Where should I start?

Hi Joseph, welcome to the world of tabletop wargamming – the hobby of hobbies… where some poeple are gamers, others painters or background lore specilists.

To answer your questions…if you look at the stockists section of the website and find an ‘LGS’ (Local Game Store) near you as a place to start. You can also look for local gaming clubs. For example I go to the ‘Chelmsford Bunker’ on a week night where a number of us are picking up this game as well.

Most of these shops will have gaming space, plus hobbiests of vairing levels who will be only too please to help you in how to prep models, paint them.. what different terms like undercoat highlight etc actually mean.

You should also find people who already play the game and will ‘demo’ it for you. That is give you a intro game so you can see how the rules work.

If that doesnt work for you due to distances, time or other commitments then there are painting guides both on warlords site and other places. If you are just wanting to have a look at the game then I’d suggest buying the pdf /ebook version of the rulebook. This has basic army lists for all the 5 major nations, so you can read the rules as well as write up a small (500 point would be my start point) list.

Warlord also do small 500 point starter lists in their store.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Nat.

What Nat said.

You’ve stated a preference for US vs German. I’d go with the Bolt Action 2 Starter Set – “Band of Brothers”. Among other things, and very importantly, it will let you decide how much you like painting minis.

But, before that, what Nat said.

That blog entry is a great introduction, Rex!

You don’t need 3D terrain and stuff to start on your game table . You can represent houses and hills with piles of books and you can draw roads on pieces of paper , just like when you played with your plastic soldiers back when you were a kid . The idea is 3D terrain gives you line of site blocks , objectives and helps with the narrative of your game or mission . You don’t have to paint your figures either and you can just subtitute Hot Wheel cars for tanks ( the blue Mustang represents a Tiger ) , but again to really immerse yourself in the game , it helps to have painted figures and all the cool toys that go with them . For some guys , building and painting the various game pieces ( buildings , scenery , vehicles , figures ) is 90% of their hobby as they only play couple times a month . Really we could play Bolt Action with paper hex tokens like the 1970s version of Squad Leader , but would it be a fun as squads of plastic US Paras and Waffen SS figures on the table with a scattering of Panzer IVs and Shermans , I don’t think so.. Mind you I have a buddy who still plays those old paper token type games , so to each their own I guess

Thanks for the comments on the blog post, as it happens. Dan (My brother) and I have just published a podcast episode that addresses “The Basis of terrain” you can find this here:

https://valhallagames.net/index.php/categories/podcast

Listen in the web payer from about time 1:20

Feel free to subscribe to the podcast in your podcast app as well if you like, hope you enjoy.

Spoiler you don’t have to be like my brother Dan ;-):

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Rex Withers.