Canadian Nationals AAR and Podcast
This year saw the biggest improvements so far for Canadian Nationals. Read on!
It’s been a long road to have a successful National Flames of War tournament in Canada, we’re making huge leaps as a group to grow this event. There’s still more work to be done, but with the support we have had over the past few years, we can easily make this work for years to come. With the onset of Version 4 and the lacklustre feedback that was experienced in the beginning, it was apparent tournament play for Flames of War was in trouble. The number of events and players seemed to be on the decline and the game itself was in a bit of a downward spiral.
By their own admission, Battlefront owned up to a few of the mistakes they made in the release of Mid-War and for the immediate future, we are using two different rulebooks, different point values and few ways to voice any concerns or even suggestions. The use of social media has been encouraged by Battlefront as a means to communicate, but there are some instances I see this becoming problematic. Not everyone uses Facebook, so rulings may not get passed on fast enough before the next online update of the faq. The information that is getting out though, does seem to have the players and more importantly the future of Flames’ best interest in mind.
The previous three tiles pictured are what was on the table a few years ago as far as terrain setup, it was sparse, unbalanced and made for tables that were not very playable. There have been a lot of improvements since then to the tables. The success of any event relies on terrain and organization, both of which were very strong this year, despite Battlefront not sending any representation for the tournament.
Jumping ahead to this year, Battlefront sent the organizer new play mats. Double sided and really high-quality mats made the games enjoyable to play. Over the past few years, the players in the event have been asked to bring terrain, buildings and set up a table as a club or individual for games to be played on. All you have to do is to look at the picture dump Dennis posted on the NDNG site after the Nationals were over to see what a big difference it made on this year’s event. Prizes were also awarded to 3 tables after the weekend was over. It’s become something of a friendly competition every year to see what people can set up.
Lists were limited to 71 points. We saw a few lists from the recently released Eastern Front books, this gave players a few last minute choices. Though the bulk of the lists were from books that have been out for some time. ‘Avanti’ and ‘Desert Rats’ seemed to be the more popular books to play from. Likely because players have been able to play their lists for some time. Preparing for an event usually takes more than just a few test matches to fine tune your lists.
I managed to come away with a 4-2 record over the course of the weekend and was happy capturing 27 points overall. I could have had a much better showing if the missions went my way. I had one bad game of Bridgehead and a perfect terrain setup for my opponent made it tough on me.
The inability to dig out infantry from buildings is going to be tough should your list be all armour. I’m really going to key in on multiple formations or a way to support my main units through the use of infantry. The only thing is, I don’t want to be forced to go that route. It’s never been fun for me to setup lists that way. So it’ll have to be a lot of shooting for the time being. The only problem you have with that is time, you really need to play fast and more aggressively in V4.
My 29 points on a Tiger had the desired affect in most of my games. In the above picture, you can see the Brits and their Crusaders will likely have to find a short cut. They’re not going head to head with this big cat on a narrow street. I have to say rolling recce units around on street tables makes for some close engagements.
My beef with the Battlefront list builder is that it offers zero stats on any units you have in your list. I’ll stick to building using the cards displayed onto a single sheet rather than cluttering the table with cards everywhere. All I want to see is models, terrain and the odd dice roll on the table.
This year I used my tablet for a lot of the tournament. I kept electronic copies of the rules as well as my list, and my unit cards. It also served as my camera to take pictures of the games.
Due to the availability of blank templates to create our own unit cards. I plan to use make my own unit cards in the future. Doing so will allow me to use pictures of my own models, and I’ll be able to hi-light the different stats, making them easier to reference during a game.
See ya next year fellas! Even though the theme will be Early-War, I’d love to see a comeback to Late-War first. That way we can try to get the attendance numbers up a little more before going with the least popular era.
Check out the podcast on Canadian Nationals and feel free to hit me up with your thoughts on this years event. (Author: Pump up the volume, we were literally recording in a closet.)
Nothing to see here lads. Just a gratuitous Tiger shot as requested. Cold, wet, worth it.
While I completely disagree with your choice to put LAST YEARS crappy pics first, I too was surprised we had decent numbers given the lack of advert and push for this event by the TO. Glad the list worked out well for you… honestly, where is the pic of you sitting on that Tiger in Switzerland?? 🙂
LOL
Loved the list actually, top models as well…wonder who painted them?
