An easy bonus for an officer would to allow them to spot for indirect fire units in their platoon. Historically it would be correct, and restrict it to Regular and Veteran officers, to encourage choosing the cheapest officer choice.
-No more free units -tank mg's getting a nagative (you cant really see to aim) -regular mg's getting a suppression rule -the "armor tax" inbuilt on tanks getting reduced
Like the idea about buying handgrenades. Atm handgrenades are default present, and pressumed to be used in assaults - especially against armoured targets.
I have a gripe with ambushes and rules for hidden as the enemy can still see them and knows where they are on the table. That should be changed. For units starting in ambush and/or hidden, the player should have to note down where they are (including direction they're pointing at for units with arc of fire). Same with stuff like partisan bombs or minefields.
Give officers the inspire ability from Star Wars legion, dependant on there rank they can remove up ranks worth of pins from a unit or units, makes choosing higher rank officers more appealing as opposed to just a tax
I think too many special rules again makes it a nightmare like 40K where you need to know all the gamey bits and pieces of not only your own army but all the others....in terms of British scrap all but the rapid fire for rifles to represent the rate of fire the British infantry were known for...instead of giving everyone loads more.......and please no to charging out of vehicles....that really would make it too cheese...so make building like vehicles 👍👍
I want the smoke bombs to be more accessible, to have less trouble for the enemy to place them where they want if you don't hit where the smoke falls, also for the cost of light mortars to be reduced, so that I can make use of this mechanic in the grenadier squad with the triple light mortar in the Japanese and be able to enjoy the banzai better!
Great Video Bo. My Top wish would be for free units to NOT receive an order dice. They are a bonus which provide a massive force multiplier due to the extra dice being in the bag every turn. (Alternatively, either give everyone a free unit (Germans should so have a free MMG just for characters sake) or don’t give anyone a free unit.) Medium and Heavy tanks could be fixed pretty easily by adding a shot to the gun every time it goes up in calibre. (But only counting as a single hit regardless of the number of successful hit dice rolled) to allow for the greater accuracy of better quality guns. (So a light AT gun would fire 1 dice, but a Super Heavy AT gun would roll 4 to hit dice.) This could be applied to AT guns as well.
12:32 Love that One! Great Improvements. I was also thinking about Using a Ruleset like this and maybe Try it out with a Playgroup. Maybe I write these Down and play one with it. A Tank gives a Morale bost of 1 in 6 Inches. 12 Inches. Would be Awesome.
I think they mentioned they are reworking the whole list-building system, but if the system stays similar. Generic Platoon specializations: Combined Arms: stays the same Infantry platoon: +1 infantry slot Artillery platoon: +1 Artillery slot Recon platoon: 1 infantry unit can forward deploy (along with snipers and observers) Mechanized: +1 armored car slot Tank: +1 tank slot Each specialization could have a drawback, too. Tank have -1 artillery slot, recon can't take heavy tanks, mechanized have 1 mandatory transport for 2 infantry, etc...
"Overwatch" for artillery and mortars. You select an area, and are able to wait until an enemy unit enters that zone. Maybe in Attacker/Defender scenarios, both sides get to roll to see if they've pre-zeroed in.
Konflikt 47 added suppressive fire for mmgs and infantry units with 2 lmgs, where you take -1 to hit but add a guaranteed pin plus the usual pin if you score a hit
As a minor nation player I agree they should have more love .The current army books research is a mixed bag with only a few with complete unit list , most are missing a lot of units i.e. Dutch,KNIL,Romanian,Bulgarian,Hungarian. Also why not also include the Swiss,Sweden and Turkey ?
