Bolt Action General Winter - Bolt Action on Ice

General winter - BA on ice!!

On a very chilly morning in July, 12 grizzled stalwarts gathered at House of War in Ringwood to do battle. The usual suspects had returned seeking glory, luck and good times and joining them were a couple of new faces. 

The event was following a de-escalation format, with the first game being 1500 points, the next 1250 and the last 1000. The army lists were fun and interesting and contained some very weird and odd units. A soviet naval army that somehow managed to pinch a naval gun from one of the battleships. Another soviet force managed to find an operational T-35. The French found their way to the battlefield and the Finns popped up to say hello. 

The armies were 2 Germans, 2 soviet, 3 Americans, 1 Finnish, 1 French, 1 Italian and 2 British lists. So as you can see there was no real one dominant army. 

The overall winner was Austin who rolled with some very hardy frenchmen!! Close behind him was rob who bought some very interesting Russian tanks, namely a T35 and a T28. Coming in third was a new player to our ranks, Mitchell who borrowed a Finnish army to take for a spin!! Melbourne regular Jael took home best painted, Damien Hansen picked up hanoswag for his soviet defence of Sevastopol naval force and the always gentlemanly Dave Munro overwhelmingly picked up best sports for being an all round nice guy!!

I'd like to thank House of War for providing us with a sensational venue to throw dice in. Deb and Riordan have a great gaming space and an incredible range of gaming products for purchase!!

Next I'd like to thank War & Peace games. As per usual Ian & John helped us put massively and this event couldn't have been as successful as it was without their generous help and support. 

Big thanks to Rubicon who very generously sent support from half way around the world and ensured that we had some incredible kits to give away in the day!!!

Thank you to Battlefield Accessories who provided some very cool trophies and also helped us out with a Stalingrad themed table for our players to fight over. 

And lastly thank you to the players who came out on a very chilly day and today successful! Without you guys these days just don't happen. 

See you all at the next event

Read More

Bolt Action - Wintercon - After Event Report

Recently I attended Wintercon in Canberra, Australia for our midyear convention. For those that are not aware Canberra gets cold in winter with temperatures dropping to -8 degrees Celsius at times. Naturally Wintercon generally just attracts local gamers used to the cold however a smattering of hard core players from the warmer states did attend this year. In saying all that we had a healthy turn out of 24 players  competing in a five game 1250 open event format over two days.

Read More

Fighting First Command Cards Review Part 1

The American Mid War Command Cards are Here.  Because of the number of cards we have broken this review into two articles.  The Fighting First book has drawn a great deal of attention due to the variety of units as well as the improved options over the current Mid War books.  The Command Cards are sure to do the same.  Unfortunately, we can not cover every single card in the new release.  We hope to give an overview and a general feel of the cards.

The Command Cards can have a serious impact on your list.  The ability to hold in secret an ability or action that your opponent does not know you have can in itself be a game changer.  The community seems to be of a mixed opinion on the cards as a whole.

In Version 3 many people claimed that it was unfair that some units got special rules for free. It seemed unfair for play balance.  The cards seem to rectify this by allowing a degree of customization.  However, the question becomes how many cards, or points worth of cards, should be allowed in a game.  At this point I do not have the answer.
The American Fighting First book has a variety of formations and units to choose from.  By themselves the overall impression I have of them is that they are not overpowered and have some severe disadvantages.  Combinations of cards will have a major impact on Force development.  The cards can overcome many of the short falls of the Fighting First units as you will see in our reviews.

Three points seem pretty expensive for this ability until you realize that this card may very well save your thirty-two point unit from any return fire.  This in combination with other cards can make tank destroyers much more reliable and survivable.

Read More

Why We Fight: Episode 16

             In this episode Mitch phones in from - what sounds like - the Moon to talk to the boys about Historicon, and the new Mid-War American book. Shermans, Lees, and Stuarts, Oh my!

Read More

Behind Enemy Lines Episode 39

Download the episode here

Those crazy gamers from down South (further than Mexico) are back with a new show. Covering over the latest (at the time) in gaming news and views and then moving on to their latest exploits. It's a trip......man!

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

Read More

2017 Flames of War US Mid War Nationals In-Depth Analysis

by Chris Fretts and Tom Burgess


"There's no Meta...like no Meta!"

