Bolt Action Island Assault Starter Set - Unbox and First look

After a lot of requests Jon takes a look at Bolt Action. We Open up the Island Assault Starter set. American Marines versus the Imperial Japanese Army in this thrilling looking set!
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Take a Chance Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@scalemodelinc.6077]

Definitely want to see more Bolt Action! The vehicles and infantry spruces have really improved in recent years. Some of the metal fig sets are ehhh but a lot of them like US Para, German Winter Heer & SS, AK are great. Marine metal look ehhhh to me but the plastic spruces are great. The Hellcat, Sherman, Stuart’s, M10,s and German armor are great, have fun.

[@Mii378]

I would love to see you play Bolt Action. I hope you like the game, especially the way the order dice decide which player gets to do something.

[@joaogpdasilva8970]

I really love the Bolt Action kits. They are a joy to mount and have a bunch of kitbashing possibilities

[@hellcat64]

i bought flames of war. i like their book layouts and history a little more then the older warlord ones. but i got the flames models so i can play bolt action in a smaller area

[@sethpieper9053]

I’d love to see some bolt action content! I just bought my first set (the band of brothers starter) and am currently painting. I like watching your flames of war content, but I don’t have anyone playing locally.

[@nraketh]

That’s an impressive set.

[@ghostrider-sq2qd]

Just some food for thought. There’s a small community that plays Bolt Action in 15mm. You could test the rules using your infantry stands as 1 stand FoW = 1 Bolt Action figure.
I have a few starter armies still in box for Bolt Action. I would love to see you guys cover BA! It actually seems only natural you would.
I look forward to more content if you go in that direction!
Cheers!

[@michaelwain3198]

Rubicon make far better Tank and AFV kits than Warlord games do. If you're going to get more, buy Rubicon kits, instead of Warlord kits. As for armies, I imagine there's a Japanese Army Starter army and further expansion set and likewise for the USMC. Those would be the most cost effective way of expanding your armies. I have the Band of Brothers set, so I got the German late war Grenadier starter army and US Para starter army. I've built a Rubicon Sherman and it was very nice and I have more Rubicon tanks. BTW the counter to the Japanese tank is the Bazooka :)

[@nehrigen]

I start a new bolt action army every 6 months or so, usually with a box of infantry, a arty of flak gun, and a mortar. The army boxes are great for jumping in at a very high point level, but usually come with some stuff that you just don't care about.

[@nehrigen]

Also, my 2 cents of free advice is that you always think you need to build more fancy weapons than you will need. Rifleman win games, as 75% of your guys have them in most builds.

[@AllMiniaturesGreatandSmall]

Thanks and Good to know. Would you recommend Arty or other specialty teams to start? MG teams, Mortar teams for example.

[@aWOLtrooper]

I'm just now getting into Bolt Action through the Band of Brothers starter set; I chose Bolt Action over Flames of War because I found the rules/actions to be more interesting- drawing order dice out of a bag at random, so you're not just IGYG, the ability to respond to taking fire by using an action to take cover [if that unit hasn't been activated yet]- For me, it really opens up the strategy a bit more than "I move all my forces at once and attack with a firewall of bullets, then you go". I wanted lots of maneuverability and dynamic action to my tabletop wargame. Also I just really enjoy the larger scale; 28mm feels more fun to move and see around a table, in my opinion.
I don't enjoy recommending Amazon, but the kits can be found for about 35% less there.

[@AllMiniaturesGreatandSmall]

Thanks, I love Flames of War but I do find the Activation system in Bolt Action intriguing.

[@rumpynz5470]

How about having a look at the Battlegroup ruleset? I'd be interested in your thoughts. Cheers

[@davidschneider5462]

I would like to see Bolt Action. My opinion so far is that I prefer Bolt Action's activation dice system over IGYG, so much so I use it with FoW. I like tank battles so FoW seems better for me. The tanks in Bolt Action are expensive in points and cost. Bolt Action tanks also seem more generalized as far as guns, armor, etc. I found that some of the BA infantry model pieces, like machine gun teams, didn't go together right. So to me if you like tank battles play FoW (maybe modified with BA activation dice). If you want infantry skirmish then play Bolt Action.

[@memorarenz]

I play both Flames and bolt action. Definitely prefer flames. Love 15mm carnage and the order dice of bolt action can be easily abused saddly.

[@rcgunner7086]

I HATE assembling tracks for wargaming models. I hated doing it for the Lemon Russ, and I hated doing it with PSC models! I just can never get them right and always wind up with gaps in the track. :/

[@rcgunner7086]

That grumping aside, it is a fun game. Here's an old Beasts of War play with Alessio Cavatore, Bolt Action's designer and old Warhammer/GW guy, showing us how to play the game. This is a 1st Edition game, but the basic game is still pretty much played this way. It's a fun play through and worth a watch.

[@rcgunner7086]

ua-cam.com/video/qZXabaKnarg/v-deo.html

[@rcgunner7086]

And the more recent 2nd Edition version
ua-cam.com/video/4aJGzJDiKMg/v-deo.html

[@AllMiniaturesGreatandSmall]

Thanks, I need to watch more of these before I tackle the game on camera. The rules seem pretty straightforward though. The Tracks on the Japanese Tank were OK, I did end up with a tiny gap on one end but I think that was more my carelessness then anything wrong with the kit.