More Star Wars Armada Video Battle Reports!

Steven and Sean knock out another double header. Have you tried out Armada yet? We're having an absolute blast with it!

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Bolt Action - Free French army list PDF

By Bryan

A few weeks back Warlord Games published our new unofficial army list PDF for Bolt Action, covering the 1st Free French Brigade during the siege of Bir Hakeim, Libya 1942. This formation was made up of tough Foreign Legionnaires, hard fighting Tirailleurs and brave Marines from across the colonies, and it carried the hopes of France to redeem her honour after the catastrophic defeat of 1940. This army list covers the 1st Free French Brigade during the Bir Hakeim siege of June 1942, but can cover the infantry element of the unit up until the end Tunisia campaign 1943.

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Bolt Action - Dioramic Basing, part 1

By Special Guest Dennis Berwick

A quick foreword and a little about myself.

I’m Dennis, a handful of the Aussie guys have already met me. Others might know me as that guy that missed his connecting flight and drove from Melbourne for Cancon, the guy that took a Flak 88 or that bloke that provided a heap of terrain for the event.

But before I type anything else I’d like to give my father a huge thank you for his hard work and countless hours he has put into my hobbies over the years. Most of the terrain is his work. I know how its made and the steps taken to make it, but he's been the creative genius behind the majority of the work. We share ideas and he makes it happen. I then adapt the techniques into my modelling side of things. He's an inspiration for me and I'm just happy to be the middle guy that answers the questions! We are planing to do some basic terrain tutorials in future.

I had a lot of people ask about my 88's base at Cancon, so today I'm going to share some of the techniques I've learnt for dioramic bases using a Warlord Fallschirmjager Pak 40.

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Battlefront StuG G Platoon (GBX83) Review

by "Dirty" Jon Baber

I have plenty of StuGs available for my German Army, but they were assembled over the years and have a bit of a hodge podge appearance.  I got a hold of the new Battlefront StuG G Platoon to start the process of unifying the look of my models. Thought the art looks the same, this is quite a different box than the old StuG platoon.  Before we get in to the models, let's talk a little about the StuG.

For about 95 Late War points, you can get a Confident Veteran StuG.  FA 7, SA 3, TA 1 with Hull MG, Protected Ammo and Schurzen.  The gun is ROF 2, AT 11, 3+ Firepower and Hull Mounted.  Compared to the Panzer IV H, you get +1 FA, but lose a Machine Gun and your turret.  The StuG is 5 more points, so... is it worth it?  Ahhhh, a great question!  The German Flames of War player confronts this question all the time - you will have to decide for yourself!

I was pleased to see a fairly simple sprue with not very many parts.  Including the StuH 42 and the earlier StuG design was a big upgrade from the previous box.  The diagram is pretty clear and easy to understand.

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More Armada Video Battle Reports!

Some games with the newest member of our crew, Andrew. Andrew is still very new to Armada, but catching on quickly!

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Giants of the Sky on Target

By Mitch Reed

“The bomber will always get through” is a quote Stanley Baldwin made to the British parliament in 1932 where we warned the British Government that the next war would see bombers raining destruction from the sky. 

Baldwin was not alone in thinking this, an Italian airpower theorist Giulio Douhet also felt that future conflicts would consist of bombers targeting their opponent’s populace and industrial centers from the sky.  Both of these men developed these theories from seeing the advent of airpower during the Great War, where the bomber became a strategic weapon of immense potential.

Following in footsteps of their fellow Italian, Douhet;  Ares Games has finally released their most recent wave for their Wings of Glory system, ‘Giants of the Sky” which features two of the largest bombers to see action in the Great War.

