My game was between Germans and the Soviet union, I got wiped of the table, but what fun and interesting game it was.
The biggest different about Bolt Action, the really big reason I liked it, was that when it comes to turns you use order dices to activate units.
You get one order dice per unit, you put yours and your opponents dices in a bag/cup and draw the dices from the bag/cup to see whose turn it is to activate one unit. I quickly realised that my game plan didn't go as planed and I had to rethink my tactics the whole game. The same thing goes for setting up your units, you draw order dices randomly to see who's turn it is to set up a unit, so there are advantages and disadvantages to having few units and large number of units.
Other things I learned when playing it for the first time was;
- that close combat is DEADLY
- the order ambush is DEADLY
- your units will die quickly when facing machine guns of any kind
If you want to have as realistic WWII miniature game you should probably checkout some other system, Bolt Action is historical with its content such as army list, miniatures and so on. The rules are not as realistic as other game systems, but I think it would make this game less fun to play, I like the rules, the level of the rules are really good, it allows for fast, fun and challenging game play.
The rule book and army books for the games is full colour and Osprey is involved in these books which is a good thing for me, I like Ospreys books. There are more the Soviet, German, US and British armies to play, so check out Warlord games website for more information (www.warlordgames.com).
It's a fun game, the random order dices makes it unpredictable which I find refreshingly fun, if you get the chance to play it, take it it really worth your time.