Scoring Bolt action

 Now this is a strange one. I don't know even roughly what I'll score this!

In my last post I went over Chain of command and all the things that contribute to it being my favourite game. Bolt action seems like a good sequel as it's a very similar game. At least in concept. Both are set in world war 2 at around a platoon size game with some additional support units available so using CoC as a reference point to compare and contrast we'll see if we can sort out what the key differences are. 

It's worth noting I haven't played as much Bolt action as, well, lots of other games so this is hardly going to be THE definitive review but in my subjective, personal view it will be the best one ever written in the entire history of today.

Presentation  9

No arguing here the Bolt action books look really nice and come in sturdy hardbacks and glossy softbacks. They're wargaming's coffee table books which is unsurprising as they're published by Osprey and written by the biggest wargames company based out of Nottingham that doesn't have a 7ft Uruk hai statue on the premises. At least as far as I know. There wasn't one on their shop floor anyway.

The artwork is a little bit "action comics for boys" which works as a scene setter for what's inside but we'll come to that shortly. 

The rules are well laid out and clearly explained as you'd expect for a flagship set of rules and it's all decorated with nice pictures of models and miniature terrain.

However, and I don't have the hardback version of the rules so it may be a premium feature but  my A5 book doesn't have an index. For shame...

Playability  7

Things work together as designed with no particular problems but for my money playing the game as designed is it's downfall. I'll get into it in the Mechanics section more but I think Playability should reflect how easy it is to play the game as it's intended and on that front it does work.

Mechanics  5

First off, the activation and pins system is brilliant. It's absolutely the reason I keep coming back to Bolt action (and Beyond the gates of Antares) in case this time is the time I get into it. Something that plays around with the straight IGO-UGO system is almost always a plus for me and this is a really great way to do it. If it was any better it'd have *REDACTED*! Comparing this to CoC is like two sides of the same coin. Bolt action's method means it gets harder for your troops to follow orders but if they do then they follow them with no ill effects whereas in CoC units will always do what you ask of them but at reduced effect. 

Next we'll start to see why I've given the game a lower score. Shooting is excellent, a very simple system sorted by a handful of modifiers of which you only need a few in most circumstances and weapons categories are distinct and largely reflective of their real life versions.

But shooting is rubbish! A rifle's maximum range is 24 inches (and although the introduction explains this isn't the weapon's ACTUAL maximum range but rather the maximum effective range in combat it is the furthest you can shoot the thing in the game so it IS it's maximum range as far as we're concerned). With 28mm models (the size this game is primarily concerned with) and considering the rules suggest a playing area of 6x4, this is a really restrictive range. SMGs get worse at 12 inches and pistols get a frankly awful 6 inches. A pikeman could practically out-range a pistol armed enemy with his pointed stick.

On top of that there's no splitting fire. If I have a squad of 10 Paratroopers with rifles, an LMG,  perhaps even a couple of SMGs, hand guns and sharp throwing stones and there's a unit of 1 man standing shoulder to shoulder with another unit of 1 man I can only shoot one of them. Admittedly that's one very shot up man but it's still only one. OK, that's not entirely true. I can split fire if I have a single shot anti tank weapon. I honestly can't remember if that means I need an armoured target to have a go at as well or if I can just try and Panzerfaust a single poor unfortunate chap for the giggles. Regardless, however you slice it a squad with enough firepower to see off a small township can't kill two enemies standing next to each other if they don't have the right corresponding unit markings.

By comparison in the same situation in CoC hits would be shared out by teams within range of the target so my squad could happily pour fire into the area and probably take out both individuals rather than hit a magical dividing wall. The Bolt action method is unreasonably restrictive, nonsensical and one I thought was dying out around 20 years ago.

After you get past all the excellent core rules and into the game proper I really feel the game is built to be familiar for players of 40k taking their first steps into the wider wargaming world, which is definitely to be lauded in it's own way but... 

