Bolt Action Empires in Flames overview

First off let me apologise for not getting this article out sooner, I had intended to publish this at launch, however work got in the way, and I wanted to do a proper article for this book rather than rushing something incomplete.

Empire in Flames is the fourth book in Warlords theatre book series for Bolt Action following on from Battleground Europe, Ostfront and Germany Strikes. Empires in Flames is a 124 page, soft back full colour book, and is written by the esteemed Andy Chambers.

The book divides into six sections. The first is a prologue explaining what the book is, before going into the meat Empires in Flames.

The Second Sino-Japanese War.

This is probably the longest section of the book, taking up over a third of the page count, and covers the conflict in China from 1937 until 1945, with a brief over view of the history, before providing many new units and theatre selectors. Some of the units may be familiar from the earlier books, but most of these are all new.Although the book lists the theatre selectors before the Chinese army list, I'll briefly mention that first.

Empires in Flames adds the first new army to Bolt Action since the last Armies of book came out a few years ago. The force is divided between Nationalist, Communist and Warlord forces to represent the difficult political situation that was present in China during the period. The Chinese forces have several national sepcial rules, those these break down into a per faction basis, as you have to pick whether to play Nationalists, Warlords, or Communist forces. Unique to all of these though is a free 14 man inexperienced infantry squad, similar to the Russians.

Communist forces are given a rule that represents their useage of gurellia tactics, and allows their infantry units to move up to 9" before the game begins! Warlord and Nationalist forces recieve the bodyguard rule, which allows their commanders to sacrifice the body guard (A unique Chinese character) in their command squad to stop the commander becoming a victim to snipers and exceptional damage. 

Nationalist forces are the best equipped, and depending on the period get access to German or Western Allied trained units, and equipment, notably things like German trained infantry squads, MMG Teams with the Hitlers buzzsaw rule, and allied armour like the Sherman, they also get access to the Big Sword squad, based on the society of the same name, and possibly the coolest unit now in Bolt Action!

Warlord forces represent local warlords, unsurprisingly. Warlord forces have a fairly limited range of equipment, however their command squad is probably the most potent in the game, being large, having a big command bubble, and good options, as well as great command bonuses too, and also has the option to be upgraded to cavalry. 

The Communist army is provided with some early Russian armour, and also has access to small guerilla and scout units. The army looks quite fun to play with lots of small, lightly equipped units, I suspect it will be fragile, but very fluid to use.

The theatre selectors are as follows, For the Chinese army

• Battle of Shanghai 1937

• Battle of Tai'Erzhuang 1938

• 8th Route Army 1937-45

• X and Y Force 1942-45

• Tank War:- Chinese Armour, though this is more a paragraph than a full selector describing how the Chinese armour was organised

 For the Japanese

• IJA Kwangtung army 1937
• IJA Kwangtung army 1945 

 And for the Russians there is the Soviet Army of Manchuria of 1945.

Each of these provides interesting new frameworks for players with existing armies, and I'm quite drawn to the X and Y force list, and at some stage in the future I'll look to making some Chinese Nationalist figures equipped from US stocks, and supported by Warlords new Merrils Marauders figures.

New units for the Sino-Japanese war include Japanese cavalry command, Japanese cavalry squads, Japanese scouts squads, a couple of nice new artillery pieces,  the type 92 armoured car, and the SS-Ki armoured engineering vehicle. This is an awesome looking machine, and although it has the option to pack several flame throwers, the armour is paper thin, and it can only fire one per turn...  The Russians get the Mongolian Cavalry Troop, and all forces in the game get access to the horse drawn limber, a cheap way to shift artillery around without paying for an expensive towing vehicle.  Rounding out the Sino-Japanese war section are 3 special characters, one for Japan, and 2 for China. 

The Red Sun Rises 

This section covers the Japanese attacks on Singapore, the Dutch East Indies and the Phillipines, and covers making a short campaign using a couple of new scenarios added in this book, as well as the existing scenarios in the main rule book, and handily also provides a bit of advice on what terrain to use asa well.

New units are Phillipine Scouts and a Phillipino character for the US army, and there is also a theatre selector for the Battling Bastards of Bataan, a largely inexperienced US list, but one that looks like being great fun to model. This is another that has caught my imagination, and may well end up in one of my figure cases one day... 

Burma and India

I was deeply shocked and pleasantly surprised to discover this section detailed the fighting in Burma and India,  and covers the whole period with a brief history of the campaign, a couple of scenarios, and another guide to playing out the campaign with a guide to what scenarios and terrain to use.

No theatre selectors this time, however 5 additional units, and 2 more special characters.

New units include Ghurka Paratroopers(!!!!) Australian Commandos, Merrils Marauders and the Indian National army for the Japanese.

For all the forces in the Pacific theatre are added native scouts, these are a small unit for scouting purposes, and would add a really nice element of flavour to any army I think. 

 

It's worth mentioning the two special characters though, as the first is Orde Wingate, one of the great commanders of the Second World War, whilst the other is Bhanbhagata Gurung, a Gurkha VC winner who is equally equates to being just as awesome as you would expect in game.

Island Hopping

  This penultimate section of Empires in Flames covers not just the Campaigns in the Pacific

but also discusses the Kokoda Trail, New Guinea and the Phillipines, as well as the battle of Guadalcanal. New scenarios are added including one theme to Tarawa which I need to play, as my own US Marines are based around this battle.

3 new units for the Americans are added in this section, including USMC raiders, USMC War dogs, and the M29 Weasel amphibious utility tractor.

There are also 4 more special characters, namely John Basilone and Chesty Puller for the Americans,Tom Derrick for the Commonwealth forces and Tadamichi Kuribayashi for the Japanese. As ever with these type of characters they give a nice flavour to a force, without being especially overwhelming, and are always one sniper shot away from being out of the game...

Scenario special rules

Rounding out the book is a large section conting rules for Night fighting, digging in, minefield,s amphibious warfare and beach landings, and city fighting, as well as rules for tropical hazards!

As you can see there is a lot to digest with this book, and if you have even a hint of interest in gaming the theatre in games of Bolt Action I really recommend it. Everything is nicely produced, with lots of great artwork and colour plates from Osprey. Especially handy for painting and collecting the Chinese forces.  You can order the book from Warlord Games and buying direct will also give you a special figure of John Basilone, who I will be painting up shortly and presenting here. 

All the models and photos in this piece are from my own collection, and you can see more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service. I also have a guide to how I painted my USMC, as well as a series of articles on how I collected the force here at A tale of Bearded Gamers 

Beyond the Gates of Antares, an over view

With Warlord Games imminent release of Beyond the Gates of Antares, I thought I'd put something together to describe the game based off my experiences of playing the Beta version, as well as a sneaky game of the final product a few weeks ago. Hopefully this will be helpful for those who are unfamiliar with the game, and for those who are on the fence about getting into another new system. In the interests of full disclosure I have been lucky enough to do some stuff with Warlord involving the game, however I can hand on heart say this is a fantastic product, that's shaping up to be a very exciting game indeed!

What is Antares?

Probably the most fundamental question, Beyond the Gates of Antares is a science fiction skirmish game set far into the far future, and is the brain child of the legendary Rick Priestley. Hoorah! That was a nice short article. Tune in next time folks! 

Hmm, I suppose I should expand on this a little more. Antares's universe has been in development for years, and so far contains 6 factions, all of whom are evolved forms of humanity (more or less), some more recognizably so than others. The game plays as a large skirmish game, and seems to fit at around 20-30 models, at least going off the currently released starter forces. At the moment all the models are metal, however the starter set is introducing the first of the plastic models to the range.

How does it play?

I'll give a brief overview, and describe some of the key points of the game, without getting into to many of the specifics. 

Each player has a force consisting of several small squads of typically around 5 models, though some are more, and some are less than this, backed up by a few support teams and drones. Units are deployed according to the scenario being played, and then Each unit in a players army generates an order dice, and each player places all their order dice in the same bag.

