Warlord Games US Sherman and M16 AA half track review

American model reviews this time around.

My second order from Warlord relatively recently brought me some US models and the Armies of Germany book. I picked up order dice as well and two gifts for my gaming buddy, who plays Russians. The T34 is from his wife and I gave him the command group. Unfortunately for me the tank can be equipped with a flamethrower so my future games will be scary :-)

This is what you get in the Sherman set. I've done nothing to this except put the gun barrel in the turret. Cleanup was minimal and I just scrubbed the pieces in warm water and washing up liquid to help with painting. This didn't seem to work as I will tell you more about later.

I skipped the assembly stages in my photos but it's pretty simple. The Sherman hull hatches were weird to figure out in terms of which way to stick them on and I had to trim the clasps slightly to make them fit but otherwise it was fine. For the M16 AA vehicle, the assembly diagrams on the Warlord Website give you what you need. The only thing is that you get all the bits for a regular halftrack as well so you will have some extra. I have a set of side runners, a fender, a pintle ring and four machine guns (3x30 cal, 1x 50 cal) in my bits box now.

I went a bit ghetto on the halftrack underside. The metal tracks are very heavy and I wasn't happy with the size of the glue join surfaces so I reinforced with sprue pieces to hold things together. I later covered this all over with greenstuff to solidly keep things stuck. Since it's never likely to be seen it should be fine.

Here are the scale shots in the same setting as before.

Again, Marneus looks like a monster who's ready to punch through the tank.  If you take away the base and stone plinth though he would be somewhere about the middle of the turret, which isn't far off the quoted size for Space Marines.

All the best folks

Pete

Warlord Games German Half Tracks Reviews

Hi folks,

I know I've been quiet on the blogging front recently but I've been busy with painting and modelling so now I have more things to show off, which I hope you like. Most of you who read regularly will be aware that I've been strongly taken in by Warlord Games and their WW2 game Bolt Action. I picked up some extra models for this recently and took pictures of them, but only just got off my butt to upload them.

Here was my first reinforcement batch. It includes the platoon leader halftrack with a 37mm cannon, a flamethrowing halftrack and an MG-42 medium machine gun team. What you see is exactly what you get in the box.

The machine gun team is pretty simple. I had to look at a picture of the tripod online to figure out exactly which way to attach the gun to the tripod but it looks good. I put the gunner and loader on a 40mm round base (GW Terminator size) and it was fine, with just a big of overhand. Apparently the gunner has a big butt and he does not lie. The spotter is on a separate base so I can remove him as a casualty easily. Painted pictures coming soon.

This is what you get for the flame half track. The right hand bag contains the wheels, crew and basic machine gun setup (as per a normal half track I think). The bottom bag contains the two flame projectors plus another set of wheels....why not :-)

Here are the crew figures. You get the usual Mg-42 gunner, a commander using binoculars and a creepy looking flame operator in his mask and goggles.

Here is the resin hull. Cleanup was very minor with just a few tabs to cut off, mostly on the underside. I can see only a couple of tiny flaws in the casting. One of the rifles in the rack has a tiny bit missing and there is a hairline gap in the base of the crew compartment where the wall meets the floor. I threw a bit of greenstuff on this to cover it but the tracks glue on and hide the spot from outside too.

Here are the plastic frames you get for the Hanomag half track. They went together very easily and with no issues. I'm looking forward to more plastic kits for vehicles.

The extra bits you get in the platoon leader's box (not the magnet set). There are two resin benches with fuel cans, the 37mm gun and mounting, plus two crew with separate heads. My buddy gave me the magnets and I'm trying to decide whether I magnetise everything or just glue it in and go with it as is. Not sure yet.#

Scale shots time

Here are the vehicles scaled against other models. As you can see, Marneus Calgar is massive but the WW2 figures are much closer in size. On the tabletop it's nice.

Here you can see them with a Warlord Games British Commando and a Dark Eldar warrior.

Here's a final shot comparing them to an Eldar Vyper jetbike. GW scale is a lot more bulky than these.

