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Hey guys. Around 7 of the guys at our club have got into bolt action. Nearly all of these guys are ex 40k players and seem to be getting into historical gaming.

Although I play FoW I am tempted in getting an army for bolt action to join in the fun.

I play British, German and Soviets for FoW and really don't fancy duplicating stuff in bolt action. Therefore I am thinking of going for a US airborne list but really want to take an Easy 8 can these be in the same list? I am not sure how flexible bolt action is compared to FoW.

Is there any other lists or forces that are totally different to FoW?

Well from my experience the only important thing to keep in mind is that you need a balance between troopers and their backup, whatever units you use and whatever your army theme is. However, bolt action is a skirmish game with much fewer mi is and especially vehicules than some other rulesets.

Bolt Action has a very unit type based force organization that will look fairly familiar to 40K players. The base game doesn't care if you have one unit from 1939 mixed with something only really available in 1945.

My general advice to new players is to have at least 4 squads of infantry made up of at least 8 men if Regular morale and at least 6 if Veteran (what paratroopers are).

I also always tell new players that Bolt Action is very much an infantry game. Tanks are fun, and I usually include one in my list, but they tend not to win games and sometimes hinder a list as they are more points than they are worth.

Here is a quick example list of what I can do with what you are asking for:

Officer: 2nd LT + 1man (Vet) 78 pts
Infantry: Paratroopers (late war), (Vet) 8 men, 1 SMG, 7 Rifles 115 pts
Infantry: Paratroopers (late war), (Vet) 8 men, 1 SMG, 7 Rifles 115 pts
Infantry: Paratroopers (late war), (Vet) 8 men, 1 SMG, 7 Rifles 115pts
Infantry: Paratroopers (late war), (Vet) 8 men, 1 SMG, 7 Rifles 115 pts
Medic: Medic (Vet) 30 pts
Mortar: Light (paratrooper) 46 points
Sniper: Sniper Team (Vet) +2 SMGs 71 points
Tank: M4 Sherman 76mm + Pintle MMG (Reg) 250 pts

935 points, 9 Order Dice

I went with the 2nd Lt to save points as your list is almost entirely Veterans and should be capable of staying unpinned. With the spare points, you could upgrade the officer to a 1st Lt to ensure passing orders tests and to make sure to activate a couple of units at the same time.

The actual paratrooper squads are a little bare bones of 8 men with the NCO having an SMG. With the spare points you could add some more SMGs to at least a couple of the squads to add an assault element to your force. Additionally, you could add a LMG or BAR to them. Bolt Action still hasn't quite made the squad LMG a good expenditure of points yet, but it not obviously terrible anymore. Personally, while you have the option to take a BAR (and they are still a little too good) I wouldn't as they just don't feel very airborne to me.

I added a Medic mostly for the extra Order Die, but also because I can't make a United States list without one.

Of all the units in the list, the light paratrooper mortar is the least useful. I have never had much luck with light mortars (but I really like medium mortars with a spotter). It is fairly thematic and might keep static units from getting too comfortable though.

The sniper might seem a little not historic for the United States, but I always consider them scouts/look-outs/marksmen. In game, I find snipers to be a good counter to a lot of stuff and good to have around. The SMGs are nice on them as they offer a little close range and assault protection.

Finally, the Easy 8, Bolt Action doesn't get super technical with their units so I believe the game just treats it as a 76mm M4. I gave it a pintle mounted MMG to increase the number of attacks three (main gun/co-axil MG, hull mounted MG, and now pintle MG). Realistically, I think the easy 8 is a bit of a boondoggle for a paratrooper list as you don't have many points to spare. However, a Bolt Action medium tank with heavy gun (how Bolt Action basically categories all vehicles) is still on my useful to point cost list. Where as a heavy tank, with heavy gun is too expensive in Bolt Action. Given that Bolt Action is an infantry game, the 105mm howitzer easy 8 would be better, but I don't think that is why you are taking it.

I tried to create a 1000 point list with a 100 or so points for you to tailor it. But paratroopers and tanks eat up points fast. You could lower the paratrooper cost my going early war which gets rid of Stubborn (which makes Morale tests much easier). You could also try to find the points to increase the m4 to Veteran which removes the plenty to move and shoot for the United States on most AT guns, but that puts a lot of eggs into one basket to be blown up or pinned out.

Thanks guys,

I have ordered the US army book to have a read and see what I can come up with.