Bolt Action Assembly and Play

I played some  Bolt Action at the club this weekend run by Jeff. We played a series of 2 linked games. In the first, we as the British had to intercept a hafltrack carrying a secret cargo before it ran off the table and in the second we had to attack a V2 launch site and capture or destroy the rocket.

I didn't take any pictures but to give a rough rundown of the action: In the first game we had 2 sections of infantry, 2 Bren gun carriers, a medium mortar and a 2nd Lt. The Germans had 2 squads, an armed Kubelwagen, the halftrack and their command unit had 3 figures. We were probably about equal in firepower with the British having more figures. We moved up towards the road and exchanged fire for a few turns and then managed to rush out a heavily pinned unit to capture the halftrack. The Germans counterattacked and killed the section that had captured the halftrack but in the end it was a British victory.

For the second game we had the mortar, 6 sections of infantry, the HQ and a Sherman. The Germans had a mix of troops, a PAK 40 AT gun an Armoured Car and a Haftrack.  We were a bit hesitant about moving forward and probably concentrated too much on the AT gun so we eventually realized there was no way we would get our victory conditions. I am not entirely sure what the best choice would have been but we certainly needed to push harder.

 We had some new people out to the club for this game so that was good as well.

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I finally have all of my original German figures painted. They just need to have the basing done and I may try to put the decals on their helmets (I will post some pictures soon). The support weapons are nearly done as well.

Once I got the last bit of paint on, I decided I should start assembling the Canadian troops. I had forgotten how much of a pain it is to assemble the Warlord  Games figures. I generally prefer plastics to metals and these are nice figures just a pain to assemble. Each of the arms are separate and the weapon is another piece so getting all 3 of those together in a way that looks sensible is a bit of a challenge.

The helmets are also separate from the heads which is an extra step. In many ways this is a good thing but it is also a bit of a pain. This blog suggests that the best way to do this is to glue the weapon into the right hand before attaching the arm. I tried this for my Germans and I gave it a go for the Canadians as well but I find the best way is to glue on the right arm without the weapon (but checking how the weapon will fit so that it is in a reasonable position) and then doing the left arm and the weapon once the glue is set.

The legs for the kneeling guy are also a bit more trouble than they should be -- they really can only go together one way so if there had been a tab to keep things aligned it would have made the task trivial. I think that is my main complaint is that they didn't really think about what they could do to make assembly easier. I believe that they are getting better, the new German sets have the weapons attached to the arm (or at least the hand?) which should make things quicker.

I have managed to get 5 guys together so far (3 rifle, 1 PIAT and 1 light mortar) and I think I should be able to get the others down over the next week or so.

The little pieces in front of them are the water canteens and the bayonet scabbards. I didn't put a lot of equipment on my Germans because they are Panzer Grenadiers and they are on the defensive but I will load up the Canadians (which reminds me of one more complaint, the weapon sprue could do with more shovels and more rifle -- and a hand with a light mortar bomb would have been nice).

Despite all my complaints I do like these figures and the Germans were easy to paint up once I got past my painters block.

I also assembled some metal support weapons -- a vickers MG, a medium mortar and a 6 pdr AT gun

These were much easier to get together (but I think the plastics will be easier to paint)