Sunday, January 15, 2012

Bolt Action Wargames Rules - Pacific War - Revamp

Several years ago I started on a WW2 project to fight out encounters on Guaducanal, like a number of project my head was turned by other ideas and shiny metal and the figures were consigned to a carry case.

However with the recent press release from the guy's at Warlord Games...

"Warlord Games and Osprey Publishing are teaming up to create Bolt Action: World War II Wargames Rules. Written by veteran game designers Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley, Bolt Action is a fast, fun 28mm wargame that rewards tactical play, but doesn’t get bogged down with excessive
tables and charts. The main rulebook is scheduled for a July 2012 release, followed by a series of books covering the armies of the major and minor powers of World War II."


 

http://www.warlordgames.com/13483/warlord-games-and-osprey-publishing-announce-partnership/

Coupled with the facts that one of our number at the Evesham Wargames Club has been asked to play test the rule mechanism before release, I thought it was high time the Pacific Collection got an outing... Besides he had invited Rick down to help out with the rules run through........

The figures are largely westwind with a number of the Battlehonors range added in, these are true 25mm scale, but when based and painted it's difficult to tell the scale variants apart.

I struck me how my painting style has changed over the years (improved???) and the existing collection was a little to shiny and plain for my liking and they were in need of a 60 minute make over...

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A liberal wash of Devlin mud, highlighting of the skin tones, and metal items, together with Silfor on the basing and a coating of Testors Dullcoat to take the shine off has given them a far better Pacific feel...


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US Marine NCO's from Battle Honours.


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US Marine Pinned Markers

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US Marine .50 Cal HMG Team, moving and deployed.

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Japanese LMG Team Deployed.

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Japanese Infantry Gun.

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Japanese Sniper Team.

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Japanese Command Squad, Westwind Miniatures.

I had a couple of Japanese tanks still in bare metal so these were rushed into service.
Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank, Type 89 Chi-Ro Medium Tank to counter this I also completed a couple of Anti-Tank teams and flame thrower teams for the US Marines.

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Each squad is built around strength as set out in both the US and Japanesse Army Manuals, which gives the Japanese a great number of riflemen, but the US Marines an extra BAR per squad.

I also found several recruits hiding out in the "spares" draw, these were pressed in to service providing the Japanese with additional support with the introduction of knee mortars for section 4.

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The OCD wargamer in me is screaming out to buy some additional troops in the form of HMG's and light Tanks for the Yanks and more Japanese from Warlord, but I am fighting the urge to see how the new improved skirmish force perform and the rules pan out...

Full AAR report to follow.
As always comments welcome.

2 comments:

  1. That's an impressive looking force resurrected there. Fantastic makeover.

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  2. Wow!! These guys look really nice Stuart.

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