WW2 - MOAR Gurkhas and Fallshirmjäger

Not a lot going on here, hobbywise, the last week or so. I've been... distracted by other things. 

I did start rebasing all the old Noise Marines... well... eighteen of them that I can use. Not sure what I'll do with the new ones. I'll probably assemble and paint them at some point for funsies. Maybe just one squad of them and sell off the others?  I don't know. 

A few weeks back Orion was heading to Calgary to play in a Warhammer Underworlds Tournament (a qualifier event for the World Championships with multiple Golden Tickets available!) so I had a perusal of the Sentry Boxes online catalogue to see if there was anything she could pick up for me while she was there! 

In the end I found a BUNCH of older stock that I could not pass up... so I ended up just placing an order to have it mailed to me (it was three squads of older Bolt Action METAL Italian infantry - that came with separate head with helmets, sun helmets, bersaglieri helmets, and others - a pair of Breda Machine-guns and a squad of Gurkhas) all considerably less than the current suggested retail... 

Unfortunately with the Mail Order Minions went looking for these things they could only find the Gurkhas and figured the other items were ghosts in the machine - old data that had not bee purged... I didn't want to pay for shipping for just that... so I asked Orion if she would pick that up for me... 

And she did... 

More Gurkhas.

This is the third squad I have of Gurkhas making a full platoon... 

Unfortunately... I had THOUGHT these would also be older stock and thus the same metal ones that I already have... but they are NOT!? Somehow I'd missed that, despite being the same models, they are now made out of resin.... Ugggghhhhh... 

Now, I have other resin models and I don't love them, but I've made peace with them... but I generally only use them in plastic armies... I even have a few Bolt Action resin, but they are mostly solitary weapons teams... there is something about having a full squad of infantry made out of resin when the others are all metal that bugs me, though... 

I had thought I might just knock these out right away and have that force COMPLETELY DONE!! But now I am so dismayed by the fact that they are resin, they've moved waaaaaaaaaay down the interest/priority list... 

I might get to them at some point... 

I did base them the other night. Only one was really warped and it was only the bayonet, so I just carved if off that one. 

Also in the last week or so, some Fallshirmjäger support elements showed up..

I knew when I ordered them these ones were going to be resin... but they were cheap and this shipping was free... so...  

STILL MOAR STUFF!?

Over the last few weeks I have acquired... a few more things... despite really wanting to AVOID acquiring MOAR STUFF!?

It started with piggy-backing on a few orders Orion was placing to build up an army of Hungarians! That stuff is already painted! 

Then, two weekends ago, I pedaled out to the Warhammer Store to pick up this month's Free Miniature of the Month - a Death Korps of Kreig Engineer miniature... since I do actually HAVE a few... (though I've yet to FINISH painting ANY of them!?).

That same week I ended up placing a few of my own orders... 

The MAIN reason was, again, to pick up a few game mats for different environments. Because they're made in the USA, I was concerned that Canadian retailers that stock them might be raising their prices on them considerably in the not-too-distant future (because of the constant threats of a trade war and reciprocal tarrifs being announced) and wanted to just pick up two more before that happened... and... partly to get free shipping from the two places I ended up ordering from... and because both of the places had considerably discounted Bolt Action miniatures... I picked up a few other things along with them... 

The first to arrive was.... another order from 401 Games... 

Included in this order was Bolt Action: Armies of Germany 3E, French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties, Fallschirmjager Squad (Tropical Uniform), Gebirgsjäger Squad, US Marine Corps War Dog Teams, and a F.A.T. Mats 6'x4' Grassy Plains game mat (for some battles on the steppes of Russia!)! 

Next was an order from Kingdom of Titans... 

F.A.T. MATS 60"x44" Alpine game mat (for... REASONS!?), a second Chi-Ha Japanese tank, and an Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun and crew!  

Oh, and I got some Bersaglieri Forward Observers... from.. elsewhere... 

Okay... SERIOUSLY... I'm DONE NOW... well, for now... maybe... 

I'm definitely done with the Mats... There are a few things that I could get to finish off a few of the smaller WW2 forces... and there are a few things I'd LIKE to get for some of the others... once I've finished what I have! 

