great evening in the company of Rune.

Here are some pictures from our game.