Bolt Action Index 1.5

Where are the rules for tanks racing onto a frozen river?

The latest Errata and FAQ has been released by Warlord Games dated 27 January 2016 (You can get it here).
There are lots of updates and clarifications so I have updated the Bolt Action Index. (version 1.5)
It is interesting to see how many items in the index have an E or F page indicating a ruling or clarification of the main rules.

The index has been downloaded over 6,000 times. I'm glad so many are finding this resource so handy.

Other handy resources that have been popular include:
Our Building Clarifications
Terrain tutorials
Turn Counters
Periscopes

Conveniently fits in the inside back or front covers

Attack over the Dniester - First Playtest review.

Our first public play test went very well. We ran two games at The Company of Dice meeting showing 8 players the fun that is Bolt Action.
The best part about giving public participation games is we get to meet new people and share the fun that is Bolt Action. Part of that fun is the different ideas and perspectives new players provide which we had not considered during our preliminary testing.
In the game (Scenario Here) the German river defenders have a Panzer III N - the one with a light howitzer. We figured this would act as a mobile pillbox patrolling along the docks and annoying the Russians. One player was having a challenge in turn 2 when the Russians were hiding behind the docks and he couldn't get at them as well as he wanted.
So he asked, "Can I go onto the ice?"
After a few blank looks as my son and I considered the question, we figured that was a fun idea and said, "Why not?"
We decided that if the tank goes on the ice it has to roll a dice whenever it uses a RUN or FIRE order. 1,2,3 and it cracks the ice and sinks.

After the flying leap as the tank charged onto the ice, the roll of a 4 meant the ice stayed solid. But nothing else could be achieved that turn. Next turn the Russians on one side charged up over the docks so they wouldn't get hit in the open by a howitzer and MMG. So the Panzer III turned its turret and shot the Russian MMG, blowing it sky high.
"Yeah!" cried the German player.
"Now roll for the ice," we instructed.
1.
"Ah, well," he said.
"Cinematic," we all agreed and the game continued.

We have had to make a few changes to the scenario, making the Germans roll a morale roll before firing on their first turn, to represent their recovery from an assumed preliminary bombardment. No pins, just a morale check to fire on the first turn. That should balance up the opening charge across the frozen river.

There is the additional bonus objective if the two Russian forces meet. This is trickier than it sounds as any city game is quite deadly on forces.
In our second game the Veteran Siberians had only their NCO remaining. The last remaining land based Russian squad was within 12 inches. It was turn 6 which meant it was time for a "Cinematic moment".
The NCO charged from the Harbour offices across to the other Russians. A squad of German Volks Grenadiers had been positioned in the second floor of the neighbouring factory with an AMBUSH order. There was a small gap between the buildings through which they could see the running Russian and they elected to fire on the NCO. 10 attack dice resulted in 3 hits. Of those 3 hits, one dice rolled a 5 which meant the NCO was killed.
So close.
The players looked at each other and said, "Cinematic" and the game raced to an exciting completion.

Overall the game worked very well. Even though the Russian player considered calling an end in turn four of the second game, I suggested he continue as in Bolt Action, anything can happen and players must always remember the adage, "I'm not dead yet".
Sure enough, the game ended up being a draw after a series of amazing moves, with all players getting very strategic over their use and timing of each order dice pulled from the bag. Also, as both sides were fighting intensely over the objectives there was great confusion with fire from units activated from each bag, resulting in a lot of "fog of war" moments, such as "Where did he come from?" and "Oops, I forgot about those guys".

Thanks to all those that played and the guys from The Company of Dice for a great club and venue. We ended up as exhausted and thrilled as the players after each game.
Which is why we enjoy being the Demo Gamers.

