Bonjour, mes amis. With my French vocabulary now exhausted, I am immeasurably excited to be discussing with you today the new French army book for Bolt Action 3rd Edition. That’s right, we have been waiting 2 years for our time in the sun, and it is finally here… but is it worth the wait? That would be awful, right? If we waited this long and the army rules were just like Escargot – all infantry units have Slow. Well, let’s dive in to see if the tricolour is a triple threat, or if we’re dealing with more of a soggy baguette.
Écoutez, s’il vous plaît. At almost 100 pages, the French army book is a rather substantial tome. I won't be reproducing every page verbatim here because I don’t want to do that to Zatu’s crack editing team - lovely bunch, nor do I want to deprive you of the pleasure of discovering this beast for yourself. Instead, I'll serve up a taste of what this hefty title has to offer, with a little spicy unit listing here, some saucy rules there, and all garnished with my thoughts as a seasoned French player and unapologetic francophile. Hopefully we’ll end up with a final product more worthy of a Parisian cafe lunch, and less hypermarché booze cruise.
The holy book
So here it is. It finally exists. In my own hands. Before we go rules wading let’s just take a moment to appreciate the physical book and how it presents. As any seasoned Bolt Action player will probably agree, it feels familiar. The artwork is strong, and in that familiar warlord style - lots of men running hunched over, carrying weapons and with mouths wide agape. I always assumed they were shouting but maybe this is just how they stay cool in battle, like a grill on a car…. Did I just revolutionise all of sport with that idea? Welcome. There are also plenty of supporting images from other Osprey publications that display various uniforms as a handy painting reference. Bon.
The book layouts are clear, the images are crisp and, while I’m probably the last person you should trust on this as an ADHD dyslexic, there seem to be far fewer typos than in the earlier 3rd Edition books. I’m sure there are a few lurking in there somewhere, as proofreading is notoriously difficult, but nothing jumps out as glaring. The writing style is that familiar, easily accessible Warlord tone, which makes the rules relatively easy to digest and the accompanying fluff an enjoyable read.
Speaking of fluff, our first proper stop in the book is a decent lore primer history lesson covering the French experience in WWII. Bear in mind that all we really need here is a little taster to get us in the mood, while hitting the main historical beats that give the rules, decisions and units some context. To that end, Warlord have made a solid start. It's brief, flavourful and concise. If you want more, well, non-rulebooks exist, and I'd actively encourage you to do some further reading because the French experience in WWII is a fascinating subject!
Warlord have shown a welcome bit of restraint here and struck the balance nicely. What we don't need is Max Hastings unleashed upon us for a 700 page, blow-by-blow account of how the French fought over a particular farm. Max, are you OK? Blink twice if your publisher is holding you hostage.
Liberté, Égalité, Army Sélection
Right, on to the protein then. This army book breaks the French army down into three key forces for army rules and play. Each has its own theme, rules, and available units.
You’ll notice that the French Resistance, perhaps the most famous resistance movement of the war, isn’t featured here. That’s because a separate Partisan book is on the way, which will focus more on the people who took a smart-casual approach to warfare.
Let’s have a squiz at the three different forces and how they play through their unique army rules. We’ll cover specific units later on.
Army of the Third Republic
This is the early-war-focused army that fought during the Fall of France campaign. This force has all the weird and wonderful vehicles from the interwar period, so you can build an army that looks like Wacky Races on the table. Thematically, this force wants to anchor down with its own little Maginot Line and keep the other player (especially the Germans) at bay.
Bataille Conduite: If a French infantry or artillery unit takes a cover save because of an attack and then has to take a morale test because of that same attack, it counts as Stubborn for that test.
Dig in lads and they’ll struggle to move you. This feels as French as stripey tops and standing up to American Cold War foreign policy to me. Well done Warlord.
