Preparing for this week's game- Free French

Kent and I are planning for another game of Bolt Action this week. Time to put my Germans aside for a while and try something different, my Free French.

I did a wee bit of rebasing today. I wanted the force to look more of a hodge podge of uniforms to represent troops that had fought their way through Tunisia, Italy and possibly into Europe. So I've mixed up my second Goumier squad with one of my US infantry in great coats ones so the units have a nice mix of US helmets and equipment, as well as British and French (Adrian helmets) equipment. There are a couple of great scenes in the movie Days of Glory where the troops are being addressed by officers and they are wearing a variety of US, British and French uniforms, that is the kind of look I'm trying to get.

A couple of shots of Days of Glory- the final battle is a bit Saving Private Ryanish but an otherwise enjoyable film, which highlights the issues (such as institutional racism) faced by native troops in the French army during WWII and afterwards.

Goumiers in Italy- djellabah being worn under US webbing. Note the British and US helmets.

I'll use my one unit of djellabah wearing Goumiers as tough fighting mountain troops (vets). The whole tough fighter thing is well and truly overdone in Bolt Action so I'm going to limit myself to a ratio of 1 in 4 infantry squads. I've tried and tried to make regular troops work for me but slowly but surely my troops have been finding themselves upgraded to Vets as they are more survivable vs small  arms fire and in assaults.

And the finished product: 2 Squads of Free French veterans.

I simply run them using US lists/rules and use the French LMGs as BARs.

Looking forward to the game.

Craig