Staunch British troops advance to the next battle, ready to fight Fritz! BOLTA PREVIEW OF THE OSP REYACTION! PUBLISHING/ WARLORD GAMES WW2 RULES By Rick Priestley Bolt Action is the eagerly anticipated and soon-to-be launched World War fair job on all that Warhammer and Lord Two combat wargame from Osprey Publishing, produced in conjunction of The Rings malarkey, and I hear he’s with those scamps from Warlord Games. As the title suggests, this latest got nothing better to do than sit at home game has been developed as an adjunct to Warlord’s well-known Bolt inventing endless chess variants.” Action range of WWII miniatures and vehicles, so it’s very much a game “Does he know anything about WWII?” aimed at playing WWII in 28mm - not that this is likely to stop anyone “Bound to… he’s very tall… and Italian.” playing in 20mm or 15mm or with tiddlywinks of course. It’s also a game that has been a good while in development by the Warlord team and some “Are you sure that does the trick…?” of their least-disreputable associates - so naturally our esteemed WI editor “Oh yes… every time… don’t you worry collared me one day as we were both queuing outside the soup kitchen about it John, it’ll be great. Any chance and asked me to pen a few words about Bolt Action and Warlord’s of another pint? I seem to have left my plans for the future. wallet in my other trousers.” INTRODUCTIONS Right, where to start…? And so was born the concept of AND INFLUENCES Warlord’s very own WWII wargame, The scene is a pub in the English conceived by John Stallard, designed by By way of a brief, said editor directed me Midlands. It is lunchtime. There is a towards the Force on Force introductory pint of Bateman’s XB on the copper- Alessio Cavatore and written up by me, article by the Ambush Alley team in clad tabletop and behind it shelters your with considerable encouragement and WI284 which, as it turns out, explains author - me, Rick Priestley - sometime assistance from the Warlords and our much of the motivation for and thinking developer of wargames and occasional friends from both sides of the Atlantic behind that particular set of rules. Now garden ornament. Opposite, behind a and - come to think of it - the Pacific. this is all very interesting, with lots of substantial pile of empty wine glasses sits Now the fact is that John and I have been quite serious stuff about ‘asymmetrical the substantial pile that is John Stallard, playing WWII wargames for more years and kinetic warfare’, ‘operational mighty and stentorian owner of than either of us can easily recall, using a momentum’ and ‘spawn points’. This Warlord Games. variety of rule sets in scales from 28mm last one sounds scary and I was much right down to the old 6mm micro-armour. “We have to have a WW2 game - here we relieved to discover it refers to a position So it’s not as if we weren’t already are,Warlord Games - fantastic range of on the tabletop from which troops deploy, steeped in the ins and outs of the subject WW2 kit and no game to go with it... it’s and has nothing to do with tentacles as evidenced by many an enjoyable sheer madness I tell you!” The merlot or eye-stalks at all. Piece of cake this session of “What’s your favourite tank?” sloshed affirmatively in response as John wargames article writing I tell you - and other assorted WWII trivia games. hurled his challenge across the tabletop. invent a few la-di-da terms, roll out a Also, having been brought up in the few anecdotes, quick jog through the “Well, we could always get that Alessio 1960s on a nourishing diet of Battle mechanics and we’re done! Cavatore to write us a game. He did a Picture Library, the Victor comic, Biggles and endless repeats of Where Eagles Dare there wasn’t much about the Second OSPREY PUBLISHING AND WARLORD GAMES World War that had escaped our attention. It’s hard to imagine a better combination than Osprey and Warlord – two Along the way a set of WWII wargames companies with established reputations for quality publishing and names that rules had been concocted that served us must be familiar to every reader of Wargames Illustrated. And what with being well for many years; however, sadly these good pals and all that it seemed like a great opportunity to work together. The were later used by me as the basis for the Bolt Action rulebook is certainly not lacking in colourful artwork, with Osprey’s 3rd edition of Warhammer 40K, which massive library to draw upon as well as cover art from Warlord and many new rather scuppered any idea of publishing photographs of arms and equipment from the collections of the authors. But this is those. Besides, we wanted something a book about wargames at the end of the day, which means it is also crammed with noticeably different that would stand the kind of miniature photography that has become a hallmark of Warlord books. out from the crowd, something unusual, The book itself follows the standard format for Osprey wargames publications something that would make people stop, which will, no doubt, be familiar to most readers in the shapes of Field of Glory draw breath and exclaim, ‘Blimey!’ (FoG), Force on Force, and so on. Alessio Cavatore sprang to mind at once. After a crash course in WWII history that included watching all nine series of and Pike and Shotte games which are impression from some games’ authors Allo, Allo, Alessio declared himself much more free-form, without points that it’s all about ‘playtesting’ and ready and willing. values or standard ‘set-up’ rules. Bolt ‘iterative balance’, which suggests to me FORMAL AND INFORMAL Action is very different and recognises a set of rules created as a paper exercise the tremendous popularity of the points- and knocked into a playable state by a The brief was to design a game that driven, head-to-head playing style of series of opinion polls and consumer would play well with what we felt was which Warhammer 40K is an obvious surveys. Whilst I’m sure that isn’t really a typical wargames force of around 30 example; also a game that both Alessio true, I have always maintained that the to 40 troops, transports, the odd tank, and I had worked upon together during way to design games is to play games, the occasional artillery piece, perhaps our time at Games Workshop. and that the writer’s vision behind the a couple of machine guns, mortars, a game should be its main driving force sniper - that sort of thing. I’d call it a Despite our insistence upon the formality though admittedly informed by carefully platoon-sized game except that any of army lists, points values and pre- observed game play and personal real infantry platoon would have been defined scenarios, we still wanted to interaction with players… and also that overjoyed to have quite so much support create a game that we would enjoy beer should be involved somewhere. - but nonetheless the supported infantry ourselves. After all we were going to be Don’t get me wrong - Bolt Action has platoon is the basic fighting force. playing a lot of it during the course of been conscientiously dispatched unseen Although this was the size envisaged, it development. When I say ‘we’ I refer to player groups throughout the UK, was also important that the game could to John Stallard and myself, as well as USA, and Australia who have diligently easily scale up for bigger battles too: two the Warlord crew, friends and associates provided their feedback and suggestions, platoons, three platoons, and so on. The who would naturally be enrolled as many of which make a direct appearance other thing laid down right from the start things progressed. Bolt Action - like all as rules within the game. However, the was that the game had to have points of the Warlord games - would spring most reassuring feedback an author can values and army lists as well as formal from game play - by which I mean it receive is to learn that players enjoy a scenarios that would easily facilitate would be played regularly and often by game and want to play again - so much tournaments as well as pick-up games. our gaming group as part of our usual so that they volunteer to run demo games, Whilst there’s nothing unusual in that routine of social wargaming. Again that organise tournaments and teach the game in itself, this is a marked departure from might sound an obvious way of going to new players. That’s the only ‘test’ that Warlord’s Black Powder, Hail Caesar, about things, but sometimes I do get the counts in the end, I reckon! JUST A FEW of THE INFLUENCES FOR THE BOLT ACTION WARGAME German troops have laid a cunning ambush that is about to be revealed with devastating results. Get Down! Bolt Action is the sort of game in which terrain plays a vital part in the game play and where much depends upon taking up positions in cover or out of sight. This is where the Ambush action comes into play, allowing squads to set up a position commanding a crossroads or covering a gap between hedgerows, for example. Advancing optimistically into the open is likely to end in disaster unless you can hit the enemy with enough firepower to stack three or four pin markers on his key units.