"Bolt Action - Help me pick a scale" Topic

So I played a game of Bolt Action at a local con and had a great time. I ordered myself a copy of the book.

I have a few 1/72 plastic WW2 miniature sets, but nothing I'm terribly attached to.

The options I'm considering:

Microarmor/6mm: With the compressed ground scale of Bolt Action, 24" range for rifles would probably look pretty good with 6mm. I do modern Microarmor, so there would be some terrain crossover.

15mm: Large ranges available with sets like Plastic Soldier Company's that give me everything I need with a couple of boxes. Lots of vehicles also available. I also already do 15mm sci-fi, so there would be terrain cross over.

1:72: Lots of kits available. I have some already. The new small Zvezda kits are great for adding things like mortar teams and the like.

28mm: Plastics now available. Vehicles would be pricier at 1:50 or so.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward 15mm. Any reason I should reconsider the others? 10mm would also work, I suppose, but I'm not familiar with the 10mm WW2 manufacturers yet and don't know what's available and what's not.

Which ever one you like the best would seem to be the best option.

All can do the job.

For me, WW2 is always 20mm or 1/72, mainly due to the masses of infantry and vehicle models available in resin, metal and plastic.

Perhaps consider what scenery you already have to use?

If you currently have 15mm scenery, then it may be worth utilising that.

Getting new scenery will add an additional cost you may not wish to have.

Im going for 15mm, all my FOW vehicles and scenery are ready, just a case of painting up a few boxes of Forged in battle infantry and good to go!

steve

What is available in your area?
You are not far from battlehonors in Michigan which produces a large range of 15mm under the Quality Casting name. You may also be able to get Command decision from OG in PA or straight from the UK.
28mm is available but the vehicle and minor powers options are less.
If you can handle plasticsthen your 20mm/ 1/72 is an option. FAA in the USA does a large range of metal.

How many nationalities are you having to field or at least planning to field?

If you are only going to field one or two nationalities then expense is not that big of an issue. If you are fielding multiple forces, for both sides then cost could be an issue.

Given that you already have 15mm sci-fi, unless everyone in your local gaming group uses a different scale I would go for 15mm- there is, as you note, lots of stuff out there

Were I in your shoes I'd go for either Micro scale, or 1/72. Mostly because you say you're already using those scales.

Nathaniel – was that my game you played in at LegioCon this weekend? If so, glad you enjoyed it!

My vote would be either 28mm or 15mm. I have played with the rules in both scales and they work great!

Cheers

w.

ps I should have a blog post up on my blog – wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com – later today, with pics and writeup on the game.

28mm. Because that's what the game is designed for?

I am doing 1/72 because of the availability at dirt cheap prices of a great selection of stuff – especially infantry support weapons from HaT and Pegasus, and the excellent Caesar infantry sets, along with Revell etc. Plus teh new quick build tanks from Armourfast and PSC and Pegasus and Italeri etc.

And to me, 1/72 looks good – I like teh figures and their detail. Most 28s are not for me style wise, and 1/300 is just too small for the style of game proposed by BA (and yes, I do have the rules).

28mm. Most visually appealing and excellent figures ranges out there. This is the way I am going at least.

I am leaning towards 15mm right now.

There are lots of FoW players around who might be willing to play a smaller model count game of Bolt Action using their stuff.

Local shops can get in PSC stuff as well as FoW stuff if I wanted it. Mail order from the US for 15mm is simple enough (I'm already doing it for 15mm sci-fi from Rebel and Khurasan). The Zvezda 1:100 kits are also available here and there. There's also a local shop that might have some Command Decision stuff-- though it mostly does Microarmor. Though they used to have Black Raven Foundry, so maybe they have some Quality Casting WW2. I'll have to go look.

The only problem with the PSC kits is they come with twice as many miniatures as I need. Not a bad problem to have, I suppose.

I figured I'd do late war and make a platoon + support for Germans and then start adding on Russians, then some Brits & Canadians, then some Americans.

Forged In Battle also looks interesting.

Looks like I've got a bit of reading to do about available 15mm stuff.

Your budget is probably a good guide, unless you plan to build up your forces over years.

15mm, 20mm, and 25mm/28mm are all good choices, and probably the best in my opinion, for most things.

Consider 6mm, if you want more armor on the tabletop.

12mm is a little small, has limited selection, and will work for a nice mix of troops and vehicles, but more people game in 15mm.

10mm will work too, but is a bit small for figure skirmishes – better geared to combined arms games, or armor battles.

If I had to do it all over again, and wanted a good mix of infantry and vehicles, I'd go with 20mm, especially since the prices of many vehicles (barring the latest plastic kit releases), are almost as much, if not more expensive than the 20mm ones.

Since Bolt Action deals with individual based figures, 6mm might be a bit too fiddly. I'm going with 15mm for BA at the moment – cheap, and the weapons range in BA matches well with the figure scale.

28mm is probably just out of budget range given I eventually want a supported platoon of 5 different nationalities. It's mainly the vehicles as metal historicals are affordable enough in 28mm and there are some plastic options like Warlord's stuff.

I think I'm going to cross it off the list. Between the vehicle costs and their massive footprint, I think I'd rather go smaller.

I think I've also ruled out 6mm/10mm/12mm/1:144. I'm sure 6mm would work great, but I already play microarmor moderns and 6mm sci-fi and I think it's better suited for larger model count games than Bolt Action.

The terrain synergy with my sci-fi stuff is definitely an advantage for 15mm. It's also still big enough that individual figure basing makes sense, whereas 6mm starts getting dicey for individually based miniatures.

