Contents of a small supply crate from Warlord Games

I ordered a Crusader II from Warlord Games and decided to order a Small Supply crate of RANDOM STUFF Warlord wants to be rid of.

Some of them I actually liked to get!

A famous Native American(?) hero. Could use him in Silver Bayonet.

WTF the League of Fatties Kit?!?! Maybe a boss for the Silver Bayonet Steampunk?

Ghar Outcast Rebel Attack Crawlers. Looks like something Necronish. Not sure what I could use it for.

3 turret armed Boltan Paul Defiant's. Not hugely useful even as a TTI Target Tug! I don't think I'd use them even if I DID have Blood Red Skies.

C3 Support team with Plasma Bombard. 4 sorta Necron figures with a support weapon. Not hugely useful.

Spring Grass flock. I needed some of this colour.

5 Native American Bowmen. Could be used for Rangers of Shadow Deep or a Oathmark ranger unit.

Yak 1 character for Blood Red Skies. More female units is nice, even if I don't play the game or the Yak 1 isn't very good either.

Gnar Rebel Attack Crawler #2

British Napoleonic Paint kit- I actually needed this for Black Powder and Epic Scale Black Powder.

Fully wrapped up in a mystery box in a mystery box is a fully painted...Bi-plane?

Can anyone identify the make and nationality?

3 Mythic America Sapa Emporer on Jade Tigers(?). Might make a useful cavalry for Oathmark (not enough for a unit though) or Rangers of Shadow Deep

3 fantasy characters (maybe a Druid and 2 fighters?). Might work for Rangers of Shadow Fell or as a wizard for Oathmark.

One Sprue of Highlanders for Epic Scale Black Powder. I wanted this too!

12 Numidian Skirmishers. I can use them as an Oathmark human spearmen unit. I have a SPQR boxed set too.

Sachem Warlord of War Eagle. Not really use able for Oathmark but might work as a boss for Rangers of Shadow Deep.

 

 

Everything that came in the Supply Crate
 

What I actually wanted.

More terrain I need

•  I need to a brown door mats and cut them up for fields. Most can be rectangles and some can be smaller for FOGN. Some can be triangles that can be formed into squares.
• Also some green ones to represent grapes or other green plants in rows.
  
• I need some 28mm buildings suitable for North Africa. Start with 3 - should be white washed.
  
• Some can have red terracotta roofs for Spain, Greece, Crete and Italy too. 
  
• I need some non-fantasy 28mm Western/Central Europe buildings that can be used for both 19th and 20th Century - Black Powder AND Bolt Action (and maybe late 20th Century WW3).
• I need a desert colored game mat from http://www.cigarboxbattle.com/ or https://geekvillain.co.uk/.
• Some palm trees on plates.
• Some cheep plastic army men terrain for sandbags and bunkers- just need a spray paint undercoat and dark wash over it. 
• 3 more boxes from Bunnings to hold it all.
  

More thoughts about vlogging battle reports

 - I need a vlogging pack with a tripod, light, lenses, gun mike.

- Use Google improve for photo's to make them look better!

- https://www.naturalreaders.com/ is a cheap text to speech converter

- Use  https://freesound.org/ and You Tube Audio.

- https://www.littlewarstv.com/quick-strike-challenge.html is a guide on how to do it.

    - 1-2 Minute intro and history of the battle

    - 2-8 minutes of the battle. For Bolt Action, that's only 1-2 minutes a turn.

    - 1 Minute conclusion and 1 minute lessons learnt.

    - Use close in video, model eye view. When a character does something important or blows up, get the close video.

- Good point about keeping them less than 10 minutes! I can do a 2nd video of conclusions and lessons learnt and how to do better next time. So many battle reports go for 40-200 minutes! No one's watching all of that!

- Even better, do a 3rd video on the history of the armies/battle/campaign. 

- If doing a battle of Australian troops, I could use the actual regimental diaries from the AWM as a guide on the battle itself, and colour commentary when needed. It can be used a separate voice over.

Pre-War Infantry Training for WW2

 

Infantry Training (Training and War) 1937

The previous guide I linked below is mid-war, this is the pre-war training guide for Infantry in attack and defence, for the infantry battalion.

This manual covers a period of transition. Many infantry battalions have only recently been re-
organized, or are still in process of re-organization, as rifle and machine gun battalions, while others are still organized as mixed battalions. The new weapons and vehicles, with which the infantry is to be armed and equipped, have either not yet been issued to the troops, or have only been provided on a limited scale. There has, therefore, been little opportunity for studying the changes in the methods of training in peace, and leading in war, that may be necessitated by re-organization, mechanization and re-armament. 

