Britcon
Moderators: hammy, philqw78, terrys, Ghaznavid, Slitherine Core, Field of Glory Design, Field of Glory Moderators
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nikgaukroger
- Field of Glory Moderator
- Posts: 10287
- Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:30 am
- Location: LarryWorld
Colin as left the building 
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madaxeman
- Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
- Posts: 3002
- Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:15 am
- Location: London, UK
- Contact:
Britcon Day 1
The Official Report
Day 1 at BRITCON always feels like a bit of a misnomer, as the actual competition doesn’t usually start until around 6pm. As players are arriving from all over the country, we developed a “rolling start” a few years ago, in which a series of “mini” first round draws are undertaken ever 15 minutes or so, with only those players who are already here included. As usual there have been a few “lurkers” this year who studiously refuse to throw their names in the pot until some of the particularly fearsome seeded players have already been allocated opponents – no-one wants to start their weekend with a comprehensive defeat, especially when the coup de grace might not be delivered until midnight (when the games officially ended). However this year the tactic backfired spectacularly for one poor Field of Glory player,\who waited until the very last minute to go into the draw – and then ended up playing Bruce Brown the No1 ranked player and top seed in a game which went on until the stroke of midnight – which is pretty much the exact time his army broke as well!
Earlier in the day we’ve had a great turnout of early arrivals, although quite a few of them seemed more interested in catching up with old friends at the bar instead of getting in a practice game – maybe they’ll regret it later! We’ve also set out our last few tables, as some of the rooms in the venue were only released to us at 2pm on Friday afternoon. Of course, they happened to be the rooms up 2 flights of stairs from where the tables were stored, but as they say, no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy…..
All but a handful of our traders have also arrived today and set up their stands – the rest turn up for the public days tomorrow morning. Some of them do make some sales today, but most are here early to again to chill out and chew the fat with the players, many of whom are regular customers and old friends.
One brilliant innovation which has sparked everyone’s interest was from Linda Fairhurst. As well as wargaming, Linda is a keen knitter and she has combined the two hobbies by creating her own set of hand-knitted terrain for Field of Glory! The set includes ploughed fields, rivers, a gulley and a small forest, all cunningly fashioned from coloured wool. August in Manchester is one of the few seasons where its pretty much guaranteed to be warm, but should the temperatures drop we may well see Linda (and her husband Dave) opting for rather more open battlefields than usual - but also sporting some new and no doubt very fashionable woolly hats !
The other impressive terrain to arrive was for the Flames of War tables. Each year we have a dedicated band of gamers from Yorkshire’s “Sneaky Gits” club who provide all the pre-set terrain, and the standard seems to improve every year to the extent that it now approaches nearly 100 linear feet of diorama-quality table buildings, hills, trees, rivers and even a railway (which we suspect may actually be up and running by tomorrow !). The Flames of War players really appreciate the effort the “Sneaky Gits” put in, and seem to respond by putting ever-more fantastically well painted armies on the table each year – something for the FoG players to aspire to maybe?
As for the competitions, there have been a few upsets this evening most notably in Flames of War where the current International Wargames Federation Champion was beaten heavily in his first game. The surprised victor told us that he was “delighted by the win, but I’m not going to get carried away just yet and will try to approach tomorrows matches one game at a time.”
The overnight leaders so far (after one game) are:
DBMM – Jim Gibson – West Sudanese
Field of Glory 25mm Don McHugh – Thracian
DBM – John Fletcher – Medieval Portuguese
Field of Glory 15mm Early – Chris Ager, Palmyran
Warrhammer 40k Lynette Maxim, Sisters of battle
Warhammer Fantasy Keith Wilkinson - Demons of Chaos
FoW late – Jeremy Howison-Howart –German Grenadiers
FoW Mid – Robin Spence, Guards Strelkovy
EA – Kevin Bott – Eldar
Armati – Carl Luxford
Field of Glory 15mm Late – Robert Taylor – Catalan
Field of Glory Renaissance Beta – Martin van Tol – 30 Years War Swedish
The Official Report
Day 1 at BRITCON always feels like a bit of a misnomer, as the actual competition doesn’t usually start until around 6pm. As players are arriving from all over the country, we developed a “rolling start” a few years ago, in which a series of “mini” first round draws are undertaken ever 15 minutes or so, with only those players who are already here included. As usual there have been a few “lurkers” this year who studiously refuse to throw their names in the pot until some of the particularly fearsome seeded players have already been allocated opponents – no-one wants to start their weekend with a comprehensive defeat, especially when the coup de grace might not be delivered until midnight (when the games officially ended). However this year the tactic backfired spectacularly for one poor Field of Glory player,\who waited until the very last minute to go into the draw – and then ended up playing Bruce Brown the No1 ranked player and top seed in a game which went on until the stroke of midnight – which is pretty much the exact time his army broke as well!
Earlier in the day we’ve had a great turnout of early arrivals, although quite a few of them seemed more interested in catching up with old friends at the bar instead of getting in a practice game – maybe they’ll regret it later! We’ve also set out our last few tables, as some of the rooms in the venue were only released to us at 2pm on Friday afternoon. Of course, they happened to be the rooms up 2 flights of stairs from where the tables were stored, but as they say, no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy…..