Vehicles aren't always cheap, but Bolt Action generally uses only one or two per side. And between PSC and Zvezda's 1:100 offerings, I have a lot to get before I'd need to look at resin or metal.

EDIT: Well, I just emailed my local store about bringing in some 15mm plastic stuff, so I guess the decision is made.

Thanks for the help everyone!

I sold off all my 15mm W.W. II stuff and now only have 20mm.

I was planning on selling off all my 20mm stuff also (W.W. I, W.W. II and Vietnam) and going only with one scale of 28mm.

After I looked at how much stuff I have and how long it would take me to re-do my W.W. II and Vietnam forces I realized I won't live long enough so I choose to keep them.

My advice is that if you can find a scale that you like and have terrain cross over that would work the best.

I think you're right.

I currently do:

6mm sci-fi and modern microarmor
10mm Napoleonics
15mm sci-fi
1:72 colonials/Victorian Sci-fi
28mm fantasy (Warmachine and random Reaper miniatures for Song of Blades & Heroes).

The 28mm mostly gets played at a local store and at cons, while my private collection of terrain is for 15mm (a large portion of which also works great for 10mm/microarmor/6mm sci-fi).

Go with the 6mm and use the terrain you have and maybe make some WWII buildings to go with it.

I was planning on going with the 6mm also for WWII.

I eventually want a supported platoon of 5 different nationalities.

That's a slippery slope there my friend! ;-)

My own 28mm collection is based on that premise as well… 40-60 infantry models and associated MGs, mortars, AT weapons and transports… so far I've got late-war British/Canadians, British Paratroopers, early-war British/Home Guard, early-war French, Russians, Finns, US Airborne, and German early/late infantry, Waffen-SS, and Fallschirmjager.

Unpainted, there are North Africa British and Germans, and NWE US infantry. Although I may have painted the US infantry already, I can't remember ;-)

15mm is a good idea too and if you do go mad with it, much cheaper and easier to store!

Cheers

w.

@wehrmacht – Yes it was. Thanks for running it.

I just read the blog post about the 15mm game. It looks like the game goes a lot faster when you don't have 8 people playing at once :D And the tank platoon moving together was probably a good idea as well.

28mm all the way! I just can't get into "skirmish" in 15mm or lower.

Since the game already built for a 4x6 table in 28mm, the only advantage 15mm would have is a single set of terrain if you were also a FoW player.

Otherwise, 28mm all the way.

28mm

"28mm. Because that's what the game is designed for?"

But as with most games, it has nothing whatsoever in the rules to tie it to a particular size of miniature, except that 28mm is what Warlord produces. So anything will work. In fact, given the 40K style ranges on the weapons I would say that the smaller you go the more "realistic" it will feel.

I will be playing with 1/76/20mm, though, because no other scale has ANYTHING that looks as good as AB miniatures!

I would say if you don't plan to go big then 28mm, looks and feels good. If you are going big 15mm or 20mm. I'm going 20mm due to the large ammount of kit I already own, otherwise I would have gone 28mm.

54mm.
It's the only way to play.

What, no joker has suggested 10mm, even though it was not one of your initial options?

Well, I am that joker…

Kidding aside, I think Bolt Action looks best with the larger minis. It's just shy of a skirmish game, and with the bigger minis, I find it easier to get immersed in the action. I'd go 1/72 or 28mm.

I did briefly consider 10mm as I am going that route for Napoleonics, but in the end, I decided the great availabiliy of both 6mm and 15mm both locally and through online sources meant it didn't make the initial list. From what I understand Pendraken has a pretty complete line, but I just wasn't aware of what's out there.

In the end, I know I enjoy skirmish gaming in 15mm because I do that for sci-fi gaming. While I have done individually based 6mm in the past, I ended up rebasing them on larger stands as I found it just worked better. So that basically left 15mm, 1:72 and 28mm.

15mm won out because it'll let me do multiple nationalities far more quickly than if I went with 28mm and while 1:72 is awesome for WW2, I'll probably have more people to convince to try out Bolt Action if I can get people with existing FoW collections to give it a try.

Well, for me, it's 28mm. At the ripe old age of 44, I'm having trouble with painting 15mm anymore (even with magnifiers), so I'm going 28mm.

I have been playing Bolt Action in 1/72 scale. That wasn't a deliberate choice for Bolt Action, but was because I was already building up forces ready for the release of Battlegroup Kursk.

During two games at one my regular wargaming clubs I had several people watching the games (who have 28mm forces) say they thought it looked better in 1/72. The games in question were 1,000 points a side on a standard 6' x 4' table. The feeling was that 28mm looked too crowded.

Other comments were how cheap it was to do in 1/72. The cost of both the forces combined was around £35.00 GBP

What scale are people in your area playing with? I collect minis for bolt action in 15mm, and my wife and I play tank wars for bolt action in 6mm and I like both. I think bolt action works a little better with individual basing and it's easier to do that at 15mm and up. (I haven't tried multi-basing). Though i think it's best to buy in a scale that you will be able to find other players. If you buy 6mm and everyone local to you plays 28mm you might have a great Platoon but you won't get a chance to play with them.

We do Bolt Action in 20mm for Burma/Malaya and both 28mm and 54mm for Europe and it works fine. Admittedly , being a total history geek I've made various 'local' amendments, though actually it turns out that most of them have been changed (or something similar been done) for Bolt Action 2 anyway. We initially took up Bolt Action because my wife preferred it to Rapid Fire and Rules of Engagement, but it's really grown on me and we no longer play anything else for 20th C stuff. We use it for Vietnam with just a few tweaks and – when SWMBO has painted her new figures – I suspect we'll even use it for the Indian Mutiny with suitable adjustments.