ETC 2022 – NoDiceNoGlory went to the biggest FOW team tournament of the year

By Paolo Paglianti

One hundred twenty players, 20 teams, 60 tables, and everyone was happy. European Team Challenge (ETC) is probably the most important tournament in the world, and for sure it is for the Old World. Every year, hundreds of players train and test their armies for the spectacle of three days of wargaming, not only to see who is the best but, more importantly, to play together.

 

After the evil Pandemic, ETC was back last weekend: the location was a school near Hassetel, Belgium, and 20 teams of 6-players from all corners of Europe (as well as US and New Zealand teams) come to the very heart of Europe to play Flames of War.

 

We almost didn’t stay in a photo! 120 players, with the Umpire and organizer in front of the event location.

NoDiceNoGlory was there: the present editor has been part of the Iceland team (yes, I’m Italian but we had our National drama for selecting the team – thank God it now seems solved). I will write in the next week’s report of my six games, but for now, let’s concentrate on the event.

 

Plenty of colorful and well-painted army, and six games in three days. What could be better for a Flame of War player? 

 

And, boys, it was spectacular. The Belgian team, led by Robby Notermans, did an excellent job in setting up this amazing tournament. I often organize tournaments in Milan, and I can imagine what takes to set up a tournament for 120 players, feed them and manage to get them to the tournament place each morning. Robby’s team earned my total admiration for this job.

 

The Belgian team that organized the ETC event: from the right, Robby Notermans, his fantastic wife Hilde Pagnaer, Tim Bogarerts and Marc Henderix. They did an inspiring job and let all us have the fun part. 

 

Let’s start with the tables: they were simply amazing. I saw desert tables near Stalingrad/urban ones; Normandy bocage close to south Italy ones. I voted for the Pegasus Bridge one. Above all, the tables were full of elements and very varied. Yes, there was a prize for the best table, and was won by the Swiss team who helped bring elements all the way across their country!

 

 

 

The tables were truly amazing and rich: if you play FOW, you know you don’t want to deploy in open terrains with poor elements, and no one of the ETC was bare. 

How does the ETC competition work? Basically, every country can enter a team of six players. At least three must have a passport from that nation, while the others can be “mercenaries” (like I was!), to help smaller Country to have a team. Each player has his own list, sent around half of July, with a simple rule: in the Team, you can’t have more than two of the same army (a maximum of two US or German forces, for example) and you can’t repeat cards or formations – so you can have two British Army, but you can’t have both with Rifle. ETC 2022 was a Late War competition.

When two team faces each other, the Captains follow a procedure to pair the players, based on luck and gambling. Each team can use two “attack”, two “maneuver” and two “defend” stances, so the Captains need to think in advance about their strategy. You won’t be happy if your 116^th German list built to defend will attack a US tank company. After the pairs are built, we used the More Missions extended battleplan to select the mission. Two games per day, on three days. If you win, you score one “big” point. If you lose or draw, zero.

 

This is when the Iceland team tried to outsmart the US team in the first match – it didn’t end well! 

 

The results. US Team, with well-known players like Igor Torgeson (British Rifle), Tony Davis (British Recce), the always-winning-something-every-weekend Chris Jackson (German Fortress Europe), Kevin Morris (Romanian), Vincente Arroyo (German Ardennes Panzergrenadier) and Tim McClelland (US Bulge) won the first place with 21 points.

After them, the English team (not British, here is like soccer!) with Graham Klaka (US Bulge), Ian Brook (Waffen SS), Paul Stovell (Romanian), Edward Turner (British D-Day Recce), Graham Willmott (German D-Day) and Laurence Donohoe (British D-Day Desert Rats).

Third team, Poland with Michal Jozwiak (US Bulge), Pawel Kuklinski (US Bulge), Lukasz Kur (German Bagration), Michal Mikolajczyk (British D-Day), Marcin Telego (British D-Day), Adam Tyxzynski (German Bagration).

The US team upon receiving the “First Place” prize – they deserved it, and I can say we lost to the best team in the competition!

The final Teams ladder – US, England and Poland were very close and every point counted to win the competition. 

The best 24 players (on 120). ETC is a team competition, but I was very happy and satisfied to be the second-best player in the tournament.

You can see all ETC 2022 lists here.

A quick note on the lists: they were sent to umpires for checking just after the official release of the German Bulge book, so we found as expected a generous amount of King Tigers; also, the new Lessons from the front was published just a few days before the event, so you will see many lists have what is now a “wrong” list or wrong values – almost all teams had a German with 116^th card, that now discount 1 point for unit instead the original 2.

If you are even remotely interested in Flames of War, I suggest you take a look at the lists: some of them are really interesting and inspiring. The Polish team, for example, did some very good work, in my opinion.

If an Italian tells you we ate very well, you should believe it. The Belgian organization served us excellent meals, and the best one was the BBQ on Sunday!

 

The Iceland team (my team) won 14^th place – not a bad one considering it was our first ETC. We also – and this really honored us – the “Best Sporting team” – this means our opponents enjoyed playing with us, and this is something prideful. The Denmark team won the “Best painting” prize (and they really deserved that!), while Marcin Telego (Poland) won the prize for the best individual result.

It was my first ETC, but I really hope it will not be my last. I was amazed to find such a friendly and sporting spirit in what is probably the most competitive event of the year. I heard of no nasty discussion, and this was surely due to the skillful umpire Scott Palmer, who confirmed there were no major problems.

The Iceland Team – first time at ETC and we arrived 14th, but also won the “Best Sporting” prize, something we all are really proud of!

Finally, I would like to thank Iceland Captain Soren Petersen and all the Iceland team – Gunnar Kristsson, Rasmus Grejesen Lynge Lynge, Gisli Jokull and Richard Hardy (the other mercenary from Scotland) to have invited me and welcoming me as a true fellow Icelander – they also nicknamed me  “Paolo the Viking” for my assaults on the morning breakfast and my habit to shout random Icelandic words when I killed some King Tigers!

Next ETC will be a Mid war tournament: if you want to join, get ready with your army and dice, and stay tuned!

And now, some of the best armies I’ve seen at ETC, and some random photo.

Soren Petersen’s excellent Russian army – I really love it – and was a hard nut for every opponent.

Some old-time friends I met at ETC: from left, Stefano Regazzoni (Swiss Team Captain and second in the Italian Championship 2021-22), myself, Livio Tonazzo (mercenary in the French team and one of the best Italian players), and Tiberio Vinante (mercenary in the Serbian team). 

 

Portuguese Team Vs Serbian one

 

A boomer trying to do some decent selfie and failing miserably. But with Kevin Morris of Team USA on the left. 

One of the best-painted armies, Kristian Lyngvald’s British. His team won the “best painted” prize.