Finally, some action!

Bolt Action that is! Matt and I  finally had our opening game last night, but more of that later!

First up, I haven't managed to do anywhere near as much painting as I'd have liked recently due to the following:

Thats right, I managed to sprain the ligaments in my thumb! So, how did I manage to do it? I'm sure you've all seen at least one of the Mission Impossible films, well it was nothing like any of those... I did it gardening. Nothing heroic, just pulling out bramble roots! So even with a fortnight off work I wasn't able to paint anything for the first week as I couldn't grip anything with my left hand. Its still strapped up but is getting back to normal so have managed a bit of painting.

Painting 15mm models however was probably out of the question so concentrated on my 28mm Germans.

So now I have a legal German force for Bolt Action! Weighing in at a colossal 214 points! I really do like the Warlord plastics though. Lots of options, fit together well and you get a good number of well sculpted models for the money.

So, on to our first game. We played with 300 points a side, boosting what I have painted with unpainted models. Matt came with a Russian force. I thought I might be a bit screwed from the start in such a small game as the Russians get a free 10 man squad as one of their special rules.

However, it wasn't that which really decided the game! I knew I was truly boned when we randomly selected the mission - Point Defence - which gave Matt as the attacker a Preparatory Bombardment before we've even loaded our shiny new guns! As a result both my commander and the medic I had in my force were blown to pieces and the rest of my force was pinned down.... Awesome.

Still managed to enjoy the game though, which Matt won by capturing the objective. Think we managed to play the majority of the rules correctly with a post game rulebook read resulting in only a few important things we missed. I really like the game mechanics and it flows well without being too simple or getting bogged down.

As a result of this game and wanting to boost up the points value of my force I've ordered a Tiger II which comes in at 555 points.*

We also managed to fit in a game of Impetus. Again, 300 points a side with Matts Romans against my Carthaginians. As I haven't managed any painting I simply PVU glued a model to the bases I would be using to represent the units I intend on having. I know this doesn't look good but it means I can plan my force in finer detail, rather than painting it all then realising I need to change stuff.

Again, I lost, but I did learn alot! Gallic warriors are going to be better in big units, as are my elite Lybian infantry. Elephants should just charge straight up the middle! And don't but heavy cavalry behind light cavalry if you aren't going to move the light cavalry out of the way!

Anyway, its all good fun! Strapping should be coming off my thumb this weekend so hopefully should be up and running again on the painting front! Hurrah!

Word up.

*I haven't really!