Beyond the Foxholes Episode 19

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Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 19

In Act One we join Ben, Winner Dave and Adam as they chat about what they have been up to recently, Battlefront news with Early War sale, Barbarossa, new Fate of a Nation book plus more and finally they round out the act with Winner Dave's mail bag.

In Act Two the guys chat about the Euro GT, Adam and Winner give their AAR's and the guys think about how to improve the tournament going forward.

In Act Three thanks to a few technical problems we join Ben, Adam and Jessica to go through 10.1 and a look at how to deal with Super Heavy tanks.

Thanks for listening

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Bolt Action - Fort Eben-Emael

The first major successful use of airborne troops came on May the 10th, 1940, when Nazi Germany inserted 493 elite Fallschirmjäger on top of Belgium's toughest fortress in one of the opening bids of the invasion of Belgium.

The operation was such a closely guarded secret and named Sturmabteilung Koch for it's commanding officer Hauptmann Walter Koch. The units tasked with carrying it out were constantly moved around and renamed and their training grounds were packed up between practice runs. Split into four task forces, the Fallschirmjäger were tasked with capturing three bridges of the Albert Canal and neutralising the Belgian fort of Eben-Emael. Once this was achieved that had to hold until relieved. The garrison of the fort alone was over 1200 men.

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US Armored Rifles vs. SS Westfalen

Mailed in by Luke and Tarzan

The table

Oh... the humanity!!!  You ever have one of those battles where you know its going to be a giant yawn?  Well this was one for Luke and Eric. It started out with the random roll of Free-for-All which can be a bad mission for certain match ups. Eric had slow campy SS Westfalen war criminals and Luke had a bizarre tank destroyer ARO mix. We could both see exactly how this fight was going to down and I for one was not looking forward to it.  Eric was going sit and camp and Luke had to dictate the action and attack.  Any other tactic for either side was out of the question.

Eric's List Remagen SS Westfalen List:

HQ SMG Pzfaust
4 Trap Teams
1 Sniper
2 Panzerschrek teams

SS Aufklrung
SS Aufklrung
SS HMG platoon
Kingtiger
KingTiger
Volks light Arty battery.. 6 guns.

Luke's ARP Remagen List:  CV
Command
2 Batteries of Priests with upgraded M4A3 OP Shermans
2 ARP
4 Hell Cat Tank Destroyers
Cavalry Recon with Stuart

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Star Trek Attack Wing AAR: The Balance of Power - Investigating Dio VII

"Admiral...the away te... ound something during their sca....... the surface.  Its...ower readings were li...thing I have ever seen.  The team brou.... back... urface.  When we began our scans on board .... surge... systems failure.... out the ship.  The warp core began ov.....oading.  Engineering is not able to hold it together.... escape pods and shuttles .... to the surface.............."

This transmission was picked up by a Klingon listening station on the fourth moon of Dio VII two hours ago.  Intelligence reports indicate the Federation has be studying unique geological formations in the system and may have stumbled across a substance of significant power.  You have been ordered to penetrate Federation space and recover any information or evidence of this substance.

- Klingon High command

The Klingons are all riled up over a Federation exploration team in the Dio system.  Reports indicate the Federation recently lost a ship near Dio VII.  The cause of the explosion is not yet known, but it has the Klingons attention.  Assemble a task force and go to the Dio system, what ever the Federation has stumbled upon must not fall into the hands of the Klingons.

-Romulan Intelligence

Klingon Task Force baH

IKS Maht-h'a

Capt. Martok

Crew - Alexander

IKS Koraga

Klingon Captain

Photon Torpedos 

Advanced Weapons System

IKS Negh'Vat

Capt Warf

Advanced Weapons System

Photon Torpedos

Romulan Task Force Prime

IRW Valdor

Capt. Denatra

Photon Torpedos

Tactical Officer

Romulan Officer

IRW Khazara

Capt. Toreth

All Forward Disrupter Banks

Polarized Hull Plating

Plasma Torpedos

Crew- Selok

Crew- Centurian

Crew- Varel

Mission:

Recover as much evidence as you can regarding the destruction of the Federation science vessel and what ever it was they were studying.  As an action ships could lower their shields and use a tractor beam to recover an piece of the destroyed science vessel. 

(Note: After long hours of editing photos with effects I was told the phasers were incorrectly emanating from the wrong parts of some of the ships.  I apologies to anyone who may be offended by this.)

The Klingon ships from Task for ba'H approach Dio VII and find what remains of the Federation science vessel.  Debris floats aimlessly around the planet's orbit.  A scan of the area shows several strong energy readings as well as intact portions of the the ships computers.  Capt. Martok orders his ships to move forward and recover what they can before the Federation finds out their in the area.