From ARES Games, the new Giants of the Sky

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Star Wars Armada - Tower of Games Store Championship Battle Report (Feb 20, 2016)

With the Store Championship season in full effect, I've been spoiled for choice for tournament attendance! Over the weekend, I made the quick drive to Tower of Games in Virginia Beach with my carpool buddy Sean S. from the RVA Armada crew. I hadn't fully decided on a list, but had something in mind. In talking it through in the car, I settled on a list I had previously run on Twitch. Sean had already won a store championship, and so decided to do something off the beaten path. He settled on a 4 Neb list with a swarm of B-Wings! More on that later. Anyhow, on to my list:

MY LIST:

110- Imperial I Class Star Destroyer

024 Admiral Motti

004 Leading Shots

006 XI7 Turbolasers

144----------------------

120- Imperial II Class Star Destroyer

004 Leading Shots

006 XI7 Turbolasers

007 Gunnery Team

137-----------------------

056- Gladiator I Class Star Destroyer

010 "Demolisher"

004 Ordnance Experts

008 Engine Techs

078------------------------

032- 4x TIE Fighters

TOTAL: 391

Objectives:

Advanced Gunnery

Fleet Ambush

Intel Sweep

The plan was simple. I wanted to try and go first. Motti's ISD would be the anvil. The ISD II would be the hammer. And to borrow an awesome analogy from Judson, the Gladiator would be the dagger behind the shield. I normally run Demolisher aggressively, but this time I would hold him back and be a finisher. The TIEs would do their job- die for the cause.

GAME ONE: Fleet Ambush as Player Two vs A.J.

My first game was against A.J. who was running Ackbar and 3 Assault Frigates. He had a 391 bid as well, so we diced to see who chose initiative. He won the dice roll and elected to go first. He chose Fleet Ambush.

His list had 3 Space Whales all with Gunnery Teams, XI7s, and ECMs. He also had Wedge, Jan, and 3 more X-Wings. 

His Assault Frigates were all speed 3, so I knew my chances of blocking him with my ISD I (on the right) were slim. With my ships so tightly packed I was also taking a huge chance vs his gunnery teams.

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Video Battle Reports: Star Wars Armada and X-Wing!

Sean and I twitch streamed some Armada and X-Wing earlier this week. Check out our games below! Make sure to follow us on twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven and subscribe so you get an alert when we go live!

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Bolt Action - Patch's Warlord Games Diorama Competition Entry

By Patch

In December 2015, Warlord Games announced they were running a diorama competition (details here) with a theme of 'hostile environment'. It could be on any subject, so long as the diorama has products available from their web store. So that opened it up to ancients, historicals as well as sci-fi.

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Bolt Action - Baconburgers Podcast: Episode 2.5 - The Baconburgers Go To Cancon

In this live episode, the Baconburgers venture into the vast Australian outback in search of the big C, and no, the C isn't for cheese... It's for CANCON! Tristan, Garratt and Rob hit the road, mic in sweaty hand and attempt to capture the dream that is Australia's largest Bolt Action event EVER! Hang on cheese wizards, we're not in Kansas anymore...

Explicit language warning

Please find this episode in your friendly local iTunes store or download it directly HERE.

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Bolt Action - Road to AdeptiCon – Slovak Rapid Division For the U.S. National GT

By Special Guest: Michael Ovsenik

We have about two months left to get ready for AdeptiCon, the best minis tabletop gaming con in the USA! I have signed up for combat patrol and the Bolt Action US National event on Friday / Saturday. For the combat patrol I’m bringing US Marines – that was a pretty easy decision.

For the national event I’ll be bringing my Slovak Rapid Division. This one wasn’t as easy. Initially I was going to paint up a French Senegalese Tirailleur force with a Char B1 Bis in support, but I lost a lot of time over the holidays and I have 50 dudes with a tank sitting in front of me to paint – not gonna happen.

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Bolt Action - Review: Dice of War

By Anthony "Anfernee" Mason

Recently I had the pleasure of picking up some new dice for one of my older Bolt Action armies, my brave Canadian Paras. I picked them up from an Australian company, Dice of War while I was at Cancon, Australia's largest gaming convention. Adam, the owner of Dice of War, was not only playing in the Flames of War tournament but was also a sponsor of both the Bolt Action and Flames of War events at Cancon. These dice are great for any WW2 game system, from Bolt Action to Flames of War to all the others in between.

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 22

Download the episode here

Welcome back for another packed episode of Behind Enemy Lines! This week we’ve got a lot to talk about including n00b news, AARs from DanCon III, and a careful review of Battlefront’s Pacific books for Flames of War...  

In Act I, we talk about n00b news and look at some upcoming kickstarters, including the highly anticipated Explorers of the North Sea!

