Some background.
Bolt Action is a 28mm skirmish game themed around World War II. The best way to put it is literally 40k but with Germans instead of Tyranids. The rules are written by industry veterans Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley, both no stranger to GW and the historical wargaming scene. The book and all future army book supplements are a joint venture between Warlord Games and the venerable Osprey Publishing. Warlord needs little introduction hopefully, but for those who don't know, they are made up of ex-GW who wanted to do serious historical gaming. Over the last few years they have grown explosively with lines such as Hail Caesar (3000 BC - 1500 AD), Pike & Shotte (1500 - 1700), Black Powder (1700 - 1900) and Bolt Action (1939 - 1945). Osprey on the other hand is one of the biggest publishers when it comes to military source books, be it campaigns, weapons, certain types of warriors and so on. They are known for having not only done the research but also presenting their books with exquisite art plates and photographs. For many historical wargamers this is a match made in heaven.
The book itself is mostly a product of Warlord Games, who provide the writing and the minis, whereas Osprey Publishing provides all of the interior art, straight from their own source books. Future army books will feature more Osprey artwork, including their expertly researched uniform and camouflage guides.
Warlord Games can be found here: http://www.warlordgames.com/
Osprey Publishing can be found here: www.ospreypublishing.com/
Now then, the book itself. Unlike previous rulebooks published by Warlord Games Bolt Action is a smaller book, about the same height and width of the Osprey books. It is not uncommon for Osprey to do this, as they have with the wargaming books from Ambush Alley Games and their guide on Zombies. The book is full-colour from front to back, hard cover and written with ease of play in mind. A simple but handy summary of all rules can be found in the back, along with all important tables regarding weapons, morale and playing the game. The contents are broken up into 22 chapters, most of them dealing with the rules and playing the game, with a small portion of the rear of the book given up for a quick history lesson on the second world war. People expecting an extensive look into the Second World War will be disappointed, but the book more than makes up for it with the art and photographs of the miniatures on display.
In quick fire fashion, here are some of the highlights:
Rules.
Without going too far into things, the turn system is a bit of an odd one to first time players. The game uses order dice for gameplay. For each unit in your army you get one die, which you toss in a cup along with the order die of your opponent. Mind, it is a good idea to both use differently coloured dice! Then, without looking, one of you picks a die from the cup and the owning player can assign it to one of his squads. The order is then executed and the players once again draw a die from the cup, repeating the process until the turn is over. Melee is also fought until one side flees or is wiped out. Draws mean you fight another round of melee!
Orders.
There are six orders you can issue to your units:
1. FIRE - The unit stays put and opens fire.
2. ADVANCE - The unit can move and fire, however accuracy will be down.
3. RUN - The unit moves at double speed, but cannot shoot.
4. AMBUSH - Unit does not move or fire, instead they take up firing positions and wait for an enemy to cross their LOS.
5. RALLY - The unit does not move or fire, instead losing D6+1 pin markers.
6. DOWN - The unit does not move or fire, instead they hit the dirt and take cover.
Order dice
Pinning.
Whenever a squad takes one or more casualties from enemy (or friendly) fire they gain a pin marker. The more enemy squads firing at and inflicting casualties upon a unit, the more pin markers it will receive. Each pin marker is -1 to squad morale, making it harder for the unit to fulfil their orders.
Movement, Shooting and Assaulting.
These are surprisingly a lot like 40k, only more toned down and easier to pick up on with less rolling of dice involved overall. A bit as with the 6th edition of 40k, if a unit is assaulted and hasn't enacted an order yet, it may give a salvo of reactive fire as their order for that turn, hopefully driving off their attackers. If not.. ouch.
HQ.
A short chapter is dedicated to HQ's. These include your regular commanding officer who gives morale bonuses to your army, medical teams who can help recover wounded on a 6+ and perhaps the nastiest of them all: Forward Artillery Observers and Forward Air Observers. Yes, these guys can, once per game, call in an artillery / air strike, which can have a devastating effect on the battle.
There are also chapters on using artillery, vehicles and buildings in your games, I have skimmed these for now, but the rules are again simple and to the point.
Force Selection.
Here’s one of the fun bits of the book: Army lists! The book provides you with four complete army lists, unbound by era or theatre of war. We’ve got Germany, United States of America, United Kingdom and Soviet Russia. Sadly missing from this big old party is Imperial Japan for some reason, as the minis are proudly shown throughout the book. Going over the army lists, which are more or less the same from army to army in terms of standard infantry choices, upgrades and structure, each army does get two special rules that more or less fit in with the background and flavour of the army in question:
Germans: Initiative Training (when the squad NCO is killed roll a D6, on a 4+ one of the troopers takes over and no morale damage is suffered) and Hitler's Buzzsaw (All MG's gain one extra die when firing: Light now have 4, heavy MG's have 5. This only applies to infantry units, not vehicles)
US Army: Fire and Manoeuvre (US Infantry equipped with rifles and BAR's do not suffer a -1 penalty for moving and shooting) and Air Power (American Air Force Forward Observers can call down two airstrikes per game instead of just one as with other armies)
British Army: Bombardment (When rolling for the effects of a bombardment roll two die instead of one and pick the best result) and Artillery Support (British armies can include one regular Artillery Forward Observer for free - this is normally a 100 point model!)
Red Army: The Great Patriotic War (Whenever a unit fails a morale check and would be destroyed as a result, take the test again.) and Quantity Has A Quality All Of Its Own (Each USSR army gets one free squad of eleven inexperienced men - that's a 77 point squad for free!)
A 500 point US Army platoon
Note on the lists.
Army lists are made with no restrictions in mind, aside from the players using a bit of common sense. But other than that, the sky is the limit. Want to build an army made up of Screaming Eagles? You can. Want to do a Russian army made up of SMG-toting soldiers supported by a few T34’s? You can! Want to reinact the invasion of Wake island? You can’t, yet.. The lists also include the option to take most of the mainstream tank patterns, with plenty of anti-tank options for each army. The more obscure and rare types of tank are most likely saved for the actual source books, with the Germans getting their own around the end of this year.
Verdict.
Easy to pick up and play, doesn't require a crapton of minis and it can be educational at the same time. What's keeping you?
