Welsh Nationals at Firestorm Games

Today we welcome Rob Jones as a guest writer who recently ran the Welsh Nationals.

Before I talk about the event I’d better introduce myself. I am Rob and I have been playing and collecting Flames of War since 2017 so l am a version 4 baby. Since then I have collected every nation except the Finns but this will change. Since starting I have only really played people I have trained and forced into such as my friends Jimmi and Richard.

In 2019 with my collection of models and terrain at a decent level I started a long term ambition of mine, to start a wargaming channel on YouTube. Then covid happened so no more reports. But I found a way to play my friends via video calls and I kept the reports flowing. This had an unexpected outcome because I started playing my now friends Tom and Lucas from Scotland via this method and Tedor from Romania. From these three I really started learning the rules. After a few drubbings I started to improve.

In 2023 me and my friend took the dive into tournament play and went over to UK nationals. I absolutely loved it and somehow I manged to place 4th. Since then I have gone to UK nationals again and up to Scotland twice. The last trip was with my good friend jimmi, my current tournament partner for scotish nationals, and met up with my friends Tom and Lucas, as well as the legend that is Frank of the panzershule channel.

So after being asked about welsh nationals I decided to give it a go and create and run an event at firestorm games. I have a basic idea what the games want and with some help from Mark and Soren I slowly put everything together.

It happened with support from battlefront, firestorm and frontline. I got 12 players mostly local, but with Rex and Shirley travelling 6 hours to come and make the event that bit more special. All the lists and stats can be found on this vide in put together following this link:

And here are some stats on nations, books and formations used. In total there were 19 lists as players had an option to take an Allied and axis list.

I did take part myself and went with a primary and secondary list. Primary being Romanians and secondary Americans, both with defence in mind.

Game 1

So now onto the day of the event, it was very warm and humid. Everyone turned up on time and the software I was running the event on was working so we were green for go. My game one was against someone I play with regularly and had a loss against in a practice game for the event so I wasn’t filled with confidence. My opponent jimmi (list below) went attack to my defend and decided to launch a night attack. Jimmi managed to get his infantry into an excellent position for an assault, but dawn came a little too early and without the cover of night I managed to fend him off and defend my objectives. In a very good game and at times very close I only lost one unit for an 8:1 victory.

Game 2

Game 2 against Aled was a defend defend mission. A mission that I find needs practice to avoid an early defeat. Unfortunately for Aled he had not looked at the mission fully as to be fair it is a bit confusing. I did let Aled have a good read through before we started but playing is the best way to get to grip with a new mission. Safe to say my big platoon of pioneers pushed a para platoon off an objective while the others were being bullied by his Stuarts. With nothing to push my guy off the objective he tried to shoot me off. I got very nervous seeing my men get mowed down but only loosing my HQ got another 8:1.

Game 3

Game three against Rex, now I knew I would face him at some point as I also knew my winning run would end at his hands as he is a crafty fox and a master of the game. He went manoeuvre against my defend and we had a mission where the objective is flush with the edge of my deployment zone so I could make my normal cushion of defender, so one bad assault and it’s over. Not sure how long it took but my pioneers Platoon got And that concluded day one, software still working and people enjoying the event. I managed to secure 2nd place going into the final day but knowing my game against Olly was coming up I doubted my chances of a podium finish.slowly cooked by his Crocodiles. I did go out swinging however but in the end only managed a 2:7 loss. A fun game as always against Rex and one day I hope to beat him.

End of Day 1

And that concluded day one, software still working and people enjoying the event. I managed to secure 2nd place going into the final day but knowing my game against Olly was coming up I doubted my chances of a podium finish.

Game 4

Day 2 game 4 and my Americans take to the field. Olly attacked me and I defended in Escape. My highlight was getting my Hellcats on turn one and at long range brewing up 2 Panthers, great result. I then weathered the sturm. My 1st platoon were then joined by Winters, combined they held objective and secured a 6:3 victory in a game of fine margins.

Armies on Parade

Below are some snaps of the armies on parade;

Game 5

Game 5 against Welsh ETC captain Alex. A list I really didn’t want to fight as I find a breaching group does rather well against defencive lists. Things didn’t start well as my fist unit of reserves died with only a sherman to their name. Then AVRE’s kept ranging in and my poor infantry started getting decimated and to be fair didn’t rally. My next lot of reserves managed to get into the side of some Crocs but wiffed. This continued into the next turn of shooting. Staring down the barrel of an 8:1 loss I wanted it all to end. But I manged to brew up a unit of AVRE’s and then the next turn the other unit, so I clawed back a point. Then on my last turn of the game it was all over but my aircraft came in and after a few turns of housing the archers they finally died and I finished on a 3:6 loss and a not so bad 3 wins and 2 losses.

Comclusion

That’s the end to the games but now it’s time for the prizes.

Best table and best painted went to Aled Roberts and big thank you to Rex and Shirley for the 2 tables you set up. Most sporting went to Olly. 3rd Place Alex Jones, 2nd place myself turns out playing for points can help and of course number one the mighty Rex King.
Now onto the future. I want to keep Welsh nations a thing on the Flames Of War calendar and for it to grow like Scottish nationals has done. I plan to create another one and I am thinking of October again, late war, 100 points to build the event up. And then eventually tie in with what the ETC is doing in terms of the period of the war. 

Again big thanks to Firestorm, Battlefront and everyone who came and helped me along the way, I couldn’t have done it without you. I will see you all next year at welsh nationals and probably earlier at the ETC or UK nationals.

There will be a video on my channel with a bit more details on how the battles turned out so keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading