Playing the ETC Meta Nostradamus 2/2

So I already talked about what is new to Late War in terms of books/pdfs/digitals. Now it is time for some more guesses of what would be the popular builds for the upcoming ETC.

This one is not so easy I have to admit. I think I cannot nominate (although I might try later on) specific briefings, as there is probably over 200 to go through, but some groups can already be identified.


Always Defend Tanks - this one is easy. Since the introduction of Bridge @ Remagen, there was a discussion if Always Defend heavy tanks are the new black. Well, honestly - I am not 100% convinced they are, but now they are at least something you have to consider each time you build your list. For ETC purposes, my opinion is that they can fit in just perfectly. Being able to defend more often, yields a higher win probability as shown by this year's ETC top 4 teams results of defensive battles, where the defenders won 58% of such games.

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Bolt Action - Review: Warlord Games' Atlantik Wall Terrain Set

I LOVE great looking terrain on a tabletop. There is nothing better in my mind than playing a close game against a good opponent on a table covered with beautiful scenery with fully painted models. It is the perfect combination. 

The problem is that I am stupidly busy and that I am a legendarily slow painter. This means that I am constantly battling my age-old nemesis… time… to get armies to the point that I feel comfortable putting them on the table. This leaves little time to build and paint terrain… This is why I am such a big fan of Gale Force Nine’s “Battlefield In A Box” range. Pre-painted, good looking durable terrain? Yes please! 

Over the years, Warlord Games has also released several excellent limited runs of pre-painted terrain like their “Battle Ready North African House” and this… Their “Atlantik Wall Terrain Set.”

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Iron Maiden: My Wish List

Many of you can accurately say that I beat the Iron Maiden release to death this month! I did feel the need to cap off the month with an article on what my future IM list will look like. I think you may have gathered from my previous articles - and the podcast dedicated to IM - that I really like this book for a lot of reasons.  With IM, Battlefront really changed the scope of the game away from it being an fight based on just tanks, and gave us some really good infantry to disrupt the “meta”. It’s not that the British tanks are bad - in fact they are quite good and appropriately priced - it is just that the strength of this list is the amount of missiles you can throw at your opponent. While tanks do feature on my list, I know going into this that I have to play them differently that I would the Leo’s and T-72s.

So here we go with my 100 point list:

Formation 1: Chieftain Armoured Squadron
HQ: 1 x Chieftains (6 Points)
Platoon 1: 3 x Chieftains (18 Points)
Platoon 2: 3 x Chieftains (18 Points)
Platoon 3: 2 x Swingfire Troop (4 Points)
Formation Total: 46 Points

I know I said my list would be based around the infantry, and here I go spending half of my 100 points on tanks. My defense of that is simple: tanks cost more, and a full up list based on tanks would have a lot more tanks in it.

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Bolt Action - Taking The Crossroads: A Closer Look At Bolt Action's Second Edition

For months we, as members of the Bolt Action community, have been subjected to rumour, hearsay and the occasional innuendo about how our great game would change in its second edition.  Leaks of earlier test copies and hints dropped by those who had tried trial versions of the game muddied the waters further. For example a few weeks back, the gentlemen over at Beasts of War recorded an introduction to Bolt Action Second Edition video that was based on an earlier playtest version of the game, meaning it contained a few glaring rules errors when compared to BA's final form. Add change induced hysteria being broadcast loudly by certain members of our online community to the mix and things get even more confusing.

As the great Chuck D says "Don't Believe The Hype!" Make the decision yourself. In my last article, I encouraged folks to kick the tires so to speak and try the game themselves. Wanting to take my own advice, I did the same. Although I have played several "learning the system" games, now that I have gotten my sea legs, I wanted to play a game with the express purpose of recording what has changed and what the implication of these changes might be, for us the players.

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Iron Maiden Preview: Armored and Recce Company Detailed

In the previous article in this series, I spoke about the great British infantry lists contained in Iron Maiden. This article will turn its attention to the other two lists in the book, the Armored and the Medium Recce Companies. For those who have read my other article, you already know that the Mechanized and Airmobile lists are already some of my favorites from IM. The other lists are still pretty good, and I feel they support the mechanized company very well. I will also give some details on the scenarios and paining instructions that are in Iron Maiden, which will wrap up our preview of the formations contained in the book. 

The Chief
The Armoured Company revolves around the Chieftain MBT, which at the time Team Yankee takes place (1985), was being replaced with the Challenger MBT. The Chief represents the British focus on firepower and protection at the expense of speed. In the game, the Chieftain is just a bit slower than the T-72 and has one more point of FA for the non Stillbrew version of its Soviet counterpart. At the cost of 6 points per tank (7 with Stillbrew), the most you can hope to get in a 100 point game is 16, by taking one in the command element, and taking all of the 3 tank troops in the formation list and another 3 tank troop from divisional support. This makes it the closest NATO version of a Soviet tank horde. This is not something I would recommend, since that prevents you from taking anti-air or those great infantry platoons. Maybe at games over a 100 points, where you can mass your tanks and take other platoons in support, this might be an option.

