What colour and sides should I paint my order dice to make them easier to read and differentiate

I asked on r/boltaction: What colour and sides should I paint my order dice to make them easier to read and differentiate

I want to paint my order dice some bright colours on their words. Is there a standard or guide to follow?

I've now had 2 games of Bolt Action and an immediate problem I have is looking at my order dice, carefully choosing the right side, putting it down, and then needing to pick it up to see what the order is.

I feel like the only 2 orders that actually matter to be able to see is AMBUSH and DOWN. The rest don't really have an impact after I declare the order and action, I think?

Also, I had a problem where I have Khaki (British) dice with light word colour and my opponent had brown (Russian) dice with a dark word colour and I kept getting them mixed up, little lone the day I play someone else with the same order dice.

Currently I'm thinking of painting Down and Ambush in bright Neon Glow In The Dark orange and red because that's what I have, but I'm wondering what other players have done to solve this problem. 

 

Reply was how do I intend to paint it:

A thinned paint and paint it in the indented words is what I'm thinking of.

Otherwise paint a thin spread of paint on a palette and then just stamp the top side of it down to make it a different colour.

Or both! That's what I'm wondering what other people have done.

Someone complained you don't want to tell your dice apart:

Oh I get it, it would maybe feel different when choosing them in the bag.

Painting the letters only would avoid that I would think. Use a very thin paint to do it, so it stays in the indent.

 Then they complained about THAT:

I could just do the line with the arrow on top of the word in a bright colour. I don't need to do the word if I know what colour means what at a glance

If you can feel and tell a different in two small indents to choose your own dice, well good luck to using that ability.

Besides, I could/world ask my opponent to take the dice out of the bag each time.

 

Which overall is why it was a good idea to ask. Just paint in the single line with the arrow above the word on two sides. 

 

r/bolt action asks: What would you say is the most/least realistic/historical accurate about Bolt Action?

What would you say is the most/least realistic/historical accurate about Bolt Action? 

 

My answer:

 

Smoke rounds. What do you mean I miss 80% of the time.

What did the smoke shell go, did it miss landing on the planet.

How I would fix smoke in Bolt Action

This was posted to the Bolt Action Facebook:

Suggested Firing Smoke rule:

How I would modify it:

The game needs smoke to be usable, but I would make it simpler. A 1 misses. A 2-3 The smoke moves 1d6 inches away on landing. 4-6 it lands on target. At the start of next turn before rolling any artillery, make a roll for ALL existing smoke roll - On a 1-2 the smoke goes away. Otherwise it stays put for another turn.

Having to roll a direction and distance and measuring it and moving it is too much time and hassle. It's not like the smoke shell will move! Also I would set multiple launchers to be D2, not D3-1 which is not used anywhere else in the game. 

 

 

Which colour is closest to Australian Battledress 1941? What colour is Khaki anyway!

I spent all night overthinking did I paint my 40 troops the wrong colour.

Trick question- AFAIK there IS no correct color. I cannot find ANY colour photo of Australian troops in Libya in early 1941. The black and white ones just show a very dark colour with very light helmet and ammunition pouches. 

All the reference book covers are drawn in pencil have different colours, as does every British Battledress 1937 on the Internet. I know this is probably accurate, but it does not help my overthinking about it.

I could mix colours, but I really do not want to do that for 40+ troops.

The Vallejo English Uniform I did as a undercoat is very dark and close to the Satchel brown, but I personally think that's too dark. I suspect my Zhenital highlight is too bright and should have been done from above and not 45 degrees to the rear.

I think the second one below is going to be closest, which is fortunate as that's what I'm going to do anyway. Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Strong Tone wash over Warrior Skin.

I did that and concluded the Great coat needs to be darker, so repainted all of them in Satchel Brown. So the battledress is mostly pants only  apart from 1 Sargent with a SMG and 3 officers.

Weapon and commander coding colours for Bolt Action infantry stands

I saw a Bolt Action tutorial series on YouTube (that I now cannot find because there are SO MANY now that I've watched) that had painted the edge of the infantry bases different colours for each type of solider- Squad leader, squad heavy weapon, basic grunt.

I think this is an amazing idea considering all the infantry is painted very much the same and deliberately so.

There does not seem to be any historical or current practice of a colour for each type of unit that I can find. I'm thinking of a different one for Platoon Commander, Squad commander, SMG, LMG, Light Mortar, Sniper, Anti-Tank weapon, because these are the hardest to tell apart. Larger weapons are are a lot easier to see and tell apart.

I don't think I'd want to paint the entire edge like the video did, but just a stripe or stripes of multiple colours on the back edge of the base plate as I'm the one who will care about it the most. The rest of the plate should match the terrain the army is based on (green for Europe, dark green for Pacific, pale yellow/brown for Africa, and white for the Eastern Front)

I know British Armour for example would have different colours for platoons or companies, but this is just for infantry.

