Beachhead 2018

Beachhead 2018 With Tim Harris February 17th saw the third running of Beachhead, a gaming extravaganza on the English Riviera. This is organised by Peter Valinski of Entoyment a gem of a wargaming shop in Poole and supporter of all things geek, the shop is fantastically stocked with Flames of War and Team Yankee product, so would be a great place to visit if you are visiting the sunny south coast of the UK at any time. The main hall had around 40 traders, selling a cornucopia of wargaming related stuff, along with lots of demonstrations games. There were also several competitions one of which was a 1650 Late War Flames Of War Event. Battlefront had been invited down to help support the event, which we were very happy to do so. There were 8 players, although unfortunately one of the entrants broke down, so it ended up with 6 players, however 4 of them were from the Bag of Bones Gaming Group in Plymouth and are all relatively new to Flames nd the tournament scene, they are all very enthusiastic about v4 and this is what has galvanised them to start attending tournaments and also host their own one on 21st/22nd April, which I hope that we can also support with our presence.

Jersey James of Breakthrough Assault renown was organising it and with no delay the 3 first games got under way. Judging from the amount of chatter and whoops of laughter from the tables, everyone was enjoying themselves and this in the main is what v4 and tournaments is all about, which was great to hear and see. My opponent Cilla, ( a new face) was rather unlucky with her dice rolls throughout our game and I was able to turn in an 8-1 win, having decimated her force, her inability to bring the RAF in (even with Dixie Air Support) I feel may have given my 512 Schwere Panzerjager Kompanie a harder time if they had shown up more frequently, when they did they failed to range in, I made my saves or they were shot down!

This put me in joint lead with Jersey, who having seen that we had donated Lorenzo’s Rams as part of the prize support, suddenly got interested in doing well (he’s a massive Italian fanboy.) Game 2 saw me drawn against Richard, (another new face, I had met him at Warfare in November 2017). Breakthrough was rolled as we were using Battleplans, and I was defending. Poor deployment by me, saw Richard annihilate my Ostwind platoon on turn one and then flood the centrally placed objective, which he held onto for the next 6 turns, the new more mission game win rules, makes it a very interesting game, I did my best to whittle him down destroying 6 of his platoons, but the loss of the Ostwind really did scupper my plans. A well-played 6-3 to Richard.

Game 3 was again against another member of Bag of Bones, Cilla and Richard were both from there too. This time it was against Sam Stones, who I had the pleasure of facing in the last game at Warfare too, a great guy, as are all the Bag of Bones players, they really enjoy their v4 Flames of War and it shows on the table top, as they are all lovely to play against, it’s the playing not the winning which is their main priority and they feel that v4 allows them to do this, which is what attracted them to the game. I chose to defend, Sam manoeuvre with his British Infantry, we rolled for Contact. The game was played at a frenetic pace and some ballsy options by Sam, which on the most part paid off, turn 1 placing his Hurricanes in the jaws of 3 Ostwinds, which with the 5+ hit and a 3+ save are rather hardy and do hang around, took out 1 PaK40 and all 3 Ostwind.

The game ended up being a mutual loss but was great fun. There were some great armies being used and here is a selection of them:

The final results of the 3 games (all hard fought) but with a huge amount of fun and enthusiasm, which is what v4 is all about.

1st Place “Jersey” James with a USMC Force from Pacific Pictured Below: First Place	2nd Place was David Petter with Kampfgruppe Kastner Pictured Below: Second Place

Arguably the most important award at an event is Best Sport and this was awarded to Cilla McArthy. Pictured Below: Best Sport	I was lucky enough to have been voted best painted army, but gave away this prize to Bag of Bones Gaming as they all had such fun and were so enthusiastic. Pictured Below: Best Painted Army (and giving away the prize)

The wooden spoon went to Sam Stones, Sam is a great guy and a pleasure to play against. Pictured Right: Wooden Spoon

It was a great fun event and the whole day was very well supported and credit for this must go to Pete and his Team at Entoyment. For Flames of War, it was just good to see new faces keen and enthusiastic about their game. It was great to see them getting asked questions by a number of visitors, who were impressed with the models and the mechanics of the game, which shows that v4 is attracting a lot of new players, it will be good to see the tournament scene grow again with this new age of players and judging by Bag of Bones, a younger generation too, hailing from a different type of gaming. ~Tim

More Pictures Of The Event: