The Art of War 2014 (Part 1)

Last weekend was the first ever Art of War Event at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre - and what an Event it was!

Yup. Its a church!

The Venue:

The Venue itself was simply fantastic. A huge gaming area, with plenty of room between tables, a snack bar, and a shop situated in the Chancel (where the clergy sit) and the Altar serving as the till (there's a political/religious statement there somewhere I'm sure). 

Spacious gaming area 

Shop behind the Chancel/Rood scree (Thank you internets!)

Nice variety of stock lines

The Altar of commerce/Till

The main hall from the shop end

 This has to be one of the nicest places to play wargames, the snack shop was adequate and very competitively priced (bottles of Pepsi for £1, two for £1.50!), the only downside would be the fact it currently only has a single toilet (well, that and it's nearly three hours drive away). The shop carried a nice variety of lines, if the actual depth of coverage was limited - having only been open since last November, its still early days in this respect.

The Tournament:

Arranged by Tim Harris and Steve Charlton, the event itself was 1750 late war, with the twist that the 'master' players were penalised for taking infantry/mech armies. This was an effort to stop them using tried and tested lists, and give the 'newer' players a slight advantage.

The awards

The awards themselves were beautiful drawings of various WW2 themes, with the titles added in lovely script - As Steve commented, a trophy you don't have to hide on the shelf!

Prize support

The prize support was second to none. Really. Just look at that stuff!!

I'll go through my games in part two, but here are some shots of the finished Tigers. I was a little miffed not to get through to the second round of judging for the painting competitions, however I got some great feedback and will be trying even harder next time!

The 1 and 2ic are BF resin, the rest are plastic soldier company

Dom's Decals worked a treat

Panzer Vor!!

The whole day ran like clockwork, with everyone having a great time. The 'ambient' music was a tad annoying at times, although the War of the Worlds soundtrack did make me feel at home, seeing as I live 2 minutes from Horsell Common. The food was adequate, - as it was included in the ticket price, I wasn't expecting much. That's the only two things I can think of that are negative about this weekend. Oh, that and the fact the entire population of the North decided to visit the same Brewers Fare we wanted to eat at!

Steve doing his best 'intrepid leader' impression...

The awards were different, with everyone having a chance to win something during the entire weekend - be it the 'highest placed beginner', best painted (with three different classes no less), and the Valour award. This was actually won by Justin 'The Troll' Carnzu, for this:

Andy Croft (of Breakthrough Assault fame) was defending against Justin's 7th AD. Justin had pushed up, and was about to capture the closest objective and win the game, when Andy got a reserve platoon on, and opted to bring his Grenadier Platoon on. These would have not been able to reach the objective to contest, meaning Justin would have won the game next turn. So instead, Justin pointed this out, and let Andy change his mind and bring on his Stugs, to keep the game going. Andy nominated Justin for the Valour award, and we had a happy if embarrassed Troll!

Justin receiving his Valour award from Tim Harris, while 'Wild' Bill Wilcox awaits another tournament win...

I can't say how great the weekend was, and got a chance to meet up with some familiar faces, along with some new ones!

We also got a chance to play test some new prototypes from Anarchy Models, as well as hand out some of the new 'Fez-man' objectives:

Super limited 'Full Hummel' Fez-man objective token - Play me at a tournament to get yours!

Justin was also using the new 'Smoke Template' set due out soon from Anarchy Models:

Not the best picture...

But you get the idea! These are made of sturdy Acrylic

And my personal favourite, the direct fire smoke - bigger than you think!

The direct fire smoke markers might not be produced in the clear acrylic, but we'll have to wait and see. They are scaled to the rules, and are much bigger than the cotton balls that most people use!

The weekend was ace, so many thanks to Tim, Steve, and the players for making such a great event. Art of War Too is in September, and I'm already scheming early war armies to take...

Stay tuned for the game write ups and more pictures from the event in part 2!

For now, thanks for reading, and I'll leave you with the results sheet.

Fez