A Farewell to Bolt Action 2nd ed.; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (and an MMG Team)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
- Welcome back to the channel everyone.
In this video, I show a recently completed Normandy campaign German MMG team and, with a collage of past projects, give my send off to a game that I really love as it is about to be retired for a new edition.
Thoughts on 2nd ed. start at 3:27
Tell me what you thought about 2nd ed. in the comments.
Thanks for watching and keep those brushes moving!
Mostly a fun game. No war-game is perfect, but there are some problems. We wrote a lot of house rules to rectify the following problems.
1. We adjusted points values for assault guns like the Stug III, SU 152, etc.
2. The sniper rule taking out entire teams - we got rid of it
3. Open top vehicles getting pinned by small arms (we used the rating - vets never got pinned by small arms, regs on a 1-3 roll, inexperienced - always pinned. This went for the units onboard transports as well)
4. HE hits only ever do one pin to closed topped vehicles instead of multiple pins.
5. Indirect fire shots never auto hit on a 2+ after hitting (we have a table that is more realistic)
6. MMG's do D2 pins
7. Officers can use their rally order to remove pins from units within command range. 2nd Lt= 1 pin, 1st Lt = 2pins, etc. Can do this as part of a "snap too" as well. This made higher rank officers more appealing and helped mitigate the draconian pin rules.
Finally, we didn't remove them but I feel multi launchers need to go. They force you to spread out and alter your tactics in a way that's unbalanced. And armored vehicles really need a fix. Tanks that were awful in real life are stellar in Bolt Action V2. Basically a vehicle bristling with MMG's and auto cannons rule, while excellent tanks like the Panther are never worth the points.
Thanks for the feedback, Justin. And the view, of course. #7 is kind of similar to the Chaplain rule in a way. But all of those house rules seems spot on. I imagine the D2 pins MMG will make it into 3rd ed. I agree about the sniper taking out whole teams was ridiculous, but my snipers were notorious for 1s and 2s. As for lousy tanks being rockstars, I didn't bring up the 5 MMG Stuart only because I've never played against one. Bit of a flashback to the Soviet 4 MMG jeep spam in the Seelowe (?) selector that was pretty broken. I have heaps of armor but rarely use in because of the points. I'd love to drop the Jagdtiger on the table, but at like 600 and something points...Hopefully a lot of this will be addressed in 3rd ed.
James, I am one of your viewers who is well past middle age, which I hadn’t really thought about until you broached the topic. 😉. I absolutely loved the slide show of your various Bolt Action soldiers. What great memories and they don’t have to end. Model on James-San. 👍
Cheers, Mark. I don't think I will ever stop painting. I have 1000s of figures and I'm starting to seriously think about what I am going to do with them all. Thanks for watching.
Great video, I have so many fond memories of us playing. In general I’d say I really liked 2nd Ed.
Sometimes a bit frustrating when playing against Russian superhuman engineers teams in armor with panzerfauts and flame throwers. But I think that compared to what was available before Bolt Action came out, it makes it a great game.
Hmmmm. What dastardly Sardinian would ever field such a force? There were also officer-less Italian paratroopers with like 5 tanks too. lol. I have a lot of good memories from the pub days and from when we'd play here or at your place. If only we could play more often.
@@jvcpaints man! The pub days are memorable! We had such a laugh. Officerless Italians ahahah I forgot about that.
@@giovanniallari9177 Can't forget Mario's girlfriend either. haha
Great stuff buddy very nice figures too 👍
Thanks very much. Glad you enjoyed it!
They look superb James,nice basing
Cheers, Justin. I always love showing off additions to my WW2 collection.
Nice figures and a good chat. Your points about commitments, family, work, money etc are very sound. We all go through it. I retired early, 10 years ago this year, where did that time go !!! With retirement does come a bit more money and luckily a lot more time to paint and game for me anyway. The cat you painted, very realistic ;)
Thank you very much for checking out the video. Real life is what happens when you're making other plans. I'm hoping to tackle some bigger painting projects after I retire. All I can do is hope that my eyes will cooperate.
But I bet you ate every piece of that chocolate hoping they put some speed in there. haha. Do you always sound like bubbles when you say buy? lol. Nice photos. Wish there were guys into the game here who liked painting so much.
lol. I noticed the bubbles pronunciation later. As for the chocolate, remember when there were those German cigarellos at the military antique store on O'Connor and we were debating if we should buy them to see they would get us blasted? Ah, la jeunesse. Hope you still paint sometimes.
I liked 2nd Edition and it was fun to play, but in the last month the hobby butterfly flow to other topics, so I haven´t played 2nd for a long time. I give 3rd Edition a try, because I enjoy BoltAction.
Great miniatures James.
Greetings Christoph
It was the only game we played here due to the logistics of everyone being so far apart, limited time and simplicity of rules. But, alas, the hobby butterfly effect is here too. The club has diversified in to Saga, 40K and a little bit of old hammer. But taking cases of minis on 4 hour train rides instead of one case, keeps me in historicals. Thanks for watching and keep up with your Dwarfs!
Great video buddy. I kind of preferred 1st edition, only played a few games of second. It’ll be interesting to see how 3rd plays out. Great point about the people complaining about playing ss or Japanese. It’s a game, if you don’t like it then jog on
Thanks, Leon. I enjoyed 2nd ed. a lot because we had a good group that was into playing it. We had a lot of laughs and drinks and "any thing but a 1"s. I don't understand wanting to get into a hobby, especially a game, where you don't like the source material, and in this case historical material cemented in time, and expecting change because of your own proclivities. I'm not going to take up football and get everyone to only walk or use their hands because I can't run more than 50 meters without coughing up my lungs which are like two burnt raisins on the end of a string and kicking takes too much effort. There are plenty of options out there. Choose one you're comfortable with. End of.
@@jvcpaints totally agree
Nice pictures and paint jobs James. I haven't played in over three years. Not sure if I'll buy version three, but I'm interested in reviews of it. Of course, the erratas and FAQ's won't be long coming.
Cheers, man. I get to play maybe twice a year and it is usually a big social event with food and drinks and laughter and nostalgia and more drinks. For me, painting is the biggest and best part of the hobby. If I lose, that's OK. Just doing something real with friends is the true point.
Love the HG team mate. Brilliant little dio.
Good waffle though I was disappointed no maple syru🇨🇦
Thanks, Cal. Trying to keep the calories down, ya know, eh. lol
Oh man, seeing these highlights all together just shows a concentrated vast talent. I love seeing your painting and modelling. Please keep it coming- so good! Regards, Dan
Cheers and thanks, Dan. I realized how much gaming I haven't been doing when a lot of the game photos were from 2018 an 2019. I've got another army on the cusp of being finished and hopefully the next video will be out next week. Fingers and eyes crossed.
Nice machine gun team. New rules. Makes me wanna do solo board games..
Thanks, Lucian. Do you think you'll be checking out 3rd ed. or are you going to keep up with the MEBS game?
@@jvcpaints i am even contemplating switching to board games solo play, like tainted grail, descent.
@@smoothbrush4722 Is that because it's difficult to find people to play against? I know that feeling!! As long as you keep painting and keep that skill up.
Your Bolt Action collection is amazing James, really enjoyed the video, some excellent points, I know people who got rid of there Russian armies and won't play Germans, i just laugh at them. History is not for them, if they look into it, their tiny world will implode lol
Sean, thank you for the kind words as always, mate. I appreciate them. Yes, there are people out there who have literally no sense of the past. I grew up around WW2 veterans, some of whom fought for the axis. Men in their 50s with missing limbs, eyepatches, scars everywhere were very common. At block parties, Canadian veterans had nothing against German ones and vice versa; they just drank a lot and laughed and smoked. They had survived the war and were happy to be there. The generation now....they are too high on their own shit. They really think they are something. It's sad, but it is reality.
I honestly don't see that they even needed a second edition let alone a third. First edition bolt action is damn near the perfect game
I quite enjoyed 1st ed. too, but only played it a handful of times before 2nd. ed. came out. It was a really easy game to pick up and learn which, along with it being World War 2, really got me hook, line and sinker. I'm probably going to wait a while before I buy into 3rd. The whole change over of the Army books is not something I'm up for as I have like 40 armies or so. I'm all about painting and having fun with my buddies. I doubt they'll be in any rush to pick it up either. Thanks for watching! I hope you can check out some of my Army Showcase videos.
