Screaming Eagles

I was unsure exactly what I could talk about for my first posting on the Code 40k site.  In terms of painting projects, I have a lot of Blood Bowl models that need to be completed, as well as a couple of Tau squads that have been sitting under my desk for a while now.

However, the project that I am determined to work through over the coming months, and the one I’ll therefore talk about here, is my Bolt Action US Airborne Screaming Eagles platoon.

Since moving down to Surrey, I have struggled to find time to play much 40k, and with the arrival of Blood Bowl (a much shorter and easier to transport game) and the imminent arrival of 8^th edition, I am not sure when I’ll get to play again.

Fortunately, a colleague at work is a keen historical gamer (well pretty much a play-anything gamer) and I have tried a number of different rule-sets with him and another colleague over the past two years, the most enjoyable perhaps being Warlord Games’ Bolt Action.

American Civil War 

Epic 40k

Waterloo

Without going too much into the game itself, we have been playing out a number of scenarios based around his British army, another friends’ US army and my German Fallschirmjager army. 

Normandy farm

Fallschirmjager (German paratroopers)

Now the Fallschirmjager are fun for my first dabble into Bolt Action (and they play pretty well too) but I always like to have a couple of armies at least and what better counter to my German Elite Paratroopers than the American Airborne division, and having recently re-watched the series I wanted to base a list loosely on the force portrayed in the HBO show Band of Brothers.

I purchased the first unit, a squad of ten metal soldiers, about 9 months ago but didn’t really start work on them until much later, and really the whole army has been on the back foot until recently.  The release of the new Bolt Action boxed set last autumn did spark my interest once more, but I was rather disheartened as the plastic airborne models included in this set were based on the later war uniform. 

101st US Airborne (Screaming Eagles)

As a side note I should probably add that for the Historical Gamer, accuracy is key and the correct unit-type for the correct era is very important.  As I had already committed to my force being based around the time of the Normandy landings, I was also committing to keeping to the older metal miniatures in the older style uniforms.

I started my army with a simple 8 man squad supported by a HQ unit, mortar team, a medium machine gun team as well as a “bazooka” team.  This probably amounts to around 300 to 400 points so I knew I needed more as a decent game needs around 1000 to 1500 points worth of models.  

Fortunately Warlord answered my prayers with an offer of 10% off all US models in the Bolt Action range.  With this I went on to purchase a number of new models, including a jeep, two more infantry squads and an artillery gun.   Once painted up, this should give me enough to start using the army in a well-balanced game and open the way for future development with the addition of heavy support, such as a tank or two.

WIP (Howitzer team)

The project is just starting (and other armies/teams need attention too) so I am happy to work through this for the next few months without rushing.  I’ll do my best to provide an update in a month or so.

Next on the to-do list...