February 18th saw us return to the Sheraton in Lisle for the 2023 edition of Polar Vortex, with the Bolt Action Escalation Tournament once again being hosted by Chicago Dice’s own, Andrew. We had a great showing this year with 24 players coming in from across the region and beyond to play the 3-game event, starting at 450pts for Game 1 up to 1,000pts by Game 3. The armies and tables looked fantastic this year, and it was hard to make a decision when confronted with the Player’s Choice and Best Battlefield voting.

The tournament had an unofficial theme of “Fun in the Sun” this year, with many players bringing along desert themed tables and armies. I brought my new Market Garden themed table as I don’t have a desert table of my own, but my army dove in on the theme with a reappearance of elements of Andrew and my Adepticon 2019 Doubles force of North Africa Americans. I’ll outline the forces I brought and recap each game as I go through this article.

Game 1 – 450pts – Combat Patrol Platoon

Big Weldon and the infantry hold along the center line.

Game 1 was Prisoner Capture, and points were earned by your Lieutenant ‘spotting’ units in the open or in light cover, and by units assaulting and ‘capturing’ models from enemy units. I was matched up against Zach and his Italian paratrooper force. The board we played on had a lot of heavy cover throughout the middle, with some very open lines along the right and far left sides of the board. Both of us put a vast majority of our forces up the middle, sticking to the sandbag fortifications so that no spotting could occur.

I attempted to sneak my Jeep up the left side a bit to try and take out Zach’s Fiat Transport that had been hauling his Lt into the fight, but the first few turns included a decent amount of shooting with little death as both sides clung to heavy cover. His M-15 Tank was a horror however, throwing out 25 MMG shots per turn, which nearly deleted one of my squads at long range in heavy cover in a good round of shooting! Fortunately, I was able to put a couple pins on the M-15 and Giuseppe, as Zach affectionally called the driver, kept failing his Morale Checks and backing up.

Big Weldon begins to advance to cover the infantry trying to make a play.

Around Turn 3 I attempted to make a big play and ran my Lt off to the right side of the sandbags in order to try and snag a spotting point on his tank, which succeeded, however, my opponent made a similar great play and actually managed to catch 3 of my units around the cover angle and ended up with a 3-1 lead on spotting points. Because I was behind and with the amount of heavy cover available, I had to start getting aggressive and pushed my infantry forward. In the final turn I goofed up a bit. I was able to use my Jeep to force the Italian Lt Down while Zach’s other defending squad nearby was also a bit pinned down, and I pulled an 11″ charge with an infantry squad onto his Lt, capturing him for 5 big points. But I pulled this move too early in the turn and he was able to counter charge me with the remaining paratrooper unit that had not yet activated, clearing off my squad and knocked my VPs out.

Game 1 Result: Loss (0-1)

Game 2 – 750 Points – VI Corps

Game 2 we escalated to 750pts and began to use Theater Selectors (we would have to use the same Selector for both Game 2 and Game 3). The core of my force remained the same, with an increase in infantry and the addition of a Sherman as I moved into the VI Corps Selector from Italy: Soft Underbelly.

Infantry moving from the right flank towards the central objective.

Game 2 was called Scattered Drop and had a wild deployment in which half of our forces (not including vehicles) were airdropped onto the field. The target was three objectives spread evenly across the midline of the table. My played against Dan and his DAK Germans, which included a Light Howitzer, a Marder III, and a 222 Armored Car. The scattered deployment threw two of his units into a center terrain piece which we had determined was dense light cover, with his other units starting a little further back and to my left. I on the other hand deployed at the middle and further to the right, so we were focused on opposite corners with our forces.

My reserves consisted of my two Tanks and one of my infantry squads. I targeted the middle and right objectives, but I sent my reserve infantry squad up the left side to add a threat there and keep his attention spread. I rolled Big Weldon right up the middle, attempting to put fire onto Dan’s Howitzer since his vehicles hadn’t arrived yet. Dan countered with his Marder III which landed a beautiful shot right through Weldon’s front armor, lighting him on fire, but fortunately the tank crew held firm. Mae rolled up in support and started pushing forward, dueling with the Marder and then landing a heavy shot that destroyed it by Turn 5. I pushed his infantry out of the central terrain piece and then flooded in from the middle and right sides, with both tanks turning onto the central objective with the main threat of the Marder destroyed, and in the final turn I jumped on the objective and secured the win.

Game 2 Result: Win (1-1)

Game 3 – 1000 Points – FUBAR!

Game 3 was the final game, a 1,000pt game called FUBAR. My list replaced the Stuart with a second Sherman, re-added the Jeep, and added another squad of rifles along with a few more bodies in squads.

Clark Kent and infantry hold the ruins near the middle of the town.

In Game 3 I faced August and his Finns. It was another wild scenario. This time there were no Reserves or Forward Deployment, and the deployment zone for each player was a 10″ strip along the table that was pushed 8″ in from their own edge, so things were going to be close and brawling quickly. After deployment there were additional steps that occurred, which included Pins getting placed on units, squad NCOs dying, and units forced Down before the first turn even began.

The overall goal was kill points, with additional points earned for enemy units with 3+ Pins at the end of the game, and 1 VP if your opponent had more total Pins at the end. I ended up deploying a majority of my force first, but got lucky with the final two drops and was able to deploy my Sherman tanks last – in good positions to avoid Augusts’ AT and counter some of his scarier units.

Mae clears the way for infantry to push the right flank.

The very first Order Die of the game had Mae knock out August’s T-28, just like that we were off to the races. I started pushing two of my infantry squads along the right side of Mae with one going wide to try and get more fire onto the Finnish infantry squads behind the wreck (and take out his pesky mortar spotter who was hunkered down behind a wall). On the middle and left side of the field I had two squads that were being pinned and targeted by infantry and Mortars and were doing everything they could to hold on against the onslaught. August had brought an Air Observer along and it finally came in on Turn 3, but as a Rookie Pilot, giving me the opportunity to use it to take out the Finnish Medium Howitzer that had been attempting to knock out Clark Kent for most of the game. Unfortunately, my trio of Flak MMGs between the two tanks and the Jeep blasted the plane out of the sky. Thus Clark Kent had to handle it himself and pushed straight towards the Howitzer, eventually wiping it out with MMG fire. On the right side I continued to clean up a bit, and Mae looped into the center of the map and turned right, engaging and clearing out remaining Finnish units behind their central house, with a majority of the Finnish force being wiped out by the end of the game.

Game 3 Result: Win (2-1)

Final Results

Polar Vortex was truly a gorgeous showing this year, with a lot of great armies to look at and tables to play on. I ended up sixth overall out of the 24-person field and won the “Desert Rat” Award, which went to the best desert-themed Allied player. For that I got a wonderful 3D printed Chevy 30CWT truck with an LRDG theme, as well an R35 that could be used for French or Italians. I also got a Matilda II kit that may be very useful in expanding my upcoming desert British army.

Once again, it was a great event, and I’m very much looking forward to next year. Seamus has already thrown down the gauntlet for the unofficial 2024 theme to be winter, and, well… I love me some snow. Very excited for it… but need to remember to finish the AdeptiCon 2023 forces before I get ahead of myself there!

Last but not least, wanted to congratulate the various award winners for awesome showings, and thank everyone who brought tables and donated prize support. And to especially thank Andrew for once again running an awesome event for all of us to enjoy. Now, back to the hobby table we go, and onward to AdeptiCon!