Anzac Day 2025 Boot Camp - The battle fields

The secret to a good battlefield for a Bolt Action game is the scenery has to look good and make sense from a terrain point of view. Why are the troops fighting over this bit of dirt? Where will objectives be?

The next step is considering the mix of cover - hard, soft, rough ground, distance from each side, and so on. Forces with different mixes of infantry, heavy weapons, vehicles, transports and guns need to be able to compete. Naturally, some boards are better for some force mixes than others. But with Bolt Action, there is always a chance. As players frequently confess, "The Dice Gods are fickle."

These are the four game boards on which we will be running the demonstration games. Four players per board, each with 600 point armies, in teams of two fighting side by side.

Board 1 - The Chateau

This popular country holiday retreat has lovely paved roads, county track and nearby woods and fields.

A small German Panzer Grenadier squad carefully approaches the Chateau, hiding behind the Hanomag and border hedge.

Board 2 - The Jungle Pipe Factory

The train tracks are the only civilised approach to the factory, with rice paddies and jungle surrounding this pipe factory.

A small squad of Japanese soldiers follow the Chi-Ha tank into the train platform at the factory.

Board 3 - Normandy Farm

This lovely farm is surrounded by bocage (Normandy hedges with stone bases), fields and long grass. Roads are blocked by down trees. A fine board for short range fighting!

Americans hug their large Sherman tank as they approach the farmhouse blocked by the large fallen tree.

Board 4 - Winter Normandy Church

A chilly Winter board centred on the large Church and nearby small village. Fields, tree lines and hedges block sight.

A Finnish sniper team watches ver the board from the Bell tower.

King's Border Clash 2025

 

It’s time to fight on the border between Victoria and New South Wales!

Bolt Action competitions are normally in the State capitals, but now we will fight on the border. In Albury. Oorah!

Come along to the King’s Border Clash 2025 Tournament run by the Demo Gamers in Albury.

This one day event is a great way to play Bolt Action in a competitive (yet friendly) environment.

What is provided?

We will have up to 10 beautiful game boards.

You will need to bring your army of 1,100 points (max 15 dice), and all the normal playing aids and your rule book.

We also have a limited number of armies for new players with pre-built lists. No need to delay because you’re a new player!

All you need to know is here.

If you are interested in playing, the full players pack containing army list and competiton details are here:

Full Player Pack

Huge Demo Board. Play for free.

If you just want to try Bolt Action we will have an amazing demo game organised. This is a Demo Gamers event after all!

3 games during the day for up to 6 players each session. Get your friend to try Bolt Action while you fight!

Demo Gamers Boot Camp - ANZAC Day 2025 in Albury

We're back!

There are so many new people wanting to play Bolt Action so we are stepping back in the ring to share the joy of wargaming. And the best way to start is with a Demo Gamers Bolt Action Boot Camp.

In Albury on ANZAC Day (25 April 2025) we will be running a Boot Camp for beginners.

CONTACT US 
to book your place.

Only 16 spots available!

(All visitors are welcome)

FULL DETAILS click here

This one day event is a great introduction to Wargaming and Bolt Action:

9:00am to 11:00am 

Building a small squad and knowing what all the bits are. You get to take home a 5 man squad!

11:00am to 11:30pm

Morning Tea - provided

11:30am to 2:00pm

4 games of 4 players each with 600 point armies.

 What:

ANZAC Day 2025 

Bolt Action Boot Camp

When:

ANZAC Day, 25 April 2025

Where:

8 Kensington Court, 
Thurgoona, NSW, 2640 (Near Albury)

How Much:

$20.00. Bring cash on the day.

Why:

Because it’s great fun.

Who:

The Demo Gamers

https://thedemogamers.blogspot.com.au

MOAB 2017 - Day Two

The Mighty Renault fit through the double doors.