While, therefore, it is considered advisable to provide some guidance on these matters, based on such experience as has been gained up-to-date, it is realized that further experience is needed before final conclusions can be reached, and that it will be necessary to issue a revised edition of this manual in about two years' time.

It seems it was written before the Bren Gun or 2" mortar was introduced, which changed how the Infantry section and Platoon worked.

Thoughts about YouTube battlereports

After trying to watch many many battle reports on YouTube, if I ever did one, these are the things to keep in mind-

•  If I have a title sequence, it must be very short and not loud. Any video with a long title sequence gets fast forwarded.
  
• Do an intro describing the battle, the mission, and an overview of the terrain. 
• Mention the game system and provide link to it. 
  
• Mention where Terrain came from - if I bought it or built it. Provide links to suppliers. I often want to buy the terrain I see in video's! 
• An overview of the Terrain and mention any objective's. 
• Mark deployment area's for the initial start of the battle.
  
• Do an army overview, giving the army a name, commander names, if the unit has a history and what it's intended purpose is.
•  Use railway terrain boards for the back for nicer pictures.
• Army overview needs a background- either railway boards or placed in front of the battlefield terrain.
  
• Do NOT do a face to camera. I don't care about them and it just takes time I don't want to watch and skip past. 
  
• Do not say "and without further ado". It's very noticeable and annoying.
  
• Do not show dice rolls (except for reason below). When watching, I don't know or care what you need- this is NOT a tutorial on the game system. 40K games are horrible for this, spending 1/4 of the video showing dice being thrown and picking them up before you know what the result was!
• A tripod must be used. Shakey cam can be used for important zoom ins and model eye views only.
• Do not show the players- it's boring, you can never understrand what they are saying and its distracting from the game! 
• Do not show the players moving units!
  
• If needed, use a picture of an actual commander and speech to text overlay.
  
• You CAN show the dice for important points like will the Tank about to take the objective be taken out by that brave PIAT crew, or the mountain of dice a German MMG squad puts out. But is should be rare and show critical movements.
• Model eye views once a turn for important choices should be used - what you see from the air plane view of the battlefield is going to be hugely different from what the platoon or division commander can see. 
• If playing solo, remind the viewer my opponent is the best guy ever, and a cunning commander.
  
• Bolt Action reports should not start every unit by "The order dice for the Americans was pulled and they did XXXX". It gets very repetitive.  Just say who and what unit is doing what order. 
• Don't show tape measure measuring unless it's to show the unit is OUT of range. Just say if they are in range or at close/long range.
• After the battle, conclusions must be made and lessons learnt. Point out on the battlefield what was the critical terrain or movement. This should be focused on the battlefield and units, NO FACE TO CAMERA.
  
• Post production should have the sound of  gun fire/explosions and ideally added graphics showing who is shooting at what. 
• Place YouTube chapters for Intro/Terrain/Army introduction/Each entire turn/Ending/Conclusion/Outro
• Outro should be a final reminder of who won, who lost, a mention of upcoming video's planned for future and the inevitable reminder to Like, Subscribe and Ring the bloody bell. 
  

Tactical thoughts on a Bolt Action army

Despite playing wargames for 25+ years, I've never been much good at it. One of my problems was seeing the woods for the trees and moving multiple units to do a thing. 

With Bolt Action needing to use dice to order units out of any order, and standard WW2 tactics being a force to PIN the enemy and a force to ASSAULT/Flank the enemy, I've got an idea for an army, made up of 2 parts.

A lot of the Bolt action missions require you to place a limited part of the army on the board - generally about half, and that half either starts on the table or has to come in on as the First Wave- meaning it's going to need to be followed up later by faster units. Other units can start in reserve or flank, but won't come on until turn 2 or 3.

1st Platoon - The defending or pinning force. Needs to be able to have some kind of anti-armor ability. As first on the field, they should prioritize destroying or pining enemy Anti-tank units. If defending, units should be facing at an angle and not direct 90 degrees to the enemy, with overlapping fire. If on the attack, part of it's objective is finding hidden enemy units,  pinning or destroying enemy anti-tank guns, and providing smoke cover for the flanking platoon.

2nd Platoon - The counter attack or flanking force. Needs to be more mobile and have it's own anti-armor ability - particularly to flank enemy armour from the side. 

Ideally both groups would have their own indirect fire ability to lay smoke and commanding officer to give "Snap to!" orders and boost morale at the critical point. 

The 1st platoon has a medic - because I want to call "Stretcher Bearers!" when someone goes down and I need to roll a 6 on d6 to save them.  Makes them ever so slightly more resilient. 

The 2nd platoon has the artillery spotter because I wanted the 2nd platoon to also have the ability to make smoke, and the 2" mortar can move and fire and provide smoke if needed (historically, what it was used for). The 25 pounder is a must in a Commonwealth force and gives both HE and light AT and can provide a lot of smoke for the flanking force too. The artillery spotter fits in the 15 CWT with the 1st LT and mortar team too. 