Martok's ship recovers a part of the ships computer logs.  This information will need to be taken back to the Klingon High command and studied.

Unbeknownst to Martok and his task force, the Romulans are recovering items from the science vessel on the opposite side of the planet.

The recovery effort continues, and the Koraga finds some small pieces of the strange material the Federation was studying. 

Martok's ship picks up some strange energy readings and he recalls the other two ships.

Suddenly a Romulan ship de-cloaks and rakes Martok's ships with phaser and disrupter fire. 

Martok orders his ships to engage, but their attacks fail to penetrate the Khazara's shields.

As the Khazara comes about, the Koraga scores a direct hit with its photon torpedos.

As the Klingons start to come about they pick up new readings on their sensors.  The Romulan ship is not alone.  He brought friends and they are looking for a fight.  

Martok finds himself the target of a second Romulan attack, but his cunning moves evade the attack. 

Martok comes about and fires on the Romulan ship.

As the Romulan ship flees the Koraga unleashes a full spread of photon torpedos.

The Romulan ship explodes.

Then the first Romulan ship reappears and lets lose a spread of his own torpedos.

The torpedos find their mark and destroy the Maht-H'A.

Capt. Warf returns fire, burning holes in the Khazara and breaching its hull.

The Koraga comes about, but its shots miss.

The Koraga and the Romulan ship nearly collide with each other.  Then the Romulan ships cloaks and disappears.

It suddenly appears again and rakes the Negh'Var. 

The cunning Selok prevents Warf and his crew from firing on the Khazara. 

But the ever tactical Warf comes about and drills the Khazara with phaser fire.

The Captain of the Koraga then takes aim and finishes of the Romulan scum.

After the battle ends the Negh'Var and the Koraga scan the area for Klingon survivors.   Their sensors pick up a small energy reading and find that Martok and some of his crew managed to escape the Maht-H'A before it was destroyed.  Once on the survivors are brought on board Warf orders the Koraga to follow him back to Klingon space.  They have found a small amount of the strange material and some Federation reports, but what does it mean for the Empire?

...Romulan Transmission...

"Sir its like nothing I have ever seen.  If these readings are correct this substance could change the balance of power in the Alpha Quadrant.  Romulus could once again reclaim is rightful place at the top of its enemies.  The Klingons have also secured some of the substance, they will certainly try to prevent others from unlocking its potential.  Capt. Toreth decided to engage the Klingons. Their flag ship has been destroyed, but we are taking heavy casualties.  The Valdor was disabled, these Klingons are more cunning than expected. We should have......"

...Transmission Lost...

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Bolt Action - Review: Mad Bob Miniatures Indian Carrier

Hey Kids,


Old Man Morin here.  I took a break from painting my DAK motor pool to paint... More desert vehicles (I think I have a problem). For quite a while now I have been talking about the pile of Bob Emerson's resin cast Indian Carriers for my Sikh army. Well, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and got assembling.

Bob's Kit comes in a number of pieces. Seen below:

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Lists we Play: The Japanese

By Mitch Reed

When I started playing Flames of War I swore I would only do one list and stick with it. I chose late-war Canucks at first and then it just exploded, I ventured into mid-war with my Gurkha rifle list and then tried out early war with adding some Matilda's to my mid-war figures. At first I wanted to try out the EW Poles, but I had a hard time finding all the boxes and blisters I needed. So last last year at Historicon, Battlefront settled the matter for me by having the new Rising Sun book and boxes of Japanese ready for purchase.

Unlike the later periods of the war where I switch around from Commonwealth and German lists, I only play the Japanese in early war. To many, the inclusion of the Japanese was a surprise by Battlefront and especially in early war. However the Japanese were fighting since 1937 in China and in 1939 had a border skirmish with the Soviet Union, so I felt picking them for a new early war list was a smart move and opens up a lot of possibilities in the future.

Where to Find the Japanese

Right now the only book where you can find the Japanese in is Rising Sun, however you can find 4 different Japanese lists in this book that covers; light and medium tank companies, infantry, and cavalry. The Japanese also have the ability for both the infantry and cavalry companies to be turned into fortified lists.

The first thing to note about all the lists in Rising Sun that they all have a Fearless motivation rating; which is certainly an accurate and well deserved rating. As far as training, you can pick from both Trained and Veteran options in you tank and infantry lists.

Type-89 Chi-Ro Medium tanks

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Let's Play Lord of the Rings LCG - Heirs of Numenor Part 5

Join the WWPD Crew (Chris H. and Steven M.) as they quest their way through the Heirs of Numenor series of the Lord of the Rings LCG.

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Bolt Action - Ion Dumitru, Romanian Tank Ace

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at Ion Dumitru, Romanian Tank Ace.

