A long time coming
Well, this is exciting! Warlord Games have done the impossible for Bolt Action. The one thing we never expected of them. They are … modernising their production methods. Listen, Warlord, I’m your boy. I’ve been buying your little killy boys and plastic boom tractors for donkey's years, and I will for many, many more. Your plastic kits are great, your value is spot on, your customer service is S-tier, top-notch, and I like your outlook on running a business and supporting the hobby community in general… BUT….. your resin is a bit hit or miss, and good lord, putting your metal kits together feels like a punishment once dispensed in a Victorian prison. Sorry pal, that was a tough thing to say out loud, but it’s all OK because Warlord’s manufacturing team are bounding out of the pages of antiquity and have committed to replacing their old metal kits with modern plastic replacements. Huzzah!?!
Understandably, replacing all Warlord’s metal kits with plastic is going to be a long-term commitment, like the Battlestar Galactica remake, but hopefully with a more satisfying payoff. The initial focus seems to be to get the key arty and weapons teams updated for the popular factions. As someone who plays the unpopular faction (Vive la Résistance)... sigh. Fine. Still, I’m jumping on the hype train for the new kits and picking up a plastic Pak 40 while I wait for something a little more franc-friendly to be released. Besides, my DAK force is a bit light on big daka, so I can definitely make use of the extra firepower.
Welcome to the historical context section
For the blissfully unaware, Pak 40s were kinda a big deal. TLDR, the Germans heard the Soviets were building some really chonky tanks and knew they would need to up their anti-tank options for Operation Barbarossa, or sometimes called Operation Oopsie Wish We Hadn’t Done That. Still, the Pak 40 was introduced and proved more than capable of punching through Russian armour, so the Germans made loads of them. Most of them were used as towed anti-tank guns like this kit, but the Germans also enjoyed bolting them on top of a variety of vehicles, some of which ended up looking very silly because of it.
A long time coming
Well, this is exciting! Warlord Games have done the impossible for Bolt Action. The one thing we never expected of them. They are … modernising their production methods. Listen, Warlord, I’m your boy. I’ve been buying your little killy boys and plastic boom tractors for donkey's years, and I will for many, many more. Your plastic kits are great, your value is spot on, your customer service is S-tier, top-notch, and I like your outlook on running a business and supporting the hobby community in general… BUT….. your resin is a bit hit or miss, and good lord, putting your metal kits together feels like a punishment once dispensed in a Victorian prison. Sorry pal, that was a tough thing to say out loud, but it’s all OK because Warlord’s manufacturing team are bounding out of the pages of antiquity and have committed to replacing their old metal kits with modern plastic replacements. Huzzah!?!
Understandably, replacing all Warlord’s metal kits with plastic is going to be a long-term commitment, like the Battlestar Galactica remake, but hopefully with a more satisfying payoff. The initial focus seems to be to get the key arty and weapons teams updated for the popular factions. As someone who plays the unpopular faction (Vive la Résistance)... sigh. Fine. Still, I’m jumping on the hype train for the new kits and picking up a plastic Pak 40 while I wait for something a little more franc-friendly to be released. Besides, my DAK force is a bit light on big daka, so I can definitely make use of the extra firepower.
Welcome to the historical context section
For the blissfully unaware, Pak 40s were kinda a big deal. TLDR, the Germans heard the Soviets were building some really chonky tanks and knew they would need to up their anti-tank options for Operation Barbarossa, or sometimes called Operation Oopsie Wish We Hadn’t Done That. Still, the Pak 40 was introduced and proved more than capable of punching through Russian armour, so the Germans made loads of them. Most of them were used as towed anti-tank guns like this kit, but the Germans also enjoyed bolting them on top of a variety of vehicles, some of which ended up looking very silly because of it.
Spotting the target
So in the box you get two numbered plastic sprues. One sprue is focused on the Pak 40, and the other on a 4-man crew. If I can share with you my truth, I am actually more jazzed for the crew. Warlord has done a lovely job of providing us with lots of options and gubbins so you and your friends can all have very different-looking Hanzs. This is a huge step up from the old mono-pose metal artillery crew of old, and not just because of the lack of flashing, hellscape mouldlines, weight, lower level of detail…. Sorry, there I go again.
