Over the weekend, four of us made the relatively short trip down to Milton Keynes for the Campaign weekend host by Milton Keynes Wargames Society.

This would be my first Flames tournament in about 10 years, my first doubles tournament ever and a very novel experience playing in the middle of a busy shopping centre.

So I was told, the event had previously been attended by 40 to 50 players but this year there was 8 of us (more on my thoughts on that later) and so we sorted ourselves out and got on to some games.

It would be fair to say that my partner, Don, and I didn’t do great and by that I mean we lost all three Saturday games 8-1. We’re both still learning and this was kind of expected. We didn’t mind as all our opponents were great and very kind enough to talk through the games afterwards and give us some helpful hints.

This is where I think tournaments can really shine. Of course people want to win and they can be very off putting for new players thinking they’ll be out of their depth but they can be great for improving your games if you go into it with no great aspirations of glory.

I’d like to thank all my opponents for the games (and the Saturday night curry) and the organisers for their hard work.

Oh, and I’m rather annoyed with myself for not getting a team photo.