Bolt Action: How to Collect and Paint Early War Fallschirmjager Part 2

Hey Bolt Action Community! Hopefully you've had a chance to check out the first part of this discussion, all about how to pull together the best models on the market for your Early War Fallschirmjager (found HERE). Hopefully, too, you've had your interest piqued and did a little research on Eben Emael and Operation Sea Lion and you're really pumped about early war games! In this article I'll walk you through my method for painting Fallschirmjager appropriate for the early days of World War 2, right up to and including Operation Mercury when the Splittermuster pattern was introduced. The green grey smocks found use right up until the end, and indeed there are a good number of photographs from the fighting in Normandy, 1944 where the Green Devils were still using them. You could easily mix these into a late war force for a bit of variation, too.

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FOW: EW V4 Indian vs French (Vichy)

Over the past few weekends, Raymond and I were able to work in a few games of Early War to try out the Version 4 Flame of War rules. We set up the latest battle one Sunday afternoon at the Brookhurst Club in Garden Grove California.

I found the depth the the EW lists refreshing after the past several weeks running demo and introductory games with the new and extremely limiting Desert Rats/Afrika Korps V4 books. Plus, it was fun to dust off the 2 pounder Portees and let Raymond get his Axis French forces out of storage for a bit.

We created lists of 1,500 points each. Raymond used the Burning Empires book, and I went to Hellfire and Back for my British Commonwealth Indian lists. I had to proxy my generic British Infantry stands for the Indians troops I don't have painted yet.

Unfortunately, I managed to forget to bring my dice tin. I got lucky, however, and scored a deal. Raymond had brought along an old Desert Rats dice tin with dice and markers, hoping to sell it to me. How could I say no to that offer?

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How to Collect and Paint Early War Fallschirmjäger, Part 1

By Seamus,

With the release of Warlord's new Campaign Book, Unternehmen Seelöwe, I thought this would be a good time to share with you my formula for collecting and painting Early War Fallschirmjäger!

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Flames of War: Version 4 for Early/Late War, Rules Preview

Now that we have taken care of all of the Mid-War releases for Version 4, it is now time to turn our attention to something I am excited for, which is the EW/LW update to V4. For those who have been following my coverage may be thinking, what a hypocrite, he blasted MW V4, let likes it for EW/LW. First of all I do think we have two related but vastly different games here, and I feel after you have taken time to compare the two, and perhaps play them you will see the difference as well. Despite my praise I do feel gamers will have some issues with some of the concepts that have changed from Version 3. This article is the first of a series that will cover the V4 EW/LW rules, the next article will cover the Special and National Rules from this book and from the Special Rules book.
The new rules come in two books; the first are the core rules which comes out to 109 pages and is a standalone set of rules not a translation of the V3 rules for V4, so you do not have to keep referring back to V3. The other book, which covers Special Rules and Warriors is not a standalone book, and serves to translate, amend, and update the info from all of the previous EW/LW intelligence briefs to V4, so you will need to refer back to the original book.

Both books will be given to you free if you present a copy of the V3 book, and even that simple statement has led to many questions of the forums. So why have two books for the V4 rules? It goes back to what I stated above, they are different games now. All of the rules that dealt with things like warrior teams, pioneers, flame throwers, etc. are not out of the MW version of the game, so why have it the rules since they are no longer applicable. Also, the deep and interesting lists, with their unique special rules are unchanged and are no long comparable to the mid war game. Another big difference between the two is that MW will have a different point scale and use cards for players to keep track of their forces vice using lists.

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Huzzah Hobbies 1390 EW Tournament Report

By The Gang

This past weekend, we rolled up to Huzzah Hobbies for a 1390 Early War tournament hosted by my man Scott Simoneau.  This was a pretty small affair, but we did get to hang out with a ton of our Flames of War friends, which was great!

Throck's beautiful Japanese tank army.

Chris Jacques and his British.  He isn't completely finished painting these - word has it that he was spraying models at 4:30am the morning of the tournament.

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EW 1390 Tournament - German List

By "Dirty Jon" Baber

Early War seems to be my jam this past year. With another tournament coming up at the awesome Huzzah Hobbies, I had to take a look at what I might play. The tournament will be 1390 Early War and open to everything. I decide pretty quickly that I will play Germans - my only other option is the Finns, and I am a bit tired of them.  Plus, why change something that is working!