Attack over the Dniester - Playtest

We have been quiet recently but this time has not been wasted. Our next board is ready for play testing.
This is a board for 4 players, Russian verses Germans. The board represents a section of the Kamenets-Podolsky port area on the Dniester river during Winter. A Russian force is attacking across the frozen river while another is attacking from the other side of the city. The Germans are in the middle trying to stop the Russians linking up. (Here is the page with historical background)
There is an interesting mix of buildings, open areas, lanes of fire and cover, heights and depths.

 Volga Russians (8 dice):

HQ: Junior Lieutenant 2 men (Regular) 60 Pts
Siberian Veterans, 10 rifles, tough fighters 145 pts
2 x Siberian Regulars, 9 rifles, LMG, tough fighters 135 Pts
Medic, 2 men, Veteran 43 pts
Free rifle squad, 6 rifles, Green Inexperienced, all with AT Grenades 0 pts
Medium Machine Gun team, Regular 55 pts
AT Rifle team, Regular 30 pts
Total: 603 pts

Volga Germans (7 dice):

HQ: First Lieutenant 2 men, Regular 85 pts
3 x Heer Grenadiers, 3 Assault rifles, 2 rifles 65 pts
2 x Heer Grenadiers, 3 Assault rifles, 3 rifles 75 pts
Pz III N, Light Howitzer, Regular 175 pts
Total: 605 pts

City Russians (6 dice):

HQ: 2nd Lieutenant, 2 men, Regular 60 pts
2 x LMG Squad, 8 rifles, LMG, SMG, Regular 123 pts
SMG Squad, 6 SMG, Inexperienced 60 pts
Free rifle squad, 6 rifles, Green Inexperienced 0 pts
T34/85 medium tank, Regular 235 pts
Total: 601 pts

City Germans (6 dice)

HQ: 2nd Lieutenant, 2 men, Regular 60 pts
3 x Volks Grenadier, 5 Assault rifle, 3 rifle, 1 Panzerfaust, Inexperienced 94 pts
Light Howitzer, Regular 50 pts
Hetzer, Medium Tank Destroyer 210 pts
Total: 602 pts

The objectives are the warehouse, town hall (Stone Hotel) and train side factory. Additional objective for the Russian forces to meet up (and Germans to stop them of course).
Standard 6 turns with an optional turn 7.
The Germans can set up on the port wall and central buildings areas. German Infantry are all placed on board - treated as "hidden". German tanks not placed on board before the game can move in from the roads on either side of the board. The light howitzer can be placed inside a building but cannot be moved more than 6 inches from initial placement.

The Russians come on from their respective short ends of the board (the 4' sides). The barbed wire and dock edges are linear obstacles, which means infantry have to stop at the edge and can then move through on the following turn. Steps on the dock edge are no obstacle to movement.
The German fixed gun emplacement may be used if the Germans place a squad there. It is a Heavy automatic cannon and requires a 3 man crew. The remaining squad members can fire normally. If the Germans decide not to man the gun, the Russians cannot use it.

We will have our first play test this Saturday, 9 January at the Company of Dice meeting at South Coogee Bowling Club, Sydney.

As always, everyone is welcome. We provide everything, figures, board, rules, equipment and training too! Come on down.

UPDATE: Results of our first public play test.

Coogee Inaugural Meeting a success!

Forward to Victory!!

Come a little closer ...

A second before ... the BOOM!

Yesterday was another great Demogamer Bolt Action Boot Camp held at the inaugural meeting of the Company Of Dice in South Coogee.
We ran two games for 4 players each and had a very enjoyable game with completely different results each game.
One fellow had never played a wargame, another had only seen Bolt Action after hearing us getting very excited at Cancon, and another had just read the books and was building his first army (and from what we saw it will look magnificent).
A fourth player had played many games but not with many other players and the last two players were experienced but had not experienced fighting or playing Japanese. Perfect!
We design our demo games to give plenty of scope of different facets of Bolt Action. In these games we learned how support weapons worked, the power - and limitation - of armour, the power and weakness of the Japanese Banzaii and Fanatic rules, and the incredible fun of Bolt Action where the results are never guaranteed.
The club venue was excellent and thanks to Joe and Spiros for all their hard work getting it all together.
We will be back next month to do a pre MOAB play of the Submarine board - Attack on Lorient Docks 1942.

