April 4, 2024 • 32 mins
This week we speak to Aaron who recently played and won in 3 tournaments in 3 countries in 3 months, looking to answer the question: is the meta really different in different countries?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:08):
Welcome to Tabletop Tommies. I'm Johnny and I'm Phil and in today's episode
we're going to be talking about the international meta, the differences we see
in the way vault action is played in many different countries.
In order to discuss that, we do have a very special guest on.
Phil, would you like to introduce our special guest for the episode?
(00:28):
Yeah, so we're joined today by Aaron Russell, who's joining us through the magic
of the internet from Australia. He recently won CanCon.
He's also been over in the UK, played in Not Five Steps Back,
which he won, and he also played last weekend in the Danish Nationals, which he also won.
So we thought it'd be great to hear from Aaron, somebody who's played overseas
and also won three highly competitive events over the last few weeks.
(00:52):
So welcome, Aaron. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks, Phil.
Thanks, Jonny. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. So you won CanCon.
How did that come about? And what nation were you playing?
Many questions about that. yeah yeah well yeah so
cancon is for those i guess that that may may not
know we're probably often in our own little world down here
but it's our biggest sort of
(01:13):
national event but i have actually played in that the last
three years but this year i took romanians just for something different okay
nice and yeah they they were they were a bit of fun actually i've i've had the
army for a while i just haven't haven't played it in any sort of big events
or anything but i thought I thought I'd pull them out and give them a whirl.
(01:35):
Were you playing Axis or allied Romanians there? I was actually playing Axis,
and I was just using their standard sort of army list rules.
I wasn't using anything out of Case Blue.
I mean, there's some nice little rules in there, but, yeah, I mean,
I hadn't really explored that.
And I think they were only released, like, just before CanCon, I believe, from memory.
(01:59):
But yeah, so I didn't sort of whip them out, but yeah, just the tried and true
Romanians with the free howitzer and that's about it actually. But yeah. Yeah.
Very impressive. Winning a major competition with OG Romanians.
How many players were at CanCon? I think we started with 72 and then by the
(02:22):
time it ran, the field dropped down to 60 something.
In 60s i think it was which is typical
of you know i guess most events but even sort of your larger ones you're going
to have some people drop away yeah you know due to getting the getting the flu
or something you know coming up at the last minute or whatever but uh yeah it
(02:43):
is our biggest event so we in terms of numbers we'll get more numbers to to
cancun than i think any other.
Event in in the country and am i right in saying it was the same weekend as
the wtc in Granada, the first weekend in February.
Yeah, did that cross over with the last weekend in Jan as well?
Was it the exact same one? Yes, it was basically that week, wasn't it?
(03:03):
So if you – because obviously there wasn't an Australian team in Granada.
No. I wonder to what extent that was partly due to CanCon being held in Australia
because it's your national weekend, isn't it?
It's the same weekend as Australian weekend and so on. So it's a big celebration,
is that right? Yeah, Australia Day weekend.
So, yeah, you're bang on. It'd be pretty hard for us to try and put a team together,
(03:27):
I think, on that same weekend for both of those reasons.
Yeah. But yeah, we always sort of line it up with whenever the Australia Day
public holiday is. So it's sort of that long weekend.
That way people can travel there from whatever state they're coming from.
And they've got that sort of extra day to get home with the Monday being the
public holiday and that.
So it usually works out pretty good because it's always a sort of two-day event.
(03:50):
So just especially for those people coming into state. and this
year we think we had a couple coming came all the way over from
from wa which is almost like
a totally different country yeah brilliant okay and so then how was it two couple
of weeks later you jumped on the plane and came over to the uk and then europe
(04:10):
yeah so about a about a month month later jumped on a plane and headed on over
to to england i think when i when i hopped.
When i hopped on the plane it was 37 degrees and then when i hopped off in london
it was about two that was a bit of a shock to the system that's for sure sure
yeah welcome to england in march yeah.
(04:34):
And because you you've messaged us last year asking
about events coming up in the uk and so i understand originally
you were planning to play in the the event up in stockport which
was the thousand pound prize prize money event but that obviously got
cancelled fairly fairly close to the weekend itself is
that right yeah so i was sort of pretty keen to play some
events i guess out of the
(04:56):
country and obviously with like some big
team international events sort of picking getting a bit
of traction over the last couple years obviously we don't have
any representation but more than that i think it
was just sort of good to get a bit of a feel for it and i was due for a holiday anyway so
i kind of meshed it all into one yeah but i
also didn't really know what what sort of events might
(05:16):
have been i figured obviously there was all the sort of national events
or gts that all the countries had but i'd want to sort of
line up maybe get a few in so yeah that's when i
reached out to you guys i probably started upping my
uh i guess intake or how much
uh how many bolt action podcasts i was
consuming um but obviously stuff before and it's
(05:36):
great and love the accents as well so that that
makes it easy listening but yeah no so
i i wanted to see let's see what was out there and i thought that might be a
big event and sort of pull pull through yeah which was okay i was sort of able
to troubleshoot and ended up going to juggernaut event in nottingham and then
(05:58):
also um the danish nationals as well.
And which i was sort of always going to anyway yeah yeah
it was it was uh that's good so obviously not
five steps back was the juggernaut event played with the juggernaut
pack as was that the first event you'd been to where the
juggernaut pack had been used or were you used to that is that something that's
played back in australia no it was definitely the
(06:19):
first time i've been to event like
that and same with the missions i think all the missions i'd
only played out of the mission all
the missions like actually i don't think i've played any of them before and a
lot of the pack was i was actually really underprepared for
that event okay and i found myself having to
to check the pack like two minutes before every game to
(06:40):
work out what mission we were implying what the rules were what we were doing
how we scored objectives and obviously you know different packs different countries
different states the some of the things change right and we we change we even
change the the rules of how an objective could be scored or or what could even contest an objective.
That seems to differ from pack to pack and place to place. And they're important things.
(07:04):
So I'm sort of mid-game finding myself having to ask the TO just to confirm
how an objective is actually scored.
Because, yeah, I hadn't played any sort of the missions in the pack,
but I actually quite liked it, to be honest.
We often find in the UK, in terms
of, say, objectives, some people play it three inches from the middle.
Some people will play it touching the objective. objective and then there's
(07:24):
that difference between you know for example does a a
transport with an inventory unit count as being able to control and all that
sort of stuff so even in the uk not necessarily just between different countries
different tos run their events in different ways so yeah i'm not surprised to
hear that you know in terms of objectives and scoring and that kind of thing
you had to had to check during the game let alone before before the game started,
(07:45):
yeah i just wanted to make sure i was doing it right because there'd be nothing
worse than and thinking you've got all the objectives scored and only to find
out, you know, at the end of the game when you're calculating everything that, in fact, no.
That tank doesn't contest or that infantry actually needed to be touching the
objective or, you know, whatever.
(08:06):
So, yeah, just a few things, but...
Yeah, I did quite like it, actually. I thought the pack was good.
