Showing posts with label Bolt Action US Grand Nationals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolt Action US Grand Nationals. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2017

Adepticon 2017 Bolt Action Coverage





Adpeticon 2017 is in the books and it was another one to remember. 4 days of Bolt Action, 4 different styled events, one ultimate weekend. Bolt Action happened!

Before we go into results and coverage, I would like to thank our sponsors organizers.

Warlord Games
Trenchworx
Cigar Battle Mats
Pworks Battle Mats
Stoessi’s Heroes
Noble Knight Games, WI

Of course the big one, Adepticon. Without the continued support, trust, and ass kickery, we would not be able to have these events. On top of that, our local terrain contributions should not go unrecognized.

Jeremy Olsen
Mercenary Miniatures
Brent Sinclair

Friday, March 24
Bolt Action Team Event

22 teams entered the arena and fought 3 games of tough, 4 way order dice battle. Teams brought 1600 total points, 800 per side. 1 armored platoon per team. Reinforced, theater selectors, and campaign books all included. We organized proper Axis vs Allied match ups and had an even mix of those sides for the event. With one willing partisan team swapping sides where needed….

Nationality make ups included, Japanese, Finnish, German, US, Soviet, Italian, Polish, Vichy French, British, Sikh, Aussie, and Romanians.

The theme for the event was Spring Awakening. The Axis generals were organizing one last offensive to repel the Allied invasion. There were not predetermined missions. Each round, the results were weighed, and whichever side had 51% victories, dictated the direction on the flow chart we would follow. A choose your own adventure if you will.

The Allies carried the day through each round, so we followed the far left track on the chart below. Sectors, Key positions, and No Man’s Land. 



I also had made up secret bonuses to be achieved and rewarded depending on certain map results and depending on which side may need a little more support. Some included, Increased AP shells +1, out of fuel chart, misguided air and artillery strikes, bonus medic model etc. These were given out on the judge’s discretion to whichever side need a boost. The Axis more or less given battle results.

Winners and Awards

For those that attend my events in the past, this will be no surprise, but I do not award a “Best Overall” in this team event. I find it encourages a harder mindset and more aggressive lists. I award “Sportsmanship” as a top prize followed by Generals and Appearance.

Best Sportsmanship
Ben Thompson and Andrew Verticchio

Best Axis Generals
Sean Vilmont and Ryan Carlson

Best Allied Generals
Ryan Miller and Chris Pawl

Best Appearance
Dan Van Hese and Jeremy Olsen



Saturday/Sunday, March 25/26
US Nationals

The second annual US Nationals continued its success with 34 registered players, over two days and five games. The missions chosen were slightly modified 2nd edition missions.

Again, we had a great mix of armies with a slight leaning towards more Axis players. A significant drop in USA forces, I believe can be attributed to the increase in AA gun power in 2nd edition.

Winners and Awards

Best Overall
Dexter Wallis

Best Sportsmanship
Matt Doyle

Best Axis General
Sean Vilmont

Best Allied General
Geoffrey Wing

Best Appearance
Dan Van Hese



For the first time I have ever seen in a tournament, we had a dead tie for best overall. Battle scores were used to break the tie.

Full photo coverage can be found here and to the right on the “Adepticon 2017 photo album”

Disclaimer: You may see some odd tables or photos of those said battles. These campy or cheesy looking tables were deployed for a reason. We all have the great opportunity to play this game and have a good time. Sometimes this is forgotten and tempers rise or arguments ensue. These tables were meant to remind us to not be so serious and laugh at ourselves instead of scowl. Taking us back to when we did just play cops and robbers or setting up elaborate battlefields for our toy soldiers with whatever we had around us. Children at heart.

Depending how one may react to seeing these tables in use for a  historical game, maybe you should ask yourself, “why so serious?”

Monday, April 11, 2016

Adepticon 2016 Bolt Action Coverage



 What an amazing weekend! All the dice, armies, fubars, and last minute heroics all mashed up into one big ball of Adepticon! 

I have a tendency to ramble on so I am going to try and keep things controlled and precise! 

First off, a gigantic thanks and thank yous to our sponsors; these are the guys, besides Adepticon, that really make this happen! 

Warlord Games
Trenchworx
Blitzkrieg Miniatures
Army Group North
Black Tree Designs
Sarissa Precision
4Ground
Cigar Battle Mats
Frontline Game Mats

Equally important are all the people that helped make this happen and continue to impress me through time, effort, and coffee donations.

Hank Edley 
Matt Weeks
Andrew Chesney
Jon Russel
Jon's US Volunteer team
Mercenary Miniatures, local chicago team
Kyle Toth
Brent Sinclair
Chris Thomas
Jeremy Olsen

Schedule Recap: I do not have any photos from the thursday events but I will try to track those down.

Thursday Morning: Tank Wars
Thursday Evening: Combat Patrol
Friday: Team Doubles
Sat/Sun: US Nationals 

We had 20 teams show up for the event, 40 total people! The local scene has really rallied to this format. I encourage anyone to try it out! The biggest challenge is having people who are too nice and turn into chatter boxes! 