In Act II, we each talk about DanCon III, the greatest most random FoW event in all of West Auckland. Heads up in this section, low flying aircraft inbound. 

In Act III, we dive into the Flames of War Pacific books: Banzai and Gung Ho and give you the inside scoop on these great books and talk about our chosen lists.

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

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News from the Front - Episode 101

The Old School crew is back!  Luke, Jon and Phteven blow the doors off Episode 101!  

In Act I, the boys do the usual look ahead to upcoming events like Cold Wars, ROFCON, a Huzzah tournament, etc.  The guys look look back at Williamsburg Muster and all the other stuff that has been going on.

In Act II, Flames of War is the topic!  We cover some news from Can-Con, speculate about the future, overlooked rules, and talk about the struggles of putting together a 1420 list.

In Act III, we talk about Twitch, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Eclipse and the first book review of the year

Click Here to Download Episode 101

After Hours

We get a little off the rails in this After Hours, so I will let the content be a surprise.  Have fun

Click here to listen to After Hours

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L'Art De La Guerre in the Manly Scale!

 By Eric Lauterbach

L'Art De La Guerre is the current hotness in the Ancients community - a one book package with all the rules and armies. The majority of the players play in 15mm, but a few select brave souls play in the "Manly Scale" of 28mm.  Its a righteous beautiful wargaming event to play Art De Guerre in 28 mm.  I do not own any 28mm Ancients, so all of these great looking figs belong to Sean Mackintosh.  The armies set for this day's battle were Late Imperial Romans vs. the Visigoths. The Roman force was Cataphract Heavy with a good backbone of Legionnaires. The Visigoths had the usual tons of sword swinging warrior infantry with the elite nobles mounted on Medium Cavalry.  The Romans - having better command - were able to choose to defend against the Visigoth attack.

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Guest AAR: Battle of Arnhem

By Kevin Kubecka

Battle of Arnhem-A Bridge Too Far!

GameMaster: Stephen Wilcox, Lone Star Historical-Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter, Texas, USA

Location: Texas Toy Soldier

Date: Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter of Lone Star Historical Miniatures hosted a massive 15,000 point Flames of War brawl reconstructing the Arnhem Bridge engagement of September 17-26, 1944. Nine lucky players commanded their troops on a colossal six (6) by sixteen (16) foot board modeled on period  reconnaissance photographs. Who says, everything isn’t bigger in Texas!

All the usual characters made this fight:

BRITISH TROOPS                                                             GERMAN TROOPS

Colonel Frost’s Perimeter Force                                         Spindler’s Blocking Force

   -2 players, 1,250 points each                                             -3 players, 1,250 points each

General Urquhart’s Parachute and Airlanding Forces        Gräbner’s Reconnaissance Force

   -2 players, 1,250 points each                                              -1 player, 1,250 points

XXX Corps Armor-British Armored Force                           Hummel Armor Force-Tigers!!

   -1 player, 1,250 points                                                        -1 player, 1,250 points

                                                                                            Knaust Reserve Force

                                                                                               -1 player, 1,250 points

11 players listed with forces, however only nine actually participated.

ALLIES

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:          Frost must hold out until XXX Corps arrives on Turn 6;

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:    Urquhart’s forces must push through the town and link up with Frost.

AXIS

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:          Reclaim bridge head from Frost’s Forces;

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:    Prevent Urquhart’s forces from linking up with Frost.

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Chain of Command Japanese Vs. the USMC

 By Eric Lauterbach

Played a great game of Chain of Command with my pal John Desch. The guys made some new jungle terrain and it seamed like the best way to give it a test. We did a basic patrol on patrol action.  The Marines had real command issues starting out the game, while the Japanese had great command dice. This unbalance led to a weird "go for it" game with each side having their way with the other for a few turns.

The figs are all painted by John and they all looked great!  We wanted to use figs for jump off points so we had to add a few dead guys.

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Star Wars Armada - Tournament Report: Dave and Adam's 1/23/16

I was lucky enough to not only attend a recent Store Championship event at Dave and Adam's Store outside of Buffalo, NY but to do so with fellow crew member Dano! We had a great time with all the amazing people involved - if you're in the neighborhood you've got to check this incredible store out - and the following is a quick round-by-round report of how the event went for me.