Day two of MOAB 2017 is over and we are resting our feet and voices. Another 10 new players joined us today making a total of 26 players for the weekend. This is a great result for us and more young people, and Father-Son teams, may join in the fun of Bolt Action and historical wargaming in future.
Our plan to use both 500 and 900 point armies worked really well, combined with a board on which we can play two or three independent or combined games. This allowed us to get more players through than our previous method of fixed starting times of 9am, 12pm and 3pm.
For example, today we were able to fit in four players with 500 point armies in a combined battle on half of the board. Then after a few turns we started two other players using 900 point armies on the other side of the board.

The Russian Support goes Boom!

Not long later, once the 500 point players had a very close finish, two new players with 900 point armies took their place and had great games too. We highly recommend this more dynamic approach to running a public participation game. Everyone that visits has their own timetable and plans and the better we can fit in with them the more likely we get new players.

Sonja the Medic doing her job

It was really handy having use of a spare table next to the main board. We were able to set up each army with the accompanying Easy Army listing allowing prospective players with a line up of armies to choose. We didn't mind if some of the match-ups weren't fully historical as we were still able to have fun games and learn the rules and play style of Bolt Action. Russian vs Australian, Finnish vs German, German and Russians side by side against the British and French - they all worked great.
The spare table also allowed us a place to put all the upper levels of buildings once players entered into the city and Railway Station!

Yahtzee! But he wanted a 6

We realised that while our table may have been 4' x 8' it is actually a larger fighting area as most of the buildings had multiple levels, probably adding another few square feet of potential.
Enjoy the photos from today's games and we look forward to seeing you at our next event.
Thank you to the MOAB organisers for all their support and to Andrew and the Bolt Action competition for the great co-operation we were able to achieve.

Nice Walls. But they were in the way of the Cromwell.

The Russians assault the Cromwell

Today's fight over the U Boat

The Finnish troops getting ready to rush the U Boat

Winter Germans assaulting through the Railway Station

Nah Mate. We don't like 222's shootin' at us.

MOAB 2017 - Day One

German MG Team waiting for the oncoming enemy

The first day of MOAB was very busy for us. 16 new players learned how to play Bolt Action and enjoyed the scenery.

Forces gathering to capture the Station Main Hall

A young player fighting with the mighty Renault

Situated right next to the Bolt Action competition and the canteen was a prime location to capture the attention of any onlookers that expressed interest. As we expected, the presence of the U Boat and Railway station amongst three dimensional terrain gathered a lot of interest.
We ended up not using the concept of "spawning" forces from points on the board, but we did use a combination of 500 (5 dice) and 900 (8 dice) forces depending on the availability of players. That worked our very well.
Typically the smaller forces finished a game in 60 to 90 minutes and the larger in 120 to 150 minutes. So most of the time we had two games going at once that were not synchronised.
The last game was a synchronised game with 4 players using the larger forces with each team waiting until the whole turn was completed.
The game finished in 2.5 hours and players all had a good lesson in how Bolt Action works.
This post has a selection of shots taken throughout the day. Our sore feet and tired voices testify to the busy day and the smiles and thanks we received from the players was very rewarding. We had two Father-Son teams who had enjoyable games, ending in draws which mean both players won!
A couple of players came up to us pointing out the index in their books and saying "Thanks!"
(Here is the link to the index if you don't already have it)

Renault Assault!

Details of the board and some the armies we have used is here.

The Germans were not scared of the Renault

Tanks at knife fighting range

 Now for some rest on on to day two tomorrow.

It was a lazy little cafe - and everyone wants it!

We took a Cromwell along for protection!

Fighting under and around the U Boat

"All Aboard!"

A winning strategy - use the index!

The 2017 U-Boat Railway Station Board

Starting to play test the board

We have been planning a new board for this season's public participation games fr some time. The core idea was to have a board which provided the following features:

1. A certain "Wow!" factor which would attract visitors to investigate the game further.
2. Lots of tactical options
3. An excuse to show off some of our newer buildings and scenery
4. A fun board with plenty of tense moments.

This is in line with our article on How to Run A Public Participation Game.

Here is the link to a couple of short videos we put up about this board as it was too large to capture in one or two photos:

U-Boat Railway Station Board Overview

U-Boat Railway Station - a look inside

Our first play-test had the road down the middle with the Railway Station and Stone Hotel opposite each other along the long edge. While this worked in the game it had one major failing.

The Russians have the Cafe. The Germans really want their coffee.

It's a long way to reach over the Railway Station

No-one actually fought in the buildings other than the cafe. Now that is a waste of good playing real-estate!
So the board has been reconfigured.
Now the Railway Station bisects the board and there are reasons to go into lots of buildings. Now that should make for suitably deadly encounters all over the board!
The other innovation we are experimenting with this time around is to have differing size paired enemy forces with non-synchronised game turns. This means that we will have 8 dice armies (about 900 points) for those that can play longer (about 2 to 2.5 hrs) and smaller starter armies of 5 dice (500 pts) for those that can only play 1 to 1.5 hours.
The forces can still fire at the enemies and work with their allies, but they will find that one pair f players may be at turn 5 and another at turn 2. Other than a most enjoyable chaos and interesting situations, players pairs joining in on an already active board are treated as "reinforcements". We expect to see a longer game in progress and in the middle a shorter player pair starts and finishes before they have completed their game! We'll see how this all works in the real world, but it looks interesting enough to try.
The reason we want to attempt this is so that more people can experience the fun that is Bolt Action wargaming.

The Australians are rushing through the Station gardens

Often visitors to conventions or events only have a limited time to play. "Just give us an hour and you'll get a good taste of how this works," we'll say and once they are in we are sure they will get a taste for more.
As always we provide all the armies and everything required to play.
You will note we haven't added any of the free stuff like Artillery observers or free armies. This is because the games are for new players and the game results in this style of game can be really badly impacted by the apparent imbalances of the free stuff on smaller armies. When they play a proper 1,000 point or greater game then these are all put back into play.

Here are some of the armies we will be using:

Finally not afraid of the pseudo-Tiger, the Allies attack

1 Hour (5 Dice) Armies

500 point 1 Hour Germans

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
125 Heer Veterans (SMG, LMG, 6 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
508 Total: 5 Dice

500 Point 1 Hour British

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
125 Veteran Infantry (SMG, LMG, 6 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
508 Total: 5 Dice

500 point 1 Hour French

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
42 Veteran Renault FT tank
507 Total: 6 Dice

Reworking of the board

A Dalek bringing Tea to the Railway Station

500 point 1 Hour French

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (LMG, 9 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
42 Veteran Renault FT tank
507 Total: 6 Dice

Pz IV and Cromwell facing it off down the road

An Aerial shot of the board

The FT17 "Tank of Fear" fits in the doors of the Railway Station.

500 point 1 Hour Russian

95 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
143 LMG Squad (SMG, 2 LMG, 7 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
70 Inexperienced Infantry (10 Rifles)
55 MMG Team with Gun Shield
503 Total: 6 Dice

The view from the U-Boat tower.

2 Hour (8 Dice) Armies

900 Point 2 Hour German

85 First Lieutenant and Buddy
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Heer Grenadiers (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
119 Volks Grenadier (5 AssR, LMG, 2 Rifles, 2 PzFst)
119 Volks Grenadier (5 AssR, LMG, 2 Rifles, 2 PzFst)
50 MMG Team
50 Sniper Team
235 Panzer IV H
904 Total: 8 Dice

900 Point 2 Hour Australian

95 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
123 Regular Infantry (SMG,LMG, 8 Rifles)
50 MMG Team
60 Medium Mortar Team with Spotter
205 Cromwell Tank
902 Total: 8 Dice

900 Point 2 Hour USA

85 First Lieutenant and 2 Buddies
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)
120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)

120 Regular Infantry (2 BAR, 9 Rifles)

50 MMG Team
50 MMG Team
230 Sherman M4A1
905 Total: 8 Dice

Overall we are looking at having a very busy time!

The conventions we will be attending are:
MOAB - Mother Of All Battles 30 Sep and 1 Oct 2017
Little Wars Canberra 12 November 2017
Goulburn Library 4 November 2017
CanCon 2018 Australia Day 2018

Now That is What I Call a Railway Station

We have just completed a marvellous MDF building kit from Things from the Basement "20th Century Railway Station".

