And it is done. War Kings II has successfully come and gone. Battles were fought, enemies were driven before the victors, and the wailing of the women was heard. Laughing and cursing (at the dice) were heard all around.
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| (Front Row) (an anonymous spectator :-), Alex Castro, Jordan Reiss, Roger Connor, Joe Cottrell, Paul Wagner. (Back Row) Kim Reiss, Eric Reiss, Erich Trowbridge, Kara Brown, Marc Taylor, Jeff Franz, Jesse Cornwell, Shannon Shoemaker, Tom Ziegler, Tim Bowie, Jon Carter |
One of the cool new things I was proud to debut at the tournament was our new banner, with original artwork by Mantic and Master Crafted's own Kyle Przelenski (our own pretzel twinkie!). He did our first one as well. So now we have our Ohio War King for one side, and a rampaging Orc Warlord on the other (a no-prize to the first person to determine where the orc is from :-) ).
These will look great next month outside our game are in Origins!
The event was held at the huge Epic Loot II gaming store in Springfield Ohio. This is truly a huge store in the Upper Valley Mall.
They have a huge amount of space - the store is clean, well lit and not at all crowded.
Plus they have a separate (but attached) event are - big enough for us to grow to more than double our size, with 6 full size miniature tables and a ton of 6x30 folding tables that work great for more games. It is split into a main area in the front and a back area for miniatures (though we did spill out of that area a bit).
Plus they got in a huge amount of Mantic stock for the tournament, including all the new Vanguard goblins (it was so hard to resist buying more (mine shipped last week, so with any luck will get here by the end of this week), especially the fantastic Winggit and Mawpup Launcher.
Part of everyone's entrance fee went toward gift cards for the winners of the tournament, plus everyone got a $15 gift card for the store. So for $50 you got $15 in 5 great games of Kings of War, $15 in store credit, and a
swag bag packed full of cool stuff (plus lunch on Saturday). A great way to start off your Memorial Day weekend (plus having Monday off to rest, relax, and maybe get even more games in at home!)
Turnout was a bit lighter than we had hoped for - but real life has a way of jumping up and biting people in the ass, and we had 25% of our players have to drop in the two days before the tournament. Personal health, and the health of your families always comes first however, and we hope they can come join us next year.
Unfortunately, a carload of players coming down from Cleveland got a little confused and went to the original Epic Loot store in Centerville, about half an hour further away than this one for them. So we got started a little late.
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| Round 1 is under way |
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| Dust on Dust, as Marc Taylor deploys his Empire of Dust against Jeff Franz's EoD army |
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| Is it wet in here? Shannon Shoemaker contemplates his move against Kara Brown in Trident Realm on Trident Realm action |
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| Roger Connor and his Orcs watch Eric Reiss get ready to deploy a unit of his Forces of the Abyss |
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| Jesse Cornwall sets up his Romans v Paul Wagner's Orcs |
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| Tom Ziegler checks Kim's Dwarf list while Kim Reiss looks at his Nightstalkers |
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| Joe Cottrell brings the Basileansagainst Jon Carter (who wanted to play my Trident Realm instead of his usual undead |
Apologies to Felix Castro (Basileans) and Jordan Reiss (Twilight Kin), apparently (I didn't get a picture of your game on table 7)
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| Erich Trowbridge and his Goblins get ready to deploy against Tim Bowie's Ratkin |
Once again I have to apologize. In my rush to make up time between rounds 1 and 2 (our lunch break, for which Kara Brown generously bought pizza for everyone!) during the paint judging, I did not get pictures of people armies set up for display.
After lunch though, round 2 started almost on time.
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| Everyone fed, round 2 begins |
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| Jon Carter v Eric Reiss |
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| Paul Wagner V Kara Brown |
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| Jordan Reiss v Joe Cottrell |
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| Marc Taylor v Roger Connor |
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| (Most of) Jesse Cornwell v Erich Trowbridge |
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| Tim Bowie v Jeff Franz |
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| Shannon Shoemaker v Tom Ziegler |
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| Felix Castro v Kim Reiss |
After round 2, everyone set out their War King model for voting on the best War King. Everyone had to bring a unique special character worth up to 250 pts, who could take their own unique artifact composed of up to 3 other artifacts (and this could duplicate one already taken in the army), plus the War King (or Queen) got a +1 to a stat. In addition everyone got this hero and did NOT have to unlock the slot via a regiment or horde. Every scenario then had bonus points based on the War King.
Then Round three started.
