Bolt Action - Review: Trenchworx T34/76

By Patch

  Our friends at Trenchworx recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch a new range of 1/56 scale vehicles based on  Japanese and Soviets forces from their battles around Manchuria.  This comes on the back of another successful Kickstarter where the focus was on WW1 machines instead. I went in for 6 vehicles (three Russian and three Japanese) and had them delivered on time, which is a massive bonus on what can be a gamble when pledging money to a Kickstarter funded campaign.



The three Russian tanks I ordered were the T-34/76, the BT-7 and the T-26 (from a much wider range available) as I am building an early war Soviet force based around the Battle for Moscow and these vehicles fit with that period nicely. Knowing the quality of product that Trenchworx puts out I was not surprised when they arrived and were just top notch stuff.

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Star Wars Armada - Painting Guide for Armada Rogues and Villains

I knocked these guys out in about 3 hours, and figured I'd share my techniques here! All colors referenced are Vallejo paints. I used el cheapo flat black spray for the stands, but masked off "connecting" points so it all still fit together nicely. The wash I use is CGR Painters' excellent Magic Mudd. All cockpits were done with a Pitt artist pen with a small nib.

The whole crew!

 Rogues.

Villains.

For all models I did a simple process: Spray coat black, Apply a thinned down base coat (sometimes twice for the lighter color ones). Once dry, I painted all the details with a Windows & Newton Series 7 size 0 brush. Once all of the details were done, I liberally washed the ship with the Magic Mudd, then soak up any areas that are pooling with a Q-tip. When dry, I used my artist pen to carefully draw in the cockpit.

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Star Wars Armada - Video Report: 300 point Star Wars Armada Game

By Steven MacLauchlan

I finally decided I wanted the ability to broadcast games live over twitch for future WWPD events, and just for the fun of it. I signed up to Twitch (You can see my account at http://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven ) and tested out a camera setup for my game table. You can also subscribe to the channel to be notified when I start streaming- I will also be broadcasting Star Wars: Battlefront and Destiny on Playstation 4.

Here is my first attempt at streaming a tabletop game. Tony and I played Armada for our league game.

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Bolt Action - Review: Blitzkrieg Miniatures Panzer III and Hanomag

We are back with another video review of Blitzkrieg Miniatures 1/48 scale Hanomag and Panzer III for 28mm World War II gaming over on the Bolt Action channel.

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LOTR-LCG: Grant Unboxes The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion!

Grant "pfcamygrant" Ellis un-boxes the latest Lord of the Rings Living Card Game Saga Expansion, finally catching up with those who obtained it at GenCon!

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Star Wars Armada - Battle Report: Rieekan's Corvettes vs Vader's Battle Group

By Steven MacLauchlan

I was excited to get another Armada game, and excited to play a new opponent. This time, I faced Joey (TrueGreek on the forums) and took the opportunity to try something I'd been theorizing about a bit. The Rieekan-led Corvette Cruise Missiles. "Rieekan's Cruise Missiles"? That fits! Joey took Vader, which I was equally excited about.

We were both 400 points, and rolled to see who got their choice. I won the dice off, and elected to go second. Joey chose "Fire lanes" from my objectives and we got to work!

Here are the fleets:

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Bolt Action - AAR: Japanese vs the French Foreign Legion

By Bryan

Welcome to the French colonies of Indochina. It's 1945 and the Japanese have occupied the colony for the last 4 years, leaving the French colonial garrison in place under a compliant Vichy government.

Now, with the Allies liberating France itself, the Japanese decide to wipe the French out before the Allies arrive to help them.

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Star Wars X-Wing - Fall In X-Wing Roundup

The WWPD crew played a ton of X-Wing Heroes of the Aturi Cluster at Fall In! We had an absolute blast. At one point 3 tables were running simultaneously. At my table we got through 12 missions or so through the course of the weekend. Below are some pictures I have and some links to other blogs talking about our Heroes games.

Paul's Blog "The Man Cave" covered our X-Wing games pretty thoroughly as did Miles' Lair of the Uber Geek. Take a look at them to read about the experiences of some rook pilots we put through the ringer.

We had quite a large showing for the squad! I may not remember everyone's callsign here, but I'll do my best:

Steven AKA "Dice" for my abysmal dice rolling abilities.
Sean AKA "Escape Plan" for needing (and sometimes failing) to bug out frequently.
Dano AKA "Hoover" for vacuuming up all the XP.
Jon AKA "Rando" cause he never got a proper callsign.
Eric AKA "Gramps" for having more XP than anyone.
Chris AKA "Hawkeye" for having his eye on an HWK from the get-go.
Nicole AKA "Looper" for doing infinite K-Turns.
Blaze AKA "Zaro?" not actually sure what his callsign was.
Reilly AKA "Magnet" for drawing heaps of enemy fire.
Miles AKA "Dozer" because he thought we were supposed to fly INTO the asteroids, not around.
Luke "The Sweeper" for cleaning up all the dust.
Adam "Ragnar" because he is a viking and flew like one.