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Star Wars Armada - Video Report: Double Header!

It's been a while since my last Twitch video of Star Wars Armada, but here are two games with my pal Andrew. Andrew is brand new to Armada, and more than holds his own! In an effort to learn the game I had him build the lists, choose his side, and away we went! As you can see, is quite the quick study.

In game one, Andrew very wisely chose "Fleet Ambush" from the Rebel fleet, and witnessed a valuable lesson: If you want to keep the enemy at long range ,don't give them the option of turning your ambush on you!




In game two, we re-picked the objectives for the Rebel fleet, and Andrew picked Superior Position. He played a very good game!

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Bolt Action - Flakpanzer V 'Coelian'

By Patch

The Flakpanzer V Coelian is a prototype anti-aircraft weapon based on the Panther platform. It was designed to combat the ever increasingly effective Allied ground attack aircraft and to give the crew some fighting chance to survive attacks. From the research I have done, no working prototypes ever got to field testing stage due to shortage of supplies and as such it is as much a 'what if' vehicle as some of the more fantastic designs going around at the time. The final design, had it actually been built, would of housed dual 3.7 cm Flak 43 guns firing at a rate of 150 rounds per minute with an effective range out to 4800 meters.

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Playing Around with Team Yankee!

 By Eric Lauterbach

Well, some of the I95 guys have picked up the new Team Yankee book and it was time to dust-off the micro armor.  Some of this stuff has not seen the light of day in 20 years so it was good to do.  Sean Mackintosh has so much micro he can do whole Motor Rifle Regiments! We got out of hand rather quickly with what we put on the table for our knowledge of the rules.  So we did two 200 point armies with all the bells and whistles so we could give the rules a good test.  We were not overly concerned with the missions, so we did a modified free-for-all with the Soviet objective of opening a road off table and reducing the village that dominated them.

 The new spearhead deployment is interesting by using the recon platoon you can extend your deployment area very useful!

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Osprey Books - Finland at War Vol 1 - A Review

By Old Man Morin

Many of us in the wargaming world, particularly those of us who come from fantasy or sci-fi based
games systems, rely heavily on background material, or 'fluff' to inspire our choice of armies and units. When I started playing Bolt Action I discovered a new world, rich with information about units and battles within what some consider to be a "short" war. 'The Armies of...' and the Bolt Action Theatre books provide a glimpse into these conflicts and the forces that fought in them but because of their length and purpose, this information is condensed down to brief overviews. Now there is quite a lot of information online and there are literally thousands of books and biographies about this global conflict and to be honest the sheer volume of text can be daunting. To focus my searches I have been researching things that I find interesting when reading Bolt Action books. Not the most holistic view of the war but it is a starting point (and I have been at it for close to 4 years now). Now Osprey publishing puts out vast numbers of short, soft cover books covering everything from specific units and battles to technology and tactics. These are great resources and I am sure I will discuss them again in an article soon. Today though, I want to talk about something else. Their 'Finland at War' series.

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Star Wars Armada - Token Commanders: Firepower and Flexibility

By Patrick J. Doyle

 There is a basic principle that holds true for starship combat games, and that is the importance of concentrating firepower on a single target. Concentration of your firepower requires maneuvering into the right range with the right ships facing the right direction, while simultaneously denying your enemy those same advantages. I will discuss one way to accomplish this goal.

Once we have established the importance of concentrating firepower (i.e. putting dice on target) and how maneuvering can allow you do that, we will drill down and discuss what I will classify as a Token Commander, or a Commander that allows you to issue additional command tokens to your ships. Two of these commanders are Grand Moff Tarkin for the Empire and my personal favorite, Garm Bel Iblis.

I am not attempting to make the case they are “THE BEST” commanders and that you will always win by using them. There is no “auto-win” fleet list or tactic. There is only list building, planning, attention to detail, and improvisation when the plan goes sideways. I am suggesting how you can use this type of commander if it fits your style of play. You will still have to practice with your list and match it with your plan. Admiral Akbar is certainly another good way to put dice on target, but he comes with his own advantages and disadvantages that we can discuss at another time.

