"Bolt Action specific dice for squads..." Topic

I was just reading the recent thread about having a random "tea break" card/die for ending the turn before all squads have activated. One comment on there reminded me of the problem where the more squads you have the more dice you get and that is an advantage because you get more chances to activate *any* squad. This makes your side more agile than one with fewer, albeit stronger, squads.

So I was thinking maybe you could mark each die somehow (or use marked cards, etc) to make it activate one specific squad rather than let the player choose the squad to activate. That way if you pull the die for your medic you won't get to fire your SP gun and get that crucial shot. Anybody tried this?

That's just another activation mechanism, often done with cards rather than dice. It ensures that each unit activates once in a turn in a random order. If you add a "tea break" card to the shuffled deck, it means only a certain number of units activate in a turn, not all.

This is a good idea I think yes? Creates friction and uncertainty perhaps differing coloured dice can signify different aspects of the game play mixed in with the normal dice like a tea break or spotting dice pulled then next die same colour sees artillery bombardment in. All sorts of dice colours and combos can be worked in and works seamlessly in the rule system (I agree don't add cards as this does add another layer into the rules needlessly) so extra colours and combos to make events happen and a end die "or even 2 to create that urgency on the battle field. Yes I've borrowed this largely from those excellent rule sets made by the Lardy Lads. Just my take on the BA rules which are very good but can be a bit 2 dimensional at times. Cheers Folks

We have been playing a Bolt Action variant for our 'less comepetive' games since last year. I did a blog article for it: link

We used it at Partizan for our Burma '45 game.

In meta mechanical terms, Bolt Action uses randomized player determination with unit choice activation. If you added premature turn end that would be OK.

If you went with random unit activation then premature turn end is bad because you might, through chance, end up having to activate a bunch of units in the rear area that are not in the action.

A die mismatch quickly resolves itself down to 1:1 draws anyway.

I should clarify that I'm not particularly interested in the tea-break concept for BA. And that's being discussed on another thread.

What I was thinking about is connecting each activation die to a specific squad. That might negate any advantage gained by having a lot of cheap units.

(I probably should not have mentioned the other thread in my original post :))

(I agree don't add cards as this does add another layer into the rules needlessly)

It's a lot easier to produce cards for each unit than specific coloured dice (there are only so many colours). The dice drawing mechanic is just using the dice as if they were cards, but non specific to a particular unit.

To get round the problem cited by the OP while still using dice instead of cards, just use the same number of dice for each side.

Specific die to specific units takes the fun out of it and you may as well go to old-school rule sets of IGUG which is a bit bland for 20thC games. If a die is drawn for a specific unit I feel it makes the game less fluid in play with only that unit doing its actions and you cannot have an overall choices to your battle plan . Becoming a noughts and crosses kind of game, In BA you are the nominal commander over a platoon plus assets not a squad or an asset at a time. Just my take agin on it all folks. Cheers

Specific die to specific units takes the fun out of it and you may as well go to old-school rule sets of IGUG which is a bit bland for 20thC games.

How so? The two mechanics are completely different.

How would these work with my 1/72 samurai do you think? I would love to add a fantasy element ala Clan Wars.

Deciding what unit to activate, especially late in the game when it's often critical, is one of the best features of the game. It's almost always a devil's choice. Unit 1 has a great shot but its target will move or shoot if it gets an opportunity; simultaneously unit 2 could close assault an enemy; plus there's that mortar that finally has a good chance of hitting an unmoved unit (which is sure to move this turn too). What do you as commander do? You can hope that you draw a string of order dice but that's not likely.

Card activation, etc. Totally eliminates this decision. Now it's not deciding what to activate and then what action to take. It's just deciding what to do with the unit you've drawn.

That sounds a lot less fun than having to agonize over various priorities and even gamble on whether you will get the string of order dice you need to execute a plan (the bold move--sometimes desperate) or to play conservatively and be cautious.

Don't know what happened to my post there but…Theron, I've been playing a very similar type of activation mechanism you mention for years. Games like IABSM and other variants of my own making; just using cards rather than dice.

Recently though I've been playing CoC which allows more freedom in actually choosing the unit you activate and to be honest I found it very refreshing to be given that choice. That ability to chose the unit you activate has attracted me to BA also.

I have found that a lot of WW2 rules lack the mechanics that place you in the position of real decisive decision making. I think the ability to identify and therefore chose the units of the battle that most urgently needs attention is the most important tactical decisions we can make. So personally I wouldn't encourage too much interference with it.

Interesting points about removing the tension of decision making. I guess another problem would be that if you wanted to fire your MG team before you move your rifle team then being forced to move the rifle first because that's the die that came up would really make you feel like your plans are being messed up by the rules. That could be annoying!

I like the tactical dilemmas of having to choose what unit to activate. Assigning specific unit markers would take that away. I think a commander should have a decent amount of tactical control.

Additionally (though I haven't examined all the BA lists) the armies that are capable of fielding small, agile units should have an edge in tactical flexibility, especially since it comes at the price of having fragile units.

What I was thinking about is connecting each activation die to a specific squad.

Back in the dark ages, we called that a deck of cards. You made one unit the 2 of Clubs, etc.

You could get extra sophisticated and name a unit the Black Twos…then it got two actions per turn (Move & Fire)