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Canberra Games Society

2016 Australian Nationals Report
With Ken Snell & Scott McManus

The inaugural Flames Of War Australian Nationals were run over the recent Australia Day weekend in Canberra, Australia’s capital city from 23-25 January.

In keeping with a tournament of this type, we planned a variety of activities for our players and there was something for everyone!

The Nationals included a tour of the Technology Annex of the Australian War Memorial museum for 40 of our players on Friday afternoon. The Annex is a warehouse and workshop where many of the exhibits in the main Memorial are renovated and restored prior to going on display. For Flames Of War enthusiasts this tour is a must when visiting. With only one public exhibition in Canberra per year, we had better access than the locals generally do.

 

 

Cancon 2016
Left: A Japanese Tank in the AWM Technology Annex.
Our welcome dinner on Friday was well attended, where we also welcomed John Matthews and his lovely wife, Chris, to sup with us. Much of the banter was around the competition to come; we’re not sure if those plans actually worked or not!
Saturday saw two competitions kick off in earnest being Early War (1550 points), Mid War (1650 points) – with eight games over three days. There was Joel Williams’ “Breakout to the Ardennes” Campaign, with historically themed battles and tabletops covering Bocage, Falaise Gap, Hurtgen Forest, Siege of Bastogne and Peiper’s Charge in the Ardennes. All up over 90 players got underway on Day 1, including Night Flames.
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We also welcomed some special guests: Peter Simunovich (Battlefront Chairman), John Matthews (General Manager) and Phil Yates, who played in the Campaign. It was a personal pleasure to team up with Phil to try and prevent a German breakout through the Falaise Gap, but it wasn’t to be – I’ve got a new plan that we’ll unleash next time, Phil!!
Players had a rare opportunity to sit down with our guests for an in-depth Q&A on Saturday afternoon. The wide-ranging discussion included conversations around supply, new models, new books, supply, the new books Gung-Ho and Banzai and occasionally drifted back to supply! Players all agreed the opportunity to have this open and frank conversation was most welcome.
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Above and below: The Q&A with John Matthews and Peter Simunovich.
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Just when you think you can’t get enough, we kicked off Night Flames, which this year was a 1000-point speed format that included Arab Israeli War, Late War and social games of Great War. This was held over two nights and was a great competition.
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Above and below: Night Flames – Arab-Israeli Wars
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Above and left: Night Flames Late-War.

 

Up bright and early for Day 2, players assembled at their tables to continue the fight. The end of Day 2 saw the Sydney-based Panzer Angriff Club (Ben, Paul, Scott and Dave from the Diesel n Dust podcast) facilitate a masterclass around designing competitive army lists. It was a great activity, well-attended, and will be another must-attend at Cancon in 2017. 

Followed by the second night of our Night Flames competition and the marathon runners were still forging ahead and games were played in great spirit. 

Right: An Early-War melee in a remote desert town. Cancon 2016

Day 3 dawned, and our weary warriors – for the last time – assembled in their attack positions for the final two games of this year’s competition. The results at the sharp end of competition indicate that the winner’s podium was still up for grabs leading into the final game of all competitions.

This year also saw our inaugural Australian Nationals Painting Competition. There were a number of entries in three categories: Platoon, Objective Markers and Aircraft. The entries were judged by the Australian Capital Territory Scale Modellers Society and they made a number of comments about how impressed they were with the skill and brush techniques applied at 15mm scale. We look forward to an expanded painting competition in 2017. 

Below: German A7V tank 'Mephisto' on the rampage in Night Flames – Great War.
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Painting Competition – Aircraft 1st Place – Sean Ireland

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Painting Competition – Objective Markers 1st Place – Bob Pearce

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Painting Competition – Platoon 1st Place – Sean Ireland

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Above and below: Photographs courtesy of Caroline Wong
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Winners
Early-War Tournament
Best General Matt McCarthy British Rifle Company (Blitzkrieg)
2nd Place Sofia Chambers French Escadron de Reconnaissance (Blitzkrieg)
3rd Place Scott Elaurant Finnish Jaakari Kompannia (Rising Sun)
Best Major Axis Richard Taylor Japanese Hohei Chutai (7TH) (Rising Sun)
Best Minor Axis Christian Snell Finnish Mannerheim Line Strongpoint (Rising Sun)
Best Major Allied Daryl Gibson French Escadron de Reconnaissance (Blitzkrieg)
Best Minor Allied John McGarry Australian Tobruk Strongpoint (Hellfire and Back)
Best History  John McGarry  
Best Army
        – Honorable Mention
Daryl Gibson
    Mitch Kemmis
 
Best Sport Jonathan Crane German Schutzenkompanie (Blitzkrieg)
Wooden Spoon Jonathan Crane  

