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Hey gurus,
I just ordered the following from my FLGS:
-Stone Walls
-Ruined Hamlet
-Stone Bridge
-DDay Firefight

I live in a small town, but I am building a wargaming community. There's about 7 of us. All 40k players (hence the outsized terrain order). My income is a little more than everyone else's, so I will be building 2 armies to start. Although I bought DDay, I'm not 100% set on German and American. The FLGS 60 miles away has a guy who is pushing it pretty hard and the owner carries it and really likes it so it won't take much to get a game in occasionally. I also... Kinda have a toy addiction as I just realized I have another game with 4 factions collected and painted (DZC) that really hasn't gotten folks super excited.

Are the Warlord boxed sets worth it, or is it more useful to buy piece meal?
Do you have any suggestions on where next?
I already have the rule book, so we'd have 2 copies.

The German Grenadiers box is a pretty solid starter set. It contains a good representation of a late war German Army and none of the units provided are awful.I would phase out the Medium MG team out for a flamethrower team at some point but if the point is just to get people into BA it is perfectly serviceable.

The US Army one is also pretty good. It has a nice selection of units. it may struggle a bit against the German box set as Shermans are poor at AT but that's nothing a plucky squad of Bazooka men can't solve. It can work since most German tanks aren't that great at infantry killing but for your add ons to the US army get a heavy AT gun.

Get a "Army's of" book for German/US. It has nice theater selectors which allow you to build a force better representative of the army during that time/area. Once you get a few games under your built you can look into the Battleground: Europe book. A solid buy for anyone who wants to recreate Operation: Overlord.

They have armored fury in stock. What do you think of that?

G

As a follow up to D-day firefight? I wouldn't personally as Bolt Action is more of an infantry focused game and the faction starter boxes do a better job of catering to that. Armored Fury is a good buy as it contains the tank war book and pretty good models but I'd hold off on that until you have more fleshed out German/American armies.

On the flip side, it isn't totally inadvisable. You can teach a lot of the principles of Bolt Action to any newcomer without having the hassle of moving a lot of models by just using tanks.

I prefer to shop using 'Bolt Action US.' They ship out of the US, so shipping is much faster than from the UK, and they discount all of their stuff 5-15% so you don't have to worry too much about what starter sets save you the most, just order what you like.

From the D-day kit, you'll probably want some more infantry boxed sets, some teams which you can make out of the infantry kits, and maybe a transport or tank.

They have Normandy in stock too.... but it looks like it has less stuff. No armored car. Lots of starter armies. French, Buffalo, American Inf. German inf. Soviet Inf.

So no Armored Fury...

Normandy invasion now? Or wait for DDay firefight?

Sorry about all the questions. Our necron player is at FLGS (60miles south) right now and can pick stuff up.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!!!

Regarding direct orders... I like our FLGS. Supports the biz and 20% off MSRP.

I'd wait for D-day firefight. It has a lot of good stuff for new players.

Ok. Thanks bro.

D-Day firefight is a great starter set. I went with this first and added from there. I never really had an intention of doing Americans more than a demo type army just to get games in with friends.
For that I bought the
-either the m8 or m10- whichever armored car has the gun
-box of US infantry
-command set
Gave me 1000 pts and I still have most of the extra infantry box on sprue.

I knew I wanted a German paratrooper army and haven't really done a whole lot with the German part of the box set. I also prefer to use 1/48th scale models so I haven't even put the half track together.

I am planning an SS recon unit so will likely use most everything in the box eventually. The grenadiers box is awesome, and the pioneers look sweet.

Like you I suffer from multi-army syndrome and have bought a full 1000 point Japanese army. 180 bucks, full army with spare stuff. Cant beat that.

the "Normandy" set is the older starter set. It's infantry only but comes with the old-style order dice. They had to switch to a new manufacturer because of quality control issues, so the Normandy set is now out of print. The newer dice, in D-Day box as well as in the blister packs, are different enough that they're not really compatible.

My recommendation is to wait for the D-Day box you ordered. If you're lucky, you'll get the D-Day (v2) box that has 12 Germans instead of 10 in it.