Using video game rarity, which is the style these days for everything:

White: The most common rarity color

Grey: A low value color

Green: A middling value color

Blue: A middling value color

Purple: A high value color

Legendary rarity colors 

Orange: The highest value color

Colour Coding stripes on the back of each infantry's base:

Base Colour: Rifle

Grey: SMG

Grey and White: Assault Rifle

Grey and Blue: Automatic Rifle

Blue: LMG

Purple: Mortar 

Purple and White: Grenade Launcher

Light Green: Anti-Tank

Brown: Sniper

Red: Flamethrower

Orange: Artillery Spotter

Yellow: Air Spotter

Red and White: Medic

Black: Assistant

Weapon Colour and Black: Weapon team assistant

Bronze: Squad Commander 

Silver: Platoon Commander

Gold: Company Commander

Looks like I'll need to buy some Army Painter Speedpaint Metallic's now, along with purple, blue, light green, red and yellow.

Some wargame history

You and me are just passing through history.

This...this IS history. Came out in 1974-76. Picked up at the swap meet at House of War, which I was wish was 10 minutes closer to home so I could maybe play wargames there.  AFAIK they are the largest wargame store in Melbourne, with the largest Dragon too. 

Question I've always had - if Napoleonic was book 4, and WW2 book 15...what were the other Airfix ones???

I hope I can learn some better tactics from these!

And they were only $5 each!

It's very large and impressive

True Scale for 28mm I think!

Tactical thoughts on a Bolt Action army

Despite playing wargames for 25+ years, I've never been much good at it. One of my problems was seeing the woods for the trees and moving multiple units to do a thing. 

With Bolt Action needing to use dice to order units out of any order, and standard WW2 tactics being a force to PIN the enemy and a force to ASSAULT/Flank the enemy, I've got an idea for an army, made up of 2 parts.

A lot of the Bolt action missions require you to place a limited part of the army on the board - generally about half, and that half either starts on the table or has to come in on as the First Wave- meaning it's going to need to be followed up later by faster units. Other units can start in reserve or flank, but won't come on until turn 2 or 3.

1st Platoon - The defending or pinning force. Needs to be able to have some kind of anti-armor ability. As first on the field, they should prioritize destroying or pining enemy Anti-tank units. If defending, units should be facing at an angle and not direct 90 degrees to the enemy, with overlapping fire. If on the attack, part of it's objective is finding hidden enemy units,  pinning or destroying enemy anti-tank guns, and providing smoke cover for the flanking platoon.

2nd Platoon - The counter attack or flanking force. Needs to be more mobile and have it's own anti-armor ability - particularly to flank enemy armour from the side. 

Ideally both groups would have their own indirect fire ability to lay smoke and commanding officer to give "Snap to!" orders and boost morale at the critical point. 

The 1st platoon has a medic - because I want to call "Stretcher Bearers!" when someone goes down and I need to roll a 6 on d6 to save them.  Makes them ever so slightly more resilient. 

The 2nd platoon has the artillery spotter because I wanted the 2nd platoon to also have the ability to make smoke, and the 2" mortar can move and fire and provide smoke if needed (historically, what it was used for). The 25 pounder is a must in a Commonwealth force and gives both HE and light AT and can provide a lot of smoke for the flanking force too. The artillery spotter fits in the 15 CWT with the 1st LT and mortar team too. 

The platoon commanders don't have extra meat shields because I can't afford them, and they shouldn't be ever in combat anyway! They should be providing morale and snap too orders each turn - something nearly every you-tuber DOES NOT DO for reasons I do not understand.  Maybe it's my 40K Imperial Guard repressed memories. 

Snipers and the 2 spotters (one for the free Artillery support, and one for the 25 pounder) will be placed on the battlefield beforehand, as the Australian army bonus of constant patrols allows me to place them first AND force enemy spotters and snipers to be 18 inches away.

I find I can't afford a 3rd RESERVE force in 1000 points, but I can make it so each unit has another unit it can "pair" with. So instead of 16 individual units, I actually only have 8 "tactical" units to control, and each of the 2 forces only has 4 "maneuver units" I need to keep track of, and there's only 2 parts to keep in mind - one unit to defend objectives, and the other to take them.

If I had a 1250 point army I'd make it a company - with a Captain as company commander, add a 2 pounder (because ever since my WW2OL days, I liked the 2 Pounder) and a Bren gun carrier to tow it. I need 1500 points to get a proper 3rd platoon for reserve, this is just making it a bit more rounded - the 2 pounder and its attached Bren make an ok light tank between them. With the 2 pounder available, the 25 pounder can go in the flanking force

The first army list I can do NOW with the figures I have (none of which are put together or painted). It's 1005 points because that's what Conquest 2022 is running for reasons.

