Bolt Action for WW1? That would be sweet…
I want Bolt Action for World War 1! Read on if you agree and let me know your thoughts, maybe we can put some pressure on the gaming companies to make a BIG move!
Last week my buddy Christian gave me a tank to paint for his new project: Flames of War, WW1, a 15mm supplement that allows FOW to take their game back from WW2 to the Great War. There are a modest amount of models available and I got to paint one of them, the British Whippet medium tank, a kind of armoured tractor that was used from 1917 on as an anti-infantry weapon.
The model looks great for such a small kit and it was a lot of fun painting. I finished it in about an hour and started looking up stuff about this vehicle, to learn a bit more about it’s history. While browsing, I encountered so many interesting images, vehicles and uniforms, I immediately was fantasizing about a Bolt Action 28mm version that plays in 14-18. I think the Great War lends itself uniquely to wargaming, since during that war the strategies were really a mix between old and new styles of warfare. It would allow for some really great modeling options:
Of course there are already plenty of companies that create WW1 kits and recently I worked with Trenchworx, a small US company that creates excellent tanks for wargaming in 28mm. They ran a kickstarter a while back with WW1 vehicles and have done a nice job with them, like this Rolls Royce:
or this St. Chamond:
I recently watched this video of the Perry twins creating 54 mm WW1 models for director Peter Jackson for a massive battle display in New Zealand, check out this great little news item here. You can see that the 54mm models are ready to go, they just have to be shrunk a bit…
So there is a lot of attention now on this period and it would be nice if larger players like Warlord, Perry Miniatures (or even Games Workshop!) would really commit themselves to creating a complete WW1 game for 28 mm. Any thoughts? And as always, visit my at Santa Cruz Warhammer Historical.
SC Mike
Editor’s Addendum If you want to learn all about WW1, or are a military history fanatic, you MUST listen to one of Apple’s Podcast of the Year winners:
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History ongoing series on World War 1 : Blueprint for Armageddon – it’s AMAZING!
Here’s Episode 1 to get you totally hooked:
