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Recently I've stumbled across bolt action miniatures and they look great was wondering if there is a good start point ?
A couple of other questions I have;

1. Can you use games workshop paints?

2. What rulebook would I need?

3. What makes for a better game bolt action or flames of war ?

Thanks once again guys

You can use any paints you want, however, you can probably find colors accurate to history with the Vallejo line.

You need the Bolt Action rulebook, and the army book for for whatever nation you want to play.

Whether you want to play FoW or Bolt Action is up to whether you to play platoon level games at 28mm, or FoW at company level with 15mm models.

I would say both are good games, however I prefer FoW because it's a tighter, better balanced, and more fleshed out rules system.

Bolt Action has some growing pains so wait on 2nd edition.

1. You can use whatever paints you want and whatever is suitable to the army you want.

2:

 Vertrucio wrote:


You need the Bolt Action rulebook, and the army book for for whatever nation you want to play.

Broadly true, but the base rulebook contains lists for Germans, American, Brits and Russians, theyre just not as detailed as the full army books. So you can get the main rulebook and then decide if you like the game/army youve chosen.

3:

Whether you want to play FoW or Bolt Action is up to whether you to play platoon level games at 28mm, or FoW at company level with 15mm models.

I would say both are good games, however I prefer FoW because it's a tighter, better balanced, and more fleshed out rules system.

Bolt Action has some growing pains so wait on 2nd edition.

As said, its a scale thing. Though you CAN play BA with 15mm, few people in my experience actually do.
Personally, i wouldnt say that FoW was any better balanced or fleshed out, its a mish mash of rulebooks all over the option in my opinion but thats entirely subjective. BA does need some rules tweeks but there is nothing game breaking in there and of the two, BA is by far the more affordable. In any case, I doubt there will be a 2nd ed for a good few years yet.

BA is pretty easy to learn and the game moves pretty fast. FoW rules are more complicated and I think slower. I prefer the 28mm miniatures as I enjoy painting and 15mm just doesn't cut it for me. There is also a plethora of companies who produce both troopers and vehicles, although the same can be said for FoW. BA is more small scale, involving a platoon with a few squads and a couple vehicles, FoW involves full armies.

D-Day Firefight is a great place to start if you wish to play either Germans or Americans. BA is also cheaper than FoW in the long run, especially if you are buying official FoW models.

Having played both, I prefer Bolt Action. It's simple, fun, you can get as historical (or as ahistorical) as you want, and the minis are cheap and plentiful.

You can use any paints - I have Army Painter, Vallejo, and Citadel/GW.

My advice would be to start with the game that most people around you are playing but don't rule out playing both.

Although I have criticisms of both games, I generally prefer Bolt Action and find that FOW is rather complicated.

Either way you choose I strongly urge you to buy WW2 miniatures as they are a priceless investment that will always have a use regardless of what rule set is currently popular. You can also rest assured that the storyline will never be advanced and your models rendered obsolete!

Both games have GREAT starter sets that contain the rules and both German and American forces, so if you do go down this road look into D-Day Firefight (Bolt Action) or Open Fire! (Flames of War).

 Strombones wrote:
My advice would be to start with the game that most people around you are playing but don't rule out playing both.

Although I have criticisms of both games, I generally prefer Bolt Action and find that FOW is rather complicated.

Either way you choose I strongly urge you to buy WW2 miniatures as they are a priceless investment that will always have a use regardless of what rule set is currently popular. You can also rest assured that the storyline will never be advanced and your models rendered obsolete!

Both games have GREAT starter sets that contain the rules and both German and American forces, so if you do go down this road look into D-Day Firefight (Bolt Action) or Open Fire! (Flames of War).

Or, if you like tanks, the Armoured Fury box set is an insanely good deal (contains 3 Shermans, 2 Panthers, rulebook, Tank War book, order dice, pin tokens)

I would not recommend going heavy on tanks for bolt action. That is one of the weak areas for the game. The tank war book does not fix that.

Also, I still recommend buying an army book because the generic lists in the main rulebook are less complete and out of date. But you can at least start trying the rules this way.

FoW is actually easy to learn, the only complexity is that they bother to flesh out rules sections covering complex special cases.

But the strongest argument is still what scale you want to play at. While you see people recommend playing them at whatever scale, and that is valid, it is still better to play with models close to the scale the designer has in mind, or smaller.

D-Day Firefight is unquestionably the place to start. You get everything you need to start playing, including some terrain.

http://www.warlordgames.com/new-bolt-action-starter-set-d-day-firefight/

Agreed. This could be you soon...