Winterfest 2012 Tournament Report with Bede Bailey Following on from last year’s successful Bunkers and Beaches event, the Hutt Miniature Wargames club once again played host to a themed Flames Of War tournament. This year the focus shifted to winter on the Eastern Front, with players tasked with putting together 1750 point lists that could handle both snow and heavy snow. For extra fun, each list (without restriction) was given access to a free sniper with which to strive for the coveted title of top marksman. Left: Mark Stanton’s T-34s make a rush for the crossroad in support of his Soviet Partisan Battalion.

Organisation Themed events certainly require an extra level of organisation. For one, sourcing terrain which matches the theme can be difficult. In the case of Winterfest, club members had ten months to plan and build suitable winter terrain for 16 tables. As you can see from the photos the guys really pulled through, and every game was fought on atmospheric tables that actually made you feel cold just looking at them! Perhaps the best idea was to purchase a number of winter base cloths so that normal Russian terrain could easily be ‘winterfied’ – without this allowance terrain would have been too sparse. Right: T-34/85s of Bob Pearce’s Tankovy sweep up to good firing positions.

Once table production began, playtesting started to discover which missions best suited the winter conditions. Initially we had planned to have conditions set for each table, with 50 per cent having snow and 50 per cent having heavy snow.

Playtesting demonstrated two major points – heavy snow is a major disadvantage to some armies and some missions become downright unwinnable. As the idea behind a themed event is to provide a fun experience for all, it was decided to make the tables generic, and then have three rounds with snow and two with heavy snow so that everybody faced the same advantages and disadvantages. Left: Infantry armed with Assault Rifles made up the core of Simon McBeth’s Panzer Grenadier Company.

Missions were then tested to see which suited best. In the end it was decided that missions where both players had to move to secure an objective would be best for the heavy snow, and so Encounter and Dust-Up were chosen. The remaining three were Breakthrough, No Retreat and Fighting Withdrawal. We also had to put some time into getting sponsorship for the event to keep the entry price reasonable. A huge thank you must go out to J and N Gifts and Hobbies on Main Street in Upper Hutt for once again supporting our fun and games. Right: Feel the cold! A KV-1 belonging to Russell Briant acts as an objective on the crossroad.

Weekend Warriors Over the two days 80 games were played, with only a few rules queries coming the way of the organiser. Luckily there were a number of very good players in attendance who were able to help out with curly questions – a big thanks to them for taking time out from their games. Feedback focused on the excellent themed terrain, the friendliness of opponents and the pleasure at having an event focused on Allied vs. Axis games rather than open slather. Luckily both side remained close results-wise throughout, which made it easy to make match-ups. The prize for best painted was also hotly contested, with half the field gaining at least one vote – a testimony to the time and effort put into preparing for the event. Left: Russell Briant’s Gebirgsjager objective. Russell’s Gebirgsjäger army appeared in the first Art of War book.

The Sniper War Another aspect which was well received was the sniper war. Snipers are not usually considered tournament viable so the organisers decided to give every player a free sniper with the goal of running a ‘sniper war’ so that players who might not have the experience to win an event could still have the chance of winning a good prize. As the results below attest, most players had difficulty getting the most out of their free team – and the Germans and Finns had a distinct advantage as the Soviets are rated as Trained. Due to this, there was a prize for best Soviet, best German and best minor nation snipers.

Below: Tom Leamy’s Finnish artillery lining up some targets on the other side of the hill.

Total Sniper Kills for Winterfest 2012 Mission German / Finnish Soviet / Romanian Breakthrough 11 5 Encounter 21 9 No Retreat 8 5 Dust-Up 10 8 Fighting Withdrawal 5 7 Total 55 34

1st Place Damien Tyson Soviet Guards Heavy Tankovy Battalion 2nd Place Nick Garden Romanian Motorised Infantry Company 3rd Place Craig Courtis Soviet Motostrelkovy Battalion Right: Some nice conversion work from Simon McBeth who was working on some examples from the Grossdeutschland Division.

Top Soviet Sniper Chris Pooch Soviet Guard Assault Gun Battalion Top Minor Sniper Che Tibby Finnish Jalkavaki Company Top German Sniper Alex Martin German Grenadier Company Left: RSO from Andrew Stanton’s Security Company.

Best Painted Army Mark Stanton German Security Company Best Sport Josh Kennedy and Sam Page Next Year With two successful themed tournaments now under the belt, it is hard to say no to running a third! Chances are we’ll be returning to the Western Front with a couple of very interesting compilations just around the corner. ~ Bede. Right: The train! Andrew Stanton’s train was a centrepiece and it certainly attracted a lot of attention over the weekend.

The Victors

Below: (From left to right) Mark Stanton, Chris Pooch, Nick Garden, Craig Courtis, Che Tibby, Damien Tyson, Alex Martin and John Kennedy.

Final Standings Name Placing Army Damien Tyson 1 Soviet Guard Heavy Tank Company Nick Garden 2 Romanian Motorised Infantry Company Craig Courtis 3 Soviet Motostrelkovy Ben Lindsay 4 German Wiking Panzer Company Chris Pooch 5 Soviet Guard Assault Gun Company Paul Waechter 6 Soviet Strelkovy Tim Ward 7 Soviet Strelkovy Sam Page 8= German Schwere Panzer Company Warren Hart 8= German Sturm Company Cameron Wansbrough 10= Soviet Guard Heavy Tank Company Chris Otton 10= Soviet Guard Heavy Tank Company Russell Briant 10= Soviet Tankovy Bede Bailey 13 German Pioneer Company Tom Leamy 14 Finnish Jääkäri Company Andrew Stanton 15 German Security Company Che Tibby 16= Finnish Jalkaväki Company David Kinzett 16= Kampfgruppe Kastner Simon McBeth 18= German Panzer Grenadier Company Alastair Duncan 18= Romanian Motorised Infantry Company Bob Pearce 20= Soviet Tankovy Alex Martin 20= German Grenadier Company Matt Martin 22 German Fallschirmjäger Company Ken Camel 23 German Panzer Pioneer Company Daniel Shepherd 24 German Panzer Company Alex McEwen 25 653. Panzerjäger Abteilung Reg Newell 26 Finnish Jalkaväki Company Joseph Kelly 27 Soviet Strelkovy Josh Kennedy 28 Soviet Udarny Strelkovy Mark Stanton 29 Soviet Partizan Battalion Callum Martin 30 Soviet Tankovy John Fletcher 31 Soviet Lend-Lease Tankovy John Hutton 32 Kampfgruppe Bäke