New Romans (Thanks KingKit) & My First Game of "Bolt Action"

As most of you all are probably aware, the small group of us are playing "Hail Caesar" in 1/72 (20mm).
We have various projects on the go at the moment and all are doing out bit to expand the periods we can play.
We currently have Imperial Romans, Ancient Britons, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Vikings and the Crusades.
Andy is working on some Biblicals, Nubians and Sea Peoples.
He will also be adding some Egyptians and Hittites at a later date.
He is also currently working on a Parthian force.
Glenn is beavering away at a Carthaginian army when he has a break from painting 3 million Sons of Nippon for the Pacific theatre for Rapid Fire.
I myself have a few on the go.
I want to expand on the Imperial Romans and my Ancient Brits.
I still want to add more to the Crusades, Meglomania kicking in again
I have Dacians and Sarmations to have a go at and now at last, Republican Romans.
The Republican Romans proved to be a bit of a problem.
The HC army composition lists the Hastati, Princeps and Triarii as small units.
Our standard unit in the game is 4 x 30mm by 30mm bases.
This gives a frontage of 120mm and between 8 (light Inf) 12 (med inf) and 16 (heavy Inf) figures per unit.
Thats 2, 3 or 4 figures per base.
A small unit of Republican Romans would be 8 figures on two bases.
I had a few choices for troops in 1/72.
First up are Newline metals.
Very nice indeed, but with the amount I need I was looking at over £200.
Plastics by Caesar Miniatures, HaT, Italeri and Zvezda were the contenders.
I ruled out Caesar as there is no command in the box and to be honest, they are Marian Romans
So is the set from Italeri.
The Zvezda set is gorgeous but pricey at nearly £8 a go.
I went for the HaT.
Readily available, Hastati and Velites in one set and the Priceps and Triarii in another and a nice box of Cavalry.
The Problem I then faced after purchasing 2 boxes of each set was the Punic war Command by HaT.
Although I didn't know at the time, these were becoming hard to find.
I searched Ebay, and the web for weeks.
I found a box of them in Spain but at £15 with postage, my Mrs would kill me.
More interweb searches failed until I found KingKit.
Hooray, 2 boxes in stock at £4.25 each.
Phew!
I ordered these and another box of Princeps and Triarii.

Great service from KingKit, they arrived with a week, even over the bank holiday.
They have some lovely stuff and quite rare items too.
The're website can be found Here
A big thanks to them for letting me complete my purchase, just got to paint the buggers now.

Andy was absent from last night gaming (get well soon bud).
So myself and Glenn decided on a game of Bolt Action.
We have the rules and a few army lists, but had yet to play.
We usually play Rapid Fire, but at battalion level, the game is tough to play in an evening.
With Bolt Action being a platoon level game, it seemed suitable for a evenings gaming.
I chose my usual Germans and Glenn played the British.
I set up the table with the proverbial French village of no name in the centre.

We deployed and with playsheets and the rulebook in hand, we started.
It took us a while to figure out the mechanics and things were a little slow at first.
But it wasn't long before we grasped the basics and lead was flying everywhere.
It is deffo not Rapid Fire.
It does sacrifice some realism for playability, but it is fast and fun to play.
The dice activation mechanic really does make the turns very tactical.
You have choices to make all the time and it does keep you focussed on the game.

The rules are well written and thought out, well done Mr Cavatore.
For a squad based game, it really works.

I think that after a few more games, we would really be able to chug along fairly quickly with this.
Glenn can't wait to get his new Banzai brigades out and that should be fun.

We both made bad decisions and had our fair share of good and poor dice rolls.
Glenn missing my Pz IV at point blank with a Piat was a classic (3+ and rolled a 2).
Close combat is deadly, (as it should be)
My rolling of lots of 6's followed by more 6's really crippled Glenns squads.
Oh well!, sometimes the Sarge gets it, the Vickers MMG Jams and your squads get pinned on the road in the open.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.
When we become more familiar with the rules, it should be fast, furious and Fun.
The three F's I look for in a game.

Ps, The Brits got battered for a change.