"How Big a Force?" Topic

I am just starting in Bolt Action and thus am just building my forces. My initial idea was to build a company-size force for each troop type i.e. three platoons plus coy HQ and supports. This would give a maximum of 10 infantry units to which elements such as anti-tank guns, mortars, tanks etc. could be added.

Is this too big for a 10 foot x 6 foot table? Are two platoons enough? What do people think?

Try and never fill the table with figures. No matter the scale or table size.

I started with 3 squads of 10, a command group, a valentine tank, and a scout car, as well as an anti tank gun, and a mortar crew. This is 8th army for North Africa.

I built a platoon of US Marines and attached 30 cal. A company seems too large but I will yield to those with more experience with the rules.

Playing WWII in 28mm is always way too big for the table. I started out with Bolt Action in 28mm and moved over to 15mm after 1 year of playing, while also playing more realistic rulesets.

The local tournament uses 1000 point armies. For my Greeks, this works out to a platoon, two extra sections, ab artillery piece, an AT gun, a light tank, and a tankette.

Grelber

One of the things I like about Bolt Action is that it can handle a company a side without too much trouble. I've done it on my 8' x 5' table without it being too crowded, so I think you'd be fine on a 10' x 6' table.

Since it is a dice pull game, more units will slow things down, though, but they don't all have to be on the table at the same time. I like to use a different dice color for each platoon/player, but I've heard of people using a single color per side, but having each platoon activate 1 unit when their side's die is pulled to speed things up in a multi-player game. I don't use points or do tournaments, so I can get away with just more historically accurate OOBs.

Played large and small Bolt Action games and have several armies.

I definitely recommend starting out smaller. A platoon at most with attached supports. 500 points. What you suggest is too much. I have vehicles but find I rarely use them.

Completely agree with the comments so far that for a normal table the recommended one platoon/about 1000 points gives a good game, particularly starting out. We've played a couple of company sized games, but that was with 4-5 on each side and a 16'x 6' table -- and that was absolutely covered with terrain.

Thanks for all the advice. Looks like the best bet is to start with a platoon and work up the force size based on experience.

We play scenario based games of BA, not point based, and have found usually 3 or 4 squads with support (MMG, mortar, maybe sniper or other SW), one vehicle and AT gun will more than fill out a 4x6 table.