Learning Bolt Action Part Three: Playing the Game

For those who have read my previous on my  (BA) journey, I have just completed my first few BA games in a tourney at the NOVA open. This article will focus on my overall experience in learning Bolt Action and my impressions of the game in general.

With typical beginner luck, I lost my first game 0-4, tied the next game 4-4 and got wiped out in my last game. After a long day of thinking on my feet, playing an unfamiliar ruleset, I walked away from my last game tired. But I loved every minute of play.

Bolt Action has been out since the early Twenty-teens (German 1st Edition Book published in 2012). I have no clue as to how I missed it for so long.

The game uses dice to activate your units. Each unit provides one order die. Each player throws a set of uniquely colored order dice into a bag. One per unit in your force. A die is blindly drawn, and the player to whom the die belongs gets to activate a unit. This mechanic is at the heart of the game, and the random simulation of the “vagaries of the battlefield” effect it provides is one reason, I believe, why the game is so good.

Each time a hand goes into the bag (mine is a Crown Royal bag) a little bit of suspense comes to the table. Each die that is picked requires a decision and that player has to factor in so many variables. Do you move a unit that can be assaulted without returning fire? Do you try to pull back a unit that has overextended itself? Do you try to make a move to win the game or capitalize on a mistake your opponent just made? Each order die changes the dynamic of the game. One player could draw several order dice in a row, have to act early in the turn, and then be left at the mercy of his opponent’s dice at the end of the turn. This randomization is what makes it so much fun for me.

In BA you take over the role of a platoon commander in World War II. Your platoon can have some very meaty support (tanks, guns, etc.). You have to decide how you will use this unit’s capabilities and when you will use them.

How to synchronize your force’s capabilities and how you will use them to win the game is not as simple as it seems. While the mechanics of this game are easy to learn, I can tell this game is hard to master. Even if you chose not to master it, you can still have fun.

In the game against Turhan Buckely’s (the player who helped me design my list) Japanese force, my force was pretty much wiped out. Still, I felt that I was dishing out as much punishment as I was taking.

A game of Bolt Action portrays a small scale infantry fight and does so excellently for a table-top game. While you can have a tank or armored cars on your list, I found out how brittle they are on the BA table. My Cromwell got knocked out in each game, as did my Universal Carrier. In future lists I make I may stay away from taking so many vehicles (I had three on my 1250 point list) and focus on units that can get shots on my enemy.

I played against two German lists in my first two games, the first was a Fallschirmjager unit and the second was a Heer list. Both seemed super accurate to what a German platoon would have and how they would be formed. Even Turhan’s Japanese were organized historically correct, and those “Human Bombs” he had had my Cromwell running, literally.

With so many nations represented in BA, and so many choices in them I feel this game really does a great job in giving the player a real feel of WWII. While Turhan did tell me of some OP lists that are frowned upon (i.e. Gurkha’s), I did not see any list that broke the historical framework this game is set in. It is a great WWII game unless you love tanks.

One tactic that made WW2 and modern games popular is the tank, where you can mass them and roll over your enemy. However, tanks acting without infantry support do not live long. Wars are won by the soldier with a rifle moving forward even today.

Bolt Action give both Tank-centric and Infantry-centric focuses in a slightly different variation of the game. In addition to the regular infantry force (with vehicles, both armoured and soft-skinned) game of Bolt Action, players who love their armor can play Tank Battle, which is BA with tank forces.

I always have loved fighting the infantry’s battles in games. Most often,  I play infantry based lists, including a few all infantry lists in modern games. I believe the infantry fight gives a better feel of WW2 combat. Bolt Action does a great job in bringing this fight to your table.

Moving your troops into the open without suppressing the enemy (via pinning) can be bloody in real battles. Bolt Action does a good job of simulating fire and maneuver. Like all other games, it still does not 100% replicate actual tactics, though, it does a good enough job so you get the idea of how actual tactics work.

Back to my games at NOVA.

My first ever game of BA was played against Kent. He was a good teacher, and gentle on the newbie. Even though I read and re-read the rules, reading the concepts behind the rules is no comparison to seeing them executed in a game. Each mission in this event was created by the Tournament Organizer.  I could get victory points for killing enemy units and exiting my forces on the opposite side of the table.

Since I scored VPs for getting units to the far side, and off the table, I considered a mad-dash with my jeep for an easy VP. Kent said that was a standard tactic. However, I felt it was way too gamey. In this game, I learned that tanks are brittle and artillery is not really something to count on.

Ranging in begins on a 6+. Each subsequent turn, that drops by one (5+, then 4+. etc) until a successful attempt is achieved. Units tend to move away from a ranged-in area as quickly as possible. My mortars never scored a hit in all of my games.

Fortunately, the Brits get a free artillery observer to call in a bombardment from off-board guns. Unfortunately, vagaries of the battlefield occurred when my free observer did get a strike to come in. My own shells landed on my Polish Paras, who were already having a tough time.

My second game was against Dave, another newbie. Despite this being only his second game as well, he taught me several lessons. I learned what not to do in this game, such as moving in the open. When I did so, Dave punished me. Dave’s Puma also took out my Cromwell early in the game. The one bright note was how my flame team fried a German squad Dave was moving up on my forces.

In the third game, I played Turhan (who will be a feature writer/podcaster for Bolt Action on NDNG). In that game, he just rolled me. The Japanese units were just taking shot after shot on my force. Each of his two captured Stuart tanks was pumping out 24 plus shots turn after turn. Also, the Japanese force does not run away. You have to kill them to a man. In this game, my force was doomed.

I did, however, learn more of what my force can do during this game. Tactics such as using my inept mortar to target units that are sitting still. This forces their player to choose between taking another turn of shootings at my troops, or moving and forcing my mortar to begin the ranging in process at 6+ again. I also learned I could have deployed some of my units better.

During the game, Turhan had his Human Bomb teams chasing my Cromwell. It did seem odd that I was running away instead of just opening up on my pursuers. Imagine a big scary tank running away from infantry instead of fighting. While it seems funny now, at the time it frustrated me,

In hindsight, I know that unsupported tanks do not tend to live long (have you heard this before?), so I accepted the fact that in this game tanks do not rule the field.

So after a full day of playing Bolt Action, I walked away impressed.

My mind was already thinking of list tweaks and how I can find a place to get some more games in. Perhaps the best recommendations I could give to Bolt Action is that I plan to play this game regularly for the near future.