How many minis do I need to start?

[komura]

Good morning

My friend in beginners club want to start playing Bolt action.
Could someone tell me how many minis should he have in start?

[Spevna]

It depends.
If you play Germans, and all your soldiers are veterans, you will not need many minis.
If you play Russians and all your soldiers are new recruits, you will need LOTS of minis .

The last time I played a small game with Primarch, I used German veterans and I had about 30 minis.

I think that your friend needs 1 HQ, and 2 regular squads to start playing. That is enough to have a game.
After that, he can start to add more units.

[Primarch]

Warlord sell unit boxes for around 25 pounds (5000 yen), each box has enough models to make an HQ unit and 2 squads. They also sell starter armies for 75 pounds. The starter armies are all 1000 points each, which is enough for most games.

At NagoyaHammer, both armies in the demonstration game were around 1500 points, a very big game.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Do we need to have tanks.

[Primarch]

Do we need to have tanks.

Not necessarily. The game is designed primarily for infantry. Of course, there are rules for tanks and there is nothing stopping you from fielding armoured platoons if you want to. (Give your opponent a bit of warning though ).
The usual army list is something like:
1 Officer (with 0-2 bodyguards)
2-6 Infantry squads of 5-12 men each
0-1 Artillery piece
0-1 Armoured car
0-1 Tank/Self Propelled Gun
Some support teams (mortar, heavy machine gun)
Transports (trucks or half tracks).

Tanks tend to be expensive points wise but they do look cool. For myself I am using Tamiya 1/48 scale tanks. The official scale is 1/56, but 1/48 looks good I reckon.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I really think this looks fun... I am not big on the history. But it should be a great game..

[Primarch]

Caliver Books in the UK offer a nice discount and free shipping on most miniatures and currently have three starter armies available, American, British and German.

Warlord themselves do a variety of army deals at differing points values which include things like US Airborne, British Paras, German SS and Polish Army. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page and wait a couple of seconds to see more options displayed). You can get free shipping on anything over 50 pounds.

Plus, there are dozens of other manufacturers around. As I said above I am using Tamiya for tanks and transports. Die Waffenkammer do a good range of vehicles, Artizan Designs and Wargames Foundry have a good selection, as does Black Tree Designs (Hint: join their website as you get good discounted prices). Wargames Factory and The Plastic Soldier Company also have some plastic minis on offer at low prices. (PSC do a variety of scales so check which one you're buying).

The game itself currently has the core rulebook and 4 army books (US, German, British/Commonwealth and Russia) with 1 more for pre-order (Japan) and 2 more in the works (France & the Allies and Italy & the Axis). Warlord have done lists to cover Belgium, France and Japan as well as armoured platoons which are available for free from their website. The rules themselves can cover any period from WW1 up to Modern warfare with very little tweaking. Spevna and I are discussing doing a small skirmish version of the game to cover AVBCW (A Very British Civil War) and I am sure with a bit of tweaking here and there a WWW2 game would also be possible.

And to get you in the mood, here is a free flash game you can play on your PC. Its basically a simple version of Risk. http://www.addictinggames.com/strategy- ... dwars2.jsp

[Spevna]

Plus, there are dozens of other manufacturers around. As I said above I am using Tamiya for tanks and transports. Die Waffenkammer do a good range of vehicles, Artizan Designs and Wargames Foundry have a good selection, as does Black Tree Designs (Hint: join their website as you get good discounted prices). Wargames Factory and The Plastic Soldier Company also have some plastic minis on offer at low prices. (PSC do a variety of scales so check which one you're buying).

I use Tamiya kits too. The scale is wrong but not so much that you would notice. I actually think 1/48 looks better as 1/56 tanks look a bit lost on the table I reckon.

All my minis are Artizan or BTD.

Artizan are the best WW2 minis out there in my opinion. They are well sculpted and cast, they are dessigned to be easy to paint, and have bags of character.

BTD minis can be a bit hit or miss. I have seen some that are just as good as Artizan whereas others have been reak shockers!!

As Prim said, join the website (for free) and they will email you a newsletter to inform you of regular sales. I picked up about 30 Germans for $30 during their half price summer sale. I also picked up 9 of their Squats when they had a recent 50% discount on all Sci Fi minis. They are lovely sculpts and they arrived in a couple of weeks.

[Admiral-Badruck]

You two need to understand that you are dealing with a man of Orcish intelligence.... Way too much info. Joining things and flash games. What I want to know is how do I get a Red Army on the table. For the least about of cash and the most about of fun. Remember that I also have no way of paying for it at the moment.

[Primarch]

What I want to know is how do I get a Red Army on the table. For the least about of cash and the most about of fun.

Option A - Cost: 0 Yen. Amount of fun: Lots
You say "Prim, could I borrow your Red Army and play Bolt Action with you?"
And I say "Of course Badruck, my old chum. Tis no problem at all."

Option B - Cost: Variable. Amount of fun: Lots
Should you want to buy your own, the cheapest by far is The Plastic Soldier Company.
Caliver Books have a special offer on. 57 infantry and enough support weapons to lay down some serious Dakka. All for 35 GBP which is somewhere under 6000 yen and including free shipping to Japan.
The models aren't great though.
Looking over the Caliver site again, they DO have the Russian starter force available at a discount. Its at the bottom of the list. 65 GBP (about 10,000 yen) for 66 Infantry, 1 Mortar and a T-34.
Last option is Warlord themselves. They have a set of 3 boxes of Russian infantry for 75 GBP (about 12000 yen) which gives you 120 infantry but no support teams. You don't actually need them though.

A Tamiya tank will set you back somewhere between 1000 and 2000 yen and looks great. I can personally say that the Warlord plastic infantry look really nice. The PSC minis will do the same job for half the price, but do look cheaper. I would suggest going for option A to begin with and then looking at option B later.