Bolt Action - World War II Wargaming

October Monthly Spotlight - Warlord Games Bolt Action

From Blitzkrieg to North Africa, from the Russian Front to the D-Day Landings, Bolt Action puts YOU in command of the most brutal and famous battles of the Second World War. Much like other tabletop games, you get to assemble and paint your brave men and armoured tanks, field them on a table-top battlefield, and use all your strategy, cunning and luck to defeat your opponent.

The rules for the game are very smooth to the fact they have been lovingly written by Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley. Both of these gentlemen are well known for their involvement in crafting many of the most memorable rules sets for Warhammer! The core rules set lets you play any faction from Early War Europe to Pacific theatre and have a balanced game in the end no matter whom your opponent has on the other side of the battlefield.

Bolt Action is unique from most other games because there is a random element to how you interact with your army. You and your opponent each use coloured dice which are placed into a bag. These are drawn randomly to decide who gets to activate their units. So when your coloured die is drawn, it is your chance to activate one of your units on the table. This can create some very tense and cinematic moments of last stands, or crushing assaults at unexpected times.

This random turn generation mechanic, paired with a streamlined rule set allows this game to play in a fluid manner. The action is always happening, and in some cases can be fast and furious if your dice keep being drawn from the bag. This also ensures no two matches played are ever the same, even on the same battlefield. Because of these differences to traditional tabletop games, where in your turn you do everything with your force while your opponent waits for their turn, Bolt Action games are much quicker to play through. Just another reason hobbyists find themselves playing as well.

If you are a painter much like me, you will find a new challenge and set of techniques to learn that you  develop with these historical 28mm miniatures. With the smaller pallets of colours to work with, you have less to think about which can help you get right into painting quicker. There are also great opportunities to test out new weathering and battle damage techniques on your artillery pieces and vehicles.

If you enjoy history or are looking for a new game to dive into, Bolt Action is for you!