This works so that say player one has 5 units, they'll put 5 red(For example) order dice in a bag, whilst for this example has 5 units too, places another 5 dice of a different colour in the same bag. To decide who  goes first, a player reaches into the bag and pulls out an order dice, and the owning player can use this to activate one of their units, to move, fight, assault, over watch etc. Anyone who has played Bolt Action will recognize this mechanic. Once a unit is done, another dice is pulled from the bag, and another unit activates, And so on until every dice has been pulled, and the turn is over. All the dice then go back in the bag, and the process starts again.

Ranges for weapons, as well as movement are potentially very long, and this results in games feeling very fluid and punchy, your rarely fighting against the game mechanics to do what you want to do, and instead are able to focus on out foxing your opponent.

Shooting works by rolling a D10, and attempting to roll under the required score with modifiers applied for range and cover.  When and if hits are scored, the target gets to make a resist roll, by attempting to roll under their resistance value, again modified for cover, armour etc. If the target rolls under the required value all is well, however of you roll over the value, it's time for that model to fill in a sick note. 

A key concept of the game is pinning. Certain actions call for an agility test, which if failed causes a unit to gain something called a pin. Shooting hits also cause pins, as can a few other circumstances.

 The more pins a unit has on it the less effective it becomes. A unit with pins wishing to activate must pass an orders test, and the more pins on a unit the harder it is to activate. Pins also affect a units accuracy when it tries to shoot, and as such pins can render a unit ineffective as quickly as casualties can, though they are far easier to get rid of than in Bolt Action.

This barely touches the surface of the game, but does cover a few of the important points of the rules. The activation system and pinning mechanic prevents devastating army lists that destroy their opponent before a player can activate, and in my experience both of playing Antares and Bolt Action result in a game that is very tense, and forces you to be on your toes constantly. 

Factions

At present,  there are 6 faction. These range from the fighting forces of vast empires, to armed mercantile collectives.

The Concord

The Concord are a civilization whose lives are guided by a benevolent artificial intelligence, shaping society in the way most beneficial to it's people. The Concord troops are very heavily armed and armored, and arguably have the best equipment in the game. They are the force I've played the most, and work best at long range, dishing out very accurate and dangerous fire. The effectiveness of their armour decreases at close range, so it's always best keeping your opponent at medium to long range. 

The Ghar

The Ghar are a mutated, spiteful and vicious race that goes to war in large armoured battlesuits to over come their physical weakness.  Not seen rules for these yet, but they appear to be very resilient and heavily armed, and I suspect we'll see something to represent their unstable and un predictable technology. 

The Algoryn

The Algoryn are a militaristic society, who have been locked in a long war with the Ghar empire.The troops of the Algoryn are well armoured, although they don't have the heavy fire power of the Concord, and don't have as much of the fancy technology and drones. They tend to be very mobile, and excel in close range punishing fire fights.

The Isorians

Another faction that we've yet to see much of. They are another AI guided civilization  like the Concord. Unlike the AI guiding the Concord however the Isorian AI was altered by the introduction of alien bio-organic technology, giving them a very different appearance and tactical doctrin, even though they carry equally heavy weapons.

From the beta rules though they use stealthy armour rather than the outright force of their Concord counterparts, and from the models seen at Salute this year, the range is going to be stunning. I can't wait to see more of these...

The Boromites

Bormites are biologically altered to work in  mines, and as such are heavily muscles with thick scales on their skin to protect them. They work as mercenary gangs, as well as being involved in more nefarious activities. They tend to be unarmoured, however their thick skin and high natural reslience provides them with solid protection. They carry lighter weapons, but are physically strong, and have access to a variety of beasts as well. Like the Algoryn they are a closer ranged faction, and are very effective in close combat, especially when supported by units like lavamites.

The Freeborn

The Freeborn are the merchants and traders of the Antarean universe. They operate mercanry forces to protect their interests, and until the full army list comes out for them in the mainbook, there isn't much know on these. They seem to be fairly lightly armoured and agile, with most units being lightly armed, however at least one is packing big guns and heavy armour, whilst also looking very awesome. These are a force I'm slowly building up, and collecting myself a band of pirates with lots of conversions.

