Following the interesting fusion game of Chain of Command and Bolt Action Phil and I had a short chat about where to take it for the next instalment.
Orders & Initiative. We both liked using the Bolt Action dice from the bag initiative mechanism with the addition of the 2 extra End of Turn dice (must ensure that the extra 2 dice have the same size and feel as the Bolt Action dice…). The turn would end as soon as the second non-player dice had been revealed and all dice returned to the bag to start the next turn. This did force some prioritisation of ‘command emphasis’ since there was no longer the luxury of knowing that every unit would get a turn.
Core Combat Rules. We’ll go back to using the main Chain of Command rules for movement, shooting and combat, as well as section and force moral. The lack of overall force moral in Bolt Action seems somewhat contrived so we’ll go back to the CoC Force Moral schedule being eroded down. We’ll continue to use the BA dice per unit though and remove these as the units are lost. We’re still in two minds about splitting sections into fire teams for order dice but will likely work something simple out to address this.
Lists will be driven from the CoC core platoon principal (no filing for small sectons).
Scenarios. These will either be engagement types which will likely use the CoC scouting mechanism which seems to give a better flavour for units contacting but just use initiative dice to bring units in. For other scenarios we’ll either use the pick ups in Bolt Action or more likely draw them from a historically based scenario – these are readily available online so with a bit of effort shouldn’t be beyond even me to work one out. I’ll post some links up to some good resources for BA and similar scenarios.