Operation Bear 2025 Player Pack
A Melbourne based, 3 game
945 point Bolt Action Event
Welcome to the Operation Bear 2025 Player Pack!
Traditionally, Operation Bear has been a semi-competitive tournament style event. Given that we are still learning the ins and outs of Bolt Action Version Three, this year, like last year, will be a much more casual, hobby focussed event. It is less about winning and more about having fun as we explore how the new game works as a community.
This year Bear 2025 will be held in a new venue, The Gaming Arena, north of Melbourne.
Operation Bear will continue to be a universally accessible Bolt Action event, in that we would like this event to fit all kinds of players. This is especially the case since we are essentially new-ish players of this game. This event is for everyone and we ask that all players consider the fun of their opponent before submitting lists and while playing games.
Location:
The Gaming Arena
123 Bakers Rd
Coburg North VIC 3058
(03) 9417 1221
https://www.thegamingarena.com.au/
Contact Information:
For more information please see the Facebook event, any queries will be addressed there. Please message Cast Dice on Facebook directly if you have any questions that you would like answered.
Timings:
Please be on time for this event. Registration for paid players opens at 9:00 AM on the 6th of July Games will begin at 9:20 AM sharp. Please pay and submit your list prior to the first day of this event. You can buy your tickets on the Gaming Arena website for $30. If tickets sell out, please contact us and we can place you on the waiting list. In the past, most players on the waiting list have been able to play on the day.
Army Lists:
While we would like players to experiment and take lists that they like, we would ask that players be mindful of their opponents and their enjoyment when submitting lists. Please keep in mind that this is not a Tank Wars event and while the rules of V3 allow players to run tank spam lists, we ask that you not go to extremes as this can lead to “feel bads” on the tabletop.
We would like to encourage people to experiment and play with lists that are fun to play with and to play against. This is NOT a win at all costs event. The TO’s reserves the right to ask players to resubmit army lists that are considered... perhaps "too hard" for the spirit of the event.
If you are unsure, please ask.
• All armies for this event should be no larger than 945 points.
• Forces may be made up using the Force Selection rules starting on page 182 of the Bolt Action Third Edition rulebook, or released “Armies Of..” books for Third Edition, or Minor Power PDF’s released on the Warlord Games Website.
Armoured platoons can have no more than three vehicles in them. 1 Command Vehicle and two additional vehicles.
• Armies may include as many rifle platoons as players want but for this event, we are asking that players include no more than one of each of the other platoon types (e.g. no more than one engineer platoon and no more than one armoured platoon).
If your army list has an option for engineers but that entry does not have a flame thrower as an option, you may add a flame thrower to that engineer squad for +30 points.
If you have any questions please ask.
ARMY LISTS ARE DUE (by midnight) on July 1st.
Please email them to: whatisabattle (at) gmail (dot) com
Awards:
Given the purpose of the event, we will only have 3 trophies on offer.
Best Sportsman (for the player that folks most liked playing)
Best Painted Army (as determined by players in the event)
Best Themed Army (as determined by the TO, if your army has a theme make sure this is communicated to the TO)
Best Allied Player
Best Axis Player
Best Minor Powers Player
There will be a large prize pool for this event. Prizes will be randomly drawn and ideally most players will get a nice prize for coming. We can no longer guarantee that everyone with get a prize, but as always, we will try to make this happen. Again, winning games will have no impact on prizes at this event.
Games:
Operation Bear is a one day, three game event. Each round will go for 2 and a half hours. In Round One, players will be chosen at random but grudges are possible at player request.
We will be running a variety of missions at this event. Everyone will be playing the same mission each round. These will feature a wide range of deployment and victory conditions. Please be aware that you will need infantry to claim objectives in two of the three missions on the day AND only one of these missions will use “sticky” objectives.
We will be posting the missions for this event on this event’s Facebook Page after all the lists for the event have been turned in.
Registration:
Please pay and submit your list prior to the first day of this event. You can buy your tickets on the Gaming Arena website for $30. If tickets sell out, please contact us and we can place you on the waiting list. In the past, most players on the waiting list have been able to play on the day.
https://www.thegamingarena.com.au/product/6th-july-operation-bear-2025/11577
There will be a 24 player cap for this event.
For this event you will need:
• Warlord order dice (rounded edges preferred) and enough six sided dice to play the game
• 3 x 25mm circular objective markers
• A tape measure
• The third edition rulebook
• Pin markers
• A pen and/or a pencil
• 3 print outs of your army list
• An appropriate dice bag
Sponsors:
We would like to thank our incredibly generous sponsors for this event:
The Cast Dice Podcast network has donated half of the prizes for this event. Please consider checking out the many podcasts on that network the next time you fancy listening to a podcast on your travels or during your downtime.
The War and Peace gang have once again generously provided prize support for this tournament. As the Australian distributor of Warlord games products they have a great selection of product AND have a super friendly and helpful staff that love to "talk shop." Give them a call or check them out online:
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.warandpeacegames.com.au%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cbradford.morin%40education.vic.gov.au%7C6324456306994b4be8e308dd9c0f81f3%7Cd96cb3371a8744cfb69b3cec334a4c1f%7C0%7C0%7C638838312651852013%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5hOQS0ikwEtvePoo9hIouAbxjpUgNeCFThb3FQphP5g%3D&reserved=0
We would like to welcome a new sponsor to this event. Exogamesau.com produces high quality 3D printed terrain that suits every budget. Brad has many pieces from this company and highly recommends their work.
https://exogamesau.com/
We would also like to express our thanks to Warlord Games for writing such a great game system (Bolt Action) and for consistently providing great prize support for our events.
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.warlordgames.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cbradford.morin%40education.vic.gov.au%7C6324456306994b4be8e308dd9c0f81f3%7Cd96cb3371a8744cfb69b3cec334a4c1f%7C0%7C0%7C638838312651871873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cR2cDAFBMyWVqM4kt0sUc%2Bzf4R7YUo1lilem5DjSwCw%3D&reserved=0
Also check out other Sports events in Coburg.