I hope this helps to throw a little more information onto Antares, and all the models and photos in the article are from my own collection. You can read more about Antares at the Warlord page Here And as ever can check out my work at Volley Fire Painting

Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar walker

I've been lucky enough to snag myself one of the new Ghar assault walkers... I'll be doing a step by step painting guide at some stage, but here's a sneaky peak at it. very cool model, and great fun to build too!

Beyond the Gates of Antares is now up for pre order for news letter subscribers, and will be up on general pre order very soon. It's expected to be available in November, and I can't wait! Keep an eye on it at the Warlord Games website, and you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service

Beyond the Gates of Warlord!

Wow. What an amazing few days.

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a few days with Warlord Games playing Beyond the Gates of Antares, and along with Sam Phillips, Jez Allum and Matt Houghton we were treating to be  seeing some of the incredible new models that are due to be released very soon. Absolutely none of which I can talk about other than to say woooooooooooow, you are in for a treat. The book especially is shaping up to be something really special, and there is just so much character in all the models.

After a horrendous journey courtesy of rain that was obviously trying to do a (successful) impression of the Atlantic ocean, and hideous volume of traffic on every single motorway between Kent and Nottingham we unpacked our models for a photo shoot, and whilst the camera wizardry was occurring we played a small game, with Sam and I using the Boromites, and Jez and Matt fielding the Algoryn. We used forces comprising of 2 squads, a support weapon and a command squad, with the objective of taking a central point and then holding this until the 4th turn. 

The game was quick and bloody, with troops from both sides being cut to pieces in close range fire fights (A mechanic in the game that allows units at shortish range to fire on one another simultaneously if the targeted unit wishes, and has not activated that turn). Our Boromites got off to a great start, pushing some accurate and powerful fire, whilst weathering the hail of return fire, and although we managed to get to the objective point, a swift and sneaky counter attack from the Algoryn mixed with a failed orders check led to our control of the point being contested, and the game ended in a draw. 

A short break for lunch, and we were back in the car again and heading to a mystery visit, which turned out to be Rick Priestly legendary gaming barn! This was a truly mind blowing experience, to be picking the brains of gaming royalty and drinking his coffee whilst setting up our second game of the day.  My thanks to Rick for welcoming us to his home, and the innumerable brews we got through.

The next game we played as a team game, with Sam and I again teaming up against the dastardly Algoryns of Jez and Matt. This time however Sam and I were using the Concord, with each side having a total of 14 order dice, including Matt's fantastic home made tank, and I was using a squad of Drop Troops and the Nu-Hu reviewed here.

The game ran for 5 turns, with our forces fighting over 5 key objectives to seize control of the area from the enemy.  My Concord were opposing Matt's Algoryn and his tank was slightly scary, I was eventually able to get some damage on it, but not enough and I had to be quite careful in my movement. We had a lot of close range fighting around a housing settlement, with my Nu-Hu gliding through and flattening everything he looked at. 

 

My drop troops tried to make a quick shift accross the board at the start of the game, and got punished for it, however I've learned a bit about using them tactically and can't wait to use them again. Ultimately the Algoryn were able to hold one more objective than us, but it was a close game that could have gone either way comfortably. 

Unit of the match has to be our targetter probes, these little treasures marked the Algoryn units and let us really punish anything silly enough to walk into range and site. The game took around 3 hours to play, even with so much stopping to chat and eat cake, the feel of the rules was intuitive and the differences between Beta and release were subtle enough that we all managed to jump straight in and have start messing each other up.

After the game it was off for dinner and beers, and again thanks to John Stallard for his hospitality, and wonderful of nostalgia in his treasure cave. 

The following day we spent our time making terrain using a variety of bits boxes, plastic cutlery and anything else not nailed down. Our creations will be in an upcoming Warlord news letter once they are painted, but it went to show how much can be done in a short time with a bit of imagination. A quick chat with Wotjek, lunch and a shopping expedition and it was reluctantly time for the long drive home.

