And now for something...

Gamers paint most what they play most. Figures that will get table time will get the attention on the painting workbench. And most gamers refuse to believe this, and insist on buying the figures for little "side projects" or distractions. I have boxes full of "nice ideas" which only in my most pragmatic moments do I admit to myself I am unlikely to paint. 

These Weird WW2 models were shelved amongst the "distractions". I had really liked the idea of playing some Weird War games, and had a few years back bought the basics of a some forces - mostly from Westwind's Secrets of the Third Reich and Incursion ranges, with a few bigger kits from the Dust Tactics series. For rules I ordered the SotTR rules and the Weird War iteration of Two Hour Wargames NUTS. And then nothing happened. Or rather, Other Things happened.

One of the Other Things was 28mm World War 2, and amongst that, my German force grew organically from a small demo force to a fairly solid collection. When PWG club decided to run a "very late war 1945" Bolt Action game, a quick chat with the umpire resulted in a green light for some secret weapons to be added to my German force...

The big mech is a Dust Tactics repaint, which I have named „Otto“ Schwere Technikrüstung Ausführung B. (Forgive my pidgin German - its all Googlate generated...) No additional detailing whatsoever. Otto's little friend is my interpretation of remote optical/IR targeting drone (dubbed „Spürhund“) based on a Tamiya 1/48th Goliath kit.

The four battle suits („Vielfraß“) are slight modifications of the Westwind "Wolwerine" kits. I changed the weapon loadouts  - there are two Ausf. Gs with packed flamethrowers, one Ausf. M with twin linked HMG (a 12.7mm weapon from the Luftwaffe inventory) and one Ausf. B command suit with 20mm auto cannon.

Bolt Action Rules

Before their debut on the gaming table, the game umpire and myself playtested some basic rules and and guesstimated point values for each of these models. No doubt we were wide of the mark in some instances, but they played fairly well. I have to admit I am a bit hazy on what we decided for the assault rules, but given that none of these models got into close assault we didn't get a chance to implement the playtest decisions. For their first deployment, we used the "Defence of the Ruhr" scenario from Battlefield Europe, we declared a large enclosed farmhouse as the Allied objective and the German deployment zone.

Standard Walker Rules 

Light Walker: 6/12 advance/run

Rough ground: No run

Obstacle: No run

Building: OK

Advance: 2 Pivots

Run: 2 Pivots

Heavy Walker: 9/18 advance/run

Rough ground: No run

Obstacle: No run

Building: OK

Advance: 2 Pivots

Run: 1 Pivots

Walker Close Assault special rules:

• Walker does not have to make an assault directly to the front. It may pivot as part of the run move.
• Walker = Tank for purpose of being assaulted by infantry. (ie infantry units not equiped with AT weapons must pass order to test to assault it).
• If Walker initiates the close combat, target unit must pass a morale test to engage in close combat.
• Resolve assaults by and against infantry as per infantry rules, but damage as per armour rules. Compare number of wounds scored by infantry, vs number of wounds scored by Walker.

„Vielfraß“ Technikrüstung Ausführung B

Cost: 145pts (Veteran)

Damage Value: 7+ (Armoured car/carrier)

Weapons: 1 x Casement-mounted Medium/Heavy Autocannon

Special Rules:

Fanatic.

Command vehicle.

Light Walker.

„Vielfraß“ Technikrüstung Ausführung G

Cost: 120pts (Veteran)

Damage Value: 7+ (Armoured car/carrier)

Weapons: 1 x Mech-mounted Flamethrower

Special Rules:

Mech-mounted Flamethrower:

Hits: 1D6, Pen +3, Range 12, Fuel out on 1, Easily catches Fire (+1 to damage roll)

Fanatic.

Light Walker.

„Vielfraß“ Technikrüstung Ausführung M

Cost: 120pts (Veteran)

Damage Value: 7+ (Armoured car/carrier)

Weapons: 1 x Mech-mounted Twin HMG

Special Rules:

Twin HMG:

Fanatic.

Light Walker.

„Otto“ Schwere Technikrüstung Ausführung B

Cost: 426pts (Veteran)

Damage Value: 9+ (Medium Tank)

Weapons: 2 x Super Heavy ATGs, 1 x pintle mounted MMG

Special Rules:

Gyro-stabiliser

Fanatic.

Heavy Walker

Flak Rule

„Spürhund" Infrarot-Zielhilfe Fahrzeug

 Cost: 70pts (Veteran)

Tracked

Damage Value: 6+ Softskin

Weapons: None. 1 x Casement-mounted Infrared/Optical Camera

Special Rules:

Radio-controlled: Control team needs to be in play for the vehicle to be activated.

Targeting aid: Requires succesful to hit roll to aquire target. If this vehicle moves, or if target vehicle moves out of LoS, or if player removes dice at end of turn, target aquire is lost. If LoS to any target is shared by this vehicle and any vehicle of its platoon, that vehicle gets +1 to hit against the target.

As expected, the Otto was a great big glass hammer of a points sink. Yes it hit as hard as it looks it could, (if I recall correctly it dispatched at least one Firefly with ease) but its relatively poor armour and tall profile made it a juicy target for any Allied tanker on the table. The targeting drone was also a tricksy beast to play effectively - in order to be effective it had to leave cover. It lasted 2 turns before hull mounted machine guns saw it off. The „Vielfraß“ suits were the most cost-effective units, and they proved decisive in the defence of the chateau. I think the combination of the scenario and the terrain used on the day made it very difficult for the allied attacker, so in some ways didn't give us a full picture of the effectiveness of this force.