The instruction booklet gives some suggested combinations of arms that best pair with each other, specifically when holding certain pieces of ammunition or equipment, which I completely ignored. MY CREATIVITY IS UNBOUND. I just winged whatever looked good, and it turned out fine, actually, so well done again, Warlord. Shout-out to the instructions as well, as they are modern, clear, and do well to explain all the odd-looking equipment and greebles on the sprue. I built a nice mix of poses; I got one guy loading, one guy pointing, one guy reading something - bored, presumably - and another guy banging out some Wagner on a giant war flute, sometimes called a range finder.
The gun goes together in about 3 and a half minutes. It’s wheels, supports, shield, gun, and that’s about it, actually. No tiny bits that need tweezers and infinite patience to stick on, no arcane diagrams with 40 steps to each, no real fuss. Warlord, baby, I love you. I’m now padding because I feel I should say more about the gun than I say about the crew, but I got nothing - it just works. I.. I like how the gunshield is kinda sloped - looks neat…
Shelling out on the paints
I’ll spare you (and the word count) another repeat of my painting instructions so I paint my German artillery the same as my vehicles and the crew get the standard infantry treatment.
Side note for those who care, the lads are in Heer uniforms. To my mind, that's the smart choice as you can paint them as pretty much any German force, and I doubt I know anyone who would notice/care, but your mileage may vary here.
Paking a punch
If you play or have played against mid/late war Germans, then you’ve seen the Pak 40 on the table. That’s your first green flag right there because in both the last and current edition of Bolt Action, these delete sticks are exceedingly effective. They are the backbone of your anti-tank options, but be careful they don’t trigger your trypophobia because they will put a lot of holes in your opponent's armour.
On paper, they are a heavy anti-tank gun (+6 penetration). That gives it a fair chance against pretty much anything you are likely to face outside of a memey/themed list. For lower armour-valued vehicles, this WILL be the last thing they ever see. The Pak 40 has a 4-man crew and can be taken from inexperienced to veteran, as well as having access to optional rules such as Fallschirmjäger, Waffen-SS, and Gebirgsjäger (I spellcheck all of those, very slowly, letter by letter. I still don’t know how to say the last one out loud), and finally, has Gunshield baked in. That’s a flexible suit of options that helps your Pak nestle into almost any type of German force while staying on theme. Not bad for 100 points at regular. Also, the 4-man crew and gunshield offer some decent survivability, especially at veteran, so don’t be afraid to put this out in the open to secure a great sightline. Just be mindful of your opponent trying to swing around that gunshield and avenge their smoldering tanks with some fast-moving flanking manoeuvres.
One key thing to remember with artillery pieces is they need to be towed to move. Please remember this during placement. Think about your sightlines early on and be wary of the sneaky player - hello! It’s me! I will sacrifice a big truck to block your sightlines the first chance I get. Either look for a wide field of view, or be prepared to pack up and move your gun if you encounter a cheeky chappy. Also, there is often a focus on “making your points back”, which is to say killing more points worth of stuff than the unit doing the killing costs itself, but there is a hidden value with artillery - area of denial. Heavy and super heavy ATs are fantastic for creating an area of NOPE over an objective, or somewhere else you don’t want your opponent to risk their tanks. By all means, advance your halftrack full of lads towards that objective. Fear not this die next to my huge gun which says “Ambush”. Remember, force your opponent to make choices, and he’ll eventually make a bad one!
Lastly, and this is stating the obvious, but the restricted movement means you are vulnerable to HE/Indirect fire. To my mind, removing artillery guns is exactly what mortars and similar are for. Once I start my inexperienced light mortars on your 100-point AT gun, then you are on an unpredictable countdown till I roll that hit and your crew splatters against the back of the gunshield they were hiding behind.
3 arty strikes and I’m out
Overall, I love the kit. I had the whole thing assembled in 10-15 minutes, while I still have some of the older Warlord metal gun parts assembled/collapsed in drawers that I can’t bring myself to finish. This is an excellent direction for Warlord, and I absolutely can’t wait to see what gets plastified next. On the table, the Pak 40 continues to be an auto-include for the Germans, and the manifestation of my FT17's darkest nightmares when playing the French. DAS IST GUT.
About the author
Hasvik is as Hasvik does. Hasvik enjoys wargaming, TTRPGS, and board games, as well as Jaffa Cakes, frogs, and rolling my dice on the floor to intimidate my opponent. Hasvik has no socials and cannot be followed, for he travels only the hidden paths.
