Bolt Action “Dog Tags”

With our recent Bolt Action attention, and my efforts at painting the figures, I have been pondering ideas for various game aids. I already have easier to read order tokens, movement sticks, and clear area of effect templates. What I have been missing however is Pin markers, and markers for Indirect fire tracking.

The default pin markers from the game are ok – they are a translucent red plastic which is supposed to function as a dial. In practice however, they are nearly impossible to read and certainly do not show up on video. The starter sets we have come with perhaps 15 or so, which is fine, until the offboard artillery comes in and we need 2 or 3 per unit, for 5 or more units.

Related, there is no default way to track indirect fire. A unit firing indirect (a mortar or similar) needs a 6+ on the first round, but then improves each round, until either a hit is made, or either unit moves. Typically, this is marked with a matching dice on both sides or something similar. Of course, with multiple indirect fire weapons, that gets confusing quickly. Warlord Games does sell laser-cut MDF tokens for this which are an option, but being a crafter, why buy when I can create?

Blending these together, and inspired by my Legion tools, I have come up with what I am calling my Bolt Action “Dog Tags”. These are roughly rectangular cards that are placed on the battlefield near the unit. They include a space for marking the unit designation, slots for pin markers, and a space for the current order assigned. I also have a set of Indirect Fire markers, with the same space for unit designation and pin markers (in this case used for tracking status). As soon as the acrylic arrives, I have a design for “starburst” style Pin markers, which not only can be numerous enough to handle the volume needed but are translucent red in color (to show up on the field well), and small enough to fit the various tools (without being too small to track).

These will be part of a new set of game aids I am finalizing to assist Bolt Action players and will eventually be available in various sets and combos in the next week or two. At a minimum, it will help track and organize pin levels for units and make them much clearer on our content. And I do expect other players will see benefits, similar to our Wargame Widgets.