Bolt Action Plastic T-34/85

For my birthday I got a very useful kit for my Soviet Army, (thanks Colin!). The Bolt Action T-34/85 isn't one that would have picked myself but it will be very handy for future BA games where some German player just must have his kittys. (Panthers or Tigers). I've heard there is a T-34/76 turret available on its own somewhere. Anyone?

Everything fit nicely but I got a good tip about bogging the surface.

I did some butchery of the mudguards as it's a lot easier with platic kits vs resin.

Waiting on final detail and tank riders!

Soviet Naval Infantry and SU-76M

Finally got some completed Soviets to show after months of back burner work. I also have some completed pics of the SU-76 I got on Poochs suggestion. Very cool model as I mentioned back a bit. The Naval Infantry models are a mix of all of the Bolt Action ones and a few Black Tree Minis as well I think.

1st and second squads will be joined by a third and costed as tank riders. The partizans are the free conscript squad. I also have a Maxim and a 82mm mortar in the works.

1st Squad

2nd Squad

Partizans

SU-76M

SU-76M crew compartment

[Bolt Action] On Sakhalin Island, there will be blood!

Had a good throw down with Jamie for the first time in yonks. He had just got the new Soviet book from Warlord games so he had a proper list for his awesome minis that he's been working on for some time.
These included the fearsome Soviet sappers, complete with flamethrowers and body armour. He had two short squads of them, plus a squad of my fave Razvedki, a sniper team, a 120mm mortar and observer as well as his officer and the free squad of conscripts.
I noticed that he had forgotten his T-34/85, I began to breathe easier.
I had my usual guys. I will continue to bring my AT grenades, and upgrade my 60mm to a medium mortar, but I will not forget to upgrade the Water Buffalo to HMG's. I am ordering a few BAR's to stiffen my squads up and I should probably get a bazooka...ahem. Shopping list post coming up soon.
Anyhoo roughly 675 points each.

Assault Engineers are as scary as they are expensive! 21 points each.

We rolled and I was defending in the same scenario as last time, defender gets half on, rolls to enter the last quarter, attacker goes all in! (I decided the other day when this was arranged, that we were fighting on Sakhalin island, trying to restore Japanese sovereignty to them, we suspected there was oil reserves...)
I plonked down a rifle squad on my right in a ruin. The MMG team went to the extreme left in a wood and my Scout Sniper team went right next to the objective. My Officer and Corpsmen units approached quickly thereafter.

The oft mentioned 'free' squad of conscripts. That's 12d of shooting folks!

His squad on conscripts was right in front with a squad of assault engineers on both sides of them and the sneaky razvedki crawling through a wood on right, aiming for the ruins as well.

My favorite Soviets, the Razvedki. This photo doesn't do them justice.

Sure enough, first move they edge further forward but are still out of line of sight.

Marine Scout Sniper team lurking and trading shots with their opponents.

The sniper duelling commences, getting multiple hits on each other but no kills other than a hapless Soviet flamethrower that we shot for entertainment purposes.

First squad holding my right flank. This would be the main point of effort.

I knew he was going to through a lot at my first squad, but they had to hold out! Second squad was on the way. In a critical move when they did arrive I moved them into direct support of the first.

These guys attracted a lot of attention from my MMG and sniper and would pay for it.

Jamie cheekily runs this squad of sappers right at me in the open, albeit at long range. We obligingly machine-gunned them  repeatedly. Eventually pinning them completely.

If my mortars would only range in.

While they massed for the assault I couldn't get my mortars to range in, they kept moving!

The Razvedki are my new sneaky neighbors

The Soviet recon boys moved in next door and then their sapper buddies flamethrowered first squad!

Last three standing in first squad after getting torched!

They held their positions though. At least until a direct hit from a 120mm mortar round killed them all!

Things were looking grim!

The 'old man' arrives to do his part supporting his brothers.

The Lt and his Platoon Sergeant and RTO move into the gap. Firing on the move from their Thompsons as they occupy another ruin and wait for the onslaught.

The flamethrower team gets their first kills of many for the night.

Seeing the opportunity Pfc Spunkmeyer runs forward of second squad and flamethrowers the razvedki to such an extent that the few survivors flee. (He may have been goaded into action by his A-gunner, Chesty;)

After this I got some dice one after another. The LVT moved up and MG'd the Soviet officer and his adjutant to pieces.
Then second squad moved into the smoking ruin that the razvedki had just fled.
Next turn this allowed them to assault the second sapper squad which had been whittled down by the flamethrower again! (Rolled to not run out of fuel twice.)
After that there was just the mopping up really. Including, yes, flaming the conscripts and machinegunning the mortar.