Anyway, onto the theatres part of the list building. Once you have the rulebook and you've bought your chosen nation's army book you could be forgiven for thinking you're all set, and to some extent you are. You can largely make whatever army you want from the lists you have presented but if you want to play something specific now you need the theatre book. Should this be under Mechanics and not Support? Well, yes because these books are full of special rules and options for your existing force that change the way your army plays. And as a rule of thumb the new book has some great new thing no one else has. Of course you can't quite do the reverse and pick up a specific theatre book and just use the lists in there for a more narrowly focused army because the books don't HAVE lists in them. They have footnotes and additions for the national armies books. We won't even start on the £25 tank war book that frankly could have been covered by around one piece of A4 if you only wanted the gameplay information.

I find it hard to judge the scenarios provided as they're built around the Mechanics of the game which I don't like. They also have a tendency to have very arbitrary win conditions. "Be standing near the thing at the end of turn 6" with no consideration to the wider battlefield.

As the game is made for competitive play all these things have to be considered and from the gamers side of it little of it is a positive. Some people will enjoy the "meta" of the competitive scene and that's fine but some people also enjoy having their scrotum nailed to a piece of wood so I'm only considering my opinion on this.

Flavour  6

I mentioned earlier that the artwork is reminiscent of "action comics for boys" and that's quite suitable as I think that style is also present in the way the rules translate to the table. An action film with heroes and lens flare aplenty. Not inherently a bad thing and it may be the kind of flavour you're looking for in which case you probably add another 2, 4, maybe even 6 points to the total.

Support  7

Pretty damn good levels of support. The community for Bolt action is huge and unsurprisingly that has led to many bits of bonus material to play with from WW1, to Vietnam and even into the cold War and modern era. I don't doubt there's even more I'm unaware of and you can get pointed towards it from the (I believe multiple) Facebook groups.

In terms of official support there's a full self contained Korean war book, many articles from Warlord themselves as well as occasional free scenarios and mini campaigns. I'm still tempted to try out the "Miller's men" one that totally isn't Saving Private Ryan honest guv. Which leads me to my next point;

An interesting extra for me is the "Rattenkreig" (or "Rat war") one. It's designed as a skirmish version of the rules with a couple of modifications so you can play man-to-man games. (It was written to be part of the fighting in Stalingrad so possibly more than normal you could have woman-to-man games too)! The thematic setting of the title aside these rules work for any skirmish game you may want to play in any theatre which also bypasses several of my issues with the main gameplay. And it was free. Which is nice.

Something Warlord has over everyone else when it comes to support is they make a huge model range for their game(s). This means if there is an unusual unit or model in a supplement they make it. Their range is so complete odds are if you see ANY 28mm WW2 game it'll be being played with some Warlord models in it. With a range so big quality can vary but I'm not aware of anything in it that I'd say to avoid.

As I mentioned there are plenty of national army books and dedicated theatre books too which do have a lot in them and if you're into the style of the game you'll be able to get a lot from them, you'll just have to spend a lot first.

Finally, its not a supplement for Bolt action but the existence of Konflikt 47 is a possible bonus for players of either game as it will allow you to add in zombies, mechs and other "weird war" units. However the main Bolt action lists have far more options and I'm told a more balanced points system so some fiddling may be required. Across two supplements K47 has been brought almost completely in line with BA V2 now as well so the games are even more compatible. For reasons unknown to me though Konflikt retained the superior "dicing for the number of hits" method when using explosives while BA V2 moved over to the much more fiddly and inferior "use a template" approach. Some might say it was just to sell templates. Not me, but some.

TOTAL  64

So in the end the game still has a respectable score. A lot of my issues have fairly simple fixes that I can house rule in with minimal fuss which is pretty great but I can't use that as reason to ignore the Mechanics as written because the game as written is how you're supposed to play it.

Even the weapon ranges are as easy to fix as either double the maximum ranges (but leave close range as it is) or even just play with 15 or 10mm models as I find that will just FEEL better.

In the final tally I really rather like Bolt action, I just don't want to play it.