ETC 2016 – Flames Of War Tournament

ETC 2016 – Flames Of War Tournament August 4-7 2016, Athens, Greece With Anders Johansson So for the third time I set off for the ETC (European Teams Championship) and the Flames Of War tournament there. This time I went as referee, a contribution from Battlefront to the ETC. This gave me a chance to see the event from a different perspective, after playing in Serbia in 2013, and then covering the event for Battlefront (and playing a bit) in Prague 2015.

This year the ETC was hosted by the Greeks in Athens, a city I had previously not visited, so it was certainly a bonus for me to get the opportunity to go there and experience a city with a massive role in world history. Time was of course limited, so I couldn’t do all the tourist things you would like to do when visiting Athens. I had to settle for seeing the Acropolis from distance. Likewise but closer for the Zeus Ruins and surrounding archaeological digs. One thing I did get to do properly was to visit the War Museum of Athens along with some friends from Team Wales (Tim Harris, Roger Whittam and Mark Goddard), only about 15 minutes’ walk from our hotel.

Above: Mark Goddard (Team Wales, Breakthrough Assault) and I check out the guns at the War Museum of Athens.

We arrived early at the Museum to avoid the heat of midday Athens, and were approached by a man in uniform who asked us if any of us were or had been in the forces. He introduced himself as the Director of the Museum, Brigadier General P. Kaperonis, and offered to take us on guided tour of the Museum. Of course we couldn’t believe our luck and graciously accepted the offer! We got a very detailed walk through everything from the Battle of Marathon and the wars of Alexander (ancients players would have been in heaven here), the Greek War of Independence 1821, and The Balkan War 1912  to the WW2 In Greece and of course the invasion of Crete in 1941. As a history buff and wargamer, this was a real high point of the trip and a real unexpected bonus!

Above: Which guns can you identify?

The venue this year was the Handball and Taekwondo Olympic Stadium, situated about 15 minutes drive from the centre of Athens down by the harbour. The venue was big and, as it has been pointed out, had working Air conditioning – a big plus when it 35 degrees Celsius outside.

Above: The venue – Flames Of War tables at the back.

From where you entered the hall, 9th Age was on the right, 40K on the left and Flames Of War at the back of the hall.
Right: Catering staff.
Below: Gamers in full action at the ETC.

The tables themselves were painted green and terrain was a bit simpler than maybe the average club terrain, as is necessary when so much of it is needed. Most players expect that by now, but Flames Of War, which is of course quite a terrain-heavy system, could always do with more terrain. Most of the terrain this year was shipped from Serbia, that had hosted in 2013 and 2014.

Above: Switzerland vs Romania.	Above: South Africa vs Turkey.

As referee, I had about maybe 30 rules questions during the whole event and very few moments where I had to do a ruling because the players couldn’t come to an agreement. The atmosphere and general feeling was quite a lot friendlier during the whole event compared to last year, helped by working air conditioning and the fact that many players know each quite well, having been to this event several times by now.

Above: Exchanging of gifts between Team New Zealand’s Dave Madigan and Team Wales's Roger Whittam.

Many teams make special dice, objectives and other items to exchange as gifts, and often there is a small amount of strong spirits shared in a toast before each game round starts. Of course some people are more competitive than others, and not everybody stays an angel for all six games – that is somewhat expected during a major team event such as ETC. But as a whole, the players were very well behaved during the event, not letting results getting in the way of having fun together.

	Team Poland were this year's champions

	Runners-up were Team USA

	Third Place was won by Team England

	Team Wales won Best Painted

	And Team Serbia took home the Most Favoured Opponents prize

ETC Flames Of War Awards Presentation

For more, check out the ETC Facebook event...

To sum it up, Greece and Athens was great to visit, not to be missed if you haven’t been there! It was, as always, also great to see all my fellow Flames Of War aficionados from all over Europe and other parts of the world. I hope to see you again next year in Salamanca! ~ Anders.