Fun game Jamie! I should remember to borrow your dice more often, as I will settle for ones that don't act in strict defiance of math.
Sadly I need to man my LVT in order to shoot it. It looks like my Corpsman will be cruising around with them in the future.

[Bolt Action] Near a vineyard, somewhere in Italy...

Had my first game of Bolt Action last night with Nathan. He has been playing his German list around a little bit vs Jamie and they looked like they were having fun so I was keen to try it out as well.
We decided on 700 points as that's about everything I have.;-)
The scenario was 'Maximum Attrition', you get the picture; enter the board and start smashing each other.
The board is a good mix of hedges and woods with a couple roads, somewhere in Italy was offered as a location?

Wehrmacht Sniper and spotter

 Nathan's army is thoroughly well designed and looks great. A mix of Warlord and Artizan mini's and a Company B Luchs. He also has a ton of panzerfausts and assault rifles!
He has a Lieutenant with Plt Sgt and RTO
Two squads of Veteran Panzergrenadiers with many assault rifles and a few panzerfausts
Two squads of Inexperienced Volksgrenadiers with the same
a sniper team
a PzKpw II Luchs Recce tank

USMC Scout/Sniper team

The game is easy to grasp and pretty fun. I like the dice based orders system it makes it very easy to manage and helps keep you from forgetting which units have acted.
My first kill was a veteran NCO by my Scout Sniper team on the right. (Sadly they spent the rest of the game celebrating this, as it was also their last. Very unprofessional guys.)

Grunts moving up on the left

My Water Buffalo was my only regular unit and it was opposed by the aforementioned Pz II. As soon as we started the LVT was trying to hide from the 48" range of the Lynx's 20mm cannon!

A frikkin tank!

The LVT actually survived the first bursts from the autocannon and tried to threaten the advancing Landsers on their right but couldn't get activated in time. Only one 90 degree turn per move as well. Remember that.;-)

Flamethrower team running from the Water Buffalo that's on fire!

There was nowhere to hide though.

Pushing up the middle

Taking advantage of the distraction provided by the flaming LVT my veteran Marines grab the center. They immediately begin taking heavy fire from their right for their insolence.

German Veterans advancing on our left

As Jerry advances on my left, I have to get my boys moving as well. The 24" range of the assault rifles matches my rifles range but with two dice each!

Veteran Landsers and VG advancing on our right

The inexperienced Volksgrenadiers have a special rule that may let them suddenly advance in experience. Maybe all the way to Veteran status. It never happened in this game though. I also never concentrated my fires enough to finish off a single VG squad. I was playing for position.

VG in the center

The VG as well as the sniper team in the center are providing constant harassing fire once we get into the wood on the left. Not very effective against my veterans though the sniper does bag a mortarman, leaving two Marines to handle the 60mm. I really dislike the light mortar rules so far. 12-24" range, only one die etc.

(I used to be an A-gunner on these things and we could fuck shit up let me tell you.)

Jarheads pushing onto the objective, now just hold it!

 On my left Nathan and I are trading casualties. One here, one there and the din would have been huge!

The Germans haven't gone far, but are a continuous line

Shooting is a single die for each rifle and goes up from there. Modifiers include moving (not for Yanks with M1's or BAR's though), cover (ignored by snipers), over half range as well as  inexperience.

The firing lines face off on the left

After finishing the Marine squad on the right the VG shift to the center

On the right my rifle squad was finished off by the huge volume of fire from the Luchs as well as the veteran infantry squad facing them. My sniper teams inability to get a single hit after the first was a bummer.

"Next turn we are going to waste that damn flamethrower team."

Chesty is merely security here

First we light up the VG's because they are in range, well one is in range. He burns. We roll and there is still some naplam left!

"Now we roast a Luchs!"

Guess what my, luckily, first activation is? That's right payback MFr! (120 odd points?)

Slugfest continues on the left

And we call it for time. Nathan has wiped out my LVT as well as a veteran Marine squad.

I have merely killed his Pz II. So a narrow victory for Nate and a fun game for both of us!

I'll be playing this again and now I know what I need to buff up and what I need to leave at home.

