On 11 October, sixteen players gathered at the Call to Arms Convention in Williamsburg, VA for a 1250 point Bolt Action tournament hosted by Kalissa Skibicki. This is Kalissa’s fifth time running the Bolt Action tournament for Southeastern Tabletop Gaming Organization (SETGO)’s autumn convention.
This continuity has allowed relationships to grow between the repeat attendees even if it is limited to a once-a -year interaction over a tournament involving toy soldiers and measuring tape. The camaraderie is ever-present throughout the weekend especially as players arrive to the event and are heartily greeted by their soon-to-be competitors.
After completing my North African Italians I committed to building a set of desert terrain for them to fight in. In addition to the standard dwellings and walls I wanted to build palm groves to add some soft cover and greenery to the table. While wandering around a Michaels store I came across bags of palm trees on sale and decided the time to start the palm groves was now.
As many a tabletop war gamer has learned, the winter holiday season is a wonderful time for terrain builders. This past winter I stocked up on the three styles of Lemax mats in stock at Michaels with the idea of using them to build European style cobblestone roads for my urban tables.
I wanted to build 6 x 12″ sections of road that will allow me to easily stack and store the road sections as well as drop them down on the table as needed. I found a pack of 20 basswood sheets measuring 6 x 12 x 1/8 inches on Amazon and added them to my cart.
Last autumn I wrapped up my capstone Bolt Action tournament of the year and began dreaming of my next army project. This transition coincided with the release of Bolt Action Third Edition, and I drafted my new army knowing that my experiences with the new edition would likely evolve how I built and played my list. You can find the first two articles in this series where I share my original ideas and how I painted my work.
On 24 May, 25 players assembled at Bazooka Games Westminster for a 1000 point Bolt Action tournament. The tournament was organized and executed by Mike Kehs who had to move the tournament to a new location due to unforeseen circumstances. The new location featured a separate room with sufficient space for all the players and tables and was mostly-set aside for the event.
A few tables of various other games occupied the tables in the back. A variety of quick dining options in the area appeared to appease the players as everyone came back after lunch refueled and ready to roll more die and move toy soldiers around well dressed tables.
Mike’s tournaments continue to draw larger crowds each time. Being a TO has made Mike more familiar with the rules as he is often responding to calls of “TO!” from across the room to clarify or settle rules disputes. There were a lot of repeat players which is a reflection of the well-earned expected quality of Mike’s tournaments.
As competitive as his events are, veteran players are welcoming to new players and Mike often sees veteran players taking the opportunity to mentor new players. In addition to all these highlights, Mike loves to see the reactions of players when crazy stuff happens on the table such as a FUBAR at the worst possible time or a lucky 6 from a mortar that takes out a key unit.
Our friends at Battlefront sent us one of the Limited Editions from the new Pacific range — and it’s packed with Japanese troops! What do you think, shall we do a nice unboxing together?
I recently had the pleasure of attending a 1000 point Bolt Action tournament at Your Hobby Place in Fredericksburg, VA. The tournament was hosted by Josiah Nehrke and we began the day with six players. The participants played through three rounds: Key Positions, Seek and Destroy, and Breakthrough. The lower than expected turnout was likely due to the tournament falling on Mothers Day weekend and that the previous weekend was another local tournament at the Richmond Open. The event progressed smoothly with all parties respecting the prescribed schedule and the whole event had a friendly atmosphere with players joking and helping each other with rules throughout the day.
Josiah’s highlight of the tournament was the high standard for how the players’ armies were painted. He considers it rare to have such effort and care put into every players’ armies at events and the paint jobs, paired with the tables, made the event a special one. Special shout out to Wayne W. for his excellent terrain. Wayne provided nearly 100% of everything on the tables and multiple players took the time to praise the tables we had the opportunity to play on.
Brandon’s Centaur has a most unfortunate first round.
