Armies of France looms large on the horizon,

and we’ve only just begun looking at it. In last week’s reveal of the National Special Rules, we mentioned that the book also contains army lists and rules for Free French forces and the Vichy Armistice Army – let’s dive into them, see their special rules, and have a look at a couple of new units!

Free France

We’ll kick off with the Free French ‘Forces of Liberation’, a diverse force of Frenchmen in exile fighting to reclaim their homeland, both in France itself and across her colonies and beyond. It’s worth noting here that this is not intended to be a French Resistance army list – that’ll come in the Partisans section of Armies of Europe – although some Resistance units are of course included. A Free French force includes a large number of British and US units, reflecting the vast quantities of materiel provided and doctrinal realignment that took place, but is very much its own force, courtesy of its special rules:

We can see that these rules give us the foundation of a dogged, tactically flexible force. Massed Stubborn makes Free French infantry and artillery far more likely to stay in the fight to the bitter end, while Sacred Ground makes timely outflanking manoeuvres that little bit easier. La Resistance unlocks – what else? – the legendary French Resistance to support your troops, and the option to field certain units as Armée d’Afrique gives you even more flexibility of movement, courtesy of Fieldcraft.

We’ve mentioned the Resistance units a couple of times, so let’s have a look at one of the squads they can bring to a Free French army:

15-man Green infantry squads? You know ‘em and love ‘em, and Free France has ‘em! Perfect for swarming the table with bodies (although remember, these can’t be compulsory units in a Platoon), these chaps are great for occupying space and forcing your opponent to waste valuable shooting on them. In addition, Intelligence Gathering adds a fun little wrinkle if you want some dice bag control.

Now we’ve had a taste of the Free French, let’s take a look at their polar opposite:

Vichy France

Being the army permitted to the collaborationist Vichy state by the Germans, the Armistice Army is naturally lacking in the most modern technology and equipment, most notably tanks and heavy artillery. In many ways it resembles a sort of ‘toned down’ version of the early-war French army that preceded it, and it makes for a great challenge on the tabletop. It still makes use of Colmater, giving it access to the powerful outflanking tactics of its predecessor, as well as Lack of Radios, and can field dangerous Foreign Legion troops, but commanders may find their troops behaving a little… unpredictably when forced to make Morale tests. This isn’t always a bad thing, though!

Just like Free France, the Vichy army list also includes some new unique units, including a couple specifically designed to combat the Resistance. One of them is the:

The GMR section is a bit of a beast, and a powerful one at that! Bristling with SMGs and with the option for one section per Platoon to take Infiltrators or motorcycles, it’s an unusual example of a Regular squad boasting these options. The Counter-Partisan Tactics rule also gives it a massive 24” anti-Infiltrators bubble, giving you a potent counter to one of the most dangerous unit abilities in the game!

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It’s that time again! Armies of France is nearing its release, and we’re beginning our Intelligence Report series, taking you inside the covers of the newest Bolt Action book. As is traditional, we’re starting with the National Special Rules, which inform the army’s overall character and determine how it plays on the tabletop. En avant!

We’ll begin where we usually do, with the overarching rules which apply to your entire army, but this book is, like Armies of Italy, a little bit different. Armies of France includes not only rules for fielding French forces of 1939-40, but also the collaborationist Vichy ‘Armistice Army’, and the Free French forces who would continue to fight alongside the Allies for the liberation of their homeland. These latter two will be shown off in their own article, but for now we’re focussing on the core of the book!

As we can see, while Battaille Conduite rewards getting your troops to take up defensive positions in cover, a French force need not be a purely static entity! Colmater allows you to turn a single unit per platoon into an Outflanking machine, letting you build a small but incredibly flexible strike force within your army that can arrive exactly when and where it’s needed to wreak havoc on the enemy’s plans late in the game. Supporting this is Le Feu Tue, because while one artillery strike is nice, two is significantly nicer – unless you’re the enemy! Finally, Lack of Radios is a blessing in disguise for armour aficionados, letting you save a few points on your Command vehicles.

French forces with these rules naturally tend towards a ‘hold-and-counter’ style of play, blunting enemy thrusts on their defensive positions before launching a deadly counterattack (although of course as with any Bolt Action army you can build your list to play in an endless variety of ways!), and they aren’t doing it with just the basic troops in the army list. As with all our other Armies of… books, you can theme many of your units to represent the elite formations of the French army. Let’s meet Honneur et Patrie!

