Williamsburg Muster Bolt Action Tournament – 21 February 2026
By Kreighton Long
On 21 February, thirteen players gathered at the Williamsburg Muster in Williamsburg, VA to compete in another one of Kalissa Skibicki’s Bolt Action tournaments. Most of the participants were returning players with friendly catch-ups throughout the weekend. A few new faces joined the usual gang over three rounds on gorgeous tables prepared by David Skibicki.
The tournament was comprised of three rounds — randomly rolled by Kalissa. The first was Hold Until Relieved, Quarters, and Meeting Engagement. The second was Top Secret, Long Table Edge, and Prepared Positions. The third was Seek and Destroy, Long Table Edge, and Prepared Positions.
The first two scenarios had an unfortunate overlap with play styles. Both featured a single objective in the center of the table where all forces from both sides converged. Bad luck there for players with armies that lacked transports or the means to overwhelm an opponent who secured the objective first. The Seek and Destroy mission is always a welcome game to close out a tournament as it allows players to do a little less thinking and focus on killing enemy units.
Kalissa’s highlight of the tournament was a father vs. son duel between Matt and his son, Ethan, Becker. Matt claimed the victory but Ethan made him pay for it, destroying 12 out of Matt’s 20 units.
Kalissa went on to create a special award for Matt due to the number of units Matt lost throughout the day. She enjoys creating fun, unique awards to be distributed at the end of the tournament. They always earn laughs and approval from the players. A truly nice addition to the tournament as a whole.
A lesson learned, for the TO, was to recognize when two super competitive players are paired against each other and to check in on that table more frequently. A fair note for TOs in general to be aware of and to be proactive in addressing.
The tables were spectacular, practically a given when David Skibicki is involved. I will always recommend attending Kalissa’s tournaments just for the privilege of playing on the most photogenic tables I’ve ever competed on.
The tournament was a close call with the top three finishers winning two and drawing one game each for an initial three-way tie. Moving on to the tie breaker of order die destroyed vs. lost resulted in a clear distinction between first, second, and third.
The first place finisher was Joe Lint with his Italians. Joe’s Most Valuable Units were his M15/42s and their intimidating 12 machine gun shots. Joe also took advantage of his Inexperienced officer teams with SMGs to assist in wiping out weakened enemy squads.
Joe started the tournament off with a strong start — capturing the objective and eliminating 19 of his opponent’s 20 units. The table worked to Joe’s advantage, funneling his opponent’s units through two choke points where they could be targeted a few at a time. This first game only cost Joe one unit lost. A wildly one-sided affair.
His second game was the only game he did not win throughout the day. Joe was forced to settle with a draw against a German list that made good use of machine guns and anti-tank rifle fire. Joe destroyed seven of his opponent’s units at a cost of four of his own.
Joe took me on in the final game and secured another win to set himself up to take home gold. Joe had the advantage of cover on his side and was able to dig in his tanks into the cover to force me to come to him. Joe destroyed seven of my units at a cost of four.
Joe’s recommendation to all players is to make better use of cover and ensure that units are not left exposed in the open. Placing his units to gain cover saves significantly increased his units chances of survival. Get out of the open!
Congrats Joe!
John Birdwell finished in Second Place with his late-war Germans. John’s Most Valuable Units were his Panzers. John didn’t lose a single Panzer throughout the day and they really dished out the damage on his opponents.
John lamented the fact that the second mission was Top Secret elaborating that most people’s armies are not built for that type of mission. John admitted that he would have built his list differently had he know he would play that mission. As this was the one game that John did not win this comes as little surprise.
Looking back at the tournament, John pointed out that most people did not bring enough anti-tank. His three Panzers benefited from this oversight and carried the day. John encourages players to look at the way their armies work on a battlefield to get the most out of them. As a German player, John capitalizes on the firepower that the Hitler’s Buzzsaw rule gives him.
Overall John enjoyed the tournament but did want to share that he wishes Warlord would provide better, or at least more varied, prize support. Hopefully that will be proven true at future events.
Congrats John!
Lucas Herold earned the Third Place finish with his late-war Germans. Led by a King Tiger, Lucas and his Germans also finished with two wins and a draw. The King Tiger was Lucas’ MVU as it changed how his opponents approached the game however his two Stummels did superb work getting his troopers to the fight and landing some point-blank howitzer shots.
Lucas’ key take-aways were to never underestimate assaulting and to go into each game with the mindset of having fun. Having the right mindset will help to avoid getting tunnel vision on the small things.
Congrats Lucas!
