Bolt Action Overview Part 2

This is a continuation of my first post on Bolt Action, picking up where I left off...

When given a Fire, Advance or Ambush order, units can shoot at the enemy. Shooting is a base of 3+ on a d6,with -1 for softcover (trees, bushes,wooden fences etc) on the target or intervening, -2 for Hard cover (brick walls, vehicles in the way, ruins etc), -1 for over half range, -1 for moving and firing (an Advance order) AND -1 for each pin marker...noting that cover mods don't stack (you simply apply the worst case ) a unit is usually hitting on 5s and 6s, add in the Pin penalty and you can see how quickly the pins render a unit combat ineffective!.....of note,you can still hit on To Hit numbers that are higher than 6, by rolling a 6 and then a 6 again...happens more often than you think....oh, and rolling a 1 is always a miss...

The Weapons in Bolt Action have a Rate of Fire, such as 1 dice for rifles, 2 for Assault rifles and SMGs (which don't suffer the -1 for moving and shooting) 3 for LMGs, 4 for MMGs, and usually 1 for any tank or AT gun. Auto cannons, (like the 20mm) are 2 with a chance of scoring 2 or 3 hits with each hit. Weapons above 12.7mm (.50 cal) have a Penetration value, ranging from +1 for the .50 cal to +7 for the 'super heavy' Anti Tank Gun (88mm). This Penetration number has two roles which I will cover later.

So you add up all the RoF of the firers in a unit (noting crew served weapons such as LMGs have a guy firing and the other as a loader who can't shoot) and roll to hit. For every soldier in the target unit hit, the firer rolls a damage die (d6) , adding the Pen value of the firing weapon if any. To kill a Veteran requires a 5 or more on a D6, a Regular will die on a 4+ and an Inexperienced solider on a 3+...a 1 means they miraculously survive....so as you can see, HMGs and Autocannons firing at infantry, with their Pen of 1+ or 2+ can really make mince meat out of them, especially as the good ole 20mm Quad AA gun gets 8 shots, each with the potential of causing 2 hits at +2 pen......
HE weapons also have a Pen value, ranging from +1 for light mortars and light howitzers to a +4 for Heavy Artillery....
More on Indirect Fire shortly...

When shooting at Armoured targets such as Tanks, the Pen value is added to a further D6 roll, and compared to the targets Armour rating. These ratings range from 7+ for armoured transports such as halftracks to 11+ for the SUper Heavy Tank such as the King Tiger. 8+ is a Light Tank, 9+ for Medium tanks, 10+ for heavy tanks like the Tiger. Equalling the Armour rating with the damage roll will cause superficial damage, ie a roll on the damage table with a -3, whilst scoring greater than the Armour Rating will cause a roll on the Damage Table. This table is quite brutal, with a 4+ on a D6 = knocked out. So you can see that Light Autocannon won't kill a medium tank but can cause superficial damage to a light tank. A very important game feature however is that any hit from a weapon with a penetration value will cause a Pin on an Armoured target...so potentially a pair of 50 cals could Pin a King Tiger out of the game......not a feature of the rules I am particularly fond of, as it has given rise to the deadly HMG Jeeps that terrorise German armour...but apparently that is being addressed soon....

For weapons capable of Indirect fire, the first shot always hits on a 6 regardless of any other modifers. If firer AND TARGET don't then move, the next shot is a 5+...and so on. If you actually get a hit (and you only get one shot each turn) then your to hit number for subsequent salvos instantly becomes a 2+.....of course, every time your target moves you reset to a 6+, but its useful against teams that don't want to move (like other mortars!), snipers etc...As I mentioned earlier , quite often range and cover penalties mean that everyone else needs a 6 or more to hit targets in the first turn or two so indirect weapons can actually be the most accurate early on.....plus, its a good way to make your enemies move, because anything larger than a light mortar cannot move AND shoot.....and snipers lose their sniper bonuses if they move and shoot ...

Snipers are nasty little blighters as if they shoot without moving they ignore cover penalties, and gain a +1 for accuracy..plus their rifle has a 36 inch range vice the normal 24 inches, so half range for them is up to 18 inches....in other words an unpinned sniper is usually hitting on 2s....they also automatically do "exceptional damage" which means you choose which figure is hit. Normally the target player chooses which models to remove, but anytime a normal firer rolls a 6 to wound, and then rolls another 6, it causes 'exceptional damage' and can pick the target...which is how you remove NCO's, officers, LMG gunners etc...now the nasty part is anytime a Weapon team (MGs,Mortars,FT etc) suffer an Exceptional damage, it is assumed that the weapon itself is damaged and the entire team is removed as a kill...The mitigator is that they only get one shot....

I'll cover on on Assaults and Unit Special RUles in my next post....stay tuned!