WTC 2024, 09.08.-11.08., Düsseldorf
09.08. - Prolog
The german teams pack up their stuff at the training house in the Netherlands to drive the hour to Düsseldorf.
Apparently tidying up after a week of Warmachine games with 14-20 people takes a bit longer than expected, so we do not make it in time to help set up the tables in Düsseldorf.
When we arrive we are already greeted by a lot of people and a hall filled with fully set up tables including 3D terrain. I know some of the stuff, having painted a small share of it, but only now do I realize the size of this operation.
We make our first round, hug a lot of people and look in awe at Raskild and his henchmen setting up the streaming tables. That stuff looks quite expensive...
Even though it is not 15:00 yet, we hear rumors of the hotel check-in being possible and make our way over there. It 's a 5 min walk and with the heat and humidity, I'm soaked already.
The rooms are great and air conditioned, so I take a shower and change into a team jersey. We have a friendly game lined up for later today.
Back at the location, I see THE Brineblood vessel for the first time. If you know, you know. If you don't, check out THIS!
Christoph who built it is a great guy (and painter, and modeler) and hands me a Brineblood themed round counter. I accept and immediately forgive him for making my own attempts of throwing paint in the general direction of models look bad.
PapaKhadan calls all the terrain painters for the tournament tables and hands us a small present to thank us. And by small I mean an absolute massive tournament tray for each one. I won't be able to fit this weekends army on it, but that's my fault for running 33 medium bases 8 large bases and an extra large-base.
More and more people are coming and it's approaching 18:00, where we will have our friendly game vs the Fins of Iki-Turso, which is apparently a sea monster with slight similarities to an upcoming tentacled gargantuan...
Squirrels assemble!
The Kid ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8666/ ) running Sea Raiders,
Nox ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8689/ ) running Shadowflame,
nicci ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8645/ ) running Dusk,
Luke.IV aka Silazz ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/26463/ ) running Winterguard
Pomfritz ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/2136/ ) as a backup player running Dusk and
myself ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8376/ ) running Brineblood
My plan is to drop Ragemonger into most of the field. What Shadowtongue is supposed to take is everything running a Mastodon. It is really hard to protect it from a Powderkeg if you need to place everything outside of 3 of it.
Round 0 vs Finland Iki-Turso
We decide to do a proper pairing round including clock to get in some practice. In the end I'm paired against Teemu Syrjämäki , the currently highest rated Convergence player on longshanks. A matchup that I saw as quite positive for myself when reading the lists in preparation a few weeks ago. The only problem being, I did not test it out. There is a single player playing the clockwork legions at the WTC and I had other things to prepare for.
Just by reading the lists I was expecting a Lucant vs Ragemonger match, and that is exactly what I'm getting.
We roll of and I'm going first.He takes the side that will make it possible for him to better protect his TEPs. Damn, I hate those things!
I deploy symmetrically with my beasts centrally. One Fire Guardian in position to score the right flag, the other one at my scenario terrain.
He skews his TEPs slightly to my right and has Asphyxious on my left side.
The first two rounds are as expected. I run forward, he run forward, puts up deceleration and feats. If I stay out of his threats, I will lose on scenario very quickly. So I need to go in.
I manage to get a drag with my Vorogger on his stabby heavy, drag it in and kill it with the help of a Deep Born.
I also send in 3 units of Marauders with all the buffs and mini-feats I can put put.
I only kill a few of his infantry models and manage to spray off a few assorted servitors.
Every bit helps so he can not get to my scenario elements to contest.
On his turn, he starts to clear of models, kills three whole marauder units and most of a heavy and scores 3:1.
I retaliate by removing most of his infantry and Asphyxious. I run a heavy with Fortify to the right side to threaten his TEP.
The left side is mine now, but I need to be aware of possible assassinations. 3:3
He works on my heavies and kills one Deepborn. The hurt one without Fortify, but not enough to score far ahead.
In retaliation I take his middle TEP and will be taking his last remaining heavies next round since he can not kill a unit of Marauders and a heavy with what he has. He tries to find a way to get any kind of assassination on Ragemonger, but I'm camping 5 behind a forest, far away from the last remaining TEP and shielded from his last heavy by my heavy and a unit of Marauders. He clocks out. A hard fought match and not as good for me as I anticipated, but I managed to pull through.
I find some badges for old Warmachine leagues on Ronan s rummage table and decide to purchase enough to give out one for each win in our team.
Either to us, or to our opponents.
We have a couple of beers and go to bed. We will have some more games tomorrow that will probably be far from easy.