A Rebel Fleet to Call My Own

Just when I thought I'd be able to put food on the table for my family, Star Wars Armada sucked me in with its tight rule set, great theme, and outstanding miniatures. Having amassed modest Rebel and
Imperial fleets, I was at a loss over what exactly to do with these models between games. Past miniature games that I've played have required players to assemble and paint their miniatures as part of the hobby process.

Original photo courtesy of Reinholt, the cropped and slightly blurry image above courtesy of yours truly

Well, even though Armada doesn't require players to paint their figures (in fact, that's a huge selling point of the game) I felt a desire to personalize my forces. Although originally drawn to the Imperials - I tend to pick the "bad guy" in most games - the Rebel fleet offered the most opportunity for artistic license.

I'm going to take you on a rough step-by-step guide on how I took my nascent Rebel fleet from the default color scheme to something else entirely.

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Jagdpanther Platoon (GBX84) Review

Ahhhhh, the Jagdpanther!  This is one of my favorite tanks in Flames of War!  Some time ago, Battlefront released the GBX84 box to provide plastic Panthers and Jagdpanthers.  I finally got around to building these guys, and of course went for more Jagdpanthers!  With the drive to plastic, it makes sense to have a Panther kit out, and I think it is a smart move to make this a multi-option kit, but including the JPs as well.

This box contains FIVE tanks, not three like the old kit.  This is great, as I can get a couple of boxes and mix and match my options as I please.

The back of the box lists all the options you can build and all the things that come in the box.  Though the Panther turret is set up for magnets, none come in the box.  Bummer.

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Bolt Action - Baconburgers Podcast: Episode 4

In the first part of this epic 2-parter episode, the Baconburgers delve into a range of topics from hobby projects, recent events, Tristan’s new Finnish army and even take a quick glance at Warlord's newly-ish released 'Duel in the Sun'. Next we bring on our first International guest with renowned Bolt Action enthusiast and resin crusader Mad Bob Emmerson on to talk Kickstarters, rules, the UK scene and even the mighty Norwegians!

Explicit language warning, mature listeners only.

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

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Star Wars Armada Video Report: Admiral Motti vs General Rieekan

Admirals Steven and Andrew battle it out in the mission Intel Sweep. Can Rieekan and his Red MC30 take down Motti's sturdy space triangles? Watch and see!

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Cold Wars Doubles Mid War 1942 Tournament

 By Eric Lauterbach

Cold Wars has come and gone and it was another great one. Once again I ran the I95 Flames of War Doubles Tournament on Friday, and this years Cold Wars theme was 1942 armies. The rules were you could use any equipment in the Mid-War lists but if you wanted 3 extra points to your finial battle score you must have equipment that was in the field in 1942, no 1943 equipment at all. So a little research had to be done to make sure your army was compliant to get the points and three points is a big deal. For my part as the TO, it was pretty obvious if the army was 1942 compliant but I did have to check a few things.  I learned StuH42s did see the field in 42' as 11 of the earlier versions were retrofitted and sent to the front as a test. So hey - I even gained some knowledge! The rest of the doubles rules were 1000 points swing 200 to either play and you may not have two of the same type companies. Tank/Tank or Infantry/Infantry would be illegal.

 I could tell it was going to be one of those days when the players were coming up with these team names.

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Bolt Action - Hungarian Motorcycle with Solothurn S-18/1000

By Anthony "Anfernee" Mason

Sometimes you find the odd photo or blurb of something really unique from World War 2, that gets your creative juices flowing, only to find further information not as forth-coming. Despite how well documented parts of WW2 are, it was a destructive conflict that happened over 70 years ago and some information is lost to the ages. That is the problem I faced after stumbling across a few tantalising photos when researching my Hungarians.

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode XIX: Steaming Fresh Flotillas (Armada Wave III)

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Normal show notes are on hold since the writers abandoned ship, having read the grief stricken moaning of an upset forum poster, but fear not! The intrepid crew of the Flesh Star Destroyer continue on their quest. In this episode they thrust full force into FFG's latest warm batch of delicious new flotillas!

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 - Ep 102 - On the Road from Cold Wars!

An impromptu show from Luke and Eric at Cold Wars, joined by some special Guests Mark, Sean and Bob.  The guys cover a Island Landing mission they played from the new Pacific books and cover the MW doubles tournament.  The gang also discuss the Japanese and Marine lists along with the strategy tips for building your forces.

Click Here to Download Episode 102

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Bolt Action - Dioramic Basing, part 2

By Special Guest Dennis Berwick

Today we will continue the article on Basing a Pak 40. For this article to make sense you may want to read Part 1, which is available here.

I've never been a big fan of using 'green stuff' to level out bases, spending hours of hobby time pressing putty onto the base around the model isn't that fun. Here is a simpler way that takes a few models to master but is very effective and much faster.

