Squadron Leader "Topper" Redfern

Presenting RAF Squadron Leader "Topper" Redfern, who was a Warlord special figure back in July 2015 for the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. I acquired him recently and after my recent efforts with Winston Churchill figure (here), was inspired to slap some paint on him right away. Yes that is a pipe he is holding - it must have been a tough scrap he just bailed out from!

Along with the special figure, Warlord posted this special mission to use him on the table (copied below from http://www.warlordgames.com/special-mission-downed-raf-pilot/ )

SPECIAL MISSION: DOWNED RAF PILOT

July 10, 2015 - To mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain, we couldn’t help but offer a fun, free scenario… so – without further ado, we present our Downed RAF Pilot, Squadron Leader ‘Topper’ Redfern has crashed with important information on the enemy positions!

The Squadron Leader is sculpted having just bailed out of his Spitfire after taking a hit from a lucky German pilot. On landing he’s immediately been beset by Jerry and has pulled his service revolver out as soon as his feet have touched the ground.

Don’t worry though, Topper! We’ll get to you before the dastardly Hun!

Cost: Free!

Team: 1 ‘Topper’ Redfearn

Weapons: Pistol.

Special Rules: A hard landing

Just before beginning the first turn of the game, after all deployment is finished (including snipers, spotters and observers), the player places Topper on the table, following the same set-up instructions for the objective in the Hold Until Relieved scenario on page 114 of the Bolt Action rulebook.

Topper has exactly the same rules as a Veteran Captain, except that he cannot Run in the first turn of the game, because he has to dispose of his parachute first.

Back to Blighty!

If Topper manages to leave the table by moving into contact with the player’s own table edge, when the game ends the player treats a defeat result in the scenario being played as a draw, and a draw result as a victory (and, I suppose, a victory result as a ‘glorious victory’…).

On the other hand, if Topper is killed before he leaves the table, when the game ends the opponent treats a defeat result in the scenario being played as a draw, and a draw result as a victory (and, I suppose, a victory result as an ‘über-victory’…).

Can you aid in his rescue before the vital information he has falls into enemy hands? Perfect for adding that extra layer of story detail to your battles in Bolt Action!

28mm Winston Churchill

Normally when I get a special release figure it gets 2 mins of examination before being added to the lead pile, and thats what happened with Warlord Winston here when he arrived with my OPERATION SEALION book.  Then the other week we played the Capture Churchill scenario using Herr Flick of the Gestapo (see here) and a discussion on how to paint pin stripes ensued.  The challenge was on!

German leaflet "Sniper"

The figure is based on this iconic photo of Winston while visiting defences in Hartlepool on 21 July 1940.

Reputedly, the Tommy Gun was Winston's favourite weapon of all time.

The image was used by propagandists on both sides and clearly endures today.

Anyhow, here is my homage to the great man.  I think the trick with patterns like pinstripes or camo is not to copy it exactly but to give the impression. So less and neater stripes was likely to work better than lots of very thin one.

I went with a Black undercoat, dry brush with GW Skavenblight Dinge and then applied the stripes in GW Codex Grey.  I started with a thin brush but found it was easier to use a slightly larger one and do each stripe in one continuous stroke.

Overall, it works well but is one of those schemes that looks better at a distance than up close. The black lipped based helps tie in all the dark colours, as does the white flowers on the base, and I finished off with a glowing cigar end for a small splash of colour.

But is this the PM or Actor/Impersonator George Fowler sent to decoy Colonel Stenier?
Ether way he 'will fight them on the beaches'...

5 Men in Normandy

Encouraged by our recent forays into smaller Bolt Action games, some of the lads wanted to go further and play some squad level skirmish gaming - 10 figs a side or so. We decided to start with "5 men in Normandy" by indie game designer Ivan of Nordic Weasel games (here). Ivan produces a range of rules and this is the basic WW2 version.

Bottom Line up front - really liked them and will be trying the more expansive "5 Men at Kursk" next week. For this intro game, we dropped 5 figs per side on the table and played with the rules (yes, Brit Paras and Brit infantry- we waved it way as a Pre D-Day training exercise :-) Here are our observations of the game system.