Whether you want the last word in defensive grit with the French Foreign Legion (and their snazzy new plastics!), an elite force of Chasseurs Alpins moving swiftly through cover courtesy of Fieldcraft, or fast-moving Dragons Portés driving headlong into the fray, you can do it with Armies of France. While these are some of the most important rules in the books, we’ve not even scratched the surface when it comes to the new and updated unit roster or the two new ways to field French forces – we’ve got plenty more to come!

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We recently held our annual Trade Sales Conference, with staff flying in from all over the globe to attend. Naturally, we had them face off in a Konflikt ’47 tournament while they were here! (I’m given to understand that this is how bonuses are decided in the Trade team. -ed.) Isaac arrived from the US with a frankly astonishing effort on his British Commonwealth force, so of course we had to get him to tell us all about it!

“Holding Burma was not what we expected. Years of fighting the reanimated bodies of friends and enemies in the darkness of the jungle, of ghosts appearing among us, slaughtering my friends before they even knew what was happening. Morale was… lacking.

Once we were bolstered by the metal men, something changed in our disposition. We no longer felt that we were on the back foot.”

This 999pt British Commonwealth list is based on a rag-tag squad of Chindit engineers and the automated infantry assigned to their sector. They have been fighting a war so visceral that a unique bond has grown between the bots and men.

The Burma Campaign was always fascinating to me, as it’s often forgotten against the backdrop of the wider war. Chindits were always going to be my go-to for Commonwealth forces in Bolt Action, and the squads I kitbashed using the Commonwealth and Inter-Allied Commandos sprues were originally the foundation of this Bolt Action army. (Finally something from Isaac that isn’t German or Romanian! -ed.)

Once I saw the Automated Platoon box featuring all the new plastic K47 British Commonwealth kits I couldn’t say no. The project pivoted to K4, and I targeted completion for the Sales Conference Tournament while we were visiting HQ. I… may have gone a touch overboard with the theming. (Leaflets. He produced gorgeous informational leaflets for every opponent. Honestly, I think he’s just showing off! -ed.)

The Chindits were painted using Ghillie Dew speedpaint over a zenithal prime of Vallejo Ivory on black primer. I highlighted the uniform using Warpaint Witch Brew to really make them stand out on the board compared to the colors I used on the ‘lifeless’ bots.

The Mk IIs were built pretty much identically using light autocannons with the only kitbashing being slight battle damage and barbed wire rusting around their bayonets. The Mk IIC Director got a head swap from the base MKII set and a reposition of the left arm to give him a more, well, directing pose, easily setting him apart from all future MKIIs I may add.

Painting the bots was trial and error. I started with a pure black primer, followed by a drybrush of Vallejo German Grey, and an overbrush of AP John Blanche Thicket Grove. On the MKIIs Vallejo Burnt Umber was sponged on to give them a dirtier, rustier appearance.  The models were doused in enamel grime wash and cleaned up using odourless spirits. Once the enamel dried overnight I went over and did a light dry brush, as well as adding splotches of Warpaint Crypt Wraith to brighten up the drab look. I used a sponge to add a bold metal chipping effect using Vallejo Air Aluminium. After all those colors were applied, I mixed black acrylic with gloss varnish and applied it to many of the joints and spots that looked like they were leaking oil. They’re machines in motion after all!

The 10 Mk Is were split into 5-bot squads. The cleanest and most put together were the HMG-wielding bunch who were pretty much painted identically to the Mk IIs. The MMG gunners with their bayonets received the extra touch of red paint to their replaced limbs and blood splatter to represent them dealing frontline Banzai charges, Shibito, and traps!

The truck is an ever-so-slightly modified Bedford with a jury-rigged automaton to drive it. I’d like to say this was an inspired idea, but really it’s because I completely forgot to put the driver in his seat before I glued the cab shut! It features the closed canopy without the full frame giving it more of a flatbed design. Painted identically to the automated infantry, I adorned it with spare bits to show how the Chindit mechanics fight to keep their automated comrades in working order as best they can in the hellish jungle.

We’ve also reproduced Isaac’s leaflet here for you – it’s things like this that can really elevate a force, and if you’re hunting for ideas for winning those all-important ‘best themed’ prizes at events, you could do worse than take a leaf (geddit?) out of his book!