Colmater: When you select your force, you may nominate a single unit per platoon to be a Mobile Reserve. These units benefit from a +1 modifier to the roll for entering the table from Reserve (instead of the normal -1). In addition, when outflanking, Mobile Reserves do not have to pick a side of the table in advance, but can decide whether to use the left or right short table edge right before rolling to enter the table.
HA. Brilliant. That’s you Berliet full of killy vets with SMGs springing up wherever you need them. With Bataille Conduite we’ve got some serious hammer and anvil tactics taking shape here.
Le Feu Tue: French Artillery Forward Observers may call an Artillery Barrage twice instead of once per game. Resolve the first barrage as normal. Then, after the first barrage has been resolved, the observer may call a second.
Ouch. I’ve spoken before about how arty observers are not my vibe because of how swingy they are but this gives you double the chances to rain hell on your opponent, or yourself. A good, thematic option for the French for those who like to frustrated their opponent’s battle plans.
Lack of Radios: When you give the Command Vehicle special rule to a vehicle that does not have the Command Vehicle special rule in its entry in order to make it the Platoon Command Vehicle, you can give it the rule for free instead of paying the normal +10pts. If you do so, however, the vehicle reduces the radius of its Command Vehicle rule from 12” to 6”.
Appropriate but we’ve seen this elsewhere and the effect it will have on most tables will be minimal. I expect most people would rather pay the 10 points for that bigger snap too radius. Honestly though, you shouldn’t care because if the French had 4 bangers in their army rules everyone else would get salty at us.
Well this bodes well?! You have everything you need to both run a highly thematic game defending against the blitzkrieg, but also ample ammunition to make a really competitive force. On to the next one.
Vichy France
I’ll avoid using the term “bad guys” as the history of a nation that was part under direct occupation, and part puppet state is extremely nuanced and people did what they had to to keep themselves and their families safe. That said, I imagine there were some awkward home comings in 1945 for the Vichy lads. This is the force that while technically not an axis nation still fought against the allies in defence of their territory. The force is a paired down early war list but with a few interesting infantry twists. Rules wise they have Colmater and lack of radios but also a unique rule:
Loyalty To Le Marechel: Every time a Vichy infantry or artillery unit is forced to take a morale test, roll a d6 before the test and apply the result: 1: ‘Cela ne vaut pas la peine de mourir pour ça’; test as if the squad had lost its NCO. 2-3: nothing happens, test as normal. 4-5: the unit counts as stubborn for this test. 6: ‘Nous resterons jusqu'à la fin’; the test is automatically passed.
Huh, OK. so this is based on the spirited defence the vichy put against the allies around Syria and Lebanon. Low key I think the allies expected the French to put up a token effort before opening the door for the greater good but…. No. The French nearly did us a whoopin. On the tabletop however, it’s fine. It feels like one of those rules you’ll forget from time to time, and maybe it’s more admin than it’s worth, but it gets a theme across.
I think this is the weaker of the 3 rulesets which is a little bit of a shame as it’s a part of the war you don’t hear much about on this side of the channel, and it would have been nice to explore that a bit further. What doesn’t help is the vehicle list is quite limited with a slimmer selection of early war vehicles than the third republic list. The infantry gives a solid selection though and even adds a few new units but back to those soon. You’ve got the flavour here certainly, but If you are looking for a tournament winning list I think you’ll want to look at the other two forces in this book first.
Free France
These are your mid to late war guys who were instrumental in liberating their homeland from the actual bad guys. What’s really cool here is because France had lost its manufacturing capacity when the government fled to exile in Britain, they were entirely supplied by the Brits, and later the Americans. Warlord have embraced this and given the French access to a huge swathe of American and British infantry, artillery, and vehicles, effectively giving us three for one armies. Hyperventilates. For special rules we’ve got a whole battalion of unique ones for you:
Sacred Ground: All infantry and artillery units have the Stubborn special rule.
Yep, we’ll take that. Thank you very much.
Local Area Knowledge: Forces of Liberation units ignore the -1 modifier to the order test for coming onto the table from reserve.
