Armies of Great Britain

Among the major nations, the British army found itself deployed across a vast number of theaters of operations. The North African desert, the East Asian jungle, Western Europe: these diverse climates and geographical zones present you with choices for army types that are truly rich and modular, depending on the gaming partners you encounter. A player with Japanese troops? The Chindits will be ready and waiting. Germans from the Afrika Korps? British troops will be there to counter the German advance! If you are a fan of short-format Bolt Action games, like those offered by Frontline, then a troop of Green Berets supported by a rifle platoon might just tempt you.

The Armies of Great Britain Supplement

This supplement offers a portion of Great Britain’s armies, but not the entirety of the Commonwealth forces, which will have their own dedicated supplement.

With this army book, you already have plenty of options available in terms of squads, armored vehicles, or artillery pieces.

This 112-page supplement replaces and improves upon the elements found in the Bolt Action rulebook. It introduces new rules for this major nation.

At the beginning of the book, several features will help you choose the army and style that best suit you. A page of illustrations provides ideas for painting your troops’ uniforms.

The Chindits, the Red Devils, or the Commandos—each option can give you painting and modeling inspiration to make your army truly unique.

Special Rules: The Soul of Your Armies of Great Britain

Beyond squad profiles, what truly defines a nation in Bolt Action is its special rules. For Great Britain’s forces, these mechanics aren’t just there to scrape together a few advantage points in tournaments. They are designed to reflect British daring, ingenuity, and trademark phlegm. Whether enhancing your melee charges, optimizing your artillery support, or executing bold officer maneuvers, these rules are the engine of your strategy. Let’s analyze together how these traits will shake up your tactical habits.

Fix Bayonets

This special rule allows you to increase the damage dealt by your troops in close quarters combat. Every block of 3 men engaged in combat adds one extra damage die. Consequently, a 10-man commando squad adds 3 additional damage dice. This makes your Green Berets significantly more lethal than assault troops from other nations.

Tournament enthusiasts will undoubtedly find ways to exploit this rule by maximizing its effects.

Artillery Support

British armies, often operating with reduced manpower, meticulously planned every offensive on the front. With perfect timing, the artillery supporting a British army is more effective than that of others. Artillery Support maximizes the impact of artillery barrages or the deployment of smoke screens on the battlefield.

When paired with a reconnaissance platoon, this rule—utilizing two artillery observers—is highly likely to become a devastating option on the field.

Up and At ‘Em!

British phlegm knows no bounds, especially on the battlefield. Officers take center stage with this rule. Leading from the front, they grant a bonus to order tests. In return, it is harder to shield your officers from enemy fire, and they suffer a penalty to cover saves.

As a player, this special rule feels quite interesting. It forces you to either put your officers in genuine danger ahead of your men, or hunt for hard cover that completely blocks line of sight so they can safely follow your troops’ advance across the terrain.

This slight gameplay twist might give you a few cold sweats when it comes to moving your officers, but the morale bonus is well worth the risk.

For King and Country

This special rule gathers various options for specific troops within the British army. Consequently, the Guards, Chindits, Red Devils, and Commandos will have access to additional options—choices that will truly set them apart from the regular troops in the rest of your army. Once again, Warlord Games has tournament players in mind. They will undoubtedly find plenty of ways to optimize their army lists within this rule.

Narrative players will also find features that make their troops feel unique, offering great opportunities for original modeling choices.

I notice that these kinds of options are standard in every army supplement. As a player, I find that each choice helps distinctify them from basic troops. They push us, as players, to seek out one or more enjoyable and interesting options.

Equipment Options of Armies of Great Britain

While special rules dictate your tactical approach, your equipment options provide that touch of versatility unique to British forces. Whether optimizing the armor penetration of your anti-tank guns or increasing your infantry’s volume of fire, every technological choice reflects the inventiveness of the era’s engineers. These additions, subtle as they may sometimes be, are tools you can adapt to catch your opponents off guard.

