Russian Grand Tournament 2018 Flames of War With Ilya Semionov The first Russian GT FoW gathered 26 players from 5 countries: Portugal, Serbia, Poland, Belarus and Russia. We played 5 games over 2 days at the greatest place we could have dreamt of – the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, or the Victory Museum. After the tourney, a tour in English was organized for the foreign guests.

The competition was very tight, as 3 of 4 top players had just the same big and small points – 3 wins and 26 VPs. We decided to count the total VPs gained by the players defeated by those 3 players and that was the only thing that allowed us to understand who of them got which place.  The undoubted winner of the tourney was Alisher Elmuradov, a Soviet Inomarochniki Tank commander with 29 VPs. Lukasz Kur from Warsaw and his German Grenadiers got the second place. The third prize was given to Danila Zubok and his French Infantry supported by Armoured Cars.

The day before the tourney we went on a tour to the world-known Kubinka Tank Museum and the exciting Park Patriot, a new museum close to the old Kubinka Museum site, which is its successor and has not only tank exhibition, but also airplanes, missiles and more. We have seen the greatest tanks of the World War II, visited the Partisans’ village, ate pelimeni (traditional Russian dumplings), borshch and buckwheat cereal, and made a lot of photos.

Some of the foreign guests came to Moscow early enough to visit not only Kremlin, the Armoury Chamber and the Red Square, but also the VDNKH park and its “Russia – My History” exhibition, the Victory Museum’s exhibition of the WWII tanks, planes, ships and even armoured trains. A Russian dinner was organized at Ilya Muromets restaurant, where we experienced the Russian dishes and beverages and met an amusing pig that was brave enough to ask for food from the guests. We also visited the biggest souvenir market in Moscow and got some matreshkas, valenki, and a lot of Soviet military hats for the Portuguese players who hadn’t possibility to come this year. We are eager to see you next March in Moscow, guys!

The tourney was organized by Voevoda club in cooperation with Geek Wars store, Victory Museum and Battlefront Miniatures company. The Flames of War sets and Vallejo paints for the top 3 players were provided by Geek Wars store, the tournament objectives for all the participants came from Battlefront Miniatures. Voevoda club, Geek Wars store, and Shtandart club combined their terrain to make the tables beautiful and picturesque.

During the tournament, we also organized a special table to explain the basic rules of the Flames of War game to the Victory Museum visitors.

The week of the Russian GT was intense and gave everybody a lot of good emotions. Even the temperature of – 20 degrees Celsius couldn’t freeze us, as the warmth of friendship helped us to brave the Russian winter! ~Ilya

Full Pictures Of The Russian Grand Tournament 2018: Russian Grand Tournament 2018 Flames of War at Victory Museum Day One... Russian Grand Tournament 2018 Flames of War at Victory Museum Day Two... Kubinka Tank Museum and Park Patriot Tour...