 |
| Plastic Brits Go Fighting | source: Warlord Games |
Bolt Action is a WWII skirmish that takes you to the battlefields of WWII, where you take on the role of an infantry platoon leader. Bolt Action is one of the most played historical games in the world, and this popularity has also led to some controversy over the rules, with one side loving the game and the other hating it.
The biggest criticism is that the game, with its mechanics and overall concept, is more of a "fantasy" of World War II from the perspective of Hollywood filmmakers than a realistic WWII battle. The use of old mechanics from Warhammer 40 000 and Necromunda is also divisive. And the similarity to the old WH40K is not coincidental - both gentlemen behind the rules, Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore, were game designers at Games Workshop and are signed off on the old rules for 40k, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Lords of the Rings, Warmaster and Mordheim.
We're under fire!
The game has the standard mechanics you'd expect in a skirmish game - units and weapons have different stats, combat is scored using dice (in this case six sided dice), is affected by various modifiers, and so on, as you might know from other games. However, Bolt Action has two unique elements that set it apart from most other wargaming games: the pinning system and the activation of units via command dice.
 |
| German squad with its command dice |
Pins, loosely translated as "suppression" or even more loosely as "stress", are gained by the unit by shooting at it. The enemy doesn't have to actually wound you and kill your soldier, but just getting hit is enough to get a pin. Each pin makes the unit minus one on its own shooting, and it takes the same penalty for executing an order. So you don't necessarily have to kill your opponent's units, but just "suppress" them so they eat dirt rather than return fire. It's not only a great mechanic, but a realistic one that will make video game veterans think of the iconic WWII shooter Brothers in Arms.
The order dice are then an original way to resolve unit activations rather than relying on the now tired "I play everything, then you play everything, so we'll take turns all game". Each unit generates an activation die, which is placed in a bag from where players blindly draw them, and whichever colour is drawn can use the die to activate the unit.
The unit must pass an activation order based on whether it is buttoned up, what its base morale is, whether an officer is nearby, and so on. It's an interesting way of spicing up the activation, bringing a sense of uncertainty to the game and trying to simulate the "chaos of a firefight". But of course, this randomness can mess up your plans and you need to think a bit ahead and take into account that everything can go wrong in a moment if you're unlucky. Or as Field Marshal von Moltke said, "No plan survives contact with the enemy."
Even war has its rules
The rules are clearly written in their second edition, with plenty of explanatory diagrams and examples of their use in practice, so there is no confusion about how the authors intended particular mechanics and everything is clear and distinct. Therefore, after reading the rules for the first time, it should be no problem to play the game straight through without any major problems or hitches and without having to leaf through the book.
 |
| A truly professional book | source: Warlord Games |
Thus, the game is easily suitable for beginners who might have difficulty with other more complex games, either in terms of mechanics or the style of rules interpretation. A game at the recommended 1000-1250 points, with each side having around 10 units (the basic composition could be a lieutenant, three infantry squads, a machine gun, a mortar, a bazooka, a cannon, and a tank, to give you an idea) takes around two hours, which is about the classic length of a single game by wargaming standards.
Isn't a tank like a tank?
As hinted at in the introduction, historical accuracy may be an issue for some players with Bolt Action. However, this is a very subjective impression that everyone has set up differently. For me personally, the game is a great compromise between (relatively snappy) gameplay and (really rather cinematic) reality, with no ahistorical atrocities happening on the surface.
The game mechanics contain all the situations one expects. Infantry in the open will die to machine guns or artillery fire, submachine guns are better than rifles for fighting in buildings, the German machine gun shoots more than its Allied counterparts, units can better handle their tasks with an officer nearby, veterans don't just shy away from anything, etc.
But still, there are a few mechanics that aren't entirely kosher. For the sake of simplifying the rules, vehicles and heavy weapons are categorized as "light tank" or "heavy gun", and so it can be a problem for WWII buffs that the game doesn't distinguish between Sherman, Panzer IV and T-34 tanks, which are virtually identical from a gameplay perspective. Was the M4 Sherman with the 76mm gun a different tank than the Panzer IV with the 7.5cm KwK 40 gun? Undoubtedly yes. Do these little details matter when we are playing a game about 70 soldiers and 2 tanks trying to capture some nameless hill or church in a small village? In my opinion, no.
 |
| But the game offers really beautiful cinematic visuals. |
Similarly, the rules and range of the weapons are more a matter of game design than reality, with an assault rifle having a smaller range than a conventional bolt action rifle, and such a pistol with its six-inch range shooting from one end of the room to the other.
