"An "Inspirational Die" For Bolt Action" Topic

I'm playing BA with a complete wargames newbie at the weekend who has a real interest in the history of WW2 and loves the Band of Brother series and especially revere's the role Dick Winters plays in the show.

I've considered adding a House Rule to add a little flavour to the inspirational leadership skills of Winters. Maybe adding to the bag a third die colour (I've red soviet ones I don't use) as well as obviously the two antagonist's ones. The red die representing a one off "inspirational" moment where a unit in Winters range of command gets a second activation. Don't want to make this too much a game changer or unbalanced so perhaps this special moment can only happen if the "inspiration die" is the first or last die chosen of a turn. Or maybe that would restrict its once to some mundane action which would seem to be counter intuitive to what its supposedly representing. Only one "inspiring moment" allowed per game…excluding the many inspiring tactical moments made by myself of course :)

Anyway not sure if anyone has messed with the activation mechanism before but I'd be interested in any thoughts or suggestions.

Also does anyone have recommendations on a BandB based scenario they've perhaps already played?

Thanks in advance

If its a one-time-thing per game, why not give the red die to the player and tell him to save it for a crucial moment? It could sit on the side of the table until used. That way, it would most surely be used when inspiration is truly needed.

What warhawk said. I played my first game of BA yesterday, and found the fact that every unit gets a die to be a little unbalanced for a well trained smaller forces to compete with large hordes of Soviets. I felt that the Germans should get an extra die to simulate their tactical flexibility.
Any thoughts?

why not give the red die to the player and tell him to save it for a crucial moment?

Good point and in fairness probably makes more sense given that its meant to represent an inspirational "seizing the moment" kind of thing but I'm not sure if it might lose a certain dramatic appeal if it could be used at any time…hmmm

I felt that the Germans should get an extra die to simulate their tactical flexibility.

I like that idea and I want to point out that I enjoy the game as it's written but I think I'd like to experiment on something along those lines. Again maybe a different die added to the bag could allow a unit (Tank Ace, Elite Commandos Airborne etc…) to have one extra "mini action" e.g. half a move or a quick shot (-1) something along those lines. Again if it proves too advantageous maybe it only happens if the die is produced at the beginning or ending of a turn.

How about each side that has hidden troops could add a special die (again distinguished by colour) that could be added when troops are "hidden" from enemy sight on the table.

The unit could remain "hidden" as long as it only used a special die to activate (apart from moving into enemy LoS obviously) as long as they used a regular drawn die to go "Down" If the hidden unit activates any other order apart from "Down" on their own regular die they would automatically reveal themselves and lose their special status as well as the "surprise die" As long as they're hidden and not actively spotted they cannot be targeted.

In games where the forces are all that unequal you could make the numbers of dice on both sides the same. The smaller force could then use a die or pass on it, thereby making them far more flexible. Once they had as many dice left as they had units they would then have to activate a unit every time one of their dice is drawn.

We do it with the cards in Eastern Front games of Fireball Forward and it makes the Germans feel like the veterans they were at that point in the war.

Check out the special rules for Sgt. Steiner on Warlord Games website. Wouldn't be too hard to adopt for Dick Winters and no extra dice involved.

I really like that idea Nazrat, providing an option to pass an activation can make a huge advantage at times and any addition to decision making in a game is normally a good thing.

Thanks snurl1 …couldn't find that on the BA website but I'll check again and see is there a search feature

Its in their current newsletter

Here is the link
link

Thanks snurl1! Very interesting tips