My Love of Impractical Things (STUG 33B in Bolt Action)

Well, I am back from MOAB and I have all sorts of interesting army list ideas floating around in my wee head.  As this was my first foray into the larger Bolt Action community I was keen to see what people were bringing to the table list wise and painting wise.  I have to say list wise I was very impressed! (not to say that the painting was shabby, quite the opposite)  Players were taking lists that used all levels of experience, lists that mixed experience levels within lists and themed armies that not only fit historic battles but also worked well on the table top.  In my last game I played Richard who came first overall.  He ran a KV-2 in very themed Russian list.  Now, Heavy tanks are not something that one often encounters on the BA field (at least here in Melbourne) and I was shocked at how effective this tank was.  This got me thinking after my old buddy DaveOWar dropped in the other night and helped me identify a tank I bought when I first started playing BA (cuz I thought it looked cool!).  The Stug 33b (P.S. Thanks Dave!!!)

Company B sells this big bad boy and I initially thought it was the SIG 33 based on the panzer 1 chassis but a good look on google disproved this notion.  As I could not find the tanks technical label in the German book I assumed that the writer’s of BA had left that variant of that tank out of the book.  I was wrong.  With Dave’s help we found and cross checked and sure enough…  It is the Stug 33b.  This is 310 heavy tank totes a heavy howitzer and an mmg and on paper looks remarkably like the KV-2 I played in Richard’s list.  Now… it is more expensive and lacks a turret…  which well… sucks BUT it is a MUCH cheaper version of the Sturmtiger that I have been trying to shoehorn into a list for over a year now.  True, it does not fire a 4D6 HE shot, BUT 3D6 should be enough to deal with most threats. 

Now I can hear people in internet land screaming at me from here…  DON’T DO IT!!!  HEAVY TANKS SUCK IN BOLT ACTION!!!!  I get it.  I do.  That said I think the model looks BOSS and hey…  I could say I have a finished German army because it is a heck of a point sink.  I have signed up for the BA GT in Sydney in late November and I need an army and honestly, I need a break from the Partisans and I want to take something radically different.  My Germans are modeled with city fight bases and the STUG 33b is a tank built for urban assault.  Sounds like a good match…  I think I need to trial a few lists and see where this goes…

FYI: From Wikipedia

The Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B was a German self-propelled heavy infantry gun used during World War II. A new, fully enclosed, and heavily armored boxy casemate superstructure was built on the chassis of the Sturmgeschütz III. It mounted the improved sIG 33/1 infantry gun, offset to the right side and a Maschinengewehr 34 machine-gun was fitted in a ball mount on the left side of the superstructure.

The first dozen were delivered by the end of October 1942 and assigned to Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen (Assault Gun Battalions) 177 and 244, then fighting in Stalingrad. The remaining dozen vehicles could not be delivered to Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen 243 and 245, also fighting in Stalingrad, after the Soviets surrounded the German 6th Army on 21 November. Instead, the vehicles were formed into Sturm-Infanterie-Geschütz-Batterie/Lehr-Bataillon (Assault Infantry Gun Batterie/Demonstration Battalion) XVII. The battalion was assigned to the 22nd Panzer Division as the Germans attempted to relieve the trapped 6th Army. The Division was virtually wiped out in the fighting and the battery was assigned to the 23rd Panzer Division where it became the Sturm-Infanterie-Geschütz-Batterie/Panzer-Regiment 201 (also known as 9. Kompanie/Panzer-Regiment 201) for the rest of the war. The last strength report to mention them lists five remaining in September 1944.Only one survived at the Kubinka NIIBT Research Collection at Russia.[3]

Old Man Morin Paints Up Some Partisans

Well, I survived MOAB.  I came 7th and had a blast! (More soon... lots to discuss)

I was also able to get all of the additional partisan models done to finish the army.  Here are a few of the finished models.

HE love!

My Objectives

The Hortch Field Car

Partisans VS Germans... BOLT ACTION STYLE!!!

