Bolt Action: 1,000PT Soviet Union 'Starter Army'

Last week I was introduced to a fairly new game called 'Bolt Action' from Warlord Games. "From Blitzkreig to North Africa, from the Russian Front to the D-Day Landings, Bolt Action puts YOU in command of the most brutal and famous battles of the Second World War."

I have always been interested in WWII gaming and started on a few Flames of War armies, but the scale and the complexity of the rules for Flames of War have kept me away from the game. With Bolt Action, the scale is 28mm (standard for most of the games I play) and the rules are very scaled back. The authors of the rule book are former Games Workshop employees and the rules are very similar to the games they wrote for them (but much easier).

The weekend of February 22nd, a friend of mine is running a Bolt Action 2 day tournament called 'Gathering in the Desert' (used to be a 2 day LotR tournament a few years ago), so I decided to pick up a Soviet Union 1000 point starter army with the hopes to play in this tournament. I have not yet committed to the tournament, since it all depends if I can get the models built and painted by that weekend, but I am going to give it my best shot.

I have been out of town the last few days so not much was completed this past week, but when I got home late Saturday night I started to assemble my army. I noticed a I was short a few round bases for my infantry men, so I had to quickly place an order and those should arrive in a few days so I can finish assembly.

Soviet Infantry: assembled

Soviet Officers: assembled

Tonight I will start preparing the bases that I do have and hopefully by this weekend all the models will be primed and ready for painting.

The 'Starter Army' box comes out to 999 points and was originally designed based on the army lists from the main rule book. With the release of the army book "Armies of the Soviet Union" a few months ago, I had to make a few small changes to my list to be compliant with the new rules.

This is the list I am going to be starting out with:


1000 Pts - Reinforced Platoon Selector List - Soviet 1000 Starter


Reinforced Platoon

1 Senior Lieutenant (SMG) 2 Soldier (SMG x2)

11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))
11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))


1 Medic Team (Pistol)


11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))

11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))

12 Free Rifle Squad (Rifle x11; 1 NCO (Rifle))


2 Anti-Tank Rifle Team (Anti-Tank Rifle)


3 Medium Mortar Team (Medium Mortar)


1 T-34/85 Medium Tank (Coax MMG; Forward Facing Hull MMG; Heavy AT Gun)


Total List Cost: 996