Ok...so I've been to well a LOT of tournaments over the years.
Here's the one's I can think of off the top of my head (hope I got the years right) along with my best memories of the event:
1999 - Chicago - Eldar
Crushing Marines - and not able to hang with IG back in 3rd edition. My "cherry popper" tourney. Got a rude awakening as to the interpretations of comp back in the day. Think I went 4 and 2.
2000 - Baltimore - Dark Angels (1st Best Sportsman)
Great tournament - met a lot of fun folks - even though I went by myself. Most memorable game was against a young guy who I thought would be not so fun - but turned out to be a grand game - lots of whooping and hollering. Was 500 overall 2 w/2 L/ 2T. Shocked when they called me for overall sportsmanship - which was actually my goal and couldn't have been happier. Still look at my Space Wolf drinking horn trophy and smile.
2000 - Chicago - Dark Angels
Fun tournament - about .500 overall. Played my buddy Sabote there for the first time. Also met Adam Catt who had a full Dark Angel Battle force for his army.
2001 - Chicago - Space Wolves
So/so tournament - think I went .500 'sh. Remember being shocked by a warlock killing my dread and then having the rest of the Eldar mug me. I remember playing some guy named Dennis from Chicago who had a marvelous sculpted Space Wolf Army. Also remember $10 beers in the hotel. Average showing.
2001 - Dallas - Dark Angels
Brought the DA back again. Biggest memory was my buddy Dunger not sleeping all night and getting the lowest sportsmanship score overall at the tourney. I think I went 5 and 1 - wound up in 10th overall.
2004 - Atlanta - Nurgle (2nd Place Best Sportsman)
My buddy Dunger and I both went - I got second and he got 3rd in Sportsmanship. Got to play Troy Clifton's beautiful Space Wolf Army. Also played Wai Lam's Eldar. Dung got beat by Joe Johnson's Grey Knights! Fun tourney. 2 wins and 3 draws.
2004 - Detroit - Nurgle
Went with my buddies Doug and Dunger - fun trip. Good tournament. Biggest memory was facing off against and Eldar Cheese army full of star cannons in a mission that brought me in piece meal. I managed to Deep Strike some Termies into the Eldar line and had them go amoke on them. Won a game I thought I had zero chance against. 3 wins 2 draws
2005 Chicago - Nurgle
Back to Chi town this year - started off smoking my first two opponents. Then Dunger puts the Vietnamese curse on me and (accurately) predicts a draw and 2 losses for my next games. Played some fun guys - remember a fellow named Bobby Riggins from Texas who stills says hi to me when we meet at tourneys now.
2006 - Chicago - Nurgle (3rd Place Best Sportsman)
Ouch - a rough one for me - 2 wins - 3 losses - but some memorable games. Played Steve Turner (Green Blow Fly online) who's still a good buddy of mine to this day - who beat me. Played Monte Kerr from BOLS who I still count as a gaming bud who beat me despite suffering some early game loss (Battle cannon scattering onto Dante on turn one). Got to play the great Marc Parker - who I call a friend and I believe is the best player in the hobby still - he smoked me. Managed to pick up a couple wins at the end. GW messed up the sportsmanship and gave 3rd to wrong guy - I got a bunch of goodies.
Baltimore 2007 - Eldar (1st Place Best Sportsman)
Ok - my best tournament showing thus far. Met Fritz from Way of Saim-Hann and played in the Apocalypse game where he got the Head Hunter award and I got the Go-Getter award. We then played in game one of the GT. Great guy that I call a gaming buddy still today. Got a rematch against Monte Kerr and taught him the strength of 4th Ed Harlequins (we not got to get in a rubber match), Got to play Pete Elias in one of the hardest fought games I've ever had in a GT - he got slight victory but we both scored a lot of points, then Scott Walsh - a buddy from the Wrecking Crew in the last round. Took sixth overall and got Best Sportsmanship. Best memory was seeing how Dunger was doing after game three and his opponent had been giving him Vodka the whole game. He was one loaded fella! Wound up in 6th place overall.
Adepticon 2008 - Eldar
Gladiator - got to meet Shawn Kemp - a previous GT winner and all around good guy - one of my most fun tourney opponents. Almost made some guy cry who was running a Demon Hunter/Guard combo when I killed his Baneblade. Warhound Titans are bad news. Middle of pack showing.
Team Tourney - Doug, Chris, and Gimli and I teamed up. Fun tournament. Best memories was the shock and awe that Doug and I put on a couple of aggressive ork players when 2 squads of Harlequins rolled their middle in HTH. Also great game with a Chicago group that ran Ultra's.
Invitational - got to go to that based on Baltimore the year before. Had a series of great games/opponents - as hard as it gets. Got to play Shawn again in round 1, Played Mike Mutschler from Toledo team in round 2, and Allan ? (Blackmoor online) in round 3. Two wins and a minor loss to Blackmoor - fun tournament.
More to come on the rest shortly.....