Today Brad and I ran through a game of Supply Run (5 objective grab from the MOAB player pack) with my Germans against Brad’s Partisans. I was running what I considered to be a reasonably tough German list without taking the piss or going over board in any way:

Partisans (Post Game Thoughts)

Hey there Bolt Action fans!  For those of you following at home I have been actively exploring the new Partisans list from the Armies of France and their Allies.  I began to unpack this and strategize in the most recent LRDG podcast with Dave of War and Warlord Tobu (Episode 5 for those at home… which you can now find in the ITunes store).  My Partisans are based in the late war period and are modeled on Polish forces in the Warsaw Uprising.   Now BA theory hammer is one thing but getting boots on the table is quite another animal and when playing games really clarifies unit roles, practical implications of rules and allows us to try out those hair brained ideas that always bounce around our heads.  This in mind, I took on the formidable might of DaveOWar’s brand new German troops in a 1000 point battle with the my Partisan forces and learned a hell of a lot. 

Part 2 of the Partisans!

As discussed a few posts back, I bought a lovely partisan army from a very talented gentleman over at WWPD.  Now the question... What to do with it?

Viva La France! (A Guest Post)

Today we have a guest post from my ol' buddy Patch

Having just put the finishing touches in my USMC force I was looking for a new project to get stuck into when talk of the French and Allies book came about on the Australian Facebook page. Predictably much of the talk was involving white flags and moral tests each round to determine if the entire army throws weapons down and surrenders. Beings a bit of a sucker for the underdog I took it upon myself to be a French champion and challenged all the negativity with accounts of bravery on behalf of French forces during the Battle of France.
This research led me down the path of some of the heroic actions of the French Foreign Legion forces and the steadfast fighting retreats they made in order to stall the German advances. Whilst doing so some units were entirely wiped out with others accruing losses of 2/3 of their men in order to save their adopted countrymen from the seemingly unstoppable German Blitzkrieg. I had just found my new army!
Referencing the French PDF I noted that the Foreign Legion had the special rule of stubborn, what a perfect counter to all the French bandwagon bashes if my Veteran French units were almost never likely to fail those moral tests and run away on loss of half the amount of troops! I decided on having a core unit of two squads of Foreign Legion troops and started to form an army around them, basic context is that during the chaos and retreat many units were mashed together so it would not have been uncommon for inexperienced, regular and veteran troops to be sharing a defensive position or attempting a counter attack.
My army was starting to form and along with the two squads of Veteran Foreign Legionnaires (Artizan) I would base the reinforced platoon from an inexperienced Militia unit of a 2nd LT and four squads of inexperienced troops (Warlord). Support would be in the form of a Regular Army Sniper team and AT team, an inexperienced medium howitzer gun team and mortar team as well as a Regular tank in the shape of the mighty Char 2C. The Char 2C is somewhat of a stretch as they never saw combat but it is just such an amazing throw back to WW1 that I had to fit it into my list.
Now the fun part of painting the toy soldiers, the Foreign Legion squads naturally were the priority and after some referencing with the assistance of the Facebook group I was able to go off a picture of the Legion during the Battle of France. The colour may best be described as dark khaki tending towards brown and this gave me the perfect opportunity to try out the new  Plastic Soldier British Khaki with a pretty good result and close enough match for me (the neckbeards may have other opinions!). 

I still have the bulk of the army to paint and if the boys here at LRDG are willing I may be able to put some more WIP shots up as I complete the various units. (YES, WE ARE!!!)

Cheers,
Patch

Thanks mate!
Brad

One Man's Dusty Box in the Back of a Closet IS Another Man's Treasure (Warsaw Uprising Army)

So, I am a wargaming forum addict.  I regularly check multiple forums for various game systems (mostly Bolt Action these days) and I have found that if you tune in regularly to over time and if you have a high patience for trolling (on some forums more than others)... you can get a good deal.

That opportunity arose for me two weeks ago when this beauty popped up for sale: