Funded!!:

Welcome to the first update of the now funded 'The battle for Primosole Bridge' campaign book Kickstarter.

Once again, we would like to thank everybody who has made this project a reality. By backing you will not only have a fantastic campaign book that you can enjoy and play for years to come but you have also helped to educate people as to the heroic efforts (on both sides) in a little-known historical campaign.

This project was funded in a bit over 24 hours and we can't wait to see where it goes in the next 26 days or so.

After a brief bit of R&R Dan and I are straight back to work on the book again. I spent a good long session taking more photographs in a more 'studio shot' type format over the last couple of days. Whenever we do this, we always get carried away and take many, many photos, not all of which are relevant to the book, and we have included one below. This one won't appear in the book because it doesn't match the historical equipment for the campaign. Nevertheless, we think it's a great photo and wanted to share it with you.

We also wanted to take the opportunity to thank the fantastic guys at Wargames Atlantic and WOW buildings for generously providing free goodies for early bird backers. There are still free sprues and STL files available on the 2 books 'buddy up' early bird deal at the time of writing.

Don't forget to visit WOW Buildings (https://wowbuildings.net/) and Wargames Atlantic (https://wargamesatlantic.com/) to check out their webstores. We are sure that there will be something there of interest to you. Dan and I certainly get motivated whenever we see new stuff which is why our respective war games storage areas are bulging at the seams.

We're really enjoyed people reaching out to us to tell us about how excited they are about the book what they're doing in terms of preparation and what they are most looking forward to playing. A little bit later on we'll be calling for photos of your battle prep. We would like to see what your building, painting, and preparing, it inspires us also. If you are planning for a new British para army to play with in the campaign (like I am) have a look at Valhalla games YouTube channel where Dan does a paint and learn video giving you the colours and some hints on painting British paras as well as interesting history on the uniform itself and don't forget British paras have maroon berets *not* cherry red if you turn up with cherry red berets to the table Dan will have words with you. :-)

Very soon my British paras will be looking just like Dan's that you can see in the photo below.

If you haven't heard enough of Dan and I, we just wanted to remind you that we are chatting on 4 podcast channels right now, Henry Hyde's battle chat, the South Wales Warlords Sounds of Battle Podcast, Brads Cast Dice (the same feed as the official bolt action podcast) and of course Valhalla games own podcast, here: https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/podcast-ep22-campaign-book-incoming.

As always you can contact us here https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/contact

*Final* (probably final) 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge campaign book' Kickstarter prelaunch information - only about 33 hours to go.

Sign up for the Kickstarter notification here (https://www.valhallagames.net/kickstarter) so that you will know when it goes live.

The Kickstarter is planned to go live at the following dates & times:

• New Zealand Friday 12 November 9am
• Australia - Sydney Friday 12 November 7am
• UK - London Thursday 11 November 8pm
• USA - New York Thursday 11 November 3pm
• USA - Los Angeles Thursday 11 November Noon/midday

From that list you should be able to work out your local time, the times are important because there are limited early bird offers (details below).

Buddy-up and save on freight:

The books will be shipping from Australia. If you are outside Australia in order to minimise freight costs we have created a 2 book pack deal shipping to the same address, consider ordering with a friend to reduce 'per-book' freight costs.

If you have not seen it the launch video it is live here: https://youtu.be/7sKSxdmukWk

More coverage:

Sounds of Battle Tabletop Media podcast interviewed Valhalla Games and their podcast is live now, they asked us all the hard questions about the book in relation to bolt action. They also reviewed a limited preview which we had provided. This was a fun podcast and we highly recommend listening and subscribing for a great mix of topics. My understanding is that all three guys plan to back the Kickstarter.

Cast Dice podcast plan to release an interview with Valhalla Games on the evening before the Kickstarter. This was a fun interview where we chat about the book and went into the detail of 'how the sausage was made' on several occasions. Brad is a fun guy and extremely knowledgeable, it's well worth a listen. I believe he plans to back the Kickstarter.

Henry Hyde, the author of https://thewargamingcompendium.com/, magazine editor and podcaster has interviewed us on his podcast Battle Chat. As an accomplished author and wargaming royalty we were proud to be told that our product was 'amazing' among many other compliments. Henry's interview takes a deep dive into Valhalla Games and Dan and my history, for wargaming and personal life. We hope that this podcast will be available during the Kickstarter period.

Valhallagames have also released our own podcast episode on the subject, subscribe to us by searching for Valhalla Games in your podcast app or use the web player

Here: https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/podcast-ep22-campaign-book-incoming

Early bird free offers:

In the attached image you can see that we have been able to secure some free items for early bird pledges, there are only 50 early bird pledges available.