The crew making a ground assault.

75% of the Intensify Forward Firepower crew.

Escape Plan's A Wing and Dice's B-Wing go in as wingmen.

The crew.

We had a blast! Thanks for everyone who flew with us!

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A Visit to the 2015 North American Masters Tournament

By Mitch Reed with photographs by Sean Sarah

As the skies get darker earlier and the air becomes chilly another year of Flames of War tournament play ends with the North American Masters event.

The 2015 installment of what is billed as the tournament between of the best players on the continent was held at Games and Stuff, a gaming shop just south of Baltimore on 14-15 November.

The annual affair pits the players who have won a nationals level event or have played well during the year and have made it to the top of the North American rankings.  I had the opportunity to visit with the players and organizers during the first day of competition and left with a better understanding on what the Masters Tournament is all about.

The Organizer
The first person I spoke with is Dave Griffin who works for Battlefront and runs all of the events Battlefront runs during the year along with the master’s tournament.  Dave is running his third Masters event this year and tries to add some wrinkles to the game in order to create a more challenging environment for the competitors.

This year he limited lists to those that are contained in the 8 hardcover late war books; Dave explained how those lists which represent the early part of the late war period are “classical lists” and, as a whole, are very well balanced for players to pick from. This year Dave had each player develop a 1400 point base list and then create three 250-point task forces from the same list.

Before each game, a die was rolled and results could range from selecting one of the three task forces to add to that game, to having the player or the opponent chose to the final result in which none of the task forces are used.  Dave also limited the amount of times a player could use a particular task force during the course of the tournament, so if one of your task forces are used twice, they are no longer eligible for use in a later game.

To me this is an interesting twist that, while it does change things up, can also be manipulated when your opponent picks a task force.  With most of the players coming from two distinct regions (more on this later) you could have a buddy pick an already used task force that would cause your list issues in order to make it ineligible for a later game when you may have to play that opponent.

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Star Wars Armada - Battle Report: Wave 2 Intel Sweep

Prime opponent Sean and I continue our Wave 2 games! I picked up an MC30 and was eager to get it on the board! I decided to try the MC80 "christmas tree" (as Drunk Tarkin calls it- loaded with ornaments!) and it amounted to a huge chunk of my points. An escort of 4 Bs, and an Assault Frigate formed the core while the MC30's job was to cause mayhem and allow me to see how the beast works.

Sean opted for a more straightforward approach- Motti leading a flotilla of Star Destroyers mostly naked.

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Bolt Action - Review: Warlord vs Mad Bob Miniatures, A Tale of Two Katyusha's

By Guest Poster: Tyler

Hi folks! Tyler here, coming to you all the way from Austin, TX. After hearing Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on the Ostfront, I recently have become smitten with the almost science fiction like exploits of the Red Army. After being warned by several well meaning people that if I embarked on painting a soviet army I would probably never again see my friends and family let alone the sunshine, I jumped right in. 2000pts later and the old friends do seem to come around less and less.

  One of the first items I went on the hunt for when I began assembling my red hordes was a proper Katyusha. I have long been enamored with this magical machine since my youthful days playing Sudden Strike (anyone?). Anyway, for a while there seemed to be only the one model available from Mad Bob Miniatures. I ordered it the minute I came across it. Then, while awaiting its arrival, Warlord came out with their own. The Germans were advancing on all my flanks and I did not have time to wait so I put in for a Warlord model, fearing that they might sell out. As a reward for my impatience, I now have every young Ivan's dream: two Katyushas!

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 18

Download the episode here

The full crew is back for another podcast! We talk about new releases and interesting kickstarters to watch, cover FlamesCon event news, community goings-ons, and talk a little controversy about tournaments and dealing with a particular type of problem person in some wargames communities....

In Act I, we flush out some good intel about the world of wargames, including news bits from across the interwebs.

In Act II, we cover Bludgefest II and FlamesCon 2015. 

In Act III, we talk about tournaments, meta games, and septic pillars (gross).

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode XIV: Objective Overload

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode 14: Objective Overload begins with a quick update on what's been happening with Skyshuffler, Easy, Drunk Tarkin, and Dano before diving into a gigantic topic. Specifically, the crew of the Flesh Star Destroyer covers everything time allows for regarding objectives; even speculating on how some of them will change in the Wave 2, 400-point environment. Have a listen, and if you happen to see Lobrad anywhere, let him know there was a bit of blaster fire coming from the conference room last night!

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Star Wars Armada - Stats Analysis: Vader vs Screed

Wave 1 gave the Imperial Fleet one of the most popular commanders in the game: Admiral Screed. Wave 2 brings the Imperial Fleet one of the most iconic commanders in Star Wars: Lord Vader. But the debate over "who's better" has been going on ever since Vader's ability text was revealed.