Wow, the first vignette is awesome, superb minis, base and road sign, big like!
Thanks, Phil. I had wanted to get it out earlier in the month for the big 80th anniversary of D-Day, but I got kidney stones and was unable to do much. Glad you liked it.
Great show, James. A great base with this MG-team. Very well painted! Certainly a eye catcher on the table.
Cool slide show over all the things on the table. impressive in every kind.
Best wishes and further a good time. Joachim
Thank you, Joachim. It was fun to go through and find some of the older projects I had done. Some good memories there. Thanks again for checking out the video.
Not a Bolt Action gamer, but wow that was some nice terrain and minis! Good job!!
Thanks very much. I appreciate it! Cheers.
Great video. I wonder what the new starter box will bring ?
Thanks very much. I'm interested to see what the starter box will have too. The Soviets are in need of a make over. Maybe an Eastern Front theme this time?
Yeah that would be great set ! New russians would be sweet
Great modelling! I don’t have the talent or imagination so I’ll subscribe just to see more 😎
Thank you very much for the kind words and the sub. I appreciate it.
that sign tho
Thanks for checking it out.
Hated prone minis - glad they started using templates for blast weapons - hate that missed blast weapons just vanish and not land somewhere on the table - where the fuck are the grenades!!! - turret jams, dumb - Nation special rules dumb, should just be tech mods or tactics mods not some outrageous "fire drills" or "free arty because whatever" - snipers still never hit! - Fun beer and pretzel but that's it in my opinion. REAL life sure gets in the way of all the fun that's for sure. Hope you're on the mend brother and keep, keeping it WEIRD!!!
Prone minis for snipers are OK, otherwise may as well put him in a Starfleet Red Shirt because he is casualty number one. I think if they had a rule where you determined where the missed mortar shots go, they'd be deadly but they'd have to introduce a misfire rule to counter balance it I figure. It would be more realistic though. I just re watched Platoon last night and shit was s'ploding everywhere! Early war is way more balanced than the late war stuff for sure, but some of the special rules are stronger than others. But like you said, it's a great beer and pretzel game and I just happen to be a beer and pretzel guy. lol. In fact, I go to tourneys to drink beer, buy a million raffle tickets and win everything and hopefully win best painted. That's why I loved WFB 7th ed. so much because I cruised the length and breadth of Alberta in my shitty '92 dodge caravan wracking up painting awards and hanging out in small town dive bars. lol. Them were the days, bud. I'll keep it weird as possible.
Third edition? I only just bought the Second edition ... oh well always late to the party ...
It seems like 2nd ed. only came out a few years ago. I know how you feel. The same thing happened to me when I bought Warhammer Fantasy 6th ed., got a free ticket to the Games Day and then about 4 weeks later 7th ed. came out. A day late and a dollar short, as the old timers used to say.
My main complaint about the game is the scale and range of small arms. In my opinion, tanks, artillery and heavy weapons shouldn't have been on the table unless they were scenerey, an objective for infantry to disable (further disable) or destroy.
The average infantry carried battle rifle would be effective across the long side of the table. So, I would have prefered if an infantry rifle shoots the full table without penalty, and gets a +1 positive modifier for any close range shots within 24".
Tanks, artillery, war planes should have utilized table edge markers to indicate the path of approach or arc of fire, and require no taletop model to represent them. They could have operated more as game influencing effects.
I think Warlord lost the plot a bit and the game continued to move away from infantry focus, and armour spam started showing up. Army list with two skeleton infantry sections as cannon fodder to make room for a Puma and a Jerry tank in the same 1000 point list. Or, the LRDG list with tons of machine guns on jeeps.
I got sick of the cheese lists pretty quick, but we tended not to see them as often outside of the tournaments that we ran.
All good points. I think the ranges were set the way they were to make it familiar to people who graduated from the cash blackhole that is $40K ( ...and Warlord isn't as cheap as it was either. When I started out, one guy was about ￥150~200, now about ￥600 plus shipping. Anyhoo...)
I had seen online and had heard about those 2 five man shirker squads lead by a inexperienced 2nd LT with the vet Puma and Panther lists and just thought that shit was lame AF. I don't tend to play THAT cheesy, but I still would bring the cheese when I had to i.e.spacing my weapons team guys out to the millimeter to minimize potential HE damage.
