First Bolt Action Tournament

 Saturday July 24th I participated in my first ever Bolt Action Tournament. 

I got up at 0645 and, after getting ready, made the 2 hour drive to Hitpoint Hobbies in Aberdeen NC. This was the store hosting the tournament that was organized by my friend Mathew. Their were 32 players in all. We got our first table assignments and started rolling dice just after 0930. 

I had brought a generic US Army Veteran list at 1,242pts. Limit was 1,250pts.

-Second Lieutenant, veteran w/ pistol

-Medic, regular

-Sniper Team (2 man), veteran w/ pistol, rifle, SMG

-Bazooka Team (2 man), veteran 

-Mortar Team (3 man), veteran, medium mortar

-57MM AT-Gun (3 man), veteran, Medium AT

-4x Veteran Infantry Squad (8 man), 2x SMG, 2x BAR, 4x Rifles

-M8 Greyhound, regular, w/ Light AT gun, co-ax MMG

-M3 Stuart Light Tank, regular, w/ Light AT gun, co-ax MMG, Pental MMG, Hull mounted MMG, 2x hull mounted LMGs

-M2 Half-Track, regular w/ pental HMG

For game 1 I was up against a very friendly old Vet playing Finns. They were an interesting force with some unique special rules. For example his sniper could advance and go on ambush. The mission for game 1 was to capture a scientist in the middle of the table. You got Victory Points (VP) based off were he was at the end of the game (6 turns possible 7th). You also got VPs based on the types of units you destroyed. I was struggling a bit recalling all the rules but my opponent was very helpful. I still forgot some things that could have altered the outcome which was a major defeat for me. Still had a lot of fun though. Game 1 table and pics.

View of table from Finnish side.

View of table from my side.

Starting deployment, no forces were allowed to forward deploy. I kept the Stuart, Half-track, and 1 squad in reserve and on a left outflank.

Greyhound was left in regular reserve 

The Finn's mortar got a lucky first hit and took out half a squad.

The Finn's did a better job on focusing on the scenario objective and rushed the center.

My Greyhound took out the Finn's armored car.

But not before it devastated a squad.

When the Stuart came on to challenge the Finn's tank it in turn got outflanked by a AT team. The proceeded to miss several shots at point blank range.

This was the sit of several bloody hand to hand fights costing me a squad and the Finns two teams.

After game 1 we took a lunch brake, around 1210. I was back and ready to play by 1300. Game 2 was against a player fielding a German Tank Platoon with some infantry support and a rocket launcher artillery. The mission was to take and hold 5 objectives. The game started off poorly for me but half way through I got some lucky roles and my opponent failed some and I was able to claim a Major Victory.

I failed to get as many pictures of this game. His rockets took out my mortar team first turn and his Panzer IV put a hurt on one of my squads.

Table from German side.

Unit that got hit hard and often by the Panzer IV.

The gap there is were my mortar had been, the other units had gotten off lucky.

There was some intense fighting around the center objective. I learned to get in the tournament mindset and not a historical wargamer and that helped a lot.

I managed to take out the Tiger with my AT gun. It had 4 pin markers and I passed the order test with snake eyes and got all the pins off. I then rolled very well and shot and knocked it out. That was the turning point of this game. My Stuart outflanked on the right flank and knocked out a Panzer III and devastated an enemy squad. My half-track and squad outflanked on the left and the squad assaulted the objective, killing the entire unit holding it.

After game 2 I was at a Major win and a Major loss though overall I had was up on my unit kill/death ratio and total victory points. For game 3 I was up against an Italian army. This player had done something interesting and taken a bunch of large units of poor quality troops. He said the theme was that they were reserve troops reluctantly sent to the front. I really appreciated this type of mindset and we had a very interesting game. In the first 4 turns he had managed to kill only my medic and that was with an artillery barrage while my sniper and taken out 1 of his artillery crew men. several of his units had failed order tests and refused to even come onto the table. Finally in turn 5 my outflank units came on and got stuck in with his only 2 regular units. I started to roll him up and claimed my 2nd Major Victory, this scenario being a kills total. I also found out that I had built my army list using Battle Scribe which used the 1st edition rules and so quite a few of my stats were weaker then they should have been. Had I remembered all the rules for my force and had the correct stats I could have performed better I think.

Table from my deployment side.

I deployed heavily on my right flank in order to bait my opponent to do the same, which worked. My plan was to draw him into the center of the table and then hit his exposed flank with my outflank units.

My sniper team had forward deployed in the edge of the factory. While not inflicting much damaged they did keep quite a few enemy units occupied or pined down.

This was one of the two field guns the Italian's brought. It engaged in a lengthy dual with my sniper resulting in one of their crew men killed.

My strong right flank.

The Italians deployed to counter.

My Bazooka team spent several turns hunting down the Italian light tank and finally got it. My opponent said it was the first time that tank had been knocked out in 8 games.

A unit of Italian regulars tried repeatedly to assault my Stuart and failed to achieve anything.

My M3 deployed a full squad which took out a squad of Italian regulars. However I forgot to keep them close to the M3 and it got destroyed by another Italian squad that finally came on in turn 6.

Overall I had an amazing time. A good excuse to game all day and make new friends. Everyone walked away with something and I took a Sherman V which I assembled that night and gave to my youngest son to paint. I managed to finish 5th out of 32 which is pretty good for my first tournament.