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Review: Armies of By Fire and Sword

by Scott Simoneau

My copy of "Armies of By Fire and Sword" arrived today, and not really knowing what the book was about, I was quite eager to dive in and digest it.

The book is much smaller than the others in the series, clocking in at "only" 148 pages! The ENTIRE book is made up of army lists - much in the same style as the army list sections in the Core rulebook and in The Deluge rebook. You get a few paragraphs describing the army background, then a listing of any new special rules (but existing rules are not duplicated here!), and then straight into the army list. Many of the lists in here are from the BFAS downloads section and have existed previously as PDFs. Whether or not they will continue to be available as downloads, I have no idea, but for now, they're all still there.

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Bolt Action - Operation Cleanslate Tournament Recap

By Anthony "Anfernee" Mason

A few weeks ago I ran a tournament in Melbourne known as Operation Cleanslate. We had 16 players register, but sadly one had to withdraw on the morning due to a family emergency (hope everything is good now JD!). So that forced me to pull out the gumby list. Cleanslate was a one day event, consisting of three 1250 point games.

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Bolt Action - Desert vehicle painting guide

By Bryan


Welcome to another another step by step painting guide, this time on vehicles for your desert armies. This guide covers techniques you can use on almost any vehicle, from any nation in the North African or Mediterranean theaters.

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Team Yankee Soviet Defend in a No Retreat

 By Eric Lauterbach

John Desch and I decide to try a World War III battle to get a feel for the tank on tank fight.  Our forces could not contain any air assets and the point total was 100. I played the Soviets and I had two companies T-72s with 9 each, a recon BMP of 2 vehicles, and a Motor Rifle Company of 5 BMPs with Infantry and RPGs. John's force was two platoons of 4 M1 Abrams, HQ of 2 Abrams, Mortar platoon, Mech Platoon and a section of ITV.  The mission we randomly rolled and no retreat came up. We rolled again and Soviets were the defender. At least my choice for which platoons to put on the board was easy, or so I thought. We totally screwed up the deep reserves rule and I put one T72 company on and one in ambush. This is illegal, but probably had no impact on the outcome of this fight. The objectives were a castle way out in the open placed by John and house at cross roads placed by me. This was not going to be easy.

 As you can see my T-72s are painted for the desert.

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Bolt Action - Review: Warlord Games Plastic Tiger I Ausf E

By Rob White

Charging forward in search of prey, her mere presence brings dread and fear to a beleaguered commonwealth army. In the hands of a crafty desert fox the Allies are now out-armoured and out-gunned by a newly arrived technological marvel of the battlefield. En garde boys, the cats come out to play!

Yes comrades, I’m indeed here to talk about Warlord's plastic Tiger I or Panzerkampfwagen VI (If were feeling particularly hairy under the neck). First off, you might be asking why I own a Tiger or even why I would use it in Bolt Action.



Well to start, being shallow and abundantly stupid, I’m a sucker for aesthetics - I do indeed think some tanks are “prettier then others” and whilst I generally favour the ugly step children of the tank world (early Soviet armour), I do have an intractable proclivity for German hardware. In this respect I do love the work Warlord/Italeri have put into this kit. Their model is sleek, well detailed and ridiculously easy to assemble. Coming straight off the sprue, this number took about 30-40 minutes to assemble, but also presented none of the usual challenges I face with plastic kits (one by one track assembly can take a walk!). I did opt to remove the antenna as I found it to be a little vulnerable during transportation. I can proudly say however that this puppy (or should I say kitty?) is rugged. I'm particularly clumsy and managed to already drop the unfortunate thing on my hardwood floor - result? No damage! Good outcome as this is both financially beneficial and historically accurate - Thumbs up Warlord!

Going beyond mere looks and assembly, the Tiger I is undoubtedly iconic. When harking back to my childhood reading commando comics, watching war movies with the old man and playing computer games like Close Combat, Commandos, Medal of Honour etc. the Tiger tank unfailingly took centre stage at some point, striking shock and awe into my very soul. I always admired the David and Goliath struggle between a menacing Tiger and the plucky allies throwing everything but the kitchen sink at a seemingly impenetrable beast! I would hazard a guess and suggest that many people share similar feelings, with this machine being a major focus of nostalgia and interest. For these reasons alone any Bolt Action player with a German Army really should have a Tiger on show.

But whilst it’s great reminiscing and infinitely staring at a beautiful model on the hobby table it’s another thing to actually play with it. So, how does the Tiger rate on the tabletop? Reading into the history of the Tiger tank alone might get you excited about the possibilities for this tank. With a gun taken from a Flak 88, almost impenetrable frontal armour and a propensity to make any opposing force soil its proverbial trousers on sight, leaves me buzzing with feigned apprehension!