I have a ton of options for lists, but at a low point total and taking into account that ANYTHING could show up, I go for a list that has all the options - Czech Panzers from Blitzkreig. I considered a couple of other lists, but at this low point total, I think this is the best at handling all comers.

HQ & 1st Platoon

Two Panzer 38(t)Bs in the HQ and five more in a platoon  I did not even consider the 35(t).  First of all, I don't have the models. Second, I don't want to pick up Unreliable for only a savings of 5pts per tank. The 38(t) is a great EW tank at a cost of ~88pts each.

In EW, this tank is likely to stick around and be pretty effective. First of all, it is Veteran and this makes it both hard to hit (especially at range) and also gives me a good chance to make Stormtrooper checks. The FA of 2 is not fantastic, but it makes me immune to MGs and gives a good chance to bounce AT 5 and 6, which is fairly common in EW. The platoon is 5-strong, which means it can take a ton of abuse and still stick around. Last - and certainly not least - having Protected Ammo is just fantastic because there is a TON of 5+ Firepower out there.  Three quarters of the time, my tanks are re-mounting. This is a huge advantage in the relatively low lethality of EW.

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Flammpanzers and Cruisers

By Johan Wade

Hello fellow Flames of War gamers and greetings from a snow-clad Sweden. My name is Johan (typical Swedish name almost like Sven) and I live and work in the northern part of Sweden. We don’t have polar bears or wolfs stalking the streets but we have the occasional herd of reindeer clogging up the roads. I have been playing everything from tabletop RPG to war games for more then 20 years. I started playing Flames of War during the second edition rules and now I consider it to be one of my main games. This is my first try at a Flames of War article but I hope that you will find reading it as fun as I found writing it.

When I first got my hands on the Barbarossa book I was disappointed by the lack of beute options for the German forces. I see a lot of forum posts asking Battlefront to create this or that list or include a particular option. The reality is that most of the suggestions will go unanswered. In this instance I decided to write the list myself.

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It's Always Night Attack in Philadelphia WINTER WHITEOUT Report

 By Mitch Reed
Photos By Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah

Philadelphia is popular destination for travelers due to the city’s rich history, sports teams that always seem to lose and of course cheesesteaks (Ed. Jim's Steaks is the best). Another reason to head to the City of Brotherly Love is to play in a tournament at Showcase Comics and Games, located in Swarthmore PA, a southern suburb of Philadelphia which is less than 15 miles from the center of the city. The staff has always been friendly and according to Cooper who mans the counter, "they are not barbarians". 

THE STORE AND THE TABLES

I have been heading to Showcase from Northern Virginia for almost two years now since they run some of the best tournaments in the area.  About twice a year Showcase holds a big tournament for about 20-30 people that draws folks from all over the Northeast and even some making the trip from as far away as Florida. 

If Superman played FoW, what list would he run? 

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Minairons T-26 Mod A or B Review

When I painted my Soviet armored train, I also had a box of T-26s sent to us by Minairons to knockout for a review. These T-26s are an earlier variant than you might see in Barbarossa or Eastern Front for Flames of War, but at 15mm they're close enough that I thought it was worth investigating!

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Williamsburg Muster Pic Dump

By the WWPD Boys

Williamsburg Muster is one of our favorite little cons.

It, and it's sister con Guns of August, are hosted by the fabulous folks of the Hampton Roads Wargamers in February and August every year.

Held at the oh so lovely Holiday Inn Patriot, the con sports a bevy of board games, historical wargames, Warhammer Fantasy and of course our very own Flames of War tournament. This year, the I-95 guys battled through illness to bring us a 1500 point early war tournament. 

The tournament sported 22 players, with one coming from as far as Danbury, CT. Each of the major early war books was represented and there was even a Dutch PDF list! In the end there were three, after an epic round 3 showdown between Dirty Jon and Stevie Mac, where only one could come out victorious, Dirty Jon Baber won the day with his Confident Vet German Panzer Companie. Rounding out the top three were Jeff Knoke at number 2 with Fallschirmjagers from Burning Empires and Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah with 3rd Sensha Rentai from Rising Sun. 