The Littlejohn Adaptor

This system makes your light anti-tank guns far more effective, granting them impressive penetration. On the flip side, rolling a 1 risks breaking your gun for the remainder of the game, rendering it useless.

This kind of detail is interesting because you still face a 16% chance of destroying your own anti-tank gun. But in all other cases, enemy armor is in for a surprise against that level of penetration!

The Vickers K Machine Gun

Originally built for fighter aircraft, these machine guns boast an impressive rate of fire. Much like the Germans, you add an extra shooting die to these weapons. In the army lists, certain squads can be equipped with them for an additional cost of 5 points.

A heavy volume of fire can often make all the difference in Bolt Action. This 5-point option is highly appealing, especially if you are fighting Germans who get this trait as a baseline feature on all their machine guns.

Great Britain infantery

In Bolt Action, you often have the ability to create classic squads. They will do the job and allow you to build effective, competitive army lists. They will be balanced and undoubtedly on par with your opponents’ lists.

As a narrative player, that isn’t what truly catches my eye. What always interests me in specific army books are the exotic squads—the unique weapons of a nation that allow for a different and surprising playstyle, the very elements that serve as the foundation for building narrative, immersive scenarios. Every army supplement offers this type of squad, and it is often what I look forward to most in this kind of book.

The Home Guard Section

Ill-equipped and inexperienced, this squad seemingly has nothing going for it from a competitive standpoint. But you have to look beyond that. This is a squad equipped with shotguns, made up of civilians and Great War veterans operating within England. I see great potential here for small skirmish games. It is perfect for imagining scenarios where a small group of Germans lands clandestinely in England. Their mission? To destroy a specific strategic objective, like a coastal radar antenna. Facing them are three Home Guard squads patrolling to protect the sensitive installation.

This narrative potential is what makes these army books so incredibly rich.

The Chindits Section

Is your gaming partner playing the Japanese nation? Here is the perfect way to oppose them with stubborn, hard-to-defeat troops made up of battle-hardened veterans. The profile might not seem overly competitive at 80 points for 5 veterans, yet it could form the hard core of a reconnaissance platoon. These are the assault troops you send to the front lines to clear out entrenched Japanese forces in close-quarters jungle combat.

Their ability to deploy in ambush could easily serve as the premise for numerous interesting narrative scenarios.

Royal Navy Commando Subsection

Here is a team that could also inspire you to create narrative Bolt Action scenarios across multiple environments: sabotage missions deep behind enemy lines, capturing structures, or setting up ambushes.

This is excellent fuel for a narrative player’s imagination, perfect for designing and testing new scenarios. These troops are a true catalyst for storytelling.

The Blacker Bombard Anti-Tank Team

The Blacker Bombard is a weapon with a truly unique aesthetic. Your gaming partners might be caught off guard and mistake you for an eccentric when you deploy this team on the table. What could be more original when playing the armies of Great Britain? Deploying a weapon that mixes anti-tank capability, a 2-inch HE shell, and a 24-inch indirect fire range to support your advancing troops.

Even if this weapon saw limited use historically, it will go a long way toward giving your British army a distinct identity.

Great Britain Artillery

The QF 17-PDR is a super-heavy anti-tank gun. Available in the mid-to-late war periods, it offers a reliable platform to destroy late-war super-heavy German tanks for a bargain price (130 points).

British players of Konflikt’47 should also take a close look at this artillery piece. For such a low cost, its anti-tank capability seems like “THE” go-to option for cracking Axis armor.

The anti-aircraft guns are also a welcome surprise: their flak capability helps mitigate the threat of enemy airstrikes. When turned against enemy infantry or lightly armored transports, they can easily turn the tide of a battle.

Great Britain Vehicles

Originality is what truly sets British vehicles apart. This nation of inventive engineers produced a wide array of specialized vehicles tailored to specific challenges encountered on the theater of operations. Is the ground too soft? There is a vehicle specifically designed for that. Endless minefields ahead? The British have a vehicle to clear a safe path.