Not earth shattering but significant in game types that allow reinforcements. I’ll admit I’ve suffered heavily because I've flubbed a few rolls trying to get troops on the board mid to late game only to realise the satnav has done them a wobbly.
La Resistance: FFI units may never be mandatory units in a platoon.
This is a theming option and allows you to run a force entirely of nans with SMGs and toddlers with bazookas for that full civilian force if you are that way inclined.
Armee D’Afrique: Some Free French units in this list are marked as having the option for Armée d’Afrique. which means the following:
• Units cannot be taken as Inexperienced.
• Units must be given the Fieldcraft rule for +1pt per model (this applies to light howitzers and light anti tank-guns too, but not to other artillery units)
More theming here as we can build ourselves a hardened colonial force to storm over some rough ground with that Fieldrcaft.
That’s a nice mix of rules and flavour. Nothing feels useless nor overpowered but there is plenty of theme and narrative potential scattered about. Where this force really shines is the expansive access to both British AND US units. We’re talking a grab bag of SAS infantry & trucks, British Artillery, American transports, and more tanks and armoured cars than you can wave a “special relationship” at. Put a pin in that and we’ll pick out some of my favourite units for this force later.
Ooh La La - special force upgrades
In addition to the overall force selector, certain units have specific force upgrades for a little extra je ne sais quoi. These are not universally available, and some will sit more within one force than the others but let’s have a quick nose:
Foreign legion
• Units must be taken as Veteran
• Units must be given the following rule for +1pt per model: Honneur et Fidélité The unit is Stubborn, and in addition it counts as Fanatics in the first round of close quarters if it benefits from a Defensive Position bonus.
I’m not about to rewrite my will to our authors, but yeah that’s fun and leans into that dogged defence so famed in Syria and Lebanon again.
Chasseurs Alpins
• Units must be taken as Veteran
• Units must be given the following rule for +1pt per model: Winter Equipment: Any infantry unit may take skis for no additional cost. An infantry unit equipped with skis ignores all negative movement effects related to snow or ice.
Sure. Very thematic but limited tabletop usage unless you are fighting over the French Italian border, or similar. This rule gets bonus points because the Chasseurs Alpins had the best berets and they just look cool on the tabletop.
Dragons Portes
• Units cannot be taken as Inexperienced.
• Units must be given the following rule for +1pt per model: Motorised: This unit can re-roll any failed order test that is required to mount or dismount a transport vehicle or motorcycles. In addition, if their transport vehicle is destroyed, this unit suffers D3 hits rather than D6 hits. In addition, this gives access to further options for weapons teams, as described in their entries.
Well, that’s a little funky, right? I’m hoping Warlord will shadow-drop some plastic motorcycles, because this little upgrade deserves some exploration. While they’re soft-skinned, Recce is your friend when it comes to keeping these guys alive. Personally, I reckon it’s worth the points just to yeet your lads to the other end of the table in a single move. Change my mind.
Let’s talk lads
What to pick out? What to pick out! There are some great choices here, but let’s pull out some of the more unique options to see if we can’t wet your appetite.
Gendarmerie Section - A nifty early-war squad that grants re-rolls to nearby units that fail their Rally attempts, and has Traffic Direction to make sure they can reinforce when you need them to. This is a nice pairing of rules for those who really want to double down on an unmovable French line.
Heavy Mortar Team - Oof, I love a big boom tube. You might struggle to find a model for this, but I’m pleased to see this addition from the Get You By PDF. That’s HE 3” and Pen -3 for shifting those hard-to-move forces... like say…the French!
GMR Section - Unique to the Vichy boys, this three man unit can infiltrate and has the Counter Partisan Tactics rule, which prevents further enemy infiltrators from deploying within 24 inches of this unit. On a 6ft by 4ft table, that’s horrendous. On top of that, we have a nice range of equipment options to further tailor to your requirements. I face infiltrators all the time, so if I’m playing Vichy, I’m absolutely taking this unit.
