I had the great fortune to get talked into joining this year's Operation Sting at last year's Adepticon. Initially, I had planned on completing my Siege of Budapest Hungarians for play but, due to both family emergencies and a late shipment of AFVs, I wasn't able to make enough progress. Instead, I ended up taking my Italians @ Malta and I'm so glad I did. I have to say I was a little nervous going into this with comparatively little Bolt Action playtime under my belt, but this was an amazing learning experience. I came away, not only feeling like I had the ruleset down pat, but also that I know what works and what doesn't in an Italian army and I was able to develop a sensible, cost-effective plan for expanding my Italians beyond the initial 1000 points.
This year's Operation Sting had 24 attendees playing on 12 different tables. Everyone I played was competitive without being power gamers and knowledgeable without being rules lawyers. It was well supported and well run (special thanks to event organizers Brent Sinclair and Chris Thomas).
Way more pics and info below:
http://empireofghosts.blogspot.com/2015/10/operation-sting-bolt-action-event-recap.html