I'd like to express my deepest thanks to Warlord for their kindness and hopsitality, and hope we can all get together again soon for some more games and cake, and I'd like to thank Jez for letting me use some of his photos. I really urge people to have a look at the Warlord Games website and sign up for the Beyond the Gates of Antares news letter, and also to check out the Facebook group. And as ever, you can always find my work or contact me through Volley Fire Painting Service

 

Rubicon Models T34/85 Review

The T-34/85 was designed as an upgraded T-34/76 fitted with a slightly redesigned hull, a larger turret, and extra crew man, and a much larger gun than issued T-34/76. The T-34/85's production started in February 1944, and the tank is still in service to the present day in some parts of the world. 

The T-34 is the second most mass produced tank in history, by mid 1944 1200 were being built each month, in comparison around 1150 Tigers were produced in the entire war... 

T34/85's served on the Eastern Front and in the Manchurian campaign during the second world war, Korea, Vietnam, The 6 Day War, Angola, Bosnia and Yemen.

Rubicon have recently(In geographical terms), released a follow up kit of their T-34/76, the T-34/85. This kit is comes in their familiar dark grey plastic, and allows you to build either the initial production version, or the main 1944 production variant. 

Rubicon have provided cylindrical fuel cells, and also the optional cells for the rear of the hull as well. Also included is a flame thrower to make the OT/34 flame thrower variant. 

No crew is included, however there are a few extra track links for stowage, though no other stowage is provided.

The set does include a T-34/76 turret, however this is designed for the T-34/76 kit, and the /85 turret ring is too big for this, and the 76 turret floats around and shows a bit of a gap in places looking into the hull. What I'd like to have seen is either a different design to the upper hull so that both turrets could be used on this hull as well, to get more milage from the model. Alternatively, instead of providing a 76 turret a crew man or some extra stowage would have been very welcome too. 

The kit goes together very well, and fits very neatly. My only gripe is the tracks are devoid of detail other than a vague tread pattern, which resembles the 1940 pattern vehicles links. Whilst the one part wheels and tracks Rubicon do is very simple, I think I'd prefer the parts to be separate as in Warlords kits, especially their latest Panzer III as having each set of tracks in 4 parts means you get perfect detail, and is still simple to construct. 

I painted the model with Vallejo's 4BO colour modulation set, and I'll do a full review of this paint set in the next week or so once I've tested it a bit more.

On the whole though this is a very nice kit, and simple to add to your Soviet forces, and retails at around £20

As ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting  and you can find Rubicons kits through their local distributers list on their website

Warlord Games plastic Fallschirmjager review

The Fallschirmjager were Germany's airborne forces, initially deployed by parachute and glider, during the battle of Crete their casualties were staggering, so apart from a few exceptions they mostly served as elite infantry. Fallschirmjager served with distinction at Eben Emal, Crete, Tunisia, Monte Cassino, Drvar, Normandy, Leningrad, Ardenne, and Fallschirmjager were even present at the Battle of Berlin. 

Wherever they fought the Fallschirmjager put up an incredible fight, and became known as the 'Green Devils' by the allies due to their distinctive green jump smocks. and never surrender attitude. 

As part of their growing range of plastic infantry sets for 28mm WW2 collectors and gamers, Warlord have released this set of 30 figures. Each sprue contains 6 bodies, and an assortment of heads, weapons and equipment, with sculpting being characterful and well detailed, without being too exaggerated, a complaint that has been levelled at some Warlord sets in the past, however this new release takes everything to the next level. 