The Plan of Action to get all this (and the other WW2 stuff I have!) done is:

1. Chi-Ha Japanese tank
2. US Marine Corps War Dog Teams
3. French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties
4. Sd.Kfz 222 Armoured Car
5. Italian M14/41 Tank
6. Italian M14/41 Tank
7. Bersagieri Forward Observers
8. Panzer III
9. Panzer III
10. Panzer III
11. Matilda II
12. Matilda II
13. Matilda II
14. Matilda II
15. Cruiser MkI (A9)
16. Cruiser MkI (A9)
17. Cruiser MkI (A9)
18. Cruiser MkI (A9)
19. Cruiser MkI (A9)
20. Italian Colonial Troops 
21. British 8th Army 6-pdr Anti-tank Gun and crew
22. German Afrika Korps LeFH 18 10.5cm medium howitzer and crew
23. Italian Bersaglieri Breda 2cm AA gun and crew
24. Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun
25. Fallschirmjäger Squad (Tropical Uniform)
26. Fallschirmjäger Squad
27. Fallschirmjäger Squad
28. Fallschirmjäger Squad
29. Fallschirmjäger Command Squad
30. Fallschirmjäger assorted extras
31. Gebirgsjäger Squad
32. Panther
33. Panther
34. Panzer IV
35. Panzer IV
36. (assorted Heer Infantry) 
37. (assorted British Commandoes) 
38. S.A.S. Jeep
39. S.A.S. Jeep
40. S.A.S. Jeep
41. LRDG Truck
42. LRDG Truck

I THINK that's all the unpainted stuff I have for WW2 forces...?

 If I did ONE of these a week, it would take me to the end of the year!? Luckily at the moment, I seem to be working a bit quicker than that... 

I'm not 100% sure about the order of things... I put the French and Japanese and USMC stuff at the top, because ALL of those things are otherwise DONE, so it would be nice to knock those out and keep those forces DONE! 

After that I tried to keep focused on finishing up stuff for the North African campaign... Though the exact order of all the things for North Africa might switch around a bit... 

Our games will probably shift as Orion gets her Hungarians done, but I have NOTHING I need to paint for that as ALL of my Soviet Horde is complete and I have no interest in buying anything else for them!!

Of course there will be other things I'll be painting - There are SO MANY things I could paint up for the new Fantasy campaign we've started... and probably will... So they'll be snuck into the Queue, as required... but I'm going to try and stick to using things I already have painted, for the most part, so as not to get overwhelmed by it all and start to lose focus and interest when it becomes more burden than fun!!

I may even sneak a few 40K or AoS items into the queue from time to time, just to keep my toes into that... Most likely Eldar/Harlequins or Emperor's Children... but possibly some zombies or Skeletons for the Soulblight Gravelords...? 

The packaging for those two orders were fascinating... Both had a free shipping threshold. For 401 games in Toronto it was $165CAD. For Kingdom of Titans it was $199CAD

401 Games send the shipment in the GIGANTIC box! it was about 4'x1'x1'!? 

and it was just FULL of packing material!? 

kind of had to dig to find things and briefly wondered if they're remembered to put any of the order in the box!? 

Like, SO MUCH packing material!? 

I did, eventually find all the things... but in comparison to the size of the box, the order seemed rather diminutive!? The other long, skinny cardboard box within the cardboard box was the Game Mat I ordered from them all rolled up... 

Kingdom of Titans, by comparison, sent the order in a box less than a quarter of the size! barely larger than the tank box in length and width... 

And they were apparently totally okay with bending the rolled up mat to shove it into the box... 

To be clear, I am not COMPLAINING about either method. Both got my stuff to me lightning quick and without much trouble... Would totally order stuff from either in the future... 401 Games has a LOT of Bolt Action stuff and sells it for considerably less than what it would cost to order direct from Warlord Games!! 

Matilda II - Test Model

I was going to wait until I had the whole troop/squadron done... but then decided that was stupid. I painted one of the Matildas yesterday and... I am relatively pleased with it... 

"Auk" - this tank belongs to the commander of A Company, 69th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, 37th Army Tank Brigade. 

