Bolt Action Basics - Ambush

[@jvcpaints]

A good summary of a really under used order in Bolt Action. My favorite ambush story is when my mate rolled fubar had to run away and ran straight into the open of my 10 man grendier section with an LMG and 2 Stg.44s. He lost 5 out of 9 guys and then blew the rout check by 1. lol. good times.

[@OnPointHQ]

Cheers James! Ouch, that sounds like one effective use of ambush but rather unfortunate for your opponent! You're definitely right in it being an underused order and I've certainly been guilty of this in the past but it is often a great tool for battlefield control ☺

[@jvcpaints]

@@OnPointHQ There are so many times I've picked the dice up blindly without seeing if I could fire or just brain farting at the end of the turn. Of course, the 3 beers I've probably had up to that point don't make it any easier. lol

[@jeremyconrad9183]

i use this order a lot already. but I wasn't using it properly. i was always returning it to my bag without attempting to fire or just leaving the dice on ambush for the next turn. if I knew I could do both of those things I would have used it a lot more

[@thomaschase7097]

Awesome video, along with the vehicle one earlier. Thank you. Cheers!

[@OnPointHQ]

Cheers Thomas, much appreciated! I remembered that you had asked about the ambush order and with it being a bit different to other orders I thought it would be helpful to make a video for the series 😊

[@philRminiatures]

Nicely done, clear and simple.

[@OnPointHQ]

Thanks Phil! I like the order system that Bolt Action has and they are largely easily explained but ambush has a few different rules so I thought that a short video explaining it would be helpful for new players 😊

[@Aelfgaard]

Another vid so soon? thanks! So to clarify - a unit who has chosen the Ambush option, can later change that to Down, (if shot at), or if Assaulted then Fire? thanks. Allan.

[@OnPointHQ]

Hey Allan! Yes, if a unit chooses to go into ambush but is shot at before it can use its fire, it can choose to react and go down. If it does so, it would be unable to do anything else for that turn. In turn the same applies to being assaulted. The ambush would 'flip' to a fire order to allow them to fire in reaction before the assault is started. Either way, in both scenarios, the ambush is gone and will either be a down or a fire order :)

[@vicsminiatures7949]

Wonderful work. Keep them coming.

[@OnPointHQ]

Thanks Victor! It's been really great seeing the positive response to these videos and they seem to really be helping people. If I can help people new to the hobby then I'll keep making them 😊

[@smoothbrush4722]

Ambush sucks from the ambushed perspective, but losing a turn not doing anything, can be a bummer. I guess it can be okish when defending scenario, and nothing to do, no objective to take. Cheers, another great tutorial.

[@OnPointHQ]

Thanks Lucian, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, definitely agree with this. A well placed ambush can really ruin your opponent's plans. While you may end up not using the unit in ambush, sometimes it's often worth it if it means enemy units are unable to go where they wanted to go. Ambush is extremely effective when in defence as it really makes your opponent think carefully about how they want to attack 😊

[@TheGreatMim]

Brilliant, thanks. Please forgive a real newb question, but I’ve ordered Warlords Airborne Jeep, which comes with three figures in it. Does it just count as a transport vehicle?, do the figures count as fighting figures? and finally do they impact the jeeps capacity to transport, ie can only transport one other figure?

[@OnPointHQ]

Hey Chris, glad you like it mate! With regards to jeeps they start off with transport and tow capability. If the jeep has an option to equip a weapon like a medium or heavy machine and is equipped, the jeep loses its transport option and essentially becomes the armoured car option for the theatre selector. So you have the option to run the jeep as transport vehicle or attach a weapon upgrade and run it without the transport or tow options. Hope that helps ☺

[@TheGreatMim]

On Point HQ thank you👍🏻

[@arkenhemnall6224]

Thanks the vid. I have one question. I thought Ambush basically allows you to defer your action so that you can use your activation to react to an enemy action. Therefore, a unit on ambush can move or shoot in reaction to an enemy's movement. Ee always have it that shooting is what we are reacting to, but I've had assault units with shirt range weapons that I want to close with enemy units, but want to have the choice to move or fire as needed, not just shoot. Reading comments online and rules it seems that this is possible (to move in reaction to your opponent's move) would you say that this is the case?

[@OnPointHQ]

Hey Arken, thanks for the question and apologies for the delay in responding. As far as I can see, ambush is used for shooting. This represents a unit stating where they are and waiting for a unit to come into view before opening fire. On page 39 of the rulebook it outlines what the order is and directs you to the rules for shooting. This would suggest to me that you can only fire when issued an ambush order. You could of course house rule it to allow it movement but that could lead to every unit being placed on ambush to allow them to move and shoot in the enemy's turn. Hope that helps 🙂

[@arkenhemnall6224]

@@OnPointHQ hey, thanks for the reply. Yeah since posting I've played a few more games and it seems like it is for shooting mostly, but I've always played it that moment is also allowed, just not charging (as troops need to coordinate and prepare properly before assaulting an enemy) so I guess that's an unexpected house rule on my part. Moving in relation to the enemy seems fine to me still though. A crude example I can think of was when paint balling years back a mate and I waited till we saw which way the other team went as they ran around a hit or barricade before we ran the other way. We could have shot them but we wanted to get to the objective. Theres loads of little tweaks like that with the rules that I genuinely feel could be done but it's a very well done game overall and I'm getting to the 8 or 9 out of 10 range for it nowadays (although the rules could be written a good bit clearer in some places and cut all the 'info' about the history of certain weapons and just give me the rules etc etc. Having fun though, and we have our D-Day commemorative gaming day on June 11th that be an all day job, so looking forward to BA for that. A lot of work to prep though, eeeugh.....

[@andraslibal]

Can the German Unit in the example continue after being fired upon and complete an assault on some other hapless unit say ... a transport? Or is it interrupted and cannot complete its initial order?

[@OnPointHQ]

Hey Andras. Yes, as long as the German unit has surviving members after being shot at by the ambush, it can still complete it's order. So if the unit was intending to charge another section as long as it survives or doesn't flee from failing a morale test, it would still be able to engage it's target in close quarters combat. It may have less troops than it started the charge with but it can still complete the charge 😊

[@andraslibal]

@@OnPointHQ thank you :)

[@TheYorkshireTankie]

I really need to use ambush more... I guess I’m a more “all guns blazing, for Stalin, for the motherland!” Kind of player 😂

[@OnPointHQ]

I think I've only ever really used it when running my USMC. To be fair the 'all guns blazing' approach is probably the more appropriate order if you're playing your Soviets 😂