Reading Warfare 2015

On Saturday morning Oscar and I got up early, packed the car with Firestorm ships and overnight bags, and made our way to the Rivermead Leisure Centre in Reading for this years Firestorm Armada tournament at the Warfare show. Oscar took his trusty Aquans, with a couple of modifications to his old list, adding in some Gunships and a Sulis Heavy cruiser.

It was a great weekend - good to see Firestorm players experienced and green, familiar and new. The whole thing was very well set up and run by Chris from the Wargames Association of Reading, it all going even smoother than last year. The competition was also held in the main hall, which meant great exposure for the game....there were certainly a lot of people stopping, looking and asking questions, which again is a good sign.

As always, there were some fantastic cinematic moments - Admiral's vessels foldspace drives rupturing to send them into a nearby planet, detonating mines that destroyed the ship which laid them and crippled its squad mates, pristine battleships prized in boarding actions and whisked away....

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and once again, the Firestorm tables were the centre of much laughter, cries of rejoicing and despair...its one of the things I love about the game, it's such an inclusive and infectious experience - you want to tell the other players about the 9AD shot that landed 17 hits and double critted the Dindrenzi Heavy Cruiser (yes, this really happened....to me...by Oscar!).

Also enormously proud of my "boy" - he was one of the two tied for Most Sporting, and after a chat he was more than happy to take himself out of contention because of his placement...was great to hear such positive feedback from everyone. How cool is he?

Anyway, enough of my ravings, have a look at some of the action;

Here's what they were fighting for! In addition Spartan added prize support for 1st-3rd places (including a box of the new asteroids each), best painted and most sporting.

The tournament in mid-swing

Evidence of the cowardly Terrans hiding behind planets...surprisingly not commanded by Dan Bird this year!

Some rather nice RotO Directorate

But Chris Alton's Aquans won the painting competition, by some margin.

Ian Duff's Tarakians being nibbled to death by Aquans...

...who showed no remorse to anyone!

Works Raptor also tried this tactic...

...but it didn't go all their own way! The plucky Terran was destroyed eventually, but they sold their lives dearly

Oscar's Aquans mixing it up at short range with the Relthoza

Was nice to see some Ba'kash...even if they were playing "merry-go-round" with the Terrans around this planetoid!

The Veydreth proved brutal against the Sorylians...maybe that's why they're allies?

At the end of the tournament - well played to all!