Everyone playing Bolt Action has a couple things in common, whether they want to admit it or not. A table top war game is, at its core, a competition, maybe even a zero-sum game. There are finite objectives - even in Maximum Attrition - which means that whether your approach precludes you from using the term "compete" or not, you're involved in a situation where there are only so many ways to cut the cake, and if you end up with less, you've lost. Sometimes the pieces of cake are objectives, sometimes they're real estate on the table, and sometimes they're your own forces - regardless, everyone playing is competing for the lion's share in every game, even if they classify it as "just for fun"; as if there was another way to play.
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The other commonality all players share is that they must independently devise a list of units to bring to the table in order to accomplish whatever goals each scenario sets. You simply can't play a game of Bolt Action without a pile of models representing your force. One might logically conclude, then, that players select their units with a focus on how exactly those units will accomplish their objectives, but I'm here to tell you that this is not necessarily the case.
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