Friday, September 26, 2014

Bolt Non-Action

Had a chance to play with John from Curio Clashes and his awesome WW2 models and terrain. This would be my 3rd or 4th time playing Bolt Action and it still isn't making me get that "this is a great game!" feeling. I get a distinct Warhammer 20k taste in my mouth despite great toys and terrain.


We played a smaller game with the Americans trying to take out some German guns that were shelling the beach. A really lucky mortar round took out an entire US squad off the bat and it went down hill from there.
This game can really shine as a small scale, 2v2 game. It suffers from the same problem that all modern combat games do that keeps me away from the period: the modern battlefield is really deadly. We as gamers don't grasp that and tend to shy away from rules that emphasize it. Which is a shame. Attacking an entrenched enemy, we really should have play the scenario last night with a 3-1 ratio in troops.
But, I do have some excitement. Lion Rampant showed up in the mail yesterday. I am a big fan of Dan Mersey's earlier book Dux Bellorum and can't wait to hit one of my favorite periods: Middle Ages.
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5 comments:

  1. styxSeptember 26, 2014 at 11:23 AM

    All in all BA is a good game, not perfect but is enjoyable. I think the major thing is when people compare it to Warhammer(ish) games is simply that mechanics are going to be similar in some sets in many instances. Order may change, names may change, but often they tend to flow along the same lines. To me when people start saying things is they are trying to justify not playing a game. Which is fine, play with what you like is my thought.

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  2. Archduke PiccoloSeptember 26, 2014 at 6:43 PM

    Nice table-top, but yeah - I don't much like games in which one really foul piece of bad luck means you have no chance of coming out a very poor second. On the 'Lion Rampant' thing, check out 'Pauly Wauly's Other Wargames Blog' for a recent game played with that rule set.

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  3. MurdocKSeptember 26, 2014 at 9:06 PM

    the tankies have it right with the WWII period for land warfare

    6mm

    and lots of potential to put lots of things into action ... the smallest action being a brigade on brigade normally

    the Industrial War period starting after 1820 all starts to look the same to me, thus why I have not pursued the periods in tabletop miniatures

    board-games and computer simulations they can be a good time

    table top miniatures?

    not so much

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  4. Cluck AmokSeptember 28, 2014 at 10:02 AM

    Yeah. . . I have some 28mm WW2 minis and models that may never see the light of day. . . There's still hope for the MicroArmor! Jon's terrain and toys look good!

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  5. Jon FSeptember 30, 2014 at 8:56 AM

    I'm hoping we can iron out the wrinkles. I blame a lot of the problems with this game on myself seeing as I balanced the forces too much instead do weighing them in the allies favor since the Germans held the defensive position.

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