Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire – Magore’s Fiends
The last duo of the Shadespire warbands I'll cover will be Magore's Fiends and the Farstriders, beginning in today's review with the Fiends. These kits stay with the factions that introduced the first season of Warhammer Underworlds, Stormcast and Khorne followers.
Magore's Fiends are a warband with 4 miniatures, three Blood Warriors and a Flesh Hound of Khorne. The warband supplement from the first season Shadespire costs 22.50 EUR incl. the Underworlds content or 20.00 EUR as an Easy-to-Build kit. This box covers two blood-red pre-coloured sprues, a card deck and brief instructions on the assembly.
Bolt Action Waffen-SS Grenadiers
Closing the themed week on Operation Market Garden with one of the antagonists. Fighting against the Allied Airborne units were dominantly units of the Waffen-SS. Warlord Games released a plastic kit of the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel this summer and we're covering it in a review.
This review is not meant to glorify any political ideas or (military) activities of the Waffen-SS and is purely meant to cover the quality of the plastic kit and its miniatures.
The former armed guards of the Nazi party grew from three regiments to 38 divisions over the war. Seen by many as the elite, veteran infantry of the German forces, the Waffen-SS is a controversial topic. They fought fiercely and zealous, indoctrinated and well equipped by the party, but not to forget committed many atrocities and war crimes. Units of the Waffen-SS weren't just drafted within Germany, but there were many volunteer divisions in (occupied) countries like in the Netherlands with the 23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Nederland. These volunteer divisions could be as large as 80.000 men (Latvia) or just 54 (British Free Corps).
Bolt Action Char B1 Bis
It might be a bit odd to present a French tank during the Operation Market Garden week, but the Char B1 Bis is in there for a reason. They were used for example by the Panzerkompanie 224 in the battle of Oosterbeek.
The Char B1 was a French heavy battle tank that was designed in the 1920s and produced between 1935 and 1940. After an initial run of 34 Char B1, the pattern was improved and around 370 units of the heavier armoured and armed Char B1 Bis were build. It was one of the most powerful tanks at the time and proved to be very effective against German tanks during the Battle of France. But it was designed to be a break through vehicle and did not adapt very well to the modern, more fluid style of warfare, especially the rapid Blitzkrieg of the Germans.
Bolt Action British Airborne
One of the latest kits and the youngest of the paratrooper plastic kits, are the British Airborne. A must for this week's series of reviews around the Operation Market Garden along with yesterday's US Airborne kit.
The British airborne is one of the many special combat divisions of the commonwealth's armed forces. They were founded in 1941, roughly a year earlier than their US American counterpart, and the 1st Airborne Division was send to North Africa for Operation Torch. But this kit covers the Red Devils in their North Western European gear, making them the best fit for the mid to late war operations of Pegasus Bridge, Operation Market Garden and the late fights crossing the Rhine / Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation in history. In cinema the British paratroopers are mostly known from A bridge too far.
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.
Warhammer 40.000 Killzone: Sector Mechanicus
As supplements for the Kill Team Starter kit Games Workshop released a series of specific Killzone Environments. These kits are bundles of already available terrain kits with added content for the Kill Team rule set at greatly reduced price.
In this unboxing and build review, I continue with the terrain kits after the Sector Imperialis Basilicanum and move forward to the Killzone: Sector Mechanicus.
For 65 EUR we receive a huge and heavy box, with a lot (and I mean it, a lot!) of sprues. I had to add the comparison with the Primaris Space Marine so you get a feeling for that huge stack of frames you get for that money. But that is not all, as mentioned above, this is not simply a discounted terrain bundle, this is a Kill Team Killzone supplement, covering a double sided thick card board gaming mat and additional gaming material, like an environment chart for the Sector Mechanicus, 4 new scenarios using the terrain from this kit and 12 new tactic cards.
The Great Wargaming Survey 2018
And in 2018 Wargames Soldiers & Strategy once again hosts the Great Wargaming Survey!
For the fifth year in a row, Wargames Soldiers & Strategy magazine is running the Great Wargaming Survey. With many thousands of respondents every year to an ever evolving (and sometimes revolving) set of questions, it gives a constantly improving image of 'the average [responding] wargamer'.
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