This was our seventh BFB tournament and the sixth held face to face. We meet every year during November at The Headlands Hotel, Blackpool, UK.
A slight reduction in numbers this year, many “regulars” being unable to travel for various reasons. That though didn’t dampen enthusiasm for the main tournament which saw an increased entry of 20 players split across the Heroic and Fanatic Divisions.
We had international presence at the
tourney with Eric Gerstenberg again travelling to join us all the way from Texas,
USA. I was also pleased to see some new faces at BFB this year, I hope they
enjoyed the gaming and will return next year.
Early arrivals were there on Tuesday
/ Wednesday for free play with the organised gaming getting underway on
Thursday.
These were the Minis, again sponsored
by our friends at Hazardous Movement with scenario choices by Andy Bagley. There
was the usual choice of ETO or PTO with 16 players participating in groups of 4.
The winners were Ian Ainsworth, David Blackwood and Ian Morris (ETO) along with
Craig Benn (PTO).
The main tournament got underway on Friday with play
across 2 days. The final round of games finished Saturday evening thus leaving
Sunday available for free play. As always the
scenarios are blind, mainly unpublished, and all from our main
tournament sponsor, Bounding Fire Productions. The format was the same as last
year (if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it!) being a four round, random draw,
straight knock out competition with an “Heroic” Division of 16 players and a
“Fanatic” Division of all the remaining players who wished to play in the main
tournament.
Whilst a knock out format, any
losing players went into a repechage (this year sponsored by MMP) and / or BFP Special
Mini secondary tournament thus ensuring that all entrants played at least 3
tournament games. Prizes were awarded to 8 of the 16 starting players. In the
Fanatic Division, with 4 entrants it was possible to play a round robin set of
games, again ensuring everyone played 3 tournament games, with prizes for the
winner and runner up.
BFP Special Mini winners:- Ian Morris
and David Blackwood.
Repechage Tournament Runner Up:- Matt
Ellis.
Repechage Tournament Winner:- Mark
Blackmore.
In the “Fanatic” Division well
played to Andrew Kennedy (a player new to the tournament scene) who won the Division
with last year’s winner Stuart Brant as Runner Up.
In the “Heroic” Division, 4th
place went to Dave Ramsey and 3rd Martin Vicca. In the final, the scenario
chosen for play, from the choice of 3, was BFP-23 Prelim to Death Night (Operation
Cobra, the other choices being BFP-52 Kachin Rangers or BFP-80 Ratushniak’s Sacrifice).
The final featured Craig Benn
defending as the Americans and Will Binns with the attacking German SS. With a
successfully mastered defence, Craig won the game to be crowned this year’s
champion – well played.
Other winners of the various
tournament prizes on offer over the weekend were Andy Bagley, Neil Brunger, Steve
Cook, Mark Finney, Alan Hulme, John Kennedy, Ian Pollard and Richard Webb.
None of which would have been
possible without the generous support of our sponsors and supporters - Bounding
Fire Productions (main tournament), Hazardous Movement (Minis), MMP (repechage),
Advancing Fire, Dispatches From The Bunker, Ken Smith Fine Art, Lone Canuck
Publishing, Second Chance Games, Mario Aceto dice towers and Ian Willey for his
superb dioramas. Thank you.
Bounding Fire Blackpool will reconvene at the same location, 12th-16th November 2025, for more friendly, intense ASL action - keep your eyes on the Blog (https://boundingfireblackpool.blogspot.com/) for updates.
Many thanks to all those who attended and I look forward to seeing you again next year.
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