Field of Glory German Open 2013
The first weekend in March, the German Open 2013 in Field of Glory was held at the Marksburg. The Marksburg is a castle near my hometown Coblenz, right between Cologne and Frankfurt, where the Mosel meets the Rhine. The castle is a great location for a historic wargaming event. The weather was a bit cloudy, but the mood was never the less great.
Near the Marksburg is a roomy parking lot and from there it is only a few minutes by foot up to the castle. Once at the castle, the short climb is rewarded by a great view over the Rhine valley. The rooms within the castle, where the tournament was held, are usually used for marriages or similar events. Together with the patio and anterooms, filled with knights’ armour and banners, you have a fitting scenery for an event like this, especially for Field of Glory with all the ancient and medieval armies.
But let’s take a look at the gaming tables. There was a mixed group of participants, not only from Germany, but also players from England, Belgium and France travelled to this event, to measure their gaming skills. The third picture shows the top tables, dominated by gamers from the local gaming club KoMiCon (Holger Puttkammer in the yellow jersey, like in the tour de France, as well as the current German champion Ferdi Akaltin, who wanted to prove his top position in the German ladder).
The tables were filled with great looking armies in 15mm scale, among them many knights, pikes, and of course elephants. One army consisted of pink figures and tokens, and belongs to a lady who even knits her own terrain.
The first few matches of Sunday were through, and the gamers gathered to hear the announcements of the next pairings. Once again it started, shaking hands, setting up the army and play a game. The finely painted armies clashed. Great battles need a fitting scale, and Field of Glory is quite impressive in 15mm scale, especially on 4 x 6 foot / 1,2 x 1,8 m tables. Of course the players invested some more time to build their camps, like this Indian army painted by Gero Strand.
At a tournament in this scale, trophies shouldn’t be missed. Beside the prizes for the top three gamers (Ferdi Akaltin, Michael Schmidt and Ian Stewart), there is a challenge cup on which the winners are commemorated.
There was even a small bring & buy, as usual for the historical events. You could get your hands on some Field of Glory books, as well as some second hand, painted and unpainted miniatures. Between the zip bags with the usual suspects like Romans and Napoleonics, I even found some older Blood Bowl Miniatures that I just had to buy.
The German Open in Field of Glory at Braubach was hosted by the Koblenzer Verein für Strategiespiele (strategy game club Koblenz).
An overview of the rankings and tournament placings can be found on FieldofGlory.de.
