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 - The Mouth Of Madness Paints with Oils

Using a technique that employs oil paints to get a great effect for your fighting vehicles!

I've been playing around with a technique that's becoming pretty popular, painting with oils.  I got my hands on three M14/41s from Army Group North Miniatures.

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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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Bolt Action - Review: Blitzkrieg Miniatures Semovente 47/32

I got my hands on my first Blitzkrieg Miniatures' model, the Italian Semovente 47/32. Cast from a 3D print, this is one of the smartest tanks I've seen. Its detail is sharp and assembly is basically non existent. There was also zero cleanup. The Semovente 47/32 was an Italian self propelled gun that mounted a 47mm anti tank gun on the L6 chassis.  It was the most heavily armed Italian armored fighting vehicle on the Eastern Front and used in eastern Europe after Italy's surrender to fight partisans. 

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Bolt Action - Luigi Pascucci & Pietro Bruno, Italian Tankers

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at legendary Italian tankers, Luigi Pascucci and Pietro Bruno.

Luigi Pascucci was a second lieutenant in the 132nd Tank Regiment of the Ariete Division. He would be post-humously awarded the Medaglia D’Oro Al Valore Militare (the Gold Medal for Military Valor), Italy’s highest award for his actions at the second battle of El Alamein.


On the 4th of November, 1942, Pascucci's platoon of M13/40 medium tanks was involved in combat against the British 22nd Armoured Brigade near Bir-El-Abd, to the west of El Alamein. The following day, the 132nd Tank Regiment was ordered to hold the left flank of the Axis retreat.

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Bolt Action - AAR: Germans Attempt to Disarm Italians

One of the most versatile aspects of the Royal Italian Army was its flexibility in who it was fighting. In both the First and Second World War the Italian Army changed sides mid-conflict. In theory, this offers the discerning Italian player a nice little bit of flexibility in their ability to play red and blue when rolling dice in anger. In reality it doesn’t quite play out this way. The majority of Italians who fought for the Allies after the Italian armistice were refitted with Allied (primarily US) kit. However there were instances, such as the fighting around Rome which lasted until September 11 1943, where the Italian Army put up determined resistance in the face of German efforts to disarm them.

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Bolt Action - Lachlan's Custom Colonials

Those of you listing and playing with the Italians will probably have been drawn to the colonial troops – one of the most interesting infantry units in the Italian players arsenals.

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Bolt Action - Armies of Ethiopia

by Cbax

One thing that makes Bolt Action so accessible is the universality of its core rules.  While Bolt Action, in its current form, is a World War Two miniature war game, it can easily be adapted to other periods and genres.  We have already seen people play Bolt Action Vietnam games, and my own group has ever dabbled in some Bolt Action sci-fi games.  While it's not a stretch to lump The Abyssinia Campaign into the conflict we now call World War Two,  it was just one of the many small conflicts where new tactics and machines of war were tested before the War began. (And if you check out the article, you can play it yourself! - Judson)

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Bolt Action - Review: Armies of Italy and the Axis

It's finally here BARbarians!

New!

Armies of Italy and the Axis! And I can't wait to talk about it!

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