It was a dark and wintry Friday night in Albury when we set up the hall ready for the inaugural 2025 Kings Birthday Border Clash tournament. As we had plenty of space and folding tables, we were able to provide a very civilised gaming setup with space and an empty table between the gaming boards. This allowed players to properly set up their gear on the central tables and have space to store their troops on the edge of the boards.
The DemoGamers were able to provide the 6 gaming boards plus a very detailed demonstration board. We need to do some more scenery days to expand our roads, hedges, trees and more to properly fill the boards!
The tournament attracted 12 players, of which 7 were new - that is, they had played less than 5 games before this event. We are not counting just competition games, but any games at all. Our seasoned players enjoyed the varied tables and opponents who improved each round of play. The first round had more basic questions, but by the third round every player was having more challenges as all the new players had mastered the basics and were trying new strategies and tactics. The best part of new players is that they don't know certain moves aren't normally done. So when they are tried in the game, all participants learn why they aren't normally done, or discover some interesting new options to try next time!
Here are our volunteers and the layout after finishing set up around 9pm on Friday evening.
We always try to ensure our historical boards tell a story. It's always more interesting fighting over "The Manor" or "The Factory" or "The fishing Village" than just a random collection of terrain pieces.
We also setup the
Outer Cherbourg board. This will be enhanced, ready for
Victorious Tabletop Game Show in August.
As part of the Tournament, we not only supplied the 6 boards, but also 3 tournament armies, 4 demo armies and the spare dice and tapes as required. We want to ensure that all the new players get to enjoy their day with all the right gear.
Here are a couple of highlights of the day. This photo shows the successful advance of a German squad with a panzerfaust, close to the very heavy Churchill tank. Boom! A well spent 15 points for the panzerfaust.
We were relaxed about painted armies as we knew we had so many brand new players. Everyone understood that grey "ghost" armies are OK, just so we can bring new players in. Even so, we had many well painted armies which really worked well with the detailed boards.
Sometimes, the dice gods are not on your side. As players quote "Bolt Action Happens" when the vagaries of the dice rolls dismantle their best laid plans.
Here the squad went to pass an order test with only one pin. 12. FUBAR! They then rolled friendly fire and shot at the officer team right next to them. All hit, but no wounds. Phew!
Another sad tale was the Flak 88mm attempting to pass an order test and getting a 12, then run off the table. Boom. A very expensive order dice abandoned in the field. At least the player with most FUBARs won a prize and choice from the prize table.
The sponsorship for the day was exceptional. Plenty of choice for certificate winners and after they all had a go, there was enough for all participants to have a pick. No one left without prizes worth more than their entry fee.
Thank you to our excellent sponsors:
We have been asked to show the boards we used in the tournament so here they are:
The Bocage Board - Normandy
Lots of bocage which counts as hard cover, and a lot of it is sight blocking terrain for infantry.
Deceptively open in patches, then blocked in others.
Bordering fields and a manicured garden. More open areas, with hard and soft cover walls, plus rough grounds for the wheat fields.
Jungle Pipe Factory
Railway line through bamboo jungle and paddy fields.
A lovely mix of hard and soft cover, lanes of fire and hiding places and buildings to fight over.
The City that shall be named
We have collected lots of lovely buildings over the years and wanted to see how a game worked with lots of buildings in Bolt Action v3. It worked well, despite all the fears from the changes to buildings made in v2 and carried through to v3. Yes, being in a building when facing a tank or gun is sad, but you can move through buildings and the tank can't catch you! And you can pop up behind a tank really easily. Viva la Panzerfaust and Bazooka!
Our Lady of the Snow - Winter Church board
A very large church dominates the board with fields, hedges and walls and a smaller house with orchard.
Jungle Fishing Village
A randomly laid out series of wooden buildings around the main gathering shack in the centre, surrounded by vision blocking bamboo thickets.
The village borders a beach with a statue facing the sea on a cliff. Very yellow sand! (We'll have to fix that)
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