Bolt Action US Airborne
After we started the themed week with the supplement Campaign Market Garden, it is time to introduce and cover the matching Airborne units in a review - starting with the US Airborne. They were the second paratrooper unit released in plastic after the German Fallschirmjäger.
The US Airborne was founded more or less in 1942, when the 82nd Infantry Division was renamed 82nd Airborne Division, regrouped and assigned a new task, Operation Husky, the airborne landing in Sicily, Italy. The 82nd Airborne are along with the 101st Airborne Division the only airborne division of the American forces, and both took part in Operation Overlord (D-Day / Landing in the Normandy) and Operation Market Garden. US Airborne soldiers were heroically represented in movies like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 1
In the review of Dead Man's Hand, I had already suggested that I would make a small gang, and after relieving Dennis's holdings by a few minis, it was not long before the first protagonist of my outlaws was done. These are my first experiences with "historical" minis and I have to say that they are quite grateful models paintwise.
Bolt Action Campaign Market Garden
After covering the battles in the Pacific, the Eastern front and the Ardennes, the next Bolt Action supplement moves to North Western Europe with Campaign Market Garden. An instead of whole years of war, this battle has its eye on very intense 9 days in late September '44.
This campaign supplement covers the story of Operation Market Garden, the unsuccessful allied military attempt to take 9 bridges along the Dutch-German border. The military operations between September 17th and 25th are covered on 116 pages. Warlord Games charges the usual 19.99 GBP or 30 USD for the book, which is roughly 25 EUR. I've covered both the final cover (left) and the early cover (right) in the first row of pictures. We've often seen changes in the artwork between the first announcement and later publication; it was similar with The Road to Berlin and Campaign New Guinea.
Heroes and Commanders for the Landsknechte
After or better said, during, assembling the Landsknechts for the different reviews (Pikemen, Missile Troops and Zweihänders), I tried to get a bit more out of the kit, as with the three boxes, I only got one command sprue.
The bitz come from the old command upgrades for the Empire plastic infantry, the drum is from the Soldiers of the Empire box (with swords and halberds) and the banner is from the Crossbowmen Regiment.
Warlord Games – Pike & Shotte Landsknecht with Zweihänders
There is a third plastic kit for the Landsknechts available, or at least hybrid kit - the Landsknecht with Zweihänders. Along with the Pikemen and the Missile Troops, there are now plastic Doppelsöldner and soldiers with metal halberds around.
Same as in the Missile Troop review - I've covered the background of this range and the change from Pro Gloria to Warlord Games, along with the Indiegogo campaign in the Landsknecht Pikemen review, I won't bring that up again, but will give a brief introduction on the Landsknechts themselves.
Warlord Games – Pike & Shotte Landsknecht Missile Troops
In addition to the Landsknecht Pikemen, that were released last year, Warlord Games added two further kits based the puffy-sleeved soldiers to the Pike & Shotte range. I'll cover both boxed sets on here this week, beginning with the review of the Landsknecht Missile Troops.
As I've covered the background of this range and the change from Pro Gloria to Warlord Games, along with the Indiegogo campaign in the Landsknecht Pikemen review, I won't bring that up again, but will give a brief introduction on the Landsknechts themselves.
The Landsknecht were dominantly German mercenaries, instigated by the Holy Roman Empire under Maximillian I, but fought for other European rulers as well. They were involved in battles in the 15th and 16th century, in wars like the Italian Wars. The idea of the landsknecht was to have an armed service similar to the Swiss mercenary pikemen. As they were a mercenary force and the orders by Maximillian were to give the troops the freedom to wear what they wanted, it resulted in very colourful bright colours, with slashed sleeves and plumes. The fancier, the better.
The Legend of Dead Man’s Hand
The original version of The Dead Man's Hand was written by Great Escape Games (2013) and was later expanded by the french Studio Tomahawk with additional, optional rules. The present review is the German version of the Dead Man's Hand rules, which is distributed in Germany by Stronghold Terrain. Previous rule enhancements are included in the 94-page book and once again arranged to complement rules and characters.
What is it about?
Dead Man's Hand puts great importance in capturing the atmosphere of the 1960s and '70s spaghetti western movies. In several mini-campaigns or in free scenarios, ten different gangs compete in skirmish struggles.
The story of the fictional Wild West town of Dead Man's Hand begins in 1853 Arizona and continues sporadic chunks of story until about 1870. How the city got its name remains uncertain over the path of the book, although there are some legends about it. Hence the name of the game.
Converting Winter Germans
I've covered the review on the German infantry in winter gear a couple of days ago and already opened up on the possibilities to convert them, by adding parts from other sprues and kits. Due to the way the miniatures in the Warlord Games kits are cut, it is quite easy to use parts from other sets within the range. With the Winter Germans two of the most interesting kits to swap parts with are the Soviet Infantry Winter and German Grenadiers.
Before the Winter Germans were released in April, a couple of people used the bodies from the Winter Soviets and added German weaponry and heads. That is quite easy to do, as the Soviet kit is from the older design pattern, where you had open hands and separate weapons. The cloaks have a different design to the German ones, but with some backpacks and the weaponry in front of them, you barely notice or it is repurposed clothing. That works at least for Ostfront armies.
Bolt Action German Infantry (Winter)
After starting the themed week with the supplement The Road to Berlin itself, and covering several tanks as well, it is time to review the matching infantry kit of the Germans in winter gear. Last year, along with the The Battle of the Bulge, Warlord Games supplied the Germans with an extensive range of winter troops made from metal. Around the end of April, for the Salute, a new plastic kit for the "Winter Germans" was introduced, to cover the fights on both, Western and Eastern front during the winter.
This box contains 30 miniatures in 28mm scale made from hard plastic. The price is set at 26 GBP. As you can see from the classification on the cover, these can be used for early, mid and late war settings.
Bolt Action King Tiger with Zimmerit plastic kit
The King Tiger is in a couple of variants available at Warlord Games, with the plastic kit in cooperation with Italeri being the youngest incarnation of the German heavy battle tank.
The King Tiger, or sometimes called Royal Tiger, has the internal designation of Sd.Kfz. 182 or Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B Tiger II. Ausführung B and Tiger II showing it as a derivate of the Tiger I tank, but improved with sloped armour that made more use of the thick armour plates of the Tiger tanks. After initial problems with the reliability, it proved to be a remarkable battle tank towards the very last month of the war. The Tiger II was the pinnacle of the heavy tank series that actually got into production, unlike the Panzer VII Löwe or Panzer VIII Maus that never really left the drawing board (or in case of the Maus just had some mock-ups or prototypes).
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