So you want to play Bolt Action?

When playing Bolt Action, there are many times when you have on lookers that sit and watch you play and start asking questions about the game.  And like myself, you will run a Demo from time to time and let new people tryout the game.  Then the inevitable question comes:

"What is the best army to play?"

I am going to break down each army into it's national rules and the pro's and con's to each force as a reference for myself and many like yourselves, who wonder yourselves about the different factions and would like to tell people where they can go to get information on the various Nations represented in Bolt Action.

The Pros and Cons listed have been collected by the men and women on Bolt Action Internation and Bolt Action Facebook Pages.

Belgian
National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

Forward Artillery Doctrine

Hurriedly Conscripted Reserves

British
National Rules:

Bombardment
Artillery Support
A National Characteristic (Choice of 1)

-- Up and ‘at ‘em: 

--Blood Curdling Charge:
--Tough as Boots:
--Rapid Fire:
--Vengeance:

pros: Artillery is cheap thanks to free observers ect, lots of variety when it comes to elite units (gurkhas, paras, Chindits, commandos ect), 
Cons: lack of heavy infantry firepower, (no HMG or heavy motors, PIAT only has 12" range so anti tank guns are vital), please note I havent really found many cons to Brits as my first games have been against Brits so if others want to add feel free

Pros : Fire support, Free Arty Observer, re-rolls on Bombardments, abundance of the D6 75mm, Cheap mobile Medium Howitzer with the Cromwell CS.
Infantry: good adaptability with the national characteristic rules, Commandos and Gurkhas are quite good value for points.
Armour: a good range of tanks that fare well over all time periods,
lots of useful Armoured Cars and the only Allied Super Heavy Tank (other than the Ostfront IS3) . The only Allied Super Heavy AT Gun both on a tank and as an arty piece. Heavily armoured transports in the Kanagaroos. Churchill AVREs can be devastating (but probably not worth the points)
Cons: No multilauncher and pretty ordinary PIAT

Bulgaria

National Rules:

Axis Allies

Counter-Partisan Experts

Chinese Nationalists

National Rules:

Flag

Levy

Bodyguard

Chinese Warlords

National Rules:

Flag

Levy

Bodyguard

Chinese Communists
National Rules:

Flag

Levy

Sparrow Tactics

Danish
National Rules:

Confusion
Waiting in Ambush

Finland
National Rules:

Sisu

Trained Huntsman

Motti

French
National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

Forward Artillery Doctrine

Hurriedly Conscripted Reserves

German
National Rules:

Hitler's Buzzsaw

Initiative Training

Pros: Assault rifles, early & mid war tanks are awesome, flak 88s are fun, Panzerfausts for all. 
Cons: Late war tanks are very expensive points wise, too much abuse of assault rifles(!), FJ aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Pros: Lots of medium and heavy armor with big AT guns or big howitzers, Infantry machine guns benefit from an extra die roll, NCOs get the chance to stay alive when getting hit by exceptional damage ( Brian Ward always seems to save his), lots of assault rifles, the Sturmtiger (never actually used it myself but I've seen Brian wipe out 6 squads in 7 turns with it)

Cons: Lack of national rules is about the only con for the Germans

Pros: Natty uniforms, fancy tanks, funny names. lots of options and nice guns. Useful LMG and MMG's.
Cons: can be perceived as bland as lacking in special rules points heavy, Elite units nothing special. bewildering array of uniforms and equipment

Pro:  An advantage is that they have so many variant vehicles they can always have the right tool for the job.

Con:  their infantry can be very heavily tooled up, with AR, 2 x LMG and Faust's in one section. You could even add fanatics. German players invariably load up with these nice toys which all cost. Nearly always outnumbered. 

Greek
National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

Fieldcraft

Infiltration

Hungarian
National Rules:

Axis Support

Experienced Officer Corps

Pros: None. Maybe getting a single non-veteran German unit that is outside of the platoon selection is okay, but the lack of decent infantry outweighs that and the other national rule is completely useless.
Cons: Germans do it better rules-as-written. Missing 6-8 unit choices that existed in the real army, even simple things like their Jeep equivilent 

Italian

National Rules:

Avanti Savoia

Defensive Strategy

Pros everyone underestimates them
Cons lack of heavy armour and anti tank

Pros: everyone underestimates them. Paratroopers are amazing 
Cons: with avanti savoia without the right list synergy and pre determined strategy things can go very bad for you.

For Miniatures:
Black Tree Design - Italians
Warlord Games - ItalyWestwind - Berlin or Bust - Italians

Japanese

National Rules:

Death before Dishonor
Banzai Charge
Ambush Tactics
Show your Loyalty

For Miniatures:
Warlord Games - IJA

Netherlands
National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

Forward Artillery Doctrine

Hurriedly Conscripted Reserves

Norway

National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

Fieldcraft

Infiltration

For Miniatures:  I would recommend WW1 Austro-Hungarians in field caps
Brigade Games

Partisans
National Rules:

Fieldcraft

Infiltration

Hidden Bomb

Poland
National Rules:

Communication Breakdown

No Hope, No Retreat

Elite Officer Class

Pros:  can have huge squads (mine are 10 man...but 11,12 would work well. Cav...just bad ass kraut on a stick machines...I field 2 squads of 10 one vet other regular. 20mm TKS nice against both a/c's and infantry. I also have a med howitzer for them...it makes up a little for the Cons 
Cons:  no real anti tank...and not surprising late war krauts w/ assault rifles tend to kill them fast...but as I said not surprising there.

For Miniatures:
Gorgon Studios - 10th Cavalry

Warlord Games


Romania
National Rules:

Axis Support

French Artillery Doctrine

Soviet Union
National Rules:

The Great Patriotic War 
Quantity has a Quality all its own
Not One Step Back
Massed Batteries

Pros: Cheap Cheap Cheap, lots of dice and lots of troops. Need to be played aggressively. 
Cons: To get the above, they have to be inexperienced.

Pros: A lot of their AT guns and tanks can be pretty versatile against vehicles and infantry, the free 12 man inexperienced squad with the green rule, lots of AT, body armor
Cons: playing as Russians the only con I've really found is that i love to run airborne squads which use up to many points lolPros: lots of options for any type of unit. Flexibility and flavour. Free 12 man unit.
Cons: can't think of anything tbh because of the flexibility of the choices you can take.

For Miniatures:
Warlord Games


United States

National Rules:

Fire and Maneuver
Gyro-Stabilizers
Air Superiority
Modern Communications

Pros: when played aggressively they are almost historical if the dice cooperate. 
Cons: No BAR's and expensive point wise

Pros: National rules, most of their tanks get the HE D6 rule and gyro stabilizers, Marines are packed full of firepower, BARs, US snipers can be equipped with SMGs should someone come to close

Cons: Besides the Veteran Infantry squad getting tough fighters the American infantry units don't benefit from any special rules like stubborn or fanatics or anything

For Miniatures:
Warlord Games