I thought it was a fairly sort of balanced selector. I think the Juggernaut selector it's called.
And the missions were all good. The only thing I will say about the missions
that I didn't like was that they all had almost identical deployment and setup with them.
(08:32):
So there was no variance with that.
And I think that might be just the way they like to play, bring everything onto the table and away we go.
But i don't mind some variance between missions so
you know for example compulsory reserves in one
mission no reserves in another and maybe a
deployment in another sort of you know throwing
throwing it all out there with all sorts of different types
(08:54):
of i guess deployment but yeah
it was it was really good pack i liked it nice and
what about the danish nationals because that was one we were keen to get to
but unfortunately it was arranged for a weekend where we had a tournament in
britain and so we couldn't get over for it so i'm very keen to find out if it
if it's one that's worth traveling across the border for yeah i think so i mean if i if i live there i'd go.
(09:21):
Yeah i mean i live i live in australia and i went so,
no yeah definitely i thought it
was it was very well put together and very
professional the venue it was fantastic a lot of
space was sort of in like a community hall
but like it's sort of on one of those indoor basketball courts
so it was quite easy to fit the 22 odd tables or whatever that there was in
(09:47):
there and plenty of space to put your army next to your table and all that kind
of stuff the pack was had a bit of variance to it all the missions were different
you know i think I think there was a deployment mission, one prep bomb mission,
you know, two sort of like an outflanking, a no outflanking mission,
an outflanking mission, an outflanking mission.
(10:08):
You know, a couple of forward deployment missions, a couple that you couldn't,
just really good variance with that.
But it was also single platoon, which was interesting.
But yeah, as you can probably tell, I kind of like having a bit of a difference, you know.
Yeah, different point values, different options in how you build a list and
all that kind of stuff that makes you sort of have to think a little bit more.
(10:30):
So the Danish nationals, is it 1,200 points? Was that right?
Yeah, 1,200 single platoon. and then they
also had in there which was interesting you couldn't
have more than two of the same unit yeah if
you had a major major nation i think
the miners were the only exception to the rule okay but
yeah if you you could only have have two of one
(10:52):
unit type or entry so that
was that was interesting i guess just sort of that is interesting yeah
yeah probably more limited people wanting to maybe
take four squads of gherkas or four
squads of assault engineers with body armor
or something well i was just thinking that could you take two
squads of paragurkas and two squads of on the
(11:14):
ground normal gherkas yeah i i think i think quite a few people had that same
question um leading up to it but it was sort of with the gherkas specifically
i think I think it was ruled that you could only have two Gurkha units,
period. Of any sort, yeah.
Because there weren't many British lists, were there, at the Danish nationals?
(11:35):
I did watch some of the videos of Vogue, and it was noticeable that there really
weren't many Brits there at all.
No, you're right. I didn't face any, actually. Oh, wow.
Out of five games, I didn't see a single one. And I remember even walking around
to the tables, the armies when they're all on parade and stuff,
and I didn't really see too many Brits getting around. I'm not sure if that was the reason why.
(11:57):
I think maybe all the British players decided to play Italians because there
was like a quarter of the field was Italian.
So maybe all the British players are also Italian players. I don't know.
Yeah, they are involved at the moment, aren't they?
Absolutely yeah oh yes oh yes definitely
in fact and so a cavalry i think
(12:19):
i saw more cavalry on the table than i've seen in my
whole life that was interesting nice so you played soviets at both not five
sets back and danish nationals is that right yeah yeah yeah i kind of figured
i'd have to use the same army probably gonna make it a bit hard to transport
more than one across so just for But that purpose alone,
(12:40):
I pigeonholed myself into the Soviets, I guess.
I figured they're kind of pretty, they give you a lot of variety.
So I thought it's going to probably give me a good mix between the two different
sort of events I was playing.
So that's kind of why I went with the Soviets.
Yeah. What are you running in your Soviet platoon? So I had,
(13:00):
they're actually quite different, the lists from both the events.
Well had a couple of trucks only one
dog 19 in both actually okay a
couple a couple of engineers i didn't have
a katusha i had one stewart i had
the pren carriers but as recce
(13:21):
carriers not transports interesting okay
yeah it is i don't really see it see them
used that way too much most people do the whole and engineers but yeah and with
two light machine guns on your recce carriers yeah yeah nice two light machine
guns recce open top yeah i i quite like them even the open top doesn't really
bother me too much i don't think open top's that bad to be honest.
(13:45):
That's sort of like if someone's going to choose to shoot
at a you know an open top vehicle with their entire squad full
of rifles just to put a pin on it so be it yeah exactly yeah
i don't think it's the worst i don't think it really comes
up all that much yeah well it casualties you're
not taken elsewhere so i totally agree yeah exactly
yeah yeah a couple of transports i
(14:08):
actually had a storm group squad which i've never used before i
had that probably my that was probably my best unit across
the two events to be honest oh really what does that
what include the storm group squad for anyone who doesn't play
soviets yeah so the storm group squad is a
it's just a squad that comes with smgs
you don't get any other options i think you can
(14:30):
give them any tank grenades maybe i didn't
do that they're already expensive enough as it is i think
they come in at they already start at 16 points and then i think they're another
i think they're like either 17 or 18 points a man okay so yeah they're quite
expensive they're kind of i guess they're trying to do a similar thing to gherkas
(14:50):
but they're just not as good as gherkas and doing that and they're more more
expensive than Gurkha's, so go figure.
But no, the one benefit they do have, though, is a rule called arm to the teeth and that is,
means that if they initiate the close quarters, they always get to roll first, no matter what.
So that doesn't matter if the enemy unit is in a building, if you've crossed
(15:11):
rough ground, if you're crossing an obstacle or they're defending a wood or ruin or whatever.
If you initiate the combat, then you always roll first, which is nice.
So Aaron, I listened to the episode with Brad on the official Warlords podcast
about CanCon and in the messages to us as well,
you said that you how you play soviets
(15:33):
or how you view soviets is maybe not in line with what other
people might might say is the meta so be interested to hear your
thoughts on that and also what you saw both both at
cancon and also at the danish nationals the jugger pack may may change things
a little bit because of the selections there but certainly with cancon and danish
nationals where it is the standard platoon structure what your take is on on
(15:54):
what what works for you and what you've seen that that also work that you might
want to try from from playing over here Yeah, for sure.
I think the main things that we see, I guess, with meta is that it's really
dependent on the pack, I think, first of all, and the limitations that are put
in, depending on the event.
So at CanCon, the main limits were around multi-launchers and flamethrowers.
(16:19):
I think Gurkhas were limited to two, flamethrowers limited to two,
multi-launchers were initially limited to two.
And i think maybe even cav were
limited to three and bamboo spearfighters were
limited to two or three as well i mean
look i actually don't rate bamboo spearfighters anyway so that's
a bit of a meh limitation in my opinion multi-launchers you probably don't need
(16:43):
any more than one anyway so limit on two yeah it is what it is and i think flamethrowers
are starting to get a bit out of favor as well anyway so i think we're sort
of seeing them getting used less and less or at at least in mass, I think.
