Winter War 2023

Nopat & Taktiikka Wargaming Club, Helsinki, organizes the traditional and annual major wargaming event every winter since many, many years. For a couple of years Song has been one of the seven or so different tournaments in the event. This time we agreed with CMON to have the Finnish Nationals status and this boosted our tournament to a new record in players (26, 18 last year) and broiught a flux of players from abroad too! We also received a generous prize support from CMON - THANK YOU!

Tournament in action

Preparations

Pasi, Jeroen and me.

Our Team of 3 TOs (me, Pasi (left in the pic) and Jaakko (not in the pic) had been planning and marketing the tournament for almost half a year. This year we wanted our tournament to grow from last years's 18 players (which was the biggest Song tournament in Finland thus far) and we wanted to get the Nationals status for our tournament. Both goals were reached with 26 players enrolling and Nationals status agreed with CMON's Organized Play responsibles - thank you Adam!

We also discussed the need of comps and special rules for the tournament and a few were originally implemented:

Mance Rayder was banned (Harmen Uller was also considered)
A player must have different commanders in their army lists
A Player, who choses which player goes first in turn one, must deploy first unit.
Both players will choose 2 terrain pieces, but same terrain piece cannot be chosen twice by same player. Players will randomize, which one will place 1 terrain piece first.
A player will receive 1 extra Tournament point (TP), if the whole army is painted (min. 3 paints required + shades) and based. A Player will receive only 0,5 extra tournament points (TP), if at least half of the army is painted and based.

Biggest hassle during the preparations happened in "last minute" as the update patch was published the very same week as our event. This raised quite a bit of debate amongst the players, as many players needed to think over their lists. After seeing the update our TO team agreed to go with the patch and ban from Mance was also lifted. To my understanding most of the players also preferred to play with updated version, some clearly not.

We were very pleased to see Jeroen from Rotterdam Whitescars enroll into our tournament and soon he approached us and asked for a permission to film his games to be published on his YouTube Channel - we were more than happy to agree!

Jeroen setting up his gear - we had a separate room for this (less noise).

Jeroen's games published so far in the end of this post.

Friday finally arrived and we set up all the tables with the TO team. All foreign players also arrived safely to Finland (Jeroen + 5 players from Sweden)

Unfortunately one of the enrolled players was recovering from a surgery and could not participate, so in the end we were 25 players.

You can see all about the tournament in Stats (players, lists, resulst) here

Ready to go

My Tournament

All of our TO team were also playing in the tournament, though Jaakko retired after 2 games to even out the number of players. I had an all painted House Martell Army

Round 1. Wind s of Winter

My first game was against Niklas from Sweden and his very nice Targaryen army. Choosing my army for the game was easy, I needed the cavalry in my Roose list to have a fighting chance, should Niklas field his 2 dragons list... and he did. Then again, against his Drogo list mu choice would have been the same.

I got a good start with Cunnin Ploy and got a charge with my Starfall Knights on Drogon, which ws duly skewered by their lances. In the meanwhile Roose and Royal Guard chilled on the central objective scoring points. I also took out his Unsullied Pikemen with Marselen, but there my killing ended and Targaryen killing begun - Rhaegal scorched my Flayed Men and Knights...

...and the killing continued until I only had Spearmen left! They had proceeded advancing towards the rear to keep their distance to Rhaegal & Dothraki Outriders...

...and they managed to survive to the end of the game aka me winning 11-7 through VPs from objectives, missions and Doran NCU (Niklas' list did not have Petyr)

Round 2. Dark Wings Dark Words

OK, more Secret Missions and now I was facing Kustaa's gunline Lannisters, not the ideal opponent for Martells. I chose to continue with Roose - Lannisters are not known for their high morale, nor morals

Once again I got a good start with Cunning Ploy in my opening hand and got a jump on Lannister Guardsmen and controlling the center objective, while Ellaria kept Crossbows weakened. FM took the right flank objective and were in position to smash the Stakes with swords, start R2...

...and so they did and then proceeded to charge the Kevan Crossboes into their flank and taking them out (they had already taken some panic damage from Spread fear. After destroying them and two objectives in my control it was a somewhat easy ride to victory. In this game I didn't even try to score points with Doran, but pressed the advantage. Still it was a narrow victory 10-8 for me and once again my opponent doing more killing then me: points destroyed 15-6 to Kustaa: I lost Roose with RG and one of my 8p. cavalry units, don't remember which.

Round 3. Feast for Crows

So, it was time to bust some armour as I faced another Teemu, whom is a long time dedicated Baratheon player... realising, that neither of his lists had Petyr nor Olenna and considering the scenario, choosing my list was an easy choise again: Roose would continue! Faced Stannis, King on The Wall cavalry list at the table 3. steadily climbing towards the top...

This game ended in a crushing victory for me: 13-2 and now the killing also went my way 19-16, I lost both of my cavalry units. My opponent had understood Doran NCU wrong (thinking he would only score 2VP total), but I would have won the game anyway.

DAY 2.

Round 4. Game of Thrones

I was expecting to face another Baratheon army, but Sampo & co. had shown our Swedish guests great hospitality, which lead to 2 players failing to arrive for the first game (iPhone alarm not working / not waking them up). So I faced Johannes, one of our top players in Finland in a Martell Mirror

As I needed to really focus, I didn't take too many pictures, nor do I remember much...

Game results tell, that I killed his Sand Skirmishers with Areo and probably his Outriders, while I lost nothing. I think we managed 4 rounds and I won 10-7 and 13-0 on units destroyed. This was still the tightest game as Johannes is an excellent player. He went for aggression and did not stay on any objectives, if he would have, it would have been even more tight.

Round 4. Fire and Blood - Top Table 1.

So, to no-ones surprise, the top table was a Martell mirror and I faced Antti, a regular opponent and a super nice guy from the club. Antti is a good player, sometimes too aggressive though (just like me too). Maybe that could wirk in this scenario.

Antti marked Harmen Spearmen and Outriders from me and I marked his Harmen Spearmen and Flayedmen (!!!). I deployed my Sand Skirmishers and Dune Vipers to my left flank, with a plan to outflank with Skirmishers, while rest of my army would hold the enemy forces in check - basic hammer and anvil...

Antti deployed his Skirmishers as far from mine as possible (or maybe I did), we both know how lethal they can be. His FM were holding the right flank, good counter to my Skirmishers and probably looking to benefit from the corpse pile too.

Soon the battle lines had swinged as both Sand Skirmishers were aggressively pushing forward and making havoc! I charged my Outriders at Antti's Skirmishers (whoim were out of Harmen's Supply Aid reach), but they didn't do enough damage. Antti tried to charge the flank of my Outriders with his FM, but failed that. Harmen saw the opportunity (he was equipped with Sundering) and charged their flank (and send a one more VP token to them). I also managed to make them loose all their abilities with Dervish Captain! After these setbacks FM chose to retreat! Royal Guard were literally bogged down in the bog and actually didn't do much in the whole game.

I started the next round and proceeded to destroy Harmen and his spearmen with my Skirmishers - 3VP! But an immediate retallion was delivered by Antti's Skirmishers, whom retreated and shot my remaining Outriders - also 3VP. At least I had taken out his Commander and healing source.

After that, Antti's Skirmishers were in my rear and that didn't promise good... I piled more VP tokens on Flayedmen hoping to win or even the score with a big bang. FM charged my Skirmishers, but I was able to blunt that charge and my Skirmishers survived and I healead them up. At the another start of a round I made a big mistake: instead of using Horse Zone to manouver and shoot with my Skirmishers, I activated them and shot at Flayedmen, whom barely survived and then galloped out of reach with 2 extra VP tokens on them. In the meanwhile Antti's Skirmishers made short work of my Uller and Spearmen and my Vipers couldn't take them out, but were instead destroyed by them and FM. Oh well,

All I could do was to hang on to my dear life and my Skirmishers managed to survive a charge from Antti's Royal Guard (I believe it was the only attack RG did in a whole game)

Antti won the game with clear numbers 9-3 and 19-5.

Grim numbers, but there was a moment, when the game could have gone my way, if I could have only managed to kill the FM (worth 5VP!)

RESULTS

Finnish Nationals ended in a three way victory for Martells (after points from painting had been awarded and included in the points)

Top players were:

1st. Antti 16 / 16 / 58 (1 point from painting)

2nd. Seppo 14 / 17 / 83 (1 point from painting)

3rd. Myself 14 / 12 / 71 (1 point from painting)

4th Best Swedish player and Best Killer was Martin with 13 / 15 / 105 (0 points from painting) - Lannisters

5th Niklas (Swe) - Targaryens 12 / 13 / 91 (1 point from painting)

Others rewarded:

Best painted 1. Kustaa - Lannisters

Best painted 2. Esa - Neutrals

Nicest opponent 1. Willard (Swe)

Most thematic / fluffy army: Niklas (Swe) - Targaryens

Unfortunately shipping with our prize support from CMON took so long, that we had to deliver them afterwards... which is a good reason for 4 of us Finns to head to Swedish Nationals in May!

Part of the prize support

Armies on Parade

As we were awarding tournament points from army painting, most players had worked hard to field a painted army. Prizes were also given for Best Painted (1st & 2nd) and Most Thematic armies, chosen by a vote from other players

Awesome Neutral Army by Esa

Won the 2nd place in Best Painted