Machine guns …. light/medium/heavy. Update so they work. Officers …. Make them useful vs. “tax” unit. AT guns … make me want to use in game. Air support …. Make it something worth using Artillery support … off board batteries, add to game. Minor nations … (Greece my personal favorite) tweak them a bit. Italians ( my main army ) … balance them out. I look forward to Ruleset 3
Great ideas for all of this - one of the reasons I want multiple rocket launchers to be updated is that they break so many of the core rules. When explaining how they work to new players, I have to caveat everything: 1) This unit only fires indirect, and it can't range in (fair enough), 2) It chooses a unit, and then it also rolls for each unit within 6" of that unit (wait: so it can hit more than one unit? Okay), 3) if one of your units is within 6" it misses all of them (wait: so why can't I fire close to my units? What if I'm playing Soviets: does that change, because casualties are acceptable? No? Okay, why?), and 4) You can fire at buildings (including empty buildings? Okay, that's unique) and you use the footprint of the building to draw your 6" radius for other units (wait: so if the building is really huge, I can just fire at the roof of the building - which might be the only part I can see - and I can hit a ton of units I can't see? Okay). The unit just breaks so many rules and takes waaaaaay too long to explain to people, plus it really encourages a lazy approach to playing (just carpet areas with dice rolling 6s). Would love to see this adjusted for ease (fires 3 times per turn, targets one unit it can see each time, hits like a heavy mortar)
Some great ideas....I think too fire then move might be a bit too powerful....as you can shoot and dip back into cover...and if you have grenades would it be a case of ten men with 1" HE template...again very powerful.....definitely agree with making tanks more easy to field and better rules for MMGs.....but too many rules might make it too complicated and spoil the simple beauty of the game.....we don't want 1940K
Issue with medium and heavy tanks is that on average everything almost can easily kill it. Forgot the name, but the rule for ignoring pins on closed tanks should be redone. And just say if it the gun either didnt penetrate or didnt kill the tank, then check if you got the pin. Making it a bigger game changer. Allow tanks to use coax weapons but on the same target. As main gun and coax weapons use the same sight system. MG weapons auto pins, with an extra if it hits. I do believe MG weapons, as they are suppression weapon, they should maybe have -1 to hit by default. Expand small team to cover 3 man squads, whom doesnt have medium mortar/artillery with them, seeing as aim rules on them are different. Might be to powerful, but allow LT to move before using Snap To. And maybe even remove the need to take dice from the bag on snap to activated units, but basically giving the units a free action. Change open topped rule. Allow infantry to charge out, if a transport, but be subjects to board effects. Moral bonus from LT, Tiger fear and what not. But also allow open topped to have +1 on hit. Seeing as the Gunner can stand up out the turret to aim with the weapon. - instead of just eretta open topped away from vehicles. and still have the drawback from easy pinning. Make changes to buildings, as to not super dangerous from tanks, but more from assault guns and up. Rework the damage charts for hitting vehicles and what not. Shot on run sounds fun. Assault guns can shoot when running with -1? Other ideas for the infantry shooting before moving sounds great and tactical. SS units as mentioned should by default be fanatics probably. Rework smoke. MRL, close combat, medics and HQ units. Rework the tank, artillery, transport and Armoured Car slots. Either big rework of minor nations or integrate them into main army like Croatian Legions for the Germans. National special rules for everyone would be a nice change for everyone. Shit of ton to brainstorm with what v2 offers compared with what we wish changes for. In one way or the other.
Really like a lot of these ideas. The idea about giving officers more tactical options is brilliant. I’d really like to see that it would be beneficial to take veterans over inex….especially when using indirect weapons as mortars and artillery. Perhaps the spotter could be default in the current price for vets. Perhaps the vet xperience is reflected by hitting on 5 in the first shot….or even 4 (with a spotter)
Some good ideas here. MMG teams and heavier tanks being adjusted are probably my top 2. They are such an iconic part of the vision of the time that it hurts me not to be able include them in every list. LMGs for soldiers being cheaper would be great also. More officer utility would be fun. Perhaps buying upgrades for specialization in certain types of warfare for each officer could be a thing? The Soviet commissars kind of do that with the more expensive types having better buffing auras. I disagree with the charging out of vehicles being the same as buildings idea. An armored carrier is not just a house on wheels because they were cramped and restrictive. The doors are small compared to a building. Lets not forget they are moving! Probably evasively over rough terrain if you are trying to drive them into an enemy position. I could see room for compromise in this by limiting the move/charge distance and/or penalizing the effectiveness of the charge in some way. Close combat is already so decisive that I'm afraid mobile armored assault troops would just take over the game. Great video as usual Bo, Thank you.
Really like the ideas for giving officers more tactical uses. Great stuff. Boosting MMGs and making them cheaper is my #2 wish. #3 up the max ranges!!! MGs, tank guns, artillery should have unlimited range, with rifles going up to 36". Ridiculous that shooting at something 50 feet away is "long range". :) I do disagree about adding more tanks and synergies. BA is a simple INFANTRY skirmish game and should remain so.
