DIARIES OF COMMANDERS IN CHIEF
Introduction
The Diaries of Commanders in Chief is an adventure into the building of an army while learning the basics of the game. Four players have agreed to spend time and money on building a 1,000 point army for Bolt Action. They will be building simultaneously according to the same rules and deadlines and play games at each deadline to get familiar with their force. This will also provide them with an idea of what is missing in their force.
The first challenge was to choose a nation and a branch of the armed forces of that nation. This was done without too much knowledge of the game and hence the choice was based on the individuals knowledge of the Second World War and which forces they would like to investigate further.
The choices came out as follows:
Player 1, German fallschirmjäger
Player 2, US Airborne
Player 3, German grenadiers
Player 4, Soviet Union
Three of the players was given a box of plastic infantry from Warlord Games' range of miniatures. The fourth player had already purchased a collection of miniatures which were only partially assembled and none painted.
The armies were based on a single reinforced platoon which is the structure from which a force is built. It is loosely based on real world infantry structures, while vehicles and artillery is been added to have more toys to play with. The minimum requirements of a reinforced platoon is; a lieutenant (first or second) and two infantry squads with at least five soldiers in each. The maximum size is 10 or 12 depending on the nation.
The players were allotted 400 points for this task. Some forces were veteran while others could be inexperienced, regular or veteran. It was up to the players themselves to decide the size, armament and quality of the troops.