u/Unterdemradar

Coming from the original HLL I immediately was hooked on being a pilot in HLLV, did some hours on the training course so I don`t ram entire squads into the ground by accident.
These are the things I figured out by now:

First off, one thing that is fun to do but quiet ineffective is circling the front objective with a gunner on board strafing the ground forces. The gunner can only spray and pray without much precision, the ground troops will soon ignore it and the gunner will get killed within a minute.

What you can safely do as an inexperienced pilot is fly a transport behind an objective, land and TURN THE MOTOR OFF. This will create a helicopter spawn that works like a boat spawn and allows your team to attack from a different direction.

Next up is actually be a transport: If there are no garrys or when a point is taken you can carry a squad to the next point. If you are quick, you can do that before the NVA has boots on the ground there. You need your landings on lock for this so you don’t have to hover for a minute before the blueberries can safely leave the helicopter.

If you are in a well coordinated team you can do an improvised airhead. Two choppers, two squads and an LZ behind enemy lines. Suddenly there are 12 guys and ideally a new garry in the NVA`s back.

The most effective Helicopter is the Support Helicopter, though. As a Logistics Officer you can ask for one from Commander and since they are relatively cheap you will usually recieve them quickly. They can only carry the pilots and will NOT MAKE A SPAWN POINT when landed.
Take it where ever a garry makes sense, land, drop the supplies, build a garry and return to a base to refill. Rinse and repeat. You can set up a network of garrys anywhere on the map in a few minutes by yourself.

That`s what I learned in three nights of flying, I still try to figure this out so please correct me where I`m wrong and let me know what your tips and experiences are.

Also I will play music during the transfer. Because, come on, everybody was hoping for the cinematic moments of Hueys over the jungle while Fortunate Son plays (and there is much more great music from that era to be enjoyed!)

See you in the trenches!

My brain works backwards: I found these plastic bts that are perfect for empty shells, so I decided to finally build my 88. then I had to build a position for it.

The biggest match we played yet. Table is 2x1m, we deployed on the short edges after agreeing on a very open map.
Germans deployed their observer really badly, but took out the the US gun carrier in turn 1.

VIP:
-US Rangers, they refused to die and charged an officer in the german line before getting cut down.
-The second US airstrike was shot down by flak of a German halftrack.
-The US HMG put the pain into the Krauts.
-The German StuG did what it was supposed to do and shut down an entire flank.

Last pic is the mission design we always do, because immersion and stuff.

Had a nice match of german infantry vs british armor and mechanized infantry.
The dice really were against the brits, theey could not killed anything for 4 turns and their reinforcements would not show up. The germans picked them of and their artillery hurt the arriving troops in turn 5.

A clear, but hard fought for victory for the germans.
With the objectives in the last turn and killed dice as victory requirementit was a 14-7 for them.

Quick build and paintjob for the next match on Sunday.
Built the gun‘s base up with sprue goo for the first time and I think I like the outcome.

I am taking my sweet time with my French/partisan army while also building some scatter terrain. Pretty happy how they both turned out.

Sorry for the shit picture!
Put the germans and the partisans on the sideboard to dry, looks like a squad of the guys hiding from a patrol under a bridge. Maybe I’m going to build something like this as a actual diorama.

The idea was to create a cheap, easy to build, easy to store table that still offers options to set it up.
Two 1x1m boards with roads linking up in every way you combine them.
Building and basic painting took approximately three hours and it cost less than a 44“x60“ battle matt.
Looking forward to the first game on there!

…but the battle will be epic!
900ish points urban warfare table for the match GB vs D.
It’s going to be infantry heavy and brutal.

Last picture: I always do a little mission paper with some infos, an idea of the map and historical pictures to set the mood.

In other news: introduced Boltaction to the local gaming club. Had three intro matches and found 5 new players who already got their starter sets. I’m hoping for a lot of matches on the next few months!

My brain refuses to accept the fact that there is a difference between a terrain piece and a diorama.
I set out to build a little ruin and ended up making little pouches and used bandages.
Anyway, it’s going to look nice on our 2vs2 table later today.