Well then - time to catch up on some of the hobby fun I've been having since the start of 2016 in a series of short blasts (with pics where possible)...
Most importantly, I played in 'The UK Gathering' - a very friendly one-day Bolt Action tournament and had an absolute blast! Three great opponents; three great games - and I even got to play against the one and only Col Corbane: these days far better known as the increasingly famous Mel the Terrain Tutor, on YouTube. Here'e Mel talking about the event (and I get a nice shout-out, too!): [link here]. Go on - subscribe to him. Dare you.
Three things made the tourney even better: firstly, the organisers. Everything was organised by a great bloke in Birmingham called Kieran - and he did a smashing job - but it was all done under the banner of (and initially for the benefit of) tabletopbattlecom, and two of the four Norwegian lunatics who run the site - Svein and Damon - were there. Like Kieran: top, top, top guys, and absolute gents.
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| The ttb crew and some of their top patrons. I'm not one of them. |
Secondly, the armies and the tables there were - just like the players - fantastic! Some pics below will help illustrate this point.
And thirdly, I won some stuff! I won 'The Monty' for Best Allied General, and 'The Barnes Wallis' for Best Table. You have no idea how much of a surprise these were to me and how very, very proud (and humbled) I was by the wins. Nice goodies too!
Just a selection of pics, then...
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| My 'Polders' table. Happy me. There'll be more on this anon... |
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| Glad it all came together! |
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"I saw a mouse!
Where?
There on the stairs!
Where on the stairs?
Right there! - A little mouse with clogs on.
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippity-clop on the stairs!" |
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| Game One:a desert table. Great game, and a fun draw. |
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I put my 6pdr in the floor of a place of worship, thinking no-one would target it.
They blew up my tank instead. Bloody airstrikes. |
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| The contested flank objective. If my artillery hadn't dropped short, I might've won! |
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| Game Two, against Mel. He looks far less like Fagin in real life, I promise! |
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| Mel's brilliantly characterful Chindits and Gurkhas. They're holding a trench. I have to take it. |
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| "Platoon! Platoon will advance slowly toward the entrenched enemy...by the right...advance!!" |
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My fearless Cromwell takes the right flank fearlessly on its own...
...and fearlessly gets blown up by a PIAT! |
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| The jumping-off point for the assault on the trenches |
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| ...And the assault worked! 11th Armoured Div carry the day! |
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| Huzzah! |
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A brief interlude to show a few of the tables I didn't get to play on.
This one was called 'October', but I know not why. |
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| Another nice table |
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| Gorgeous |
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| Matt's 'Factory' table, under construction. |
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And this table was far and away the most stunning there: dolls' house levels of detail. Insane.
THIS is the table I played my final game on. |
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| I was attacking to win this road junction - at the bottom of the right edge... |
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| ...against the US Army, but they were both unlucky and out-manoeuvred. |
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| At this point, my PIAT team (left) hopped out of the carrier and popped his Greyhound :( |
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| The endgame. Gorgeos table, but painful for my opponent. |
And I couldn't resist that last pic, could I?!
More to follow...
- Drax
Lovely photos. Sounds as though you had a grand day out! :)
ReplyDeletePeter, it was one of the best and positive gaming experiences I've had in twenty-mumble years of gaming!
DeleteWell done Drax! Sounds like a great day of gaming. Polder table was a lovely effort, tho it looks like it would be a bugger to play on cover wise for an attacker?
ReplyDeleteWhat you end up winning as prize support?
No defender really, mate: a race to the windmill, and yes: it was designed to shake people out of their normal tactics!
DeletePrize-wise, I picked up a resin Churchill tank and a voucher which I've already spent on a gorgeous resin Staghound. Lovely.
DeleteI like that. So a custom mission then made for the table or something from the book adapted to the table?
DeleteMmm I do love me a Churchill - was thinking of picking up one for my Winter Soviets, they look well good in White. And Staghounds are just lovely - did the 11th Armoured use them though? (I know the Canadian Recce units did.)
Two answers to this one Jakub.
ReplyDelete1. BA in its basic state is a platoon level skirmish game, so a tank is purely a support option for your infantry which the game is based around. There is a Tank Wars rule expansion but you'll need to have an opponent who'll agree to play these rules too.
2. If you want to play more tanks, perhaps try Flames of War instead, a company level rules set that is made for tanks battles? A smaller scale (15mm) but you'll opportunities to field full platoons of tanks.
Roll on the next time buddy!
ReplyDeleteHa ha, nice to see you two facing each other across the table again.
DeleteSuch joy...
DeleteSuch joy.
With 'Tank War', Jakub, you can go absolutely nuts with tanks - seriously! Keep an eye on tabletopbattle's channel on YouTube: they'll be putting a good one up soon...
ReplyDeleteEither way, give Bolt Action a chance: it's an absolutely brilliant game system!
Looks like lots of fun.
ReplyDelete