WWIII: Team Yankee UK Nationals 2025 By Shaun Carlyon The weekend of 24th-25th of May saw the return of the WW3 (TY) UK Nationals being held in Cardiff for its third consecutive year and this time it was bigger and even better than the years before!

With armies of 100pts, and a small number of restrictions (no duplicate or Allied formations), 18 players battled it out on 8ft x 4ft tables over 4 rounds to see who would take podium places. Our venue hosts, Firestorm Games, were able to provide all of the 72ft(!) of high quality terrain, with much of it being from Gale Force 9’s Battlefield in a Box range. I think I can speak on behalf of most tournament organisers when I say that it’s always pleasing to see players from different gaming clubs and regions, and this year’s UK Nationals had a very diverse selection with players coming from as far afield as Sweden, North America, and Northern Ireland in addition to those from England and Wales, and the friendly and welcoming atmosphere was a credit to each and every one of the them – especially during the all-you-can-eat international buffet on the Saturday night.

During the initial planning stage of this year’s event, and after consulting several players, the decision was made to have a maximum of 4x rounds, with each round lasting for 3hrs and 15 minutes.  This may seem a little strange but it made a huge difference when it came to allowing the participants to relax and be social while they played.  Without the pressure of having to watch the clock quite so much, players could be heard discussing everything from the weather to what their favourite TY miniatures are.  Although 5x rounds has its benefits in regards to seeding players and getting to play more opponents, I now strongly believe that the extended rounds outweigh these advantages due to allowing the event to be run in a much more relaxed and player-friendly manner. Despite this relaxed and friendly atmosphere, it was still definitely competitive and even at the start of Round 4 it was still impossible to determine which of 5-6 players would take top position.  I’m not a football fan but can now appreciate how spectators can become so engrossed in watching matches as I found myself drawn towards the top tables to try to work out who would finish in what position!

The painting standard has also been getting better and better each year, and there were some exceptional looking armies for the participants to decide which would take the Best Painted Army plaque and prize and, as the votes came in, it quickly came down to two armies in particular – Sebastian Hobot’s Polish and Chris Evan’s Israel armies.  Both armies looked incredible and it was obvious that there had been a lot of time, patience, and dedication put into both of them which caused many of the voting players to keep coming back as they tried to work out which would get their vote.

Best Painted - Sebastian Hobot

Painting Commendation - Chris Evans

Tournament Results So, at the end of a great weekend, the results were: 1st Place – Scott Palmer (26pts) 2nd Place – Peter Fisher (25pts) 3rd Place – Oliver Banks (24pts) 4th - Jonny Fisher (23pts) 5th - Chris Evans (23pts) 6th - Pablo Clark (22pts) 7th - Alex Morgan Jones (21pts) 8th - Will Gilroy-Hirst (20pts) 9th - Chris Walker (18pts) 10th - Samuel Weston (18pts) 11th - Robert Shorter (16pts) 12th - Mike Almer (14pts) 13th - Cieran Pegg (14pts) 14th - Sebastian Hobot (13pts) 15th - Tony Evans (12pts) 16th - Martyn Bourge (11pts) 17th - Thomas Cottington (11pts) 18th - Alex Walker (10pts) Most Sporting Player – Sebastian Hobot

Anyway, all I can say is a massive ‘Thank You’ to all of the players who took part and made it such a great weekend, and to Oscar for helping throughout the two days. It would be remiss of me not to also express my genuine gratitude and appreciation to Matt Sulley and Neil Diamond in the Battlefront UK office for their unending support and encouragement throughout all the planning as well making sure the plaques and amazing ‘Team For Hire’ 2025 tournament objectives were available for the players. Planning for the next big Team Yankee event is well on the way as we prepare for this year’s WW3 (TY) UK National Doubles in October – if its something you’d like to take part in, please check out the Events Section of this website or get in touch on Battlefront Miniatures WW3 Team Yankee Facebook group! ~ Shaun

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