I have been painting and playing wargames for 4 years now, and I must say that bolt action is a great game in all aspects. The miniatures are beautifully designed, each one capturing the exact feeling and likeness of it’s own faction, making a match in play a sight to behold. The relatively low cost of a full platoon makes it easy to quickly build a massive army, and for the same price you can bolster your infantry with armour, transport, or specialist units. There are also sets of paints designed specifically for different units, making painting your army cheap and straightforward.

In terms of playability, the fluid gameplay that comes from orders dice makes the game run as if it were in real time, making split second decisions a reality (unlike most other wargames). The ability to collect vast numbers of different units for one faction (I.e. Falschirmjager and Grenadiers for Germany, of Airborne and Rangers for the US) makes every game play differently. Also, the ability to size your army with point values gives a template to measure the ability of both fighting armies.

I would personally recommend buying a platoon set to start your army rather than rely on the army in a boxed set, because generally these pre-set armies are less fun to play with. Also look for orders dice for your army and a HARDBACK rulebook (the paperback isn’t as nice). If you expand also buy an army book.

To wrap up, this game is the best infantry based ww2 game out there, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.