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Flames Of War: USMC vs Japanese Dust Up with the new "Gung-Ho" book

 By Eric Lauterbach

Our first try of the new Gung-Ho book promised to be a good one.  John Desch played the 1500 point USMC force with two platoons of Marines upgraded "BAR teams" with LVT-4 attached, LMGs two sections, mortar platoon, war dog recon platoon, and two M5 Stuarts.  The Japanese had 3 platoons of infantry, a 70mm Gun section, HMGs, and 3 type 89 tanks.  The Japanese and the Marines are all Fearless Veterans so this was going to be bloody. We randomly selected the dust up mission and the Japanese rolled attacker so night attack here we come. Since this was a Thursday night game I decided to either win big or go home early with a all out night attack on the Marines. I choose all my Japanese infantry platoons to be on table, John selected his mortars, one Infantry platoon and the Stuarts.

 I was encouraged by John's deployment -  the near objective was lightly held with really only two stands contesting.

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Bolt Action - Mixing Nations in Generic Platoons to Create a Unique Force

By Patch

For the readers that have followed my adventures in our great game of Bolt Action over the last three or so years, it will be no surprise that this is another article involving Early War French. Now I can actually hear your eyes rolling whilst I write this but this is something different I promise.  This time I am embarking on force that will embrace two of the great allies of the Battle for France in 1940 into one cohesive force, England and France!

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Star Wars Armada Video Battle Report with Commentary

Garm Bel Iblis and Ozzel wrestle to achieve superior positions as R1H4 and Drunktarkin provide commentary on the antics! -- Watch live at http://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven

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Bolt Action - Review: French Armoured Car by Mad Bob miniatures

By Bryan

If you are a French player, you have most likely already seen the exciting Kickstarter by Mad Bob Miniatures, which runs until the end of March. I recently painted up one of Mad Bob's French armoured cars from his existing range, so I thought I would offer an insight into what to expect from one of these kits.

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Bolt Action - Warlord Games Resin BT42 Review

By Tristan


For quite sometime now I've toyed with the idea of getting away from the Americans and the British and exploring a minor nation. If you listen to either the Baconburgers or the Ghost Army Podcast, you may be aware that eventually my quest has led me to the Finnish army. Upon looking at the army lists and the amazing troop options that the Finns are allowed, I cast my eyes to the tanks and their armour options.

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Team Yankee Soviets and US in Free for All

 Posted by Eric Lauterbach

We had a good learning game of Team Yankee - this was Luke and Andrew's first go at the new modern rules. Since they were unfamiliar with the rules, I looked up the questions as they came and took pics. As we were trying out the rules, I made the lists to include a little bit of everything. Andrew took the Soviets and had a Motor Rifle Based Battalion, One large MRC and one small. He also had 10 T-72s, Hinds, ZSUs, Recon, SA-13s and some Frogfoot. Luke ran the US and a Tank company base of Two platoons of 3 and a HQ M1s. He also had Mech platoon, Cobras, A-10s, M109s, ITVs and some VULCANS! (stop saying VADS nobody said VADS back in the day).  To make it quick and dirty fight they just played free for all.

Objective with US Mech.

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Bolt Action - Review: Rubicon Models Hetzer

By Bryan

Rubicon Models have released a 1/56 scale plastic Hetzer tank hunter in their latest wave of new kits. Here, I'll be unboxing this little beast and giving you an overview of this kit, as well as a couple of painted examples of how mine turned out.

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Williamsburg Muster....Always a good time!

 By Eric Lauterbach

Muster! and so should you! If you're not going to the Williamsburg conventions and you live within a couple hours drive you are wrong. The gaming is non-stop late into the night and the tournaments are always a good friendly affair.  So if you are new to the tournament scene this is the place to get your feet wet. This year we did a Mid-War 1500 point tournament.

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Bolt Action - Baconburgers Podcast: Episode 3

In this packed episode the fearless Baconburgers tackles the hard topics head on. We cover the upcoming Cleanslate event, Season 3 Bolt Action Alliance rules and all three burgers blow their respective gaskets over the recent warlord Bolt Action errata. We also speak with Mike and Lance from Battlefield Accessories and we have a farewell chat with our much missed French connections, Julien and Enzo. As well as other chunks of crunchy cheese - enjoy!

Explicit language warning, mature listeners only.

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

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Bolt Action - Review & Painting Guide: Long Range Desert Group Miniatures by Warlord Games

By Patch

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 23

Download the episode here

The guys are back with news, AARs and some #FoWPacific talk!

In Act I, we’ve got some n00b news, and talk about how kickstarter is kicking our collective butts this quarter!

In Act II,we talk about the events at the last TCOW club meeting, cover off some excellent listener questions (hey, that’s you!) and chat a bit about Club Challenge events. 