Right flank captures the hill

Come on down and join us. No cost, open for anyone, no equipment necessary  and good food available on site!  What more could anyone want?

Valiant last turn defence of the middle objective

Enjoy these selected photos of the action on the day.

Jungle Battle in Coogee

Banzai!! (Channelling Commando Comics)

On next Saturday, 1 August at 11am, the Demo Gamers will be running some demo games for anyone wanting to give Bolt Action a go.
The new club "Company of Dice" is starting and they will be meeting on the first Saturday every month at the South Coogee Bowls Club from 11am.
Next week we will be running a Jungle themed board with Two Japanese armies verses an Australian and a US Marines army - all 600 points or so. We will be providing everything needed - all you need to play is some imagination and about 2.5 hours. Based on past experience the time will fly by.
Here is the chance to be part of an exciting WWII wargame using Bolt Action wargaming rules.

You know you want to see this battle

Australians ready for the Japanese charge

Have a look around this website and you will find plenty of articles explain what we do and how we play.
Here are the armies we will be using:

The Australians (8 Order Dice)

This is an all infantry force which is great for taking objectives.  The sniper and MMG provide critical support and hopefully the PIAT can scare some armour or even kill some. (It is 650 points because we have replaced the free Artillery observer with 50 points)
Officer (2nd Lt + 2men) 1 @ 70 pts = 70 pts
Sniper (2 men) - Regular 1 @ 50 pts = 50 pts
MMG (3 men) 1 @ 50 pts = 50 pts
Infantry Squad (NCO (SMG),LMG ,8 rifles) 2 @ 123 pts = 246 pts
Veteran Infantry Squad (NCO (SMG),LMG ,8 rifles) 1 @ 153 pts = 153 pts
Veteran Medic (1 man) 1 @ 30pts = 30 pts
Veteran PIAT (2 Men) 1 @ 52 pts = 52 pts
Total: 651 pts

Aussie HMG ready to spread the joy

From the Sugar Factory end

The US Marines (7 Order Dice)

A Sherman tank provides a core punch with 3 smaller 8 man squads and a sniper team and Medic. Teamwork is necessary.
Officer (2nd Lt + 2men) 1 @ 70 pts = 70 pts
Sniper (2 men) - Regular 1 @ 52 pts = 52 pts
Infantry Squad (NCO (SMG),LMG ,6 rifles) 3 @ 88 pts = 264 pts
Regular Sherman M4A1 1 @ 195 pts = 195 pts
Regular Medic (1 man) 1 @ 23 pts = 23 pts
Total: 604 pts

From the Guard Tower End

The Guard Tower is on a hill with mounds around it.

Japan # 1 (7 Order Dice)

A Chi-Ha tank is not as tough as a Sherman but is great against infantry. The 2 suicide AT lunge mine guys will keep any enemy tanks on their toes.
Officer (2nd Lt + 1men) 1 @ 60 pts = 60 pts
Suicide AT Man  (1 man) - Regular 2 @ 20 pts = 40 pts
Infantry Squad (NCO (SMG),LMG ,8 rifles) 3 @ 123 pts = 369 pts
Regular Chi-Ha 1 @ 135 pts = 135 pts
Total: 604 pts

Checking out some of the board from more of a table eye view.

Japan # 2 (8 Order Dice)

No tank but lots of different types of HE: Medium Mortar, Light HE gun and a suicide AT guy to scare off any tanks.
Officer (2nd Lt + 2men) 1 @ 70 pts = 70 pts
Suicide AT Man  (1 man) - Regular 1 @ 20 pts = 20 pts
Infantry Squad (NCO (SMG),LMG ,8 rifles) 3 @ 123 pts = 369 pts
MMG (3 men) 1 @ 50 pts = 50 pts
Medium Mortar (3 men) 1 @ 50 pts = 50 pts
Type 92 Infantry Gun 1 @ 40 pts = 40 pts
Total: 599 pts

So lots of interesting units with which to learn how to play. Tanks, support units, buildings, hills, light and heavy cover, open areas - plenty of ways to experience how a game of Bolt Action works.
How should you prepare?
Watch some war movies, ready commando comics, make sure you have the day free.

