When You Decide to Get Serious with WWII Tactical Wargaming...

Even though I haven't had much time to play in the last couple of years, I still love ASL. Multiman Publishing has just announced that the long awaited Pacfic War expansion Rising Sun is now almost available for pre-order.This picture of the box cover was briefly posted on their website but is not quite ready to go full speed. I suspect they want to make sure it is ready to go to production since traditionally ASL products only take a few days to reach their publishing number. This combines the two older products Code of Bushido and Gung Ho into one giant box full of PTO action. This product gives you the complete orders of battle for the Japanese, Chinese, and USMC along with an updated chapter G (PTO special rules). Rising Sun comes with 32 scenarios plus a mini-campaign not found in the original two products.

Dystopian Legions--Federated States of America Infantry Squad

I went with an alternate color scheme for my F.I.--Federal Infantry. In the Dystopian alternate history the South won the Civil War, so the infantry wear brown or gray uniforms similar to the Confederate army, but I decided on using some uniforms from the Spanish-American War as a guide. The blue coat from the Civil War was still in use with some units, but khaki boots, pants, and kit were more practical for the tropical climate of Cuba so most units wore a combination of available gear.  Now all these guys need is a tough Sergeant and some buffalo hunters to scout the way and they will be ready to lay down some serious hurt on their enemies!

Dystopian Legions Review

Dystopian Legions is Spartan Games’ new skirmish size game based on the popular steampunk alternate history universe of their earlier game Dystopian Wars. Unlike Dystopian Wars which has rules and models for sea, air, and land combat, Dystopian Legions covers land warfare on a much smaller scale than the battles from Dystopian Wars. Battles in Dystopian Legions are between squads of infantry and a few vehicles as opposed to the large scale fleet and army battles from Dystopian Wars.

 Dystopian Legions bills itself as using “heroic scale” miniatures, but the models are larger than most other 28mm lines—they are actually closer to 32mm in size. It isn’t an issue with me as I intend to play just Dystopian Legions, but others who play with other rules sets and have heroic scale models from other companies will not be able to fit these models into their existing armies.

 Like most miniatures games Dystopian Legions is points-based—all models and units have a point value and games are between players with the same or similar points level. The four starter boxes currently available: Empire of the Blazing Sun (Japan), Kingdom of Britannia (alternate history Victorian England), Prussian Empire (Prussians) and Federated States of America( a post-Civil War alternate history U.S.) all contain models that equal exactly 100 points so you can start playing after just purchasing one of the starter boxes. There have been some complaints about the cost of the starters, but they not only contain all the models for a beginning army, but also the rulebook, dice, rulers, and cards. The starter boxes cost around 60 dollars depending on where you buy it. Anyone who has played miniatures games will tell you that is very economical for a game that allows you to start playing immediately.

 Dystopian Legions platoons are assembled using a force structure chart similar to Warhammer.  A leader and one mainstay section (usually an infantry squad) is mandatory, but you can then add up to 2 veteran support units, 2 characters, and 2 units of battalion support. To start an additional platoon, you must add 2 more mainstay sections. This gives you some flexibility on how to build your army.  Each section is represented by an activation card. At the beginning of the turn after command points are allocated you place your cards in a small deck in order of how you want your sections to activate. On your turn you simply turn up the top card of the deck. I really like this mechanic as it provides unpredictability from turn to turn plus gives players more tactical choices in game.

Command points are the currency of the game and allow you to improve the chances of passing a command check, play a card, or make a charge move toward enemy units. You receive one command point per section in your army, plus each leader generates a number of command points equal to his “tier.” For example a FSA Lieutenant is a tier three officer so he generates three command points per turn. This mechanic also increases the decisions that players have to make as opposed to just charging the enemy unit lined up across the table from you.

 There is also a deck building aspect to the game. Each nationality has a set of game cards that can be played during the course of a game usually by spending command points. Some special characters and units have their own cards which you can add to your deck and remove other nationality cards. These cards can be used to provide bonuses to your units or penalize an enemy unit.   You can never have 5 game cards in your hand at any given time.

 Movement and terrain rules are fairly straight forward.  All units have a movement allowance expressed in inches that they cannot exceed. You can spend a command point to double your movement and charge an enemy unit.  Dystopian Legions uses Spartan’s “exploding dice” concept found in their other games.  All dice are D6 and come in three colors—black, blue, and red. Each 6 on a black die is one success, on a blue die a 6 is two successes. 6s on a red die count as two successes and you get to re-roll the die and attempt to get more successes. Ranged combat uses the range band concept from Dystopian Wars. Any target within 8 inches is range band 1, between 8 inches and 16 inches is range band 2 out to range band 4 in increments of 8 inches. Again the exploding dice rule is used to hit and inflict damage. Units can become shaken from combat losses and take morale and command checks which can benefit from having an officer or special character within command range—usually two inches.