Johnny may disagree here, but... Oh, okay, Johnny, yep.
That's actually the point that I've made numerous times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(17:04):
It's since that FAQ where you've got fanatic ignores flamethrowers.
If you play a barbecue list, you've actually, in competitive environments,
often created sort of a handicap for yourself because your only weapon for deleting
squads, they're immune to.
And so I absolutely agree that in a competitive environment.
Flamethrowers very much are not in vogue at the moment,
(17:25):
but in a thematic tournament they are a
little bit powerful and so i totally understand why people
are banning them even though they're not the be all and end all
anymore yeah i think the way especially too now that
italians have been you've got the black
shirts getting around in mass or at least i
saw a lot of black shirts the danish nationals there
was like eight italian players and there was a lot of
(17:48):
black shirts so there's just some more free fanatic getting around as well
yeah that's going to be quite popular and free fanatic
tough fighters as well so if your flamethrower doesn't finish
the job it's it's probably going to get charged the
next turn by tough fighter fanatic veterans i think
though with the with the flamethrowers the the
problem i find with having too
(18:09):
many flamethrowers in a list is the fanatics is
one thing but i also think the the bigger challenge is
that you find yourself in a position where you can no
longer have moves that you want to make in
a game and it's usually around the middle
of the game generally between dice four and
dice 12 i find so it's
(18:30):
you know you find yourself in that position where it's like i've done
a bit of playing around only in casual games but where it's
like i've got five for example just four or
five engineers in in brands or trucks and
i can't actually do anything because if i move this
bread up right now then it's going to
get killed or this truck's going to get killed because he's still got 10.
(18:51):
Dice and the stuff i want to move at doesn't but.
When you've only got sort of one flamethrower or two flamethrowers i
think the dice priority is is nice you get to use it
at the start of the turn when you want or you get to use it at the end of the
turn when you want where there's not as much threat or you're already on top
of the enemy and you want that first dice but i think when you when there's
like seven or eight flamethrowers these these units and they're only good at
(19:13):
three inches or six but sometimes six isn't even enough you really want want
to try and get to that three.
So, I don't know. I find it's also a problem of dice priority,
if that makes sense. I find just from.
From playing around with it but yeah i think sorry
getting a bit off topic the meta in
in australia yeah i think there tends to be a few
(19:35):
limitations on things so we won't see as many
maybe skew lists if that makes sense it's
that random list that you might see in an event that's just got seven multi-launchers
in there they're not going to win obviously they might
have a game or two where they unfortunately kill a
bunch of someone's units and they're probably not too happy about it
yeah so we might not see those sort of
(19:57):
sort of lists as much but i don't know i don't feel
like it's super super different okay maybe
a little bit i think the main thing i find is
that a lot of people like the the historical
aspect so even though they might be trying
to play competitively they will want to build a
force that is at least historical per day i think we
(20:18):
see that a bit more down here so they don't
necessarily go to the event being like i just just want to play my
historical list that is you know out of
this movie or this book that i read or whatever but it's like
i'm at least not going to mix panzerfaust and dogmine
teams yeah yeah which is that's the rule
i broke okay in europe it was the first time i'd done it i've only ever played
(20:39):
lists that were at least historical to the either the the the front yeah and
the year so still building them competitively but now i broke that rule in in
europe i thought okay maybe Maybe I'm going to throw that rule out the window
and I'm going to use Panzerfaust and Dogmines.
Which would have never seen the same battlefield.
That's funny because I don't know anyone doing that over here. Oh, really?
(21:02):
It's never even crossed my mind. We always see people with Panzerfaust and Dogmines
at the competitive tournaments.
I don't know anyone who's setting that restriction on themselves in a competitive tournament.
In theatrical, yes. But in the competitive, people tend to just forget the history quite a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, gloves are off and take what you want. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so I think there was a bit of that. And that's probably the main difference,
(21:25):
I think, down here, that it's sort of just – it's not a rule. It's not in the pack.
It's probably just that unspoken thing that it's like, I don't want to be that guy.
I don't know. Maybe it's just, we're just a bit weird down here.
But yeah, look now, when in Rome, so as you said, Johnny, I took the gloves off.
(21:47):
Yeah, because you often hear, if you listen to Bo, and Bo's analysis of the
WTC list being a good example,
where the whole inexperienced medium
mortar versus regular mortar with a spotter i don't think
it's a thing it's it's been made into a thing that in
the uk we always take medium mortars with spotters and on the
on the continent they always take inexperienced medium mortars i don't think
(22:08):
that's true to be fair you often hear that the us lists are
maybe slightly lower in the number of order dice and they might be tending towards
maybe some heavier tanks so maybe seeing more more armor
value nine tanks etc so there are there is sort of
views out there that certain countries or certain
groups of countries play in certain ways and
the meta to shift in certain ways i think the point you made earlier aaron is is
(22:29):
absolutely relevant which is it's the pack that shifts it rather than
the country if that makes sense because you can have so many different
events within one country where the pack is
different and it's going to shift from from event to event and pack
to pack rather than it being the uk way of playing the continental way of playing
the australian way of playing the us way of playing yeah that's a really good
point definitely for sure that probably sums up my thoughts on it perfectly
(22:53):
i think you know we've We've sort of got maybe two super competitive events down here.
I mean, the Canberra one being one of them. And yeah, both of those people sort
of, it's like, yeah, no one cares. Everyone knows what to expect.
It is what it is. You're coming to that event to obviously play competitive,
gloves off, whatever analogy it is.
And then every other event outside of those two is probably a bit more competitive.
(23:17):
Maybe try and stay to the the date of
the theme or or whatever where do you guys sit on
the inexperienced mortiverse regular mortar spotter debate
for me it does depend it depends on how
many points i've got so if i have the points then i
will pay for the regular with the spotter it depends if
it's single platoon and dual platoon so if i if i'm
(23:37):
playing single platoon and i haven't got a lot of he because i've only got
you know one artillery piece one one mortar and maybe he
available through the tank i'm probably more likely to
put in a mortar with a spotter in order to
preserve that he whereas if i'm playing dual platoon and
i've maybe got more access to he i might throw in a couple
of inexperienced mortars and not worry if i lose them because it's only 35 points
(23:58):
so i don't i don't have a hard and fast rule which is always
inexperienced or always regular with a spotter it again it's
going to depend on the restrictions and so on and might might depend
on the you know the list as well i'm playing around with an idea at the
moment which is very very he heavy and therefore i don't
really care if i've got a spotter or not because i've got more than one
or more than two pieces of he in that list if whereas
(24:18):
if i'm playing with a list that i've only got you know at the most two
pieces of he because my tank is a is mg heavy
and is anti-infantry i want to keep hold of
my he so i probably will spend the points on on the spotter yeah
and from my perspective it depends on which
nation i'm going for basically i'm playing the fins they'll be
taking a regular with a spotter because they're very.
