Time for some action: Bolt Action!
A brief foray into the world of youtube battle reports
It is a truth universally acknowledged that many hobby painters in possession of a pile of primed minis must be in want of something to watch. For some this might be endless re-watches of Sharpe, Band of Brothers or - for those who like to live on the edge - maybe even 2023's Napoleon... but for me, as with so many others, there's no better painting background than watching others play my favourite tabletop wargames.
Whilst my interest in this gentle approach to gaming-by-proxy was first piqued a few years ago by the excellent youtube 'batreps' made by the very personable Norwegians at Tabletopbattle.com, their departure from the scene has made way in more recent years for my enjoyment of the likes of Bolt Action Alliance, Tabletop CP and, of course, Little Wars TV. Most recently, however, I was lucky enough to be invited to join Bring & Battle Wargaming in the UK for a Saturday evening chat-and-game with them!
Based for our delayed forthcoming 'New Guinea' campaign, the Japanese models are organised and colour-coded for quick play into two alternative forces: a generic regular force with large-ish squads and a more aggressive (but more fragile) veteran force, but I chose the regular lot for their first outing, and it turned out that they were a really good match for their USMC foes! We rolled Scenario 4 - 'Double Envelopment' which was ideal too, as it forced both sides to move and engage with each other.
The evening went very well, and the game was great fun (much more fun than my nerves about being filmed prepared me for); with luck, we'll be able to reciprocate and have Rich and Jas come to join us for some games at our club in future!
Hearty thanks to Rich and Jas at Bring & Battle Wargaming.
Thanks for reading,
- Chris