Bolt Action Campaign D-Day US Sectors
In early 2021 Warlord Games picked up D-Day again and supplementing D-Day British and Canadian sectors campaign book with the US Sectors.
With 160 pages and a RRP of 20 GBP (roughly 25 EUR) Campaign D-Day: US Sectors marks the third and final instalment of Warlord Games D-Day trilogy. While the British and Commonwealth forces landed in Gold, Sword and Juno pushed towards Caen, the US Americans did so on the beaches Omaha and Utah and moved towards west and south from there, beginning with Carentan and further liberating the coast line and attacking armed forces along the Atlantikwall. The US-Sector book covers the actions of the US forces in the summer after D-Day, until August / September 1944.
Bolt Action Campaign D-Day British & Canadian Sectors
Warlord started the deep dive on D-Day with the campaign supplement of the same name - D-Day Overlord. But that is not all, the sectors receive more love, starting with the British & Canadian Sectors in this supplement and the US sectors in the next one, already released by the time this review went online.
Both, the British & Canadian and US D-Day sector books close the gap between the landing and the further actions around the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden. Because even after the successful landing in Normandy, the further operations were intense tasks, to bring in more troops, defeat counter attacks and fortify the bridgehead in Northern France.
Adeptus Titanicus – Warmaster Iconoclast
The variant of the Warmaster Titan, the Iconoclast with different weaponry was released in Winter '21, and actually the first of the Adeptus Titanicus plastic kits, that I didn't cover as a review - until now!
The Warmaster keeps it very similar to the Warlord Titan, where only a single sprue is swapped to cover the alternative variant of the titan. And for that reason, this is more of an add-on along with some further add-ons, to the initial review of the Warmaster variant with the plasma destructors. As well as making use of my newly access to 3d printing.
The kit wasn't supplied by the manufacturer this time, but more of a casual chance at a trade, and I added a few bits that I found online (more in detail below). The RRP of the Warmaster is now 130 EUR since April '22 (compared to 125 EUR when it was released last year) and it covers four large sprues, an oval base, decals, a rather unflattering black and white assembly instruction, along with the cards and terminals made from card board, covering the rules and information for gameplay.
April 2022 review
A mixed month with a lot of 3D Printing of course, I tested out some files for projects where I am going to print the miniatures myself. But it is important for me to not drown in the new possibilities and get some structure in there. I didn't reduce my stock to fill it with printed stuff again, just because I can. So, this needs a plan.
These projects cover a protagonist and antagonist each, basically two forces for each system, so I'm more flexible to host games and such. What are these - well, according to my Tabletop Parking Lot theory, I still have open lots outside of the 28mm department. With my fascination for Adeptus Titanicus, and already having quite the stock here, Epic makes for a reasonable expansion, and covers 6-8mm along with a company level wargame (in distinction to the platoon level that 28mm Warhammer 40k - at least in 2nd edition is).
HANS VII – Return of the traveling tabletop box
It is that time of the year again! Hans! Returns once more to my door step. And it is the 7th time, that is on its journey.
I've written about HANS! in the last years, so you can see what came around in 2019 with one of the first HANS that I participated, in 2020 with HANS V! and last years 2021 and sixth tour prior to leaving TTW.
First Experience with the 3d printer
I have the Anycubic Mono 4K for about 1,5 months now and went through the first litres of resin. Therefore, I'd like to share my first experience with owning a 3d printer.
First of all, the choice of the printer and technology. I don't have the need to print whole armies in 28mm or larger things, it was always about bits and small-scale items. And with that need, FDM was out of the picture, because it wouldn't provide the level of detail that I wanted for those. Resin print was the option I was left with, but the challenges of where to run it and the initial costs.
I estimated roughly for the costs, that as long as my invested in 3d printing services wouldn't be higher than 500 EURs, investing in a printer of my own wouldn't pay off. And 500 EUR is a high threshold just for bits, but with 3 or 4 mid-sized army projects I would rapidly get there. From that point of view, going for two Epic armies and a few bits, I might just be below that. But we all know, once you have access to such a device, you're going to use it. So, that decision was made, that it would be cheaper and more flexible for me to own a printer for what I have in mind (but more on that later) - at least that was my assumption at that point.
Stargrave – Mercenaries
The third plastic kit from the initial Stargrave release are the SG003 Mercenaries. Probably the most colourful from the trio, and certainly worth a look. So, let's upon up this box.
Where the Troopers are the uniform wearing military force of a corporation or government, these mercenaries are coming along still as veterans of their trade, but a lot more specialised and unique. You get troops in once again heavy armour, but with more humanoid (and less humanoid) variation in terms of face and a wilder mix of their gear / weaponry.
Throwback to Salute 2012 in London
Another throwback! 10 Years ago, I went for my first trip to Salute and it was not just any Salute, it was their 40th anniversary.
This was during my time as editor-in-chief for a large German wargaming portal, and to cover all (or at least most) of the novelties, we put it in our schedule to fly to London, take a lot of pictures, talk to a lot of people and arrange for some review material to cover in the upcoming months.
Most of the shows I participated until then where local conventions, held in community centres or similar and the largest was the Crisis 2011 in Antwerp or Action 2011 in Rheindahlen at the British Army HQ. And people already told me, wait until you see Salute, it's huge! I knew the South London Warlords from their elaborate participation tables on other shows and was eager to find out for myself.
Frostgrave – Knights
One of the first boxes that came along with the second edition of Frostgrave was the new kit for Knights. But it covers a lot more than just knights, but let's take a closer look into this new plastic set.
Unlike the other troop kits, we have had so far, this just covers 10 models instead of 20, but the sprues and layout are similar to the latest male and female Wizards. You get two sprues of the new unit and a base sprue with 10 round bases with a 25mm diameter. The kit is 15 GBP instead of 20 GBP for the other plastic kits of 20 miniatures.
Stargrave – Trooper
The next two plastic kits for Stargrave after the crew are far more combat orientated, and we cover the SG002. To be honest, if you wouldn't know about Stargrave being a skirmish with role-play elements, you'd assume this is a generic Sci-Fi soldier kit.
The Troopers for Stargrave are an 28mm scaled multi-part plastic kit and has a RRP of 20 GBP for 20 miniatures. This kit is compatible with the other Stargrave kits of the Crew and Mercenaries. And its content is spread across four sprues of five miniatures each, along with two additional sprues covering the 25mm round bases.