(24:41):
Much sort of a skirmish you sort of your traditional infantry
squads moving up and then the the motors at the back and again it's just it
does fit that army and the low dice count of it when i'm playing something like
the us i try to push the dice count because i'm trying to get first dice in
the middle of the game and so with those armies i always go inexperienced because
(25:01):
Because those extra points allow me to have extra dice.
Which allows me to get the higher chance of getting the first dice when I need it.
Because usually around turn three, the way I play, there's a key moment at the
start of turn three where I need first dice.
And if I don't get at least the third dice, the game's over, basically.
But my more controversial opinion is that I would never take a medium motor.
If possible, I always take a heavy. I don't see a value in the medium motor because...
(25:26):
Doesn't delete a squad in a single hit so you finally
get that six or the four whatever you needed and you kill two or three men and
the squad just moves away next turn whereas the heavy i find deletes units and
also is a credible threat to tanks and so i'd always go inexperienced heavy
unless i'm playing something like the fins and then i'll go regular heavy with the spotter,
(25:48):
interesting very interesting okay do you sit on
the medium with a spotter is that your viewpoint point
i've never used an inexperienced
mortar of any kind interesting i personally don't
i don't see the value in them but i do
sit on the fence well i sit on the side of the fence of the heavy mortar i do
(26:09):
really like a heavy mortar if i can get one in i will and i agree it is a credible
fit against vehicles especially those sort of armor seven and eights that you
see yeah and like you you know, there's a lot of eights, right?
Like eights are very, very common tank. And the thing I like about using the
mortar on it, especially like a Stuart, is it becomes a four.
(26:31):
So you only need, you're 50% chance of glancing when you hit,
but you're forcing that tank to go early in the turn.
If you've rolled the six and then the next turn, or sorry, if you missed the
six in the first go, they're probably going to want to either recce,
right? On a five and a six, that's risky.
They don't want to lose that Stuart to just a random mortar shot
got the first dice out of the bag so i find they're
(26:54):
either wrecking or they're using their tank so they can move with
the first dice and you're forcing that stewart to move and then
shoot at something and waste its shots because that's gonna
shoot at stuff that can still go down so i do really
like that with the heavy mortar i do agree i used
a medium i think i used the heavy heavy mortar
and at the danish event and then the medium at not
(27:16):
five steps back but both head spotters yeah i'm not
sure i can but i think
the big thing for me with the with me saying the inexperience is
when i'm going for sort of the high dice count armies is
because it's target saturation you've got
that many other things for them that they need to be worried about
that actually often the motor it's far enough away
(27:36):
and it's behind cover it's very low priority compared
to i don't know the the ranger squad that's right
on top of your sniper or your your flamethrower in the truck that's right
on top of you the the motor kind of gets forgotten about and so it can
afford to be inexperienced in the back lines and that's why
i will go regular with the spot if it's low dice count because actually
if they've got the same or more dice than me they can afford to spend a few
(27:57):
turns just plinking at the motor yeah yeah it's interesting i mean i think that
there could still be some value out of them but i i've never i've never forced
myself to try and find that value it's a good way of putting it yeah cool okay
so what's What's next for you then, Aaron?
You said you've got an event coming up, hopefully, in a month or so.
And then any more plans to go anywhere else overseas and play?
(28:20):
Yeah, maybe got a bit of an itch for it. Well, we've got one in Brisbane here,
which is like our BrizCon, which is sort of the main event in Queensland.
I think it's already sold out. I don't know if I'll be able to get a ticket.
But otherwise, the next one won't be until like September, which is Moab.
And that's sort of our secondary competitive event as well.
(28:40):
It always gets big numbers and that's in Sydney. So that would probably be the next one locally.
As far as international goes, I'm not too sure.
Sure love to try and get a team together for either you
know the wtc or world open war i think
based on the dates for us maybe the
wtc lines up better i think that's
(29:01):
around someone did tell me
the dates the end end of april next year it's pushed
pushed back yeah yeah from where it was this year yeah
so i think at the moment just with with dates and
times yeah we'll probably need a bit of time to
pull a team together and organize stuff and book
flights and get all that sorted but if we can that would
(29:21):
probably be then maybe the next time i play overseas
unless i maybe come over for i don't know
english gt or something or maybe america
flights for america a bit cheaper so i was sort of looking and
seeing when their sort of bigger events are on
but yeah the wtcs would be
great it'd be great to get a team together and get some representation from
(29:44):
from from down under and i think we're
edging close to that there's been some interest
so yeah if you're listening like reach out
guys and let's get let's get this happening so we can get another another country
representing it at at the event it'd be cool definitely um so that's sort of
what we're going on hopefully yeah and i know russell's very keen for an australian
(30:10):
team to turn up at at some point at World Open War, which is the end of October.
So if anyone is listening and those dates work better for you.
Give us a shout or give Russell Wright a shout.
He'd be more than happy to put you in as a team. Absolutely, yeah.
I think there's a contingent in WA that's also trying to do that.
I mean, I'd be definitely open to trying to make that happen as well.
(30:33):
It's just a bit sooner and I'm not sure just based on the interest that so far
if we can, if we'll have enough in October,
yeah either or whatever works we're keen i'm kidding we can get one.
It was really fun but both events and they
were really well run and yeah it's like oh don't you don't know or there might
(30:55):
be that unknown you know what are the players going to be like but like at the
end of the day we're all just sort of nerds playing with toys soldiers all enjoying
the same game right like yeah yeah but yeah it was super fun really well well done well run yeah Yeah,
the Juggernaut guys, they all did a fantastic job.
Tove, Pete, Dan, Spurly did a tremendous job. And Bo and the team in Denmark
(31:17):
did a really good job as well.
And all my opponents were fantastic. It was really good to have a bit of fun.
And I think playing against someone that's from a different country adds a bit
more to it as well, doesn't it? Like it's just kind of adds another element.
It's like, oh, this is exciting, which you guys probably are already.
Really yeah it's something we both said after
(31:39):
world open war and wtc like you said yeah
the the banter's the same you know we're all playing the same
game we're all nerds pushing toy soldiers around but there is
an element where you're playing against someone from a different country it it's
you know it's exciting it's different it's a change etc but there's
a common ground and you know the game is the game and there
might be some rules interpretations that differ from from one country
(31:59):
to another but they're not a massive they're a massive stumbling block
or anything yeah no it's it's a really good way to
put it i think well thank you for taking the time to join us
and talk through your experiences playing bolt action in
multiple countries your little world tour yeah congratulations
again aaron yeah well done for you know three three
you know major events and winning all three which is fantastic thanks for
(32:21):
joining us as well and and also hopefully people have listened to this and
and are inspired to you know to look outside of their local local country or
local area and get and play overseas it's something we've talked talked about
a lot over the last few months and you know hopefully if we can get the dates
lined up where we're not committed to other events we will be you know jumping
over to the continent at some point later on this year fantastic well thank
you for listening ta-ta for now.