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As you may be aware, here at Warlord Games, we like tanks. A lot. What better place for us to hold our annual trade sales conference, then, than the legendary Tank Museum? Our trade team came from all over the world for this vitally important strategy meeting (That’s what they told us. Vitally important that it happened at the Tank Museum specifically. Not that I’m jealous. -ed.), and with so many Warlorders in one place, we decided it would be rude not to throw a bit of a bash as well!

We’ve recently partnered with the Tank Museum to run the South West Model Show on their hallowed grounds, and the coinciding trade conference ensured we’d be well staffed with helping hands. Naturally, at such a prestigious venue, we had to put on a big showing, and our team answered the call with demo tables aplenty, seminars from legendary Design Studio Painter Kirsten Williams and Konflikt ‘47 sculptor Jon Heeney, and a very well-attended ‘build-a-tank’ station. The environment perhaps had something of an effect on people’s desire to assemble something tracked and heavily armoured!

As well as talks, demo games and the opportunity to build your own tank, the South West Model Show also saw us host a Bolt Action tournament across the weekend. Who better to tell us all about it than Phil ‘Wardaddy’ Brewer, our very own budding tank commander and tame tournament organiser!

PB – When Warlord Games asked me to run a Bolt Action event at The Tank Museum, I knew that this needed to be no ordinary tournament. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long to think of a theme… Tanks. And lots of them! Not quite thousands (wrong game, Phil! -ed.), but certainly plenty. All that was left to do was to choose a name…

Tanks A Lot! saw 30 players competing in four games across the weekend, with a rather impressive backdrop – The Tank Story exhibition hall! The brief was simple: build a 1,250 point list, make sure you include an Armoured Platoon and make sure it includes at least one DV9+ tank. The four missions were based upon those in the main rule book, but with some amendments to fit the location.

First up was Fury – a kill points mission, but with a bonus if your ‘Fury’ tank (minimum of DV9+) destroyed units, offset with a bonus for your opponent if they destroyed it. Seize the Assets was based on Key Positions, albeit with some restrictions to how Infiltrators could deploy, in order to prevent anyone deploying onto an objective before a shot had been fired or a tank had rumbled forward.

Leading the charge on the second day was Armoured Thrust – essentially Breakthrough, but with added kill points and the twist that only vehicles would score if they finished in the opponent’s deployment zone or exited the table. The final mission was Big Cats Hunting, another kill points mission, but one that rewarded taking out vehicles with either infantry assaults or artillery units. Plenty of players were heard over the weekend commenting on how they appreciated the twist to familiar missions, something I encourage all TOs to consider.

Some of my highlights of the weekend included Walden, Josh, and Andrew travelling all the way from the US to attend the tournament, several players attending their first ever Bolt Action tournament and the creativity and originality shown with many of the lists.

Peter decided that one Maus wasn’t enough, so he brought two. and not much else to go with them! He nearly managed to ensure both survived the whole weekend, but unfortunately for him one fell in the final game to Adam’s perseverance. This earned Adam the Maus Trap Award (yes, we did present him with an actual mouse trap!).

Everyone walked away with a memento from the weekend and the following claimed the main prizes:

The Michael Wittmann Award for 1st Place: Paul W

The Bernard Montgomery Award for 2nd Place: Sonny W

The Georgy Zhukov Award for 3rd Place: James G

The Don “Wardaddy” Collier Award for Most Sporting: James G

The Oddball Award for Best Force: Mark G

The Bob Semple Award for Wooden Spoon: James L

I’d like to thank both Jay and Kieran for their assistance over the weekend and, most importantly, the players themselves – everyone bought into the spirit of the event, games were played in good humour and the fortunes of (tabletop) war were celebrated by all.

We can’t wait to get back down to the Tank Museum for the 2027 edition of the South West Model Show – hopefully we’ll see you there!

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We look at a great Axis army from the depths of Festung Wigan!

The team over at Warlord Games Wigan have been hard at work – not just with making sure our first store outside of Nottingham is running smoothly, but on their own hobby projects too! We spotted Wigan staffer Tom’s fantastic Axis collection on a recent supply run to the shop, kidnapped it for a photoshoot at HQ, and made him tell us all about it. It’s a hard old life for the gang up North!

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