Come on down.

Bolt Action Boot Camp at MOAB 2015

We are getting ready for the next Sydney Games Convention - MOAB 2015.
This is held on the October long weekend at the Sylvania Heights Community and Youth Club.
We will be running 3 games a day on the Saturday and Sunday - 3 & 4 October.

So come on and join us in a great game of Bolt Action. The main game will be the Attack on Lorient Docks 1942 which we have much more details here (Video) and here (background) and here (first playtest including army lists).

In summary we will have 6 x 600 point forces:
Commandoes by sea, Commandoes by Land and Partisans
vs
Kreigsmarine, German Port Defenders and German SS Reinforcements.

Commandoes ready to attack some Port Defenders on the bridge

Kreigsmarine defending the sub from Commandoes

This is a great game with a board filled with great scenery surrounding the 42 inches of U-505 submarine goodness.

No experience is required.
Everything is supplied - Demo Gamers Sergeants to guide you, troops, rules, dice, tape measure, periscopes, laser guidance - the lot!
The games start at 9:00am, 12:00 midday and 3:00pm.  Each game typically lasts about 2.5 hrs and gets increasingly exciting as the last turn arrives.

Commandoes by sea (with some in the sea!)

Video run through of the Lorient Dockyards board

In response to various requests we have provided a video overview of the board we set up for the "Battle of the Lorient Dockyards 1942" which features our U 505 submarine.
More details are in our previous post, but sometimes it is just better seeing the board in more detail.

Attack on Lorient - First test game

U Boat 505 being repaired in Lorient Dock

After many weeks preparing, we finally had our first playtest of our new demo board for our Attack on Lorient Submarine Dock 1942 game. We had a couple of challenges as we needed to have 6 x 600 point armies and 3 objectives.

The Armies:

Allies:

Commandoes by Sea

These fellows arrive by rubber boat (6 inches movement) and can grapple up 6 inches from a fixed point in one turn.
HQ 2 men, 4 squads (6 men: LMG, 2 SMG, 3 Rifle), Sniper Team with "Up and at 'em" special rule.

The view from the Police Station

The commandoes come by sea

Commandoes by Land

These fellows come in from the right hand side of board when looking at the dock from the beaches. Same as other force but replace Sniper with MMG team.

Partisans

HQ, 1 squad of Veteran Guerillas (LMG, SMG, 6 Rifles),  3 Partisan squads (LMG, Pistol, SMG, 7 rifles), MMG team.  They have the modified special Partisan rule of 2 Bombs set into the War memorial in front of the police station. If one goes off, the memorial and second bomb is destroyed.  Basically it is 2 chance for the bomb to work.

The secret weapon stolen from the British

Battle on the U Boat

The German Defenders

Kriegsmarine

The ship Captain, 2nd Lieutenant HQ, 4 squads Kriegsmarine (LMG, SMG, 8 rifles), Regular MMG. 2 squads are patrolling at the start of the game, the rest are asleep in the Hotel or houses near the submarine, MMG set up on ambush.

Port Defenders

HQ, 4 regular Heer (LMG, SMG, 7 rifles), MMG. 1 squad within 6 inches of winch house guarding secret prize, another on patrol anywhere, MMG set up on ambush.

At times, assaults are rubbish

SS Reinforcements

HQ, SS Veteran squad (LMG, SMG, 6 rifles), 2 Heer Regulars (LMG, SMG, 8 rifles), MMG team, Sdkfz 222. These guys come in from edge near the church, top left corner.

