Thanks again for reporting!
Got any itches to be an active player again next year?
Truth be told, I don't think so. I don't have a tournament legal army, which I'd have to buy/build/paint or loan. I don't have any1 nearby to play high-level practice games. If I were to go there, I would like to be in excellent shape and reclaim my mantle of essentially being the terminator. I don't think it's quite feasible if I haven't played a game in years and would need to drive 90+ mins to play a game.
ok, Sascha out, unfortunately I got trains to catch and places to be. This has been a blast though.
Team Rackelhahn (from the far end of the playing hall): JUDGE!
Judge: For fucks sake... (proceeds to walk across the entire hall)
Sascha: I am just letting you know that it's always them and always from the furthest table in the room.
Judge: Sascha, we know it's always them and it's always from the furthest table in the room.
semifinals time!
Belgium vs USA
Australia vs Norway (streaming table)
The Maestro is hard at work. Marcel has a grindfest at his hands. Kevin has already won.20240810_194054.jpg
Rotwein Andi with empty glass (sadness)20240810_193239.jpg
I have been roped into playing a game of Shroudfall into one of the side rooms by this lovely guy:
It reminds me a little bit of Malifaux and my first impression is that it does a lot of things right + has very clever core mechanics + it has a faction of Pandas. Tentative "Dr. Kellerman's Seal of Approval".
ok Germany Fuchs is on the streaming table. I will spectate this a bit, but probably not take pictures, because it will be on YouTube anyways.
With that, Germany is out if contention, sadly.
on the plus side, Team Rackelhahn is currently up 4-0 and Team Fuchs is up 3-1 against their respective opponents.
Luca is also forced to concede.
Marcel loses on CP.
I may have overlooked that Nox's opponent still has his superheavy pig left and killing the Mastodon would be nowhere enough to seal the deal. Sadness.
Robin clocks out.
Ok updates:
- Nox just lost one of his Wyverns and has a Mastodon in his face. I believe he still has a decent chance to simply break this Mastodon, which will more or less force a concede. If he doesn't, he is done for.
- Luca's Colossal finally got clean into one of his opponents Heavies and easily breaks it with juice to spare. There are 3 more heavies left. Maybe winnable?
- Niccis game is hard for me to read. He still has his superheavy pig and a bunch of lesser models, but I feel like the odds are against him.
- Robin lost a bunch of models, including one of his zeppelins. He is also down to 2min on the clock.
- Marcel looking stable on attrition, but behind on CP. He needs to land a telling blow this round IMHO to make it hard for his opponent to continue scoring
Just as I write this, Luca and Robin both manage to slay their opponents superheavy pigs within 10secs of each other.
Robin might be back on even ground. Luca is still in some trouble, though his fortunes have certainly improved.
Current board states. Caveat: I do not know many of the new models BUT -
- I think Nox will grind his one out
- Luca just made a gigantic mistake, forgetting to take all the attacks/focus on his Colossal (I am not sure this is recoverable)
- Niccis game is not looking great
- Robin's game is not looking great
- Marcel is looking okay, still up against a full health colossal though
20240810_162013.jpg20240810_162008.jpg20240810_162004.jpg20240810_161958.jpg20240810_161949.jpg
Kruger lives on 1. 
action on the frontlines: The Great Robini commits one of his fancy new zeppelins to try and kill his opponents Kruger. Dice are currently being rolled. If Kruger falls, it would be huge.
Habibi poised to strike20240810_151403.jpg
The 5 matchups Team Eichhörnchen is facing right now, don't know the names of these fancy new casters, sry.20240810_151027.jpg
Eichhörnchen is playing vs Australia Thorny Devils. I will linger around this table, mostly because they are
a) undefeated
b) playing closest to the bar
random impressions20240810_143132.jpg
20240810_120539.jpgHAHAHA, three absolute Muggels just entered the venue to play Tennis
Eichhörnchen 3-1 courtesy of this fabulous face20240810_120306.jpg
Eichhörnchen 2-1
Fuchs 1-0 still
Rackelhahn 2-1
Robin wins. (Eichhörnchen 2-0)
Germany Rackelhahn is also up 2-0 vs Poland
Luca Lanio also wins his game (against the other US team). Germany Eichhörnchen and Germany Fuchs are both up 1-0.
First Round Solo Masters pairing = two NRW locals facing off 
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This Kruger guy seems to be pretty good BECAUSE HE IS FUCKING EVERYWHERE.
First decisive result from ze germans: Lenny wins vs JVM as one of the first games to finish.
secondary playing hall including rare footage of the Don20240810_105151.jpg
collection of some of my favorite jerseys
back in my day you needed to claim team jerseys from the cold dead bodys of your vanquished opponents like some sort of scalp and not just trade prior to the first round
Australia vs France on the Streaming table.
Pictures of streaming crew's setup attached. If you want to follow their live stream, you can do so from Rotwein Andi's personal youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/araWYvjhVPk?si=4FtYvjtpKt1pzwKj
If you look closely, you can see they have a fancy new way to visualize the pairing process.20240810_094212.jpg
Main Playing Hall