-Wargames Atlantic will be kindly supplying an Italian plastic sprue for the early bird backers from their forthcoming boxed set with each early bird book. https://wargamesatlantic.com/

-ADDITIONALLY, early bird backers will also receive a free 3D printable Italian building STL file generously supplied by WOW buildings. https://wowbuildings.net/ Full details in the Kickstarter, we love our WOW buildings and will feature one of their prints in the book in all its glory.

We sincerely hope you will partner with us to bring this project to life, this is a story that needs to be told and games that need to be played. Book is 90% complete right now and we look forward to being able to bring it to your gaming table.

Rex & Dan - Valhalla Games

Early bird give away items (limited offer)

Thanks to:

• https://wowbuildings.net/
• https://wargamesatlantic.com/

Podcast EP22: Campaign book Kickstarter - INCOMING.

Although other podcasts have done (and will do!!) a fantastic job of asking us the hard questions about the new The Battle for Primosole Bridge Campaign book (the Kickstarter is just days away now). Dan and I thought we had better say something ourselves on the subject :-).

Come with us as we discuss the book, the reason why we did it in the first place and a deep dive into the content.

Just secured this a matter of hours ago, details to follow but I just had to share something now. We are excited to bring even more value to the book.

Don't forget the Pre-launch page is now live: https://www.valhallagames.net/kickstarter sign up now to be notified when its live.

Today we are releasing the product reveal video for 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge' campaign book. Today marks the ONE WEEK point before the Kickstarter going live!

Hope you can join us, to watch in about 3 hours; at 3PM East Australian time/5pm New Zealand. Dan and I will be live for a chat during the six minute video and hopefully for a while after. But the video will remain afterward for you to check it out at your convenience, especially for those who aren't in a time-zone friendly to this time.

You will get to see our smiling faces and quite a number of internal pages from the book as well as some great photos of miniatures and terrain which will be included in the book.

See you here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKSxdmukWk

_{Welcome to the website of Valhalla Games! If you have been directed here from the esteemed pages of the Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine (be they digital OR print!), then we thank you for being interested enough to visit, and hope you enjoyed the edited down version of our 'Assault on Johnny I' scenario.}

_{If you would like to learn more about our WW2 campaign book 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge' you can find a video on our YouTube page explaining exactly what is in the book here: https://youtu.be/7sKSxdmukWk}

_{The kick-starter has been funded and finished however, if you want to order a copy, at the time of writing this we are still taking pre-orders for the printed A4 softcover 80+ page campaign book, find the info about ordering here: https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/the-battle-for-primosole-bridge-pre-order or simply contact us here https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/contact for a price including shipping to your destination.}

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you've had a happy and safe holiday period. The question arises though; What exactly have WE been up to early in the New Year?

Firstly (for those of you that didn't know!) the 'Assault on Johnny I ' scenario that will appear in our book was reverse engineered and re-edited for publishing in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy (WSS) magazine, issue 118.

This version of the scenario varies from that found in the campaign book in order to make it a stand-alone scenario for Bolt Action, but if you'd like a taster of what is to come, go purchase the issue and enjoy it - tell them we sent you ;)

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wss-issue-118.html

What else have we been up to?; check out the Wargames Atlantic WW2 Italian plastic figures that Dan has painted for the book here: [continued below]

Dan has continued British vehicles and infantry for 151 Bde. In the Primosole Bridge engagement, and has finally just finished them… this means another bunch of minis to be sent over to Rex for photography for the book!

Rex continues to put a phenomenal amount of detail into the 'secret' table's construction, I can tell you it looks amazing and it isn't even finished yet!! He is detailing it as he goes so we can bring you all the tips for you to be able to build it yourselves when we reveal it to you.

As well as that, as lockdowns due to COVID come and go, we are continuing play testing on various scenarios, making sure that they are well tested and as user-friendly as possible.

We hope your holiday period has been hobby-friendly and you've got some work progressing yourselves… maybe some Sicilian campaign armies?!!

New list builder app from Warlord games announced today full details in the YouTube video below. Hopefully valhallagames can get early access and give you feedback. It would be REALLY great to have a mobile friendly list builder solution for Bolt Action.

Dan shares his latest completed Italians; X Arditi sahariana patrol vehicles, and a weapons team, Sicilian campaign Durham Light Infantry and some more completed British paratroopers and German Fallschirmjager.

