Bolt Action - Road to Victory

Road to Victory is finally here. After months of play testing and editing we are ready to release it to the BA community.

Our games over the last several months have been challenging and entertaining. Road to Victory is a campaign where generals play a series of games, growing the size of their platoon between each game using a unit randomizer. The randomization of units present players with unique combinations of units and challenges they might not other wise field.

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Bolt Action - Campaign Task Force Generation Preview

Now that we have published several games from the Bolt Action Campaign system we are developing we wanted to give you a preview of the basic task force generator tables. 

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Bolt Action - Unofficial Unit: Canadian Skink

In March 1943, the Canadian Army Technical Development Board approved the development of the Skink anti-aircraft tank. Designed on the Grizzly chassis (the Canadian built version of the M4A1 Sherman) it mounted four 20mm Polsten cannons in an enclosed turret and was planned to be a mobile anti-aircraft platform to defend the Canadian ground forces against the dreaded Luftwaffe. Keeping with tradition of naming Canadian tanks after animals, it was named the Skink after Ontario's only native lizard.

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Bolt Action - Converting up a Soviet SU-57

I recently got my hands on a M3 Half-track from Rubicon Models and had planned to add it to my Soviets as a lend-lease vehicle. While talking to the other guys at the Bolt Action Alliance about it, the idea of converting it into something special came up. With that idea I went off into the wilds of the internet searching for obscure variants of the M3 and it didn't take long to find the SU-57.

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Bolt Action - Hungarian Motorcycle with Solothurn S-18/1000

By Anthony "Anfernee" Mason

Sometimes you find the odd photo or blurb of something really unique from World War 2, that gets your creative juices flowing, only to find further information not as forth-coming. Despite how well documented parts of WW2 are, it was a destructive conflict that happened over 70 years ago and some information is lost to the ages. That is the problem I faced after stumbling across a few tantalising photos when researching my Hungarians.

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Bolt Action - Free French army list PDF

By Bryan

A few weeks back Warlord Games published our new unofficial army list PDF for Bolt Action, covering the 1st Free French Brigade during the siege of Bir Hakeim, Libya 1942. This formation was made up of tough Foreign Legionnaires, hard fighting Tirailleurs and brave Marines from across the colonies, and it carried the hopes of France to redeem her honour after the catastrophic defeat of 1940. This army list covers the 1st Free French Brigade during the Bir Hakeim siege of June 1942, but can cover the infantry element of the unit up until the end Tunisia campaign 1943.

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Bolt Action - Flakpanzer V 'Coelian'

By Patch

The Flakpanzer V Coelian is a prototype anti-aircraft weapon based on the Panther platform. It was designed to combat the ever increasingly effective Allied ground attack aircraft and to give the crew some fighting chance to survive attacks. From the research I have done, no working prototypes ever got to field testing stage due to shortage of supplies and as such it is as much a 'what if' vehicle as some of the more fantastic designs going around at the time. The final design, had it actually been built, would of housed dual 3.7 cm Flak 43 guns firing at a rate of 150 rounds per minute with an effective range out to 4800 meters.

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Bolt Action - Hungarian Paratroopers. Who?

By Anthony "Anfernee" Mason

  If you've listened to any of the Ghost Army Podcast episodes where I have managed to talk about the Royal Hungarian Army, you may have heard me wax about the Hungarian Paratroopers. When researching my list, I began to find small snippets of information on this elusive unit and they soon became one of my favourite units in the Hungarian army. Having just finished painting up a squad, I decided to delve into their history and how I plan to use them in my games of Bolt Action.

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Bolt Action - New Units: T27 Xylophone and Rocket Jeep

  The Calliope mount used on US Sherman tanks were not the only attempts by the US military to mount their M8 rocket system onto a mobile platform.  They also mounted them onto the backs of 2 1/2 ton trucks and even onto some Jeeps, although these were rarer.

   The rules presently below are unofficial additional units to allow you to incorporate these unique units into your armies for games against friends.

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Bolt Action - Unofficial Royal Hungarian Army Supplement

Hey guys, Anfernee and Bryan here with something a little different for today's article. We want to share with you a passion project from us that you may find useful and fun for your Bolt Action games as well. After a year of researching, painting and playing with our Hungarian armies, we have certainly noticed the many missing historically fielded units. Rather than complain, we thought we would get off our behinds and put our goulash where our mouth is and produce our own completely unofficial additional units PDF. Read on for our design notes and thoughts on the Royal Hungarian army in Bolt action. Did we mention this was unofficial?

The Boltion.net unoffical Armies of Hungary additional units PDF can be downloaded here.

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Bolt Action - New Unit: Hungarian Medical Toldi

  In 1942, the Hungarian Toldi I tank was severely outclassed by the Soviet T-34s it was coming up against.  Most of them were relegated to a reconnaisse role, but 4 were re-purposed into medical vehicles, with another 9 rebuilt in 1944.  Today we look into the oddity that is the Hungarian Medical Toldi and how you can use them in your games.

Captain Dr. Bela Ringelhann of the 30/I. Tank Battalion in a Medical Toldi in 1942 (photo from Magyar Steel).

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Bolt Action - New Unit: Soviet Blocking Detachment

During the German summer offensive in 1942 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issued Order 227. The order was as known as the “Not one step back” order. No Soviet commander was allowed to retreat under the order without expression permission to do so. Anyone who disobeyed Order 227 was subject to disciplinary action which could include anything from death to reassignment to a penal battalion. Order 227 also instructed armies to created block detachments who were instructed to shoot any troops fleeing from the front. This was not the first time blocking troops had been used by the Red Army. Order 1919, issued by Stalin in 1941, instructed the Stavka to create blocking detachments as well. These blocking detachments were under the direct control of the NKVD.

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Bolt Action - Ion Dumitru, Romanian Tank Ace

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at Ion Dumitru, Romanian Tank Ace.

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Bolt Action - Roman Orlik, Polish Tankette Ace

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article for the next few weeks exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we discover Roman Orlik, Polish Tankette Ace.

An architecture student prior to the war, Roman Orlik enlisted in the Polish army and became a Sergeant First Class in command of a Polish TKS tankette with 20mm Autocannon, one of the few up-gunned tankettes Poland had. He would become one of the first tank aces of World War II in defense of his homeland.

On the 14th of September, Orlik and his driver Zakrzewski were involved in the Battle of Brochów, a Polish victory in which Orlik destroyed 3 German tanks.

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Bolt Action - Luigi Pascucci & Pietro Bruno, Italian Tankers

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at legendary Italian tankers, Luigi Pascucci and Pietro Bruno.

Luigi Pascucci was a second lieutenant in the 132nd Tank Regiment of the Ariete Division. He would be post-humously awarded the Medaglia D’Oro Al Valore Militare (the Gold Medal for Military Valor), Italy’s highest award for his actions at the second battle of El Alamein.


On the 4th of November, 1942, Pascucci's platoon of M13/40 medium tanks was involved in combat against the British 22nd Armoured Brigade near Bir-El-Abd, to the west of El Alamein. The following day, the 132nd Tank Regiment was ordered to hold the left flank of the Axis retreat.

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Bolt Action - Börje Brotell, Finnish Tank Destroyer Ace

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article for the next few weeks exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at Börje Brotell, Tank Destroyer Ace.

In 1943, Finland purchased 30 StuGs from Germany. They saw heavy action in the Battle of Tali-lhantala in June 1944 and following that Finland ordered another 29.

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Bolt Action - Ervin Tarczay, Hungarian Tank Ace

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article for the next few weeks exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at Ervin Tarczay, Hungarian Tank Ace.

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Bolt Action - Armies of Ethiopia

by Cbax

One thing that makes Bolt Action so accessible is the universality of its core rules.  While Bolt Action, in its current form, is a World War Two miniature war game, it can easily be adapted to other periods and genres.  We have already seen people play Bolt Action Vietnam games, and my own group has ever dabbled in some Bolt Action sci-fi games.  While it's not a stretch to lump The Abyssinia Campaign into the conflict we now call World War Two,  it was just one of the many small conflicts where new tactics and machines of war were tested before the War began. (And if you check out the article, you can play it yourself! - Judson)

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