[Bolt Action] Getting on board with 'Armies of the United States'

With the old breed

This photo just popped up on my friends blog at Forgotten Weapons, strangely appropriate I think. I'm super stoked on this and may have to model it, guard your Type 92's gentlemen. I pre-ordered the US Army lists book so that I can 'play well with others' and it actually looks pretty cool. I've really liked the mini's from Warlord and my friends are keen so I'm down for it. As Jamie pointed out, I also get a Chesty Puller mini.
Totally frickin cool, a real mythological figure for me. I'm not even worthy to paint it!
I will give it a go though.

Good night Chesty, wherever you are.

Now that I have the book of lists I know that I can field a 600 point army at this point. I haven't counted my flamethrower or some of my HQ additions, so I could be over 700 really fast actually.

USMC Reinforced Infantry Platoon
Veteran 1st Lieutenant, with RTO and platoon Sgt 116
Veteran Corpsman and stretcher bearer 43
2x Veteran Infantry Squads (BAR, Shotgun and SMG each) 92 each
Veteran M1919a4 MMG Team 65
Veteran Scout Sniper Team with SMG 69
Veteran Flamethrower Team 65
Veteran M2 60mm Mortar Team 52
Regular LVT-2 98
is 692 without AT grenades.
Chesty is a Veteran Colonel so 165 points alone! (How many points is three Navy Crosses by 1943?)
Maybe I should squeeze in a tank! How about a 'Satan' M3 for 135?

As far as the "Armies of the United States"" go they look pretty good with extra MMG's as a standard feature of the US Infantry. Marines get extra BAR's and pistols. Actually pretty stoked that they even included the LVT's at all, but they have most of the versions accounted for.
Missing were rifle grenades, bummer, they're handy.
Osprey illos are always top notch and reasonably correct as well.;-)
The anecdotal info is good stuff and not just old hat. Plus there is info on tons of old stuff you'll recognise from FoW and suddenly need to model in 28mm!

Anyway, had a quick look at the rules and we've got a few players ready to go or warming up, expect more soon.
Urah!

With the Old Breed in 28mm

Pretty close to finished except for a couple bits and pieces.
These include my new Corporal from The Assault Group, with his pump shotgun and I also want to really work up my mortar and sniper teams. I will post them up when finished.

Platoon HQ

A proper headquarters for a Marine Rifle platoon has the LT, the Platoon Sergeant, a radio telephone operator and a Corpsman. These Bolt Action sculpts from Warlord are really good, great detail, correct kit and compelling poses.

M1919A4 LMG team

I wanted to model a patrol so chose not to get the LMG team with an assembled gun. No that isn't Manila John Basilone, but he might have known that Marine Icon.

Scout / Sniper team

Not quite there with these guys. Need to do a bit more to the bases and a couple detail bits so they'll really pop.

stretcher bearer, rifleman and a flame thrower

The stretcher bearer and flamethrower will usually be normal riflemen, but I will break out the Zippo one day. Speaking of which, my Zippo measuring tape has developed aging issues!

BAR man with two riflemen

Buffalo with crew

I am going to make a mount for this, I am. I need to MG Pooch's nasty little Gebirgsjagers.

Lieutenant

A Weaver stance in the 40's? We'll just call him cutting edge, top of the class etc.
Definitely a Mustang IMO.

RTO

3rd MAF and 3rd MARDIV objective markers

still working on the basing

The lot

More to come, but I got a lot done in the weeks since the debacle in Karelia.;-)

A Water Buffalo!

CompanyB LVT-2 in 28mm resin

Just a quick work in progress, keeping up with the Jones' post. Pooch's Aussies look great, and they seem to be outnumbering the Marine contingent. As are the Japanese, according to coconut telegraph! 40 plus!

So far the count for the Old Breed is:
Able Company, 1st Platoon
1 Officer
1 SNCO
1 RTO
1 Corpsman
1 stretcher bearer
1 casualty
 Line squads
 3 x 4 man teams with 1 grenade launcher and 2 BAR's total
[or two 6 man or something else, TO&E's varied]


Weapons Platoon
1 x 3 man M1919A4 LMG team
1 x 3 man M2 60mm Mortar team

 Attachments
1 x 2 man Scout-Sniper team
1 M2 Flamethrower
1 LVT-2 with two man crew

Still, less than 30 hard chargers. Probably out of supply and surrounded as well.;-)

Incidentally a lot of different units got used to being supplied by Buffaloes.