But that wasn't the only fun the team had. Friday Dirty Jon hosted a Netrunner tournament and Saturday after the Flames tournament Steve hosted a Lord of the Rings gaming night for 17 folks with raffle prizes. Of course, there's a ton of pick up games, board games and all the other great gaming fun we've come to expect from this great little convention.   

NETRUNNER:

"What the hell does this card do?"

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AAR: Early War Germans vs. French

By "Dirty" Jon Baber

Tom and I had not played a game in quite a while, so we got together to play an Early War game with my Germans in preparation for the Williamsburg Muster 1500 point tournament.  Tom graciously agreed to put together a list to face off against mine - thanks Tom!

With the new EW stuff out, I decided that my old Light Panzer Company just would not cut it.  I figure that someone is going to bring some T-34s or other heavy tanks and I need to be able to deal with them. My solution is Air.  I am not sure how that will work out, so I wanted to give it a shot.


We rolled randomly and got Fighting Withdrawal.

Jon's List:

Tom's List:

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The Soviet Captured Armored Train!

By Steven MacLauchlan

When Barbarossa dropped with an option for an armored train, you all knew I had to do it. I absolutely love my German train, and use it all the time! So, I grabbed the Polish engine and two artillery cars and set to work.

To paint the train, I used my standard Soviet painting technique. I spent a little extra time making sure the rivets were highlighted, though I couldn't bring myself to individually pin wash them. For shame!

As you can see, I was also a bit sloppy with the build- some of the resin pieces fit together a bit roughly and though I did a bit of green stuff work, I didn't do as much as was required! But, I figured this wouldn't see the table too often so wasn't too fussed.

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Fifty Tanks of Grey: German Barbarossa List

By Mitch Reed

With the release of every new Flames of War book from Battlefront, I eagerly look forward in creating new lists from the collection of troops and vehicles I possess. As I stated in my previous article on my Japanese forces, I do not play early war very much and only have the one nation in my collection.  I decided that with the new book I would try and field a new early war force from Barbarossa. 

The new book covers only two factions, the Soviets and the Germans, and since I already play the latter in mid and late war, I figured that a German Early War force would be the next force to build.  I have been interested in collecting such a force since I first leafed through the Blitzkrieg book a few years ago; I assume it was something about those iconic German armor columns slashing through Europe in 1939-1940 that made me desire to play such a list.

I decided on collecting a new force well before the book was released and I first took stock of what forces I had on hand that could be used for the early war period.  I used the previous early war books that had German lists as a guide and soon realized that German armor changed significantly from the early to mid and late war periods.  Plus even the few vehicles and troops that I could use were tanks panted in late war camo schemes or troops that also wore camo smocks or had equipment that was not found in the early part of the war.  While some of my artillery, AT guns, mortars, and even my SS troops could be used, I knew that I would need to purchase new tanks, halftracks, and vehicles.

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Playing Historical Games

By Mitch Reed

One of the great aspects of Flames of War is how the game can be used for different types of play that are each enjoyable and present different challenges for the players.  FoW tournaments are a huge success at conventions and local gaming stores.  There is also one on one play where two opponents play a game at their home or at their gaming store. And finally, there is using the game to re-create a historical battle, which this article will highlight.

In my 2 ½ years of playing Flames of War I have observed two types of players; you have the gamers who are addicted to the thrill of gaming and play many different types of games and then you have the historical gamer who uses a game or rules system to see what they would do if allowed to refight a battle from the past.  Many gamers can identify themselves as being part of both groups at different times, and while playing, the rationale for gaming is immaterial to their success or failure on the table. However I always like at tournaments how players will explain why they chose a particular period or army to play; it shows some connection to the history that the little soldiers on the base represent. 

Kevin Hatch writes a history of the unit he uses for most tournaments

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AAR: Russians vs. Finns in Fighting Withdrawal Infantry Battle

Steven and I continued our "Get Jon's Stuff on the Board" series, where I play things I have painted, but have not yet played.  I started the Finns a long time ago, but have not got them on the table at all, as I was slowly building up the force so that it can fight from Early War to Late War.

We played the same day we recorded a Know the Mission for Fighting Withdrawal, so we went ahead and played that mission.  We rolled a die, and I got to be the defender.  We decided it was snowing, so we basically treated everything as Slow-Going.

