From left to right - Anfernee, Patch, Tristan and Bryan and yes, red beards are mandatory!
The BAA first of all is a collective of community members who love the game of Bolt Action. There are a few of us, with Cbax from Alaska, Bryan from Sydney, Anf from everywhere, Tristan from Melbourne, Jakob from Sweden, Seamus from Chicago, Casey from Texas, Dennis from Tasmania and myself - Patch from Canberra. Each of us contributes in our own way when we can ranging from writing articles for WWPD to podcasting as the Ghost Army Podcast as well as organising events and creating official and unofficial content for the game. We also keep very busy on Facebook, through our own page as well as the various Bolt Action groups. Most of all, we are a bunch of mates (read; friends, buddies, pals, comrade. etc. depending on your local colloquial choice) who love talking about the game and are in constant communication with each other about what is going on.
Cancon 2016.
Early in 2014 the LRDG and the BAR merged under the one banner of boltaction.net and we became the collective. This group became the custodians of the most popular and controversial product ever produced by us, being the 'Format' rules. A community driven unofficial tweak on the rules to make Version 1 more enjoyable, it was adopted in many countries around the world and for some it kept them in the game and for others created much division and angst. We kept the Format Rules going through three 6 month 'seasons' and withdrew from maintaining them with the recent release of the 2nd edition of the Bolt Action rules. When you play V2 you may not realise it but many of the changes in the 2nd edition rules were suggested by us in the Format Rules, so we must have been pretty close to the money.
MOAB 2016.
Things don't last forever however, and Judson and Dano found enjoyment in other systems and closed the BAR, the LRDG boys also moved onto other exciting things and the next generation was formed with Old Man Morin leading the charge. In 2015 we renamed the group as the Bolt Action Alliance and merged back into WWPD as part of their regular article feeds. We formed the Ghost Army Podcast and Tristan with his crew, Rob and Garrett, joined us to form the Baconburgers Podcast. This was maintained for a time until Old Man Morin stepped back after awhile to concentrate on his masters degree. To boost numbers we recruited Jakob from Sweden, Casey from Texas and Seamus from Chicago who are all now regular contributors for BAA.
So where are we now?
Reviews
We do not get paid to do this, it is on a volunteer basis only and whilst we may get some product to review from companies (which we are really thankful for!) many of the items we review are bought from our own pockets. As a community site we strive to give an accurate review when it comes to products without any bias that inevitably creeps into paid bloggers writing. There is an extensive back catalogue of items we have reviewed which can be found at WWPD (here) or through a google search.
Painting Guides
Bryan the master painter, with some support from the rest of the team, have published some great, easy to follow painting guides free of charge for the community to use (here). We have guides for LRDG, DAK, Hungarians and much more and we are always planning what to do next. We also take requests or can provide assistance if you are struggling with a particular scheme so drop us a line.
Tactics and General Gaming Articles
We are always publishing our thoughts on tactics and other aspects of general gameplay that we find interesting like this French one and comprehensive run downs on events that we attend. Between us we have a lot of games to our credit (literally hundreds!) and often we discover new and exciting things that we like to share with the community, there are no secrets here when it comes to playing and enjoying Bolt Action.
Creating Content
Sometimes we go quiet for a while...but it usually means we are busy behind the scenes working on creating both official and unofficial content to enrich and expand the game. From developing the Australian in the Pacific army list which was given official status by Warlord Games to the Unofficial Hungarian Army Supplement and the French at Bir Hakeim, plus others. Cbax has also developed a campaign system called Road to Victory for you guys to enjoy. We often do these with massive support from other community members and we are always looking for more projects to sink our teeth into. There will be more free Bolt Action gaming resources coming from us in 2017.
Facebook Page
We run a Facebook page called the Bolt Action Alliance which can be found here. We keep the content flowing with WIP shots and start to finish project folders as well as useful links to all our articles and current events. Also this is probably the best place to send us a quick message if you want to get in touch with us.
Podcast
The Ghost Army Podcast (GAP) has no set schedule, though we try and release one every two months. We try and get as many people as we can on from around the Bolt Action world and talk rules crunch, hobby and general Bolt Action goodness. You can find episode one here if you have not listened before or search for our latest episode by a simple google search or through the WWPD app. Team member Seamus even inspired his band to write and record the new Ghost Army podcast theme song! There is a huge back catelogue of old episodes from the other podcasts the group has put out in the past on WWPD, so you can find old episodes of Bolt Action Radio, the LRDG, the Ghost Army Podcast and the Baconburgers.
The Future
So that is who we are and we have hundreds of articles with nearly as many hours of podcasts sitting in the vault which can be accessed at any time. These are free to access and we encourage you to check them out. We are going strong into 2017 with some big things planned along with the constant stream of content that you are used to.
MOAB 2016 from left to right - Bryan, Patch, Jakon, Uber (Our good mate from
the DownOrder podcast) and Anfernee.