Mid-War Tournament
Best General Paul Collins Italian Battaglione Fucilieri (North Africa)
2nd Place Walter Spivak Soviet Tankovy Batalon (Red Army) (Eastern Front)
3rd Place Scott Norwood German Panzergrenadierkompanie (Eastern Front)
Best Major Axis Larry Wood Italian Bersaglieri (North Africa)
Best Minor Axis Estella Jones Finnish Jaakari (Mid War PDF)
Best Major Allied Keith Hewitt US Armoured Rifle Company (North Africa)
Best Minor Allied Patrick Williamson South African Rifle Company (North Africa)
Best History  Dan Lawrence  
Best Army
        – Honorable Mention
Ben Wynn
    Dan Lawrence
 
Best Sport Estella Jones  
Wooden Spoon Clive Clarkson German Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier (Eastern Front)

Night Flames
Fate Of A Nation   Late-War
Best General Sofia Chambers   Best General Scott Norwood
2nd Place Leigh Watson   2nd Place Paul Collins
3rd Place Adam Langsam   3rd Place Phil Le Hunt

Other Awards – Night
Best History Phil Le Hunt
Best Sport Ken Snell
Best Army Adam Langsam
Encouragement Award Brett Kvisel
Great War Encouragement Awards Martin Carrick & Tom McGoram
Order of the Cheese, Stick and Swords Christian Snell

Breakout to Ardennes Campaign
The Germans won the war! There were two main categories: Best General and Most Famous. Best General were those that accumulate the most Campaign Points for their side, whilst Glory points were earned for high-profile but not necessarily militarily important achievements.
Best General David Rea, German (367pts)
Best German General John McGuire (366 pts)
Most Famous German General Gary Wait
Best Allied General Rob Caroline
Most Famous Allied General Ken Snell

Other Awards – Day
TO's Awards Andy Glover & Manni Zagas
Best Under-20 Andreas Coooper
Best Table
        – Honorable Mention
Ken Snell
    George Patrick
Player Passport Phil Baker
Painting: Best Platoon
        – Honorable Mention
Sean Ireland
    Bob Pearce
Painting: Best Objectives Set
        – Honorable Mention
Bob Pearce
    Sean Ireland
Painting: Best Aircraft
        – Honorable Mention
Sean Ireland
    John McGarry
Richard Taylor Dice Sin Bin Andrew Grant

The Dice 'Sin Bin'

We inaugurated the Richard Taylor Dice ‘Sin Bin’ – a bit of history first. At Cancon 2015, Richard was so bemused by his dice in one game that he sin-binned them to the TO’s table!

At Cancon 2016, we created the ‘Dice Sin Bin’, which is held by the player who has the most awful dice throws imaginable in any round – our new tradition is that Richard will hold the ‘Sin Bin’ every first round of Cancon in whatever tournament he plays in; and he will also be responsible to ensure it finds its way to Canberra every year.

Seven other worthy players carried the ‘Sin Bin’ and the competition to pick that player was pretty tough!

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Things to come
The organising committee farewelled Ken Snell as the outgoing committee chair after his third Cancon and welcomed Scott McManus to the big chair. There will be a few new faces and some of the old remaining. We must be keen; planning is already underway for Cancon 2017!

All players will receive a survey to ensure we have an enhanced experience next Cancon. It was also announced that we’ll play EW, MW and LW by day in 2017, and the night competition will include Team Yankee, Arab Israeli War and Great War. The Campaign will be ‘War in the Desert” focusing on the siege of Tobruk, Operation Crusader, and El Alamein II.

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Some of the hard-working organisers.

 

 

Left: One of our organising committee, Scott Cooper.

 

 

Below (left-right): Ken Snell, Rudi Spennemann & Scott McManus.

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Overall, another great tournament series played in great spirit by all. I’ll leave the last word to our fantastic sponsors:

Battlefront Battlefront Miniatures – who provided a 2015 Tournament Objective Marker for all registered players and especially attendance by Peter Simunovich, John Matthews and Phil Yates. Our thanks also for website and admin support in the lead-up to Cancon.
Aetherworks Hobby Products Aetherworks – who provided trophies for all four tournaments.
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Ultimate Table Top Terrain Ultimate Table Top Terrain – who again awarded the prize for Best Table as voted by players.
Dice Of War Dice of War – provided dice sets as prizes.
Jolt Games The Games Capital Hall Of Heroes
Three D6 Irresistible Force Jolt Games, The Games Capital, The Hall of Heroes, Three D6 and Irresistible Force for their gift vouchers across all tournaments

Below: One of the fantastic tables, this one provided by Al Griffin (Ultimate Table Top Terrain)
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We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the Nation’s Capital, in January 2017 for an expanded and greater tournament at the 2nd Australian Nationals.

~ Ken & Scott. 


Last Updated On Thursday, February 4, 2016 by James at Battlefront