Game On!: The US Early-war Nationals at Adepticon

Game On!: The US Early-war Nationals at Adepticon with Bruce Nemet The Early-war Flames Of War Nationals held at Adepticon was a true success!  I’ll admit I was a little apprehensive at first as this was my first Nationals to host but it went off pretty much without a hitch.  It was great to see a lot of familiar faces.

I was a little surprised to see so many fortified lists. In fact one player was faced with No Man’s Land twice in a row!  Although he had won both rounds he pleaded begged me to make sure he didn’t see it a third time.  In the next round, as fate would have it, he saw a standard infantry list and breathed a sigh of relief - but then lost the round!  (We’re thinking of changing the mission name to ”Doug’s Land”.)

The missions we played were: Round One: Free-For-All Hmmm…Early-war; lots of infantry and small tanks running around all over the place.  This gave me plenty of time to train on our new scoring system.  OK, Dave you’re right.  I should have done it the night before. Round Two: Cauldron I always thought this was a great mission for Early-war!  It gets slower moving infantry and gun teams into action right from the start!  I know some of you had a workout running down the rows of tables to get to the other side.  I think I even saw one player who ran twenty yards down the row and back up again – just to move one tank!  Okay, something for me to fix for next time. Round Three: Fighting Withdrawal I had a few suggest that if I pick Fighting Withdrawal as a mission for Defensive Battle to play it the first day as this mission is turn-based and can take a long time to finish.  Well guys, I actually drew for Fighting Withdrawal anyway.

The Award Winners

Jeremy Harder	Tony Davis
Round Four: Counterattack This must have been a fun one for the one train we had out there!  Ronda were you attacking or defending on this one? Round Five: No Retreat More running. Round Six: Dust Up I knew it would get a little dramatic on that last round so I intentionally placed the top four players on tables near my tournament organiser desk. Jeremy did I hear you asking James Gains to grow a pair and attack?

Highlights ■ I think there was a question about placing a minefield across a railway and blowing a train up – or was the railway placed on top of the minefield?  Either way I thought it was good stuff.  Ronda I think your Polish train saw more action this weekend than the Orient Express! ■ I think the entire Cook family showed up!  How many Cook brothers are there? ■ And David Cuthbert – I really did like those British tanks of yours! ■ I believe it was the first time I’ve ever seen floral arrangements used to distinguish teams of separate platoons.  Paul Dorothy I know you mentioned that you’re not the first to do so but it’s the first time I’ve seen it!  Nice green thumb.  (Have you tried vegetables or is this strictly an ornamental thing?)

Scott Bartel	Tyler Herrick
■ No it wasn’t me playing with the lights Guys! ■ And I think someone told me that Jim Rush was rather hoping to win Best Soviet than Best Army. Sorry Jim. ■ And a welcome back to Mike McMann. Mike just had a baby last year! Scratch that, his wife had it. ■ And Mike Mansfield were you expecting to have a rough tournament or do you always bring a masseuse with you?  By the way, Wendy does give really good massages!  (Wendy I’ll buy your ticket into Kublacon.)

Andrew Hopson	Chris Fretts

David Cuthbert	Gary Overmeyer

I truly enjoyed hosting our 2013 Early-war Nationals tournament and I look forward to seeing everyone at the other Nationals events later this year: our first west coast Late-war Nationals at Kublacon next month; the Mid-war Nationals sin Austin in June; our East Coast Late-war Nationals at Historicon in July; and our first Canadian Late-war Nationals in Calgary in August.  Be sure to get your lists in on time.

James Maffei	James Gaines

And thanks to everyone who participated at our Early-war Nationals and Dave Griffin who helped immensely. And also my sympathy for Jeff Baxendale – someone spilled coke on his miniatures and that was after he was having a bad day.  He then withdrew so that I wouldn’t need a player to take a bye. I hope to see as many of you as can make it to an upcoming tournament soon. ~ Bruce.

Jim Rush	Mike McMann

Phillip Cook	Scott Crowe	Ronda Gilmore

Some Outstanding Armies...

Doug Rosson's Fortified Company

Joe Lewis' Germans

Ronda Gilmore's Poles