"We killed someone!" - newbies celebrating their first kill

The Objectives

Background:

On return from a secret mission (so not recorded in the history books) U 505 was hit by a RAAF plane and severely damaged. The U boat was carrying 3 stolen prototypes from a British Research Laboratory, codenamed Ironsides. 2 were destroyed in the bombing and the surviving Ironside is stored in the Winch house.  The U boat contains the plans for the German Secret laboratory to which the Ironside is destined.
Meanwhile Father Pierre is in custody in the prison with information critical to the resistance.

1. The Commandoes by Sea and Kriegsmarine must control the submarine superstructure in order to get the location of the German secret laboratory.
2. The Commandoes by Land and Port Defenders need to capture or retain the surviving Ironside stored in the Winch house. 
3. The Partisans and SS are in a rush to get into the Police Station and rescue/interrogate Father Pierre.

How did the game go?

We had a couple of new players who volunteered to help us out: my daughter and my son's girlfriend.  Neither had played before and so were a good testing ground for the game.  They played the Port Defenders.

The only way to protect the prize

2 Commandoes vs 5 remaining Kreigsmarine

The game began in Night time and from turn 3 we rolled to see if dawn broke.  The game stayed in night time until turn 7! This really meant lots of close combat as ranged shots were very difficult having to roll for the options to see at longer ranges.
The game worked well.  We will make some fine tuning of some of the forces, but the battle was pretty well balanced. The Germans retained control of the Ironside, while the Commandoes captured the U boat and the Partisans rescued Father Pierre.
We are ready for our first public playtest at The Combat Company Warehouse next Saturday 21 March from 10am.
Once we have done some more testing we will publish a full scenario as usual.

Update:

We now have created a video walkthrough of the table. Enjoy!

Building Wooden Foot Bridges

The cheap Ingredients

While preparing our Attack on the Lorient Dockyards 1942 board, we needed some bridges to get from the walls to the submarine. Like most terrain we build, we want it to be useful for multiple boards and scenarios. And we wanted it to easy to make and inexpensive, yet look good.
So we started with the basic ingredients:

• Pop Rivets 35mm long.
• Icy Pole sticks/Coffee stirrers
• Cheap wool
• Super Glue
• PVA Glue

Using the clippers trim the rounded edges of the wooden sticks.

Completed but unpainted

Then using some shorter pieces as supports make your bridge. You can be rough or neat depending on the look you want. At this point all you are using is the wooden stocks and PVA glue.
Now we want our rails. Drill holes near the edge and at roughly 1 inch intervals. Then poke the pop rivets in so they stick through about 1 cm or half an inch. Use superglue to keep them in position.
Once dry use the wool to create the rope railing, wrapping it around each pop rivet, move it down over the edge and then around the base of each pop rivet. This is to give the bridge lots of strength, and it looks good too.
Then paint the wool with PVA glue.  This strengthens the wool, sticks down the fibres and makes it all very strong.
Lastly, you need to trim down the pop rivets at the end of the bridge.  Either use tough pliers or grind them down - or get some shorter pop rivets for the end poles!

Painted and beautiful

This step is important to allow the bridge to rest on the edge of whatever you are placing it against.  The longer poles in the middle keep it stable.
Then paint it brown with black wash and finally paint it with some satin varnish (we buys ours in a 500ml tin from the paint store).
It turns out pretty well and will work for any setting from modern to ancient where the construction would have been done using basic wood and rope materials.

This isn't going to end well...

Lastly, you can see how we have used it in our dockyards game. We have placed a bridge from each of the Heights Project bridge ends. They make it perfectly across to the sub to provide for a great cinematic charge or two.

Lastly we had a bit of fun with our Gandalf figure and the phrase so many keep repeating, "None Shall Pass".
We couldn't avoid the pun.

This is what bridges are for.