(32:45):
Music.
Music.
(00:08):
Welcome to Tabletop Tommies. I'm Johnny and I'm Phil and in today's episode
we're going to be talking about the international meta, the differences we see
in the way vault action is played in many different countries.
In order to discuss that, we do have a very special guest on.
Phil, would you like to introduce our special guest for the episode?
(00:28):
Yeah, so we're joined today by Aaron Russell, who's joining us through the magic
of the internet from Australia. He recently won CanCon.
He's also been over in the UK, played in Not Five Steps Back,
which he won, and he also played last weekend in the Danish Nationals, which he also won.
So we thought it'd be great to hear from Aaron, somebody who's played overseas
and also won three highly competitive events over the last few weeks.
(00:52):
So welcome, Aaron. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks, Phil.
Thanks, Jonny. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. So you won CanCon.
How did that come about? And what nation were you playing?
Many questions about that. yeah yeah well yeah so
cancon is for those i guess that that may may not
know we're probably often in our own little world down here
but it's our biggest sort of
(01:13):
national event but i have actually played in that the last
three years but this year i took romanians just for something different okay
nice and yeah they they were they were a bit of fun actually i've i've had the
army for a while i just haven't haven't played it in any sort of big events
or anything but i thought I thought I'd pull them out and give them a whirl.
(01:35):
Were you playing Axis or allied Romanians there? I was actually playing Axis,
and I was just using their standard sort of army list rules.
I wasn't using anything out of Case Blue.
I mean, there's some nice little rules in there, but, yeah, I mean,
I hadn't really explored that.
And I think they were only released, like, just before CanCon, I believe, from memory.
(01:59):
But yeah, so I didn't sort of whip them out, but yeah, just the tried and true
Romanians with the free howitzer and that's about it actually. But yeah. Yeah.
Very impressive. Winning a major competition with OG Romanians.
How many players were at CanCon? I think we started with 72 and then by the
(02:22):
time it ran, the field dropped down to 60 something.
In 60s i think it was which is typical
of you know i guess most events but even sort of your larger ones you're going
to have some people drop away yeah you know due to getting the getting the flu
or something you know coming up at the last minute or whatever but uh yeah it
(02:43):
is our biggest event so we in terms of numbers we'll get more numbers to to
cancun than i think any other.
Event in in the country and am i right in saying it was the same weekend as
the wtc in Granada, the first weekend in February.
Yeah, did that cross over with the last weekend in Jan as well?
Was it the exact same one? Yes, it was basically that week, wasn't it?
(03:03):
So if you – because obviously there wasn't an Australian team in Granada.
No. I wonder to what extent that was partly due to CanCon being held in Australia
because it's your national weekend, isn't it?
It's the same weekend as Australian weekend and so on. So it's a big celebration,
is that right? Yeah, Australia Day weekend.
So, yeah, you're bang on. It'd be pretty hard for us to try and put a team together,
(03:27):
I think, on that same weekend for both of those reasons.
Yeah. But yeah, we always sort of line it up with whenever the Australia Day
public holiday is. So it's sort of that long weekend.
That way people can travel there from whatever state they're coming from.
And they've got that sort of extra day to get home with the Monday being the
public holiday and that.
So it usually works out pretty good because it's always a sort of two-day event.
(03:50):
So just especially for those people coming into state. and this
year we think we had a couple coming came all the way over from
from wa which is almost like
a totally different country yeah brilliant okay and so then how was it two couple
of weeks later you jumped on the plane and came over to the uk and then europe
(04:10):
yeah so about a about a month month later jumped on a plane and headed on over
to to england i think when i when i hopped.
When i hopped on the plane it was 37 degrees and then when i hopped off in london
it was about two that was a bit of a shock to the system that's for sure sure
yeah welcome to england in march yeah.
(04:34):
And because you you've messaged us last year asking
about events coming up in the uk and so i understand originally
you were planning to play in the the event up in stockport which
was the thousand pound prize prize money event but that obviously got
cancelled fairly fairly close to the weekend itself is
that right yeah so i was sort of pretty keen to play some
events i guess out of the
(04:56):
country and obviously with like some big
team international events sort of picking getting a bit
of traction over the last couple years obviously we don't have
any representation but more than that i think it
was just sort of good to get a bit of a feel for it and i was due for a holiday anyway so
i kind of meshed it all into one yeah but i
also didn't really know what what sort of events might
(05:16):
have been i figured obviously there was all the sort of national events
or gts that all the countries had but i'd want to sort of
line up maybe get a few in so yeah that's when i
reached out to you guys i probably started upping my
uh i guess intake or how much
uh how many bolt action podcasts i was
consuming um but obviously stuff before and it's
(05:36):
great and love the accents as well so that that
makes it easy listening but yeah no so
i i wanted to see let's see what was out there and i thought that might be a
big event and sort of pull pull through yeah which was okay i was sort of able
to troubleshoot and ended up going to juggernaut event in nottingham and then
(05:58):
also um the danish nationals as well.
And which i was sort of always going to anyway yeah yeah
it was it was uh that's good so obviously not
five steps back was the juggernaut event played with the juggernaut
pack as was that the first event you'd been to where the
juggernaut pack had been used or were you used to that is that something that's
played back in australia no it was definitely the
(06:19):
first time i've been to event like
that and same with the missions i think all the missions i'd
only played out of the mission all
the missions like actually i don't think i've played any of them before and a
lot of the pack was i was actually really underprepared for
that event okay and i found myself having to
to check the pack like two minutes before every game to
(06:40):
work out what mission we were implying what the rules were what we were doing
how we scored objectives and obviously you know different packs different countries
different states the some of the things change right and we we change we even
change the the rules of how an objective could be scored or or what could even contest an objective.
That seems to differ from pack to pack and place to place. And they're important things.
(07:04):
So I'm sort of mid-game finding myself having to ask the TO just to confirm
how an objective is actually scored.
Because, yeah, I hadn't played any sort of the missions in the pack,
but I actually quite liked it, to be honest.
We often find in the UK, in terms
of, say, objectives, some people play it three inches from the middle.
Some people will play it touching the objective. objective and then there's
(07:24):
that difference between you know for example does a a
transport with an inventory unit count as being able to control and all that
sort of stuff so even in the uk not necessarily just between different countries
different tos run their events in different ways so yeah i'm not surprised to
hear that you know in terms of objectives and scoring and that kind of thing
you had to had to check during the game let alone before before the game started,
(07:45):
yeah i just wanted to make sure i was doing it right because there'd be nothing
worse than and thinking you've got all the objectives scored and only to find
out, you know, at the end of the game when you're calculating everything that, in fact, no.
That tank doesn't contest or that infantry actually needed to be touching the
objective or, you know, whatever.
(08:06):
So, yeah, just a few things, but...
Yeah, I did quite like it, actually. I thought the pack was good.
I thought it was a fairly sort of balanced selector. I think the Juggernaut selector it's called.
