War game temptations - Bolt Action

I am not a war gamer. There, I've said it - the best I can say I have done in this area was a brief obsession with Risk when I was a teenager and I enjoyed Company of Heroes on the PC. But I have never been one of the ruler and dice fraternity.

Having said all that, as you can see in all my previous Finnish Project posts, I am using the Rapid Fire! war game rules as a template with which to assemble my collection of Continuation War Finnish models. However, while I sourced a set of the RF! rules a quick flick through them was enough to convince me that actually playing a game with them was a bit beyond my meagre intellect! (I just don't seem to be mentally wired up right to easily translate the convoluted instructions into 'fun'!)

Then again, I came across a YouTube video which demonstrates a set of wargame rules that I at least seem to be able to follow - all be it with a somewhat bemused expression on my face half of the time. It is a video of a demonstration game for the Bolt Action rules by Warlord...



Don't ask me why I find these rules to be any more tempting than, say, Rapid Fire! or Flames of War as there's probably no logic to it, maybe it's because these guys actually look like they are having fun!

But in any case, I am tempted to get together a couple of tanks and a couple of squads of infantry and have a bash at this on my kitchen table one weekend. I may even give some of my Finns an outing when I have enough done.

I note that Bolt Action is primarily aimed at 28mm figures but I've Googled around and quite a few people seem to think it's 'OK' for 1/72 at a push (without changing any of the rule's ranges).

I still don't think I'll ever be a regular wargamer, but it would be nice to think that once I have a good part of my Finnish army completed I can put on a bit of a demo game myself, just to say that they have seen some action!

[Of course, this will mean I shall have to make some Soviets as well to act as opponents. So it may well be a small unit action, but this seems to suit the Bolt Action rules as can be seen in the video demo.]