For this event I preset all 3 rounds of match ups. The Team event is tailored specifically to be the more casual and thematic event. Thus no swiss system was used. 


 
 As I go through improvements each year, this was a big hit! Gone are the days of yelling out match ups or posting a tiny little piece of paper! 

I used this for the nationals as well, so I could just fill in table assignments after each round. 

We had a lot of German teams show up for the Doubles event, I contribute that to the house rule of allowing armored transports to fire 1 weapon system without being full. 

Day of, I also added the house rule of, "Recce units may not perform an escape move when shot at by an ambush order" People applauded and threw babies... 

Note on Scores: For both the published results below, there was an army list submission penalty applied of 5% if lists were late. The theme score is based on a 5 point check list. Not in order, but things that affect it, multiple infantry flame throwers, more than 2 assault rifles per squad, time period mash ups, multiple recce vehicles (inconjunction with other offenses), background or write up, balanced/realistic force make up. 

Please feel free to email me at wyrdhobbyservices@gmail.com for copies of these rubrics, missions used, or other materials. 

Doubles Results: Listed as Team Captains Name

 I do not award a "best overall" award for this event because it is about having a good time. That is why sportsmanship is the top award.
Best Sportsmanship: Andrew Verticchio
Best Axis Generals: Bruce Romanick, sports tie breaker
Best Allied General: Duane Zoldak, sports tie breaker
Best Painted: Mike Malake, player vote tie breaker
Duck Boat Medal (theme award): Seamus Hamrin, sports tie breaker

130 maximum total points, % are weighted to get the overall
*All armies are Generic Reinforced Platoons, the army list description is merely my shorthand.

US Nationals Event Coverage 


What a marathon of Bolt Action events! People were troopers with a lot of excitement going into the weekend. While the title denotes a large, perhaps GW feel, IT ISNT! While more competitive armies were present, a theme score persisted and overall people had some great armies. I encourage ANYONE to ask attendees their thoughts and impressions. People had a blast.

 With a large German field the day before we had a more even split for the weekend. We had 40/48 attendees show up day of.

Army Break down
German: 13
British: 10
Soviet: 4
USA: 6
Hungarians: 1
French: 2
Chinese: 1
Polish: 1
Finns: 1
Japanese: 1

All missions, including the doubles packet were rifts on book missions as well as some old ideas from the Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle game days. This was a full on swiss system pairing event with each round being based on battle score, highest to smallest. Match-ups were adjusted depending on if players already played each other. 

US Nationals Results




While this event is also about having fun we do award an overall trophy.
Some folks may not like the look, but it is PERFECT for an Adepticon Event. The Adepticon Skull logo, an order die in its mouth, and 5 rifles supporting a 105mm round. Each of the rifles from the major powers during the war. Over the years Adepticon has done a great job incorpating all aspects of wargaming into its brand. Saga, 40k, fantasy and historicals.








Award Winners
Overall: Ben Cone
Best Axis General: Richard Davis
Best Allied General: Sabas Parada
Best Sportsmanship: Duane Zoldak, player vote tie breaker
Best Painted: Jeremy Olsen, player vote tie breaker
Duck Boat Medal: Kevin Dowsett

 *All armies are Generic Reinforced Platoons, the army list description is merely my shorthand.

130 maximum total points, % are weighted to get the overall



 The photos that follow are some of my favorites from the weekend. If you see a lot of tanks/vehicles that is from the doubles. Also check out the PHOTO ALBUM on the top right hand side for TONS of more photos.

write up for the army above, for more info on this army, A Bridge Too Far



New Burma table!


Slovak Rapid Division!

German City Fight

Hungarians March to the German Music Death on the Danube

So many amazing looking armies!

This guy so copied my winter theme germans... really great weathering

training exercise?

Kevin's best theme army for Nationals. A Brilliant Homeguard force.





Our newest table from http://www.mercenaryminiatures.com/

Straight from the movies!

Sarissa's V1 kits!

Brits try to storm the Russian Train

The Russian Train Tables. Future plans include expanding the track to 3 tables and having the train moving the entire time during games at a slow crawl. More for themed events, during the doubles the train moved between tables once at the half way point of each round.



American Flyer train and tracks






Friday, March 4, 2016

Spring Time in Germ...Chicago

 Choo Choo! Next stop Adepticon Bolt Action! Awesome objective markers? check. Russian Armored train? Check.
 This fully operational battle station... I mean train, is a classic American Flyer train set. It is the most in scale with Bolt Action, 1:48-1:56. The transformer works and will be running between 2 separate tables at the half way point during every game.
 The industrial part of the train tables features some snowy ruins! As well as some destroyed factory bits.
It will be fleshing out the industrial table, some wrecks and barbed wire to top it off.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Winter Wars

 That is not the snow. Or winter. Or Ice..... Just finished up two Auto Sahariana with 20mm Breda. These guys form up my Royal Italian Anti-Aircraft Division! If the Italians can't do much, at least they can shoot down those pesky airplanes!
 A little kit bashing with Company B's Breda and Warlord's truck.
 For those single platoon situations, one of the 20mm cannons is magnetized and detaches for the ground deployed version. 
 Ah, here are those snow flakes. Added some wrecks and and trenches for our Ardennes table! Got some wrecked shermans, grey hound, and a crashed p-51.
 Got some great results with just elmers glue and woodlands scenics snow flock. mixed about 1:1for a slush effect.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Adepticon Bolt Action: Webcart LIVE! 11/23/2015

Warlord Games US Nationals (2-day, Singles event) Adepticon 2016

Adepticon March 31-April 3rd, Chicago Illinois USA.

