Bill and I fought a game of Bolt Action after lunch, My eldest arrived after the second turn and promptly joined the Japanese! Has he no family loyalty?

Japanese bicycles leading the peloton to the objective in the centre of the table but receive casualties on the way.

Another objective in the pigsty is about to be fought over.

The main strength of the Japanese force mover towards the small village on the right.

The fight in the centre

The cyclists being shot by the Australian platoon scouts in the jungle at the bottom of the picture.

Australian engineers move up in the centre.

Two Australians sections advance towards the village on their left flank.

The Japanese Sepik native allies successfully take out the Papuan Infantry Battalion but are destroyed by the Australian Command section with their Owen guns.

Fights about to begin. The Australian Engineers charge the cyclists and destroy them and are promptly charged by the Japanese veterans, The two veteran fanatic units slugged it out with the Australians finally winning with only three of the ten initially making the charge still functioning. A significant victory for the engineers.

Eventually the Australians were worn down and lost with the Japanese seizing three of the four objectives.

A minor victory was achieved by the Australians with three Japanese figures being captured and interrogated during the night (Bill left them behind and were only found when I was tidying up!).

A good fun afternoon was had by all, with sumptuous Vietnamese take away ending a great day!

I did get some painting done today but nothing completed. More Commandos will be on show tomorrow.

No painting today again, but I have completed a lot of reading.

These rules by Jonathan Hawthornwaite have been around for a long time and really did not interest me until I started playing “The Silver Bayonet”.

“The Twilight Order” – the ancient good guys.

It is 1875, and Count Dracula is President of the United States of America.

In the wake of the Civil War, with the country struggling to regain its balance, Dracula seized power. The Count’s thralls assassinated President Lincoln and his entire administration in a single night and, in the ensuing chaos, their master made his move. Dominating the Senate, he declared himself President-for-Life, and now rules the Union with fear and an iron fist. His vampiric progeny, the Coven of the Red Hand, infest every strata of society, and enforce Dracula’s will with ruthless efficiency.

“The Salem Sisterhood” – the misunderstood witches of Salem fighting evil!

Drawn by the shadows gathering across the nation, secretive cults and evil creatures emerge from their lairs to thrive in the darkness of the new regime. Fleeing from the oppression and menace of the East, hordes of pioneers head to the West, hoping for a new life.

The “Congregation” posse – kinda like Voodoo worshippers.

Dracula’s greed, however, knows no bounds, and his reach is long…

Dracula’s America: Shadows of the West is a skirmish game of gothic horror set in an alternate Old West. Secret wars rage across the country – from bustling boom-towns to the most remote wilderness – as cults and secret societies fight for power and survival. Players can throw their support behind one of these factions, and will lead a Posse in fast-paced, cinematic battles for dominance and survival.

“The Dark Confederates” – one of the many bad guy posses.

I was surprised to find that these were basically a set of “Wild West” rules that you could bolt on as little or as much of the “weird” as you want. For me there was a lot to like and not much I didn’t.

The activation as uncertainty which I like, but it gives you some control. You get One card for every two posse members, rounded up, and one for your leader. Each player chooses one card to play and then activation occurs in rank order, with black cards activating first. Players have the choice of using the card to activate one figure twice or two figures once. Figures can only be activated once each turn. This creates a very neat set of decision points which I like.

Most skirmish games have 360 degree line of site which adds simplicity but it is hard to sneak up on someone. Dracula’s America has a 180 degree vision making tactical surprise possible.

Like a lot of rules sets these days different quality troops use different dice which is another simple mechanism to enhance the odds in favour of better troops but never ruling out the roll of a one!

I have one of the supplement books with the other coming and these add enhanced rules, additional posses and more scenarios and campaigns.

As I said a lot to like!

Bad head cold…………………………….

and bad back…………………………………………..

at the bloody same time!!!!!

Guru says, “when you have bad back never get tie caught in zipper”!

Whilst preparing for a bring and buy sale coming up on the 7th of May at the Thornbury Bowling Club I was looking for some suitably sized boxes . Due to space I had stored boxes inside boxes, inside boxes and I found one set that was of a suitable size.