It’s indeed a Tiger, but it was in France my good sir.
Good article Matt…Matt MacKenzie that is…I do have to take exception to the comment by Matt Varnish about “lack of advert and push for this event by the TO.” The tourney web site was up and operating very early this year (as it has been every year). He had contacted Battlefront sometime ago about the tourney and it was only after pushing Battlefront several times that they belately published it on their splash web page. Early in the summer I personally went on specific forums to pass along info. There was confusion at first on some of the specifics of the tourney but once questioned, this was quickly corrected. As you know the TO personally funds this up front from his own pocket in the “hope” that enough sign up. Since this started 5 years ago it always comes down to the last minute as to whether enough sign up in order to cover the cost. If anything the TO should be commended………Hats off to Dave Griffin for his support from afar, despite the fact that Battlefront didn’t allow him to participate this year. The mats he provided and the terrain from Perkins Hobbies is what made for the great tables this year.
Luggs
The lack of output is because it’s has been mainly word of mouth since the beginning. There has always been a lack of other information, draws to the city, other things to do for the family while here etc….
I absolutely agree Louis should be commended for the big push to keep this going. I think moving forward as long as there is some sort of format that doesn’t stray from the norm, we might even get some players from Toronto and Western Canada back. The three list tournament, while kind of fun to play. Should never show it’s face at a National event again.
“Due to the availability of blank templates to create our own unit cards. I plan to use make my own unit cards in the future. Doing so will allow me to use pictures of my own models, and I’ll be able to hi-light the different stats, making them easier to reference during a game.”
I would like to know more about your own unit cards and blank templates, please!
Carl
Look for them shortly, I can not take complete credit as I have done some edits to someone’s post somewhere online some time ago. Attempting to get a hold of that individual to discuss his idea and making some slight changes to it. It’s really nothing too complicated, mostly done on EXCEL. It’s really a matter of getting the measurements right and a layout I like to use, vs. what is out there already.
The three list format was because it was directed by Battlefront for all National tournaments in that particular year. Thankfully, that year, I was unable to participate. But I whole heartily agree with you.
When next we gather (I believe you mentioned you wanted to organize a local tourney in Oct) I am interested in discussing further with you and Dennis how to improve communications but at the moment I’m of the impression that you don’t have complete situational awareness on what has been done behind the scenes. Each year the Canadian National supporting website has gone active in the Jan / Feb timeframe. Its at the same url each year. You might wish to bookmark it: http://canadiannationalfow.com/
Hope to see you soon.
Cheers
This looked like a successful and fun event. I was impressed by the turnout and hope I can go next year.
Sadly I was unable to take part in the tournament but it looks like it was a big success! I’m a little surprised that next year’s will be Early-War! Who decided this, Battlefront? They stumbled out of the blocks with Mid-War I think they would be well advised to do Late-War next year. Certainly were I live Late-War is far more popular.
LW is starting to change to 100 pts from June 2019 and will take about 4 years, so there won’t be that many V4 LW books out by Aug 2019 . ATM EW hasn’t got any changes for V4 set in stone .
Here’s an idea. How about they leave LW alone and not bother with the points shift at all, four years to release a few books and even few lists. IF they can’t roll it all out at once, why do it at all? WTF are players supposed to do with the $$$ in books they have for Late War when most of them are on the newer end as far as release.
There will also be a new Armies of Later War book (100 point based) that may cover a lot of LW collections.
You’re not wrong about this. IN fact, it’s one of the key topics of discussion and I 100% think they should come back strong and use a LW template for next year’s event. Otherwise, we will be looking at some abismal player totals. There was a pretty good turnout (46?) for the EW event in 2016, but that was pre-V4 and the following year when V4 was introduced the player total was only 38 and now only at only 34 players for 2018. The US drew in 50 players in 2016, followed by 35, so it would have to be obvious that tournament play is taking a hit.
82 players in 2014 played in Eastern US Nationals. So what’s changed in 4 years? Vet players became board with the game and were no longer interested in tournament play? I wonder if anyone has asked that question? Sounds like a good idea for an article. Stay TUNED!
You’re welcome up here ANYTIME!!
@ Matty
BF aren’t bothered about what peoples have brought , only what they are going to buy . SIMPLES