All the best everyone and more reviews on the way.

Pete

My entire model collection in one photo :-)

Having kicked my painting speed up quite a bit in the last few weeks and months, mostly due to the fun of Bolt Action, I decided it was high time to bring everything out of storage to check out what I have. I've been working on streamlining my collection and I'm even thinking of dropping a few more bits but for now I took over the dining room table and arranged EVERYTHING :-D

Here it is in full glory. To annotate the general picture you have (L-R)

Back row: Dreadfleet ships and islands, Dark Eldar & Eldar alliance, Bolt Action farmhouse scenery.

Front Row: Deathwing/Marines, romantic sculpt, US forces, German Forces, British commandoes

Now for more details.

Here are my Dreadfleet ships all ready to take to the table. It's a quirky but fun game that I recommend if you have a chance. Once painted up you can have a real blast trying to sink the enemy in a crazy, fantasy pirate world.

Here is the 2012 Christmas/Engagement gift that I sculpted and painted for my wife. It took a lot of work and time, but I'm happy with the results. Just a few more tweaks to the paint scheme (highlights mostly) since I was working with a yellow lamp that made it look warmer than it does in natural light, and I'll be ready to put it on display in one of our cabinets.

Some of my marine bits. Asmodai needs painting and Marneus Calgaer (left) isn't sure who to hang out with but my favourite here is the terminator in the bottom left which was painted by my wife. Her first miniature and it turned out really nicely. When I think about my first models....wow, what a difference. I need to go over the base with more green stuff to cover up my test patch and she plans to finish the heavy flamer arm then it's done.

Here are the Deathwing in full force. They are a combination of parts from all of the different ranges. I used Terminators, Assault Terminators, Deathwing bits, Space Wolf Terminators and Grey Knight Terminators to make the army. My Belial conversion is just visible in the bottom left and Lysander has been repainted to join the battle and bring the hammer down. Sadly they are a bit too assault focused for 6th Edition and my waning 40k interest means they haven't hit the table in a while.

The Dark Eldar Kabal with their pirate Eldar allies. These models were fun to paint after so much bone colour on the Deathwing but the real spark for them came when my wife discovered the transfer sheets and made them all look fantastic. I love seeing them together and hopefully I can get back into 40k a bit more soon to enjoy them on the tabletop again.

The Vypers got brightlances just because I think they look really cool. I haven't played them on the table yet but we'll see how they do. I love my scourge models (in game too) but they are really annoying to transport. So beautiful but fragile, which I suppose makes them the perfect Dark Eldar unit.

Here is my one scenery piece (I will probably paint it and leave it in the FLGS) and my not-quite-finished Dark Eldar stuff. The wracks and haemonculus in the lower left are about 50% done but I don't have the motivation to work on them at the moment. The models on the right are waiting for Wayland to (finally) deliver some greenstuff and primer. I might sell/donate the second set of grotesques as I'm not sure I fancy painting up another three of them. We'll see.

Sorry for the blurry camera shot. This is my Bolt Action American force at the moment. From the front we have two lieutenants with adjutants (left), a bazooka and sniper team (right), then six squads of infantry built around BARs. At the back are my new additions of a Sherman tank the M-16 AA vehicle with quad .50 caliber heavy machine guns. More photos of those in another post soon.

The Germans are of a similar size to the Americans but their squads are based around the light machine guns (MG-34s and MG-42s). In the foreground is Otto Skorzeny, the free model when you buy the German army book from Warlord Games, and at the back are my half tracks. On the right is the plastic/metal light anti tank one and the left is a resin/metal flame half track, which is suitably brutal in game.

Here is my small British commando force. These elite troops need some backup and once I've broken the back of my remaining painting (including these chaps) then something will be on the cards for the Brits.

Well that's it from my side as far as models go. In my time I've owned many more than these including Fantasy Dwarves, old Epic models, Tau, Space Marines and Orks, not to mention the non GW games. I'm sure there will be more in the future.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the models and if you have time then I strongly suggest you take the opportunity for a photo op of your models. It's a lot of fun and reminds you of all your hard work building, converting and painting.

