Bolt Action

So, I go to a club of sorts, now and again, but people there tend to play Games Workshop stuff. However, last week we had a demo game of Warlords Bolt Action.

For those that haven't seen it yet, its a WW2 game, pitched somewhere between a skirmish and an army battle. Each player has around thirty men and a few specialist teams in a small game. You can scale it up. However, in my opinion it could lose some off its charm. For a while I have been looking for a system to compliment Rapid Fire which would allow me to play out small scale tactical raids on positions like the stuff you see in Band of Brothers, i.e. take a platoon over a river, secure building A, bring back hostages, lose less than three casualties. After playing a demo game, Bolt Action would seem to offer that.

Although the game its designed for 28mm figures, I have decided to run it with 20mm, giving me access to loads of choice of figures and scenery. I can't see it making a great deal of difference at those small margins. Your figures need to be individually based add it is a 1:1 ratio game.

Bolt Action has some really nice mechanics, my favourite is the turn system. Most games have each player move all units, then fire, then assault. In Bolt Action each player has a number of dice which correspond to the units commanded and are coloured for their army. They all go into a bag and are drawn at random with reach player activating a unit only when their colour dice comes out. So you can get totally random turn taking, which I found was really fun!

The main rulebook and dice are really all you need to start playing. that will set you back around £25. If you want to start playing in 28mm scale the Normandy box set had a full hardback rulebook, terrain, 40 figures and order dice for £60. Bargain!

Revell Micro Wings 1:144 Scale Aircraft

The trouble with 1:72 scale aircraft is that you can't always get them high enough for the scale to work. So I thought I would experiment with some mixed scale stuff, mixing some 1:44 scale aircraft with 1:72 minis. The idea is that as the plane is smaller than the minis scale it looks more like it is high in the sky.

There are a lot of companies that do 1:44 scale stuff, but I plumbed for the Revell Micro Wings kits as they are very cheap and you get a clear flying stand to start you off.

At £1.99 a pop they are really good value and they have most of the allied and axis stuff that a wargamer might need. I bought two to try the Focke FW190 and the Messerschmidt. Inside the box you get a sprue of aircraft, a clear sprue of the cockpit and stand; some instructions and even some decals!

Now at 1:44 these kits are highly simplified and not very detailed and take about 10 minutes to assemble, so if you are looking for a project, this isn't it. However, if you want to get some air support for your troops quickly, they are more than ideal. I did find that the kit wasn't designed very well, the moulding was off in places and needed adapting, there are gaps down each wing which will need filling, but all in all, for £2, I can't complain!

The assembled model really does the job, looks like a Messerschmidt and once painted will look great in my Rapid Fire games!