We got 12 players this year, which I'll cheekily point out is several players more than the most recent "World's" tournament that I read about. Thought it doesn't match up to the 20+ players that attended the Melbourne tournament run by Richard Gordon of the League of Ancients, it was a good turnout for our first year at Cancon. There was lots of interest from passersby, so I hope that the event will grow when I run it again next year. I feel that the FOGN rules are on the verge of really taking off all over Australia. We now have players in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and tournaments being run in Melbourne, Brisbane, and in Canberra during Cancon. What's more, the New Zealanders have made a great effort to travel to Australia for events in Melbourne and at Cancon already, and run a number of tournaments on both of their own islands which we Aussies will be starting to visit soon. This plus the high amount of interest from people walking past makes me feel that the game could really explode, especially if we keep up the visibility of our events. When I arrived to set up the night before the event, I made a point of snagging the tables in my area that would get the maximum amount of passing traffic, and I hung around so that passersby who wanted to ask about the game could talk to me (rather than interrupt my players). I hope I may have sparked some interest in future FOGN players.
I would like to thank Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures for sponsoring our event. As well as having an exclusive licence to produce AB miniatures, the best 15-18mm Napoleonic figures in the world, he's also a great guy and always entertaining to chat to. He provided gift vouchers to go along with each trophy I handed out; $30 for first place, and $20 each for second, third, and "Umpire's Choice for Gentlemanly Behaviour in the Face of Adversity". Eureka also produce a wide range of other figures in many scales. I highly recommend that anyone interested in Napoleonic gaming look to him, and anyone starting a new project in any other period should check his website for figures before you look to anyone else. http://www.eurekamin.com.au/
The event ran very smoothly, and was a pleasure to umpire. I used the official scoring cards from the FOGN website, which did a great job of differentiating scores and rewarding good play. I never had to use any countback while doing the draw or in the rankings at the end. Interestingly, there are no ties under this system. Because there are always 25 points to hand out, if a game doesn't end with one player broken before time runs out, the points are split based on relative losses, capturing LOCs, and having fresh cavalry (presumably for the break off/pursuit). So the closest possible score is 13-12, a very minor win for the player on 13. There were a few of those, but the large majority of games ended with one side broken, usually meaning a result of 21-4 or something similar. When the Inglis brothers ended up against one another in round four, David lost but managed to savage Alex's corps badly enough to result in a 18-7 win for Alex.
I played two games on the second day, due to one of my players suffering from an old shoulder injury and being forced to opt out. I simply played the people he would have played, using my Prussian force. I had two very enjoyable games, only interrupted a couple times by players with rules queries. In that vein, I would like to thank all my players for being gentleman. There weren't any arguments, disputes, or problems. Everyone made sure that their opponents had a good time, and that my part as the umpire was as easy as possible. It's easy to run a tournament when your players are good people.
Now, while I have flown home to Melbourne, I foolishly left my paperwork with the full scores and rankings in one of the boxes that Nigel Brand so kindly transported from Melbourne to Canberra and back again in his car, on the most boring seven hour drive ever conceived of by mankind. That also includes my army and much of the terrain for the tournament, as well as armies and terrain for many of the other events and tournaments at Cancon, so we couldn't have done this without him. Thanks to Nige. However, because the paperwork is in his car right now and not at home with me (where I write this report to you from the unutterable luxury of a bed that's not located in hotel room shared with 15+ wargamers, a bed that I never intend to leave so long as I shall live) I don't have the full scores and ranking with me. I'll reply to this post in a few days with all 12 players' full scores, armies, etc. In the meantime, let's look at the trophy winners:
1st Place, Undefeated, Australian Champion, Lord High King of the Mountain, Crusher of Hopes: Alex Inglis 1812 French Infantry Corps
2nd Place: Alistair Donald Anglo-Portuguese 1813 (one of our New Zealand visitors)
3rd Place: Martin Williams Austrian Infantry 1805
Special Mention, 4th Place, Almost made it onto the podium but I got beaten by my accursed brother again I hate him so much: David Inglis Allied Mixed Corps 1813
Special Mention 2, 5th Place, Only played one game in my life before I came to the tournament, had three wins and almost won first place before I got smashed by the accursed Alex in the last round I hate him so much: Andreas Kammel Russian Infantry 1812
Umpire's Choice for Gentlemanly Behaviour in the Face of Adversity: Brenton Searle French Infantry 1809 Brenton had also only played a few games before the event, and did manage to get one win over the weekend. He was also a pleasure to play with for everyone, win or lose, and never let his losses get him down. Well done Brenton.
And now, some pics of the event and the miniatures. Click for a larger version.
