Bolt Action - Wrap Up From MOAB in Sydney, Australia

Hello all you Bolt Actioners, we here at BoltAction.net ran a five game, 1000 point tournament over the first weekend in October. The tournament was held as part of MOAB or Mother of all Battles which is an annual event held in Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. We were lucky to be sponsored by War & Peace Games in conjunction with Hall of Heroes with generous prize support from Warlord Games.

Bryan and I put our hands up to run the event after the role of Tournament Organiser or TO was left vacant. This created an opportunity for the team here to organise and run an event under the banner of BoltAction.net and show that as well as talking the talk, we can walk the walk as well.

We had 18 people register, one more than last year, which is about the number we were hoping for with at least 25% of the field attending a large Bolt Action event for the first time.   We organised at least 9 tables worth of high quality terrain of varying themes representing the different theatres of WW2.  As always the call out to the community resulted in the ability to have covered twice this many tables if required, good show chaps!

The tournament was over five games with missions taken from the rulebook in the following order:

1.            Attrition;

2.            Top Secret;

3.            Envelopment;

4.            Hold until Received; and

5.            Demolition.

The restrictions put on lists were that they were generic selectors only, no vehicle flamethrowers and only a single infantry flamethrower allowed.  We also encouraged players to theme their lists and we had a draw for a prize if they went to his effort. 

These were the nation represented

•             4 Russian;

•             2 Japanese;

•             1 Dutch;

•             2 British;

•             2 Italian;

•             1 Vichy French;

•             5 German; and

•             1 USMC.

The attitude displayed was exceptional and the armies that were fielded show that the community will take the forces and units they really want to take rather than feel forced to take only those units that are perceived to perform best within the current meta. This is a very important point for those looking at coming to one of our events, do not feel you have to take a number crunched list to have a good time or even do well.

Overall the event was hard fought with positions constantly swapping over the 5 games however like in all competitions there had to be those that did slightly better than the others. We did not go for a tradition 1-2-3 finish but went with the best performing General representing the Allies, Axis and Minor Nations.

The results were:

1.            Best Allied General - This went to Steven D with an Early War Russian army themed on the 1939 Winter War;

2.            Best Axis General - This went to Richard S with a Japanese list themed on the rapid advance down through Asia with troops on bicycles;

3.            Best Minor Nations General – This went to Peter W and a Vichy French themed force (Booo! Support de Gaul and the Free French!);

4.            Best Painted; Steve H and some wonderfully painted Sikh’s; and

5.            Most Hanoswag list went to Chris C with a force themed on the KNIL or Dutch in the East Indies (Indonesia). 

As well as drawing the crowds for the games,  Bryan and I set up some of our own armies on a table so people could take a close look and it was a good chance to engage them in conversation and attempt to recruit them into the world of Bolt Action! Each of us, even if you don’t realise, are ambassadors for the game and any chance to bring new people in should be encouraged as they could be the next person you play at a tournament or event. 

The tournament will be discussed in more detail in the podcasts so keep your ears open to hear some of the crunch and amusing moments that happened.