2012 New Zealand Flames Of War Masters Tournament Report

2012 New Zealand Flames Of War Masters Tournament Report with Russell Briant Congratulations to Stephen Hill from Tauranga who emerged from the pack to decisively win the fifth annual Flames of War Masters Tournament held in Wellington on 1 - 2 December 2012.

The Combatants

Final Standings Final Name Generalship Points % of Maximum Points Total Army Source Book 1 Steve Hill 32 94% German SS Panzergrenadierkompanie Earth & Steel 2 Nick Garden 25 83% Romanian Vanatori Motorizata Red Bear 3 Craig Courtis 22 79% Hungarian Motorised Infantry Grey Wlof 4 Robert Torrance 21 77% Soviet Heavy Self-propelled Artillery Regiment Red Bear 5= Steve Chambers 22 76% Soviet Motostrelkovy Red Bear 5= Bede Bailey 20 76% US 4th Armored Division Blood, Guts, & Glory 7= Bob Pearce 19 74% US Light Tank Company Devil's Charge 7= Damian Tyson 19 74% Lapin Sota Finn Jääkärikonppana Lapin Sota PDF 7= Chris Pooch 19 74% Irish Guards Hell's Highway 7= Brian Trott 21 74% British 8th Armoured Divison Lorried Rifle Company Turning Turn 11 Tim Ward 15 68% Hungarian Tank Company Grey Wolf 12 Rob Shirley 14 67% German Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie Grey Wolf

The tournament was a 1750 Late-war event with a standard seven point split per game and a 5, 3, 0 sportsmanship score.
First Overall Steve Hill	Second Overall Nick Garden	Third Overall Craig Courtis (right) with Steve Chambers (left).

Missions played were:

Day One Round 1: Hasty Attack (Mobile Battle).     Round 2: Free-For-All (Fair Fight).     Round 3: No Retreat (Defensive Battle).

Day Two Round 4: Breakthrough (Mobile Battle). Round 5: Fighting Withdrawal (Defensive Battle).     Round 6: Encounter (Fair Fight).

The range of armies, books they came from and nationalities was diverse with two each from Germany, Hungary, Britain, US, Soviet Union and one each from Romania and Finland.

The games were played in a good spirit and the fickle nature of dice was mostly taken phlegmatic calm, as befits residents of a country from the former British Empire. Players kept to the tight timetable and by and large, being Masters players after all, left the umpire in peace to paint a new army.

Steve Hill notably dropped just four Generalship points over the weekend, with runner-up, Nick Garden, inflicting his only loss in a close 3-4 result. The ability for Barkmann to return to the table very quickly after losing his first Panther assisted Steve in a number of his games.

A congratulatory note for their 2012 convention performances should also be made of the following five players who for various reasons were unable to take up the 2012 Masters invitation; Mike Haycock, Tony Vodanovich, Simon McBeth, Daniel Maguire, Paul Mouncey. Well done to all the players. ~ Russell.