#header-inner img {margin: 0 auto !important;} #header-inner {text-align:center !important;}

Tuesday 17 March 2015

USMC:- First Blood

Well, my Marines have been finished a couple of weeks now, and have had their first game! 











The Battle was fought at the Marquis of Lorne Pub in Gillingham, against my mate Jays Japanese SNLF, using my SNLF figures. The game was 500 points and used the following armies:-

Japanese Army List

US Marine Army List (I forgot my army list for the Marines however, and forgot to use the mortar...)

We didn't play any specific scenario, as the game was a test to see how both armies performed. 

Deployment 


 Japanese forces are deployed at the north end of the board, the USMC are at the south end. All the terrain was soft cover, except where it completely obscured line of sight.
















Turn 1: First order dice out the bag handed initiative to the Marines, who opened fire with their light howitzer, killing a large chunk of one of the Japanese squads. After this both forces advanced cautiously exchanging small arms fire, with a few pins inflicted but only minimal casualties.
 

Turn 2 again saw Both sides advancing towards one another, with the USMC laying out plenty of pins on the Japanese rendering the return fire fairly infective,  although the Japanese sniper and mortar were starting to make their presence know by killing a squad leader and zeroing in on the light howitzer. 





















Turn 3 saw a Japanese squad that had been sneaking along one flank come out of cover and fire a devastating volley into one of my Marine squads, killing 5 Marines who somehow managed to pass their order test and hang in the fight. The Japanese mortar also proceeded to wipe out the Howitzer, leaving things looking grim for the Marines who again only managed to kill another few riflemen.











 

Turn 4 and the Marines managed to fail several critical order tests allowing the Japanese to consolidate their positions, luckily the dice also abandoned Jay, and turn 4 was largely ineffective on both sides. 




 
 Turn 5 involved the Japanese launching a Banzai charge and assaulting one of the remnants of my weakened US Marine squad, and killing them all, but taking casualties in the process. My undamaged Marine squad and .30 cal between them managed to shoot a Japanese squad to death as well, leaving the game very much in the balance and both armies significantly reduced.










Turn 6 and the Marines managed to get their hands on the order dice, launching a devastating barrage of shooting, killing another Japanese Squad. although also failing to activate the other largely intact squad that was in cover. In retaliation the Japanese assaulted my 2nd LT who killed one of his attackers, only to fall at the last minute. The Japanese LT charged my large squad, and was cut down by the Marines. 




At the end of the game we had both had 3 units killed, and the rest of our forces were covered in pins and casualites, so the game was declared a draw. We both had a fantastic time, and the whole thing felt immensely cinematic. Personally I love playing Bolt Action at the 500 point mark, however my next game is against John Lambshead, and he USMC will be up against 1000 points of John Japanese! 

As ever more of my work can be seen here at Volley Fire Painting 

The Marquis of Lorne Facebook page is a great way to contact Jay if you would like a game at the pub  

Warlord Games can of course be found here












Monday 9 March 2015

The Burma British are complete!

That's right guys and gals, the second 500 points are now complete which can only mean one thing, yes that's right, the 1000 points is done! In this picture you can see the additional units required to take it to completion, an M3 Lee, Bren carrier, and 2 sections of Gurkhas. 
This is the first section of Gurkhas, 5 men all armed with rifles. They ride in to battle on board the Bren carrier, shooting the enemy up with the inboard LMG's before disembarking to shoot up the same target at close range before finishing them off in close combat (hopefully!)

A section of nine Gurkhas with rapid fire finishes out the infantry. So far these have proved a real thorn in the side of their enemies, being effective at range, very effective in combat and very tough to kill as they're veteran troops. 
Thinking about it I wouldn't mind an army of them!

The M3 Lee was an iconic vehicle of WW2, and although it fell out of favour in Europe, it continued fighting throughout the war in the Far East, it's thinner amour proving not so much a hinderence against their Japanese enemy's anti tank capabilities. 

The universal carrier or Bren carrier was a utilitarian vehicle employed for many tasks in the Burmese theatre. This is a vehicle that I've toyed with dropping from the list on a number of occasions, however I've stuck with it and it's proved it's worth multiple times, most notably in its last game when 2 panzerfausts and a heavy anti tank gun round bounced off it.
I have now nicknamed her 'Impervious' lol. Besides, the Gurkha section would get angry if they had to walk now, and I don't want any angry Gurkhas thank you very much!

The final pictures show the finished army all together and an action shot as they stalk through the Burmese jungle. 
I hope you have enjoyed the series of articles over the last couple of months, and I'm hoping you'll enjoy what we have planned for the upcoming months, it should be very exciting indeed!

As always if there anything you would like to know, or would like to see, please don't hesitate to pop a comment below.
Enjoy, Jez. 

Sunday 8 March 2015

Oorah! USMC Complete!

I am very proud to announce that my force for the Tale of Bearded Gamers is complete! I've tweaked the army list a little from when I first created the army, but here is the  list, and here are the pics of the army!


This was a fantastic force to collect, as the US Marine models are stunning, and so full of character.



 I found having the force mapped out from the start, and a rough deadline to completing the project was a massive aid to remaining motivated.  For anyone struggling or getting bogged down in a project I would recommend doing something different, whether that be painting something or a different force, maybe making some terrain, or even just having a few days off painting all together. 















What I discovered was that even with a rough deadline to work towards I found if I allowed enough looseness to the plan that it meant I didn't feel under any pressure to complete the models, and that I when was working on them as I enjoyed them far more than if I had rigidly enforced the time I would spend on them.



 I hope you've enjoyed following my Marines progress so far, and I'll be writing about their exploits in a few battle reports in the next few weeks!