Reply To: Bolt Action Desert War Bootcamp

[phaidknott 7023xp 2]

I wasn’t at the boot camp, but if I could make a few suggestions to adding to your forces.

At first the typical wargamer response is to get the biggest toy for their list (I know I’ve done it myself), however this will usually end up in an “arms race” where you end up getting rare and unusual equipment to compete.

Over the years now I’ve been practicing “nerfing” my own armies. I no longer opt for the elites or the heaviest equipment, but instead go for the most common thing that was around in the field at the time.

Now if you start to go for things like the Stug or PZer III, you’ve now made your AT rifles ineffective (so now you need to buy the BIG AT guns). But all these things didn’t make up the main elements of the equipment that was available at the time in the field.

Instead by buying things like a PZer II (I know they had these in N. Africa because I had the old Matchbox kit with N African diorama as a kid), or even a PZer I as a command tank you’ve got the more common tanks for this era (and AT rifles can knock them out). Now things like the PZer III become your “tiger” in the field (rather than buying a load of PZer IIIs and THEN a tiger.

For the Brits you have the Vickers light tanks, and the Crusaders (all light tanks) again that use of an AT rifle can keep the tanks playing honest.

..and finally lets not forget the armoured cars that are available during this period. Many were originally inter war designs pressed into service in N Africa by sheer need. Also by “nerfing” your army list you also give the Italian Armour a chance (normal response for an British player is to buy Grants and Shermans and anything with a 6PDR gun). All this means that you don’t have to run out and buy a battery of AT guns, or buy new tanks to knock out these uber tanks. At it’s core BA is an infantry game, so when the tanks start to become invulnerable to the infantry I think BA starts to break down and stops giving you a good game (remember no Bazookas and Panzerfausts until much later).

The early period in N Africa is different from the campaigns in Europe. With a combination of environment, distance and issues with logistics it was a very “make do and soldier on” affair. By just looking at the army lists and going for the biggest toys, you start to lose the feel of the N African campaign and start to make it feel more like a European fight.