New bolt action player

[DAVID Ronald TURRELL]

Good evening all

I am a new player in bolt action, as such I have purchased the gentleman’s war starter set, so I do have some questions looking more for clarification, the biggest one is suggested unit size as the start set comes with 12 infantry for each side, and the videos I have seen on you tube as well as pictures I have seen show between 8 and 10 figures per squad, so the clarification I am looking for is the starter set by my working would then form 1x 8 man squad, 1x officer group and a heavy weapons team, either LMG or Mortar, am i looking at this correctly or is there another way to size the units?  I do have another question which is on a different tack and that is as I am from South Africa originally I was wanting to create a South African desert army, and to do that I am looking for suggestions on colors etc.

[Kar98k]

Hi David, and welcome to the group. I’m pretty sure you will get a few detailed responses, but let me just give you a few suggestions to get you started.

Have a look at the army lists in the Bolt Action Third Edition rule book. Here you will find some core information about how to organize and equip your infantry squads. For more details and information, see the Armies of Germany Third Edition and Armies of Great Britain Third Edition books. These books will give you more information about other units as well.

Obviously, the starter set is just that, a starter set. If I recall, the starter set suggests two squads of six figures for a total of twelve, but you can also have five and seven. With only twelve infantry figures, your options are limited. For example, if you build a full strength infantry squad using ten figures, then you only have two figures to use for a officer team or something.

[DAVID Ronald TURRELL]

Thank you for your feedback, as well as your suggestions I will definitely be looking into these sourcebooks you suggested, I had already decided that my next purchase was going to be the 8th Army starter set as well as some additional commonwealth infantry boxes,

[Ian]

Hi David

 

Welcome to Bolt Action. It is really an amazing game.

Here’s my small piece of advice if you want to take it

As a new start I would advise building up one squad at a time. You need a minimum of   1 command group (min 1 officer) and 2 rifle squads (min 5 men each unit). Obviously this is a bare minimum and it would be difficult to play a game with so few units. But i would say start with this , paint them up, make sure you are happy with your colour schemes, you basing techniques and that you also enjoy painting the figures. It also saves you from becoming overwhelmed with loads of figures and models and becoming drowned with having do do so much painting.

 

Once you are satisfied with these units slowly expand your army a couple of units at a time. I always start with the basic infantry units, then some heavy weapons,  a light mortar, antitank rife, mmg etc.

Then some support units ie, artillery observer, sniper, transport maybe even some artillery. Now you have the base for a well rounded army.

You can now add the fun items, like tanks, armoured cars, SPG’s,  snipers, flamethrowers and all the exciting units

It all takes a while but is well worth the effort.

Ian

 

 

 

[DAVID Ronald TURRELL]

Ian

I thank you for the advice, as and I think I am going to take it, to the point were I am going to make (using the figures in the gentleman’s war starter set) 1 x command group and 2x squads with LMG’s for each of the 2 sides, I am also considering getting the Afrika Korps starter army and 8th army starter set, but based on what you suggested these additional sets will be at different times, the only reason I am buying 2 armies is that my biggest problem is trying to find people to play with and I figured if I find people I can supply both armies and see if the other players would want to play more.

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