D- Day - Fox Green Beach - Bolt Action

With the 80th Anniversary of D-Day approaching lots of chat at the club about returning to refight the allied invasion of Europe.

A few weeks earlier than planned and the US landing at Fox Green Beach. A great looking table, Andy S put in a load of effort to map the bunkers against the actual locations.

Can the 116th RCT clear the beach?

Played using Bolt Action with a couple of tweaks including increasing the number of allied troops available on the day.

Lots of home made bunkers and Tobruk turrets to hamper the allied assault.

The Americans storm ashore, with GI rushing across the open ground.

That flaming 88mm was playing havoc with the DD tanks as the Infantry stalled under MMG fire, fortunately a naval bombardment was able to pin a number of the defenders for a couple of crucial turns.

Slowly the allies made there way through the wire and knocked over one pill box at a time. Fox Green Beach was open ;-)

Great fun.... lots of talk about a bigger game and linking it to the airborne landings.... Let's see what June brings.

Now back to the brushes.

May Day & the AWI Project hits the paint table.

May Day and whether that is the Celebration of Spring or International Workers Day it's a day on the brushes and the start of the American War of Independence project, still plenty to do with the Crusades but I set myself the goal of starting this in the Spring.

 Chatting through with a number of gamers in particular Steve over at Wargames With Toy Soldiers: 1685 - 1985 (wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com) I opted for Rebels and Patriots as a rule set and Pendraken Miniatures in 10mm

The American War of Independence has been on my wish list since I first got into gaming, back in the 1980's and saw AL Pacino's Revolution. I had a bunch of Front Rank Figures but never enough for a full game and at that age limited funds to complete the project. 

In recent moths the hankering for 'bigger' games lead me to look for something else beyond large skirmishes. Rebels & Patriots seems to hit the mark my plan is to break the units down into various bases types, Regular line spread across 3 square bases for a unit, skirmish units on pill bases and command/officers on a circular base.

Lots of chatter on various forums about how to paint them, with gamers painting them on lolly sticks or on their terrain base. I opted for basing first my concern being that once painted trying to get the basing done afterwards might land on the completed figures.... Let's see

On the Pendraken site their is a usual paint guide for the British Line, my painting guide is here.

Tunic - Foundry Scarlet/Scarlet Light

Trousers/Webbing - White

Cartridge Pouch - Black

Boots/Hat - Black

Cuffs - Yellow Ochre

Musket - Chestnut/Silver/Brass

Flesh - Foundry Palomino

Soft Tone - Army Painter Wash.

The Soft Tone wash really brings out the base colours, followed by a touch of highlighting to the whites and yellows.

The first two units should clear the paint table over the next couple of days just in time for the flags to arrive from Maverick Models - maverick-models.com/default.html

I am quickly learning to take a step back and to not look to closely at the detail as it's the unit effect that will have the impact, the prep takes longer than the actual painting of the units which makes for a refreshing change.

Outremer Arabs - Knives and bombs.

Another day and another fistful of Arabs completed.

Not sure if these will make the table top in any meaningful way but I am working on the basis that no mini's will be left behind :-)

Two Assassins ready to strike in the middle of the night.

Four Naffatun's these were Turkish Infantry who carried primitive bombs to throw a volatile flammable liquid at their enemy, the burning liquid would penetrate the heaviest armour but the chances of exploding in their own hands is high.

Could be fun in a skirmish game and might even make their way into the Napoleonic games.