2017 US Flames of War MW National Participants

The 2017 Flames of War US Mid War Nationals has come and gone. This year was especially noteworthy as this was the first major US tournament to use the Version 4 rules and the two new Mid War Books; Desert Rats and Afrika Korps. The event had 36 players battling across four rounds and 72 exciting games. There has been much controversy attached to the Version 4 roll out, but the US Mid War Nationals showed that the new rules are completely suitable for a large tournament format.


The first thing we must address was that even with 36 players, this event was much smaller than other US Nationals. One reason of course was players who have decided to stay with Version 3 or move on to other game systems, but perhaps more importantly this was a tournament that utilized only two books limited to forces that fought North Africa. With only desert British and desert German forces being there should be no surprise that the number of participants would be lower. We thought that 36 players, under these circumstances, was not really a bad number. Hopefully the expansion of Mid War force options over the next year will increase participation at the next US Mid War Nationals.


One concern many had about a Nationals tournament that used just two rather small army books was that there would not be much variation in forces.  To the contrary, there were 15 different combinations of forces out of 36 players.  5 combinations were German Forces and 10 combinations were British Forces.  7 were single formation Forces and 8 were two formation Forces.  9 of the Top 10 finishers were single formation Forces.  Within the various combinations there was additional diversity of unit selection.  In looking at the various Forces we did not see any exact duplicates and only a couple of similar forces.

You'll have to flank them mate...but how?

Read More

Interview with a Game Designer: Hail of Fire

I've always been fascinated by creative people. Rules designers, especially for war games, have intrigued me. I imagine these people as dungeon dwelling uber-number-crunchers who rarely see the light of day as they delve into the piles of historical annals and ancient writings (of warriors long dead) that surround their dingy and dank work space.

So, I set out on an email quest to find a few of these folks who are involved in writing WWII based games. I wanted to hear from them what their processes in designing are, and how they go about finding the right balance of rules in their designs.

First up, is an interview with Brandon Fraley, author of the independent rules system, Hail of Fire.  The answers and photos were provided by Brandon. I've edited them only for clarity, and to avoid redundancy.


Q: Who is Brandon? How long have you been wargaming? Favorite games?

I’m a recent transplant from California to Virginia, where I work as a Video Producer for a technology company. I’m also a filmmaker, musician, and, of course, full-time tabletop gamer.

I’ve been interested in wargaming for as long as I can remember. From the earliest days of my friends and I just playing with our action figures to starting to create simple rules for plastic green army men, and eventually designing and fabricating an [American Civil War] ACW board game in middle school (in hindsight, basically a poor Battlecry imitation).

Read More

Team Yankee Day at Brookhurst Club

The gamers at Brookhurst Club in Garden Grove, California, have set aside the fourth Sunday of each month as Team Yankee day.

Garden Grove is located in Orange County California, just down the road from the house of the Mouse. No, not Maus... the MOUSE, yep, that one.

This was our first go at a dedicated TY day. We run Sundays at the club as "Historical Fun Days," and decided to see if we could build a player group for Team Yankee.

We had volunteers ready to run games in three different scales: Battle Front's standard 15mm, as well as 10mm, and Micro 6mm scale.

Read More

The Ghost Army Podcast Episode 27

In this content-laden episode of the Ghost Army Podcast Brad, Bryan, and Seamus are joined by Mark Barber. Mark is the author of the No. 47 Royal Marine Commando list, the Battle of the Bulge campaign book, and of course the forthcoming Papua New Guinea campaign book. The team goes through the book's inspirations, processes, scenarios, new units, and much more. Give us a listen on the train, while you're painting, whatever. Let us know what you think!

Read More

Review: Plastic Soldier Company T-55 Kit

Like many of you, I was excited to run a mass of T-55 when the Volks Armee book came out.  When I say mass I mean it - in a 100 point list you can run 62 of these guys. Think of rushing forward with 62 tanks, what list can put up enough shots to stop it? For those who dreamed of a huge horde of T-55AM2 tanks like I did, we were faced with the economic reality of the huge cost of such a list. You would need 13 boxes of tanks which gets you 5 for $72, so unless you have $1000 laying around to spend the horde was just a dream.

My actual list for Volks Armee did have about 20 T-55 tanks, and after buying 2 boxes and trading for a box of 4 tanks I was still short and I was waiting for the new T-55 kit from the Plastic Soldier Company to hit the shelf of my LGS.

Read More