Awesome Video! I love painting those heavy Tanks! And I love the Minor Nations too! I think your Videos, and all the Videos Bolt Action Players make will keep the Community Alive and growing. I've been playing mostly Warhammer Fantasy, Aos and 40k with other symtems all of my life. But lately Bolt Action took over. And I am thinking of selling those GW Armies to get more Bolt Action. Soon I will show my painted Models on my DariosTabletop Channel to maybe get some more new fans into the game. At my local Gamestore GW Systems dominante, but everytime we play Bolt Action, someone comes over and says: "Man, I bought a while ago a Starter Box, and wanted to play... Or get into the Game." Lets make Bolt Action really great. And lets stay for 10 editions. Do you play other symtems?
MY WISHEIS IS GRANADES THAT COULD BE USED BY INFANTRY NOT ANTI TYPE ANTI INFANTRY YOU COULD ONLY HAVE ONE AND A 6 INCH RANGE , WHEN A TANK IS DISABLE A CHANCE TO REPAIR IT ON A DICE ROLL ITS SUCKS TO GET A TANK DIABLED CANT MOVE AND A TARRIET JAM AND CAN NOT REPAIR IT, MAKE THE GERMANS CHEAPER A LITTLE BIT FIX CLOSE COMBAT I HAVE SEEN 10 GUYS GET WIPED BY 4 ON A BAD DICE ROLL.
'Barn Door'.... why is it the same target number to hit a huge target, such as a Tiger, as it is ti hit a jeep or a three man unit? MMG's (even LMGs) should cause an automatic pin, as should all indirect fire, even if they don't hit..... this more closely represents how troops react to such weapons being aimed at them. Minor Nations, in particular Commenwealth Natios should have more defined lists and national rules. MMGs, particularly the Maxim type, should be allowed indirect fire.... again this reflects how they could be used (was WWI British doctrine) Nations in other uniforms..... such as the French armoured divison in Normandy or SS Charlemagne, should have suitable rules in the 'Armies of' books. 'command vehicle' option for transport vehicles, allowing officers to use their abilities while mounted (including observers)
My responses - #10 - re special rules/cheaper/more Killy... Comes down to design choice that BA is an INFANTRY skirmish game and ALL tanks should be marginalized. WAAC players will always chose units that break the meta and max units that cripple infantry ala Dakka Stuarts and their Axis copies. This is EASILY covered by playing historical non point games. #9 - no big deal for me with coverage of minor nations #8 - comes down to Tournament gaming vs historical flavored gaming. Equal point 2.5 hour time limit games will ALWAYS have unequal results based on artificial constraints. #7 - more of an issue with the d6 variable IMO vs true tactical selections. #6 - My only gripe with Melee is the all/nothing. Certainly this is a product of achieving a decisive result in a fixed timeframe. Tricky, as one tries to balance the desire to achieve a 2.5 hour result vs a protracted time frame. #5 All Officers are treated as the officer TAX. AGREED something needs to be achieved with them. Not sure how to implement with the dice bag activation; which is one of the BEST aspects of BA. #4Couldn't agree LESS with the amount of Synergies, ALA GW gaming.. Introducing these just creates rules BLOAT. Sometimes less is more. #3 HMGs/MGs/LMGs. Agreed. but the various house rules deal with this quite nicely. d3+1/d3/d2 pins, respectively if merely targeted, regardless of hits would go a long way. Also, make them (and mortars) like artillery regarding sniper effects. #2 Terrain - Infantry should be able to run through most terrain, just eliminate the benefits of cover if they do. Tanks should NOT be able to move through terrain willy-nilly. Bring in a "BOG" check to see if they throw a track or get stuck. Still allows them to move about the table, but with inherent risks. #1 I can get behind this. Thanks for the discussion
Good stuff, but it does underscore why I am not very optimistic about changes for 3.0. Allowing the game to persist through 2.0 with so many obvious problems never addressed, never mind at the "competitive level" (easily the weakest part), you wonder how much appetite there is for significant changes? Warlord is not really known for shaking up things... I am personally more looking forward to "V for Victory", much more solid rules / design legacy and a game that plays smaller and quicker is more welcome these days.