And the missions were all good. The only thing I will say about the missions
that I didn't like was that they all had almost identical deployment and setup with them.
(08:32):
So there was no variance with that.
And I think that might be just the way they like to play, bring everything onto the table and away we go.
But i don't mind some variance between missions so
you know for example compulsory reserves in one
mission no reserves in another and maybe a
deployment in another sort of you know throwing
throwing it all out there with all sorts of different types
(08:54):
of i guess deployment but yeah
it was it was really good pack i liked it nice and
what about the danish nationals because that was one we were keen to get to
but unfortunately it was arranged for a weekend where we had a tournament in
britain and so we couldn't get over for it so i'm very keen to find out if it
if it's one that's worth traveling across the border for yeah i think so i mean if i if i live there i'd go.
(09:21):
Yeah i mean i live i live in australia and i went so,
no yeah definitely i thought it
was it was very well put together and very
professional the venue it was fantastic a lot of
space was sort of in like a community hall
but like it's sort of on one of those indoor basketball courts
so it was quite easy to fit the 22 odd tables or whatever that there was in
(09:47):
there and plenty of space to put your army next to your table and all that kind
of stuff the pack was had a bit of variance to it all the missions were different
you know i think I think there was a deployment mission, one prep bomb mission,
you know, two sort of like an outflanking, a no outflanking mission,
an outflanking mission, an outflanking mission.
(10:08):
You know, a couple of forward deployment missions, a couple that you couldn't,
just really good variance with that.
But it was also single platoon, which was interesting.
But yeah, as you can probably tell, I kind of like having a bit of a difference, you know.
Yeah, different point values, different options in how you build a list and
all that kind of stuff that makes you sort of have to think a little bit more.
(10:30):
So the Danish nationals, is it 1,200 points? Was that right?
Yeah, 1,200 single platoon. and then they
also had in there which was interesting you couldn't
have more than two of the same unit yeah if
you had a major major nation i think
the miners were the only exception to the rule okay but
yeah if you you could only have have two of one
(10:52):
unit type or entry so that
was that was interesting i guess just sort of that is interesting yeah
yeah probably more limited people wanting to maybe
take four squads of gherkas or four
squads of assault engineers with body armor
or something well i was just thinking that could you take two
squads of paragurkas and two squads of on the
(11:14):
ground normal gherkas yeah i i think i think quite a few people had that same
question um leading up to it but it was sort of with the gherkas specifically
i think I think it was ruled that you could only have two Gurkha units,
period. Of any sort, yeah.
Because there weren't many British lists, were there, at the Danish nationals?
(11:35):
I did watch some of the videos of Vogue, and it was noticeable that there really
weren't many Brits there at all.
No, you're right. I didn't face any, actually. Oh, wow.
Out of five games, I didn't see a single one. And I remember even walking around
to the tables, the armies when they're all on parade and stuff,
and I didn't really see too many Brits getting around. I'm not sure if that was the reason why.
(11:57):
I think maybe all the British players decided to play Italians because there
was like a quarter of the field was Italian.
So maybe all the British players are also Italian players. I don't know.
Yeah, they are involved at the moment, aren't they?
Absolutely yeah oh yes oh yes definitely
in fact and so a cavalry i think
(12:19):
i saw more cavalry on the table than i've seen in my
whole life that was interesting nice so you played soviets at both not five
sets back and danish nationals is that right yeah yeah yeah i kind of figured
i'd have to use the same army probably gonna make it a bit hard to transport
more than one across so just for But that purpose alone,
(12:40):
I pigeonholed myself into the Soviets, I guess.
I figured they're kind of pretty, they give you a lot of variety.
So I thought it's going to probably give me a good mix between the two different
sort of events I was playing.
So that's kind of why I went with the Soviets.
Yeah. What are you running in your Soviet platoon? So I had,
(13:00):
they're actually quite different, the lists from both the events.
Well had a couple of trucks only one
dog 19 in both actually okay a
couple a couple of engineers i didn't have
a katusha i had one stewart i had
the pren carriers but as recce
(13:21):
carriers not transports interesting okay
yeah it is i don't really see it see them
used that way too much most people do the whole and engineers but yeah and with
two light machine guns on your recce carriers yeah yeah nice two light machine
guns recce open top yeah i i quite like them even the open top doesn't really
bother me too much i don't think open top's that bad to be honest.
(13:45):
That's sort of like if someone's going to choose to shoot
at a you know an open top vehicle with their entire squad full
of rifles just to put a pin on it so be it yeah exactly yeah
i don't think it's the worst i don't think it really comes
up all that much yeah well it casualties you're
not taken elsewhere so i totally agree yeah exactly
yeah yeah a couple of transports i
(14:08):
actually had a storm group squad which i've never used before i
had that probably my that was probably my best unit across
the two events to be honest oh really what does that
what include the storm group squad for anyone who doesn't play
soviets yeah so the storm group squad is a
it's just a squad that comes with smgs
you don't get any other options i think you can
(14:30):
give them any tank grenades maybe i didn't
do that they're already expensive enough as it is i think
they come in at they already start at 16 points and then i think they're another
i think they're like either 17 or 18 points a man okay so yeah they're quite
expensive they're kind of i guess they're trying to do a similar thing to gherkas
(14:50):
but they're just not as good as gherkas and doing that and they're more more
expensive than Gurkha's, so go figure.
But no, the one benefit they do have, though, is a rule called arm to the teeth and that is,
means that if they initiate the close quarters, they always get to roll first, no matter what.
So that doesn't matter if the enemy unit is in a building, if you've crossed
(15:11):
rough ground, if you're crossing an obstacle or they're defending a wood or ruin or whatever.
If you initiate the combat, then you always roll first, which is nice.
So Aaron, I listened to the episode with Brad on the official Warlords podcast
about CanCon and in the messages to us as well,
you said that you how you play soviets
(15:33):
or how you view soviets is maybe not in line with what other
people might might say is the meta so be interested to hear your
thoughts on that and also what you saw both both at
cancon and also at the danish nationals the jugger pack may may change things
a little bit because of the selections there but certainly with cancon and danish
nationals where it is the standard platoon structure what your take is on on
(15:54):
what what works for you and what you've seen that that also work that you might
want to try from from playing over here Yeah, for sure.
I think the main things that we see, I guess, with meta is that it's really
dependent on the pack, I think, first of all, and the limitations that are put
in, depending on the event.
So at CanCon, the main limits were around multi-launchers and flamethrowers.
(16:19):
I think Gurkhas were limited to two, flamethrowers limited to two,
multi-launchers were initially limited to two.
And i think maybe even cav were
limited to three and bamboo spearfighters were
limited to two or three as well i mean
look i actually don't rate bamboo spearfighters anyway so that's
a bit of a meh limitation in my opinion multi-launchers you probably don't need
(16:43):
any more than one anyway so limit on two yeah it is what it is and i think flamethrowers
are starting to get a bit out of favor as well anyway so i think we're sort
of seeing them getting used less and less or at at least in mass, I think.
