After Action Report: Store Summer Showdown

Bolt Action has a massively dedicated community with events, tournaments and shows taking place up and down the country, and indeed across the world. We thought it long past time to throw our hats into the ring and host an in-store tournament here at Warlord Games HQ in Nottingham, our first since moving to our new site a few years ago. This first event was particularly aimed at HQ store regulars and was geared towards cultivating an engaging and relaxed atmosphere of fun between (mostly) familiar faces, rather than an out-and-out competitive event.

To this end we encouraged our players to take weirder and more unique army lists than the typical fare you might have expected to encounter in a tournament environment, allowing our regulars to show off the pride of their collections and their more eccentric armies. Players only had 750 pts to spend, so players had to think carefully to ensure they fit everything they needed on a relatively tight budget – though the chap who brought a Sturmtiger wasn’t too worried, arguing that a 4-inch template would be answer enough for anything! We saw Belgians, Italian Colonials, a German Last Levy army and even an Enemy at the Gates-themed Soviet army, amongst many others.

This approach to list building turned out a great variety of armies, the largest of which numbered 51 models – an Inexperienced mob, whilst the smallest totalled just 14 miniatures. Limiting the armies to 750 points allowed for three fast-paced brutal games that kept the day swimming along at a fast pace (and the promise of pizza for lunch didn’t hurt the pace either).

Some of Warlord’s own joined in the fun, like the Customer Service Team’s own Andrew Batchford who brought his Belgians (we recently featured them – see here), but his men needed a bit of a stern talking to after a poor showing in their first two games.

Throughout the day, small teams proved to be the most proficient, and on more than one occasion managed to take on entire infantry sections in close combat and wipe them out of the fight. In a notable David vs. Goliath moment, a Borgward Wanze took on the aforementioned Sturmtiger in a glorious shoot-out reminiscent of old westerns and came out on top.

Everybody played exceptionally well throughout the day and the final results really did come down to the wire. Congratulations to our top three as well as our Best Commander. As is the case with many a tournament, the Wooden Spoon prize was highly coveted, with three candidates jostling to claim it. Alas, only one of them could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The final standings were as follows:

• 1^st Place – Phil Crowcroft
• 2^nd Place – Tim Durham
• 3^rd Place – Alex Smith
• Best Commander – James Rouse
• Wooden Spoon – Alf Horsley

Thanks to the success of the event, there’ll be more to follow, with our next Bolt Action tournament, Double or Nothing coming up on 19 August! Join the Warlord Games HQ Store’s Facebook page to find out about all our upcoming HQ store events.