Bolt Action King Tiger with Henschel Turret
Another iconic tank from the late war period is the PzKpfw VI Tiger II, in this review we're looking at the resin kit by Warlord Games picturing the Ausf. B without Zimmerit and a Henschel turret.
The Tiger II, also known as King Tiger or Royal Tiger, was the derivate of the Tiger I, and combined the thick armour of the predecessor and the sloped armour of the Panther medium tank. The pattern was the pinnacle of German tank development and production, and after initial problems with reliability it proved to be a remarkable battle tank. The Tiger II first saw service in summer of 1944, at the Invasion of Normandy by the Allies, and was issued to the Wehrmacht as well as to the Waffen-SS heavy tank battalions. A total number of just below 500 units was produced until March '45, of these the first 50 were issued with the Porsche turret due to bottlenecks in production of the Henschel turret. In the first months of the productions, both variants of the Tiger (I and II) were build simultaneously.
Bolt Action Campaign The Road to Berlin
With the Ostfront supplement for Bolt Action, the campaign covered the "entire" activities that involved the Russian armies, beginning with the Winter war and Khalkin Gol. But this new supplement, Campaign The Road to Berlin, covers the very last years, from June 1944 until the crossing of the Spree.
Warlord Games goes into the detail on these years of the late war. Very much into detail indeed, with 148 pages this campaign supplement is the biggest so far. Campaign New Guinea is a couple of pages short with 132 pages, followed by Battle of the Bulge and Duel in the Sun both with 124 pages. So you get quite the bang for your 19.99 GBP or 30 USD. Shown above as first images of this review are the two covers, with the final cover (left) and the early cover (right), presented by Osprey in one of their product catalogues. This happens quite often, to promote an upcoming book, before the final decision on the artwork is done. We have already seen this with Duel in the Sun and Campaign New Guinea.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Shattered Dominion Objectives
Usually Christmas or the turn of the year is the time for terrain with Games Workshop. But with the new Age of Sigmar edition just released there is a new set of objective markers available, the Shattered Dominion Objectives.
Of the new terrain sets, many have their own rules of how they affect the game play and benefit a certain faction (you remember the Shipwreck I covered earlier on this blog). Yes, this is technically terrain, but not really, they have names but no special rules (but hey, nobody is forcing you to not use your own house rules to change that). I am really interested in this - as it is a fantasy set - that will make good use with a broad variety of fantasy rules. So let's see in this review what is in the box.
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire – Ironskull’s Boyz
Where there is chaos and destruction, Orruks cannot be far away. Somewhat close to the Khorne Bloodbound warbands (Reavers and Fiends) in their intention / motivation, we see what separates the Green from the Red, in this review on the Shadespire warband of Ironskull's Boyz.
Earlier this week, I started the coverage on the Shadespire warbands with the Sepulchral Guard.
Ironskull's Boyz is a 4 Orruk strong warband expansion for Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire and costs 22.50 EUR. It comes with the pre-coloured two sprues (in matching orcish green!), a card deck and brief instructions on the assembly.
Oathmark Elf Infantry
Further plastic kits were introduced for the new Oathmark - Battles of the Lost Age system by Osprey Games and North Star Miniatures, among them new Elven.
I was able to get my hands on a single sprue for this review, of which 6 are in the complete box with 30 Miniatures in 28mm scale. The price is set at 25 GBP. As you can see, each sprue contains options for spearmen, regular soldiers with hand weapon and shield or archers. And additional pieces for standard bearers and officers. In the box are 30 plastic 25mm square bases by Renedra as well.
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire – Sepulchral Guard
In addition to the starter box for Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, I'll cover the expansion boxes for the warbands in sets of two. This week it will be the Sepulchral Guard and Ironskull's Boyz.
I actually bought this warband box before I even got the starter box. It was the starting point of a fantasy warband, in combination with the Deathrattle boxed set. Now you can buy the Sepulchral Guard without the Shadespire content as an easy-to-build kit as well.
But let's get back to this warband review. Games Workshop offers these expansions for 22.50 EUR each (20 EUR without the Underworlds cards) and the Sepulchral Guard is the largest warband of the first wave expansion with 7 miniatures.
Bolt Action Jagdpanzer 38(t), Flammpanzer 38(t) and 2cm Flak auf Hetzer
To finish on 38(t) week, I cover today the Hetzer kit by Warlord Games. As this kit covers quite the broad variants, I'll base the review around the Hetzer Zug kit, so I can build all three variants; the Hetzer, the Flammpanzer and 2cm FlaK 38 Hetzer reconnaissance anti-aircraft vehicle.
Rubicon Models Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer
You can't talk about the 38(t) series without mentioning the Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer, and that is why today I cover the kit by Rubicon Models in this review.
As the tank destroyers Marder based upon the Panzer 38(t) were more of an industrialized "field conversion" using captured anti-tank guns and later regular PaKs, a properly designed light tank destroyer was needed. Introduced as the Sd.Kfz. 138/2 Jagdpanzer 38(t), this tank was produced from April 1944 until the end of the war, along the heavier Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger variants. The name "Hetzer" is undocumented and it is unclear, were it actually came from and it is highly discussed if the tank even was called that during the war. Hetzer comes from the German verb "hetzen", meaning hounding or rushing somebody or something.
Bolt Action Sd.Kfz. 139 Marder III
Continuing the Panzer 38(t) themed review week, with the Marder III Ausf. H tank destroyer based on the Panzer 38(t) chassis.
Based upon the chassis of the Sd.Kfz. 140 Panzer 38(t), a tank destroyer called Marder III was brought into service. The whole Marder series were makeshift tank destroyers, an interim solution, to put captured or obsolete vehicles in to use, by arming them at first with captured field guns and later with German PaK anti-tank guns. The Marder I was built upon the French Lorraine tank and the Marder II on the surplus of rapidly becoming obsolete Panzer II tanks. Marder is German for marten. The Marder III was built in three variants, as Sd.Kfz. 139, Sd.Kfz. 138 Ausf. H and Ausf. M.
Bolt Action Panzer 38(t)
Let us begin this themed week of reviews around the Panzer 38(t) with the tank itself, in this case the new plastic kit by Warlord Games.
The Panzer 38(t), registered as Sd.Kfz. 140 in Germany, was originally a pre-world war II pattern from Czechoslovakia named LT vz. 38 (Lehký tank vzor 38, Light Tank model 38). After the Third Reich took over Czechoslovakia, the tank was adopted into german service and formed the basis for many variants. Many of those variants will be covered here on the blog in the next days.
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