Johnny may disagree here, but... Oh, okay, Johnny, yep.
That's actually the point that I've made numerous times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(17:04):
It's since that FAQ where you've got fanatic ignores flamethrowers.
If you play a barbecue list, you've actually, in competitive environments,
often created sort of a handicap for yourself because your only weapon for deleting
squads, they're immune to.
And so I absolutely agree that in a competitive environment.
Flamethrowers very much are not in vogue at the moment,
(17:25):
but in a thematic tournament they are a
little bit powerful and so i totally understand why people
are banning them even though they're not the be all and end all
anymore yeah i think the way especially too now that
italians have been you've got the black
shirts getting around in mass or at least i
saw a lot of black shirts the danish nationals there
was like eight italian players and there was a lot of
(17:48):
black shirts so there's just some more free fanatic getting around as well
yeah that's going to be quite popular and free fanatic
tough fighters as well so if your flamethrower doesn't finish
the job it's it's probably going to get charged the
next turn by tough fighter fanatic veterans i think
though with the with the flamethrowers the the
problem i find with having too
(18:09):
many flamethrowers in a list is the fanatics is
one thing but i also think the the bigger challenge is
that you find yourself in a position where you can no
longer have moves that you want to make in
a game and it's usually around the middle
of the game generally between dice four and
dice 12 i find so it's
(18:30):
you know you find yourself in that position where it's like i've done
a bit of playing around only in casual games but where it's
like i've got five for example just four or
five engineers in in brands or trucks and
i can't actually do anything because if i move this
bread up right now then it's going to
get killed or this truck's going to get killed because he's still got 10.
(18:51):
Dice and the stuff i want to move at doesn't but.
When you've only got sort of one flamethrower or two flamethrowers i
think the dice priority is is nice you get to use it
at the start of the turn when you want or you get to use it at the end of the
turn when you want where there's not as much threat or you're already on top
of the enemy and you want that first dice but i think when you when there's
like seven or eight flamethrowers these these units and they're only good at
(19:13):
three inches or six but sometimes six isn't even enough you really want want
to try and get to that three.
So, I don't know. I find it's also a problem of dice priority,
if that makes sense. I find just from.
From playing around with it but yeah i think sorry
getting a bit off topic the meta in
in australia yeah i think there tends to be a few
(19:35):
limitations on things so we won't see as many
maybe skew lists if that makes sense it's
that random list that you might see in an event that's just got seven multi-launchers
in there they're not going to win obviously they might
have a game or two where they unfortunately kill a
bunch of someone's units and they're probably not too happy about it
yeah so we might not see those sort of
(19:57):
sort of lists as much but i don't know i don't feel
like it's super super different okay maybe
a little bit i think the main thing i find is
that a lot of people like the the historical
aspect so even though they might be trying
to play competitively they will want to build a
force that is at least historical per day i think we
(20:18):
see that a bit more down here so they don't
necessarily go to the event being like i just just want to play my
historical list that is you know out of
this movie or this book that i read or whatever but it's like
i'm at least not going to mix panzerfaust and dogmine
teams yeah yeah which is that's the rule
i broke okay in europe it was the first time i'd done it i've only ever played
(20:39):
lists that were at least historical to the either the the the front yeah and
the year so still building them competitively but now i broke that rule in in
europe i thought okay maybe Maybe I'm going to throw that rule out the window
and I'm going to use Panzerfaust and Dogmines.
Which would have never seen the same battlefield.
That's funny because I don't know anyone doing that over here. Oh, really?
(21:02):
It's never even crossed my mind. We always see people with Panzerfaust and Dogmines
at the competitive tournaments.
I don't know anyone who's setting that restriction on themselves in a competitive tournament.
In theatrical, yes. But in the competitive, people tend to just forget the history quite a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, gloves are off and take what you want. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so I think there was a bit of that. And that's probably the main difference,
(21:25):
I think, down here, that it's sort of just – it's not a rule. It's not in the pack.
It's probably just that unspoken thing that it's like, I don't want to be that guy.
I don't know. Maybe it's just, we're just a bit weird down here.
But yeah, look now, when in Rome, so as you said, Johnny, I took the gloves off.
(21:47):
Yeah, because you often hear, if you listen to Bo, and Bo's analysis of the
WTC list being a good example,
where the whole inexperienced medium
mortar versus regular mortar with a spotter i don't think
it's a thing it's it's been made into a thing that in
the uk we always take medium mortars with spotters and on the
on the continent they always take inexperienced medium mortars i don't think
(22:08):
that's true to be fair you often hear that the us lists are
maybe slightly lower in the number of order dice and they might be tending towards
maybe some heavier tanks so maybe seeing more more armor
value nine tanks etc so there are there is sort of
views out there that certain countries or certain
groups of countries play in certain ways and
the meta to shift in certain ways i think the point you made earlier aaron is is
(22:29):
absolutely relevant which is it's the pack that shifts it rather than
the country if that makes sense because you can have so many different
events within one country where the pack is
different and it's going to shift from from event to event and pack
to pack rather than it being the uk way of playing the continental way of playing
the australian way of playing the us way of playing yeah that's a really good
point definitely for sure that probably sums up my thoughts on it perfectly
(22:53):
i think you know we've We've sort of got maybe two super competitive events down here.
I mean, the Canberra one being one of them. And yeah, both of those people sort
of, it's like, yeah, no one cares. Everyone knows what to expect.
It is what it is. You're coming to that event to obviously play competitive,
gloves off, whatever analogy it is.
And then every other event outside of those two is probably a bit more competitive.
(23:17):
Maybe try and stay to the the date of
the theme or or whatever where do you guys sit on
the inexperienced mortiverse regular mortar spotter debate
for me it does depend it depends on how
many points i've got so if i have the points then i
will pay for the regular with the spotter it depends if
it's single platoon and dual platoon so if i if i'm
(23:37):
playing single platoon and i haven't got a lot of he because i've only got
you know one artillery piece one one mortar and maybe he
available through the tank i'm probably more likely to
put in a mortar with a spotter in order to
preserve that he whereas if i'm playing dual platoon and
i've maybe got more access to he i might throw in a couple
of inexperienced mortars and not worry if i lose them because it's only 35 points
(23:58):
so i don't i don't have a hard and fast rule which is always
inexperienced or always regular with a spotter it again it's
going to depend on the restrictions and so on and might might depend
on the you know the list as well i'm playing around with an idea at the
moment which is very very he heavy and therefore i don't
really care if i've got a spotter or not because i've got more than one
or more than two pieces of he in that list if whereas
(24:18):
if i'm playing with a list that i've only got you know at the most two
pieces of he because my tank is a is mg heavy
and is anti-infantry i want to keep hold of
my he so i probably will spend the points on on the spotter yeah
and from my perspective it depends on which
nation i'm going for basically i'm playing the fins they'll be
taking a regular with a spotter because they're very.
