Well version three of Bolt Action, Warlord Games’ World War Two wargame, is out. Competitions have been organised and discussions of the new “ meta” abound. But, probability counting and list maximisation is frowned upon upon by the Dice Studz of course. Using the right codex is also frowned upon by some….

Despite my opponent’s reluctance to use version three lists, I was impressed by how easy it was to use the new organisational charts. Although I couldn’t replicate a historical three section platoon, two sections are enough for fire and movement. The third section would have to be imagined as waiting in reserve.

James had carefully prepared the terrain in a balanced manner!!

James had scoured every aquarium shop to get the jungle on table. Nice looking foliage but not quite fitting the rules. We decided on hard cover and then after the first US shots hit home, James graciously decided that the foliage blocked line of sight! Second thing I liked was the smaller number of factors “ to hit” , cover saves have been added. This made it faster to work out; no half range to measure or accounting for small teams.

I had chosen four full squads of GIs with one mortar and a medium machine gun. James, son of Nippon, had scoured his codex to find a section with three light mortars in just one unit. Knee mortar rounds started landing but again not a chore to work out ( a six to hit, hit number going down with each volley!

Meanwhile on the table beside us, Mike defended the Collective pig-farm against its former owners.

Third thing I liked about version three was the change to the pinning system. They are still effective in suppressing an enemy but again can be rallied off. My sniper took a particular dislike to the Japanese colour party and kept it eating dirt after taking out the company commander.

So all the tables were full of happy students of the new rules and then to cap it all, we discovered the assault rules.

The small changes were accumulating. Japanese artillery suppressed my heavy weapons but the Japanese flame thrower was overcome by rifle fire. I had now wiped out four units and the game closed with one very satisfied American captain!

I was hooked. We were “ assisted” for the second half of the game by Keith. He helpfully positioned the incoming artillery strike and declared my machine gun fired obscured. After spending fourteen pounds on his Christmas meal, he started to see things my way. I was indeed behind hard cover and had won convincingly!!! He’s not cheap but he is thorough! Join us one week at Cardiff‘s Firestorm games for more dice related athletics!

Best

Doug