Structuring my knowledge of Bolt Action
The rules are relatively easy, but playing a game of Bolt Action is rather more complicated. Although I have a decent mastery of the rules, I often forget things in the heat of the game. These mistakes usually cost me a victory.
A lot of tactics and strategy are not well-documented, and not in any Bolt Action publication. Below are some of my experiences, which I collect and write down after each game. Once I have enough ‘data’ I will try to structure these into some kind of tactical flowchart or schecklist.
General thoughts
- Play the scenario,always!
- Straightforward solutions now work better rthan subte tactical high risk/high reward moves or subtle tactical gambles.
- Keep the maths in mind - better go down and be safe than lose a unit, unless you absolutely need to do something with that unit (e.g. final-turn kill to turn defeat into victory).
Choosing side
- Try to choose a side with cover
- Keep in mind that in you need to go forward, then you need lanes to do it from
- Ideally you are protected from line of sight, or at least have cover, when you deploy.
- If you are fast than your enemy you can in theory reach and make use of terrain on their sid eof the board. This is risky, howver, but can work in some cases.
Deployment
- Deploying last is great, unless you want to control the board early on.
- Deploy junk early on, try to keep the strongest units for last. A complementary view is that deploying storng things first gives you board control. Keep in mind how vulnerable these are - do they have (enough) armour, cover, etc?
- If the choice is between deploying openly to get a shot in on round 1 or deploying in cover with the possibiiltyt to gain advantage/good shots on turn 2/#, go for the latter. It is too easy for tanks/lmg teams/etc to get pinned down and get stuck Quarters
- Use outflank!
- Use reserves and deploy on the long edge on round 2! Long edges
- Keep in mind outflak: keep stuff away from the edges with outflank or prepare to defend them.
Deploying artillery
- Give your artillery cover if possible, especially indirect arty.
- Clumping artillery close enough to be covered by one platoon or company commander makes them easier to use - snap to with the commander’s bonus and shoot at one target until it is eliminated or has lots of pins.
Round 1
- Don’t rush forward, you still have at least 5 rounds left.
- This round is genereally for placing your units in a good poisition, not for shooting down anything.