Bolt Action Review Part 6: Scenarios and General Lists

Inside the Bolt Action book are 6 Scenarios, for the most part very generic in design and I have heard a few people say they remind them of 3rd Edition Warhammer 40k missions. Maybe so, but let's think about that all games for the most part have the same elements in them and so there will always be similar aspects from one game system to another. 

Flanking is unique in Bolt Action as the turn when your unit shows up determines how far up the side of the board you can place it. So, if it appears early you are closer to your lines, the later it is the further you are up the board to your opponent. You also write down which side there is no random element, so pure planning and luck comes into play here.

Here are the missions:

Envelopment: Attacker gets points to destroy units. Attacker gets points destroying enemy units, getting units off the enemy deployment zone and just being in their deployment zone.

Maximum Attrition: Kill one another, earn points killing units. Highest total wins.

Point Defence: Attacker has to capture 3 objectives.

Hold Until Relieved: Capture an objective in the center of the table.

Top Secret: Objective in the center of the board that you have to capture and get back off your table edge. A tough one here and you will need transports to win this one.

Demolition: both sides have to destroy their objective by getting into base contact with it and blowing it up as well as defending their own.

Army Lists:

I won't go much into army lists except to say they are all in the same format and what is in the book is just a sample list for each of the four main armies of WW2 to get you going until your Army book is released. The format is the basic list like this:

Required:

1 Lieutenant - First or Second

2 Infantry Squads

Optional:

0-3 Infantry Squads

0-1 Captain or Major

0-1 Medic

0-1 Forward Observer (Air or Artillery)

0-1 Machine Gun Team

0-1 Mortar Team

0-1 Sniper Team

0-1 Flamethrower Team

0-1 Anti-Tank Team

0-1 Field Artillery, Anti-Aircraft or Anti-Tank Gun

0-1 Armored Car

0-1 Tank, Tank Destroyer, Anti-Aircraft Vehicle or Self Propelled Artillery

0-1 Transport or tow (one per infantry or artillery unit)

Once you get into an army book things become less generic and more defined along with new units that could not make it into the core rules. What I also can say as I just got my German Army book is that there are optional formats to the above list to allow you to play historical based games with some level of accuracy (not perfect, but close).