Bolt Action: Force Morale System

 It's been a while! That supposed old curse of "May you live in interesting times!" certainly rings differently in 2021, doesn't it? But short of making excuses for my lax schedule in uploading to the blog, here's something that you Bolt Action fans might find interesting: A Force Morale system as a semi-replacement for turn counters.

This works best for solo games where you don't have any particular requirement to track a turn limit, and even better for campaign gaming where preservation of forces between missions will be useful. However, it also works perfectly well for one-shot games, and a couple of playtests have been really successful in that vein. I love the concept of friction, command and control and the overall morale of a fighting unit having just as much - if not more - bearing on a battle than simply lining up and inflicting casualties on one another. So, throw out that turn counter and grab yourself a couple of D12s...

STEP ONE: Establish your Break Point. Call it what you like, but Break Point reflects exactly that.

Your force's Break Point is the most common morale level in your army, plus the morale bonus of the highest ranking officer on the table at the start of the turn. Naturally, if your platoon commander or company commander are killed, this will affect your Break Point.

Example: You're playing a US Airborne platoon. You take entirely Veteran level units, and a 1st Lieutenant as your platoon commander. Your Break Point is 10+2: 12.

Example 2: You're playing a platoon of hastily-assembled Russian conscripts. Most of your units are Inexperienced, but you have a Veteran T-34 and a Veteran 2nd Lieutenant as your platoon command - your most common units are Inexperienced. Your Break Point is 8+1: 9.

STEP TWO: Track pins and unit losses throughout the game.

Keep a live count of how many pins are applied across every unit in your army. This will rise and fall as units take pins, and remove them for passing order tests, rally, and so forth. The running tally of total pins against your army counts in real time. Pins will count against your Break Point if your army is required to make a Break Test.

Also keep a count of how many units of yours have been completely destroyed and removed from the table; eg, how many of your order dice have been removed from the bag. The first unit destroyed in this way counts as a permanent pin when calculating whether or not you need to take a Break Test. The second unit counts as two permanent pins and so on.

Example: Across your entire force on the table, you have a total six pin markers on various units. You've also had two units destroyed and their order dice removed from the bag. Your 'total pins' counts therefore as 9 - six pins, one permanent pin for the first destroyed unit, two permanent pins for the second destroyed unit.

Example 2: Across your entire force on the table, you have only three pin markers on various units. However, you've had four units destroyed and their order dice removed from the bag. Your 'total pins' are therefore 13 - three pins, but permanent pins from the first, second, and so on destroyed units.

Remember: If you have, for example, five pins on a single unit which is then destroyed, these five pins will be removed from the live count and replaced with a permanent pin as appropriate for the number of units destroyed in your army.

STEP THREE: Checking against your Break Point.

At the start of any new game turn when your total pins meets or exceeds your army's Break Point, before any order dice are drawn from the bag, make a morale test against the morale value of your platoon commander, modified by any pins they currently have. If the test is passed, the turn continues as normal and all is well - though you may want to rally some units to regain control and restore order! If the test is failed, your force's morale breaks entirely and they retire from the field of battle, handing a victory to the enemy.

If the number of permanent pins ever meets or exceeds your army's Break Point, it will automatically fail its Break Test at the start of the following turn and withdraw. Cumulative army losses will dishearten even the boldest troops, and conscripts will balk as their vast swathes are cut down. Use your forces wisely, and prevent losses where possible; it will be far easier to maintain morale across your army as a result.

Any secondary objectives which have been achieved such as destroying specific enemy units or whatever else is dictated by the scenario may still be in effect even if your army fails its Break Test and withdraws; this will of course depend on the nature of the objective, and will require a little discussion with an opponent beforehand or some common sense applied if you're playing solo.

So there you have it! An incredibly simple method for tracking force morale using the Bolt Action system. Feel free to tweak as you see necessary, such as changing how many permanent pins are applied for each destroyed unit or so forth. In this system, commanders are required to weigh the value of spending their men against each objective achieved - rather than throwing unfeeling walls of plastic soldiers against one another, our troops will eventually buckle under casualties, or even simply falter under immense weight of fire.

It's highly unlikely that an army will meet its Break Point and withdraw simply from cumulative pins alone without any destroyed units, but is is theoretically possible. All the more reason that weight of fire will hold ground!

Have fun with these and let me know whether or not this simple system works for you, and how it changes your games of Bolt Action!