Is Less More? Examining Dice Caps in Competitive Bolt Action

MV – Any time Bolt Action mastermind Alessio Cavatore comes into the office saying ‘I’ve had a thought about tournaments’, it generates a lot of interest. As it turns out, Alessio’s been off to a few events as a player since the launch of Third Edition, and it’s got him thinking about Order Dice. Take it away, Mr Cavatore!

AC – Hello there! Since the release of Bolt Action: Third Edition, I’ve been out and about happily playing various pick-up games and at tournaments. 

Having met lots of different players in different settings over my career, I’ve really grown to appreciate that one of the great things about this hobby is the way that different people tend to adapt a game to their preferences, their collection, and the people they play it with. In Bolt Action, we see that some players prefer historical forces and scenarios, while others enjoy competitive games where historical matchups are much less important – and everything else in between. Today, I specifically want to focus on competitive games and tournaments, and one particular aspect of them – Order Dice!

One thing I’ve seen a lot of in my travels is people in a competitive environment building absolutely huge forces – not in terms of points, but of the number of Order Dice they’d been able to cram into their lists. This has a couple of effects that I’ve noticed, which I think can lead to some rather ‘funky’ situations. Now, there’s no wrong way to play Bolt Action, so long as you’re having fun, but I’ve found that having loads of Order Dice can sometimes lead to a very frantic pace of play, with games not always reaching a natural conclusion, but instead ‘timing out’, which is often a bit frustrating. It can also mean that there’s something of an ‘escalation’ in dice numbers, which leads to players having to get more dice into their lists in order to have a chance in a competitive situation.

Many events already use a ‘dice cap’ to limit the number of Order Dice per army, and I’ve seen these range from high to low. This got me thinking about how I’d go about putting a dice cap on an event, and more specifically the mathematics behind it. Let me introduce you to my version!

Most dice caps I see are based on points values (for example, 16 dice at 1,000 points), but I prefer to base my version on the time you want or need the game to last instead. I recommend a very simple ratio of 1 Die per 10 minutes of game time, as shown in the chart below:

After the allocated amount of gameplay expires, the players finish the current turn, and then the game ends automatically – this allows for a more satisfying finish than having to immediately end the game no matter the situation. If time is really tight, you can of course still end the game as soon as the allotted time is up!

When you arrange to play a game of Bolt Action, you normally decide on a points limit, but I encourage you to also agree on a dice cap based on how long you’re planning to play for, rather than simply based on army size.

It is interesting to study the interaction of the dice cap with the points limit. For example, if you decide to play a 2-hour game with a dice cap of 12, I recommend 1,000 points for your forces. In fact, that is what I personally consider a ‘standard game’ of Bolt Action (played with the Standard Game conditions listed on page 164 of the rulebook: Seek and Destroy, Long Table Edges, Meeting Engagement). Of course, if you keep the same time limit and dice cap, but change the points limit, this has some fascinating effects on your forces. A 750 point limit encourages you to choose smaller, cheaper units, and it feels like it might be better suited to a game set in the early part of the war, while a 1,250 point game lets you pick bigger, more expensive units (in fact, it almost forces you to do so!). Suddenly the ‘feel’ tends to lean more towards late-war games, with German big cats coming out to play against Allied advanced anti-tank assets.

I realise that a dice cap like this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and some players may prefer the added freedom, variety and flexibility of choosing as many units as they like. Personally, I love the dice cap, because it keeps the games more balanced, and especially because I like a more relaxed game pace, so that I can think a bit longer about what to do when I draw one of my dice. This difference in personal taste is a good example that illustrates how, as I said at the beginning of this article, the great thing about this hobby is that people are free to choose their favourite way of playing. However, even if you’ve never considered a dice cap based on time limits, I would challenge you to give it a few goes and see how that feels and how your games change with or without it. Try it out, see how you like it, and let us know on social media. Happy gaming!

MV – Has Alessio’s idea inspired you to change up your Bolt Action force, or start a new one? Get all the units (and Order Dice) you need here!