Re-reading rulebooks is a good idea.

I've played a few games of Bolt Action and feel I have a pretty good handle on the rules. In fact I rate the rulebook very highly indeed. As I said in my review it's the only set of rules I've ever been able to read through in one sitting. Usually my eyes glaze over after a few pages as I try to assimilate the masses of detail.

But, unless you're Sheldon Cooper, you can't remember all the rules from one read through. So generally you just check things as they come up in a game. However doing things that way means that you can miss things. So I like to keep a set of rules handy and read a couple of pages when I have a spare minute. This way it helps reinforce things in your mind but also it highlights things you may have missed.

As I said I feel pretty confident with my understanding of BA but in my latest quick foray into the rules I noticed this little gem regarding the special rule that some weapons have called 'Assault'. I've always thought that it just meant that those weapons got to roll two dice instead of one in close combats. But I just noticed that you also don't suffer the -1 for shooting while moving.  Somehow I had completely missed this and it hadn't come up in any of my games. So without re-reading the rules I might never have found this out and playing with the same group of people means that rules pretty soon become locked in as we 'know' how things work.

So keep a copy of the rules handy to dip into when you have a spare couple of minutes. You never know it might mean the difference between victory and defeat in your next game.

Longstreet on its way.

After much anticipation Sam Mustafa's new rules for ACW gaming have been released. I placed my order with Northstar this morning. They have a free p&p offer and bundle deal for the first week  which helped me a little as I splashed out big time.

The rules are £25 which is about par for the course. The extra expense came in ordering the cards needed to play the game which are another £12 for a pack of 151 cards (bundle deal saves you £2). As you need a pack for each player I ordered a second pack so I can try and get some locals interested in playing. That brought my total order to £47, ouch! I think it's time to sell some more stuff on eBay.

Now all I have to do is paint up 300 infantry, about 40 cavalry and 6 guns with crew before the rules arrive!

P.S. I've also just pre-ordered Dropzone Commander so that's another £54!

Saturday update

Just a quick progress report today. Looking at Dropzone Commander has put my painting back a few days so I've still got to finish off my 1/72 Germans. I've also been distracted by 'Ronin' the Samurai skirmish rules from Osprey. I've read a couple of reviews and AARs and it sounds interesting.

As I found 1/72 to be really cheap for doing forces for Chain of Command I had a look on Plastic Soldier Review (a great site btw) to see if there were any good 1/72 Samurai and I found these from Zvezda. You can see their review on PSR here. They rate them pretty highly.

You get 44 figures in twelve different poses as can be seen below.

Easily enough for two forces and only £6.76 from Amazon. If I buy the rules from Amazon as well for £9.99 I can have the rules and two forces for only £16.75. That's less than the price of most rulebooks alone. I probably won't get the chance to play often but at that price it doesn't feel like I'm wasting money.

I've also, at long last, made a start on my 10mm ACW armies from Pendraken. I'm hoping to get them ready in time for the release of 'Longstreet' from Sam Mustafa. I'm steadily working my way through the first batch of 150 Confederates cleaning up the bases. After I finish prepping them I have another 150 Union troops, 60 cavalry and six guns and crew to do. That is if my thumb holds out. Those bases can be sharp!

Dropzone Commander 2-Player Starter set

I've done a bit more digging into the new 2-player set as I now intend to buy at least one set.

Box Art

Box Contents

The first thing to note is that the models that come with this set are injection moulded plastic rather than the usual resin. Does this make a difference to me? No, I could care less what they're made of as long as they look ok on the tabletop. Hawk are saying that there's little difference visually between the plastic and resin models anyway. The models for each faction come on three identical sprues as shown below.

UCM sprue

Scourge sprue

The contents of the starter armies are basically the same as the existing resin starter armies (£68 each RRP). The only differences are that you get one extra APC for each faction (because there is one on each of the three sprues) and that you don't get the set of Command Cards. Apparently the extra APC can't be used although I don't know why, maybe because of army list limitations. So I guess you could use it as a wreck marker or an objective. The Command Cards are not needed in a starter set game as you have no command vehicle. But as you will no doubt want to expand your forces you will need the Command Cards, they cost about £4 for each faction specific deck so not a big deal.

Next up is the card terrain included in the box. The card buildings are the same as the ones you get in the Cityscape terrain set (£30 RRP) except you only get ten buildings not twenty. Also you get a 6'x4' urban street system made up of 1'x1' tiles in the Cityscape box while in the starter set this is replaced by two paper 'posters' to give you a 48"x33" playing area. But this is quite adequate for starter set games.

So you have two armies plus all the terrain you need to play a starter game. But wait there's more! You also get the updated version of the rule book (£15 RRP) which also has army lists and fluff for the four factions, over 300 photos and 12 scenarios plus variants. In addition you get UCM and Scourge reference sheets with stats, army composition and quick reference tables. A starter scenario and turn sequence prompt sheet. As well as ten 14mm D6 black dice, a 1m/38” Hawk Wargames tape measure keyring and a full set of card templates and Scenario Objective tokens. No wonder the whole thing weighs in at a hefty 4.4lbs/2Kg.

Rulebook

 

This is a starter set that literally contains everything you need to play a starter game of Dropzone Commander. It's scheduled for release on September 28th for £60 RRP. To whet your appetite here's a few more pictures of the set's contents.

 

And finally a few photos to give you an idea of the actual size of the models.

 

As a starter set this can't be faulted. I'll be buying one or maybe even two sets so watch this space.