And another stumbling block is building your own army. Bolt Action has a ton of unit types, as well as a plethora of squad types for different eras and battles of the war, allowing you to build really anything you can think of. Including very historically faithful armies. As well as a bunch of ahistorical abominations that never happened during the war, but the rules allow them to play out. Here, it's up to the discretion of the players and their approach to the game - whether they build a nice, historically accurate army, or prefer some rules-heavy combo. But for me, it's definitely better for the rule makers to give players free rein to build armies than to tie them down unnecessarily.
One book rules them all
The book itself is a beautiful hardback with tons of nice photos of the models and thanks to the collaboration with Osprey there are also artworks from their WWII encyclopedias. Even the structure is clear, full of examples to the rules and you can see the work of the professionals. There is nothing to fault Bolt Action on this aspect.
In addition to the basic rules, the book includes trimmed down rules for the major armies and 12 scenarios. And thus a somewhat unnecessary, short introduction to World War II, if you have coincidentally never heard of this war period, but at the same time got your hands on this game... In theory, if you don't want additional campaign or special rulebooks for individual nations, it's no problem to make do with just the basic book.
When creators care about their product
Even ten years after its release, Bolt Action has incredible support from Warlord Games. The game has its own model line, which is constantly being expanded with new infantry and vehicle miniatures. Most of the "main armies" also have the vast majority of their units as plastic sprues, and for vehicles Warlord Games have teamed up with well-known modelling company Italeri - so you don't have to worry about quality.
Bolt Action has received equally intense support in the form of supplementary books. In addition to the classic "armybooks" with the rules for each army (although the basic rules include trimmed rules for Germany, Great Britain, Japan, the USA and the USSR), Warlords have also published several dozen campaign books containing special rules and scenarios for selected battlefields.
Thus, the Battle of Berlin, Fortress Budapest, the Normandy landings (that in itself has three different books!), the Battle of Stalingrad, Palau, Market Garden... you name it. The planned but not executed German invasion of Britain also has two "alternate history" books of its own. The Korean War also got its own book and model line (including MASH characters!) last year, so the game is properly taken care of even a decade after publication. Similarly, FAQs and errata are still coming out regularly.
When we enjoy fighting
All of the above makes Bolt Action still a great game ten years after its release, and still has something to offer in 2023. While at its core the rules are relatively conservative wargaming as it was played in the 90s, the innovative activation mechanics feel fresh and modern in an era where most games still work with the old "I go, You go" system.
Some may have a problem with the over-simplification of some of the game's stats for weapons and units, but it's not a problem to possibly adjust them using "house rules" to be more historically accurate. This simplification allows both newcomers to wargaming, who are not unnecessarily overwhelmed by the multitude of nearly identical rules, and "newcomers" to WWII, who don't necessarily know all the differences in weaponry, to get into the game, and so the game makes it easier for them to navigate what's on the table.
Additionally, the great advantage of historical wargaming still applies here - the models can be applied to a variety of different rules, because a Sherman tank will be a Sherman tank in any game. So Bolts can even be used as a great introductory game from which to eventually move into the waters of more complex games.
On the other hand, a lot of people certainly won't mind this WWII-style version of Saving Private Ryan or Call of Duty, and will happily play the game even knowing that the real war probably looks a little different. Wargaming is still all about gaming and it's supposed to be primarily entertainment and not an educational documentary.
However, the aforementioned criticisms don't change the fact that Bolt Action is simply and simply a good game. This is evidenced by the fact that ten years after its release it is widely played both in the world and in our country. It hasn't appeared and disappeared again, even though there are dozens of rules for playing skirmish WWII.
Verdict:
Bolt Action is a great game for newcomers to the hobby - either wargaming in general or historical wargaming with experience from other games. The basic rules are simple to understand, but with some innovative elements that make for interesting tactical battles. The only thing that can be argued is whether this is a simulation of World War II or a Hollywood movie based on it.
Also, if you find this article helpful, you can buy something from Warlord store with my affiliate link or just buy me coffee. :)
Originally published in Czech on the ZeStolu portal. Unless otherwise stated, images taken from my Hobby Instagram page @Potan_CZ.
Comments
Post a Comment