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News from the Front Episode 82

Welcome to Episode 82!

This is a jam-packed episode with some serious red meat!

In Act I, the guys do the normal AAR and cover recent games, upcoming events and introduce some new sponsors.

In Act II, the boys dive in to a deep overview of the new Barbarossa book.  Lists, special rules, detailed points discussion and more!

Act III begins with the guys thoughts on Barbarossa -- what they like, predictions and such.  The guys also weigh in on the recent announcements from Battlefront about Easy Army/Forces of War.  The episode wraps up with our favorite segment - Commonly Overlooked Rules.

Click Here to Download Episode 82

Know the Mission VII: Cauldron

The guys take you through setup, deployment and strategies for Attackers and Defenders.

Click here to listen to After Hours

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Star Trek Attack Wing - Klingon Repaints

I recently watched an Star Trek Attack Wing (from WizKids) event and caught the bug.  What intrigues me about Attack Wing is that it uses the same rules as X-Wing from Fantasy Flight.  This makes for an easy transition from one rule set to the other.  I am so happy that my generation has reached adulthood and decided that all the cool shows we grew up with should be turned into some sort of miniatures game.  This is truly the greatest age of mankind.  In the last few year it seems like all my gaming dreams have come true or are coming true.  Now I get to sit in the command chair of my favorite ships from the Star Trek Universe.

I had been watching Attack Wing for a while, stuck in holding pattern, orbiting the game from a  distance.  I had heard mixed reviews when compared to X-Wing, but had not had a chance to play it.  There is a fairly active group of X-Wing player in Alaska, and over the last few months the number of Attack Wing players have grown.  I decided many months ago that if I fired my phaser on this game I would not go all in like I did with X-Wing, and attempt to collect 10 of every ship.  Instead I would limit my addiction to only one or two factions.  This is hard because Attack Wing has already released about a million Factions (Romulans, Federation, Borg, Dominion, Klingon, Independents, Bjorian, etc) with each faction having a single to a bunch of ships (I think the Federation, Klingon, Dominion, and Romulans have between 6 and 8 ships each now).  I have always dreamed of wielding a Bat'leth in battle so chose Klingons as my first faction.

I convinced my dad and a buddy to buy a starter ship and trade each other so we each had one of the starting factions (Klingon, Romulans, and Federation).  The starter ship comes with a Galaxy Class, Vor'Cha Class, and D'deridex Class Starships.  I also opted to pick up a Bird of Prey (the most amazingly awesome Klingon ship EVER!!!) and Negh'Var.

Like X-Wing all the ships in Attack Wing come prepainted, but unlike X-Wing, Attack Wing ships are not painted to the high standard that Fantasy Flight has for X-Wing.  The Attack Wing ships have the same quality paint job that any other product form WizKids puts out: very basic.  I also wanted my ships to be uniform and look like they at least served in the same battle group. So before ever playing a game I picked up a brush and set out to repaint these mighty ships.

Vor'Cha

The Vor'Cha is a mighty attack cruiser, capable of tearing the enemies of the Empire from bow to stern.

Negh'Var

This Warship is the largest ship in the Klingon military.  This heavy war beast devours the enemy's of Kahles.

Here I tried to make it look like the weapons were charging.

Bird of Prey

The Bird of Prey has always, and will, always be the hotrod of interstellar combat. It is my favorite, non federation ship in the Star Trek Universe.  I wish I had one parked in my driveway.

Here is were I tried to make it look like the weapons were charing.

It didn't take me that long to paint all this ships. The ships are about 1/3 the size of your hand and have enough detail that you can easily pick the detail out with some washes and shading.  I painted mine using the color I use for Soviet Armor, then washing them black, dry brushed and did some detailing (engines, weapons, lights).  It look me about two hours for these four ships.  Part of that was learning and figuring out what I wanted to do.  I suppose I could bust one out in 15 to 20 minutes in the future.  I have one more Vor'cha from the trading we did.  A five ship fleet is not bad for just getting into the game, now I need a few more Birds of Prey.

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Bolt Action - Bolt Action Radio Episode 28

Bolt Action Radio is back in this special guest filled episode. Show number twenty-eight kicks off with C-Bax and Judson joined by the unofficial number one Bolt Action fan and painting output savant Brian Ward. These three imposter gentlemen talk a bit about everything, but focus on the secrets to keeping that elusive (for Judson) hobby production energy level high. Episode twenty-eight ends with a surprise segment. Old Man Morin, Judson, and special guest Ali from Home Guard Radio sit down for a fine glass of port and some shop talk. Big Al is too late with his decal and finish application advice to save the J man from hobby agony - but you may not share a similar fate if you tune in!

Download the BAR here! 

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