That'll give you 20 US infantry, 10-12 German infantry, and a German half-track.

Assemble the 20 US Infantry as: Lt, Sniper team, Bazooka team, Air Observer, two 7-man squads (SMG, BAR, 5 rifles)

Germans, if you have 12 models, assemble as LT+aide plus two 5-man squads, one with rifles + LMG (fire squad) and one with all AR's (maneouver squad)

From there, if you are doing late '44 demos, I'd suggest adding:

German Grenadiers infantry box ($41) - 30 multi pose hard plastic late war German infantry. Mix of MG42, Assault Rifles, SMGs, Rifles, commander options. That'll give you more than enough German infantry. Field some as squads of SS (veterans), and some as late war Grenadiers (regular infantry)

US Screaming Eagles box set ($47) - 20 metal figs (or wait until the plastic Paratroopers come out around Christmas). Add the veteran US Airborne units to your army for Battle of the Bulge scenarios. Comes with Officer, Air Observer, Mortar team, Bazooka team as well as a ton of infantry, so if you buy this in addition to your D-Day set then just make the Airborne your core army and assemble your plastic US Infantry as a sniper team and some 8-10 man squads.

Then, support weapons. MMG teams for each (about $10 each). A lot of people don't like them but they can put pins on units at 36" away, which is fantastic. A mortar for the German side. Add iconic tank to each side - a Sherman ($32) for the US and a Panzer IV or StuG III for Germans ($32).

At that point you'll easily have 1000 points for each side.

As for the 1000 point starter army boxes, yes, they are great deals - and actually the British 1000 point starter army is not only a great deal but a really well rounded and competitive list.

The Soviet 1000 point army is also great, tons of infantry and an iconic T-34.

the German Grenadiers army box for the same price has 1250 points and extra models.
the new German Fallschirmjager army box, again, for the same price, has 1500 points of models in it. It just came out.

@JDoug: Dude... that is AWESOME advice. Like really down to the modeling. Thanks bro. I will be referring back to your post as I collect. Friggin rad!

Yeah man, feel free to post if you have any more questions!

Today i am driving down to a 40k tourney at my FLGS, and all my bolt action stuff is in!!!! I will wait until Xmas to buy the screaming eagles as i have grown so much more fond of plastics, but I will do some research on the grenadiers vs fallschrimjagers. They have pegasus bridge there too..... ooooooh boy that thing looks so cool. If they have a mortar team or mmg team i'll pick them up. Now they still have the tank starter set, but on your advice I will opt against it. They have a sherman sold independently.... so i will probably add that on to the pile. OMG OMG. soooo excited. Might skip the tourney to assemble in the shop!!!!

Glad to see you're enthusiastic about Bolt Action! My FLGS has a Pegasus bridge set painted and it's a nice terrain kit. It quickly becomes the center of all fighting that goes on.

Alright!!!!!

Heres what I got:
DDay Firefight
Sherman
Nisei

Any modeling suggestions?

Since it sounds like you are going for Casino or Italy fight the best resource for information I have seen yet is the actual Casino campaign book from flames of War. Has good info on all of the major units involved including the Nisei, patches, color schemes, etc and a step by step rundown on that battle and its various stages. I find the battle to be an interesting twist of war where the allies were breaking the rules of war and the Germans were going above and beyond to follow them.

I think the next campaign book from Warlord will include Italy but I am not sure off hand. I doubt it will be as detailed as the flames of war book since it also will have the African campaign and that's a biggie.

Sweet!

Well the Nisei box is a good one - it's got a bunch of metal bits in there, including a Flamethrower and two metal models: guy with Thompson (clutching leg wound) and officer blazing away with his pistol. What a great looking command team!

Combined with the D-Day Firefight infantry that gives you 45 plastic infantry, plus two metal guys. You are 100% totally set for a US reinforced platoon, infantry-wise.