Warlord releases details of new Italy book here:
https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/incoming-campaign-italy-soft-underbelly/

SURPRISE! [Wargames Atlantic] have been busy bees in the background working on a few secret projects starting with this one! WW2 Italian Infantry is now Available for Pre-Order!
This highly detailed, highly versatile 32-figure set includes a crazy number of options to customize your Italian forces whether they are in Italy, France, North Africa, the Balkans, or even Russia.

Pre-order your WW2 Italians Now!

https://wargamesatlantic.com/products/italian-infantry

What better subject for testing out my new camera but snapping some pix of Dan's minis which are visiting me for a top secret mission.

Click to see full sized image and then click or pinch to zoom in.

So here's the first squad (plus) of a new army. In this case; men of the Durham Light Infantry in Sicily '1943.

It has to be said though, that they will have a dual purpose as representing New Zealanders in summer dress in the Italian mainland campaign.

The figures are Warlord games plastics; British and Canadian infantry 43-45. But i have kitbashed parts from their 8th army box set, mainly the weapon arms in shirtsleeves. After doing so, the sword bayonets needed to be exchanged for 'pig sticker' bayonets to be correct.

There are also some other parts from various Warlord Games' kits in there...can you spot them?!? Answers on a stamped, self-addressed envelope...;)

Now...where are those British airborne I need to finish...? (there's always British airborne to be finished!!)

Dan's been busy buying, building, painting and more buying. Proving that you can never be bored or run out of things to do when you have miniature wargaming as your hobby! This is Dan's latest hobby update for August '21. Hope this inspires you.

If your like me and you end up purchasing the physical and e-book copy of all the Bolt action Books then you will be keen to know that the Bolt Action: Campaign: Italy: Soft Underbelly pre-order is now live on the Kindle Store, this also means we have a release date* of Oct 28 2021 . 

Also its at the bargain price of $14.21! (US$?)

Let the painting begin (well continue...)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0946LY2TK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_9J33FR6JAZZSTTNDG31P?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Hairspray chipping - first attempt work in progress. Pretty happy so far, progress update to follow plus a bit of a how-to guide if someone would like it. Let me know if you do want something?

Friday photo - Drying paint on a Sherman: Most of us have, at one time, used a hairdrier to dry paint when we were in a hurry but this photo apparently shows heat lamps drying the paint on the real thing. Apparently it took 4 minutes*! (*according to some guy on the internet)

Welcome to the first valhallagames "wandering monsters" episode. Wikipedia defines Wandering monsters as follows (don't worry I put them right on a couple of points by way of a re-edit):

Wandering monsters - sometimes called Random encounters - were a feature of Dungeons & Dragons from its beginnings in the 1970s, and persist in that game and its offshoots to this day. Random encounters are usually determined by the gamemaster by rolling dice against a random encounter table. These rules can often result in VERY random seemingly in appropriate and quite humorous encounters. A wandering monster is perhaps something that you don't want, definitely something that you didn't expect, but ALWAYS interesting. Source: Wikipedia... with edits :-)

We hope you enjoy this Dungeons & Dragons digression from our normal miniature wargaming adventures, (typically in WWII). We will be back to our scheduled program as soon as we have spooned over these Kobolds.

(Kobold; Small humanoid (kobold), Lawful Evil. Armor Class 12, Hit Points 5 (2d6-2), Speed 30 ft.)

Get this episode in your podcast app (search for valhallagames) or click on the link below for the web player

​One does whatever is required to get the figures onto the table... 

This is the result of hoteliers thinking that their guests all want "mood" lighting and not proper lights anywhere in their rooms ...except the bathroom apparently! 

  That and neighbouring guests snoring so loudly that I firstly couldn't get to sleep and then second; woke up at 0520.

  And yes...although I'm away for work who DOESN'T take figures and paint away with them??!!?? The answer is , of course; the wargamers who look back and wish they'd spent a couple of hours in their hotel bathrooms painting last night and this morning.

  And YES of course it turns out  I'd left a couple of colours at home that i wish I'd brought with me- its traditional for the guerilla painter! But its great to be getting layers on and making some progress while sensibly leaving the areas I wanted to leave for my painting hobby  light/magnifying glass such as faces etc. 

   Apologies ...but now you'll understand and hopefully forgive me for the poor lighting and slightly blurry images!

  Stay classy, Dunedin colorblind  Hedgehog bathroom-painting collective. 

Dan 

Dan's back! Catch up on his news plus, all the wargame painting, modelling reading & and collecting chat you can handle plus... added tales of adventures in 3d printing.

In our main segment we discuss scenario design ideas, concepts and tips on where to find inspiration for all new and exciting challenges for your little men (and women).

Podcast shownotes will be at https://www.valhallagames.net/ep21

Listen in your podcast app or click on the link below to get use the web player