A few quick thoughts on Bolt Action.

Just playing through the last turn/s of the game this morning, so I thought I would jot down a couple of notes that have occurred to me whilst playing in order to keep them fresh in my mind.

1. The visual impact of the figures and terrain is being spoiled by the order dice and pin markers following the units around. The red Soviet dice are especially irritating! I saw a great way round this on the BA forum and I'm going to borrow it, simply add a narrow shelf  to both table long edges and use printed unit identification cards to slide along the shelf so that it remains in line with the unit it represents, and place both the order dice and pin marker dice on the cards off table. This could also mean that I can begin to give each unit it's own characteristics, name the NCO's etc but still be visible to both sides. A trip to B&Q in the week should see this simple idea added.
2. Officers are pretty useless as the rules stand, they serve only to add a morale bonus to troops within 6" and not much else. However, judging by rules co author Allesio Cavatore's interview at Salute things are about to change on this front. Interestingly, there is also much talk about templates being introduced for High Explosive shots, presumably as per Flames of war. I like this idea, but many others are up in arms about it, funny lot wargamers! As it stands it does seem a little odd that there is no way of determining the fall of a shell, if you range in it's on target, if you don't range in you don't fire, even where the target is surrounded by other enemy units.

With the second edition of Bolt Action not too far away those interested in the future direction of this fine game might want to give Alessio a listen. The youtube video below is cut to play at the point of his short interview, and although he makes it clear he is writing to the Warlord managements brief, he does hint at some useful tweaks to come, officers effectiveness being one of them. 

Back with AAR shortly.

Link.