"Bolt Action--A Reassessment" Topic

I have never played the game; I have read about it and I have watched parts of turns, but I have never played it. It just didn't look/sound like something I would enjoy.

This past weekend I watched an entire game be played from beginning to end. It was not as deadly as I thought it would be (which is good). I liked it when an amateur pilot bombed/straffed his own troops. There is some obvious gaminess, like keeping an FO on the table just to get an activation dice and, maybe, take pistol pot shots at the enemy. I stll don't like order dice and table markers because I think they detract from the look of any game out there. That said, the game plays better than I thought it would and, depending on the attitude of the players, the rules look easy enough to modify in order to improve the efficiency of MGs, break squads in half in order to have a fire and a maneuver element, eliminate some of the cheese, etc. An accurate simulation of WWII combat? Certainly not. At this stage in my gaming life I don't think I have any interest in playing an accurate simulation of anything; I would rather play a reasonable game and have fun. I am not saying I am "hooked," but I will give them a try with some old gaming friends who are looking to use BA to get into 25mm WWII gaming.

Has anyone converted Bolt Action to other theatres? I'm thinking Back of Beyond type of actions such as The Sand Pebbles.

Heya, 79thPA,

I have been playing a fair amount of Bolt Action, and I am really enjoying it. Like you, I am not so interested in simulation (and this isn't even my favorite period), but the game generally plays very well.

Two things:

I agree with you that there is some "gaminess," but I also find that this doesn't really come up in games with my friends, and house rules are a pretty easy fix. I find that all of the Warlord Games are best with people you like and with whom you have a friendship, and I think that is a nice part of that company. You can see some of my clubs house rules here: link

I also agree with you about the order dice on the table, and I have been thinking that they might not be that necessary. All that is needed is a way to mark activated units, a way to track pin markers, and a way to keep track of units who are down/on Ambush. I have been thinking of modelling solutions to this issue, but I wonder if it is as easy as using a card for each unit, laid out off of the play area, where all of the pin markers and order dice can be kept.

I've enjoyed Bolt Action with my SCW collection. In fact, my group really enjoyed it.

I will be using it as the base engine for my RCW battles in the future and possible WWI East Africa.

One day, I may even play a WWII game with it

I don't play 40K anymore and Bolt Action really fills that niche for me. The release of Tank War allows more than one tank so I can have more 40K style armies.

The points system and army books allows me to spend time chasing the elusive "perfect army" before meeting folks on game night for another losing effort.

The new Bolt Action .Net tournament modifications are step toward fixing the original sins of the First Edition. The only problem is having house rules breaks the universality of being able to show up for a pickup game.

Welcome to the 'flock,' 79thPA. TMP link Games that wish to have any commercial appeal have to strike a balance between 'realism' (accuracy, period detail and flavor, etc.) and playability (i.e. 'gamey-ness'). BA does that admirably and that's why, combined with its availability and strong marketing, it is the leading 28mm WWII skirmish rules.

Last weekend I played in a little 750 pt BA tourney in Melbourne and it was my first foray into any sort of tourney environment despite playing games for nearly 20 years or more.It was easy to pick up the rules and play and understand what was going on. It was allot of fun and out of 12 players only one had a list that seemed a bit cheesey with what he chose, everyone else had chosen a list that was fair and fun to play against. Games we play at home we have split the rifle sections but still only get to use one order dice, so if you split them up somewhere on the table someone is not going to get activated and forces you to really think about who and what to move. A good fun game and already looking at French Indo China , Bush Wars and possible Afghanistan . These rules are allowing younger players to get into historical gaming at a very base level which can only be a good thing for the hobby.Cheers Tom

Bolt Action is certainly a good fun game that's easily played in an evening . once you really learn the rules it's possible to get two games in .
if you're looking for a little more 'realism' check out Chain of Command by Two Fat Lardies . i've only played a couple of games but it has a much less gamey feel to it than BA without taking too much longer to play .

I gotta agree with just about all the comments here. BA is a fast, fun game. Like 79th said, at this stage of my gaming life(started in the 1970's), it's historical enough, easy to pick up & fun.
Peter

I play BA using historically correct size units, thus I can have more than one tank on the board so do not need to buy the Tank War book.
For Platoon size actions it gives a fun game that is easy to pick up.
I do not like the tournament style of play as I have seen some very odd units in the army lists on the BA Forum!

My mate and I played a game with BA, set in Angola, went quite well. 1 Centurion vs 3 T55s, plenty of Ratels and BTR60s, didn't slow the game down or upset the mechanics at all…

I know that the complaint about BA is that is too generic, in a way I find that a strength. I don't have to learn lots of different rules and a firefight is a firefight, is a firefight… (stands back and waits for the criticism…)

That said, I haven't played in a while… 8^(

How do you think BA would suit a near ten year old? He loves games like Zombiecide and Rivet Wars and Memoir 44 – if that gives an idea of complexity. I'm looking for a few squads, the odd tank and light vehicles- would this do the trick?

JezEger – Absolutely; we had a big BA game last week (seven players two umpires)and two girls of 11/12 picked it up no problem. It was a first wargame for one of them, the other has played in big ACW games and some Warhammer, but no WW2.

For those folks trying to break the "GW" habit, you might want to try your 40K models with this Bolt Action mod, called "Bolter Action!"

PDF link

Haven't tried them yet, so I don't know how well they mod works…

Cluttering the table with markers is an no-no for me. If that could be solved I'd be happy to go BA way.

BelgianRay: I picked up a great idea on this site a few weeks ago. Instead of COUNTERS, use a proxy, like small pebbles/rocks to indicate an element's status. You might glue 1,2,or3 to a flocked base to represent various notations.(or just put a pebble next to the figure) Or how about small sticks placed next to your Figures…they would look like logs, and blend in with the rest of the ground clutter, just like the rocks.

79th PA, I've noticed many of the lists have different sized "minimum unit" sizes that work perfectly in your desire for a fire and a maneouver element.

For example, early war troops have minimum unit sizes of ten or more models, which seems to reflect the doctrine at that time. However things like British Paras are 4 models minimum (from the D-Day sourcebook), late war Germans are 5 models, etc. So a "squad" of 10 or 11 models can be represented by two units of 5, giving you a fire and a maneouver element.

Having several smaller units makes a smaller game more dynamic, whereas if you want to play a much larger game then for "ease of play" just use one big squad.