My recommendation on how to assemble your models to kind of cover all your bases would be:

Lieutenant w/ aide (metal guys)
Forward Air Observer w/ aide (both plastic) (armed with either SMGs or carbines, your choice. One each is a good mix)
Medic w/ aide (both plastic, armed with pistols)
Sniper w/ spotter (both plastic, Sniper has scoped rifle and pistol, spotter has pistol)
Bazooka team (both plastic) (one guy has bazooka, the second guy doesn't get a weapon rules-wise so model him with SMG or ammo)
Flamethrower team (both plastic, use metal flamethrower) (one guy has flamethrower, the second guy doesn't get a weapon rules-wise so model him w/ SMG)

10-man squad - NCO w/ SMG, 8 Rifles, 1 BAR.
10-man squad - NCO w/ SMG, 8 Rifles, 1 BAR.
10-man squad - NCO w/ SMG, 8 Rifles, 1 BAR.

That uses up 40 of your plastic dudes.

What you could consider doing is the last 5 plastics, make three guys with BAR. This is because late-war squads could have two BAR per squad, so that would buff out your squads to 11-men with two BARs.

For the last two guys, I would give them SMGs. And this is the reason why:
USA can have Engineering squads. They can be veteran or regular, have 5-8 men and can have up to two BARs and a Flamethrower w/ loader in the squad.
So this is kind of your crazy US engineers assault squad.
When you want to field them, use the two leftover guys with SMG's as the NCO w/ SMG, and one man in the squad can also have an SMG. Then you use two of the extra BAR models from your 10/11 man squads. And then use your Flamethrower team you've already assembled (your flamethrower team can either be fielded as a 2 man team, or packed into this engineer squad). That's 6 guys right there, it causes massive damage at 6" range (D6 auto hits from flamethrower plus 8 dice from SMGs and BARs), at over 6" to 12" range you're still shooting 8 dice and over 12" and up to 30" it's still a respectable 4 dice as they maneuver to get close in. This squad is perfect to send on outflanking missions or put into a heavily armored transport.

And Sherman! Yay! Put the pintle mounted machine gun on it and you'll see why Shermans are so awesome! Hull mounted 4-dice machine gun. Pintle mounted 4-dice machine gun. And the main gun can fire either 4-dice coaxial machine gun or it's anti-tank gun... which has a great HE shell (causing HE d6). Basically the Sherman is really good at hurting infantry!

Woot!!!! Thanks dude. That is such a big help.

Now the next part is the assembly and painting! I will likely batch them.

I bought LOTS of terrain too.
- Ruined Hamlet
- Stone Bridge
- Stone Walls.

I think I will order some "sprinklies" from the interwebs and try to make some boccage and forests out of foam house insulation and make some hills for a buddies 40k table too. I will try to find some wispy wheat type stuff for fields that I saw on a this brit's BlackPowder 28mm batreps. Also my local hardware store carries that black corrugated welcome mat stuff that looks like garden rows. So a square or two of that. Some boccage. Some wheat (suggestions?). Makes some modular roads. Make some modular streams. Poof!!!!

I should be done sometime in 2019.

Get a welcome mat and cut it for fields!

A bag of lichen is a good way of getting easy foliage on your board.

Ok. Tomorrow I will post my meager progress, but I have an excuse... I finally finished my wood working projects.

I am thinking i will base the americans beige then was in greens and browns.... any thoughts?

You only get 5 of the BARs in the boxes though... bummer...

Heres the terrain so far... plus i have some wheat welcome mats too. Check the size of the cobble stone mat!!!

Yes, basing your Americans in beige is very smart. I based mine a dark brown, and while it forms a nice dark base to work from, it does not save me any time in painting them sadly.

Terrain is looking great.

Thats it for the day.

Looking good so far. Just add Tom Hanks and you'll have the spitting image of a French wartime town.

Well, I went on a tear before the LVO. Finished all the american infantry (plus a mortar and mmg team). Still need to do the sherman. Itll be my first salt weathering attempt. Plus I need to get some decal fix. Whaddya think?

Heres a close up of some favorites.

Those GIs are looking good, man! If I had some point of criticism (Or, rather, advice) i would add something to the base to provide a bit of contrast to the dark, brown tones of the miniature. Like pale rocks, bright flowers and the like. In my experience a little bit of contrast in basing materials can make for a large improvement!

Have you treid looking at Bolt Actions website to see what they have. By the way your asking your question i dont think have heard of it, its very good!