A lot of con's won't allow 2 platoons, so I would need to adjust it for them.

The 1250 army has 20(!) order dice, which seems absurd, but at both 1000 and 1250 I will probably have the initiative - so I can use the "snap-to!" command more often without losing it. 

 

That's the plan anyway. And as we all know, not plan survives contact with the enemy ~ Murphy's law of combat.

oppositeofoutside asks: How do I get into war gaming ?

That was a fun read. I have a question. How do I get into war gaming ? What is a very basic easy read to help introduce me into the world ? 

A very good question. It depends on what you're interest lies in.

Do you want the most popular one you can probably find someone to play locally? Games Workshop 40K. It's expensive but there are 100's of youtube channels, books, and websites to read about it. There are dozens of youtube videos on how to get started in it, and if you're in a country with a local store, they will talk to you about it for hours (so you can then spend money in said store)

 

Historical? Which era interests you? If you can, check facebook or google "how to get into wargaming" for a local club - there's probably SOMEONE with a spare army you can borrow for a battle or two. That's how I got into Field of Glory Napoleonic - the best game is the one you can find a local opponent for! I was interested in getting a Napoleonic army but needed to find what the local scene was first before being able to play.

 

Is there a Friendly Local Gaming Store in your area? If they sell wargaming stuff, ask them. They can probably point you towards a local club or might even have room to play there.

 

Most conventions you go to won't have a spare army, but if there's games running you can watch and see what other people play and paint. 

 

And you can play solo - there's rules for that. To get the full enjoyment, blog it or video to youtube or twitch for some external feedback. Writing my blog has really helped learn from mistakes and some Lessons Have Been Learnt after Mistakes Were Made.

 

 

As you can see, I'm still making lots of mistakes.

Conquest 2021 Friendly Game: Anglo-Portuguese 1809-11 vs 1814 Prussians

1809-11 Anglo-Portuguese vs 1814 Spring Prussian army 

In an alternative history, the FRENCH EMPEROR, NAPOLEON has decided NOT to attack RUSSIA, but instead send THE GRAND ARMEE to SPAIN, to end the threat from BRITAIN, and their alliance with the Kingdom of PORTUGAL.

 

 To assist his invasion, Napoleon has ordered the KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA to supply a full corps of their army. They have traveled the many miles to arrive to the north of Portugal. 

 

The DUKE OF WELLINGTON, knows that an enemy force is approaching from the north, but does not yet know their composition or size. He has sent a small, elite force of the ANGLO- PORTUGUESE army to probe the enemy force, and advise on the size of the threat bearing down on him....

Looking towards the attacking Prussians, down the main road to the north

-

I had signed for a FOGN 500 point tournament at Conquest 2021, but everyone else had worse things to do than spend time playing with model solders. So I got a normal 800 game vs Djando the Organizer that he very nicely offered to give me a game instead. 

As I had expected to play a smaller game with a smaller army, I had not had time to finish basing everything, so I had to go for a very small army. The observant will note it's VERY small - an army value of  only 20. Djano was playing the largest possible conscript army possible.

Could an army of elite British Infantry be able to attack an army of lower elan and training when outnumbered 3:2 in Infantry, Calvary and Artillery?

A very small Corps

In this battle report, we will find out the answer....

2nd part of my FOGN army washed with Army Painter Soft Tone

 2nd group of my FOGN army washed

I have washed the second group of my FOGN Anglo-Portuguese army. This time I used Army Painter Quickshade Wash Soft Tone. I agonized on which colour to do, but decided I wanted to keep as much colour as possible.

The two on the right are washed, the two on the left are not.

A close up. Washed is right, unwashed left.

Only the 9 pounder in the bottom right is not washed here.

Left is washed, right is not washed.

The white horse needed the most work, to keep it going too brown. I still need to put some bushes down, paint the edges (think I'll go with a dark brown), varnish and then put the flags on. 

Or is put flags on and THEN varnish?

I've finally been able to put an order in for more bases plates to olympiangames.com.au who said they were sending me emails I didn't get (what!?!). Should arrive next week and be finally able to get my army complete on the table for some battles! I will still need to paint my Generals, ADC's and LOC :(

Currently  I have the following units on bases:

1 Heavy Dragoon

1 Hussar 

3 British 6 pounder guns

1 British 9 pounder gun

1 British 6 pounder horse artillery gun

1 Portuguese  6 pounder Portuguese gun

1 Light infantry Musket unit and 2 skirmish attachments

1 Light infantry Rifle unit and 2 skirmish attachments

1 Loyal Lustrian light infantry rifle unit and 2 skirmish attachments

1 British infantry unit

1 Highlander infantry unit

2 Portuguese infantry units

1 Conscript/Spanish Guerrilla unit