When I picked it up I thought hmmm these boxes are a bit heavy. When I opened them I found a whole pile of stuff*. There was another LVT-4, some more Dr Who aliens, another squad of U.N.I.T., some jeeps, Universal Carriers and some M3 Scout Cars! Oh and of course this 25pdr.

It was like Christmas in April!

I had some US mountain howitzers that I was going to use for an Australian Militia Bolt Action army but have now used this one instead.

Back to the Commandos tomorrow.

• “Stuff” is a technical wargaming term meaning “really cool shit”.

These are my first 3D prints – Sci-Fi radar arrays!

I think they look really cool except for one thing…………

They were meant to be baby boars!

Back to the drawing board. Not sure if it was the wrong or corrupted file, my incompetence or I wasn’t holding my tongue the right way.

Better luck next time!

On raid missions this was the largest HE support that the Commandos could rely on. Integral to their OOB, the 3″ medium mortar was portable enough to advance in close proximity to the infantry.

Tomorrow the Vickers Medium Machine Gun

This is the first of the scenarios for the “Curse of the Desert” campaign.

It was played as a cooperative game of Silver Bayonet at Axes and Ales club a few weeks ago now. Our intrepid adventures have come to try and find an answer as to why their patrols were being slaughtered. See previous post.

The three parties were bing attacked from three sides by “Bast Warriors” from ancient mythology.

The long range firepower was holding off most of the mythical creatures as the parties formed up for close combat.

With their weapons unloaded (the skill markers) the French prepared to defend the baggage camels.

The creatures were no match for the parties hardened veterans,

With the battle over a search of the mastaba found a small statue with hieroglyphics all over it. These were examined by the Occultist in the party who determined they were but a fragment of a larger piece of work and that the stone the statue was made out of was similar to that found in some ruins about three days travel due East.

What will our adventurers find in the ruins of the temple of “Apophis” the snake god!

I am trying to sell my 40k Spacewolf army next weekend amongst a whole host of other things and needed to finish off a part completed Vindicator and an Iron Priest in quick time.

You can tell how long they have been waiting to be finished by the “old school” model Vindicator I have.

The Iron Priest still holds up as it looks like the same version that is out now.

This was a bit like completing the house renovations/repairs that have been waiting for years to complete just before it goes on the market for sale, but that would never happen would it!/repairs

Medics are essential in any army, it is unfortunate that the benefit versus points cost doesn’t make them that effective in Bolt Action. The main benefit seem to be the cheap activation dice they provide. Nevertheless these are great figures and worth collecting.

I have used the standard Commando medic from the Commando Support box and added their “special January figure” as the additional team member.

Next the Medium Machine Gun support team.

A Forward Observer (often referred to as a ‘FOO’ for ‘Forward Observation Officer’) is essentially the ‘eyes’ of a particular form of long-range firepower, be that artillery, close air support, or naval gunfire.

Regardless of the exact type of support he’s calling on, his job remains more or less the same – deploy to the battlefield with the rest of the troops, identify a target that really needs to go away, radio in the targeting information… and then run like hell to get out of the blast radius! If he’s done his job right, a few moments later a large amount of high-explosive nastiness will arrive on target by express delivery, the enemy will cease to be, and the FOO can head home for tea and medals. If only it were always so easy on the Bolt Action tabletop!

Forward Observers in Bolt Action fall into one of two categories – Artillery and Air – and are available to the vast majority of armies, with some forces having their own unique national characteristics involving Forward Observers, which we’ll discuss in due time. At their core, both Air and Artillery FOOs function in basically the same way, and perform essentially the same role – causing a large area of the tabletop battlefield to be covered in explosions, Pin markers, and (hopefully) destroyed units (from the warlords website)!

The real advantage of them for the British Commandos is not because they are free because of the well coordinated artillery batteries that supported the PBI, but rather they provide some level of heavy firepower that you don’t often have.

I have also glued together, based and undercoated the eight riflemen for the Intelligence Unit posted on yesterday. See below.

Tomorrow the “Medic” team.