V3 Company Commanders - Bolt Action Tactics

Something to ponder.

[@MrMoustaffa]

Ive ran a company commander in a few games now with a horde of inexp American riflemen and a couple vet tanks. Hes incredibly useful for inexp armies. Its wild seeing inexp squads with 4 pins pass an order check. For vet units, it ensures theyre going to be testing on 11's until youre at 4 pins, making them incredibly reliable. The trade off is its an incredibly powerful ability tied to one very fragile model, with many ways to shut them down. Pins, being caught out of position, a lucky arty barrage or mortar hit, or even something like a sniper, can cause a plan to come crashing down. I would treat them as a force multiplier, but unless used very cautiously, I would never plan on needing a CO to carry out a plan. Just too many ways for it to go wrong

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@MrMoustaffa Thanks for sharing your experience so far! I have built around it and it went pretty well, but as people wise up I'm sure it will be countered more effectively! The airstrikes and so on are the real danger if he is in a recce transport, but with a bit of luck he will be alright!

[@timnar7163]

Hey guys, Martin from tabletopbattle here. You are as always preaching the truth! PC and CC are a vital part of all my v.3 lists so far. A CC in a bedford with a bunch of blokes with smgs 🎉🎉🎉 lovely! Or the ability to place 4 AT/AA/howitzers in ambush with the first dice ❤ Keep up the good work, i'll see you in the next one!

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@timnar7163 Hi Martin, tha is for getting in touch! The snap to ambush is something I'm very excited to try with my Finns, advance 4 squads into ambush, yes please! Haha

[@dariostabletopminatures]

15:26 My Fiend Alex always brings a Company Commander and it won him the last two Games we Played. He DRAGED his Russian Forces, Mostly Inexperienced FORWARD on the OBJECTIVES.... TWICE! I played last Game the Germans (after playing Brits and USA) boy oh boy did that SNAP 2 feel POWERFULL. I activated my Panther, my Mortar and My MMG! Incredible! Bo always recommandet Inexp Officers, but I found you really want to have them behind your UNITS. That +2. I mean Take em Inex, but give them a Buddy! You really want them! How often it has happend to me and my Oppenents that 1 Pin was enought to go down or FUBAR.

[@gregshimmin5334]

Pint and Pipe in hand. You may begin your proposal sir.

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@gregshimmin5334 haha love it

[@josephpagoria6933]

German Co. Commander and all the panzerschrecks from the heavy platoon and infantry platoon in a recce halftrack. “Snap to” then move halftrack disembark 4 shrecks to kill any vehicles in a large bubble of destruction. Or all the mortars or artillery in platoon all firing in massed battery. This is definitely the “Snap to” version.

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@josephpagoria6933 ooo I like that, very interesting. Rocket wagon plus company commander has to deal with armour effectively I would think!

[@RR-le4gm]

Nice video! How is the leadership bonus working with pins? Do you first count up the bonus if you are within a commander (with a max of ld 11), and then take the pin penalty off? Or do you have to count it simultaneously? So a regular unit with 4 pins get up to ld 11 and with 4 pins it is reduced to 7, or do you just negate the pins as the bonus of 4 is equal to the pins and you would have ld9?

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@RR-le4gm The commander gives you a bonus of +4 up to a maximum of 11 in V3 (it used to be a max of 10). So a double 6 is always a FUBAR. Hope this helps :)

[@RR-le4gm]

@@scholaprogenium7276 so when do you apply pins? Before or after you get the bonus? Ld - pins + bonus or ld + bonus (max ld11) - pins?

[@ijsbeermeneer9952]

Me thinking about 2 bazookas and 2 jeeps for if you really want a tank dead ;) I ran a company commander for my first v3 game (georgy zhukov model ofc). Worked great! The +4 morale was amazing against forward artillery observer. If its inexperienced, ill hide it. 42 pts is amazingly cheap for such a powerful ruleset. Otherwisd, when taking them reg or vet, run them with smgs and a 3 man team. 6 shots still will give a pin, which could be crucial! Great video, good stuff to think about

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@ijsbeermeneer9952 haha rocket weapons are my go to for AT at the moment for sure! Yeah man as you say, 42 points is so cheap for what can be such a powerful ability, seems like it's almost always worth squeezing one in if you can get a few turns of shenanigans out of him before he gets popped!

[@PrinceMcGiggle]

Great video!

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@PrinceMcGiggle thanks!

[@VioletMoonMedia]

I wonder if George Cairns VC was the origin of the phrase '...beat him to death with the soggy end...' I was at a tournament last weekend, had two regular platoon commanders, each surrounded by 3 mortars (1 med 5 light).. so first two dice drawn were snap to's..... It won my first game and helped me draw the second (wreck stopped my spotter from helping them in game 3!).... if I took them inex, then I could have had the points to take an inex Company Commander and hit with 6 mortars on the first die......may do that next time... (22 order dice at 1000 points, so using 7 on first draw isn't that much of an issue)

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@VioletMoonMedia haha very funny! Nice, 5 light mortars, that has to be brutal with the ability to pop them all at once with a snap to! 22 dice at 1k, yeah a company commander first dice pulling 4 more will be fine for momentum. At your 1k tourny what would you estimate were the average dice for a list mate?

[@VioletMoonMedia]

@@scholaprogenium7276 I faced an 11 dice British cavalry force (3 universal carriers, pc, 2x5 man squads, 3 light acm 1 heavy ac and a dingo), 13 dice mixed german force (3 infantry squads, PzIII & 3 bike/sidecar mmg, and 2 squads of enginers with ft in trucks), last game was 15 dice japanese with paras in Ho Ki poki's..... from what I saw, 12-15 was average, I didn't see anyone else with 20+ dice. It seemed that most were 3 platoons, around half of the ones I saw had an armoured platoon. Will be writing up the tournament report on a slideshow soon..... have another 1k tourney on the 27th.

[@danielmaguire3010]

definitely gonna try this :D any thoughts on cavalry?

[@boltactiontutorialsbybomor3846]

Difficult to use, less likely to engage in melee, but may still be worth it

[@coulonpatrick6778]

The regular commander would be with 2 guys with SMG , 5 in total withe the men of the AT rifle !

[@coulonpatrick6778]

Hie , my thinkink was rhe same , i am playing free french , and i wang to buid a recce platonn with regular’company commander in universal carrier withe the AT platonn reg and 2 others open top armoured MMG reece with 2 secions of 5 veterans with 4SMG and one rifle, and one recece truck of 8 reguar senegalese rifle tought fighter !!

[@TheKenthor]

On the one hand I'm a little concerned that the increase in snap to throughout 3e is moving the game a little closer to IGOUGO, which I'm not a fan of. On the other hand I do like the way it allows for different elements of an army to act in a more coherent manner.

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@TheKenthor I agree, I don't like the idea of bolt action become IgoUgo, but as it stands it feels right having a couple of snap to bursts a turn mixed in with normal dice pulls. Plus it certainly speeds the game up with larger forces in V3

[@Wargoat6]

V3 is the snap-to version

[@scholaprogenium7276]

@@Wargoat6 Its definitely coming up more and more in my games!