Jon's List:

I am pretty limited in my choices of platoons - due to what I own - so I basically put a list together with all my Early War appropriate models.  Steven put together some Strelkovy.

Steven's List:

I deployed this infantry unit in the woods on top of my right-most objective.  I was going to have to count on this unit to hold off the horde.  I put the two attached HMGs on the edge of the wood (on is behind the tree) to give me to option to shoot the blob as it got closer.

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Barbarossa Germans vs. Soviets at 3000 points!

by Eric Lauterbach

Yes you heard right, 3000 point game! Well its not that impressive once you see the point costs for what T-34s are in early war.

The main focus of the afternoon of fun was how can we get as many of Bob Everson's brand new T-26, T-28 and T-35s on the table and still have a reasonable game.

After tossing out two big handfuls of tanks (Bob still had more!) the point level was a little over 3000.  So the point limit was going to be decided by the German toys I had.

I started by giving the Pz IIIs and PzIVs all the upgrades I could find and that added up real quick.

With this many points we wanted to get after it quick so settled on Free-For-All as the mission.

The base force for the Russians was a T-34 company of HQ T-34, T-34 company of two,  T-26 company of 16 tanks, T-28 company of 8 tanks, and T-35 company.  A truly massive horde of tanks.  The German force was based on a Pz III company.

The village 

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Barbarossa Battle German 38t Company vs Russian T-34 Tankovy

By Eric and Luke

j

Luke and I were ready for round two of Barbarossa battles, this time it would be something more reasonable: 1500 point armies.  I whipped up two tank armies for a fun quick game. The German list is based on 38t tanks and Russian based on T-34 tanks.

We rolled a random mission and came up with Pincer and used the new version where the defender declares his side his reserves come in.  We rolled who would be the auto attacking Russian and it was Luke.  The German forces were 38t HQ, two platoons of four 38t, a platoon of pioneers, a captured T-34 obr 1941 and a platoon of two 8-rads.  The Russians had T-34 obr 1941 HQ, a company of two T-34s, two companies of eight T-26s, and a company five BA-10s.   As the German with only five platoons I made a kampfegroup to make six platoons so I could get 3 on the table.  The Germans started with pioneers and the captured T34 guarding the objectives and the platoon of four 38ts in ambush.

The table with the objective behind the town and one in the top wood line.

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Barbrossa Battle: Tankovey Battalion Vs. Medium Panzer Company

By Eric Lauterbach & Luke Melia

Barbarossa has started! Yeah!  Luke and I decided to give it go and test out the new lists.

I started to throw together some forces and I quickly found out if we want a tank on tank fight we need massive points.  So it ended up somewhere in the 2000 to 2400 points on the board but really it looked like a 1500 point Flames of War mid-war battle.

I made both lists out of what forces I had on hand at the time so they are not really optimized combined arms armies. We rolled a random mission got hasty attack and then rolled random for who got to be which side. We made a mistake with who gets to be the defender in the mission we missed that Tankovy is always attack.  Oh well... get it right next time its a first game with these forces.

For the German Medium Panzer Company Luke had 6x Panzer IVs (two in HQ), 10x Panzer IIf (two platoons) and 5 Panzer 38t.

The Soviet Tankovy force was fearless conscript: 5x T-34 (one in Hq), 10x T-26s, 6x Armored Cars BA-6, and 3x AAA trucks.  Both forces with four platoons so it was going to be good fight.

The table a Russian village

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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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Barbarossa Part Two: The Soviets!

If you missed Part One (The Germans), go catch up now! Otherwise, read on:

RUSSIANS
Russian Special Rules appear to be the same as or very similar to Rising Sun (The wave attack wording seems to be tightened up a bit). The tank lists still use offensive doctrine, meaning they are always attacks.

Leytenant Konstantin Samokhin may join a tankovy batalon and replaces the command BT-7 tank team in a BT-7 equipped light tankovy company for 40+ points or he may replace the battalion commander HQ tank in a T-34 tank for +125 points. Either way he gets a spearhead move with the tankovy company he has joined. His real worth come in the form of a re-roll any failed to hit rolls when he shoots with the main gun of this tank. Now that is sweet.

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