I decided that these tanks should all be part of entirely fictional units. The Matilda IIs will be elements of A Company (specifically A Company Commander "Auk", 2 tanks from #2 Section "Adder" and "Anaconda", and two tanks from #3 Section "Antelope" and "Aardvark"), 69th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, 37th Army Tank Brigade. 

Bolt Action allows platoons of five... I have five of these... I figured I'd field them all together. All five add up to 785 points, so.... I CAN do that in either a 1000 or 1250 point force! (Sure... there's not going to be much else in the 1000 point force but a VERY understrength Rifle Platoon...). Tank Troops, however, (or sections in earlier war Tank Regiments) were only made up of three tanks... so I decided that the "Platoon Commander" will actually be the Company Commander leading elements of two understrength Tank Sections. 

I tried painting it in the Caunter pattern. I've seen it interpreted in a few different ways with different shades of colours... these colours probably aren't exactly historical... I've seen the Caunter camouflage scheme in tan, light green, and dark green.... desert yellow, light blue and slate... yellow, blue, and dark green.... I do know that pink and green were used for tanks at some point. I know that both LRDG and SAS trucks made use of pinks, greens, yellows/tans, and blues... so... 

As they are fictional, no one can tell me the tanks of that brigade were not painted in this particular pattern of camouflage.... 

Also, I figure if there can be a movie and two entire seasons of a TV show about the adventures of a pink submarine in the South Pacific, I can have some fabulous tanks with pink, yellow, blue and green on them!

I'll probably finish up the rest of them over the next week... then I'll probably work on the Cruiser Mk.I (A9) tanks. Those are going to be part of 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Yeomanry. The 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Yeomanry DID actually exist... but it was a deception unit made up of wood and canvas... We'll pretend this one had real tanks and served in North Africa as part of the 38th Armoured Brigade in the 5th Armoured Division. 

Desert Rats

 The 3D printed ebay tanks arrived! 

(Okay, technically, the Matildas are very definitely NOT Desert Rats, as I'm pretty sure they were all in Independent Tank Brigades and not part of the 7th Armoured Division... but "Desert Rats" is a bit more evocative than "8th Army - although some of these would have seen plenty of action before the 8th Army was even formed... "Western Desert Force Tanks"...?) 

ALL THE TANKS! 

Cruiser Mk. I (A9)

Matilda II

The thing I love about these is NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED the tracks and hulls are all one piece, and, unlike other one-piece-cast resign tanks... there isn't abig blob of resin under the hull and behind the tracks... in fact, the hull isn't even a solid chunk - they're HOLLOW?!

I felt like this was taking a big risk ordering ALL of these... but, wow, I am feeling like that gamble paid off. These are really good quality!! 

Do I finish the half-assebled, partly painted German and Italian tanks... or do I give these a scrub and knock them out... 

There is a part of me that feels like maybe I should only paint three of them in desert colours and do the rest for France 1940...? But I'll probably just do them all as Desert Tanks! 

WW2 - British (Commonwealth) 2-Pounder Anti-Tank Gun

Another little addition to the British Commonwealth 8th Army in North Africa forces!

Ordnance Quick-Firing 2-pounder Anti-Tank Gun with a commonwealth crew in North Africa... could be Brits... could be Australians... could be South Africans... 

Considering half of the infantry I have are in Australian hats, I'm feeling like the Infantry element of the force is becoming nominally Australian! As these would be in an Infantry Battalions Anti-Tank Platoon of the Support Company, they're probably going to be Australians! 

The entire 8th Army force, so far... 

I have some TANKS on the way for these guys. I took a chance on ordering some 3D printed ones off of eBay... we shall see. 

I also have a 6-Pounder AT gun - for when these guys have to fight something more dangerous that the early war Italian tanks I have to oppose them!!

The complete force and the breakdown of options for Bolt Action can be found in the 8th Army in North Africa Gallery:

WW2 - 8th Army in North Africa

Bolt Action in Burma

 Brent came over on Friday to try out Bolt Action so I set up a smaller game - only 500 points on a side - involving a patrol of Japanese and a patrol of Chindits and Gurkhas bumping into each other in the Jungles of Burma while out trying to establish the location of the enemy they knew to be in the area, but didn't know exactly where! 

