Our INTENSIVE FIRE and BERSERK! tournaments have attracted a gaggle of international ASLers in the past and a significant number of Germans, Danes and Swedes, together with smaller numbers of other nationalities, have enriched our competitions over the years. Recently I had the opportunity to return the complement by attending the ASL Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen over the weekend of 3-5 April.

The tournament was held in the Mekka Gaming Centre, close to the middle of the principle tourist area in Copenhagen, and hosted various collectable card games (burn the heretics!) and computer gainers over the weekend, in addition to the ASL tournament. '[he competition itself was in the Swiss format with play taking place in five rounds. The 'Elite' tournament had 26 participants while the parallel '1st line' tournament involved 6 'newbies'.

Play commenced rather later than anticipated on the Friday evening as the large Swedish contingent had been delayed due to storms which cancelled a number of the ferries from Malmo. However after everyone had dried-off gaming commenced around 20.00 hrs and went on till about 01.30 hrs the next morning.

The Saturday' morning round featured the PTO and the Nhpum Ga map from the '97 Annual was much in evidence with either 'Al15 Blockbusters' or 'Al16 Tangled up in Blue' being played on all bar one table. The second round on Saturday involved three excellent scenarios 'A109 Scouts Out', SPI7 Cross of Lorraine', and SPI5 Tabacchificio Fiocche'. My most memorable moment of the weekend occurred during my game of 'Scouts Out' when, as the German, I captured an abandoned and scrounged half-track on the last turn to give me exactly the 23 CVP which I needed for a, what had seemed earlier, very unlikely win.

By Sunday morning we were into the home straight with only four undefeated players remaining and by 13.00 we knew the final would be between Bjarne Hansen and Mel Falk, both previous attendees at INTENSIVE FIRE. The two finalists settled on 'A104 In Front of the Storm' for the decider with Bjarne getting the German defender. The game was very close throughout with first one side then the other having the advantage. As this was the final game to be completed quite a crowd had gathered by 19.00 hrs to watch the climax. For a while it looked as if the tenacious German defender would be able to hold the bridge. However Mel persevered and managed to eliminate the last German unit on the bridge with multiple breaks in the last turn and then run a half squad across for the victory. You could tell from the demeanour of the participants that it doesn't get much closer than this!

At the same time Christian Stasiak was rapping up top place in the 1st line tournament with a 5-0 record, while Rasmus Albrektsen took the runner up slot. By this stage it only remained for the prizes to get handed out. First and second in each tournament received an engraved cup and a copy of the latest View From The Trenches. Jakob Norgaard won an original German Close Combat trophy for accumulating the largest net number of close combat CVPs. Patrik Ilyvarinen received a dice cup as compensation for rolling the largest number of boxcars, while Bjarne Hansen received the snake eyes prize, a new set of dice, weighted to roll lots of 6's!

Many thanks to Mikael Siemsen and Michael Hastrup-Leth for organising the tournament and ensuring it ran smoothly'. I had a great time over the weekend and enjoved meeting new players and renewing acquaintances from previous years INTENSIVE FIRE's. If you can sell the wife/significant other the idea of a long weekend in Copenhagen next April make sure it coincides with the ASL Scandinavian Open. You won't regret it.