Bolt Action Ruined Hamlet!

Yes, cue the Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh and even Keanu Reeves jokes... but it's truly Bolt Action that has the Ruined Hamlet to rule them all.

I picked up the three-house ruined hamlet set at Salute back in May, and have just now gotten round to assembling them. Which is easy - the parts are all bagged for you already trimmed from sprue and even cleaned of flash! All that remains is to stick them together, but that was the only issue I have with the kit...

There's no instructions or diagrams! I know, I know, the kit is infinitely assemble-able, you can put the pieces together however you like, but I would have appreciated a bit of guidance or some firm ideas on how they might fit together. The box art is okay, and there are some small pictures on the back too, but finally I had to screw my courage to the sticking point and just dig in.

So now the kit is assembled, and I have to go get some plasticard to make bases for the ruins. Should be able to do that this weekend and from there it should be a doddle to get these done.

Hammer's Slammers vs. Zaporoskiye Brigade!

Last Thursday we played a 28mm sci-fi game set in David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" universe, using my 28mm Slammers blower tanks and new infantry models, and some Pig Iron Kolony Militia and vehicles as the Space-Russian mercenaries of the Zaporoskiye Brigade.

The scenario was simple - Maximum Attrition - basically a kill points mission with VPs awarded for destroying enemy units. I laid out some suitably futuristic looking terrain, I have to say that the small buildings particularly suit what my imagination tells me is the setting for the Slammers stories.

Col. Alois Hammer's Frieslandian mercenaries - two blower tanks, three sections of infantry, a buzzbomb AT team, lead by a lieutenant and his ADC. All rated veterans.

The Zaporovskiye Brigade - two medium tanks, a heavy assault gun, an armoured car with AT missile, and four infantry sections (one not shown here) led by an officer with ADC and bearer bot. All regulars.

Conscripts Mike F. and Greg took command of the Russian mercs and Conscript Nathan lead the Slammers. Here we see the Z.B. infantry entering the battlefield, this is at top right of the first picture.
 

More Z.B. infantry and armoured car enter on the Z.B.'s other flank.

A Slammers infantry section enters near the road.

Z.B. moves up in a wide pincer :-)

First blower enters play supported by the buzzbomb team, drawing a bead on the armoured car outside of shot.

The buzzbombers had to run across the road to get LOS to the armoured car.

Z.B. heavy assault gun supports Z.B. infantry.

Some buzzbomb shooting at the armoured car deals out Pin markers. The Slammers infantry was engaged in a firefight with some Z.B. troops in the building at top left but wiped them out, taking the position.
 

High noon! Blowers square off against two Z.B. tanks on the road. Some epically poor die rolling kept this confrontation going for several turns, ending with one immobilized blower and one destroyed Z.B. tank.

Slammers infantry takes cover behind a building, but too late. They were wiped out by concentrated infantry fire.

One knocked out Z.B. tank; the other takes evasive action!
 

Slammers section is wiped out; assault gun maneuvers to engage immobilized blower from the side.

Engage target at three o'clock! Gun duel with the Z.B. assault gun.

Blower moves up in pursuit of the Z.B. tank...

... which has cleverly moved to hose off infantry while presenting its front to the tank threat.

The game went for six turns, and frankly I expected more carnage, but some die rolling got in the way, as it often does ;-)  As it happend, the Slammers eked out a 4-1 victory by destroying the Z.B. armoured car, a tank, the command group, and an infantry section, for the loss of one infantry section of their own. We used the Bolt Action rules for this one nut I think I prefer our home-grown "Future Krieg" rules for SF - much bloodier. Certainly we'll see the Slammers out again soon, perhaps against the GunSchwarm?

"Why so Syrian?"

"Want to invade the Golan? Come at me, bro!"

Last Thursday, Greg ran an awesome Golan Heights/Yom Kippur War game at my place. The scenario was a desperate stand by outnumbered Israelis against an overwhelming number of (as it turns out, quite hapless) Syrians. Conscript Frederick took command of the Israelis while Conscript Mike F. and I commanded the Syrian force. Greg ran the charts and Conscript Brian... "kibbitzed".

 

Here's the situation. The Israeli "Purple Line" is across the ridges at centre. There's a tank ditch and wire/mines across its front, with some burning Syrian tanks left over from the last assault. We've just set out the Syrians there for the photo - they enter from the near table edge. Our objective is to break through the Purple Line with all we can, and exit the table at top of photo.

Syrian assets included three platoons of T-62s - two of three vehicles each and one with two, three BTRs with an infantry section in each, and a ZSU-23-4 AAA vehicle that would come in handy later. Oh, and three fire missions from a SAF MiG-21.

