Warlord Games

By Tom Gall

Just a few more days until Bolt Action v3 is out and time to dig into the system of missions for playing the game. As you might recall from second edition, there were 12 missions to choose from. Late in the life of v2 there was additionally a tournament package or two that were circulating for playing from.

With the dawn of v3 and the core book, missions are divided into two types, Battle Scenarios, aimed more for a pick up game where both side have similar deployment zones and victory conditions, and Story Scenarios, when you’d like something with a bit more flair. These scenarios are meant to be less even and more situationally designed with one side trying to drive to a particular goal and the other trying to prevent.

by Matt Varnish 

A new edition of Bolt Action by Warlord Games is upon us, we were blessed with an advanced copy, and rather than spill the beans for all the competitive players like everyone else, we figured why not actually play a regular old fun game with fellow No Dice No Glory alum, Scott Roach.   We decided upon a desert game, so that he could dust off his Aussies and his Afrika Korps.   We tried to incorporate as many new things from the new edition, and as luck would have it we came across a fair amount of questions and sneaky changes.

First big change, the way army lists are built is different.   No longer can you take a lone ’88 or Pzr III, now these support units need to be in their own platoons.  My own Blitzkrieg army only has 1 HQ painted up so I’ll need to paint up more, since a Heavy Weapons platoon and Artillery platoon need their own Lieutenant or Hauptmann.  Speaking of lists, here is what we ran:

By Kreighton Long

Following up last weeks article covering how the Germans may end up looking in Third Edition, I set my sniper scope sights on the Soviet Union.

Most of the Army Special Rules remain the same from Second Edition.  Veteran players will see the return of The Great Patriotic War, Not One Step Back!, and Massed Batteries.

By Kreighton Long

Within the next few weeks the 3rd Edition rulebook of Warlord Games’ WWII platoon skirmish game will hit store shelves and mailboxes around the world.  We here at No Dice No Glory were given the opportunity to peruse the upcoming rulebook and I personally scrolled straight to the Armies of Germany section to see what notable changes Warlord Games has in store for the Wehrmacht.

By Kreighton Long

At this past April’s Operation Roundup Tournament I eagerly competed in the Best Painted Force finishing towards the top but not high enough to place.  The category that hurt my score the most was my lack of a display board.  Historically, I’ve avoided building a display board as I would rather invest the time, energy, and resources into painting miniatures and terrain.

Humbled, I decided that I can’t win unless I play the game and this game requires a display board.  Driven by spite I committed myself to investing some of my summer break into building my first display board. As this is my first attempt at a display board the unofficial motto from the start was “good enough”.

By Kreighton Long

My summer of terrain projects continues with a set of homemade rivers.  I set out to echo the method by which I created a set of ponds several years ago.  The materials I used were chipboard for the base, plastic table covers for the river, Vallejo’s Silver Grey paint, Apple Barrel’s Black and Melted Chocolate paint, Delta Creative’s Trail Tan paint, Craft Smart’s Olive Green and Espresso paints, PVA glue, sand, and various basing flock and tufts.

For the plastic table covers I used LovePads 1.5mm thick clear desk pads.  I prepped the table covers by cutting them to size, ironing them under a t-shirt to smooth out the material, and cleaning them with glass cleaner.

By Kreighton Long

Feeling adventurous, I set out to build a pigsty for my rural Bolt Action terrain.  Most of the materials were easy enough to order online.  The wattle fences came from Renedra Ltd; the mother pig from Warlord Games; and the balsa wood, match sticks, coffee stirrers, and green stuff from my hobby cache.

By Kreighton Long

Slowly but surely I’ve been working on improving my terrain options with the focus on Bolt Action.  My primary army project for this year is overhauling my Soviet forces.  Accordingly, my terrain optics have been focused on the terrain pieces that will best fit the Eastern Front.

By Kreighton Long

Bring on the pain!  I bravely (read foolishly) decided to break out my X-Acto knife and green stuff to try to build a Case Yellow Fallschirmjager force using the Warlord Games sprues.  As I started planning there were a few things I needed to keep in mind.

First was to have as many troopers as possible in the early war step-in smocks.  This was in keeping with the fact that the second version jump smock had not become readily available to the Fallschirmjager corps during Case Yellow.  Second was to use heads with uncovered helmets.

Nearly all the photographs I found online from this period show the Fallschirmjager with neither camo covers or netting over their head protection.  Third was to identify where weapon substitutions or additions would need to take place.  The primary light machine gun for the Case Yellow Fallschirmjager was the MG34 and the flamethrower of choice in 1940 would have been the Flammenwerfer 35 as the Flammenwerfer 41 was not introduced until 1941.  With these three things in mind I got to work.

By Kreighton Long

A few weekends back I had the opportunity to compete in a Bolt Action tournament.  Twenty-four players converged on Titan Games and Hobbies in Timonium, Maryland for a day of competitive play.  Operation Roundup was Tournament Organizer Mike Kehs’ third tournament and largest so far.  Mike began organizing tournaments in Maryland to support events for players in his area.  Learning from other TOs, Mike advertised early and often for his event which helped to pull in players from multiple states around Maryland.

Mike’s tournaments aim to provide enjoyable experiences for competitive players, hobbyists, and new players alike.  Mike was supported by two assistants who doubled as judges for the painting competition.  The assistants helped to ensure a smooth event considering it’s size with one stepping in as a ringer to even out the numbers.