All the best

Pete

The German - Russian rematch. Flamethrowers versus howitzers

After my battering in our last game of Bolt Action, Gergely and I decided to throw down for a rematch and see if the Russians could continue their winning ways. To make it as even as possible we took basically the same 750 point forces with a few tweaks and played the same scenario, this time with the Russians on the attack. 

The Germans had 8 order dice with the following troops, all regular: 

 - Lt + 2 men, assault rifles                                     - 5 men with rifles and a panzerfaust

 - 6 men with 2 light machine guns (LMGs)             - 10 men with 3 assault rifles and 2 panzerfausts

 - A regular sniper team                                          - A medium machine gun team (MMG)

 - A SdKfz 250/10 half track with light AT gun       - A SdKfz 250/16 Flammenpanzer half track with MMG

The Russians brought 11 order dice as before with the following (I hope I remember correctly)

 - Lt + man, SMGs                                                - FREE squad of 11 green troops, LMG, Molotovs

 - 11 men, LMG, NCO with SMG                         - 6 veterans with SMGs and tough fighters upgrade

 - MMG team                                                        - Medium mortar with spotter

 - Anti tank rifle team                                              - Sniper team

 - Su-76 assault gun upgraded with AT rounds        - Zis-3 76mm light howitzer/medium AT gun

 - Jeep upgraded with MMG

Going up against the Russians I often feel outgunned simply because they bring so many order dice to the table. My plan was to do my best to focus fire and wipe out units so I could level the playing field and be able to activate units as often as Gergely.  

The Germans deployed mostly in the centre trying to get as many units within 6" of the Lt to help deal with the pins from the preparatory barrage. Luckily for me, the dice was a 1 and the Russians had to come on without their artillery softening up the way. The Su-76 duly rolled on and drew a bead on my AT half track. 

Luckily for the Germans the 76mm shell whizzed by without hitting. Half tracks really aren't built to take on large guns as their armour of 7 isn't worth much when your opponent has a +5 bonus to his penetration rolls. 

The Russian left flank had a hefty group of attackers with veterans, green troops, the AT rifle, Jeep and covering fire from the MMG in the forest.

To deal with them I sent my large squad forward towards the barricade with the Lt in tow. The small rifle squad you can see next to the tower. I decided not to enter the tower for fear of an assault from Gergely's tough, SMG-wielding veterans. In the end though, luck smiled on me and the tough veterans took one pin marker, failed their order test with a double 6 (FUBAR!) and ran off the table. A tough break for the Russians early in the game. This was coupled with my sniper getting a killing shot on the MMG team and, because every sniper shot scores exceptional damage, I could kill the gunner and wipe out the whole team in one go. Two order dice down and I was feeling a bit more confident.

Gergely sent his jeep around the tower along with his freshly upgraded squad of 'green' troops. ***When a squad of green troops takes the first casualty you roll a D6, on a 1 they take extra pins, 2-5 has no effect and a 6 upgrades them to regular....guess what he rolled for them.....again haha). They shot up my rifle squad at close range and my return fire wasn't so good. The panzerfaust missed the jeep and two rifles weren't going to kill much. Luckily the Flammenpanzer could get close enough to torch the jeep. In the background you can clearly see my jealous hands on the Armies of the Soviet Union book. Soon I hope to get the German book to see what sort of special tricks I can bring to the table.

Gergely's backfield was taking fire from my MMG team in the tower as well as the large squad hiding in behind the barricade. I'm really glad I got into cover sooner rather than later because it saved my guys from a lot of casualties.

However I did take some casualties. You can see the Lt's two men in the dirt, which cost me two assault rifles but luckily my commander passed his morale check and didn't run. I don't recall what killed them (the MMG, jeep or green squad I think) but I know the sniper was looking to draw a bead on them all game. Being able to ignore cover modifiers makes these scoped hunters nasty to face.

