…and my response to how events have led to my current army project

Bolt Action Third Edition is quickly approaching its first birthday on Sept. 26. Since release I’ve run one event, the Chicago Four Star Open 2024, co-TO’d AdeptiCon Doubles and Combat Patrol, and played in three tournaments; Polar Vortex 2025, AdeptiCon 2025 Bolt Action Singles and Boarder Wars 2025.

I’ve been playing Bolt Action for over five years now and have had a decent record across a dozen or so Second Edition events averaging a 1-1-1 record. But in Third Edition, however, I went 0-3 at Polar Vortex, 1-2 at AdeptiCon Singles (I would have gone 0-3 if my opponent’s tank hadn’t FUBAR’d and taken out a their own 10-man squad), and 1-2 at Border Wars with my one win coming from my opponent failing to move a squad an inch closer to the objective prior to the last turn of the game. I’ve been struggling in Third Edition to say the least. To put it another way, my two wins in nine games at Third Edition events came from pure luck for one and a small misplay from my opponent for the other. Neither of these wins came from the orders I gave to my troops. In short, I didn’t outplay these opponents. I got lucky.

On the drive back from Border Wars I thought to myself, what can I do better? Where am I struggling? And jotted down my pitfalls.

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For reference, here are the army lists I used at:

Now that you have the context, I will touch on where I think my pitfalls lie.

Pitfall 1 – Movement

To start, moving my troops. I so far have been running a decent amount of LMGs in Third Edition. I think they are leagues above where they stood in Second with the reduced cost (15pts instead of 20pts). These weapons pack a 36” range and pump out 4 shots each, 5 if you are playing Germany due to their Army Special Rule. The issue I’ve been running into is I often find I need to move these units to change targets or simply get them closer to an objective. Dual LMG squads firing 8 to 10 shots (depending on if you are playing Germany or not) is a ton of dice. However if you are moving you are now hitting on 5+ instead of 4+ and this does not take into account if the unit is Pinned. If they are Pinned and advancing you are hitting on 6+. On a 5+ rolling 8 dice, on average you hit with 2 dice. If I would have issued a Fire instead of an Advance, on average I’d hit with 4 shots. That’s double the damage potential. With a Pin and an Advance I’m hitting with just 1 shot on average since I’m looking for a 6+ To Hit. All these dice aren’t doing much more than adding a Pin to an enemy unit. If you have played Third Edition you are well aware Pins are less effective than they were in previous editions. Now all these shots and Pins are good with the Law of Averages and can do their job. However when I’m relying on other units to delete my opponents units and they aren’t doing the job then these LMGs aren’t doing enough to pick up the slack. This brings me to my second point.

Pitfall 2 – One-die Weapons

Now for one-die weapons. By this I mean Howitzers, AT Guns or any other weapon that rolls one die when firing. In theory I should be hitting 50% of the time. However any gamer will tell you averages aren’t a thing once you start rolling a single die on the table top. Plus with cover saves even if I do hit I might not do damage. The one-die weapons in my lists were my backbone for taking out enemy units as stated before. But I found I can not rely on them to get the job done.

Pitfall 3 – Tanks

With how easy it is to incorporate them into an army list, tanks have a big presence on the table in Third Edition. They are huge asset and can be hard to deal with. What I’ve found in my games is that my tanks are often combating other enemy vehicles and not supporting my infantry as much as I would like. I’m looking for something different than my current style of play that my lists have been geared toward.

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And here is how how I am going to combat my pitfalls with my new US project:

Fix 1 – Tanks and one-die weapons

I haven’t been able to make these work for me so instead I’m looking at units that roll a bunch of dice and are mobile. To do this I’m brining vehicles that are not meant to take out other vehicles or play double duty as an infantry and armor killer. Enter the M15 and M16 Half-tracks. Although the weapons on these half-tracks are low Pen, they pack have a ton of shots. I hope for these to be more reliable at taking out infantry than counting on a single die from a howitzer to do the job.

Fix 2 – Enemy Armor

Now the above does not solve how I will deal with enemy armor – it’s how I hope to deal with infantry. So for AT I’m going to try taking three Bazooka Teams. Two of them will have Transport Jeeps to get them to where the enemy armor is breaking through my lines and/or causing the most havoc and one will be on foot. I know these are still one-die weapons however these are much cheaper than a 150+pt Tank or a static AT Gun that has a limited arc of fire. Sure I can move a static Anti Tank weapon but by the time I move at a rate of 6” the armor can easily get behind cover or change its position. Bazookas maybe fragile and only have one shot but I’m willing to trade the loss of a 60pt unit over a 150pt one. Infantry win games so if I can’t take out the enemy armor I’ll fall on the age old tactic of “ignore it”. Be warned results on this tactic may vary.

Fix 3 – Protecting my Anti-Infantry Armor

Enemy armor isn’t the only threat to my armor. There are also static AT Guns/Howitzers that can easily take out my Armor 7+ meat choppers. For those threats I am including two Medium Mortars. If my opponent moves their Artillery units to avoid me ranging in, they aren’t taking shots at my vehicles.

Fix 4 – Moving and shooting and hitting on the 5+

With Cover Saves in this edition you need as many shots to hit as possible. At least this is my experience. Moving my infantry up 6″ on Advance orders while firing for the first two to three turns still leaves my opponents units in good shape by the time we meet near the center of the board. To counter this I have two units in Half-tracks. My hope here is that I can get them to where they need to be turn one and then issue them fire orders starting on turn two so that they are hitting on that sweet 4+. Also this should enable my units to be where they want to be before taking casualties getting to where I want them to be.

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This is not a “meta article”. It’s an article talking a look at my take on how I have performed with my units and what I found that works and doesn’t work for me. I hope to make a list that is more adept to a playstyle that fits Third Edition. As a player my primary goal always been painting models to the highest standard I can – going for that Best Painted award at events. I am firmly Hobby First, Win Second. However this does not mean that I still wouldn’t like to leave an event with a better record. My goal at events is typically to go 1-1-1. That’s a success in my book.

My plan is to write follow up articles detailing my hobby journey to bring my new list to life. Hopefully with a Chicago Dice Paints article to show you how I did it. A final conclusion will be written after I take the list to an event to let everyone know how it performed.

First Test US Winter GI for Polar Vortex 2026.