The contents of each of the 5 sprues in the set break down as follows :-

• 3 bodies wearing early pattern jump smocks (Can be painted either green or splinter camouflage).
• 3 bodies wearing later pattern jump smocks (Can be either splinter or tan and water camouflage). 
• 4x K98 rifle arms of various pose
• 2x FG42 assault rifle arms
• 2x MP40 sub machine gun arms
• 2 xMG42 light machine guns
• 1x Panzerfaust arm pair (also has pioneer grenade bags attached too!)
• 1x Panzerfaust weapon
• 8x Heads in Fallschirmjager Helmets with various types of cover 
• 2x heads in M43 caps
• 1x head in officers cap
• 1x head in side cap
• Extensive webbing and field gear, including ammunition pouches and belts, bandoliers, waterbottles, holsters, map cases and tool pouches for the MG's. 
• Gesticulating officer arm

This gives a great range of weapons to equip your units with, and appears to be based around the 1944 table of equipment for a Fallscrhirmjager squad.  The set includes bases for everyone, and also has a transfer sheet and instructions too. From the mix of equipment in the set this is very much a late war set, but perfect for Sicily onwards, including Cassino, Normandy and the Ardenne.

The models are extremely cleanly molded, and the detail is impressive. Particularly like the expressions on the faces, the face of the guy smoking a cigarette is particularly inspiring.  With so many extra parts it's easy to combine the sets with Warlords other packs and create even more variety, something I've spent a bit of time on here. I also detail the colours used to paint each figure in the article as well, so won't repeat that at this stage, though I may do when I have my Fallschirmjager force finished...

Each sprue provides 2 kneeling and 4 standing poses, with no prone models provided. Personally I can't stand prone figures unless it's part of a crew served weapon team, so this makes me a happy panda. 

I've included comparative shots of a plastic Fallschirmjager with models from the Perry, Artizan and metal Warlord ranges. The picture is slightly misleading as the plastic figure doesn't have the 2mm tab the metal model stand on

 

. In terms of proportions the set works with all existing ranges to my eye, even mixing well with the Perry's, the only figure that appears a little too large to me is the Artizan one, though again this could be due to a thicker lug on his base. 

 

This is a superb set, and I'd like to see Warlord maybe release the set with the addition of the metal parts in the Blitzkrieg Pioneer set to make Fallschirmpioneers... 

The set retails at £26, and at around 87 pence per figure represents outstanding value for money. You can get your own set from Warlord Games and if you would like to contact me about a commission, or would like to see more of my work check out Volley Fire painting service

Beyond the Gates of Antares Concord Drop Troops and Nu-Hu Mandarin review

As part of my ever expanding Concord force for this rapidly approaching game, I've added a Nu-Hu and squad of Drop Troops to my force.

The Drop Troops come in a box of 5 metal models with seperate heads and power packs, and some have seperate weapons too. The set comprises of 3 Drop Troops armed with plasma carbines, a similarly armed squad leader, and a fifth trooper with a plasma lance. the final model in the set is a spotter drone. the box is rounded out with bases for everyone. 

All 5 figures are very cleanly cast with only a few light mold lines to clean up. Prep work took maaaaybe 5 minutes, including time to get the kettle on for a coffee. 

Personally I love everything about these models. The armour is no nonsense, practical, and just makes them look hard. The poses really do reinforce the impression these are elite troops sent into deal with the biggest and baddest threats. The rules for these weren't in the Beta version of the game, but they will be coming in the full release. 

Obviously these are designed for Gates of Antares, but the lack of anything particularly identifiable to one genre would allow these fine models to be used in any sci-fi game setting. 

The second addition I painted was The Nu-Hu Mandarin. This figure represents the leadership class of the Concord civilization, and represents a nanite infused, very powerful individual. You can read more on the Nu-Hu here. Again the model is extra ordinarily well cast, and includes the Nu-Hu's nanite drone as well. 

The figure is a single piece with a separate arm with spear/wand, and separate leg.He is dramatically posed hovering in the air and about to flatten some unfortunates with his powers.  Bases again are included. 

I painted both figures with my 'Ambiguous Blue' TM colour scheme, using Vallejo Light Green Blue as a base, and then using green and blue inks and glazes to add depth of colour and character.

I think this is a superb range of models, that simply oozes character and are quick and simple to build. I've also just had the opportunity to try them out, which I'll write up as part of my next post....

As ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service and you can pre order Beyond the Gates of Antares and read more articles on this great game at the Warlord Games page. I also really recommend signing up to the news letter for Antares, as there is a lot of information starting to flow now...