bolt action in a smaller scale?

[petercooman]

Gentlemen (and FSN),

I have been looking into the bolt action ruleset lately and am considering getting into it. We still love blitzkrieg commander (have a beach landing planned for thursday), but we are looking for a game on a lower level to play inbetween. Now i am not fond of the limited ranges and force composition, but i really like the activation system. The force composition problem can be solved by making your units historically accurate, but the ranges are a bit harder.

Would it be more reasonable to play it in a smaller scale on the same board size? Or would the movement distances make it look like the entire force is made up of the best sprinters from the olympics 

My gaming buddy really wants to do it in 28mm, doing belgians in early war, but i told him i will not do belgians untill pendraken makes some 

I would consider doing the pacific in 28mm though, as i don't have anything for that in my collection already, except some old unpainted 1/72 ones. I do however have a load of 10mm british and germans (and partisans) based in singles for USE ME, and most vehicles i would need to make up a force. Would it work ok? If that would be the case, i would be able to get games in right away, making it much more attractive.

[Nosher]

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work in 10mm Peter.

In fact given the limited range of weapons in BA it might even suit 10mm better than 28mm.

[Sunray]

Interesting topic Peter.  If you want simple rules with a lot of carnage on the table - Poor Bloody Infantry was written for 15mm.  The movement is not too out of place with 10mm.

[petercooman]

Interesting topic Peter.  If you want simple rules with a lot of carnage on the table - Poor Bloody Infantry was written for 15mm.  The movement is not too out of place with 10mm.

How is the turn structure? Because being a 4-5 man group, the fact that the bolt action turn sees everybody activating, is what interests us the most.

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work in 10mm Peter.

In fact given the limited range of weapons in BA it might even suit 10mm better than 28mm.

Yes, that would make sense, but without changing the movement rates, the ranges would still be short no?

[petercooman]

Must add that i don't mind mixing scales as long as we are talking about different theatres.

For example, my plans are (and have been for a while):

-Use my 10 mm for eastern front and normandy/market garden

-start with some battlefront 15mm finnish and russians, so i can finally use my winter set-up (would a 5' by 4' board be big enough for let's say, a 500 point game?)

-start in 28mm for the pacific

-wait for the pendraken belgians and start a bkc army, and purchase some surplus men to base as singles like my normandy guys

-ditto for afrika korps and british, with the general thought here being, more vehicles neeed, so cheaper in 10mm

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Terrible set of rules - do something else since they don't work in any scale.

IanS

[Nick the Lemming]

We only used 15mm for BA, keeping the same ranges for shooting and movement etc. Looked a lot better.

[Luddite]

Bolt Action's a great fun set of rules that give a good "game"*.  I've not played 2nd edition so can't speak to those, but 1st ed. is a lot of fun.

If you use 10mm and maintain everything else the same (ranges, distances, etc.) it will work fine.

If you scale those down (e.g. drop from inches to millimetres) you'll also want to scale your table down as each game is usually fought over a fixed number of game turns. 



*Except vehicle flamethrowers.  Damn those things 

[petercooman]

Terrible set of rules - do something else since they don't work in any scale.

IanS

I've read a lot of comments like yours, seems it's very much a like or hate set of rules actually  :-

We only used 15mm for BA, keeping the same ranges for shooting and movement etc. Looked a lot better.

Bolt Action's a great fun set of rules that give a good "game"*.  I've not played 2nd edition so can't speak to those, but 1st ed. is a lot of fun.

If you use 10mm and maintain everything else the same (ranges, distances, etc.) it will work fine.

If you scale those down (e.g. drop from inches to millimetres) you'll also want to scale your table down as each game is usually fought over a fixed number of game turns. 



*Except vehicle flamethrowers.  Damn those things 

And what about templates? The 2nd edition uses those for mortars and HE (seen it on a Beasts of war battle report).  I would imagine a 2 inch template would kill A LOT of my guys, they are based on 1 eurocent pieces. Best to scale those down then?

[toxicpixie]

We use 15mm and 20mm for Bolt Action, works far better than 28mm. 10mm would likely be even better, tbh.

I like the flow of BA (although the scenarios are general rubbish),  but in 28mm the size is just wrong. In smaller scales the visual ratio between movement and weapons and figures looks much, much better.

We play full size, no reductions/changing inches to CM's or other fiddling. You don't gain any space that way, but it looks and feels much much better

[Nick the Lemming]

And what about templates? The 2nd edition uses those for mortars and HE (seen it on a Beasts of war battle report).  I would imagine a 2 inch template would kill A LOT of my guys, they are based on 1 eurocent pieces. Best to scale those down then?

I dunno, we only played 1st ed, and I'm unlikely to pick up 2nd ed.

[toxicpixie]

If you keep the rules as is and space out then it shouldn't matter; the gap allowed between blokes lets you spread out quite a lot even on smaller bases!

That said, like Nick I'm very unlikely to bother with the 2nd Ed. - the first works fine for what we're bothered about.

[petercooman]

We use 15mm and 20mm for Bolt Action, works far better than 28mm. 10mm would likely be even better, tbh.

I like the flow of BA (although the scenarios are general rubbish),  but in 28mm the size is just wrong. In smaller scales the visual ratio between movement and weapons and figures looks much, much better.

We play full size, no reductions/changing inches to CM's or other fiddling. You don't gain any space that way, but it looks and feels much much better

Space really is no problem, 9' X 4' should do the trick

The thing is, a 28mm guy with a thompson can only shoot 12". That looks wrong to me. now a 10 mm guy shooting 12", that looks right  

I dunno, we only played 1st ed, and I'm unlikely to pick up 2nd ed.

If you keep the rules as is and space out then it shouldn't matter; the gap allowed between blokes lets you spread out quite a lot even on smaller bases!

That said, like Nick I'm very unlikely to bother with the 2nd Ed. - the first works fine for what we're bothered about.

Maybe scale down the templates by the same ratio as i scale down the bases, that should do the trick   :-

I think, starting out now, it would be stupid to go for 1st edition. Unless they start offloading first edition stuff dirt cheap somewhere of course 


anyway, will be looking into chain of command too before i decide, those seem pretty good too. How's the turn order in those?

[toxicpixie]

Not played CoC

You could have a bash at PBI from Peter Pig as someone else suggested - the grid system for movement/ranges is a bit chalk and cheese, but it's a really good set of rules (when not exposed to the cheesemongers. HOW MANY FLAK WAGONS?!) that plays very nicely with excellent period feel.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Chain of Command works well, the system is hard to explain, basically you roll command dice, and move teams, sections or officers depending on the score.

IanS