By Dennis,
Back on July 1st I ran my first ever Bolt Action event, Operation Südlicht, a 1-day Axis vs Allies 1000 point event. It was also Tasmania’s first event for 2017.
Now some quick information for the international readers, Tasmania is a little island state to the south of mainland Australia. Often missing on maps for major sporting events, its globally renowned for its untouched natural beauty and the Tasmanian Devil.
It takes about 4 hours to drive from one side to the other and 3 hours drive from the capital city to the where I held the event. On to the event itself, I wrote the day based around Tristan's event, May the Horch, that I flew over to Melbourne for last year and had a blast!
Basically all entrants were split into 2 teams Axis or Allied that they chose from when they signed up, I had allowed for 20 entrants and ended up with 14 players with a wide variety of nations including French, Estonians, Italians and Finns. And some amazing looking armies!
Each round was a simple match up and fight with the team's total score (not the individuals) having a bearing on the rest of the day as the rounds were played. Games were scored on a simple Win 15 points, Draw 10 points and a Loss 5 points. There was also 5 points worth of bonus side objectives.
For Round 1 it was “No Man’s Land”. The war ahead would begin at the first light of dawn, all tables during turn 1 had visibility is limited to 24”.
Things began to look grim for the Axis, Round 2 ended in favor of the Allies pushing their lead to 187 with the Axis trailing by 31 on 156.
To mix up Round 3, whichever team was losing overall after Round 2 was the the defender, a final last ditch effort for the team to claw back the war in “Point Defence”.
Although the final round started well for the Axis across multiple tables, the last ditch defensive effort was foiled by a strong Allied offensive. The allies took out the final round with a better margin than the previous 2 and taking out the day for the allies! Final score Allies: 287 Axis: 230.
Prizes went to the following players:
Best Allied Player: Sean’s US Army
Best Axis Player: Jim’s German Grenadiers
Best Minor Nation: Ryan’s Early War French
Best Army was people's choice, it to a Minor Nation, Matthew’s Finns.
A special mention for Paul’s Estonians that came second by only a point.
Finally best sports went to Bradley who ran US Paratroopers.
Big thanks to the event's sponsors with prizes provided by War and Peace Games, and trophies by Battlefield Accessories, your ongoing support to the Bolt Action community is amazing.
A personal thanks to Tristan and Anf, their format I used on the day made it a winner, and to Bryan for the digital media help. Lastly to Paul for the endless terrain work, our Pacific table went from basic planning to completion in a little over 3 weeks, it wouldn't have happened without his efforts.
I’m looking forward to the opportunity to do it all again soon, but for now here are a bunch more photos of the days gaming - Dennis
Check out some of our other popular After Event Articles!
1. Wintercon
2. MOAB
3. Cancon
4. Another article by Dennis