Today, we're going to throw some math at the debate and see what sticks. It's:

VADER vs SCREED

MATH DEBATE

(the most exciting of all debate formats)

First, let's start with the card text.

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News from the Front - Episode 98

CAUTION: We get a LITTLE edgy in this one with some off-color jokes. Skip this one if you are easily offended.

The guys come to you LIVE from Fall-In 2015!  Eric, Jon, Steven and Luke cover the con activities and recount all the craziness.  At the end, the guys take questions from the crowd and talk about what they would like to see from Flames of War in the future.  Tune in and see what our thoughts are!

Click Here to Download Episode 98

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Bolt Action - Review: Rubcion's M5A1 Stuart and Crusader

By Patch

  I have recently had the chance to put together and paint up a couple of smashing tanks from Rubicon Models. First was the A15 British Crusader tank MkVI, which I assembled as the AA version.  Second was the M5A1 Stuart, which I turned into a Free French unit thanks to some excellent choices on the decal sheet!

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Napoleon at War; with Blucher and Wellington too! A Review!

By Mitch Reed

Some may be shocked to find that I do play games other than Flames of War -- before FoW I was really into playing with 1/2400 Dreadnoughts, your occasional board war-game, and now I am in love with Star Wars Armada (like everyone else). One of the games I have gotten into over the last year is Napoleon at War, which recreates the fighting in Europe from 1805-1815. 

Why Napoleonics?  I have to admit it’s not a subject I spend much time reading about or that I have more than a casual interest in.  However, in the words of the very wise Tim Grimmett “Napoleonics is like going back to the roots of the hobby”, a truer statement than this would be hard to make.  If we were to teleport back a few decades and attend a gaming event we would see the Napoleonic period stealing the show. In fact, I have always noticed tables of gamers pushing around beautifully painted soldiers in straight lines.

My British forces about to be attacked by Chris Corman's French

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Diesel N Dust Episode 17

Diesel ‘N Dust Episode 17 (Click to Download)

We join Ben, Dave and Scotty with an Flamescon wrap-up, continue exploring ‘Berlin’ options and look forward to future events

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Star Wars Armada - Battle Report: Clash of Titans (Two MC80s vs Two ISDs)

My friend Jeff managed to win the ISD in our local Massing at Sullust event that I had to sit out, and also took to eBay to grab an MC80. I paid the gold price for one of each also, and we decided to combine forces to make for an epic double ISD on double MC80 match. Neither one of us knew what the other would play, other than the two beasties. Jeff showed up, and we threw down! 

He chose to go second, and use my "Advanced Gunnery" objective. Quick observation: That objective is not very smart in the face of MC80s, and even less smart since I already had Gunnery Teams! Sure, I could double shot out of my objective ship, but I will say this- my dice were ugly. Maybe I should've tried Vader!

Without further ado, the lists:

You guys probably know, that I straddle the fence on the effectiveness of fighters, but dammit it just isn't Star Wars without an ISD spilling fighters forth. Of course, I am lacking the iconic TIE and Jeff is lacking the iconic X-Wing, but we'll take what we can get!

TURN ONE

Because I had slightly more fighters than Jeff, and got to deploy second, I think I was able to deploy pretty well. Ideally, I want to cut off those MC80s AND stay out of their side.

*Just imagine the Imperial March right now. Go on, do it. DUN DUN DUN Du Duh Duuuhhh Du Duh Duuuuhhhh*

TURN TWO

Everything is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen.

Except for those B-Wings going there, where I am gonna run them over and break apart my fighter cover...

TURN THREE

Well, we're in it to win it now! PEW PEW PEW. Jeff's veterancy with fighters shows. Tycho jumps in to TIE up my Rhymer ball, and I run into the throng, accidentally splitting up my own fighter screen to let his B-Wings do what they will to me.

But at least I get a lot of dice...

Oh. That was pretty par for the course, to be honest. Wish I had Vader!

TURNS FOUR AND FIVE

Quite a lot of dice are flung in turn four. It's quite an epic turn. Both of our objective ships go down. My objective ship was not my flagship, but Jeff's was. The loss of Ackbar hurts, but my remaining Flagship ISD is hurting pretty bad. My strategy of cutting off his MC80s mostly works, but I still give up more broadsides than I'd like. The big base of the ISD is tough to stay in just a small front arc!

Fighters zip by, and eventually my fighters take the upper hand. His MC80 remains mostly untouched while my ISD is in pretty bad shape.

With some slightly luckier dice on Jeff's part, my ISD could've gone down, but instead the two bohemoths pass by each other. I think I ended with 9 damage on Motti's Flagship. His MC80 had no more than a few hull damage (if any? I don't remember) but his shields were holding out.

Still, in the end I scored more fleet points on his ship that went down (Losing Ackbar hurt!), and my fighters came out on top. No idea what the actual score was here, but the MOV was something like 96 from memory. 8-2 maybe?

It was a super fun, brutal game that really showcased the capabilities of these big ships! Can't wait to get them on the board more!

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