What I do like about the Armoured Company is the price.  You can take the mandatory 7 tanks of this company with Stillbrew armor for 49 points, and then add a mech platoon and some divisional assets to make your 100 point list.  This seems to be pretty powerful.

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Bolt Action - Review: A look inside Warlord Games' Band of Brothers Starter Set

Today I received my Warlord Games Band of Brothers WWII Starter Set and after spending some time going through it, I wanted to share my thoughts with the community.

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Team Yankee West German Tips and Tricks #2: Fuchs (TGBX06)

What does the Fuchs say....

Sorry 'bout that  :-)

Round 2 with the West Germans in Team Yankee from Battlefront.  This time we look at the Fuchs (TGBX06) and this Fuchs say va-va-va-voom!

A hefty little 6 wheeled all terrain troop transport to move those Panzergrenadiers around the battlefield.  Yes please!  You can find these bad boys in the Panzer Aufklarungs Kompanie list and can you can get 2 zugs of them with 3 Fuchs in each.

On to the models!

This is another very sweet kit. The kits I have for prepared are pre-release versions. This is an old-school resin hull with metal bits. These are chock full of detail and are VERY clean. The metal wheels had just a few metal whiskers and no flash or mold lines.

The fit of the wheels here is a very simple peg on the hull and hole in the wheel, but is very well designed. They are a different style than the Luchs wheels, but fit just as snug.

Build:  Since this was a pre-release kit, I didn't have the instructions that are up on Battlefront now. But that didn't matter! The kit is super easy; very intuitive...put all the wheels on one side of the hull.  Let those dry a little so that they don't wiggle any more, then do the other side.

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Bolt Action - Campaign Task Force Generation Preview

Now that we have published several games from the Bolt Action Campaign system we are developing we wanted to give you a preview of the basic task force generator tables. 

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Team Yankee: Contemplation and Collecting; the Soviets

Back in December 2015 I covered the Team Yankee demo put on by the guys from Battlefront.  While I liked the game I did state that the period wasn’t my thing and I would pass on fielding an army.  While I read the book Team Yankee and was a fan of the game, I just did not want to collect either army - I never play Americans, and while I have painted a ton of WWII Soviets for friends, I do not have a Soviet army in my collection.  What changed?  Well a few things actually changed my mind which should not surprise anyone.

My first worry stemmed from my work on the Great War line. Ehile I love the period and the game, few folks I know have built a Great War army, and I found it tough, even in the player rich I-95 corridor, to find a lot of folks playing the game. I did worry that Team Yankee would not gain the popularity it deserved. However after a few months, I have seen the popularity of the game grow and a bunch of folks I know play the game.

The Army on parade, oops no Hinds..

The second issue I had was that neither of the two initial armies did much for me.  I cannot explain why this was, but after reviewing Leopard, I got excited about the game and it caused me to look into collecting a Team Yankee army.

The last two issues are the same we call have: time and cost.   I stopped serious painting well over a year ago, the last army I collected was my Napoleonic Brits, which I sent to Ceylon for painting.  When I clean my storage room, and moved my painting area to my part time man cave, I had tons of unpainted men and vehicles.  While I love the Great War stuff, I have a full French and American army in boxes and blisters.  I have 5 each of Plastic Soldier Company and Battlefront Panthers which I won at tournaments still clinging to their sprues.  I just lost the desire to paint.  The other is cost, since starting a new army can cost anywhere from $250-$500.  While I am not cheap, I just wondered if starting a new game after I made a huge investment in Malifaux was worthwhile.  This changed when I realized I had some credit coming from my Great War work with Battlefront, and July being my birthday. I decided to treat myself to a few boxes of Team Yankee.

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Firestorm Bastogne - A WWPD Online Flames of War Campaign

Starting this month, WWPD will run a "Firestorm Bastogne" Campaign as a global Flames of War campaign. This campaign will run for about six weeks and will give players a chance to fight out the engagements that revolved around the encirclement of Bastogne from 16 to 21 December, 1944. If you are not familiar with Firestorm campaigns, no problem! Basically the campaign map and movement of units on that map will be used to generate battles that players, from around the world, can fight out and report their results from to determine the campaign flow and eventual winning side.




2nd Panzer moves in on CCR/9th Armored Division at Longvilly



A battle at Longvilly plays out on the table top

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