Reinforced Platoon

[Mike]

With regard to building forces for V3 of Bolt Action, I wish the rules had preserved the old “reinforced” platoon as an option in conjunction with the new options of additional platoons.  Both seem to make sense to me.  I can see a platoon being given a mission with a “special unit” attached to provide some needed capabilities.  I can also see an “ad hoc” battlegroup being used comprised of several platoons.  From a “fun” perspective, such a design would have allowed players to use a “one off” unit they choose to build.  Players can do this on their own with the consent of the other gamers in the group, but I wish the rules and force builder apps supported this option.

Some of the other defects in V3 seem like they will get worked out over time, like missing units.  I also think the Italian army should have incorporated some of the special rules that were developed in Code Blue to create different flavors between the Bersaglieri, Alpine, and Blackshirts.  In total, I think V3 will be viewed as a step forward, but with a few tweaks it could be viewed as a leap forward.  Finally, my impression of the Japanese is that they utilized snipers to a greater extent than most armies and given their relatively poor tanks and some “nerfing” of their banzai ability, I wonder why they lost the ability to have a 2nd Sniper unit in their force.

[SteveT]

If  you are interested in more historical realism—in as much as that is possible on a tabletop game—then just use the existing Theatre Selectors and any associated rules. The “lego” platoons, old and new,  are better suited for competitive play.

 

[Kar98k]

I agree with Steve (see above). If you are interested in more historical realism, then just use the existing Theater Selectors. By why stop there! You can easily use actual historical military organizations as well. That is the nice thing about BA. You can use what they give you, or simply use actual historical settings and/or organizations without causing game play issues. One of the best BA scenarios I have ever played was hosted by a fellow club member. There were no points, but if I recall, the points were about 1,400 for one side and about 900 for the other side. Anyway, it was a really fun scenario that used actual historical unit organizations based on an historical event.

As a side note, most if not all of those ASL scenarios can easily be converted to and played with using BA. I remember this one ASL scenario from one of the GENERAL magazines that we played sometime ago (back in the 1E days) using BA, and that was a lot of fun.

[Nat]

hmm…

The generic platoon structure of v3 is actually easier to create actual historical TOEs for more nations than the v2 one did.  Its a generic ones size fits all starting point.

Where the v2 TLs fall down is the attachment of units that werent placed under infantry command as regularly as BA shows it.  Yes there was cases were a single tank was attached to a platoon – but normally across all nations it was a platoon of tanks attached.

Lets wait and see what the Armies of Germany shows us about v3 TLs before crying that the sky has fallen.  Now little tidbits I’m hearing is that they wont alter the Org structure as much as limit the units available to you to select.  But as others have said, theres nothing stopping you using the v2 TLs with opponents consent / knowledge – just note that some rules will need tweaking.  Or just using the reported historical TOEs <shrugs>

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by Nat.

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