BOLT ACTION v.3: First trial & review

Renfrey: 1200 pts Italians.
Chris: 1200 pts Soviet.
Scenario: Key Points.

The Italians are on the far side of the table.
The objectives are :  The crossroad, the 2 wooded hills on the centre line & 6" in from the where the 4 roads come onto the table.

The Italians were much more aggressive than the Soviets in attacking both hills.  In the centre they held back behind the house until late in the game, then grabbed that objective as well.  A decisive victory for the Italians.

My initial assessment of Bolt Action 3^rd Edition

The main changes I have noticed are:

Rally:
Take order test without counting pins, but on passing, remove all pins.
Before you got D6+1 pins removed, now you get them all.
If at the end of the turn you leave the unit’s Down counter with it, it loses all its pins & stays down.
Previously such a unit could lose only D3 pins staying down.

Down:
If a unit is Down or goes down in the open it counts as in cover so gets a 5+ save.  If in cover, it gets an additional +2 on its cover save (so if down in soft cover gets 4+ save).

Down isn’t the saviour it used to be for troops in then open when -2 to hit often made it 6 & 6.  So easier to finish units off now.

Shooting:
Base score to hit:                                                4+ (was 3+)
Modifers:        Fire on the move:                       -1 (as was)
                        Firer is pinned:                           -1 (was -1 per pin marker, so major change)                                           Firer is inexperienced:                -1 (as was)                        
                        Point Blank range (6”):                +2 (was +1 but base was then 3+ so no change).                                    Anti-tank guns at vehicles:         +1 on Fire or Ambush order.

There is no short range - it’s either PB or long.
There is no small target rule, so easier to finish off beaten up units.
There is no longer Exceptional Damage.

Cover saves:
Cover saves is a significant change that replaces some of the shooting modifiers. Splitting up the factors is intended to make it easier to easier to remember &/or apply them. The combination of cover saves & less to-hit factors makes for a better probability curve as factors accumulate (rather than a sudden drop-off from 6 to hit @18% to 7 to hit at 3%). 

Soft cover:      5+
Hard cover:     4+
Down:             5+ or +2 save modifier if also in cover (not less then 2+).
Pins:                Pins are added after hits but before cover saves.

We ditched saving throws in our rules because they are are so annoying,  It really detracts from the enjoyment of the game when you throw a good dice to hit, then a good dice to kill, then the enemy throws a good save & you drop back to nothing.  I think there are better ways of dealing with the problem than saving throws.

Indirect Fire:
Spotters can spot for any friends, not just their own unit, always count as Down unless they have another order counter. & cannot shoot or fight.
No cover saves for indirect fire.

MGs:

LMGs:             36” range 4 shots.
MMGs:            36” range 6 shots.                      (Was 5 shots)
HMGs:            48” range 6 shots, pen +1.          (Was 36”, 3 shots)
Vehicle mounted MGs halve the no. of dice rounding down unless pintel firing flak.
Makes MMGs & HMGs more effective than before unless mounted on vehicles

Close Combat:
Diced simultaneously in open ground, but defender goes first if in defended position.
The previous rule with simultaneous if defender in defender position, attacker first in the open was silly & needed changing.
Tough Fighter & Assault Weapon are now re-roll miss not re-roll hits.  Much better.

Vehicles:

Soft vehicles:                   If a 6 is scored vehicle for damage, destroyed with no further test.  
Cover saves:                    Vehicles get cover saves.
Vehicle mounted MGs:   Halve no. of shots rounding down (except pintle firing flak).
This sort of addresses the issue of vehicles with multiple MGs being too powerful, but not sure it’s the best way to do it.
Superficial damage:        More options provided:  Crew stunned, steering damage, turret jammed, Engine damage, Immobilised, on fire.  Unnecessary complication I think..
Penetration:                   +1 Pen for anti-tank ammo at point blank range.  New.

                                        -1 Pen for anti-tank ammo at over half max range.  No change.
Pins:                                Any hit by a heavy weapon (Pen of 1 or more), cause a pin on Inexperienced, Regular or open topped vehicles.  Veteran enclosed vehicles are only pinned if the weapon can actually damage it.  Makes Veteran status for vehicles more useful.
Empty transports:          If closer to enemy than friends at end of turn, soft transports are removed, while armoured transports stay if they pass a morale test.
Makes armoured transports more useful.
Maneouvre:                    All vehicles can make up to 2 turns totaling 180° in anormal move, or one turn up to 90° if running.  Previous rules for turning were way too restrictive.

National Characteristics:

These have been played down a bit.  No longer free units, just some special rules.
A step in the right direction but still Mickey Mouse for all forces of a nationality to have a particular trait

Points:

Many types have their points modified. 
There was certainly room for improvement in some cases.  Only time will tell if they have got the changes right.

Index:

The new book has an index as all commercial rules sets should.

Army Lists:
The process of making army lists has been changed.  A force will now normally be a company of two or more platoons.  The platoons can be Rifle, Reece, Heavy Weapons, Engineer, Artillery or Armoured.

Army Builder does most of the work when designing a force, so the changes are easily adapted.  The system produces a plethora of command units & makes use of the Mickey Mouse Snap-To rule necessary to speed things up.

Summary:

Warlords have resisted the temptation to bugger up the game by changing it too much.  Most of the changes are sensible tweaks to address the silly things in v.2.  I don't like saving throws & I don’t like the multiplication of command units leading to lots of small units, but most of the changes seem to be to the good.