Attack on Lorient Submarine Dock France 1942

U-505: Winner of the most heavily damaged
U-boat to successfully return to port

We have updated our planned submarine dockyards demo game based on great feedback and suggestions from the very supportive Bolt Action community. Our initial gut feel was that this option was feasible and we liked the idea of a massive boat being fought over, but I hadn't done any historical research to justify the scenario.  As it was were were out by 2 years. And the story is much more interesting too!

Attack on Lorient Submarine Dock 1942

The German U boat U-505 was Commissioned 26 August 1941 and went on active duty 1 February 1942, based at Lorient, France.

In Lorient, the submarine pens were commenced on 2 February 1941 and completed in January 1943. 15,000 mostly slave labourers and German overseers began three separate pen enclosures 2,000 feet in length 425 feet wide and 63 feet high, topped further by a seven section, 25-foot thick reinforced concrete roof using concrete exceeding 3.4 million cubic feet.
Until these monstrous pens were completed, the U-boas were repaired using the better repair facilities compared to Norwegian ports.
On 10 November 1942, U 505 had nearly fallen victim to the U boat hunting skills of RAAF pilot Flight Sergeant Ronald Sillcock. He had perfected the technique of locating a U-boat by radar and then turning his radar off and patrolling out of sight in the clouds. Once he had a good visual identification he would cut his engines and dive out of the sun for a surprise precision attack. Two U-boats had been seriously damaged by this method in recent weeks.
Unfortunately for Sillcock and his crew the attack on this occasion had been too precise. As his depth charges hit U-505 and exploded, he was directly overhead. His Lockheed Hudson was wrecked and the entire crew killed.
On U-505 the Engineering Petty Officer led a determined attempt to save the submarine by plugging the hole in the hull and the boat was able to limp back to France, earning the distinction of being the ‘most heavily damaged U-boat to successfully return to port’.
Now is the chance for a targeted attack by a team of Commandoes guided by a team of local partisans to capture the enigma machine in the sub and finish the job that Flight Sergeant Ronald Sillcock gave his life for.

References:
http://uboat.net/boats/u505.htm
http://historyarticles.com/gray-wolves-den/
http://ww2today.com/25th-october-1940-u-boats-now-operate-from-france
http://ww2today.com/10th-november-1942-u-505-survives-devastating-attack

The French Dockyards Part 2 - The sub is built

It takes two to hold the hull together.

Plain Grey Plastic is boring

We have been busy this week building our submarine as the centre piece of our French Dockyards 1944 board. In our heads we thought we could imagine 42 inches of submarine goodness, but it was still quite large in reality.
Being a quality plastic model there are LOTS of tiny little details and pieces everywhere. Even though we won't be using most of them they certainly add to the style of the boat. The difficulty level of a Revell model goes from 1 (easy) to 5 (advanced).  This definitely earned the 5 rating.  The first step was to drill lots of holes in the hull to which the side rails would eventually be attached. This is nothing like the resin tank models with 3 to 10 parts.
This was over 160 parts from little foot rails around 5 mm across to the massive hull sections.
The end result was a success.  Just placing it on the board encouraged us to start placing figures in various battle positions on and around the boat.
Now this boat is 1/72nd scale.  The reason we can get away with this is that it is part of the scenery, but troops will not be going in it.  They may hide around the superstructure, or we will have special rules so they can race to use the 2 twin 20mm or 37mm AA guns on the deck, but in general it is great "eye candy".

Hmmm. Perhaps not.

Now that it is built we had to face the prospect of doing it justice by painting it properly.  Our first idea was to use a grey spray paint and touch it up, but a fellow gamer who is a much better painter than us asked if we wanted to use an Air brush.  "We'd love to," we replied, "But haven't yet advanced to that level."
She then most generously offered to paint it for us with her excellent air brush and superior painting skills.  We'll trade with a specially organised demo game at her place. Wait till you see this next week!
Looking at the plain grey submarine, my family thought that we should consider using the historical documentary "Operation Petticoat" as a guide and paint it pink.  I did a mock up with Photoshop. Perhaps not.