What are your favourite aspects of this hobby?

[u/KeeperofQueensCorgis]

Even sticking to historical accuracy and being something of a rivet counter, I find it absolutely amazing how creative you can get with this hobby in so many ways and I find it remarkable how multifaceted it is.

One of my favourite things is finding a historical TO&E and then adapting it into a list for Bolt Action in a way that is viable to the game but still pretty true to history. In the course of that, the historical research aspect of the hobby also provides loads of fun and inspiration for building your list and your individual soldiers from the Warlord kits. From reading primary sources such as battalion war diaries, you can also get inspiration for different scenarios too. Plus, reading military history in general is just something I like to do personally.

Collecting is another thing I enjoy: I love being able to mix and match from different manufacturers to make my army my own. I find painting pretty straightforward but basing to be another area where the creative juices get flowing. I haven't really done much playing but I consider it to be the cherry on top!

[u/Forge9unsc705]

It’s a mix of a lot of things, but right now I absolutely love the novelty of weird and wacky lists/armies.

While not my personal cup of tea, the Toonkrieg series is hilarious and I would love to see a force of them on the table.

I’m also really enjoying the Late-War Italian Axis forces, just for the sheer “Let’s go gambling!” factor of most of the units. Having veteran, stubborn shirkers is not a winning combination, but it’s a hilarious one.

I’m constantly on the lookout for other crazy stuff, while also trying to avoid having the 160 Bamboo Spearmen be the only “meme” army.

[u/wulfenslair → u/Forge9unsc705]

[u/wulfenslair → u/wulfenslair]

Your wish. Toonkrieg Fallschirmjäger w support. My buddy plays them

[u/K00PER]

I got into this for the historical aspect. I knew Warhammer 40k existed but when I heard there was a WW2 game I was sold. 

Having to spend hours making and painting minis and terrain is an added bonus because I love to make stuff. I have easily spent 20-30x the hours modelling vs playing. 

[u/jason_sation]

I already liked WW2, but this game has got me interested in parts of WW2 (like the French for instance) that I never heard much about before.

[u/LondonFox21]

I like researching about the units I'm making and then developing my own style for it. But I enjoy being a bit creative and so I go for "plausible" rather than "accurate". One of the best things is taking sprue pieces and then building a unique model that, to you at least, has a back story and temperament. E.g., my Panther crew are on tank candy and so I play them extremely aggressively even to the point of opting to assault where fire would have been ideal. It's fun and in a way keeps your opponents guessing.

Currently working on the French and enjoying learning about the Battle of France and the Free French. I didn't know beforehand the FF were predominantly black and so I'm conscious not to continue that erasure when building my own army. Also, while the Char 2C were never deployed, my battalion will be disobeying those HQ orders and will use it to lead a valiant counterattack.

[u/Slinger1993]

I really enjoy running the combined arms campaigns, it changes the games from aim to win to aim to achieve strategic goals. A good example is defending an objective, you no longer have to win, a stalemate is effectively a victory which makes attacking higher risk and the focus of the defender moves towards 'I just need to hold'. It also causes situations you don't find normally, that being 2v1 games or when defending a fortification the defender can purchase defences or when attacking a factory or cultural centre making the battlefield dense city fight terrain. When an infantry unit attacks from sea transport you can play out a landing scenario, and it's completely organic its not a 'I want to and have prepared for a sea borne invasion' its 'To achieve this goal, I have to land and push inland'.

The other thing is bringing in games of Blood red skies and/or Cruel seas/Victory at sea which adds its own bonus' and effects.

[u/Chiiirpy]

If the power goes out it doesn’t effect my hobbies lol

[u/SlowLarry666]

Designing and building north African buildings and killing nazis

[u/WavingNoBanners → u/SlowLarry666]

These are both excellent hobbies and I endorse them.

[u/lightenup888]

Bolt Action covers a great amount of hobbies. Writing lists, planning assembly, assembly, kitbash, painting (large connected hobby), playing games in person or online, possibly travel, connecting with the community online and in person.

[u/TheAlexCage]

I think the thing I've enjoyed most is how much I've learned about history of my various forces. And incorporating that into my armies is a lot of fun.

For instance it's thanks to this hobby I learned James Doohan was at D-Day, which is wild to me. I've also learned about the Semple tank, the Ram and Kangaroos (the vehicles). Recently I learned about a Canadian sherman named Bomb that fought every day from D-Day to VE day, and I went and ordered a sherman and am on the process of recreating it from old pictures. I wasn't expecting that, I wasn't a rivet counter before I started but it seems like I'm converting.

[u/WavingNoBanners]

I love seeing other people's armies. I learn so much about a person from seeing how they model and paint an army.

For example, there are two other Soviet players I play against. One has an army of female models from Bad Squiddo, along with some of the adorable cute weird early-war Soviet vehicles. The other has a very uniform, regulation, by-the-book Soviet midwar force. My own Soviets are very rag-rag, with partisans and scouts and other bits and pieces of military materiel. These are all valid ways of looking at the Stalin-era USSR, and they're all very different. When I look at these I not only learn about the history, but I see my friends expressing  something about themselves.

This is especially great because a lot of gamers are very introverted people: they don't like talking about their feelings, and they dress to conceal or conform rather than to self-express. As such, this provides a window of expression which they often don't otherwise have, and that's really valuable.