After finishing the day with two wins and a loss, I took home first place. My Italians pleasantly surprised me with how well they played following a disappointing few months before replacing three L6/40s with two M15/41s. The M15/41s worked well as they put out up to four pins per turn, if they divided their fire and had targets to engage, and even succeeded in knocking out three vehicles during the day. Fingers crossed that I can replicate this success at my next tournament at the end of May. The highlight of the tournament for me was having the opportunity to see so many well-painted armies on great looking tables. I’m a sucker for the aesthetics of this hobby and when players put effort and pride into armies that go on tables similarly decorated, I can’t help but have a great day.
My Italian infantry advance under the cover of an M15 and a light mortar.
The second place finisher was Tom Slook, who also finished with two wins and a loss. Tom’s highlight from the tournament was his Hellcat advancing out of cover, hitting and knocking out his opponents Centaur with the first order die of the first turn of the first game. That gave Tom a notable morale boost early which carried him through the remainder of the tournament. His most valuable unit was the M5 Stuart with hedgerow cutters. The 5+ upgrade allowed the Stuart to open holes in the bocage in his second game which gave him a distinct advantage over his opponent. Tom also took home the award for Best Sportsman. Congrats Tom!
Tom’s Hellcat, laying in wait on Ambush, moments before knocking out an Italian M15. Photo by Tom Slook.
Tom’s Stuart, upgraded with hedgerow cutters, hunts down my Italians on the bocage table.
Joe Dent took home third place with a record of 1-1-1. Joe’s highlights from the tournament featured the paint jobs of the armies present. The tables themselves were also a treat for the players. The tables were well designed and decorated and each presented a unique challenge for players. Joe remarked how when seeing the tables he didn’t think, “oh god I hope I’m not on that one.” Joe’s most valuable units were his Regular German Grenadiers and his Veteran Panzer IV G with Panzer Ace. Joe brought five identical Grenadier squads and used the one LMG per squad to reach out and put pins on units to force his opponents to take Order Checks. Working together, the squads stacked pins on units even pinning out an enemy squad in the third round. Joe’s Panzer Ace Panzer IV was a real menace. As a Veteran tank, it ignored pins that could not penetrate it’s armor which kept it active throughout the game and it’s murderous Pen 6+1+D6 make quick work of any target it landed it hit on. It knocked out enemy armor in and survived all three rounds. After eliminating the enemy’s armor, the Panzer IV became a mobile machine gun bunker reliably putting pins on two enemy units per round of firing. Congrats Joe!
The Best Painted Army award went to my North African Italians. Josiah emphasized how the judge had to make several laps around the armies during the lunch break due to the caliber of submissions. This was my first foray into desert themed armies and I ended up enjoying the change of color schemes. The tan and ochre colors help my units stand out compared to the more common European themed armies which I believe will help them stand out during future painting competitions.
My North Africa Italians. The desert scheme certainly helped them stand out compared to the European themed armies.Of the five lists shared, there was a near even split between Axis and Allies with the Allies taking a slight advantage.
Of the five lists shared, there was an even distributions of different factions. This created a pleasantly diverse crowd at the event.
The most common order die amount at 1000 points was 13.
All five companies featured an armored platoon and almost all of them saw their infantry supported by a heavy weapons platoon.
Every list shared featured an armored platoon with the most common armor value 8+. Armies without anti-tank capabilities would have struggled.
Of the five lists shared, there was only one vehicle that was not an armored fighting vehicle. That one was a soft skin gun platform. No transports were present which made the last mission, Breakthrough, more difficult as infantry had to slog their way across the table on foot.
Your Hobby Place, Fredericksburg, is planning on hosting another tournament in July. Keep an eye out for advertising for that tournament. Josiah is taking a break and will not run that tournament but plans on being back in his TO chair in November.
Thank you to the sponsors — Warlord Games and Your Hobby Place. Warlord Games provided a prize support package and Your Hobby Place the entry costs into store credit for the first and second place finishers.
With my first Bolt Action Third Edition specific army mapped out it was time to get out the sprue cutters, glue, and paints. My first target was to test out how I wanted to build and paint my Bersaglieri infantry.
I prefer the look of the helmets rather than the XXX for the Bersaglieri, so I started with one sprue’s worth of infantry with helmets. After considering available options I decided that my infantry would start with an NCO with a rifle, and LMG team, and additional riflemen.