Big Waagh 2008 - Eldar
Pretty good tourney. George Flowers did an outstanding job setting up a first year tournament. I did middle of the pack overall. Took Brian Crew - a great friend along - to his first tournament as a Blade and Bolter boy - the start his run to glory (he won the whole tourney in 2009). Played some good games. Victory against Marines - got beat by a tough Ork Nobz Biker list and another Eldar player. Top 25'sh overall.
Adepticon 2009 - Nurgle/Ultramarines
Back to Chi town for another Adepticon. Much better facility this year. Adepticon is probably the best run, big tourney around. Highly recommend you going.
Gladiator - I took a generic Nurgle Chaos list - no Forgeworld, no super-heavies - just a straight up Chaos list. Only non-Nurgly thing was a Lash Sorcerer. I ran into every kind of bad thing you can hit. Game one was against a nice guy running Chaos and a Warhound. My Dread gets into HTH with him - and takes him down! Major Victory for me! Game Two against a Demon List - Fateweaver and the FW Khorne Greater Demon (800 point Monster) - I basically tie it up and pull a big win! I'm rolling! Then I play against a Reaver Titan - the guy who got second. Umm...ouch! Game Four against a really nice guy playing Guard with a Marauder bomber. I pull a minor victory in a great game. Overal all around 30'th I think. Fun game.
Team Tourney - Brian, Matt, Gimli and I teamed up - Running Ultramarine Land Raider Spam. Fun tournament - with one exception. First round was against a group that ran mixed Guard, Marine, Demonhunter list - we all won. Unfortunately the second round was one of my least favorite tourney games ever - against a group that had a bad list - that I feel tried to cheat for the win. 1 team one 1 team lost - lowest sportsmanship scores I've ever given. The next game was a blast - against a Khorne/Chaos Demon list ran by some guys from MN - very tactical close match. Last game against a vanilla UM list - that we handled easily. Straight up middle of the pack.
Nationals - No invitational for me this year. Back to my Nurgle Chaos list. Played 3 fun games - against Marines, Chaos, and orks. 2 wins, 1 loss, - Middle of the pack overall. Enjoyed my second game against a fellow from Dallas also running Nurglish Chaos - with big laughs about my Lord wiffing with his Demon Weapon. Funny that my most memorable game was my loss!
Big Waagh 2009 - Eldar
Had high hopes for this one this year. Did well - but couldn't bring home the big points.
I played Mech Eldar - overall 4-1 record - 55'sh total battle points.
Game one - against foot slogging Eldar. Basically the opposite as my army. A real nice guy from Va, playing in his first tournament. His army struggled to deal with the speed and mobility I had with my army. I smacked him at range - but at the end missed the kill point objective by a Warlock who would not die (or break) and a war walker that I could do everything to but kill. Would up a 9 to 0 win for me - low points victory.
Game Two - Some bad assed dude from Ft Knox KY with a bunch of tough as nails Blood Angels faces off from me across the table. Yep - I finally get to play Bloodangel03 who was a pleasure to meet and I now call friend (yah -you betcha - vee is bote frum de Nord!). A good game that was closer than the final score indicates. He got too focused on killing me and forgot about the objectives. One of those games where I probably got beat up more than I gave back - but was able to win the day on the mission objectives. Eldar speed and mobility for the win - 15-0 victory.
Game Three - vs one of the Grand Adventures club guys (Ben ?) and Khorne Berserker based army. Ben was a great opponent and a fun guy to play. I made a tactical blunder by reserving my army - which seemed like a good idea at the beginning - but went south after turn 3. He moves forward two rounds - I come in and blast hell out of him on turn two. His dice rolled so badly. I asked him if he would like to borrow one of my blocks - which he did. The traitorous things failed to roll less than a three for him!
I was basically handled in the game - a zero to 15 loss for me. Well played Ben!
So - sitting at the end of day one with a 2-1 record - but a low battle point total of 24 points.
Game Four - vs Bike based Marine Army - Willie from the Chattanooga group. Ok - I had five great games with five great opponents - this was my closest game of the tourney. We both had a unit that was worth two of the primary objectives in the mission if killed. After a great tactical and maneuver filled game - I managed to kill his with my last units shooting and keep mine alive, pulling out a 15 point Victory at the end. Was touch and go throughout. I hope to get to play Willie again - was a fun opponent who definitely earned my respect.
Game Five - I face up against another Blood Angel army - no - not Rob again - but Bob Cunningham from Kansas. Bob had a beautifully painted BA army. He had a lot of anti-horde - but his anti-armor was based around 3 attack bikes with MM. I was able to drop them at range - then focus around killing off the rest of his mobile forces. I put half my forces in reserve and half castled in the far board corner. It was a strategy that play out well - got him into the middle of the board - dropped his transports and then hammered at range. It was a close game though basically until turn four - when my shooting broke his army (finally). I was unable to get my farseer killed and wasn't going to touch Dante. Wound up with a 16 point victory.
A good tourney. Didn't like some of the ways they judged painting - which affected others - not me. But overall the guys from Huntsville are a good bunch. Hope they run this again.
That's it up until now!