(24:41):
Much sort of a skirmish you sort of your traditional infantry
squads moving up and then the the motors at the back and again it's just it
does fit that army and the low dice count of it when i'm playing something like
the us i try to push the dice count because i'm trying to get first dice in
the middle of the game and so with those armies i always go inexperienced because
(25:01):
Because those extra points allow me to have extra dice.
Which allows me to get the higher chance of getting the first dice when I need it.
Because usually around turn three, the way I play, there's a key moment at the
start of turn three where I need first dice.
And if I don't get at least the third dice, the game's over, basically.
But my more controversial opinion is that I would never take a medium motor.
If possible, I always take a heavy. I don't see a value in the medium motor because...
(25:26):
Doesn't delete a squad in a single hit so you finally
get that six or the four whatever you needed and you kill two or three men and
the squad just moves away next turn whereas the heavy i find deletes units and
also is a credible threat to tanks and so i'd always go inexperienced heavy
unless i'm playing something like the fins and then i'll go regular heavy with the spotter,
(25:48):
interesting very interesting okay do you sit on
the medium with a spotter is that your viewpoint point
i've never used an inexperienced
mortar of any kind interesting i personally don't
i don't see the value in them but i do
sit on the fence well i sit on the side of the fence of the heavy mortar i do
(26:09):
really like a heavy mortar if i can get one in i will and i agree it is a credible
fit against vehicles especially those sort of armor seven and eights that you
see yeah and like you you know, there's a lot of eights, right?
Like eights are very, very common tank. And the thing I like about using the
mortar on it, especially like a Stuart, is it becomes a four.
(26:31):
So you only need, you're 50% chance of glancing when you hit,
but you're forcing that tank to go early in the turn.
If you've rolled the six and then the next turn, or sorry, if you missed the
six in the first go, they're probably going to want to either recce,
right? On a five and a six, that's risky.
They don't want to lose that Stuart to just a random mortar shot
got the first dice out of the bag so i find they're
(26:54):
either wrecking or they're using their tank so they can move with
the first dice and you're forcing that stewart to move and then
shoot at something and waste its shots because that's gonna
shoot at stuff that can still go down so i do really
like that with the heavy mortar i do agree i used
a medium i think i used the heavy heavy mortar
and at the danish event and then the medium at not
(27:16):
five steps back but both head spotters yeah i'm not
sure i can but i think
the big thing for me with the with me saying the inexperience is
when i'm going for sort of the high dice count armies is
because it's target saturation you've got
that many other things for them that they need to be worried about
that actually often the motor it's far enough away
(27:36):
and it's behind cover it's very low priority compared
to i don't know the the ranger squad that's right
on top of your sniper or your your flamethrower in the truck that's right
on top of you the the motor kind of gets forgotten about and so it can
afford to be inexperienced in the back lines and that's why
i will go regular with the spot if it's low dice count because actually
if they've got the same or more dice than me they can afford to spend a few
(27:57):
turns just plinking at the motor yeah yeah it's interesting i mean i think that
there could still be some value out of them but i i've never i've never forced
myself to try and find that value it's a good way of putting it yeah cool okay
so what's What's next for you then, Aaron?
You said you've got an event coming up, hopefully, in a month or so.
And then any more plans to go anywhere else overseas and play?
(28:20):
Yeah, maybe got a bit of an itch for it. Well, we've got one in Brisbane here,
which is like our BrizCon, which is sort of the main event in Queensland.
I think it's already sold out. I don't know if I'll be able to get a ticket.
But otherwise, the next one won't be until like September, which is Moab.
And that's sort of our secondary competitive event as well.
(28:40):
It always gets big numbers and that's in Sydney. So that would probably be the next one locally.
As far as international goes, I'm not too sure.
Sure love to try and get a team together for either you
know the wtc or world open war i think
based on the dates for us maybe the
wtc lines up better i think that's
(29:01):
around someone did tell me
the dates the end end of april next year it's pushed
pushed back yeah yeah from where it was this year yeah
so i think at the moment just with with dates and
times yeah we'll probably need a bit of time to
pull a team together and organize stuff and book
flights and get all that sorted but if we can that would
(29:21):
probably be then maybe the next time i play overseas
unless i maybe come over for i don't know
english gt or something or maybe america
flights for america a bit cheaper so i was sort of looking and
seeing when their sort of bigger events are on
but yeah the wtcs would be
great it'd be great to get a team together and get some representation from
(29:44):
from from down under and i think we're
edging close to that there's been some interest
so yeah if you're listening like reach out
guys and let's get let's get this happening so we can get another another country
representing it at at the event it'd be cool definitely um so that's sort of
what we're going on hopefully yeah and i know russell's very keen for an australian
(30:10):
team to turn up at at some point at World Open War, which is the end of October.
So if anyone is listening and those dates work better for you.
Give us a shout or give Russell Wright a shout.
He'd be more than happy to put you in as a team. Absolutely, yeah.
I think there's a contingent in WA that's also trying to do that.
I mean, I'd be definitely open to trying to make that happen as well.
(30:33):
It's just a bit sooner and I'm not sure just based on the interest that so far
if we can, if we'll have enough in October,
yeah either or whatever works we're keen i'm kidding we can get one.
It was really fun but both events and they
were really well run and yeah it's like oh don't you don't know or there might
(30:55):
be that unknown you know what are the players going to be like but like at the
end of the day we're all just sort of nerds playing with toys soldiers all enjoying
the same game right like yeah yeah but yeah it was super fun really well well done well run yeah Yeah,
the Juggernaut guys, they all did a fantastic job.
Tove, Pete, Dan, Spurly did a tremendous job. And Bo and the team in Denmark
(31:17):
did a really good job as well.
And all my opponents were fantastic. It was really good to have a bit of fun.
And I think playing against someone that's from a different country adds a bit
more to it as well, doesn't it? Like it's just kind of adds another element.
It's like, oh, this is exciting, which you guys probably are already.
Really yeah it's something we both said after
(31:39):
world open war and wtc like you said yeah
the the banter's the same you know we're all playing the same
game we're all nerds pushing toy soldiers around but there is
an element where you're playing against someone from a different country it it's
you know it's exciting it's different it's a change etc but there's
a common ground and you know the game is the game and there
might be some rules interpretations that differ from from one country
(31:59):
to another but they're not a massive they're a massive stumbling block
or anything yeah no it's it's a really good way to
put it i think well thank you for taking the time to join us
and talk through your experiences playing bolt action in
multiple countries your little world tour yeah congratulations
again aaron yeah well done for you know three three
you know major events and winning all three which is fantastic thanks for
(32:21):
joining us as well and and also hopefully people have listened to this and
and are inspired to you know to look outside of their local local country or
local area and get and play overseas it's something we've talked talked about
a lot over the last few months and you know hopefully if we can get the dates
lined up where we're not committed to other events we will be you know jumping
over to the continent at some point later on this year fantastic well thank
you for listening ta-ta for now.
(32:45):
Music.
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