Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Bad things I've noticed:

Some typos. Including some errors in the points values for some things. Maybe three or four total. For example, it sort of sounds like German LMGs are 20 points for either one or two, when it should be 20 points each like every other army.

Close combat removes all pinning markers. Yes, one side or the other will be wiped out, but despite going through a grueling close assault either as the attacker or the defender, the survivor will always end the combat without any pinning markers. If this bothers the people playing, I'd say just leave them on the units. That's a house rule i'll probably use.

The issue mentioned above where you can't assault into rough terrain because you can't run in rough terrain. Rick Priestly has posted on the Warlord forums that if you do an assault and you move through rough terrain, your assault range is 6" rather than 12".

Well the Germans did have better & more numerous MG support, especially early in the war, so that MIGHT not be a typo

Yeah. Instead they have the "Hitler's Buzzsaw" special rule that gives German MGs more shots. They're still 20 points each.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just wanted to add:

For those who care what a book reads like, Bolt Action is very conversational in its language. It's an easy read that sort of draws you in. You get the sense it's the authors inviting you to try their game.

No index, but the table of contents is quite good and everything is where it should be in the rules and any time it's needed, there's a page reference to other pages.

Did they borrow the ridiculous no "premeasuring" thing from 40k?

Yes. Yes they did.

I suppose that's another negative to some, positive to others. For myself, I've been playing Warmachine so long I can estimate ranges really, really accurately.

Waffen SS and US Airborn now have army deals

German Army book up on pre order





And a Bolt Action starter set is also on Pre Order

Bolt Action: Assault on Normandy contains:
Full-colour 216-page hardback Bolt Action rulebook
40 multi-pose, hard plastic 28mm miniatures:
20 US Army infantry
20 German Heer infantry
1 hard plastic Ruined Farmhouse
8 Bolt Action Orders Dice

How do these figures scale up with other WW2 28mm range ones?

SO far I'm all in. That Pegasus Bridge, and A Bridge too Far Campaign is on the way!!!!


Do they have 88's yet?

Oh great, I ordered the BA rulebook two days ago and now they're unveiling a starter set?

 Grot 6 wrote:
How do these figures scale up with other WW2 28mm range ones?

Well the main compliant about the WL plastic is that their weapons are quite small compared to metal ranges. TMP might have some more info on this

 frozenwastes wrote:
I'll be playing this tomorrow at a local club gaming day. It looks promising.

I like 20mm/1:72 plastics for WW2 rather than 28mm. There are way, way more 1:72 vehicle, gun emplacement and equipment kits in 1:72 than in 28mm.

With this being a joint Osprey production, I'm gathering it won't be any more married to 28mm Bolt Action miniatures than Hail Caesar! and Black Powder were to 28mm miniatures.

Probably my favorite thing about historicals is that the rules have to stand on their own merit and the miniatures have to stand on their own merit because there are multiple sources for each and you can mix and match your favorites easily.

This is getting to be more and more the case with fantasy and sci-fi as well.

I love 20mm/ 1/72 WWII.

Unfortunately it's does not seem at that popular where I live let alone the US. Seems like the only scales people will game with in WWII is 15mm (thanks to FoW) or 28mm (at least now). Some of the older guys like to play 10mm.

Maybe PSC will make 1/72 a bit more popular than it is.

I've actually decided to switch to 15mm for Bolt Action. I want to be able to play against those with Flames of War armies who might want to give it a try.

 frozenwastes wrote:
I've actually decided to switch to 15mm for Bolt Action. I want to be able to play against those with Flames of War armies who might want to give it a try.

Well BA is not really supporting multi based infantry stands ala FoW!
To fully play BA you should consider to individually base your 15mm soldiers.

I look forward to this...

 scipio.au wrote:
Frankly, I'll be waiting for Soviet infantry to go plastic before I buy any.

It sounds like a small scale WW2 Miniatures game using 28mm figures. Essentially a smallish, more relaxed WW2 40k-ish game, not requiring too many models. Which, yes, is what some people want. Like me. I can't be bothered finishing the painting of my 1/100 DAK force - it's been shelved for about 8 years because the infantry was tedious as all hell.

I don't know if you were aware but WIP plastic Soviet Infantry were shown by Warlord at Salute this year.

Meaning a general release next year most likely, as their US plastics also took a year or so from the showing of the greens to be released.

alphaecho wrote:

I don't know if you were aware but WIP plastic Soviet Infantry were shown by Warlord at Salute this year.

I didn't know that - thanks!

alphaecho wrote:


I don't know if you were aware but WIP plastic Soviet Infantry were shown by Warlord at Salute this year.

Awesome.

AAN wrote:

 frozenwastes wrote:
I've actually decided to switch to 15mm for Bolt Action. I want to be able to play against those with Flames of War armies who might want to give it a try.

