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Hi all. I started playing Warhammer 40K last year, and I've gotten pretty burnt out on it. A buddy of mine mentioned wanting to try out Bolt Action, so I'm doing some research on the game. I was hoping folks here could help me out a bit.

My question is, is there any major difference in terms of how each nation plays its forces? For example, I'm interested in both Imperial Japan and Germany during the WWII era. However, I do not know how these two armies perform on the table. Is there a website somewhere that explains how each army is played, what their strengths and weaknesses are? Or barring that, could someone simply explain it here, please.

Thank you.

Edit: I don't want to seem greedy by asking this. But, I'd love to hear what the strengths/weaknesses are of every army, actually.

Well as i seem to be a battlegroup fanboy these days i would suggest you take a look at some of the offer WW2 rule sets out there. Bolt action has some serious issues in my mind, and vehicles are fairly broken in it, very little point in ever taking heavy tanks as they are to easy to kill for the huge points cost.

However difference in how sides play, well although it might be historical 'lite' a bit of looking into the strengths that the various forces had in reality can help.

German armies tend to be very flexible, from elite troops like panzer lehr and other long serving veterans to cobbled together units of Volksturm, you have a real good mixture of general infantry to choose to from.

You have a good selection of support, but you also get the bane of many allied commanders the panzer faust, a disposable short ranged anti tank weapon that allows a general squad to threaten armour effectively. You will also find yourself with access to a fair bit of LMG and HMG support even within your infantry squads.

The Germans also get infamous big cats like Tiger, Tiger II and Panther, however because of the way vehicles work you would never use these in a points based game as the Panzer VI works out almost as effective in many ways for a fraction of the cost.

However the best place to look is here, they offer a break down of what to expect from the various armies books and what strengths of each side are.

Germany http://www.boltaction.net/2012/10/armies-of-germany-review.html

Britain http://www.boltaction.net/2013/02/armies-of-great-britain.html

Soviet Union http://www.boltaction.net/2013/03/armies-of-soviet-union.html

United States http://www.boltaction.net/2012/12/armies-of-united-states.html

I would also add, that if you and that friend are looking to get others involved then one of you building a German force would be a good idea, as they are the opposition for three other army lists.

Gern

The late war Germans are chronically short of petrol and supplies, which limits the scope of their operations and tends to allow for only defensive actions. They are are generally understrength at all levels, with the troop quality of their units rather low, except for a few formations that get all the headlines and create a false impression of the effectiveness of their forces.

The Japanese eat their prisoners.

See, this is a little disappointing. My wargaming experience is with Warhammer 40K, and I've managed to pick some pretty weak armies for myself and have been punished for it during games. I really would like to try the Germans, but, I don't want to get stuck with the 'weakest' of the armies again.

Is Germany a poor choice for a beginner? I don't need the strongest army.. I just don't want to begin with a major handicap.

I wouldn't say any of the armies are particularly weaker than any of the others they just have different strengths, personally i think that it should be more about playing the army you want and having fun not picking the army that always wins because then it just takes the fun out of the game.

Lewis

Well, I'm not trying for the 'strongest' army. :p I just don't want to get shafted by picking something that pales in comparison to the other armies. For example in 40K, my Orks are vastly outclassed now by the new army codexes. I didn't want a repeat of that in Bolt Action.

With Historical games you don't experience the 'codex creep' of WFB/40K. Warlord can't just invent a new supertank for the Germans for instance.

Fair enough.

I don't know that there are particularly strong variations between the armies in game. Each comes with a couple of advantages that can be played to plus some unique or specific units that can be good.

The Germans have a really good mix of half-tracks that can bring many different strengths to the field. They've also got a good mix of weapons and elite troops. British have the nasty Churchill Crocodile flame tank and good artillery support. The Americans have good, all-round Sherman tanks and air support. The Russians can bring lots of troops plus versatile guns on many platforms (can fire as anti-infantry howitzers or anti-tank guns).

As others have said, it's more down to who you want to play rather than who is stronger or weaker. I've put the basic special rules below and they all have different advantages. My friend and I have played a number of games from the starter box (20 US vs 20 German) and we found there was no massive advantage each way. Sometimes the US mobility was a winner and sometimes the German machine guns just put down too much lead.

If you go German, I don't think you'll feel at all like you are handicapped by them. Stick to the infantry for a few games and avoid heavy tanks at first since they are big point sinks and won't do so much against troops.

Most of all, have fun :-)

Pete


Special rules in the basic book are:

Germany:
1 - An additional shot for infantry light and medium machine guns to represent the high ROF for the MG-42
2 - A 4+ chance to save the NCO if he is killed to represent the initiative and command skills many German soldiers had.

US:
1 - Move and fire with no penalty to represent lots of ammo and a mobile infantry strategy.
2 - Two airstrikes allowed by Forward Observers to represent air superiority.

Britain:
1 - Free artillery observer to represent lots of guns :-)
2 - Roll twice on the pre-battle bombardment chart for the same reason as above.

Soviet:
1 - Free 11 man inexperienced squad with all the options you have models for to represent manpower.
2 - Reroll any morale (leadership) tests that would cause the unit to be destroyed to represent the dedication to the motherland.

Little Pete sums things up rather neatly.

The main point to consider with this game is that, as Salad Fingers mentions, Bolt Action is a very "lite" historical game.

Really, it is a simple table-top game that happens to use WW2 armies for color - don't get hung up on what marielle wrote, because you won't ever deal with those limitations in a standard game.

I've ordered a 1000 points of Japanese for this. I played a demo game yesterday and loved it watch the demo game on Beasts of War, and you'll see how easy it is.

I think tactics play a bigger part than how each force plays, a few bad dice rolls and bad decisions will easily make a "superior" force in this game lose

It seems a lot more balanced

It looks like I'll be splitting the Normandy box with a buddy. (Getting the Germans)

We left our list of stuff we want at our local game store, just waiting for one more person to confirm what they want.. then they'll place the order. I'm very excited.

Really appreciate all the help and advice here!

Glad to help and I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with the game. Try it out with other people in your FLGS as I think quite a few people will jump at it. I've converted two people from GW players into BA aficionados after just a game or two.

Enjoy and post more about your experiences :-)

All the best

Pete

Depends what you are looking for in a game. I played today and its a brilliant system for what it is - namely a simple, fun and quick tactical system designed to make you think carefully about how you plan your turn.
It is not a terribly 'tournament friendly' system as its written in a 'beer and pretzels' style of writing. My view is that a lot of people moaning about BA are those who want a lawyer proof set of tournament rules and who perhaps spend too much time on the meta game (people over on one forum came up with a 96 dice standard list), while there are huge complaints from a tiny minority that you can 'only' take 12 dice (e.g. 12 units) in a Warlord tournamnet to speed up play. Apparently the favoured technique in some areas is to build huge armies of little units and dice spam, which seems utterly boring to play against.

Play two balanced forces of about 1000pts in a game scenario (say 8-10 units per side) and you'll find that skill and tactics is far more important than a power army. Its a brilliant game for an evenings skirmish, but dont try to see it as a 40K tournamnet replacement and you wont be disapointed!