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| Round 3 |
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| Jon Carter v Paul Wagner |
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| Tom Ziegler v Eric Reiss |
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| Tim Bowie v Kim Reiss |
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| Erich Trowbridge v Joe Cottrell |
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| Jeff Franz v Felix Castro |
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| Marc Taylor v Shannon Shoemaker |
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| Kara Brown v Jesse Cornwell |
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| Roger Connor v Jordan Reiss |
The one (and only) drawback to the fantastic Epic Loot store is their hours - since they are only open from 10 am to 8 pm on Saturdays we could only get in three games (Sundays they are only open from 12 to 6 pm). So almost everyone retired to Texas Roadhouse for great steaks and to celebrate over a drink or cry into their beer from the performance of the dice that day.
Sunday dawned and was a beautiful morning, where everyone could relax since we weren't able to get in the store until noon. Once in though, round 4 started off great.
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| Round 4 is a go! |
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| Tom Ziegler v Tim Bowie |
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| Joe Cottrell v Felix Castro in a civil war between Basileans with much angel-on-angel action |
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| Shannon Shoemaker v Jeff Franz - who suffered from the cold of the frozen north worse - the wet Trident Realm or the terra-cotta army of dust from the hot desert? |
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| Jordan Reiss v Kara Brown |
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| Paul Wagner v Kim Reiss |
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| Marc Taylor v Jon Carter |
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| Eric Reiss v Jesse Cornwell |
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| Erich Trowbridge v Roger Connor in a battle from Columbus! |
Finally the final round hit. At this point no one had a four wins, so it was very much still up in the air.
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| Round 5 |
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| Paul Wagner v Tim Bowie |
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| Eric Reiss v Jeff Franz (does Jeff have an advantage with his EoD fighting in the desert?) |
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| Roger Connor V Jon Carter |
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| Joe Cottrell v Jesse Cornwell. More angel v angel fighting, as Jesse brought Romans w/ mythical winged heroes - so he Romulus and Remus were basically Ur-Elohi (as was his War King) |
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| Kara Brown v Erich Trowbridge |
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| Jordan Reiss v Shannon Shoemaker |
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| Paul Wagner v Kim Reiss |
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| Tom Ziegler v Felix Castro |
We had a great table full of awards and prize support from our sponsors.
A special thank you to all our sponsors - please support them and thank them for supporting us. Without their support we wouldn't be able to put on such a great tournament.
Then came the moment everyone had worked toward - the awards. (and now I remember why I don't let someone take pictures while I'm handing out awards - because no one wants to see my ugly bald head over and over again!)
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| Kim Reiss - Dice Hate Me (new Ohio War King dice) |
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| Jeff Franz - General's Choice AND Best War King ($20 gift card each) |
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| Felix Castro - Best Appearance ($25 gift card) |
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| Erich Trowbridge - Best Sportsman ($25 gift card) |
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| Shannon Shoemaker - Best General ($25 gift card) |
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| Jeff Franz - Overall Champion ($50 gift card + the skull of his enemies mug) |
Jeff Franz came up from Kentucky and schooled us all a bit - coming in top of just about every category possible. Some of the scores were really close. Jeff and Shannon actually had the same battle score. Jeff had the highest appearance score, but could only win the one award (the voted awards are separate). This went to the next score - which was a tie between Felix and the army Jon was playing that I had painted. The Erich and Felix tied for top sportsman (but since Felix won appearance, Erich won the tie).
| Place |
Name |
Overall |
Awards |
| 1 |
Jeff Franz |
135 |
Player's Choice, Best War King, Overall Champion |
| 2 |
Shannon Shoemaker |
130 |
Best General |
| 3 |
Erich Trowbridge |
129 |
Most Sporting |
| 4 |
Kara Brown |
126 |
|
| 5 |
Roger Connor |
118 |
|
| 6 |
Jon Carter |
114 |
|
| 7 |
Felix Castro |
113 |
Best Appearance |
| 8 |
Jordan Reiss |
112 |
|
| 9 |
Joe Cottrel |
112 |
|
| 10 |
Jesse Cornwell |
105 |
|
| 11 |
Marc Taylor |
102 |
|
| 12 |
Paul Wagner |
100 |
|
| 13 |
Eric Reiss |
97 |
|
| 14 |
Tom Ziegler |
90 |
|
| 15 |
Tim Bowie |
81 |
|
| 16 |
Kim Reiss |
72 |
Dice Hate Me |
The full results are posted on
warscore.
We have already talked to the store and plan to return there next Memorial Day Weekend - so add it to your calendars May 23 & 2r 2020 - War Kings III - Return of the War King!
Because it is all fun and games . . .
Looks great. Hopefully will have vacation days let to make it next year! Looks like a great time.
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