Well BA is not really supporting multi based infantry stands ala FoW!
To fully play BA you should consider to individually base your 15mm soldiers.

Yep. My 15mm will be individually based.

If the opponent has them on FoW bases, we'll just stat them up with the exact equipment they have and put markers on them as needed for casaulties. Battle reports are starting to pop up where people did exactly that and found it worked fine.

Or you can use these with some blu-tac:

Oh, I'm not going to use them also for Flames of War. I don't like the model count required for that game, nor the segregated IGOUGO turn structure. I just want to be able to invite people who have FoW armies to try Bolt Action out if they want.

 frozenwastes wrote:

AAN wrote:

 frozenwastes wrote:
I've actually decided to switch to 15mm for Bolt Action. I want to be able to play against those with Flames of War armies who might want to give it a try.

Well BA is not really supporting multi based infantry stands ala FoW!
To fully play BA you should consider to individually base your 15mm soldiers.

Yep. My 15mm will be individually based. If the opponent has them on FoW bases, we'll just stat them up with the exact equipment they have and put markers on them as needed for casaulties. Battle reports are starting to pop up where people did exactly that and found it worked fine.

You will eventually encounter some problems as soon as area/blast weapons target the really close bunched FoW infantry stand based minis, so some houserules will be necessary.
Individully based squads tend to be more spreadout and therefore more difficult to get.
Still a worthy endeavour IMO!

My own system Victory Decision was designed with individully based minis in mind, I integrated some rules to overcome the above problems.
This worked so fine that right now FoB style based 15mm games are my favourite!

AAN wrote:

You will eventually encounter some problems as soon as area/blast weapons target the really close bunched FoW infantry stand based minis, so some houserules will be necessary.
Individully based squads tend to be more spreadout and therefore more difficult to get.

Umm. No.

Bolt Action uses no templates for blast/area weapons. Squads are targeted and squads take a certain number of hits based on a roll of the dice.

 frozenwastes wrote:

AAN wrote:

You will eventually encounter some problems as soon as area/blast weapons target the really close bunched FoW infantry stand based minis, so some houserules will be necessary.
Individully based squads tend to be more spreadout and therefore more difficult to get.

Umm. No.

Bolt Action uses no templates for blast/area weapons. Squads are targeted and squads take a certain number of hits based on a roll of the dice.

Right, but in some cases it does matter which model is hit and killed. On a multi-base, you need to be able to indicate when the LMG guy is no longer there, and the 15s make it hard to see actual armament easily.

The other downside to multi-model basing is that you need additional chits/markers: order die, casualties inflicted, pinning markers, and then a way to indicate when a particular model is removed. It makes the board look very cluttered with all the markers.

I think 20mm is the way to go comparing cost, aesthetic on the table (versus space to play), and ease of seeing the armament of the models.

Other than that, the game is very easy to pick up and gives a good game.

It's one extra marker near or on a model on a base.

What a small inconvenience in order to be able to play against anyone with a FoW army.

So far everyone who has used Bolt Action with their existing Flames of War collection and reported back (be it on boltaction.net, TMP or on blogs) has reported no real issues with integrating the multi-model bases.

I'm still going to base my own collection individually, but it's not some huge hassle for me to invite FoW players to give the game a try with their existing collection.

I understand AAN has a commercial interest in poking holes in the idea in order to sell his own Victory Decision game, but why is anyone else making a mountain out of this molehill?

AAN's not exactly poking holes in the idea. I found his post to be pretty supportive, actually.

The first post, absolutely. The 2nd was strange though, with getting the game rules wrong to present a problem and then offer an alternative rules set as the solution.

 frozenwastes wrote:
The first post, absolutely. The 2nd was strange though, with getting the game rules wrong to present a problem and then offer an alternative rules set as the solution.

Well my 2nd post was based on an older version of the rules and was simply wrong! But please do not read any malice into everything...

I just received the actual rulebook these days and now fully see your point, the random number of dice rule for area weapons solved any problems I mentioned elegantly. So no issue when playing against multibased infantry units.

On a side note - I also have commercial interests in BA... I want this one to succeed too. Rick and Alessio are splendid guys and a pleasure to work with!
(I am already involved in this game too)

I've not played Bolt Action yet, but I do skirmish in 15mm. It's easy and cheap because essentially all you need is a single platoon blister pack. I base them on pennies.

For something like Bolt Action, designed for 28mm, I just half all distances.

Yeah, this thread has been tempting me to do just that.

For something like Bolt Action, designed for 28mm, I just half all distances.

And not even this is necessary IMO, the ranges just look more realistic with 15mm models!
24" Rifle range for a 15mm mini - fine to me!