The Israelis deployed two Centurions on the Line with one coming in reserve, two M113 APCs with an infantry section in each, plus a bazooka team. Frederick deployed these mostly across the Purple Line.

M113s were held back a bit for tactical flexibility.

IDF infantry - amazing work from Greg. Head swaps on 15mm figures!!!

This guy would end up as "man of the match" for the Syrians.

T-62s look excellent.

The game begins - we race a platoon of tanks up on the left flank, aiming for the gap where the Centurion hasn't yet reached its position.

Greg had some very cool resin "dust cloud" markers we used with the vehicles.

On the other side of the table, we simultaneously assaulted with the other tank platoons, followed up by the BTRs. We made it across the mines and tank ditch without too much difficulty (accumulating one pin in the process), and the platoon commander successfully raised our air support on his radio. All seemed well until...

...the air force showed up! The rules require a "Scottish check" when air assets arrive. If you roll a "1" then the pilot is confused and "blue on blue" is the result - your opponent picks the target of the airstrike and it is resolved against your own troops! Of course, that's what happened, and the MiG attacked our own tank platoon, doing three Pins and halting their advance.

"Woohoo! Take that, IDF!"

"What do you mean, those were 'our tanks'?"

Of course, in the following turn, the Syrian commander called for air support again. Of course, another "1", and this time Frederick targeted the platoon on the left flank, which were duly suppressed with three Pins.

MiG streaks away from another "successful mission" while Centurion at left races up to take its hull down position.

The ZSU-23-4 was ordered to open up on the MiG and did a couple of hits, which lessened the effectiveness of the attack on our tanks somewhat.

Meanwhile, a lone BTR had snuck through the carnage on the right flank and made a charge into the Israeli backfield.

The tank platoon that was initially attacked by our own aircraft is so suppressed it cannot move, even with the commander screaming at them from his nearby BTR.

The tanks on the left are similarly swamped in Pin markers.

The commander called desperately for one last air support mission. Of course, this culminated in the third successive roll of "1" and the MiG swung around for one last run at his comrades in the T-62s...

Fortunately the ZSU-23-4 crew in the background were paying attention and lit up the MiG with AAA fire, shooting it down in flames before it could attack their tanker comrades. Does this count as a "kill"?

The Purple Line is intact. Two tank platoons out of action - the first destroyed or immobilized, the second loaded with so many Pins that they cannot activate. Burning BTR at top right as well.

The commander's BTR was destroyed crossing the minefield and the command section bailed out - seen surrounded by Pin markers at centre right.

Tucked up safe and sound on the Purple Line!

The lone BTR to make it near the objective line was destroyed by fire from an IDF bazooka crew and the M113s.

All in all a rather sad outing for the Syrians but nonetheless a fun game! We used the Bolt Action rules with a similar activation mechanic to that we used in our 15mm WW2 outing - the Syrian tanks activated as a platoon of 2 or 3 vehicles while the Israeli Centurions activated individually. This simulates the relative inexperience and lack of tactical flexibility of the Syrians and to an extent offsets their numerical advantage. However, it makes it that much worse when the Pins start to accumulate, since they affect the entire platoon's activation instead of just one vehicle's. The "own goal" airstrikes effectively halted the entire Syrian advance with 6 well-placed Pins. Since the Syrians were rated as "Inexperienced" that meant a Morale check of 5 or less on 2d6 just to activate - and that's before the other "incidental" Pins from shooting and minefield crossing were added. We were looking at having to roll snake-eyes or perhaps a "3" just to take an action. perhaps there is room there to add a mechanic allowing the owning player to exchange a vehicle from the platoon as a casualty in order to remove some Pins. Or maybe the commander should just be sure to roll better on the air support checks???    

thanks to Greg for bringing over his gorgeous toys and to the guys for playing!

"...and why not??"

Like many gamers, I'm a big Futurama fan... so when I saw these "limited edition" 28mm models of "Doc Lobster" and "Folding Robot" from Armorcast I had to put in an order! After receiving them late last week I painted them tonight.

"Bender B. Rodriguez" was first up... a very cool little model if a bit fiddly to assemble - it came in six pieces - head, arms, legs and torso. Painted up quick quickly with a couple layers of GW metallics and washes.

"Dr. John A. Zoidberg" was next. This model is one piece and also painted quite quickly.

Some nice detail on Zoidberg, dig those googly eyes!

"Bite my shiny metal ass!"

I imagine these models will come in quite handy as objectives in our Spacekrieg sci-fi games. A bit pricy at $6 each, but well worth the money if you're a Futurama geek. Recommended!