Last week I had my first game of Bolt Action 3rd edition by Warlord Games (Warlord Games UK – Shop 28mm WWII & Sci-Fi Tabletop Miniatures), this is the first time I have ever played any version of Bolt Action.
My opponent provided two 750-point armies of Americans and Germans. I was given the Americans, a couple infantry units, a mortar, bazooka, M5 and M4. Surprisingly I was able to win, getting the most units off the table through my opponent’s deployment zone.
Having enjoyed the game and quite a few people at my local club either already playing the game or starting to play I decided to join in.
I spent many hours looking at the different armies and models available. I wanted to avoid the major nations as they are covered by others at the club and I wanted some more variety.
I initially considered France or Italy as they are minor nations but not too minor and have a variety of models, Finland was a close next choice for similar reasons. I then proceeded to do some research into the other minor nations and started to lean towards Romania (despite their lack of models and units) however I soon came across the Yugoslav Partisans a mix of soldiers and civilians in a sort of ad hoc army that fought to free their country. They had more equipment and spent more time in combat than other resistance groups.
I decided to depict my army in the few months after the Italian armistice when the partisans had captured a lot of the equipment left behind and many Italian soldiers joined.
This is also the time that the Soviet Union started to supply the partisans, however in small numbers currently. This is partly so I can use the unit of soviet models I already have.
I am using the Italian army list over the Partisan list as the Yugoslav Partisans had more widespread use of tanks than other resistance groups which was mostly Italian. The partisan list currently does not allow more than one tank (inexperienced and unreliable)
The majority of the force will have civilian clothes with a small mix of Italian uniforms to show the transitionary period between no uniforms to fully uniformed.
I will likely start with a smaller force (750 or so points) then after a few games expand to 1250 points.
I will be recording the process here as I go.
I am also looking at doing a Romanian and or Hungarian army in the future when this one is complete and hopefully when either one has an updated army list.
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