SCHOOL LEAGUE NATIONAL FINAL - July 5th 2006

The 2006 National Schools League came to an exciting climax at the grand final held at Warhammer World on Wednesday July 5th . With teams from fifteen schools and over 100 students and teachers taking part it proved to be a very close run tournament, and a fantastic day all round.

Each of the teams of students had battled their way through regional finals to earn their place at the National Final and this was the culmination of a year's effort of army building, painting and game playing.

The tournament used the Combat Patrol, Border Patrol and War Party rules and we were all really impressed, once again with the standard of rules knowledge, sportsmanship and painting on show. Everyone had obviously put in lots of effort, through the year.

Alongside the tournament, the students were also able to take part in painting and scenery masterclasses and they had an exclusive look at the brand new Warhammer rulebook and boxed set – Battle for Skull Pass !

All in all, a great time was had by all and if this year's growth of the Schools League is anything to go by, next year's regional heats and grand final will be even bigger!

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and especially to the winners!

OVERALL TOURNAMENT WINNERS

Redcar Community College Warhammer 40,000 Winners	Redcar Community College The Lord of The Rings Winners	Southend High School Warhammer Winners

BEST PAINTED ARMY WINNERS

Warhammer 40,000 Winner Windsor High School	Warhammer Winner Windsor High School	The Lord of The Rings Winner Mill Hill School

REDCAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT THE NATIONAL FINAL

The trip the National Final was a great boost to Redcar's School League experience as they had not competed in the School League before and winning the Regional Final had been a fantastic first introduction.

Matthew Hobbs and Dave Rae the two teachers in charge of the club were nervous as they set out at 7.00am on the morning of the final – had it been beginners luck or would their teams be bringing home a trophy? To fortify their spirits they all stopped off for breakfast and, sufficiently buoyed up by food and the determination of the teams, set off for Warhammer World.

To help their teams prepare for the School League, Matthew and Dave worked hard with their club helping them with their tactics and army building as well as organising lots of games to help the players fine tune their armies. This included getting their club members to take part in a tournament organised at Games Workshop Middlesbrough which one of their lads won!

Matthew and Dave also brought in a house rule about painted and based armies stating that for unpainted armies each general would suffer -1 to their Leadership or Courage. This was to show that if a general were to take unprepared troops into battle then their morale would suffer as a consequence. This rule applied to all club members including themselves and there are far fewer unpainted armies in the club as a result!

The months of hard work Matthew, Dave and their teams put in before the finals paid off even though many of the team members were playing with armies they had received only that Christmas.

Once Redcar got to Warhammer World they gathered in Bugmans where the team captains looked after their teams, helped them with the quizzes and answer any rules questions they could. With all this sorted, the first games were announced and the tournament began.

Matthew and Dave soon lost track of how their teams were doing as there were so many games going on and other things to take part in during the day. When they asked their teams how each of them had done after a round they began to notice that most games seemed to be won and they started to hope that maybe they could come home with a trophy.

The prize giving started and all teams and teachers waited to hear how they had done. When the double win for Redcar was announced Matthew and Dave were surprised and delighted – what a way to finish your first ever School League!

Redcar will be joining in the School League again next year and who knows, they may be looking for a Warhammer trophy to complete the set!

SOUTHEND HIGH SCHOOL AT THE NATIONAL FINAL

We had so much interest in the Schools League that we had to hold a mini-tournament to select the best players for the 3 teams. After that it was a case of chasing everyone up to get their lists selected, armies finished, bases done and suchlike for the heats and finals, and getting practice games in! The boys saw entering the League as a challenge, and it really inspired them to finish off their armies.

The 6am departure on the day did nothing to dampen the boys' spirits, and when we arrived, they trooped into Warhammer World where they spent a while drooling over all the superb showcase miniatures and the new edition of Warhammer (which we had to wear white gloves to touch! No, really.). The scenery on the tables was fantastic, and the 3 games were all played in a friendlier, more relaxed atmosphere than any tournament I've been to. Our spectators wandered around admiring armies, putting together some of the new Cities of Death scenery and playing practice games on the fully modelled terrain boards (my Guard even managed to draw against one of my pupils' Space Marines on a brilliant Cityfight board – next time David!) The games looked really close and we lost a couple of games in the last round in both systems, so it was a really welcome surprise to be called up as winners for Warhammer!

Playing in the League has really motivated the boys for next year. We're going to try to qualify with all 3 systems (our 40k team got knocked out at the Heats) and there will be tough competition for a place on the teams. It was really nice to see so many well-motivated pupils on the day, who had all worked so hard on their armies, and it was a great reward for them to get the day off to compete. We're looking forward to coming back next year, so watch out Redcar , we're after your trophies! I'd like to say well done to all the players who made the day so enjoyable – well done, and see you next year!

Paul Gayner

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