Need to demolish an enemy bunker? They built a vehicle for that, too.

By the end of the war, British ingenuity had generated various types of ultra-specialized vehicles to solve highly specific problems.

Early in the war, however, British tanks lacked reliability on the battlefield, as well as firepower when compared to German armor. Depending on the era you choose to build “your” ideal British army, this historical factor will be important to keep in mind.

The MK II-V1 B

This tank is incredible. Imagine an armored fire-support platform equipped with a heavy machine gun plus a turret-mounted coaxial MMG, an armor rating of 7, all propelled by tracks.

It is the ultimate mobile fire support for your early-war troops, and the vehicle’s visual style is truly remarkable.

The Cruiser A9 MK1

With its 7+ armor rating, this early-war tank carrying a light anti-tank gun could be an attractive choice if you want to field a numerous early-war armored company.

Its two auxiliary MMG turrets, combined with the main turret, give it a very striking look. While fragile, this well-equipped tank offers excellent fire support for fast-moving troops.

The Cruiser Comet

This late-war tank rivals Panzers on paper. Equipped with a super-heavy anti-tank gun, it can deal with Tiger I tanks without issue. Its point cost matches equivalent German armor. At 258 points for a regular crew, its reinforced front armor and light HE shells make it an excellent hunter of medium and heavy tanks. Its high price tag, however, might make it difficult to justify in a purely competitive list.

The MK III Valentine

An iconic tank of the British army. As an infantry tank designed to support troops during assaults, it moves slowly alongside infantry across the battlefield. Its light anti-tank gun becomes an issue if the opposing army fields armor rated 9+ or higher. However, bringing multiple Valentines can wear down enemy tanks; with its +4 penetration, it still maintains a 16% chance to damage such armor. This allows you to stack PIN markers on your opponent, forcing them to remain stationary upon a failed order check. The goal shifts from outright destruction to locking the enemy down through a hail of light anti-tank fire converging from all sides of the battlefield.

The Sexton

This open-topped light howitzer possesses a truly unique style. As mobile artillery capable of deploying and redeploying rapidly across the battlefield, it could easily make a difference when supporting your infantry. Its tracks make it an excellent all-terrain vehicle. A reconnaissance-focused company could easily welcome a pair of these pieces into its ranks, keeping them behind the vanguard to pound entrenched enemy positions. And when counter-battery fire starts coming in, they can simply move a few inches out of harm’s way!

Great Britain Army Lists

When examining this section, I find several list proposals. The first, a 1,500-point list, offers a British army tailored for Northwest Europe—bringing to mind Operation Market Garden or the troops that landed in Normandy.

As a Konflikt’47 player, I also note that this format would be well-suited to fight an Axis army if I ever lacked specific British units to pit against my gaming partner.

Meanwhile, the 750-point example gives me ideas for building an army in the Frontline format. It is the perfect size for setting up short introductory games to teach new Bolt Action players. It also serves as an excellent entry point into this army for players on a tight budget.

Conclusion

Whether you are a competitive strategist looking for optimization or a narrative enthusiast eager to recreate the dark and glorious hours of the Second World War, the Armies of Great Britain supplement is a must-have.

Between its special rules that reward tactical daring, its rich technological inventory, and its diverse modeling options, this book offers an incredible wealth of choices. It gives you the keys to shape a force in your own image—whether that means an elite unit seasoned in jungle warfare or a more unconventional section ready to defend British soil.

In short, it is an invitation to explore the full versatility and ingenuity this nation displayed, turning every game into a unique battlefield experience. Less conventional than US or German troops, British armies are even wilder than the Soviets when it comes to vehicle variety. For me, the British army is “THE” choice that will set you apart from other Bolt Action players and let you enjoy a little touch of madness!