Flame On managed second overall at Open War XV, though their major victory was forcing the First Company Vets to rejig their rules on account of us not returning the shields in an efficient fashion.

Clockwise from far left Nathan "Could Be Robert Nathans?" Roberts, Chris "Curis" Webb, Tim "Attention Span" King, Chris "Gang" Green, Graham "Like an Apple" Apperley, Gaz "SMONGASMONGASMONGA" Jones, Chris "My He's Grown" Apperley, Gary "Loveable Rogue" Percival, Mike "Painting Pimp" Newman, Scott "Not THE Scott Mills" Mills, Bob "Why Wasn't I in the Photo?!" Wolstencroft, Simon "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night" Jenkins and Mike "2U2" Mee.

Curis' Dark Angels of the 8th Company fought at Open War XV alongside the mighty Warlord Titan - Hepatitus Alpha. HeI ranked top of Flame On, though that's like being World's Tallest Dwarf as Flame On dominate the lower places at the Open War rankings.

Hepatitus Alphas was on loan from Simon - a man whose ever-present sunglasses actually served their intended purpose in Mansfield's gorgeous sunshine. And made him look a bit like Lt. Horatio Caine. OOooooowwww!

Mike Mee, a man who likes to express himself simultaneously in the first and third person with sentences such as "This pleases Mee!" took home the Epic Armageddon wooden spoon. Here he is looking surprised at Chris Steel's Vanahein Aircav (picking up another well-deserved Best Army award).

Joe Jepshon's gorgeous Epic (not) Dark Angels were cruelly denied any awards, despite looking fantastic with Joe's paint-staking hyper-lighting technique

It was also nice to see Golem's paintjobs gracing box art at Maelstrom's quite frankly aspirational shop.

If you've watched Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End then the situation with Flame On's Stomp may resonate with you. At the end of At World's End Orlando-Bloom-pirate becomes the Flying Dutchman, cursed to go out to sea and only return to see his beloved Kiera-Knightley-pirate once every ten years. And so it is with Drill Engineer Stompzilla, who spends a lot of time working off-shore, only occasionally returning home to see his beloved wargame Epic Armageddon. Denied attendance of lot of the Epic UK events by the nature of his availability when he does return to the shores of Britain we at Flame On gather together for an orgy of Epic and beer. This was the Assault on Horufen.

This was a scenario written by Flame On's mighty Si. Si's campaigns, army lists and scenarios are always set in his own corner of the universe - this time the planet Mocheskan, in the throes of civil war in the dark days of Abbadon's 13th Black Crusade. Basically the attackers have to cross two rivers and capture key political buildings in a city. Though the defenders are massively outnumbered, they've mined the rivers - even going so far as adding gravitic spring mines to stop pesky skimmers. The city itself is void-shielded and encased in a flak umbrella (ella, ella, ay, ay ay...).

 

The Flame On chappies have thoroughly immersed themselves in the 2011 tournament scene after a festive period characterised by the necessary abundance of families and the accompanying sad dearth of all things genuinely fun.  Only family we want to hang around with drunk on Christmas Day are the tiny lead ones we collect.

But with a return to miniature hostilities Flame On deployed across the length and breadth of Britain and across three systems to bring glory and prizes to Manchester's loose-association-cum-social-network.

Firstly, the 40K crowd went en masse to the 40K Masters event at the Eye of the Storm.

Left to right: Mike "White Scally Jacket" Newman, Nathan "Moptop" Roberts, Chris "Scarfy" Green, Josh "The Stallion" Robert, James "Jimbo" Knight, Neil "The King" Kerr, Gary "Han Solo" Percicval, James "Curis-doesn't-know-how-to-poke-fun-at-him" Ramsay and finally Gaz "Oh-does-Curis-know-how-to-poke-fun-at-him" Jones.

On the main Masters event 1st place was taken by the gaming powerhouse that is Josh, 2nd place by Neil.  Nathan managed 3rd place in the accompanying Open event.

The army-painting machine Mike Newman did nothing, but gets a special mention for shameless SEO purposes. 

Meanwhile in deep south Curis and Stompzilla bombed it to Bristol, enjoying the throbbing hypnotic sounds of the Octopus both ways.  They fought weird and wonderful selection of experimental Epic: Armageddon lists.  Both tied for most sporting, and Curis' Raven Wing got Best Painted, taking him to like fifty gazillion painting awards.  The cock.

Special mention goes to Stomp who on top of tying for most sporting got an honourable painting mention. What unlikely achievement for that lad next?  Marriage?  Attending a tournament sober?

Lastly, Jimmy "Ninjahamster" Balderstone drove a measly 400 yards to Stockport's Northwest Gaming Centre to lord it up Victorian style in the realms of Malifaux (which we've decided rhymes with 'Halifax') and claim absolute first place.  He  only provided this pathetic photo so we've taken the liberty of reflecting his face in the trophy to make it more exciting.  (We actually started with obscene pornographic reflections, but realising he's behind the site we thought better.)

Flame On's third Epic Armageddon event of the year - the Stockport Stockade - drew crowds from the length and breadth of England this weekend. Gamers chasing late-season Epic UK Championship points clashed over three days of gaming. Every guest received their own limited edition SPAYSE MAHREEN replica to thank them for their involvement and support.

Battles took place across a variety of boards, without a single giant cocking redwood in sight.

1st place was taken rather definitely by Tim Hunt and his Skorchatastic Speed Freaks that unleashed burny death.

2nd place was taken by Joe Jephson and his real-life Dark Angels, proving the world over that perceivedly under-powered variant lists are still deadly in the hands of the tactically astute.

3rd place was taken by Matt Arnold, who'd grown a beard especially to gain an edge in one of the scenarios (which rewarded extravagent facial hair) only to forget those rules in the heat of battle.

Matt also won Most Visually Awesome Army - Judge's Choice for his Blood Red White Scars.

Chris Steel won Most Visually Awesome Army - Players' Choice for his stunning Vanaheim Air Cavalry.

Last place went to Alan Saunders, who can console himself with the special SPAYSE MAHREEN wooden spoon.

Finally, Stockport Stockade 2011 has been provisionally booked for the last weekend in September. It may be a multi-system event so we can include Citadel Combat Cards.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and the staff at the Northwest Gaming Centre for providing an excellent venue.

A fuller Flickr gallery from the Stockade can be found here.