First taste of Bolt Action

First Bolt Action Action

Scott Bowman comes around for a demo game of Bolt Action. Have been watching from the side-lines with some interest, but resisting the urge. World war 2 gaming has always been my thing. I do enjoy FoW; but find the rules excessively fiddly, and they tend to get into the way of the flow of play. In my opinion anyway.

Having recently had a flood in my mancave following a burst water heating cylinder upstairs, it was a delight to get some gaming action in at long last. Started out with a number of games of fantasy Ninth Age with Macrae Louden, and then Scott came around with some late war Normandy action.

Bolt action can be played with a relatively small outlay by the looks of things, and not requiring a huge amount of space like massed army games do, as it appears to be a squad or company sized game, with some armour support.

Anyhow a simple game of king of the hill or find and retrieve ensued.

I enjoyed the randomness of the turns, drawing from a pool of activation dice rather than the usual You-go-I-go. Totally hooked. What can I say? Just take my money!
 This game really offers a lot of what I enjoy in wargaming.

Quick, fast-paced, fun, egalitarian, not too many fiddly rules, WYSWYG. Great for a few hours of gaming fun. Serious or not so serious.

Being a greenhorn at this I am not going to do a batrep, just share a few snaps of Scott's beautifully painted models

 

Puma brews up

So off we go, and back we come with the starter set under the arm. Enough for a small skirmish.

Abbreviated rules for quick reference

Easy to assemble models, in a variety of poses and choice of weapons

Now available from Paraparaumu Beach Pharmacy 

the ONLY hobby outlet on the Kapiti Coast

(I went back for the Panzer IV F/G/H model yesterday)

Scott can also source many other figures and stock an extensive range of modelling tools and paint for us enthusiasts. He was able to get me these British Colonial troops (Perry Miniatures) for the Sudan and Afghan campaigns of the late 18th century.

 If you don't look too close, and paint them with red jackets they will probably do for the Boer and Zulu wars, and Indian campaigns too. 

Likewise the Mahdist Ansar, who will double as Muslim warriors for my Saga Crusades

In case you were wondering what the unusual looking squat figures were, they are fantasy brock-riders. Dwarfs who ride badgers, from the Mantic range.

Options, options...the kid in a candy store

Decisions, decisions, all those options...

The Kid in the Candy Store

As with  most wargamers, I too am a sucker for the new and shiny, or different. Add to that the historical aspect, and you've got me hooked! So always looking at directions my wargaming can take, I thought I had been seduced by SAGA.

X-Wing did pique my interest too, being very playable, but I have to confess that the building and painting is as important to me as the playing. So pre-painted, Meh!

Remember Rackham's Confrontation? Well, they lost me when they started marketing pre-painted figures. They had some amazing sculpts, but why would you want to try and sell pre-painted minis?
Mass appeal and sales, I suppose. Killed Rackham, that did ! So despite the huge popularity of X-Wing I have decided not to indulge.

But then came SAGA. My, oh, my...looking very tempting. Paul over at Dog of War has got me interested.
Playing my first game in July. No, in fact I have been interested since I first saw the Gripping Beast Minis in a Wargames Illustrated a couple of years ago. Now who DOESN'T like Vikings?
So off I go onto SAGA websites, and find the closest Griping Beast retailer - over in Australia it seems.

Then comes Nick on Thursday:  "Hey, it's the anniversary of Waterloo next year! How about we but on a large scale Waterloo game. You're fond of the Germans! Why don't you take the Prussians or the Austrians?"

My knee jerk was "No, I have too many models, armies and scales as things stand"
Remembering then that I happen have some old 20 mm Airfix Black Guard.
 I did toss in the question: "Which scale?"
Says Young Nick: "28 mm !"  Hmmm... So on Friday I get the weekly epistle of deals from Hannants in the UK, and my fingers somehow find their own way over to the Napoleonics.

Victrix seem to have a nice plastics selection, quite cheapish too at around a dollar a figure, as does Perry. Interesting discourse on TMP (The Miniatures Page) about quality and finishing. Boxes of 50, as with SAGA. (Eat your heart out, GW)

Not much painting or building went on the weekend, as I had to attend an advanced cardiac life support training course in Wellington. Grabbed the chance to stay overnight and have an evening out with my lovely wife, without the kids. Saturday was spent in the National Clinical Simulation Unit training and then an exam at the end. Passed without event. Box ticked.

Got a little bit of painting done on my unpainted horde of warriors of chaos. Hoping some of these may double as Vikings one day...Who knows

Poor quality phone photo of my horde