Get Rewarded For Having Fun

This is the one you’ve been waiting for, Bolt Action fans. We’re taking a look at the Indian National Special Rules from Armies of the British Commonwealth, including – at last – the return of the infamous Gurkhas!

The Indian Army ended the Second World War as the largest volunteer force in history, with some 2.5 million men under arms. This expansion, from a starting strength of around 200,000 at the outbreak of war, coupled with the service of Indian troops on both sides of the world, means that the Indian National Special Rules have to cover a huge range of units, fighting in very different conditions. Let’s look at the rules that let it do just that!

Well, that’s something to work with! Superior Endurance sets the tone for an Indian force right off the bat – the ability to re-roll failed Morale Checks is great for keeping your infantry in the fight, making it more likely that your opponent will need to destroy units outright and thus commit more firepower to the task. When combined with Shared Knowledge, this makes your Inexperienced troops surprisingly durable, and more likely to up-rate, making an army composed of masses of infantry a viable (and scary) prospect.

Mountain Experts is a great rule, allowing you to give your infantry – that’s any of them! – the incredibly useful Fieldcraft. The ensures that ‘standard’ Indian forces will have excellent tactical mobility, something shared by those troops designated under…

That’s right – the Gurkhas are back! It’s just as well we’ve put a new plastic box of them on pre-order alongside Armies of the British Commonwealth, because we reckon people are going to want a lot of these scary blighters! They aren’t cheap, but they’re seriously nasty when the fighting gets up close and personal, with special rules to match. Ayo Gurkhali! now allows you to field entire armies of these legendary Nepalese troops, including some of their lesser-known specialist formations. Yep, Gurkha Paras really existed – and you can field them with this book!

With strong National Special Rules and an excellent selection of units from the Standard Commonwealth Units roster, Indian forces are shaping up to be mobile, versatile, and deadly – a potent combination on the Bolt Action battlefield.

We’re now halfway through our look at the National Special Rules found in Armies of the British Commonwealth, and continuing in alphabetical order we come to… East Africa Command! It’s gonna take a lot to drag Bolt Action players away from Australia and Canada – but this might just do it.

East Africa Command is unique among the nations found in this book, as it doesn’t represent a single country or contiguous region. Instead, it covers the troops drawn from the many British colonial possessions across the African continent, and as such has to account for a lot of different formations and fighting styles. Let’s see how it does that!

We can see right away that this is going to produce some scary forces. Pangas ensures that the vast majority of your force will be Tough Fighters, instantly opening the door for some hand-to-hand nastiness. Local Area Control and Scouts then combine to give you incredible Outflanking ability combined with a lot of Infiltrators, allowing for all sorts of board control shenanigans – or just getting up close and personal as quickly as possible.

We then have the two rules designed to cover iconic units from different parts of Africa. Desert Mounted Infantry gives you the ability to make your forces even more mobile, courtesy of camels, while Nigerian Chindits allows you to field a truly fearsome force of ultra-elite light infantry, perfect for carving their way through deep jungle, or the enemy! Packed with special rules, they’re pricey but very, very dangerous.

All this makes East Africa Command forces both powerful and completely unlike any other on the tabletop – perfect for commanders looking for something a little off the beaten track. When you add in the new units and Standard Commonwealth Units options, it gets even better. We think this is going to be a very popular army indeed… so it’s a good job we’ve got some new plastic Chindits in the works that we’ll be looking to release next year!