All but a handful of our traders have also arrived today and set up their stands – the rest turn up for the public days tomorrow morning. Some of them do make some sales today, but most are here early to again to chill out and chew the fat with the players, many of whom are regular customers and old friends.
One brilliant innovation which has sparked everyone’s interest was from Linda Fairhurst. As well as wargaming, Linda is a keen knitter and she has combined the two hobbies by creating her own set of hand-knitted terrain for Field of Glory! The set includes ploughed fields, rivers, a gulley and a small forest, all cunningly fashioned from coloured wool. August in Manchester is one of the few seasons where its pretty much guaranteed to be warm, but should the temperatures drop we may well see Linda (and her husband Dave) opting for rather more open battlefields than usual - but also sporting some new and no doubt very fashionable woolly hats !
The other impressive terrain to arrive was for the Flames of War tables. Each year we have a dedicated band of gamers from Yorkshire’s “Sneaky Gits” club who provide all the pre-set terrain, and the standard seems to improve every year to the extent that it now approaches nearly 100 linear feet of diorama-quality table buildings, hills, trees, rivers and even a railway (which we suspect may actually be up and running by tomorrow !). The Flames of War players really appreciate the effort the “Sneaky Gits” put in, and seem to respond by putting ever-more fantastically well painted armies on the table each year – something for the FoG players to aspire to maybe?
As for the competitions, there have been a few upsets this evening most notably in Flames of War where the current International Wargames Federation Champion was beaten heavily in his first game. The surprised victor told us that he was “delighted by the win, but I’m not going to get carried away just yet and will try to approach tomorrows matches one game at a time.”
The overnight leaders so far (after one game) are:
DBMM – Jim Gibson – West Sudanese
Field of Glory 25mm Don McHugh – Thracian
DBM – John Fletcher – Medieval Portuguese
Field of Glory 15mm Early – Chris Ager, Palmyran
Warrhammer 40k Lynette Maxim, Sisters of battle
Warhammer Fantasy Keith Wilkinson - Demons of Chaos
FoW late – Jeremy Howison-Howart –German Grenadiers
FoW Mid – Robin Spence, Guards Strelkovy
EA – Kevin Bott – Eldar
Armati – Carl Luxford
Field of Glory 15mm Late – Robert Taylor – Catalan
Field of Glory Renaissance Beta – Martin van Tol – 30 Years War Swedish
http://www.madaxeman.com
Holiday in Devon? Try https://www.thecaptainscottagebrixham.com
Holiday in Devon? Try https://www.thecaptainscottagebrixham.com
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MARVIN_THE_ARVN
- Sergeant First Class - Panzer IIIL
- Posts: 396
- Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:37 pm
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spike
- Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
- Posts: 554
- Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:12 pm
- Location: Category 2
I agree with Dave, thanks to JD, Nik, Hammy, Colin and all the backroom staff who helped run this sucessful con. Congrats to Phil who, won the FoG CSR section (even with Robbo's Hamstringing!!!!!!!), and Pete Dalby in the Medieval secton.david53 wrote:I'd like to thank the Britcon Team for all the work that went into making this a great weekend, don't know all your names but thanks. At the same time I'd like to thank all the people I played who made the whole event so much fun. Next time I might bring my own air con though...
On the subject of Robbo, thanks to him and Ian Mackay for their understanding in my last 2 game's, where I was struggling with a nasty back spasam.
Spike
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spike
- Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
- Posts: 554
- Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:12 pm
- Location: Category 2
it gives you 14 minuses on any manover test, where your figures are out of arms reachphilqw78 wrote:I think Skythian, as they have no backbone and just run away all the time.MatthewP wrote:Which army are they in?Spike wrote:"On the subject of Robbo, thanks to him and Ian Mackay for their understanding in my last 2 game's, where I was struggling with a nasty back spasam. "
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petedalby
- Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
- Posts: 3115
- Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:23 pm
- Location: Fareham, UK
Another great Britcon - and huge thanks to all of the organisers, umpires and list checkers.
FOG continues to be a pleasure to play. I had 6 great games, 4 against new opponents, all of which were played in an excellent spirit. So thanks also to Lewis Cooper, Pedro Sanchez, Paul Cummins, Graham Briggs (who taught me about rivers!), John Munro and Julian Lopez for the games. Special commiserations to Julian who had the most appalling run of poor dice throws I think I've ever seen.
I'll definitely be back next year - delighted to see my name pulled out the hat in the badge draw but still unclear as to whether I'm getting the free entry or not? Hopefully there are 2 winners?
Roll on Roll Call.
FOG continues to be a pleasure to play. I had 6 great games, 4 against new opponents, all of which were played in an excellent spirit. So thanks also to Lewis Cooper, Pedro Sanchez, Paul Cummins, Graham Briggs (who taught me about rivers!), John Munro and Julian Lopez for the games. Special commiserations to Julian who had the most appalling run of poor dice throws I think I've ever seen.
I'll definitely be back next year - delighted to see my name pulled out the hat in the badge draw but still unclear as to whether I'm getting the free entry or not? Hopefully there are 2 winners?
Roll on Roll Call.
Pete