A Game, More Assembly and Painting!

 The Fates alligned and I ended up getting in that game I mentioned from my last post! Turned out that the host, Stephen asked for 1250 point Bolt Action lists and sadly only me and another local chap, Luigi were able to make it. Stephen elected to umpire and so Luigi brought out his Japanese against the Canadians I had prepared. 

My list had prerequisite officer and pal, 3 small 6-man Vet Commando squads and one 10-man Regular infantry squad, a PIAT team, Light Mortar team, Medic, Sniper team and both a Churchill Mk iv and Churchill Mk i in support. 

Luigi's list was something like, officer plus pal, 4 Gernadier squads full of knee mortars, a couple of Suicide AT Lunge Mine troops, FOO, two armoured transports, a trio of light tanks with howitzers and a third light tank with a medium anti tank gun.

The mission was predetermined from a planned event coming up this weekend (3rd Annual Operation Sweetheart in Sacramento, CA) and was an objective grab meeting engagement. As the game was last Thursday, details are a little spotty, but the following photos should describe the action appropriately. All I do know is that the table layout favoured me greatly and forced Luigi to have to come at me as I had 3 objectives on my side and he only 2. Unfortunately my tanks held down both roadways and did awfully well with ambush fire and Luigi's own conservative play didn't really give him much chance at getting across the table by the end of the game's turn 6 resulting in a win for me.

Really fun game, gorgeous set up and great to play against the Japanese which was only my second time doing so since I started playing Bolt Action.

Stephen had laid out the table prior to our arrival. Those pre-painted mdf buildings are so good. 

both armies declared to start deploying everything in their lists, no reserves. I made sure to take advantage of the firing lines down those roads early with my Churchills.

Commandos moving up with Japanese infantry in transports trying to come down the road but scared to get into the gunsights of that tank at the bottom of this photo.

Light Mortar drops a lucky round first try on that Japanese transport causing all the troops to bail out. They did not survive the return fire.

Commando squad hugs the cover of the building whilst the Churchill provides long range fire support against Japanese armour WAY back down that road. My dice rolling was garbage though and that tiny tank somehow managed to survive.

Churchill Mki with wading gear helping stall the Japanese advance whilst my PIAT team skulks along the wall line.

After a furious trading of fire, my tank finally takes out the Japanese Command tank. 

Host Stephen officiating and probably questioning our generalship. 

Commandos take advantage of their armoured support and move up to claim the objective aheaed (A rock. Very important rock at that,  apparently)

The Sniper team in the woods to the right had taken out the FOO early on in game, so the regulars and Medic that had been in the woods to the lower left head up to support the Comando advance.

Commando squad uses the Churchill's support to move up unmolested.

End game and the Japanese make a mad dash toward one of the objectives, only to come face to face with Commandos armed with two Bren guns. It didn't end well for the brave men of Nippon.

Also late game shot of the second Japanese armoured transport making a mad dash down the road in an effort to get it's sole occupant, a suicide AT nutter, up close and personal with my brave Churchill Mki. The inevitable happend though and that silly suicide fellow perished along with the transport.

My PIAT team crept up to the treeline here to attempt to take out the pictured arnoured transport with a point blank side-shot and missed. Of course. The Japanese Officer in turn charged the PIAT team and cut down both unfortunate PBI's with his katana. Nasty.

It's end game and the Japanese just can't get across the map in time to claim objectives. As the pictures squad rounds the shed here, my regulars mow them down mercilessly.

I included this final shot of my Churchill Mkiv which inspired the next part of this post.

 Playing a whole game with this unpainted beast was just rubbish!

I've had this model tank for a few years now. It's by Warlord Games and is in Plastic. Nice enough detail and simple to build. The included plastic Commander figure was a bit... meh, so I substituted him for a metal Commander sculpt I'd had in my bits box for a long time now. The stowage are mostly metal pieces and the "trophy-MG42" is a spare from an old long-abandoned German Grenadiers project. Simple paint job and marked up as one of the 34th Tank Brigade that I believe would have been present supporting the Canadian push to take the Schedlt Estuary in 1944 during Operation Vitality. There'll be more vehicles to be added to my collection to represent forces used during Operation Vitality at a later date.

Pics were taken hastily so please excuse the quality and lack of effort. 

I'm also hoping to get a little more painting done before my vacation is over, so hoping to have something else to post up on before the end of the month.

I also managed to get the remainder of the German Grenadier squad assembled and yes, crumbled and added their gear cos they just didn't look right without. Yay... complicated painting ahoy. :)

These nine plus their planned metal sergeant fig conclude the infantry I need for my Winter German list. Just need to get the pair of Flak 37 8.8 guns and crew (7-men each!) put together and they'll be ready for paint. 

Next week also allows me another chance at gaming with my good friend, Densmol dropping by so hopefully we'll have a good game to post up about here early March. (Imagine that, two games in one month!) I'm also hoping to attend a mini-gaming-con in Oakdale on the 7th March, so if plans work out for that, I'll have perhaps 3 more games to post up on. Crazy start to 2026 after quite the gaming drought this handful of years.

As always, hope all are safe and healthy out there. 

- Dai