Bolt Action

From Blitzkrieg to North Africa, from the Russian front to D-Day, Bolt Action puts YOU in command of the most brutal and famous battles of World War II. A collection of thousands of products dedicated to WWII action! Collect and paint your brave men and armored tanks, place them on a tabletop battlefield, and use all your strategy, cunning, and luck to defeat your opponent.

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What is Bolt Action?

Bolt Action is a miniature game focused on World War II, where you and an opponent assemble, paint, and play with your respective armies. The game has a simple rule set that is easy to learn but still offers enough complexity to develop exciting strategies. With Bolt Action, you can recreate the most important battles of World War II with the game's scenario and campaign books, or you can create your own battles. In the video below, you can get an overview of the most basic rules in Bolt Action.

Random Activation

The game uses so-called "Random Activation" to determine the order in which players get to control their troops. This means that players activate their troops in a random order, determined by their Order Dice.

Order dice are special dice, which are drawn from a dice bag. Each player has their own color of dice and a number of dice corresponding to the number of different units they have on the battlefield. If a player's dice is drawn from the bag, it is their turn to activate one of their units – then a new dice is drawn from the bag and so on. It is possible for one player to activate all their troops before the opponent gets to activate any of theirs. A round in Bolt Action lasts until all the dice in the bag have been drawn. Afterwards, they are all put back in the bag and a new round begins.

Order Dice

These 6-sided dice have special orders on each side. These are listed below and when a dice is drawn from the bag, the owner can decide which order to use, and which unit to execute the order.

• Fire - Shoot without negative modifiers, but without the ability to move.
  
• Advance - Move and then shoot.
• Run - Move twice as far as normal, but without the ability to shoot.
• Ambush - No movement or shooting, but wait for Opportunity Fire
• Rally - No movement or shooting, but remove D6+1 pin markers (see the section on pin markers further down).
• Down - No movement or shooting, but the opponent has -2 to hit this unit.

Combat

To determine whether a unit hits the opponent with their firearms, roll a number of 6-sided dice – the number of dice is determined by the number of troops in the unit, and the weapons they carry. If you roll a 3 or higher, you hit. However, there are various factors that can affect the result. Bolt Action uses a series of modifiers to increase or decrease the difficulty of hitting the enemy. This can be, for example, +1 to hit if shooting at close range, or -2 if the opponent is in cover of large terrain.

If you hit the opponent, add a Pin Marker to the hit unit. Then roll again to see whether the hit troops die. Here you roll with a number of dice corresponding to the number of successful shots from before.

Pin Markers

An important part of Bolt Action is Pin Markers. These are small markers that are added to units when others shoot at them (and at least one shot hits). If a unit has one or more pin markers on it, there is a probability that they will not perform their order and even if they do, they are no longer as effective.

If a unit is pinned they must roll two d6s to see whether they can be activated. The number of pins on the unit is subtracted from the result and compared with their Morale. It is also harder to hit the enemy if a unit is pinned. Here you have a -1 to hit for each Pin Marker on units trying to shoot.

Bolt Action Resources

You can find Bolt Action rule FAQ and other resources here.