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode XVII: Thirteen Secret Reasons Dan Loves Ozzel That Scientists Don't Want You to Know

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode 17: Thirteen Secret Reasons Dan Loves Ozzel That Scientists Don't Want You to Know brings the original crew back together! Easy, Steve, DT and Dano, fresh from Store Championships in New York and Virginia set the listening table with reviews of the events and their takeaways before bringing some Wave 2 commander chat to the conference room. Listen up because the Flesh Star Destroyer is glistening after all the recent action! 

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

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Bolt Action - Indiana Jones Objective marker set

By Bryan

Normally you create objective markers for your army...but in this case, I had an idea for a set of objective markers I wanted to do so badly that I made an army to go with them! A couple of weeks ago I took you through my initial 1000pts of Afrika Korp, now I will show you the Indiana Jones themed objective markers for the army, and how you can go about doing this yourself.

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John Tiller's "Battles of Normandy"

 By Mitch Reed

Miniatures, board games, and video games; three distinct methods of gaming that often do not share the same participants.  I have always felt that board war-gamers were a separate animal from those who play miniatures, and these two groups are even more different from those who play either PC or console games.  However every so often I do find players who dabble multiple gaming platforms and if they have a favorite PC game title it usually is one of John Tiller's excellent products.  Tiller's latest release from his Panzer Battles series is a well done game that features the Normandy Campaign of 1944.

Over the last twenty years I am sure many of you have either played or heard of a game developed by John Tiller.  Staring with Talonsoft Games of the 1990's, he moved on to creating titles for HPS Simulations, and then over the last few years his own software development company. Over the years Tiller's games have covered many different eras and levels of warfare from squad level to  the operational level.  Tiller's latest series is called "Panzer Battles" which focuses at the battalion to Corps level of combat.  The second title in this series is called Battles of Normandy which is a deep dive into the entire campaign from the beach landings to the end of the Falaise Pocket.

 Hitting the beach... 

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Bolt Action - Free gaming resources

Want some challenging new missions for your games? Interested in knowing more about some of the more obscure armies of the Second World War era? Looking for some extensively play-tested 'house rules' to create a more balanced game of Bolt Action? Then come and check out all the free resources from the Bolt Action Alliance!

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Star Wars X-Wing - Tatooine Tuesdays at the Curio Cavern

 By Mitch Reed

Much like the rest of the WWPD crew, I too have been bitten by the Star Wars X-Wing bug. Two weeks ago my wing-man Throck told me about a gaming store in my town, Springfield Virginia,  called the Curio Cavern.  I was surprised that a LGS slipped my attention, especially for the fact that it has been open for 5 years.  On a cold MLK day Throck and I checked out the store and got in a few games of X-Wing. The Curio Cavern also hosts an X-Wing tournament every Tuesday at 6:30PM so I decided to try my luck!

During my first visit I ran into Steve Dodd, one of the regulars at the Cavern who has been playing X-Wing since it has first been released.  Steve has some of the most in-depth knowledge of the game and if you ever get him to give you advice, I would recommend taking it. Much like myself, Steve is a dedicated Imperial player and recommend the core of the list I brought to the first two Tuesday events.

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Bolt Action - Cancon 2016 Photo Dump

A week ago, a few of us here attended the Bolt Action tournament at Cancon in Canberra, Australia.  The 42-player event consisted of 5 games per person, over 2 days. It was TO'd by the Ghost Army Podcast's Patchimus and friend of the cast and TO-extraordinaire, Peter West. It was supported by a host of great sponsors, Warlord Games, War & Peace Games, Hall of Heroes, Laser Touch, Battlefield Accessories, Wartime Miniatures, Campaign Books and Dice of War.

It was an amazing weekend and the biggest Bolt Action tournament to date in Australia. A special mention to Benjamin who walked away as the grand winner at the head of his plucky Bulgarians who managed to just eek out the victory against the Belgians of Bryan M in second place. Who would have foreseen the rise of the minor powers?

Enjoy these photos from the event and keep an ear out on the Bolt Action podcasts for a further rundown of this great event, and if you haven't attended a tournament yet, I highly recommend you take the plunge and join us at these great functions!

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