Normandy Firefight and a Warlord sale.

A couple of days ago my FOE ( Favourite Opponent Ever) texted me to say he'd found an excellent deal on a ruleset we'd been contemplating. The game is Normandy Firefight by Warwick Kinrade (also author of Battle Group series with PSC). It's a small scale skirmish game using between 1-5 combatants on each side. And most importantly Northstar had it for £2.50 (less than a fiver with postage). I splurged and a day or so later this drops through my door.

 It's relatively simple (basic maths and percentage calculations are needed) and yet quite elegant and initially reminded me of Phoenix Command (a game so beautifully complicated and 'accurate' it's damn near impossible to play) that had been streamlined and made more accessible. It is very dependent on terrain (like any decent skirmish games e.g. Infinity) but table sizes are small due to the overall scope. The game uses different stances and it's suggested that the ideal situation would be to have each character have a number of different appropriately positioned miniatures to represent it. Prone, Kneeling, Standing and also Running are all necessary. The author suggests 1/35 Tamiya or Airfix kits as they are accurate, detailed and relatively affordable. I couldn't find any I really liked though and decided to explore other options. Whilst perusing the Bolt Action forum I randomly looked at the web-store and starting investigating the plastics. It seemed possible to get 5 characters in all poses out of one plastic infantry box. The only problem was I was limited for theaters. None of the British or Late War Germans had prone poses so I had to choose between Early-Mid war Eastern front (the Soviet box and the Blitzkrieg Germans) or the P.T.O between USMC and Japan.

If you ever get the chance pick up either Battle Hymn or the E.T.O version Ambush. They are great, replayable solo adventuring at it's best.

The Pacific instantly appealed as I don't have any PTO stuff in 15mm (yet) (I love games like Ambush, Battle Hymn and Leatherneck - where you took a small group of characters through their part of a much bigger war). I did some mental shopping to realise that for less than £50 I could have a playable game. It got added to my mental to-do list or as an impulse splurge at a show. I'm prone to stockpiling and planning ahead so I can still find something to cut up,glue or paint when I can't afford any new toys.

Today I am gazing at the net after many long and arduous adventures to see that Warlord is having a sale on its individual sprues. A 50% sale. After some rapid 'add to cart' work I manage to get the equivalent of the two boxes worth of chaps for less than £30 all in (Just no packaging: something I'm fine with). Normandy Firefight and two complete forces (and the first 28mm WWII I've painted) for £30. A good search of the Lead Mountain and a visit to eBay should adequately pay for my shopping trip. I'm leaning towards a sandbox table with copious jungle and a few buildings (Sarissa precision have a nice set of P.T.O theater scenery). I've also realised I'd have an excuse to buy an LVT (strictly as scenery you understand) in a bigger scale (I have waterline and full ones for 15mm but still need more).

The one other option is in 15mm and from Peter Pig. You can do whole/late war germans vs brits as all the poses are available. This is something I'll probably buy into in the future as a portable set. Back to beheading and re-heading nazis whilst I await my postal supplies.

Thanks for reading,

BALM