 This is just a quick summary of the game, but another big positive is Spartan offers the rules for Dystopian Legions free in the download section of their website so anyone can read through them before they decide to play.

THE MODELS

 I absolutely love the models for this game. The Blazing Suns have ninjas, samurai on steam bikes, and a poison gas throwing alchemist. The Federated States of America feature scouts and buffalo hunters that can lay traps and ambush nearby enemy units. They have a special character with a mechanical alligator—how cool is that! The British have tanks, jet-pack equipped troops, and a character who rides around in a steam-powered wheelchair. The Prussians also have tanks and mechanical walkers along with their picklehaub-wearing infantry. And this is just the first wave of releases.  More tanks, bikes, and walkers will be released along with French, Russian, and Antarctica armies.  

Bolt Action Review--Osprey and Warlord Games' WWII Rules

Bolt Action is a collaborative set of World War II rules from Warlord Games and Osprey Publishing. As with anything from Osprey, you know you are going to get the full color pictures that make their books popular with wargamers and military historians. And Bolt Action doesn’t disappoint—the hardcover book is 216 pages full of not only paintings, but photos of painted miniatures and terrain on the tabletop battlefield.

   Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley of Games Workshop and Warhammer fame wrote Bolt Action and that is indeed one of the common complaints of the rules—that they are Warhammer set in WWII. But Bolt Action in my opinion is a much better set of rules that manages to captures Warhammer’s simplicity without going overboard on complexity.

 Bolt Action is clearly written for 25mm or 28mm figures in mind but can be played with 15mm models as well. Each figure is individually mounted and represents one soldier. The basic unit is the squad consisting 1 NCO and 4 men, but you can add up to 5 additional men. You can also add options like special weapons such as a machinegun or upgrade the officer to improve the squad’s morale. Bolt Action is points-based. Soldiers and options cost points so theoretically two different armies comprising of the same points cost are equal. For example a standard German Wehrmacht infantry squad starts off at 50 points before additional soldiers and weapons are added. In addition to infantry squads your force can also include artillery, anti-tank guns, tanks, and other vehicles. Air support is abstracted and brought into play by paying for a forward air observer.

 Order of movement is determined by dice draw from a cup. Each player places a die in a cup for each squad or vehicle in play and then dice are drawn. When one of your die is drawn, it is placed next to the unit and you can choose one of six orders for that unit to perform.  The orders are Fire-fire at full effect without moving, Advance-move and fire, Run-move at double your moving allowance but not able to fire, Ambush-the unit does not move or fire, but can fire during your opponent’s turn at units that move into range and line of sight, Rally- you don’t move or fire but can remove pin markers, and Down- the unit does not move or fire, but gains a -1 to hit.

Movement is simple—infantry advance 6 inches a turn but can run 12 inches. Facing is not in play; units can turn and change direction any number of times as long as the distance traveled does not exceed the maximum allotted distance. Combat is D6 based. A roll of 3+ is the basic to hit score, but can be modified by troop quality, weapons, and cover. The weapons ranges are generic; rifles fire 24 inches so a British .303 Enfield has the same range as a German Gewehr 43. Players looking for more detail and weapons distinctions may be disappointed by this rule but I personally prefer not to have the added rules for the minimal difference this would make in a game. Some weapons and nationalities do have extra rules that differentiate them –for example US forces armed primarily with the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle forgo the -1 to hit penalty for shooting and moving.

 Assaults are also simple. Units use the run order to come into base to base contact with the target models.  Target units that have not activated in that turn can fire at the charging unit. Models roll to hit and whichever unit inflicts the most casualties wins. The losing unit is destroyed and surviving models removed. Assaults are clearly very bloody and shouldn’t last long. Again this is an abstraction, but I prefer this to a long drawn out melee and multiple rules.

 Morale is also covered. Units have a base morale that can be increased by assigning better officers to the unit. Regular squads usually have a morale of 9. Units must take morale checks when suffering more than 50% casualties in one turn. Units can also accumulate pin markers from taking casualties which act as negative modifiers toward morale checks. Units with pin markers must also take an order test before accepting an order with the amount of pin markers again acting as a negative modifier.

