"Play balance by points" Topic

BA games have equal forces fighting over balanced ground. This kind of flies in the face of normal gaming, where attackers have more forces to concentrate on defenders, and defenders have terrain advantages.

But one problem I have with games where huge amounts of infantry and tanks are attacking is that of artillery. A huge force attracts lots of artillery. Too many games have dozens of tanks parked hub to hub rolling forward, and infantry moving like a carpet of soldiers. A barrage would be much more effective if there was no way to miss.

So matching up the attacker vs the defender as equal in force isn't as inaccurate as tripling the number of toys on table. Victory for the attacker may be simply to fix the defender, wear them a little, and then step aside as the next wave hits them.

What is the advantage of the attacker? They can focus their units and move with a plan, the defender has to cover lots of avenues of approach, wasting strength that won't come into play because of the shortness of the games, and the defender has to react to the attackers moves. The attacker has the initiative which can be a potent weapon.

Your thoughts?

You posted on Bolt Action. You might see 2 tanks, total, on the table.

Get back to us when you come up with a game that has "dozens" of tanks hub to hub.

Even Flames of War doesn't have "dozens".

Winston, have you ever seen an FOW tournament?

I've witnessed about 20 FoW games and in most of them at least one side has had at least a dozen armored vehicles and some times several dozen facing off against several other dozen. A buddy is talking about his TY game with over 30 BTRs.

Then the opponent isn't using air and artillery properly.
I play FoW. I punish crowding.

In any event, this thread was posted to Bolt Action. Not Flames of War.

And refers to 'BA' in the original post.

Played in one Bolt Action Tank War game, even then I think there was 8-10 German tanks to 12-15 Russian tanks. Played in 28mm on a 5x8 table.
Tanks were pretty spaced out trying to cover each others lanes of fire, while leapfrogging from cover to cover trying to avoid tank hunters.
Was one of the better BA games I took part in.

My thoughts specifically about this in Bolt Action? Artillery can, and often does, ‘miss' it's target no mater how densely packed they are. 2x3 times the forces on a Bolt Action table means you probably can't fit everything on the table at once. Rarely have I had a unit that hasn't gotten a shot because it was positioned wrong. The tables are so small that unless you're overwhelming the table with LOS blocking terrain, and therefore hampering the attacker as well and most likely actually funneling them into clearly defined kill zones, there's SOME shot they can take even if it's a bad one.

Bolt Action isn't the type of game for even this level of in depth analysis. Tables are small, games are short and (hopefully) bloody. The game does really well with simple 1:1 matchups, even in attacker/defender scenarios.

Grumpsh, do folks in your area play like that? I've never seen BA games with hub to hub tanks. But local metas are, well, local.

Also note that nothing in Bolt Action precludes ignoring points and lists, you can just set up scenario games however you like. That is my preferred way to play. I just build historical units and only shake them out into lists and points to make it easier to bring my toys and go play with others.

I also enjoy playing as written and appreciate that the lists and points make the game so much more accessible to folks who don't have the research inclinations and library that I have.

This seems to have gotten off about tanks, I really refer to all the units. One platoon in attack is given x amount to cover. Putting two platoons in one platoons space doesn't work well, and just makes it a better target.

The game is very short in time, so the normal idea of a victory is not as relevant. If you run all their forces off the board in real live its a gain of a few hundred meters.

So playing equal amounts of force with simple victory conditions, like giving out more damage than taken, are realistic.