Operation Sting 2015- AAR

Operation Sting 2015 took place last weekend, and I am slow to get around to covering it. I'm sure if you're interested in the event you've already read others reports, but for the record here is my take.

The 7th year for the event under two different game systems and I'm glad to say I have made it to 6 of them. This is my second under its World War II moniker using Warlord games Bolt Action system. As much as I love Adepticon this is simply my favorite event, from the organization, tables, Armies, the people, the good fun. its tough to beat. If you are a Bolt Action fan you definitely want to give this tournament a go. With a sold out 24 players, a waiting list and folks visiting from as far away as North Dakota, I think Brent will be looking to expand to 30 players next year.


As for my own personal performance I walked away with nothing to show for my gaming efforts than a smile on my face for having a good time. Now I knowingly went into this year with the deck stacked against me playing with only 7 order dice, I told myself my fearsome Panther tank could pick up some of the dice slack but in a game where infantry rules and scenarios were infantry based, my tank was mainly a dual MMG platform for 355 points and that was just d-u-m-b. 

The first day I got pasted so hard,  think being in a foxhole at Bastonge and being shelled by 88's like in the classic Band of Brothers episode..it was figuratively like that for my army. Highlights (??) from my 3 games Saturday were two matches against Soviets where I had more that 10 pins on my single squads concurrently at numerous points during the game, my Panther was immobilized by Soviet bomb dogs  and in game 3 a Soviet Artillery strike took out my Panther top of the second turn and there was an IS2 on the board and I'm outnumbered 3 to 1 in man power. Both these games where total routs for my Germans ending in total brutal defeat.

Games 2 and 4 were unfortunately against my German comrades, as pairings can only be matched axis versus allies for so long when there is a big skew in the representation between Axis and Allied players, Both these games where against two of my favorite gents to play , both whom I played last year with my Brits and defeated. Turn about is fair play and despite my Panther taking out Mark's Panzer IV after like 4 rounds of shooting at , he played his slightly better number advantage well to where in the  "take the field" scenario where you need to capture the best of 5  objectives I didnt have enough models to remotely try to deny him total victory. In game 4 against Seamus he had me on the ropes running the whole game, while I did manage to squeak out the secret mission. my squads, one 
of which was pinned to hell couldnt activate after the Airstrike turn 2 and my other just taking most of his fire, ended in a game where it was only a draw because I was lucky enough to kill his team with my captured objective before it fled the board and he then failed the roll on turn 7 to capture his own objective.  Games 2 and 4 where fun games, Games 1 and 3 were exercises in futility were everything that could have went wrong did.

Game 5 was against my old pal Jeremy who once again bested me in a judges tie on best appearance with the tie breaker being the vote of our fellow players for the second year in a row. I guess my consolation prize was game 5 where literally everything went my way to an almost comical end were I had almost tabled him in a game of "Maximum Attrition", losing only a transport and my HQ. He took the game in stride like the good sport that he is.

I want to make note as well there were easily a half dozen + excellent and bad ass armies there as well, the props to my own I received with that caliber a field are very satisfying, award or not. I'm already fully in high gear for the expansion of my force and a properly sized order dice Army for Adepticon in the spring. I did manage to take a decent amount of photos and havent really gone thru them all and I know alot are redundant but check out my photo gallery in the left side bar for Operation Sting 2015 to get some eye candy on all the tables armies and games from the weekend.

Point Defense and Operation Sting

Our makeshift Bolt Action setup. that one day, sooner than later will give our figures the setting they deserve

Currently my hobbytime is on the backburner but that doesnt mean I havent found time to get some games in. Aaron and I got together for our semi regular Bolt Action meetup I believe our third since Adepticon. Since Adepticon we've both tweaked our German and British lists and added more firepower making a better use of our points. He's added at Stug III and more infantry to his list. I've added a Stuart M5 in place of my Static 6pd AT gun and also added a Flamethrower team.

Aaron's reserve squad that ambushes my commandos from off the table.

The mission was Point Defense. I was playing my British Recon and Paratroop forces and we were the attackers on a German force held up in the town , the thee objectives were left, right and center on Aarons board edge. As usual the games are always close. Despite my putting alot of pins on Aaron's forces with game starting preparatory bombardment (where the British have the best game rule) I took heavy casualties on my left flank losing a squad and my Flamethrower team early. I managed to edge my guy ups and keep them engaged, pressure on. We were both being really careful with our vehicles each having on in reserve..in the end mine won me the game, however vehicle and AT where pretty boring in the game all we did was put a bunch of pins on vehicles as despite alot of hits neither of us could make a penetration roll to save our lives. ( the best illustration of which is when Aaron rolled a friendly fire FUBAR with his Puma against his Stug III I thought it was toast with the direct hit and added PEN + 1 for the side hit but he rolled a "1" )  I had numerous "1's or 2's" on my PEN rolls after scoring juicy hits with my Vehicles.

I did have a couple of boons thoughout the game, one my Sniper usually does pretty well and he certainly softened up squads and caused some down orders in the guys in buildings and the kept Aarons guys on defensive as I assaulted. My Mortar runs hot or cold, today it was smoking hot
I kept rolling 6's to hit even after I was zero'd in and needed a "2" on the one building that was directly in front of the center objective and covering the access to the objective my right flank. After my Mortar pounded a German squad into oblivion and I hammered that smaller building across the road from the field with Mortars putting so many pins on them they were ineffective by turn 6. .I had my Stuart grab the center objective while my Humber AC covered its rear. a lone squad of Vet Paratroopers grab the objective on the far side of the bridge, losing two men to desperate German fire but still strong enough to capture the objective and win the match.

My Humber covering the rear of my Stuart M5 from the Puma AC, lots of fire exchanged but no vehicles knocked out on either side.

Tactically, the game was very touch and go until the last turn, (one of the reasons I like this game alot) my Commandos that are always my best infantry proved totally ineffective. Aaron wise to my turn 4 outflanking strategy, where they normally raise hell with pinned vehicles and softened up infantry, now had an extra squad in reserve in his new list exactly for countering these guys..I had overlooked this in the moment and unwisely brought them in early in turn 4. where they hid behind a building hoping to ambush either the Stug or the Puma (ideally) with there Anti Tank Grenades.

However the next die that game out of the bag was Aarons his reserve squad came totally in short range of my Commandos and opened up, a reserve ambush if you will, I lost 3 of my 8 guys and took 3 pins, by the next time they got to go, they failed their order check went Down and got wiped out in an open ground assault,  Thats how you deal with Pesky commandos in your backfield.

Anyway great game, Kudos to Aaron for always being an awesome opponent. This game and I am sure others over the next few months are in Preparation for Operation Sting which is going to be a great Bolt Action tournament here in Chicagoland in October. Operation Sting, and please note the pun here- is run by the guys who ran Bilbos Birthday Bash which was the areas great LotR tournament from 2009-2013..although I missed the final 2013 event, I look forward to getting back with gang for this years event as now a Bolt Action event, just as  Phoenix's AZ "Gathering in the Desert" morphed into Bolt Action as the LotR scene faded there so it goes here. It seems both games have a strong cross pollination of players.

The only other game I have played since April, besides Bolt Action is SAGA...which I am also really liking alot as fantastic tactical game with lots of uses for other setting and seems to scale well to get a faster Historical fix then Hail Caesar can offer..while I still really like Hail Caesar..playing Saga with smaller forces will really help get my figures painted for Hail Caesar. While I of course have way too many figures on the paint bench...right now Bolt Action and Saga are getting my attention. I do have a few odds and ends I working on with my kids as well. Once work slows down. should be able to get a good hobby project going later this summer.