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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Bolt Action AAR - Colonial Free French V DAK

By Patch,I recently got the chance to play James who I shall refer to as JL, a wily opponent and Bolt Action Veteran here in Canberra Australia at our local games store - Jolt Games. The match was set at 1000 points and was to be my Vichy French, who had recently changed sides to be Free French under De Gaulle for the match, against JL's seasoned German Africa Korps (DAK).

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Pardon my French, British vs French, Napoleonics, Black Powder rules

"One does not simply walk into Mordor Portugal" Sean Bean, Sharpe's Rifles.

Below, we have an 8 foot by 6 foot table, with new cloth gaming mats from http://cigarboxbattlestore.bigcartel.com/, for a rousing game of Napoleonics.   My French with foreign allies vs Scott's British.  We have been using Warlord Games' Black Powder rule set (written by a bunch of ex-GW guys) an unlike almost every other block-unit game I have ever played,  the mobility is HUGE in Black Powder, so we are starting with nothing on the board, except each unit touching the board edge, if they rolled a 4+ to deploy.  If you click the below picture you will see I only got 4 units out of 11 while he got 9 out of 11!  He also rolled to get first turn....

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Bolt Action - How My French Army Will Change in V2

Bolt Action V2 is just around the corner and the list of new rule changes have been flying around like Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Whilst the book is not available yet we can only assume that the minds at Warlord Games have strategically released the key changes to prepare the community for some pretty big changes in how we play our much loved game. I have heard many opinions about V2 ranging from it is going to be Bolt Action Armageddon from the usual doomsayers, to some sort of Bolt Action Nirvana from the fanboys. From my personal point of view I am excited and will reserve my full judgement till I have played a dozen or so games.

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Bolt Action - US Infantry Painting Guide

By Bryan

Hi guys, welcome to another step-by-step WW2 painting guide. This time for US infantry. I know these miniatures look a little off... They are in fact my Free French which were equipped by the Americans, so apart from some head gear they are exactly the same. This guide presents a method which is designed to get your US army painted quickly with the minimum amount of steps but the maximum 'punch' in the depth of the shading. Key to this is the use of Army Painters Quickshade 'dip'. Read on and I'll show you how to get the above result in 6 steps.

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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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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 - 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 - 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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Bolt Action - Review: The Warlord and JTFM M3 Scout Cars: Side By Side

By Bryan

Hello Bolt action fans!

    Today I'll be talking scout cars, M3 White scout cars. These were armoured cars produced by the factories of the United States which ended up being used by many of the allied nations. They are fast and festooned with machine guns, so are great fun in Bolt Action as well. There are currently two companies which make the M3 White scout car in 1:56 scale; Warlord Games and JTFM (Die Waffenkammer). My latest army features 3 of these vehicles so I'll take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the two different company's versions of the M3 in a side by side review of the miniatures.

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Preview :Battlefront's Great War Additions: Part 1 The French and British

 By Mitch Reed

It is no secret to many that the Great War is a subject I am fascinated with.  I have written a few articles in the past not only about gaming the Great War in general, but also about Battlefront’s summer 2014 release of their new Great War line.  In the months since this release I was able to get on Battlefront’s development team for the next wave that that will expand the Great War line. I was excited to work on this project with Wayne Turner and feel the final product will appeal to not only Great War fans, but other Flames of War players who have yet to discover how great this period is play.

I want to first explain that the upcoming release is not so much of an expansion as much it is a re-boot of the game.  The new booklet which is about 77 pages not only introduces the French and Americans into the fight; it also contains all of the rules and lists that came out in 2014.  The new book also has a full painting guide for all the forces found in the game as well as a new mission and adaptations of current missions used in the WWII version of the game.  So this one volume will cover all of the Great War line that has been released by Battlefront.

What is new?
The two new nations that are being introduced is something I am sure most people are excited about.  The French and the Americans make their appearance in the game and complete the list of the major combatants found in France during 1918.  Both of these nations, much like the British and Germans before, has a distinctive flair that makes playing them a unique experience.

