The Winner’s Circle: Jesse’s Polish Partisans
By Aaron Kamakawiwoole
Hey Reader!
I had a chance to sit down with Jesse Marcelo (the 2025 Bolt Action Maryland State Runner-Up) to discuss the unique army he took to the event.
Sporting a Polish Partisans list (with Partisans being one of the armies in the new edition that people seem to be most displeased with since they lost so many of the tricks and unique elements that made them interesting), Jesse finished the day 3-0, with his final win being against me (the previous Maryland State Champion from last year).
The list performed really well, even though it defined conventions, so I sat down with Jesse to chat about what went into his choice of army. Take it away, Jesse!
A: So, Partisans! What made you pick them for the event? Was it a current painting project? Something you’ve run before but felt would do well with the scenarios?
J: I had only actually gotten the partisans on the table top once before this tournament. They were fresh off the painting desk and I mostly just wanted to show them off!
A: Congratulations on Best Painted! And well deserved: anything specific that guided your artistic finish to the army?
J: I actually originally decided on the Warsaw Uprising Home Army as my next project because I stumbled across the incredible resource that is the Warsaw Uprising Photo Library. It is an incredible collection of thousands of photos from during and after the uprising and I would highly recommend taking a look at it to anyone interested in the subject.
Painting partisans turned out to be a very enjoyable challenge. No single model is the same so it was a lot of fun to just try new combinations of colors and clothing on each model. The actual participants in the uprising had an incredible mix of stolen gear, old polish uniforms, various civilian uniforms, and just every day clothes so trying to match that was a key driving force behind many of my painting decision.
The biggest challenge was trying to keep a consistent vibe across the entire force so I tried to maintain a very earthy color pallet for all the models to match the overarching stolen camo smocks theme.
A: Conventional wisdom says armored transports and armored vehicles (probably Regular) for vehicles, but naturally Partisans run into issues (limited to inexperienced vehicles, and possibly Unreliable if armored). Did you feel like your soft-skinned transports and attack vehicles worked? Were they better than more infantry?
J: I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t wish I had a little more armored support, but once I got my head around the short lived nature of my soft skinned howitzer and aa trucks they really became assets.
While their actual effect on target was rarely felt (except for my second game where the howitzer truck brought down a building on a squad of commandos!) they often had opponents taking shots at them with their more powerful dangerous units instead of dumping them into my arguably more dangerous infantry or support units.
At the end of the day if someone’s wasting a squad or tank shooting at my 44pt AA truck and neglects to shoot my veteran SMG squad closing in that’s a net win for me.
A: You ran a Recce Platoon! How did you feel it performed? Better than trying to take, say, an Artillery platoon? Another rifle platoon?
J: I swear by Recce Platoons and bring them to every tournament I go to; I look at it as a 10pt get out of jail free card. I think they work best with armored transports carrying high point units, and just provide a little bit more certainty that your SMG squad or veteran rush gets where you want them to go.
You really can never go wrong with a Recce platoon, I just wish they would let me take a sniper in them because that just feels thematic!
(A: fun story: the Zurn Mission Pack, which I designed, actually does allow for a sniper in the Recce Platoon)
A: Anything you’d recommend for potential new Partisan players? It’s not one you see near the top in most tournaments, so if you have any tips, I’m all ears!
J: What I found that partisans excel at more than any other army is backing your opponent into a corner where they are forced to make lose-lose choices. Every partisan unit is just about as deadly as any other partisan unit.
Make your opponent choose if they are shooting at your SMG team closing in or your AA truck sitting in the back, the Piat team sprinting up the flank or the veterans and their Panzer Faust moving up right behind them. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice units by making them tempting targets so that they draw fire and let other units get closer.
At the end of the day no matter what choice your opponents makes, the unit they didn’t choose to shoot is on its way to take a chunk out of them!
Truly, it was a pleasure to play against you, Jesse! And a 2nd place finish well-deserved: you did a great job all-around in our match, and I suspect that was repeated in the other matches you played as well.
Jesse also ran an event on November 22nd (which I attended – check out our article on the event for more!) and did a fantastic job! Grateful for his work in building the local community for Bolt Action.
Until next time,
Aaron Kamakawiwoole
YT: @ZurnCentral