The platoon commanders don't have extra meat shields because I can't afford them, and they shouldn't be ever in combat anyway! They should be providing morale and snap too orders each turn - something nearly every you-tuber DOES NOT DO for reasons I do not understand.  Maybe it's my 40K Imperial Guard repressed memories. 

Snipers and the 2 spotters (one for the free Artillery support, and one for the 25 pounder) will be placed on the battlefield beforehand, as the Australian army bonus of constant patrols allows me to place them first AND force enemy spotters and snipers to be 18 inches away.

I find I can't afford a 3rd RESERVE force in 1000 points, but I can make it so each unit has another unit it can "pair" with. So instead of 16 individual units, I actually only have 8 "tactical" units to control, and each of the 2 forces only has 4 "maneuver units" I need to keep track of, and there's only 2 parts to keep in mind - one unit to defend objectives, and the other to take them.

If I had a 1250 point army I'd make it a company - with a Captain as company commander, add a 2 pounder (because ever since my WW2OL days, I liked the 2 Pounder) and a Bren gun carrier to tow it. I need 1500 points to get a proper 3rd platoon for reserve, this is just making it a bit more rounded - the 2 pounder and its attached Bren make an ok light tank between them. With the 2 pounder available, the 25 pounder can go in the flanking force

The first army list I can do NOW with the figures I have (none of which are put together or painted). It's 1005 points because that's what Conquest 2022 is running for reasons.

A lot of con's won't allow 2 platoons, so I would need to adjust it for them.

The 1250 army has 20(!) order dice, which seems absurd, but at both 1000 and 1250 I will probably have the initiative - so I can use the "snap-to!" command more often without losing it. 

 

That's the plan anyway. And as we all know, not plan survives contact with the enemy ~ Murphy's law of combat.

Lessons for Bolt Action: 1944 Infantry Training : Field Craft, Battle Drill, Section and Platoon tactics. Conquest 2022 army list for Bolt Action

 

1944 Infantry Training : Field Craft, Battle Drill, Section and Platoon tactics

 Mid war lessons from WW2. I should take note for playing Bolt Action.

 

 

I doubt I'll have the army ready, or the time to play, but my current Bolt Action army list for Conquest 2022. 

Based on the 6th Australian Division, where I had a relative in the 2/2nd Field Park RAE there.

I don't have much AT or AA capability - I would need to do some practice games somewhere first. Though every early war army will have that problem.

The army is fully motorized - the 3 Bren Gun Carriers and A15/Crusader are the mobile reserve or attack section  (along with the ATR, 2" Mortar and platoon commander in the truck).

I don't understand why the army can be 1005 points- they said it's to make things "different", but I like how it makes the army more balanced. I really need an extra body for the Lt, Artillery Spotter and would like a medic but can't afford it. 

Epic Scale Waterloo should do Epic Scale missions like SPACE MARINE did

 Dear Warlord Games,

Many decades ago, my brother got SPACE MARINE: the epic scale 40k boxed set with 300 6mm marines, land raiders, rhinos and buildings.

The rule book had a set of scenario's that started small with single units, and built up to full armies. Each battle had a background introduction and army list, with the rules needed for that battle building up to the next one.

Epic Scale Waterloo should do the same thing. Start with a small battle with French troops attacking Allied rifle units around the Orchard on the French left flank - the French attack in colum and learn to deploy into line. 

Then add some more units and the buildings around Hourgment. Then add some Artillery, and attacking into buildings. 

Then go to the centre of the battlefield, with massed artillery and why Wellington put his men behind the ridge line.

Then introduce large French infantry division attacking, followed by British heavy cavalry charges. 

Then British cavalry charging guns, followed by French Lancers attacking blown horsemen.

 The an entire French cavalry corps attacking British infantry in square.

 Finally a corps sized attack of the Old Guard into Wellington's last reserves. 

 

Please make it so.

 

Epic Scale Napolonic has arrived

 So I just got 5 kilo's of 13.2mm Napoleonic armies (British, French and Le Haye Sainte). Reminds me when my brother got SPACE MARINE the original Epic scale boxed set of 6mm Space Marines, Rhino's, Land Raiders and buildings - it kicked of near 20 years of playing GW games. Sadly, Warlord hasn't added a tutorial mission pack so you can start small and work your way up to a full corps level battle - trying to read the A5 rulebook isn't as easy as reading a much better (if otherwise simpler game) like an A4 Oathmark manual.

For some reason the French box wasn't shrink rapped, hope it's not missing anything. 

 

My Plan: Use them for solo battles- I have 2 armies now. I need to buy the Waterloo table mat too.