The final word on infantry is that they’ve got everything you need and then some. Flamethrowers, chaplains, snipers, big five-man officer squads with all the guff, plus some choice units from the Brits and Yanks. Whatever battle you’re looking to bring to life, or competitive strategy you want to get sweaty over, you’ll find it in these pages.
The FT17 and its derivatives
Tanks in the French army book fall into two categories, really. First, we have the original French tanks: a glorious mishmash of interwar and early-war gun wagons, produced by a range of manufacturers who all seem to have decided that standardisation was somebody else’s problem. I love them all - they are my babies.
On the other side of the national collapse, we get that rather fun selection of American and British vehicles, representing the Lend-Lease support provided by these key allies and giving the French a fighting chance in late war games. Speaking of support, the Vichy lads weren't quite so fortunate. Their allies offered little in the way of assistance, which means you won't be sneaking any panzers under your kepi when building a Vichy list. This is the right call, though, as the Germans had already helped themselves to the best of the French tanks, leaving the Vichy forces considerably worse off than their predecessor nation. That makes for some unique list building challenges, and helps give VIchy their own identity on the tabletop. Now, let’s have a nose at some of my favourite vehicles in the book so far.
Dodge Tanake - Hooray! I’ve been homebrewing this one since I first started playing French, so it’s an absolute joy to see it made official, particularly because it’s so wonderfully weird looking. It’s essentially a Dodge truck with an armoured compartment welded onto the back, and the result looks like some sort of time-travelling chariot. It comes in at 7+ armour, with a light anti-tank gun and a co-axial MMG covering the front, left and right arcs. It also has Recce and Open-Topped. Both the Free French and Vichy forces used these, and I guarantee that every time you put one on the table against someone new, you'll get the same reaction: "What on earth is that?!"
Recce Carrier - Got to love a Bren Carrier. This British-made tracked vehicle comes with Open-Topped, Turn on the Spot and Recce, alongside a Swiss Army knife’s worth of weapon upgrades. Personally, I say stick a light anti-tank gun on it and see if you can knock out something three times its size. What's the worst that could happen? It's only a Bren Carrier, after all.
Canon de 194 “Saint-Chamond” - A "super-heavy howitzer" with Slow... Pitifully slow. Oh, and it's soft-skinned and early-war only. Why on earth would you take that? If you don't know what this is, copy and paste the name into your browser of choice and check the images. Yep. Now you want one too.
You’ve also got all the French tanks from the current PDF. All the Low Velocity Anti-Tank guns, One-Man Turrets, Slows, and Unreliables you could ever want. Proper French tanks, them. You’ve also got a few British Cruisers (A10 & A13) in there for good measure, and they fit here nicely as they both also have the Unreliable rule.
And yet... we seem to have lost the Laffly AMD 80 from the current ruleset. That, dearest reader, cuts deep. I’ve run two of these in most games I’ve played to date. With a forward-facing HMG, a rear-facing MMG and Recce, these things were absolute monsters worthy of a Witcher contract in early-war games.
Maybe they were dropped because fewer than 30 were ever built. Maybe it was because every French player won’t stop bringing them to tournaments. I honestly don't know. But even in the face of all these shiny new options and exciting rules, I shall stubbornly reserve a little space to mourn the loss of a vehicle I loved. Some wounds simply refuse to heal. Vive la Laffly, and fingers crossed for the next FAQ, please, Warlord.
Lastly, a quick nod to the good sweep of transport options and tractors. Far more than we will ever need, actually, but just know if you have something really specific in mind, it’s probably here.
God Save the King, and God Bless America
So, in tribute to all those Lend-Lease vehicles and French troops who benefited from Allied training and equipment, the book includes a force selection guide for Free France. That is to say, there is a very special list for good boys and girls who want to play mid-to-late-war Free French forces and run American and British units under the tricolour.