AdeptiCon is proud to announce that it will host Warlord Game’s 2016 Bolt Action U.S. Nationals Event. This two-day tournament will test the skill and luck of every participant in what is bound to be an historic event. Armies will consist of 1250 pts and a maximum of 16 order dice. Pack all the ammo you can carry!

This is a event will celebrate the hard work and efforts of players, communities, and organizers across the country. We look forward to facilitating the best run event, terrain, and environment for Bolt Action players; from all walks of life and experience levels!

Full Draft Rules and Formatting can be found here.
http://www.adepticon.org/wpfiles/2016/2016bagt.pdf

Webcart preview found here. Webcart goes live 11/23/2015
http://www.cvent.com/events/adepticon-2016/event-summary-01df4466111c40aa81d0521e7861b012.aspx

World at War Doubles (team event)

NOTE: When using the webcart, ONLY 1 team member need buy a ticket for this event.

The more casual, fun sister event to the singles. Here is a quick preview of details. FULL draft packet and rules will be posted within the week.

Team Doubles Format: (2) players per team
Army Points: 1600 total, 800 per team member
Order Dice: 16 total, 8 max per team member
Platoon: Single platoon per team member, each player must include an officer. (2 platoons total/army)
Tank Wars armored platoons are limited to (1) per team. No skills, experience, or crew upgrades


If you are unsure about attending due to a teammate, we have a local forum for helping match folks up.
http://adeptuswindycity.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=9229

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Adepticon 2015: Bolt Happened

Adepticon has come and gone and what a show it was! This was the premiere of an entire WEEKEND of Bolt Action events; team doubles, combat patrol, singles, and tank wars!

I was in charge of organizing the doubles event and unofficially speaking, it was the first official doubles event of its kind. :)

 We begin the day with the BIG WAR BOARD! This would be used to track each allied and axis victory as the day went on. 
Next up were the war documents. These beauties were saved by my family back during the war. Chicago Tribune articles from the invasion of Poland, Belgium, and France; to the day after Pearl Harbor, complete with the wild eyed rumor mill reporting we are used to today.

We had 16 teams in total. That meant 8 games with 1 table extra for a little rotation. Each table had a specific scenario tailored to fit the historic nature of the conflict.
 La Rochelle Sub Pen
 Utah Beach


 Pegasus Bridge
 Stalingrad
 Tunisia Airfield
 Caen
 Foy
Battle of Belgium

We wanted the players to really feel immersed in the battles while also generating a larger sense of each side of the war. We placed poker chips on each table. These pieces of "Intel" were tallied over the first 2 games. The third game began with the Allies gathering more intel and could place a secret airmail package anywhere on the center table line. 

Either team could claim the prize, what awaited inside was a D3 roll, ammo, medicine, or nothing!

The rough nationalities of the day were. (Individual team members forces)

It was a 2:1 split in Allies:Axis

9 German
1 Italian
12 American
3 Russian
1 French
5 British

The results! 

In our local scene and I think one could surmise from the national scene, we all want to play fun games. Being a good sport is a much a two sided game as the models we move. For the reason we award the Sportsmanship award first. 
Another difference in how we have adapted to giving out awards is similar to the NBA draft. Lottery ticket style in that the higher you rank the more tickets you get, thus increased chances for picking first. 

In the prize pool we have generous vouchers from Warlord games, tanks from Trenchworx, US paratroopers from Offensive Miniatures, unique 3D kits from Mad Bob Emerson and paint sets from Flames of war. 

Best Team Sportsmanship: Market Garden Polish Paratroops and US Armor
Best Theme: USA Normandy (seen below)
Best Axis General: Waffen SS and German Panzer
Best Allied General: USMC
Best Painted: Italian Armor and Waffen SS





I cannot thank all the sponsors, supporters, and local help we received for this event. From the local teams that PERSONALLY built these beautiful tables, to the huge support Adepticon put forward to help make this THE location for Bolt Action. I have to thank these generous companies who put their name and product out there. 

Warlord Games
Offensive Miniatures
Mad Bob Miniatures
Trenchworx

All these companies really blew peoples minds. 

With that, I excitedly would like to announce, the official unveiling for  Adepticon 2016. 

Bolt Action US Grand Nationals


In conjunction with Warlord Games and Adepticon 2016, we will be hosting a 2 day, 5 game National event for the Bolt Action Community, world wide!

That is right, we are calling you out Australia! UK! Europe! East Coast USA! Alaska! and anywhere else that Bolt Action is played. You are all welcomed to join us on the battlefield for glory, stories, and friendship.   

Please check back here, Boltaction.net, and warlord games for more information and news regarding this exciting announcement.