This is a wargamer's building - tough, transportable, multi level with stairs and lots of places to place your models. It comes as unpainted laser cut MDF with instructions you can download from their web site.

45 inches - Infantry take four turns to traverse this station

This is definitely an advanced kit, part of the "Master Builder Series". It is not too difficult, but there is a lot to do. One suggestion I have already made to the very helpful guys from Things From The Basement is to number the pieces and match the part numbers to the instructions.
We started on the left hand tower and once we mastered that the concepts all flowed through to the rest of the building.

I'm about to start my game long charge!

I can see you but you're out of range.

This is actually five buildings in one. The left and right towers, the two connecting halls and then the main hall.
For this building we decided to approach it different to our normal impatient method. Rather than just building then try painting it afterwards, we did most of the painting and other effects before we glued it all together.
Instead of painting the floors I made some "tiles" by using Pages and creating a multi coloured grid of main tiles, with the alternate darker tiles having a train wheel in the centre.
Then we made some smaller light and dark green "tiles" for the edges and some black and white squares for the entrances, stair landings and ticket booths.

Just add trains.

Multi Level with stairs, hand rails and balcony

We thought a logo would look grand so I found a stylistic rose, duplicated and mirrored it and added the initials "TDG" - The Demo Gamers.
The effect worked.
We used a variety of colours from sample paint pots you can obtain from the paint or hardware stores. These are inexpensive and can be whatever colour you request.
The hardest decision was what colour to paint the train station. This led to a search on the Internet for train stations.
By accident we stumbled across the Dunedin train station in New Zealand. Click the link. It's an amazing station. Now we had the concept and just had to put it in place.

Lots of windows and doors to fire from.

The Main Hall with ticket booths, telephone booth and clock.

Initially we were just going to paint the stone parts a dark grey, but my son said we should make it look more like stone. So back to computer I went. I found a sample stone picture, duplicated and meshed it all together so I had a full page of stonework.
Then we painted all the interior walls a beige colour and applied the stonework to the outside. The floors were all prepared with our tile-work, painted with a satin varnish to both make it look better, but more importantly, protect it from dust and marks.
Then the walls went up and already we had a great start.
My wife and daughters helped in painting all the white facings and trim and the red roofs.
As each part was completed we put it all together. Although there was a delay in getting the building constructed as we had to paint the parts first, the result was a much cleaner production. The white trim could be painted without worrying about marking adjoining walls and the results are really crisp. It also meant that younger hands and older eyes could easily paint the parts.
As you can see there are A LOT of windows and trim!
The final stage were the main hall ticket booths, telephone box and signs.
The telephone booth had to be blue of course and the ticket booths were green as that is the sample pot colour we had at hand. Once more it was all painted and prepared before we glued each part in place. Then we just touched up the edges. The door handles and clock hands are separate pieces which meant we could paint them gold/brass and glue them in place making it all very neat.
I didn't bother using the laser cut writing on the signs as I would never be able to get this straight or neat enough. So back to the computer to create the lettering.
I also found a clock face with no hands and roman numerals which I scaled appropriately and glued in place.
After each of the signs and clock were in place we also varnished them for safety and then glued in place.
The longest search was for a suitable looking train timetable. I found one which we used but even scaled down to 28mm scale it is still readable (with good eyes or my favourite tool, a photo and then zoom on the screen). It's a pity the French train station has trains departing for Salisbury, but I suspect all trains are delayed by the war.
Overall this is a great model and am very glad that the early draft version had been used in game and shared on the Bolt Action Facebook page. This led me to track down the production model, make a very reasonable deal with the guys to send it all the way to Australia and then plan our construction.

I think your train may be late.

This Railway Station will be taking a key role in the upcoming public participation games we will be running over the rest of this year. Stay tuned for more details.
We will also be updating our Bolt Action building considerations. This is definitely not a standard size building in normal game terms!
(Note these building considerations will be updated to take into account the fine changes to buildings in Bolt Action v2 very shortly)