As someone who mainly plays French, or the occasional Axis army when I get tired of losing, and has had limited contact with the Brits and Americans, I am overwhelmed. It’s like being a child at Christmas and getting your first proper tank model, only to discover that Santa has instead left you an entire armoured division, a logistics attachment, and four Sea Viper missiles.
So from the Brits it’s hard not to get excited about the SAS infantry and vehicles. That’s all the excuse I needed to build a mad max inspired desert raid list. I look forward to shouting WITNESS ME everytime one of my dice gets pulled. We also get access to their Light, Medium and Heavy Artillery, and a few AA guns. Tankswise we have the Cromwell, Centaur, and Crusader II & III. Warlord have given us a solid selection of options while sticking close to historical lend lease vehicles and units the French formed a significant part of.
From the other side of the pond we’re getting more Shermans than I knew existed. For answering late war panzers we’ve got the M10 tank destroyer though notably we don’t get its successor, the M18 Hellcat because historically the Americans kept those for themselves (rude). Infantry wise we get access to the US Army Rifle Squad and US Engineers so that means BARs, and of course the bazooka team, aka everyone’s favourite newb tube. Also, look out for those recce Jeeps, Dodge trucks, and M3 Halftrack[2.1] for getting your lads across the battlefield in yankee style - presumably with jacked suspension and letting off fireworks as they go.
C'est Magnifique...
Tis but a smidge of what’s coming, friends. Us Frenchies have never had it this good, and with the broad selection of vehicles, devious new army rules, and hella cool uniforms, I’m convinced none of the other armies have either. So, should you start a French army? Well, obviously yes. I’m sort of annoyed that it's even a question, actually.
Firstly, there’s a 1939 ammunition dump’s worth of material I haven’t even touched on. With around 40 pages of unit entries, sample armies, and a whole section on artillery that I’ve barely mentioned, there’s plenty more to explore. Let’s pretend the omission is down to word count, rather than my own inability to properly understand artillery or, more importantly, keep it alive beyond turn three. Best leave that to more competent commentators.
The truth is, I simply can’t do the book justice in a single article. Much of its appeal lies in taking the time to explore it for yourself, whether that means mining the unit entries for game-winning strategies, researching unfamiliar tanks to discover whether they’re wonderfully eccentric or genuinely formidable, or, quite possibly, both!
Secondly, I’ve had at least a flick through all the 3rd Edition rulebooks released so far, but this one strikes me as a cut above the rest. The depth of flavour, the distinct identities of the various forces and the sheer potential for tabletop shenanigans are all devilishly impressive. There’s a real sense that these armies have their own character, rather than simply being different flavours of the same thing. The possibilities for narrative mischief and competitive skulduggery are deliciously plentiful, and I’m rather looking forward to seeing what players get up to with them.
Thirdly, I suspect we're about to see a fair few Americans, and perhaps the odd Brit, hurriedly painting over their decals and reaching for the blue, white and red. Historically, the Americans haven't enjoyed quite as broad, or arguably as interesting, a selection of vehicles and units, and their army rules have never exactly set the tabletop alight. If you can take models you already own, slap a new decal on, and enjoy an expanded ruleset, I can certainly see the appeal of putting on a beret.
Never mind that I've spent the last two years suffering through the Get You By PDF, patiently waiting for my French moment in the sun, only to watch everyone else jump ship just as it arrives. Am I bitter? As the French say, non. Not even slightly. I want to see as many French players as possible sharing my enthusiasm for the remarkable national story of our oldest enemy and closest ally. After all, nothing brings people together quite like a shared love of odd-looking tanks, questionable military decisions and the sacred French art of making an afternoon out of lunch.
Bio
Hasvik is as Hasvik does. Hasvik enjoys wargaming, TTRPGs, board games, Jaffa Cakes, amphibians, and rolling dice on the floor to intimidate opponents. Previously thought to exist only along the hidden paths, Hasvik has recently been sighted on Instagram at @hasvikafterdark, having finally discovered a lillypad with adequate Wi-Fi.