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Bolt Action - 1000 Point French List

By: Patch 

Early War French are by far my favorite force to run in Bolt Action, there is a quality about them which makes them my ‘go to’ force above all others (and I have a few to choose from!). For our regular readers and listeners to the Ghost Army Podcast this is nothing new, they have heard me talk and write about them in no small detail over the last few years and may have even played against them at some point. In this latest chapter of my French, I will go over a list I have put together for an upcoming event and speak briefly about how I have rejuvenated and made them feel almost new again.

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Chain of Command: Russian Civil War Allied Intervention.

 By Eric Lauterbach

When you belong to group of gamers that have been around a while there is not much you can't do.

So when the call went out for who has stuff that would work for Russian Civil War a surprising amount of crap was available in the I95 Gamers inventory.

To make it even more silly we went with the Allied Intervention into Northern Russia around Arkhangelsk.

If you are not familiar with that fiasco here you go. We adapted the recent Too fat Lardies release of a WWI variant for Chain of Command.  

We had a combined French and British force holding a village from a Red Russian force.

 Reds on table! I forgot to take pics of the patrol phase..doh!

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Bolt Action - Review of Warlord Games SAS Squad and Jeep

By Patch

The Special Air Service (SAS) need little introduction, most know they started as a Commonwealth force under the command of David Stirling in the deserts of North Africa. They proved their worth with lightning strikes combining with the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in attacking airfields and other vital strategic objectives to disrupt Axis operations. In 1942 they expanded to include four Commonwealth squadrons, one Free French Squadron, One Greek Squadron and the Special Boat Section. 

The Troop all together

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Bolt Action - Wintercon 2015 part 1: The French

Ever heard of a French force winning a Bolt Action event? It's not often you'll see the French up there, rubbing shoulders with the major powers like the US and Soviets. But here in Australia we recently had a two day double event, Wintercon 2015. Day 1 was 'Early War' themed, which allowed the French to really shine, eventually taking out the top spot with 'best minor power' and 'best general'. It wasn't an easy victory though...game one I faced off against the Blitzkrieg master himself, Patch, with his lovely Germans.  To throw in front of the advancing Germans I took the disposable heroes of the French Foreign Legion.

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Bolt Action - Painting Guide: French Goumiers

Welcome to another step by step painting guide, this time I've chosen a very exotic unit, the Moroccan Goumiers of the French army. This is actually the first squad for a future project, the French Expeditionary Corp in Italy. The miniatures themselves are from the Artizan Designs range. These are fantastic miniatures and are a pleasure to paint. Let's see how to do it...

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Bolt Action - Review: Minairons Chevy truck

I recently picked up a 1:56 scale resin Chevy truck for my French desert forces. It was released earlier this year by a company called Minairons, I haven't heard of these guys before so thought I would give you BARbarians a quick review of the kit and talk a little about how I painted it.

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Bolt Action - Review: Warlord Games Metal Senegalese

For those of you that have followed our site, listened to any of our podcasts or seen any one of my several thousand Facebook posts you would be aware that the French are my favorite force in Bolt Action. There is just something about the underdog that attracts my interest, and in the tabletop game of Bolt Action no force is the butt of more jokes than the French.

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Bolt Action - French Armoured Carriers

I've recently added some armoured transports to my French Foreign Legion platoon. The Berliet VUDB carriers were manufactured in the 1930's by France to help police it's North African Colonies, with a limited number fighting in the Second World War. Today they are manufactured by by Mad Bob miniatures in 1:56 scale resin. I'll give you a review of the kit as well as a step by step painting guide.

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Bolt Action - AAR: Desert War

Welcome to the scorching desert of North Africa Bolt Action fans! Recently the LRDG podcast crew got together for a big group game. The 4 of us each fielded a 1250pt army each, so 2500 pts a side! We loosely based the game around the second battle of El Alamein in late 1942, with this sector seeing the Allies (Free French and Australians) taking on the Italian defenders. The result to was too good not to share.

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