The Russian mortar spent the whole game throwing explosive shells my way, guided by their brave spotter in the woods. They took out a couple of troops from my double LMG squad (who also got hit with a howitzer shell) and then hit and killed the MMG team in the tower, removing a chunk of firepower from an elevated vantage point....damn.

Unfortunately we don't have more pictures of it but after three 76mm armour piercing shells streaked past its thin armour my half track decided to get out of the firing lane and motored around the flank. It avoided another shell due to the forest's cover then went for broke, closing to point blank range on the Su-76's flank....where it missed....MISSED I TELLS YA!!!

The Su-76 popped into reverse and guess what....didn't miss. We laughed about the poor luck of the Germans here as the shell set the half track on fire. The crew failed their morale check so they bailed out instead of putting out the fire. My most reliable anti tank weapon was gone and I'd lost an order dice curses.

We've jumped on a bit here in the photos but I got lucky. My large squad jumped out from behind the barricades and over the next turns went into the woods, pinned down a squad, moved up behind the Su-76 and blew the tracks off with panzerfausts, leaving it immobilised and facing the wrong way, assaulted the sniper team, moved out to gun down the mortars and then started back towards the howitzer.

Not quite in shot is my dead Lt who ran after the big squad and failed to hit the pinned Russians three turns in a row before they assaulted and killed him.

The LMG support squad kill off the Lt's killers on their way to take on the Su-76 in assault. Because it is open topped we had a fair chance to hurt it.

The Flammenpanzer, for all it's reputation, was a mixed bag. It killed stuff, sure. The jeep, half a squad and the AT rifle all fell to its flames or machine gun rounds. It was also blessed with the good luck to survive an AT shell from the howitzer. Then the comical bad luck game where it failed an order test (3 pins) and reversed. Next turn it passed an order check (2 pins) and raced up the flank. One more burst of speed would put it close enough to take out the howitzer and so it, of course, failed the order test and reversed away from the enemy again. What a yoyo :-)

Fresh from their mortar team kill, the big squad pours on the shots and without the gun shield's protection the crew fell to the bullets. Lesson learned, flank guns if you need to kill them.

The victorious German squad in the Soviet backfield

We had a quick go against the Su-76.

ASSAULT! With just four men though, we couldn't muster killing damage. 

At this point, with just an immobilised assault gun that was pointing the wrong way, Gergely conceded and the Germans held the victory. Revenge was ours for now.

While it turned out to be quite a strong German victory I had some great luck on my side. Gergely failing to get the bombardment was a big one as I had no pins or kills to deal with. Also he was very unlucky that his veterans got a FUBAR result and ran off the field without doing anything. I was also lucky not to lose my half track earlier on because that drew the Russian attention and kept the howitzers off my vulnerable infantry teams. 

Just like the last game this one kept me engaged and challenged throughout. We both enjoyed the back and forth of the game, cheered the other's success and commiserated the bad luck. I'm lucky to have found a gentlemanly opponent who is often generous with LOS or cover and refused to take any favours. I suggested that his veterans should fall back to near the table edge and not run off but he refused the offer and fought on. A lot of fun from the game and I can't wait to play more games.

All the best everyone

Pete

PS: I realise that I also inadvertently 'cheated' because I told Gergely that his gun's had a 48" range (light howitzers) when actually they jump to 60" when firing as medium anti tank guns. I think he took a penalty for firing over half range when actually it was under half range for the AT round. Gergely...I apologise :-)

Flamethrowers and tanks! The reinforcements arrive for Bolt Action :-)

Hi folks,

My gaming buddy and I recently took advantage of Warlord Games' vehicle offer (buy 3 vehicles, get 10% off all of them) to add some reinforcements to our armies. He had it easy since he plays only Russians but I've got more challenges as I'm rocking Germans, Americans and British. I got all three because I knew I'd have to start building the scene and having at least two forces was a good way to start. However, for this order I decided to focus on the Germans since they'll be able to play against every other force.