Scenario

We played the game on a 30"x44" - a little less than half the suggested size - but otherwise played a pretty standard Battle Scenario with Seek and Destroy objective, Quarters Deployment Zones and Meeting Engagement Deployment Type

The Forces

CHINDITS AND GURKHAS - 500 points

Chindit Rifle Platoon

Chindit Platoon Command - 39 points (Veteran) + 2 Men @13 = 65

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +4 Men @14, + LMG @15 = 141

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +4 Men @14, + LMG @15, + SMG @4 = 145

Gurkha Section NCO + 4 men 75 points (Veteran), +3 Men @15, + LMG @15 = 135

Total: 486 points

JAPAN - 500 points

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Regular) + 2 extra men @13pts = 65 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 50pts (Regular) + 5 additional men @10pts, + light machine gun @15 = 115 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 50pts (Regular) + 5 additional men @10pts, + light machine gun @15 = 115 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 65pts (Veteran) + 5 additional men @13pts, + light machine gun @15, + submachine gun @4pts = 149 pts

Light Mortar Team 30pts (Regular)

Medic 23pts (Regular)

Total:  497pts

THE GAME!

All set up and ready to go!

I was playing the Japanese and Brent played the Chindits and Gurkhas. 

I had the first unit arrive and brought on my veteran jungle fighters 

Brent brought on a Chindit Section and they immediately started firing on the Japanese! 

I brought on a second squad, but i kept out of sight and unable to fire or be fired on... 

So my veteran troops took a beating as all three Squad entered the table and started bringing fire on them! 

Gurkhas arrive... 

Second Chindit Section arrive and starts firing

Medic arrived a little to lade and apparently forgot all his bandaged and stuff back at their bivouac! 

Four down! almost at half strength!?

Japanese squad on the Chindits flank creeps forward and starts firing upon them. 

The fire from three enemy squads is telling on the Japanese Jungle Fighters! 

The first Chindit squad was taking it pretty hard as well, as they were in pretty much the same position... being fired on by three Japanese squads that had no other viable targets!

Second Chindit Squad Firing on the Japanese Jungle Fighters. 

Now down to just three and oh, so PINNED! 

The overall situation Japanese at the bottom of the picture, blazing away at the Chindits in the jungle opposite them! 

Gurkhas still moving up. 

And... I somehow managed to NOT take ANY pictures of the ONE Japanese Close Assault!? This is just the aftermath. Four surviving Japanese soldiers retreat into the jungle near of of their other squads?! 

With the retreating squad in the way, the other squad would now have to maneuver around them! 

Jungle Fighters stayed DOWN for two rounds to clear all the pin markers! 

The nearby light mortar team kept firing away the whole game... only hitting once and causing ONE pin marker?!

SEcond Chindit Squad advacing onto the position of the first squad, presumably to check and see if any survivors could be found... also to push through the position and assault the remaining Japanese! 

the Japanese fell back, firing... 

Gurkhas close assault the Japanese Jungle Fighters and wipe them out - losing only one of their own! 

The following turn (Turn SEven!) the Gurkhas assault the Light Mortar Team! 

And that was pretty much the game. 

I guess at this point both sides were running low on ammo and had taken significant casualties and decided it was time to gather those. up and fall back to their respecetive bases and report their action! 

Brent scored two victory points in the last turn putting himself in the lead 2-1. Generally in these missions the Victory Conditions suggest that winning by two Victory points is enough to establish a solid victory... I'm not sure that would be possible with so few units on the table. 

Both side lost a full squad wiped out. The Japanese lost a light mortar team. 

Of the other squads, one of the Japanese squads had only three or four left at the end of the game (the one that had assaulted and wiped out a Chindit Squad). The other was in not bad shape, with nine or ten remaining. 

The Chindits were in pretty much the same boat. One squad was wiped out, the other was in rough shape - from the fire of multiple squads being concentrated upon it. The Gurkhas were doing pretty okay - having only lost one or two in their close assaults. 

It was a pretty tight game and kind of came down to me leaving a light Mortar team exposed on the flank... 

I like the game. It was relatively short and quick and allowed me to concentrate/focus on remembering the basics of infantry small army combat - and basic close assault rules... Would not mind playing a few more small games like this - without tanks and off-table support... 

Kind of makes me want to switch focus and finish up the Marine Raiders!!