I've been scanning the Warlord Games website, with frightening regularity over this past month. Over which they have relaunched a number of exciting products for theirBolt Acion range.

I've been saying that I'm assembling a force for Secrets of the Third Reich (see Westwind Productions), this was originally just a personal project, but I've received enough interest via PM, that I think I'll start to make a few videos on the subject. However, I can't do that without also including some coverage of Bolt Action.

Those Warlord Games products have formed the lion's share of my central force for both my German Mech Grenadiers (using the German Infantry boxed set) and my British M-13 Rifle Platoon (using the plastic British Infantry boxed set).

The Warlord range is perfect for SoT3R, their more recent models are cast using the Separate Head Systemand fortuately, Westwind Productions sell blisters of Weird World War 2 heads (mostly just German/British/Russian heads with gas masks or zombie heads), making it easy to "pulp-up" your Bolt Action models... not that its really needed as Warlord sculpt their models in a fun Commando Comics style that fits perfectly with the pulp genre.

Anyway, enough waffle, lets gets to the pictures!

First and foremost, we can't avoid the massive picture at the top of their newsletter... The Bronekater Armoured Boat!

What a centerpiecethat would make to your army! If you were playing on a board, where this peice could get towards the centre of the board, it would make a terrifying opponent for your opponent... probably a big target too, but it's got LOADS OF BIG GUNS... so it doesn't matter!!!

If I have anything to complain about (and I will just for journalistic balance you understand) it would be that there are no miniatures in the picture, to use to judge scale. However, if that big turret is the size of even a small tank turret for 28mm (1/56 scale)... then this model is a monster!

But wait... there's more... I checked on Warlord's site and they have a special offer, where they are offering 3 squads of Soviet Naval Brigade plus a Soviet Naval Command Squad, along with the Armoured Boat model, for a knockdown price.

The good news is, if you play SoT3R. The Soviet Naval Brigade Squad is armed exactly like a Soviet Survivor Squad from the SoT3R rulebook (it's also WYSYWYG legal) and with the addition of a suitable Commissar model (and perhaps a Soviet Siberian if you want one), the Naval Command squad has WYSYWYG armaments as well... that's 22RP of models before you even get into making stats for the Armoured Boat (I'm thinking of basing it on a Super-Heavy vehicle that can only travel on water).

Next up we have the undesputed "king" of the WW2 battlefield... the German King Tiger Tank!

This monster really doesn't need much introduction, it's big, heavily-armoured and ferocious... Oh... and my Germans need one for SoT3R. It might be a huge chunk of your 50RP to field one, but you get what you pay for (just remember to pay the extra RP to upgrade your SoT3R with Alblative Armour, Sealed Hull and all the trimmings to make it extra cheesy!)... an UBER-KING TIGER!!!

Next is the German SD.KFz 251-1D Hanomag half-track.

I'm not a big fan of mounting my troops in vehicles. With the variety of anti-tank options in SoT3R, I can't help but feel troops are a sitting duck in a vehicle. However, there are definately times (like in objective games) where getting to somewhere quickly is a good idea... and let's face it... transports are pretty cheap and you can always use them to suck up small arms fire or run the enemy down!

Finally, there's the allied option. The M-8 Armoured Car or as it was affectionately called... the Greyhound.

This is a handsome looking model. There's something about the lines and the mulitple guns that makes me want it to be better in the game than it is. In reality it had flimsy armour, a light gun and was cramped. In an SoT3R game, it's fast... and effective against troops, but any sort of Mech or anti-tank troops will make mincemeat of it.

I would view it as another cheap transport that has slighlty better weapons that the German Half-Track. However, it can be used by the US or British, so it might find a place, once I kick off the (small) US force I have planned.

So what do you think guys... does this get you interested in WW2 gaming or Weird World War 2 gaming?

If not get a copy of one of those Commando Comics and look at the art on their website. If that doesn't do it... you're a Communist!

In which case... you'll probably be after the Armoured Boat and Naval Brigade... onward comrade!

BoW Andy