By Anthony "Anfernee" MasonA few weeks ago I ran a tournament in Melbourne known as Operation Cleanslate. We had 16 players register, but sadly one had to withdraw on the morning due to a family emergency (hope everything is good now JD!). So that forced me to pull out the gumby list. Cleanslate was a one day event, consisting of three 1250 point games.
Most of these photos were generously taken by Piotr Kaczmarek, one of the many great players we had, as I was busy running around organising the rounds and rolling with the gumby list. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, a gumby list is the list used by the TO (tournament organiser) in the case of an odd number of players. This ensures that everyone gets a chance to play every round and there is no-one left with a bye because of lack of opponents. My gumby list on the day was a German list, consisting of a bunch of Volkssturm and Hitler Youth, backed by a single squad of veterans and two, yes two, Panthers.
We had amazing prize support. With prizes directly from Warlord Games and the Australian distributor, War & Peace Games. Not only did we have the owner/operator of Laser Touch, Craig playing in the event, but he also donated some of their great pin markers to the prize pool. We also had vouchers from the guys at Trenchworx to use in their online store. There was also miniatures from a new range of Soviets from Eureka Miniatures and a table of stunning terrain was generously supplied by Battlefield Accessories, who also supplied the trophies, which can be seen below.
We had a heap of stunning armies take the field, with 7 Allies and 9 Axis lists, which was great to see after the last Melbourne tournament had a single Axis player! The quality of painting and modelling was high, and the person who took out Best Painted barely did so with a single extra vote. If you are a listener of the Baconburger podcast you'll already know this was none other then Tristan with his Finns.
Tristan also managed to come second over all (and the best Axis Player) but he was fiercely held off the number one spot by 'Angry' Greg, who with his Russians, dominated again with 3 wins for the day. Greg is a perennial contender in the Melbourne Bolt Action scene, and anyone planning to attend one of our events best be prepared to face off against him. To round out the awards, the 2nd best Allies player was Richard with the only other Soviet list, and 2nd best Axis was Rob from the Baconburgers with his DAK. The Best Sport, who was chosen unanimously by all 3 of his opponents, was Damien with his Aussies, who is actually a Sydney resident who was down in Melbourne during the event.
It was a great day of gaming and I am looking forward to the next one that is going to be run by Tristan here in Melbourne in a couple of months. Enjoy these photos from the event and if you have any questions or would like to promote your own event, come find us on facebook and let us know.
"Anf" is a long-time gamer from Down Under, who currently focuses his hobby time on Bolt Action.
With an equal love of rockets and Ice Hockey, he constantly explores weird and wonderful army lists in his never-ending quest to collect them all.