I earned the Best Painted Army award with my Stalingrad Germans. I had a grand time building and painting this army. The rubble bases were a particularly fun challenge which I covered in detail here. The new German Veteran kits were enjoyable to work with and I had a blast kit bashing six unique light machine gunners to give my army additional variety.
I’m thrilled that my hard work paid off with a Best Painted Army award so early in the year and I hope to pick up a few more at the other tournaments I plan on attending this year.
The Best Sportsman award went to Scott Herold — one of the new players to this tournament scene. Scott learned valuable lessons throughout the three games and didn’t let his 0-2-1 record dampen his mood. With only eleven order dice, Scott learned the hard way that having a sufficient number of order dice matters. Similarly, Scott brought four armored vehicles, all of them open-topped. These struggled against a hoard of Japanese soldiers and lunge mines in one of his games.
Another key take-away is that mobility is key, especially on David’s five feet wide tables. Lacking any transports, Scott’s poor infantry had long walks each game which made getting on objectives before his opponents difficult if not mathematically impossible.
Finally, you always have to work towards the objective. Scott found himself drawn by the temptation to engage units that are tempting targets, rather than moving towards the objective when the objective ultimately should have been prioritized.
Congrats Scott!
The winner of Kalissa’s impromptu award was Matthew Becker who earned the Imperial Citation for Ultimate Sacrifice for the sheer number of units he sacrificed throughout the tournament. Matt brought an infantry heavy Japanese list with the goal of getting into melee with his opponents and overwhelming them with sheer numbers.
The downside, Matt found, was that while one unit was in melee, another three units behind them had no targets and ended up wasting their turns. While throwing bodies at your opponent may be fun and enjoyable at club games it’s not a sure fire way of winning at competitive events, especially against players who know how to deploy to counter the inevitable infantry rushes.
Matt will be sure to bring small vehicles and artillery to support a heavier, though not as heavy, infantry force in the future. I look forward to seeing what Matt develops and secretly hope to not have to face his improved list in the near future.
Congrats Matt!
Thank you to the event sponsors: Warlord Games, Silver Eagle Wargames Supplies, and Joe Lint.
You can find Kalissa in her role as a TO at the Richmond Open on 2 May in Doswell, Virginia and Call to Arms on 10 October in Williamsburg, Virginia. Kalissa will host a Learn to Play Bolt Action event at the Carolina CONquest in Charlotte, North Carolina on 9 May.
Thanks again Kalissa and David!
Hi all! About the only thing I would add (that is other then I really hate the Top Secret Mission!) is that maybe we need to go back to limiting the amount of order dice to maybe 12 to 14 dice instead of the totally open amount of dice that is used right now. I feel that with the open amount of dice, it really prohibits people from using the better vehicles, larger amount of good troops and the better and heavier guns. People are going for the cheaper smaller units to raise the dice totals. So, maybe if the dice are limited somewhat, the game will change a bit!
That’s an intriguing idea. Competitive play is trending towards more of smaller vehicles rather than fewer large vehicles. Capping the unit maximum will likely help to encourage players to bring larger vehicles. However, for competitive play, I prefer the freedom of choice no maximum limit to order dice allows. Players are free to experiment with unusual lists to make them as unique as they want to. It also feeds into the balancing act of making a well-rounded list. Players can choose fewer order dice and make them harder to destroy or more order dice that are easier to remove. Finding the right balance to fit your play style and army capabilities is an important part of the game. Capping order dice makes more sense in a club or relaxed environment to me.
This is an interesting discussion because it shows how big our country is. In the Wisconsin-Illinois region dice caps and other limitations are the norm at events. I think some of this is to keep games moving along quickly, but honestly I don’t think the problem with v3 is the number of order dice, it’s the fact that spamming certain units adds time to games. Multi-rocket launchers for example take a number of rolls when they fire.
Vehicles take more rolls than infantry with the damage chart, not to mention they take slightly more time to move with having to be precise on turns. Plus, with multiple weapons on each vehicle, it takes longer to roll several attacks. If you ask me the reason games taken longer in v3 is the small vehicle spam. I’d rather see limits on the numbers of vehicles in an armor platoon rather than limits on order dice count.
Thanks for sharing this perspective. I did not think about limiting players’ options to speed up games during timed events. Vehicles and certain special units (like multi-rocket launchers) undeniably take more time to utilize than infantry units and having more of these than in V2 adds a good chunk of time to turns. I’m feeling slightly motivated to reach out to different TOs to see what they’re doing to keep games within the time limit and discuss the pros and cons for each option. I’ll add that to my to-do list and see if that’s worth covering with it’s own article. Thanks for the idea!