Bolt Action Terrain Layout Generator
Introduction
Unlike some other wargames, Bolt action doesn’t have any rules for setting up terrain for a game. This can
lead to either players putting symmetrical scenery on both sides of the table. So neither player is deemed to
have an unfair advantage or the other extreme where one side has too much cover and terrain and winning
the game just comes down to which player rolls high to pick the best side. Personally I sometimes find
that I have the same ideas when placing the terrain so I feel that most of my tables appears the same. In war,
leaders didn’t usually get a chance to pick their terrain, they had their orders to defend or take an objective
and so use the local terrain as best they could to complete the mission. Therefore I have written a terrain
layout generator that can be tweaked to be as balanced or unbalanced as you wish.
Due to the Second World War being fought all over the world (the clue is in the name). The terrain can be
different depending on the region from Deserts of North Africa, Jungles of Burma to the Snow covered
mountains of Norway. For this article I will be preparing to play in a typical western European region
although the same principle can be used to prepare a table for any region.
The Set up Stage
Split the table into 24 12” squares, this can be easily done by placing markers such as washers, bases or
even figures, place them 12” apart to make the inner corners of the squares.
Red dots are where the markers are placed
The Road layout
With our chosen region being Western Europe there is a good chance of there being a road on the table. If
you are preparing a region that has a lesser chance of a road for example, a jungle or desert table,
roll 1D6,
1-3 no road
4-6 a road.
Otherwise roll 1D6 and place the road from the result on your table. The roads are designed so that they
can't be driven straight across in one turn. Roll 1D6 and place the roads down first according to the resulting
map below, make sure they go through the correct squares on the table. On the rare occasion you want or the
scenario requires a river (see section at the end of the article) place the river before laying the road.
Generating the terrain
For each side of the table you need a deck of 12 normal playing cards, 3 terrain cards(red number cards),
3 building (red picture cards)and 6 open ground (black spades or clubs ) cards. This combination is for a
normal generic table. if you want a more dense terrain then add more terrain cards equally to each side or
more buildings and ruins if you want a built up city board etc. Shuffle the deck and place the cards face
down left to right in the two rows of squares in the first player's half. Then turn each card over:
Black card: It is open ground and no terrain is placed
Red number card: Terrain card roll 1D6
1-3 Field, roll 1D6 again, 1-3 field rough 4-5 field with crops/fence 6 field/crops with wall.
4-5 Wood roll 1D6 again, 1 orchard with fence 2 orchard with wall 3-6 dense wood.
6 Hill , roll 1D6 again, 1-4 open gentle Hill 5-6 rough ground, steep hill.
Red picture card; Building card roll 1D6
1-2 Ruin.
3-5 House, roll 1D6 again, 1-4 :Single house, 5-6 2 Storey house.
6 Large building.
Building’s garden/yards
When placing a building or ruin roll to see if the building has a garden. Roll 1D6 if they have a boundary
outside even it is a ruin
1-2 no garden, 3-4 fenced garden 5-6 walled garden.
Now roll 1D6 to see which side of the house the garden is on
1-2 front of the house 3 right hand side 4 left hand side 5-6 rear of the house.
Size of the terrain
Terrain should be at least roughly 9-10” square
Alignment of the terrain
If the terrain piece is in the same square as a road then it is placed adjacent to the road on the side that
has the most space in the square. If it is a building ,the face with the front door will always be the side of
the building facing the road.
Orientation of the terrain
When placing the actual terrain in their appropriate sectors that has no roads throw 1D6
Choose one side of the piece of terrain e.g front of a house, next throw 1D6
1 two o’clock 2 four o’clock 3 six o’clock(south) 4 eight o’clock 5 ten o’clock 6 12 o'clock (north)
Place the terrain with the side you have chosen in the square facing the direction that was the result
on the die. Some terrain may not fit all in their allocated square e.g a large building with a fenced garden.
Do not worry as long as there is room in the adjacent square. Another simple solution is to just roll a Bolt
Action Order dice and face the chosen side in the direction of the arrow on the dice.
Fences and walls
Now roll for each road in a square for a linear obstacle (fence etc) to be placed along each side of the road.
If the side of the road already has a piece of terrain on it do not roll for the obstacle
Roll 1D6
1-3 No linear obstacle
4-5 Fence (soft cover)
6 Wall (hard cover)
When all the cards have been turned over and the terrain placed, reshuffle the deck and place each card
from left to right on the other side of the table. Repeat the turning over and placing the terrain as above.
Rivers and waterways
I have not included rivers in the generator rules, however if the scenario or mission requires a river
Roll 1D6 for each the result decides which side the river enters and exits the table, Place the river on the
table before placing roads and terrain etc.
Rivers can be crossed by bridges by all types of units
Rivers can be shallow or deep, roll 1D6 1-4 shallow river, 5-6 deep river.
A shallow river can be crossed by infantry and cavalry units anywhere on the board as if it was rough
terrain. Vehicles can only cross if there is a bridge or ford(counts as rough for wheel and infantry, counts
as open for tracked vehicles.
A deep river can only be crossed by all types of units by a bridge.
For playability there should be at least three bridges(fords) across the river even if the board has no roads.
If the board has roads, anywhere that the road crosses a river if it is a shallow river throw 1D6 1-3 it is a
ford 4-6 it is a bridge. If it is a deep river then place a bridge. If there is still less than 3 crossings then
roll 1D6 and count the result in squares from left to right, place the extra crossing on the river in that
square. Repeat until there are at least three crossing points, If the square already has a bridge in it roll again.
A river crossing board
Conclusion
As I have already explained before, this is just a generic example for you to add your own ideas. For
instance if you are generating a Normandy region you may want to add bocage to the fields and the linear
obstacles on the side of the roads. therefore the Fences and walls parameters would be something like:
Roll 1D6
1-2 Fence (soft cover)
3-5 Bocage (Hard cover, blocks line of sight unless unit is touching)
6 Wall (hard cover)
If you only have a certain amount of terrain then just give them a specific playing card as reference
e.g Queen of diamonds = church, five of hearts = walled field etc. Just make sure the two decks of cards
for each side of the table have the same amount of hard and soft cover areas in them.
Once all the terrain has been set, each player rolls a dice to who has the choice of which side they want
to deploy on.