For the game we stepped up to 750 pts and it was a great challenge. Both of us had new units to use and new things to work on. I was particularly interested to see how my flame half track fared. We'd heard that it could be overpowered in the game and so this was a testing match of sorts.

750pts of Germans. I had 8 order dice and the army, front to back, comprised a 6 man squad with 2 LMGs, a 10 man squad with 3 assault rifles, a 6 man squad with 2 panzerfausts, a 3 man command team with assault rifles, a sniper team, an MG42 medium machine gun, the aforementioned flame half track and a half track sporting a 37mm light anti tank gun.

Gergely's veritable horde of Russians was intimidating to face. Three 11 man squads, a commander, a medium machine gun, an anti-tank rifle, a sniper team, a medium mortar with spotter then the reinforcements of a machine gun jeep, a light howitzer and an SU-76 assault gun. Phew, 11 dice of Ruskies coming my way :-)

Our match left me as the attacker going up against the Russian gunline. We nominated the three buildings as the objectives (two you can see here, the other is just out of frame, foreground right) and I went on the offensive. My preliminary bombardment was great, putting pin markers on nearly every Russian unit and even killing the officer's adjutant. Not a bad start. 

So.....flamethrowers....pretty nasty...

This picture shows the effects of a single advance order from the flame half track. I moved up, getting range on both squads and with my two flamethrowers, I could split fire. Flamethrowers automatically hit (18" range for vehicles), putting 2D6 hits (+3 to damage, meaning 2+ to kill infantry) and D3+1 pin markers on each unit. I took out five from squad 1 and four from squad 2 and dumped pin markers all over them. Both squads took their mandatory, post-flame, morale check and failed, despite re-rolls. In one turn I took out 22 infantry and two order dice. Wow!

Luckily for Gergely his reserved Su-76 came in. He'd kept it off the table to avoid the pre-battle barrage. Sadly for him it missed the flame half track and I prepared to burn some more.

Here's where it went wrong for me. Reluctant to expose my flame vehicle to the howitzer and AT rifle I tucked it into the cover of the trees and declared a double flamethrower attack against the Su-76. I was out of range by 1/2"! Damn. The Russians, ignoring the waves of flame just in front of the tank, put an armour piercing shell through the thin plating of the half track and left it destroyed (and probably burning).

I did my best to take out the assault gun but a half track with a light gun isn't going to have a good fight against a more heavily armed and armoured foe. My half track fell victim to another 76mm shell.

From there I did my best to enact revenge but I was just outgunned and unable to turn the tide. I took out a few more troops with my machine gun, who narrowly avoided the mortar's fire before shooting them down at long range. Otherwise my troops just got bogged down and hit by enfilading fire. The panzerfaust squad couldn't make it close enough to shoot at the Su-76 before they were pinned and battered from all sides.

I lost the game as I failed to capture two of the three objectives. In the end I had one and Gergely had one, but with a large chunk of his force intact and mine battered and bruised, the Russians had definitely carried the day. 

The star unit for me was actually the MMG. I can't deny that the flame half track was brutal but I think the plucky MG-42 team who stayed brave as the mortar started zeroing in on them, pinned the infantry and the howitzer then finally turned their gun on the mortar and wiped it out deserve a pat on the back.

From the Russian side the best moment was the MMG jeep. It drove right into my lines (crazy Ivan indeed) and gunned down troops at point blank range. It took fire but survived with just a pin marker, then failed it's order test and reversed manically between two Wermacht squads around a hedge and to safety.

What about flamethrowers? Are they overpowered? 

Gergely thinks no, but I think I need a few more games to really decide. It took out two squads like a dream and had it been a tiny bit closer I think I'd have taken out the Su-76, giving me a chance to burn my way across the field and rolling up one flank. The flammpanzerwagen feels like a lot of eggs in one unit. It's expensive (168 points), pretty vulnerable but has the chance to brutalise the enemy, especially if you take out the main anti tank threats. We'll see what it comes to in future games.

All the best and keep your eyes open for model reviews in short order.

Pete :-)