Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => Genre/Period Discussion => 20th Century => Topic started by: FierceKitty on 22 August 2015, 01:11:47 PM

Title: Bolt Action
Post by: FierceKitty on 22 August 2015, 01:11:47 PM
Does anyone play this twice?
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: barbarian on 22 August 2015, 01:51:09 PM
Not even once.
And I have the rules.

Maybe some tweaking could do, mainly involving the capacity to split a squad to have one part (the LMG + servant+ officer) doing covering fire and the other part assaulting.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 22 August 2015, 01:54:32 PM
Played once, sold rules back to Amazon.

IanS
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: FierceKitty on 22 August 2015, 03:03:19 PM
I excused myself halfway through a game today.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Techno on 22 August 2015, 04:23:09 PM
You can get incontinence pants, if that becomes a regular problem.
Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Shedman on 22 August 2015, 04:39:02 PM
Played it loads of times

I've used it for WW1, North-West Frontier, Sci-Fi and Wild West

Excellent games - the mechanisms work well for small unit actions with a bit of tweaking

There are a couple of issues such as disparity in number of units per side, melee and non-existent points system for creating your own units and weapons - but they can all be tweaked

The Sci-Fi sequel - Beyond the Gates on Antares-  changed to using a D10

Never used it for WW2

Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Luddite on 22 August 2015, 05:56:14 PM
How weird is that!  I just got back from playing a game of Bolt Action!  Haven't played in a few months.

Its a solid game, with some fun tensions.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Steve J on 22 August 2015, 06:01:29 PM
No interest to me at all. Seen it demoed at a few shows but hardly anyone seemed to be looking at the game. Given the amount of feedback on the Warlord Games site re: an updated version, it would seem that there are a lot of things to fix.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Luddite on 22 August 2015, 11:16:49 PM
Flame throwers are broken for sure.

Not much else strikes me as problematic.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: FierceKitty on 23 August 2015, 01:27:54 AM
Quote from: Techno on 22 August 2015, 04:23:09 PM
You can get incontinence pants, if that becomes a regular problem.
Cheers - Phil

I see it as excercising my right to express an opinion.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 23 August 2015, 06:55:22 AM
Well cats do have a very short attention span.

IanS
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: FierceKitty on 23 August 2015, 07:11:42 AM
You, sir, have a very short...nose.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: toxicpixie on 14 September 2015, 11:44:20 PM
The basic mechanisms work nicely, and it actually feels pretty good in "sensible" play. But the scenario's in the book make it World War 40k in the worst possible way ("why yes, I've worked out you can't reach my objective in the turns remaining, and therefore am assured of at least a draw, so I shall charge my entire force at your objective in the hope one of them can touch it and get an auto win despite casualties or position").

But we've used it "sensibly" for WW2 and Spanish Civil and it's a cracking game once you drop a couple of scales and don't play like loons ;)
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Ithoriel on 15 September 2015, 12:54:30 AM
Played a handful of, largely unsatisfying, games. Seems like WW40K rather than WW2 to me but some people clearly enjoy it so more power to their collective elbows.

I prefer BKC personally but I know several who dislike it.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Nosher on 15 September 2015, 07:17:34 AM
I play it a fair bit solo and use 'sensible' forces.

I've seen games at the club where power gamers are using two Sherman Calliopes and he Germans using Nebelwerfers as direct fire weapons.....

Hence why I play solo ;)

I did have to laugh when the Pegasus Bridge set came out and you couldn't fire from one end of the bridge to the other.

Horses for courses.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: toxicpixie on 15 September 2015, 08:25:34 AM
Nosher, that's exactly the sort of thing I mean - 203mm howitzers on table in an infantry platoon level game etc. The ranges look distinctly weird in 28mm as well. We normally play in 15mm (or 20mm for SCW) and it actually looks pretty good on table!

The basic d6 to hit, wound and move sequence is pure "Warhammer circa 1983 onwards", but the motivation and pinning and tactics all reward approaching it quite well as a platoon commander. Unless your Nebelwerfers are hot that day, and anything else is cleared up by your elite flamethrowing cheese brigade and the scenerio means you have to sit in the middle ground and make quacking noises for two truns...

I'd suggest PBI from Peter Pig for a slightly higher level but still one to one game - and one that's an even better simulation, but is still susceptible to serious cheese.
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: Ithoriel on 15 September 2015, 11:42:27 AM
Quote from: toxicpixie on 15 September 2015, 08:25:34 AM
Nosher, that's exactly the sort of thing I mean - 203mm howitzers on table in an infantry platoon level game etc. The ranges look distinctly weird in 28mm as well. We normally play in 15mm (or 20mm for SCW) and it actually looks pretty good on table!

...and that's the problem with "reasonable" forces, a Soviet platoon acting as close support for a tracked 203mm howitzer which is clearing bunkers/ urban strong points with direct fire would be perfectly historical ... in some circumstances ... and utterly cheesy in others.

Seems to me that for most wargames it's not so much about picking your forces as about picking your opponents. If you are both history nerds or both power gamers that's fine but when one is interested in WARgames and the other in warGAMES well ..... there may be trouble ahead :)
Title: Re: Bolt Action
Post by: toxicpixie on 15 September 2015, 11:47:13 AM
That's it, yes - not every scenario on table is the same, strange combinations do happen (and are often not strange in context!) and odd combo's make things... odd. But sometimes are plausible, even if not common. It's why army lists and force generation systems and scenario set ups are so hard to get right! I'm happy with the Bolt Action lists, in general, as we're usually pretty sensible with our forces but they're very easy to abuse if you wanted to. Mind, most things balance out on table, unless the scenario says otherwise... it's more the scenarios that don't seem to bear much relationship to anything outside of the 41st Millennium...