In Act III, we dive back into the Flames of War Pacific with list discussions, project updates and even talk a bit about some upcoming games!

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

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NATO Tri-Color Camo in 6mm

by Allen Smith - (also works in 15mm)

Vroooooooom!!

Since TY was released, there has been a lot of discussion about the color and camo pattern to be used for the game.  Basically, should the M1 be a solid forest green color?  Should it have the MERDC pattern?  Should it have Tri-Color?

The beauty of Team Yankee is that you can basically do what you want!  So with that in mind, I decided to go NATO Tri-Color.

My reasoning was… well… laziness and historical reasons.  For laziness, I did not want to do MERDC as it is a 4 color camo pattern – granted two colors are a vast percentage of the surface area and the other colors are a much smaller percentage.  But that means work.  And I don’t want to work.  Oh yeah, the M1 was not in MERDC, but that is another story.  I didn’t want to use a simple forest green color because I do want a contrast on the table with Soviets running around in their plain green vehicles.  So I went with the Tri-Color.  Of course, the pattern did start appearing in 1984, so it really isn’t too much of a stretch to say the least.

Too much work in 6mm!

Now, what is the pattern?  I am no expert on the subject at all.  I am sure we will see stuff posted from BF on the subject, but at a high level it is a common scheme that all NATO members agreed to paint their vehicles.  One purpose for the common scheme was to eliminate the possibility of the WARPAC units deciphering the nation they were facing by simply looking at the camo pattern.  Sounds reasonable.

So off I went ready to paint all my vehicles with green, brown and black splotches!

And not so fast my friend…

I had to find examples of the pattern for M1s.  After scouring the internet for pictures and other models and images, I finally stumbled on the exact specifications in the US Army Technical Bulletin: TB-43-0209.  Now this document was published in 1990 or 1991, but it is the pattern used in the 80's.  And guess what?  If you look in the document, you can paint by numbers!

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Bolt Action - Pacific Native Irregulars

By Bryan & Patch

The Empires in flames campaign book for the Pacific and Far East introduced some new and interesting units for the Allied and Japanese armies. One available to all armies is the 'Native Irregulars' infantry squad. This unit is deliberately designed to cover all manner of locally recruited forces throughout the Pacific and Far East. One such unit I have decided to paint up for my Australian army is the Papuan Infantry Battalion.

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode XVIII: The Death of a Helmsman

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The crew members mourn the figurative loss of their beloved engineering chief Lobrad. (Spoiler Alert: He's not dead and just took an episode off.) In addition, Easy, Skyshuffler, Dano and DT all traveled varying differences to attend more Store Championships! Find out what they brought and how it flew in this exciting episode of Intensify Forward Firepower!

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

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VIDEO: The Gang Plays Eclipse

Steven, Sean, Jon, and Luke get together to play some eclipse!

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LRDG (Off Topic) Podcast - Episode 27

LRDG (Off Topic) Podcast - Episode 27

The boys are back in this transitional 27th episode. The guys deviate from the Bolt Action world to discuss gaming in general. Specifically, they chat about X-Wing, the validity of gaming Kickstarters and the wonders of Malifaux. 

Check it out!

WARNING: This episode contains strong language and adult concepts. You have been warned!

You can download this episode directly from your local iTunes store or HERE.

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X-Wing Video Battle Report: Scum vs Rebels

Steven and Sean throw down with some good ol' fashioned X-Wing.

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Star Wars X-Wing - Store Championship: K-Wing Combat at the Curio Cavern

By Mitch Reed 

With the temperatures outside making Hoth seem tropical I headed back to the Curio Cavern to check out their store championship and see who would take home the top honors.

I showed up around 9 PM and saw that windows were full of condensation, a sign that some hard gaming was taking place that day.

However, I sadly missed the other 28 players who started playing at 11AM, in what turned out to be a long but fun day of playing X-Wing.

When I arrived the top 4 players were busy playing their semi-final games. As the semifinals were going on I spoke to the Game Master Stephanie Shaw who filled me in on the day’s events.

The Store Championship, which filled up quickly, consisted of 32 players playing in a Swiss format tournament consisting of 5 rounds of games for each player.  When the dust settles on these 150+ games the top 4 players play each other in two 75 minute long games and the winners of these two games go onto play one another in the un-timed championship game.

I asked Stephanie how the store championships compares to the weekly Tuesday tournament which she also runs. The answer was what I expected, the laid back style of the Tuesday event is replaced by a friendly but very competitive tournament despite most of the field being the same regulars who show up each Tuesday. Stephanie was impressed that as a GM she only had to make two rulings all day and the players who showed up knew the rules very well.

Speedy (L) and Derek (R) play their semi-final match-up 

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