War Kings III - Return of the War King

This past weekend was the return of the War Kings GT - War Kings III - Return of the War King.  This year it was held at Game Table Adventures in Newark Ohio, and we had 18 players.

(back) Ray Weiandt, Marshal Temple, David Baker, Paul Cravo, Dan White, Jon Carter, Allen Blount.
(middle) Blake Shrode, Wyatt Crawford (observing, next to his dad), Ken Crawford, Henry Williams, Steve Mallone, Grace Patterson, Matthew Temple, Kara Brown.
(front) Felix Castro, Roger Connor, Kyle Ritchey.
(not pictured) Mike Early

This was a 2300 point, 5 round tournament.  In addition, every player had to bring a free unique living legend for their "War King" - using these rules.

It started off a little cold, but the snow held off until we were busy playing.

Round 1 started right on time

Allen Blount v Mike Early

Dan White v Steve Mallone

Kara Brown v Henry Williams

Kyle Ritchey v Paul Crave

Ken Crawford v Marshall Temple

Roger Connor v Jon Carter

Blake Shrode v Felix Castro

Grace Patterson v Ray Weiandt

Matthew Temple v David Baker

We brought in Jimmy John's for lunch, and everyone set out their armies and special war king models for display, paint judging and voting.

Matthew Temple's Forces of the Abyss

Azuca the Slayer

David Baker's Salamanders

Dave Baker's War King

Jon Carter's SquirrelKin (Ratkin)

Jon Carter's War King

Roger Connor's Undead

Andar the Undying

Grace Patterson's Fishstalkers (Nightstalkers)

Grace Patterson's War King

Ray Weiandt's Forces of the Abyss

Ray'su'zsu the Unknown
Minor Lord of the Six Circle.
 Ba’su’su’s cousin's brother's step-sister's neighbor's plumber's personal accountant.

Marshall Temple's Undead

Ash

Ken Crawford's Northern Alliance

Ken Crawford's War Queen

Felix Castro's Halflings

Felix Castro's War King

Dan White's Abyssal Dwarfs

Dan White's War King

Allen Blount's Orcs

Stabba Tuffgutz on Bigbite

Steve Mallone's Ratkin

Steve Malone's Warking

Mike Early's Kingdoms of Men

King Early

Henry William's Forces of the Abyss

The Tormented King

Blake Shrode's Abyssal Dwarfs

Blake Shrode's War King

Kyle Ritchey's Goblins

Kyle Ritchey's War King

Paul Cravo's Sylvan Kin

Paul Cravo's War King

Kara Brown's Riftforged Orcs

Gul’dan

After voting and judging round 2 got started.  

Round 2

Jon Carter v Mike Early

Paul Cravo v Allen Blount

Dan White v Grace Patterson

Henry Williams v Felix Castro

Ken Crawford v Matthew Temple

Kyle Ritchey v Ray Weiandt

Blake Shrode v Kara Brown

Steve Malone v Roger Connor

Round 3 started right on time.

Round 3

Ray Weiandt v Kara Brown

Henry Williams v Allen Blount

Steve Malone v Kyle Ritchey

Blake Shrode v Dave Baker

Paul Cravo v Roger Connor

Jon Carter v Marshall Temple

Felix Castro v Mike Early

Grace Patterson v Ken Crawford

Dan White v Matthew Temple

After the third round most of us went to Roosters for wings and drinks, then off for some much needed rest.  Everyone then showed up and round 4 got underway.

Round 4

Ken Crawford v Ray Weiandt

Roger Connor v Dave Baker

Blake Shrode v Steve Malone while Erich Trowbridge enthusiastically watches

Dan White v Mike Early

Jon Carter v Felix Castro

Grace Patterson v Kara Brown

Henry Williams v Matthew Temple

Allen Blount v Kyle Ritchey

Paul Cravo v Marshall Temple

After the game we all enjoyed Marco's pizza, and the players got to see the prize support provided by Mantic Games and the Ohio War Kings

Trophies

Door Prizes

And then round 5 got underway

Round 5

Matthew Temple v Mike Early

Dave Baker v Felix Castro

Allen Blount v Grace Patterson

Kara Brown v Roger Connor

Dan White v Marshall Temple

Jon Carter v Kyle Ritchey

Paul Cravo v Steve Malone

Henry Williams v Ken Crawford

Ray Weiandt v Blake Shrode

And with that it was all over but hearing the wailing of the women after the crushing of the enemies.

First off were the voted awards.

Marshall Temple won Best War King and $25 gift certificate

All Hail the King Baby.  Give me some sugar.  He even has his boomstick on his back

 (and yes, he took the Boomstick as part of his War King Build).

I did say that I wish we had an award for the best backstory in a name for Ray Weiandt's War King - "Ray’su’zsu the Unknown, Minor Lord of the Six Circle, Ba’su’su’s cousin's brother's step-sister's neighbor's plumber's personal accountant."  Humor and a Mel Brooks reference - if the tournament wasn't two hours from my home I would have tried to do a quick trophy just for that name!

Ken Crawford won Favorite Army and $25 gift certificate

Ken's 3D printed Northern Alliance army.  He did a Frank Frazetta theme with barbarian hordes and half naked big busted women.  He even used a deck of Frank Frazetta playing cards to track wounds on his units.  I did not get a vote, but I did love Frazetta's fantastic paintings growing up. 

Marshall Temple won Best Appearance and a $50 gift certificate

Marshall's Forces of the Abyss.  Apparently his daughters broke his original display, so he rebuilt it.  There were lights in the cave so the flames would glow - and one iteration he had gargoyles that would hang upside down from the ceiling.  Matt is also a multiple "Brush with Death" (the Mantic sponsored painting competition) winner for some of the specific models in this army.  Lots of awesome little details and excellent technical work.

Roger Connor won Best General and a $50 gift certificate.  If he would come out and play a bit more often he would dominate the area - but with a new baby at home that is a bit difficult.  At least he comes out a couple of times a year to kick everyone's butt.

Grace Patterson won the Jesse Cornwell Sportsman award with a perfect maximum sports score, being voted the #1 favorite opponent by all five of her opponents.  She is not only fun to play against (even if her jokes sometimes cross the PG-13 line a bit) but has a beautifully painted army as well.

Dave Baker won Overall Champion and a $100 gift certificate to the store.  Dave had an impressive run of 5 wins and no losses with his Salamander army.  I'm not sure if it was the home field advantage being at the store just a few minutes from his home, or all the practice against some of the best players in the area, but he did a great job and deserves the award.

For details on on the event, including round pairings and results (both the round and the finals) go to the event page at the War Kings III event page .

Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and are already talking about next year.  We hope to be back at Game Table Adventures either  the 1st or 3rd weekend in November (to avoid some players anniversaries and family birthdays that kept them from being able to attend).

One last note - we used to this event to test the new Mantic Companion Tournament Software.  This is still in beta testing, and I hope we were able to provide a lot of valuable feedback for when it goes live.

Because it is all fun and games . . .