One thing that I forgot to mention in the video that I liked about Bolt Action 2nd ed. was that early war and late war are two totally different gaming experiences. Early war is more balanced whereas late war is just a slug fest of crazy shit. At the end of the day though, I think a lot of the experience is who you are playing against.
I wish we could do a tournament here in Japan again but almost everyone has either left the country or are on to other games. Space is a huge issue too. Trying to get a place to play has always been a massive obstacle. There are community centres but trying to explain what we're doing to some clueless Japanese senior in charge of room reservations is the 13th labour of Hercules. Actually, at the last tournament in 2017, we had some old lady catch wind of what we were doing and was convinced we were in cahoots with the North Koreans. It's always uphill, buddy. And raining. lol.
@@jvcpaints After some years of late-war hijinks, the core members of the group shifted to playing early and mid-war battles, and it did feel like a totally different game (that we mostly all prefered).
I had a Wetmacht army, and If I remember correctly it went like:
2nd Lieutenant Veteran & 1 Man
Medic & 1 Orderly
X3 10 man Infantry section Regulat (with LMG).
MMG Team Veteran
AT Rifle Team Veteran
Light Artillery Team Regular
Kubelwagen with MMG Regular
Sdkfz 222 Armoured Car Veteran
A fair list and it performed well.
@@Off_Grid_Grognard That's a solid list. I usually have 8 man squads with NCO with an SMG and one LMG. I always take the MMG bike. I love the lt.howitzer too for 50 points. I would definitely take the AT rifle over the sniper. I got stuck in the trap of taking the medium mortar to deal with snipers, but it never works...or almost never works.
I have a video on here of Rommel's 7th Army Anti-tank platoon from May 1940 and it is probably the cheesiest early war Army you can make. I made it on purpose kind of as a joke. 16 dice, 1000 points and just terrible. lol. You should check it out when you've got some time. Also has a drunk chaplain. haha
@@jvcpaints I'll be on the lookout for that video. Now as I recall, My Early-War German list didn't have the kubelwagen with MMG, it was in my Mid-War list occupying the AC slot accompanied by a regular Panzer IV (that tiger-fear was a cheesy rule, not sure if it made it to 3rd edition lol).
Everything's become more expensive as inflation is running rampant. I'm cutting back a bunch on my hobby and focusing on buying used on the secondary market. Shipping is rough too, I totally agree. I've been repurchasing old AD&D 1st edition scourcebooks and modules (that were water damaged nearly 30 years ago), and the shipping costs are brutal to Canada (even from the US) and then "Customs" drops a hammer too. Some say "3D Print goes brrrrrrrrrrr.....". Lol
About finding a place to play. I think the goal of getting approval of a gamingspace-gatekeeper is to be as vague as possible with them, and pretending to be bad at speaking Japanese likely helps. I'd tell them I'm playing Axis and Allies 3.0, Stratego Plus or WW2 Monopoly.
And remodeling weapons team members spacing to save teams is to be expected. Warlord damn well knew what they were doing with that one, and shouldnhave known better (the decision had A GW flavour to it). Their entire miniature range features team members posed as to be so close they are automatically in the kill template. I went so far as to take my teams off the group basses (of which I spent good money buying from Sarrisa Precision and dressing up with premium hobby materials) and on to individual bases. I even put the weapons on thier own bases.
@@Off_Grid_Grognard I saw that you found it. Nice input as to a possible scenario. I'm hoping to do a Spam vs. Cheese game one of these days with my buddy here. That German list against a Soviet horde army.
And definitely no hello to version 3 for me...
I understand where you are coming from. I'm a little apprehensive myself. I just saw the fire sale of books at the Warlord website. I'm a little worried that Warlord is at about 1989 on the GW timeline.
I was only able to finish 5 bases for boar boyz need a longer video. Germans rock... stay out of bolt action you hippies👻👻👻👻
I watched most of your battle report against the Khoronite CareBear's Chaos Dwarfs and was trying to pick up the rules by osmosis, but fallback disordered threw me for a loop. Bolt Action is definitely not for hippies. Hippy biker types, maybe. Tie-dye barefoot types, nah.
@@jvcpaints they were originally going to have a chart like in hail Caesar but I think Rick priestly threatened a suit 👻👻👻👻