Bolt Action Third Edition. Photo from Warlord Games.
With the recent release of Bolt Action Third Edition and the last round of Second Edition tournaments I set my sights on the future. Warlord’s timing of their Third Edition release complimented by natural project schedule perfectly. Over the last several years I’ve fallen into a routine build around Kalissa Skibicki’s Bolt Action tournament at the October Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, VA. Once that tournament concludes I begin planning, building, painting, and training with a new army with the goal of being battle ready in time for the next Call to Arms tournament. In this manner I’ve built, competed with, and placed using Romanians, Italians, and Soviets in my last three appearances. With the release of Third Edition I have the added challenge of adapting the new force structure and implementing the new ruleset.
Warlord has truly done a phenomenal job of tempting me with their recently released kits. I snagged a box of Winter Americans with the Third Edition rulebook and was hard pressed to not do the same with their Winter Fallschirmjager. My bank account was disappointed when they also released their German Veterans kit and I couldn’t help but snag the army box with my pre-order of the Armies of Germany Third Edition book. Despite these temptations, I’m going to take my first dedicated Third Edition army in a different direction — somewhere notably warmer.
Italian tankers rest alongside their M13/40 tank. Photo from Wiki Commons.
In 2023 I captured first at Kalissa’s Call to Arms tournament and as I won it with my Italians I decided to claim a box of Bersaglieri for my prize. It seemed appropriate enough as I was riding a high after surprising wins with a force I did not anticipate to be as competitive as it ended up being. That kit sat in my box of shame for the last year and once Third Edition was announced my mind kept wandering to that simple box of plastic. For my first dedicated Third Edition army I am going to create an Africa Campaign themed Italian army using the Bersaglieri as the core of infantry.
With this project I have three goals in mind. The first is that I want to challenge myself to leave my comfort zone by painting and basing an army outside of my typical temperate Europe theme. By painting my army for the North African theater I will accomplish that. The second goal is to make it thematic. I will accomplish this by ensuring that whatever I put in this army makes sense within the scope of the Italian contribution to the North African campaign. Considering that this is the theater that the Italians featured heavily I imagine this one will be fairly simple to pull off. The third goal is to balance it between competitive and fun. This is the area I am the most nervous about pulling off. I want to avoid any units that break the game (looking at you Second Edition Dakka Stuarts/Panzers) while simultaneously keeping my list interesting and fun for me to take to games. As I do like to win I hope that I can temper my competitive edge to keep my list enjoyable for me to play, and more importantly here, fun for my opponent to play against.
After committing to building my first Bolt Action Third Edition army around the Italian army in North Africa I started to map out how the company would be structured. Some quick poking around online revealed that six Bersaglieri regiments served in North Africa so I can rest easy that we’re checking the box for historical accuracy (National Army Museum, New Zealand). Since I already had a box of Bersaglieri in my box of shame the infantry component was decided. Light Machine Guns will feature heavily in my squads due to the decreased point cost and that the Bersaglieri will play as Veterans which will give them more survivability to keep that LMG firing. So that’s the infantry platoon worked out.
Photo from Warlord Games.
For the second platoon I envisioned some tankettes or light tanks to support my infantry. Daydreaming in the twilight of Second Edition I wanted a platoon of tankettes to harass my opponents with. The L3/33s looked like fun little mobile, armored, MMG teams that were cost effective and could be a real pain for my opponent to deal with if I used them correctly. With the Third Edition change to vehicle mounted machine guns halving their rate of fire I was reluctantly turned away from the idea of a tankette swarm. Instead I began looking at other light tanks of the Italian army — and in drove the L6/40. In Third Edition, I can field a number of Regular L6/40s with a turret light auto-cannon in an 8+ hull with two negative rules (Vulnerable and One-Man Turret) offset by one positive (Recce). For 100 points, that doesn’t sound like a terrible deal and the fact that this light tank will find itself outgunned and outmaneuvered by most other tanks fits my idea of the Italian armored forces frequently finding itself behind the curve in North Africa.
The L6/40s first arrived in North Africa in December, 1941 for testing and soon after began arriving for combat duty. The 133rd Armored Division featured three squadrons of the light tank and served in the successful Axis siege of Tobruk in 1942 and continued to serve through the Third Battle of El Alamein (Tank Encyclopedia). This one example of L6/40s in North Africa, alongside the presence of Bersaglieri, checks the second historical accuracy box in my planned list. Considering the affordable cost of this cute little guy I will start with three in the tank platoon and will likely alternate between two and three in my company depending on the point maximum of the game.
Photo from Warlord Games.
With LMGs and autocannons in my arsenal I decided my third platoon would need some heavy hitting power. To accomplish this I turned to the Armored Platoon. Fielding a number of artillery pieces will give my army some penetrating power to stall enemy armor and to knock out infantry squads. Medium howitzers in Third Edition hit with a 3″ template and +3 penetration. This level of howitzer can make quick work of Veteran infantry and can even destroy buildings with a lucky shot and the +3 penetration allows you to threaten medium armored vehicles and their 9+ armor. Against the front armor of a medium tank (9+ armor), the +3 penetration is a poor substitute for a dedicated anti-tank gun requiring a roll of 6 to penetrate. However, it is enough to force pins on Veteran 9+ vehicles and Inexperienced and Regular armored vehicles regardless of armor value. And in my experience, pouring pins onto an armored vehicle with howitzers, while not likely to destroy it, can force it to take increasingly difficult order tests and possibly invest a turn rallying. The indirect fire option is always a handy option when conducting counter-battery operations or trying to force dug in enemy units to displace. At 90 points apiece for a medium howitzer with a gun shield I plan on picking up three for a healthy battery presence and again will likely fluctuate between two and three depending on point maximums.
I dug around online and struggled to find organic Bersaglieri artillery batteries. Instead, I often found references to Bersaglieri working alongside divisional artillery assets in the form of the 100/17 Modello 14s which are treated as Medium Howitzers in Bolt Action (Comando Supremo Italy in WWII). At the time of writing this I have not stumbled onto evidence of Bersaglieri manning 100/17 Modello 14s as these guns were typically Divisional assets manned by regular Army gunners. Therefore, in keeping with my goal of making my list as historically accurate as I can I decided to purchase Warlord Games Italian Army 100/17 Modello 14 medium artillery kits rather than the Bersaglieri variants. If anyone can find a source verifying that Beraglieri troops served as gunners of these medium howitzers I would love to be proven wrong before adding these guns to my holiday wish-list.
For a first draft I feel confident that my Bersaglieri Company, made up of an infantry, armored, and artillery platoon, will be able to respond to most threats. The combination of mobility and firepower this list provides will hopefully end up being as fun to play in reality as it is in my head. Keeping my list realistic to what was available to Italian forces in North Africa will hopefully create a thematic and cohesive looking army that will look good on the table and be grounded enough to be fun for my opponent to play against. The next step is to start picking up the kits I need to make this happen and to add them to my painting queue. More to follow.
On Saturday, 12 October 2024, Kalissa Skibicki organized a Bolt Action tournament at the Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, Virginia. Sixteen players brought their armies and positive attitudes for one last Bolt Action Second Edition tournament. Due to the travel involved for me to get down to Williamsburg, this tournament feels like a Bolt Action geek reunion where I have the pleasure of catching up with like minded people on an annual basis. I caught up with familiar faces and made some new friends throughout the weekend. Overall, the tournament appeared to have been a success with plenty of laughs and jokes to compliment the friendly competition of the day.
Kalissa’s highlight from the tournament was the influx of new players. She commented that around six of the sixteen players had recently started playing Bolt Action and that this was their first tournament. Moving forward, Kalissa, as well as her players, will need to become familiar with the revised rules of Third Edition which will require a not-too-small investment in revamping the tournament packs for Kalissa’s future tournaments.
After three rounds of games including Double Envelopment, Demolition, and No Man’s Land, the players gathered around Kalissa to hear the final results of their efforts. Due to all sixteen players tying in the second round, the final push to secure a place on the podium came down to secondary points. In this tournament, the secondary points resulted from order dice claimed minus order dice lost. After all the scores were tabulated, the winners were announced with one order dice separating first place from second.