 The vehicle movement and fire rules are the same as the base infantry rules with additional modifications. Vehicles just have one armor value but shots targeting rear or side armor gain bonus modifiers. Artillery also uses the basic move and fire rules with additions such as firing smoke, direct vs. indirect fire, and mortars.

The rulebook includes army lists for the United States, Britain, Germany, and Russia. These lists are focused on late war, but are more than enough to start playing. Further army books are planned with the first—Armies of Germany-- being released this month (Dec 2012). Six generic scenarios are included along with a general timeline of World War II describing major battles and events.

Bolt Action is obviously designed as a simple set of rules to be used at the platoon or company minus level. I am unsure how it will scale up with additional platoons of infantry and added vehicles and artillery. Bolt Action is going to have its detractors primarily from people looking for more detail and differentiation of units and weapons than what is offered so the question of whether or not you will enjoy Bolt Action depends on what you are looking for. If you want more detailed rules you will probably not like Bolt Action. If you want a simple set of rules for quick platoon skirmishes then Bolt Action delivers. Personally there are times when I want a more detailed game which is why I have been playing Advanced Squad Leader for over 12 years, but there are also times when I prefer something quick and easy like Bolt Action.

 

Uhlan Kovnik Markov

I finally finished Kovnik Markov for my Warmachine Khador Army. He will go nicely with my uhlans I have at home. I'm thinking of using him with pVlad or Strakov, the two warcasters I have the most experience with. Next painting project--Federal States Infantry for Dystopian Legions

Lord of the Rings Living Card Game-- My Three Tier Dwarf Deck For Khazad-Dum

 

 

With my three heroes pictured above I played through the 3 quests included in Fantasy Flight's Khazad-Dum expansion to their excellent The Lord of the Rings Living Cardgame. This is the decklist: (50 cards)

Allies (17 cards)
3x Gandalf
1x Erebor Hammersmith
1x Erebor Recordkeeper
3x Erebor Battle Master
3x Veteran Axehand
2x Miner of the Iron Hills
2x Longbeard Orc Slayer
2x Longbeard Map-Maker

Attachments (17 cards)
2x Song of Kings
1x Song of Battle
2x Steward of Gondor
1x Boots From Erebor
2x Born Aloft
1x Dwarrowdelf Axe
1x Ring Mail
1x Legacy of Durin
1x Dunedain Warning
3x Dunedain Quest
2x Forest Snare

Events (16 cards)
2x Lore of Imaldris
3x Durin's Song
1x Fresh Tracks
1x Swift Stroke
2x Sneak Attack
2x Feint
3x Khazad! Khazad!
2x Ancestoral Knowledge

This is not intended to be the best deck for Khazad-Dum, but it provides the perfect balance of creature killing, healing, defense, and questing. The real ass beater is the Erebor Battle Master--with all dwarf allies and heroes pumping up his attack he can take down anything from a goblin to a cave troll. Thalin's ability helps clear out the goblins that clog up the staging area.
The only weakness is threat removal--only Gandalf's arrival can reduce threat. Since I played through this expansion, I have since added more cards to my collection so I may try again with a different set of heroes.

 

 

 

The Latest From Check Your 6!

Road to Rabaul is the newest campaign book for Check Your 6!, one of the best WWII air combat games available. This covers the latter half of the air war in the Pacific. The earlier book Cactus Air Force covered the early air battles around Guadalcanal and Henderson Field. We use 1/200 scale planes and the blue Hotz mats with the hexagonal grid and the planes not only look great on the table, but are easy to paint.

WIP-- Warmachine Khador

Three more additions to my Khador army from left to right: Kovnik Markov, Drago, and the Spriggan. Drago and Spriggan both have an initial coat of Vallejo Flat Red. I also paint the base rings red so they stand out on the table.

Work In Progress-- Epic Irusk for Warmachine

Warmachine and its sister game Hordes from Privateer Press are two of my favorite games. This is the Khador warcaster Epic Irusk. I used Vallejo model color paint after a primer coat of watered down Vallejo black since I cannot get spray primers at this time. I still need to apply a wash to capture some of the detail and will provide a picture taken from a closer angle once he is done.

Welcome to Swords and Rifles!

Swords and Rifles catalogs my hobby of wargaming and modeling historical, science fiction, and fantasy figures. Other interests include cardgames especially The Lord of the Rings living cardgame from Fantasy Flight publications.