• There is a random generator for force design, with a different one for each Nation. Could be a little unbalancing but adds a lot more variety to a '5 men with rifles' concept.

• All die rolls are a d6 - 1s and 6s have outcomes while 2-5 have no effect. Very simple but effective.

• There are no Turns per se and Activation is alternating - roll a die. on a 1 all your guys can move (but not fire) and on a 6 they all fire (but not move).  Anything else and you activate 2 guys only. You can activate the same chaps over and over again if you wish, there are no restrictions (other than the enemy that is!)

• In terms of weapons, everything has unlimited range except pistols and SMGs which are restricted to 12".

• I really liked the innovative firing mechanic. Two types of d6s are rolled - shock and kill. Shock dice deliver 'flinch' and 'bail' morale type effects on while damage results from 1 and 6 on the Kill dice ("Knocked down" and "ineffective" respectively). So the morale and the physical impacts of shooting are split, and different weapon types have throw different dice during a firing - eg a Rifle is 1 of each, while a magazine fed LMG (eg Bren) has 2 shock and 1 kill

• Here is the neat bit - with some weapons you can choose to reduce kill dice for shock dice, usually disproportionately -so I can instead decide that my Bren gun will supress an area with fire and use 4 shock dice instead. Excess hits are spread to targets in the immediate vicinity. So I can use my LMG realistically to keep the bad guys' heads down as my assault team closes in from the flank. Very neat.

• Unless they just fired in your immediate turn, all figs can reaction fire against movement in their front arc.  No need for "overwatch" or "ambush" orders and no watching chaps run right at you firing without doing anything.  BUT, they fire only the shock dice, not the kill dice, so its less effective. This reflects the hail of bullets everywhere concept.

Putting it all together, we had a fun and action packed game. In fact, my newly painted and Dux controlled Highland Division Sergeant Bruce McAndrews was a stellar performer in the best traditions of Commando Comics. While the Squad's Bren was used as described above, McAndrews closed in from the flank, unleashed a grenade attack, closed in to eliminate the now cowering opponent, survived a subsequent enemy close assault in return, shot the blighter that tried to stab him dead, then to top it all off he ran around the corner and bayoneted the last enemy in the position. Top stuff! A Mention in Dispatches for that man...or would have been if it wasn't just a training exercise in Surrey :-)

Sgt McAndrews gets a bee in his Tan-o-shanter and gets busy!

Overall 5MiN is a basic but enjoyable game. 5 Men at Kursk adds more meat on the bones in terms of troop quality and basic vehicles etc. It is a measure of our enjoyment of the system that we are planning to play it next week.

Guards Brigade on the move!

With the upcoming release of Battlegroup: Market Garden later this year I thought I would expend my British Army a bit from the Airborne and start some new vehicles to represent the XXX Corps drive north to Arnhem.  Here are the first few completed.

I've always been a fan of the Cromwell Tank so when I spied Warlord's resin version with burlap camo I was in and the Guards Brigade used them as Recon vehicles.  Actually, painting the burlap drew me crazy - I went first with hessian colour but against the tank's green it look really dumb.  So I picked out the cloth strips in different colours and it looked a bit circus like.  Anyway, this was the final result with lashings of mud, dirt and dust to show its off-road recce role.

Insignia is for the Guards Brigade

I also did something different, painting the Tank Commander's goggles and all the periscope optics with a gem effect - not sure if I like it yet but they add a bit of colour and match each other nicely .

Naturally, one cant recreate A Bridge Too Far without having Michael Caine (playing Col Vandelur, CO of the Irish Guards) and his Humber Scout Car on the Table.  I got the Warlord resin boxed set which is nice, and then added lashings of stowage and bits to the outside.


Lots of mud, dust and grime were added to again demonstrate the hard work of the recon forces ahead of the main body.

Big Joe directs the column from his spiffy ride 

I might have gone a little overboard on the Olive green highlights, but it is the Irish Guards you know!

Not sure what I will use it for  yet (its a very expensive mobile LMG in Bolt Action terms) but its an iconic vehicle so I had to have one in my force :-)

Forget Jerry's big cats - Odin is the biggest threat in this garden!