Bolt Action third edition question

[vodkafan]

Can one have real historical platoon organisations in the new rules or does it still have to  "balance"  ?

[CapnJim]

I've not played BA3 yet.  But in any of my games (regardless of the rules used), I ignore point values and try to use historical OoBs, and develop scenarios that aren't always "balanced".  Few real fights were "balanced"...

[z1pp132002]

The new version lends itself better to OoBs. I don't tournament games so I have always played real world OoB and that often meant forces were unbalaced but that lead to more realistic games in my opinion. V2 was not bad but V3 and the way you put your force together is more towards real OoB.

[Vanth]

The new version lends itself better to OoBs. I don't tournament games so I have always played real world OoB and that often meant forces were unbalaced but that lead to more realistic games in my opinion. V2 was not bad but V3 and the way you put your force together is more towards real OoB.

Do you really think so? I am reading the rules and I have the definite impression that they have given up to any pretense of historical OOBs completely. The whole "reinforced platoon" is now gone and now you take a number of platoons at random with the proviso that they depend on how many infantry platoons you take, with the infantry platoon still being at least two five men squads... in other words, you might have twenty infantrymen with two platoons of artillery, two platoons of tanks, two platoons of engineers and so on...

[MikeRC97]

I would say yes and no.

In the v2 "Reinforced Platoon" you took a leader, two infantry squads and then you could add whatever you wanted, a medium mortar, a heavy machine gun (which no-one took because of the sniper rule), an anti-tank gun, a single tank, etc.  The reinforced platoon bore no resemblance to actual WWII force organizations.

In v3 you still take an infantry platoon to start you force (platoon commander and a minimum of 2 squads).  You can add a third or fourth squad if you want it to be historically accurate (for ex. German early war infantry platoon was 4 squads, 10 men each; German late war infantry platoon 3 squads, 9 men each).  Then you can add additional "platoons" (heavy weapons, artillery, armor, etc.) but in historical terms, these are actually sections from the support companies and platoons that existed all of the WWII armies.

For example, if you want to add a medium mortar, now you have to take a "Heavy Weapons Platoon" with a platoon commander and 2 medium mortars.  In WWII German infantry battalions, there was a heavy company that had mortar and machine gun platoons.  The platoons had a platoon commander and 2 or more sections with an NCO section leader and 2 weapons.  The Bolt Action v3 "Heavy Weapons Platoon" in this case is really just a mortar section (the required "platoon commander" being the NCO section leader).  So in that sense, it is historically accurate to the real organization of a German infantry force, it is just the name that is off.  The same is true for an anti-tank gun (a section was a section leader and 1 gun) or tanks (a German armored platoon was a platoon commander and 2 sections, each with 2 tanks, 1 of which was the NCO).

The reason I say "and no" is that there are some places in the v3 rules where you can still take non-historical choices.  For example, in the "Heavy Weapons Platoon" you can take 1 mortar and 1 machine gun, which would not have been the historical organization of these units.  As another example, in the "Artillery Platoon" you can take a platoon commander and 1 medium howitzer.  In most armies, medium howitzers (like the German 105mm) were in sections with 2 guns.

I prefer to build my list as historically accurate (I don't play in tournaments so it's not a big deal to me) and I think v3 works much better for that.

[HerbertTarkel]

I’m with CapnJim; rules are for playing, not being bound by. Make your own forces up along historical as you wish lines, and play the game!

[z1pp132002]

Vanth, I do think so for all the reasons MikeRC97 stated.

Warlord stated that all thought not 100% but as accurate as they could go to getting as close to real OoB without creating a new problem for tournament based selections. This was done to retain the large tournament based following but also to draw more people into the game especially those looking for a more realistic\historical game.

[MaleGriffin]

I'm very much in favor of historical TO&E/OBs. It's my biggest gri[e about Bolt Action, although the may be better in v3 (which I don't have). That's not to say units can't be understrength or have mission specific additional assets, but at least start from historical formations.

[Iratesquirrel]

I always found it was relatively easy to stick to a historicalish OOB within the rather open ended campaign books and main book. I'm glad they've improved machine guns that was one of the biggest failings of the last edition.