It was a fun day - my first Bolt Action tourney and my third, fourth and fifth games of BA ever!
Tables were thematic and full of terrain. My memory of the faction mix was:
a. Afrika Korps (2 x Pxr IIIs, 1 x Pzr II and an 8 Rad plus three infantry squads
b. Two Germans with late-war Europe themes
c. Italian Bersaglieri (me) with four Veteran Bersaglieri Squads (dudes with the sun hats and cockeril feathers); Semovente 75/18 and an 88mm (Italian 90mm AA)
d. Canadian with an Italy theme
e. Marines (three big squads, a Sherman 105 and some support)
f. Free French (lots of units, arty etc)
g. Brits x 2 (one was Paras (I think) and the other had an AVRE and some infantry
h. Chinese
I fought the Marines, Free French and Afrika Korps. Three fun games with patient opponents. We still played quickly, but time was a crunch for everyone I think. I think that there were lots of Draws - maybe another 30 minutes or reduce the point value? Perhaps have a limit of 12 Order Dice instead of 14? Anyhoo. In all three of my games it was a close match.
Highlights:
a. Bazooka killing my Semovente 75/18 with Ambush, putting the game into a draw - desperation move that failed on my part
b. 8 Rad surviving a 75mm hit to the front, an 88mm hit to the front and then wiping out a Veteran Bersaglieri squad in a building with a burst of 2cm HE! He also put the game into a draw with that - pesky Recce guys!
c. My Bersaglieri launching three different victorious close assaults. The last could have won the last game if they had rolled anything but a 1 on their extra movement after winning the fight. And they rolled a 1 - still, they did all I asked of them!
Coming to Bolt Action from 40K and Flames of War meant that my brain was melting a few times trying to keep rules straight, but I had patient opponents. Sometimes a tourney is the best way to learn rules - by the end of the day I had seen pretty much everything except aircraft.
Won a box of British/Canadian infantry that I am happily assembling and planning out my next army. Looking forward to more games and thanks for running the tourney!