Hoosier Daddy

This past weekend was the 4th Indy Storm 1st Hoosier Storm Kings of War GT.  Unfortunately Indy Storm is no more, but the interest in the tournament remained, so we renamed it (to avoid any issues with the previous convention).  We used the same weekend it was scheduled for, though next year we will probably try to avoid the weekend that the big sports ball bird competition (to crown the most Superb Owl I guess), as some people wanted to watch it.

Once again we met at the 4 H Annex in the Boone County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Indiana.  We had 17 players, but unfortunately one took sick the day of the tournament and couldn't make it.   I really hated to see him not make it and he is a great guy, and I hope he recovers soon.  It looked like I would not have to play as the ringer then - however fate had other ideas in store for me!

16 players.  Dave Baker, Steve Malone, Erich Trowbridge, Henry Williams, Paul Cravo, Scott Salee, Jeff Franz, Andrew Summers, Kara Brown, Jackson Blakemore and John Dorney.
Bottom row: Matthew Temple, Kyle Martin, Grace Patterson, Felix Castro and John Blakemore

Round 1 started almost perfectly on time.

Kyle Martin v Grace Patterson (in a grudge match)

John Blakemore v Jeff Franz (in a challenge)

Felix Castro v Andrew Summers

Kara Brown v Erich Trowbridge

John Dorney v Matthew Temple

David Baker v Jackson Blakemore

Paul Cravo v Scott Salee

Henry Williams v Steve Malone

The venue, unfortunately, does not have convenient food, but we had drinks available (generously paid for by Erich Trowbridge), and brought in Jimmy Johns and chips (oh, and we had donuts available as well!).  So while people enjoyed their lunch, paint judging and voting for favorite army and favorite elemental took place.

Andrew Summer's Abyssal Dwarfs

Felix Castro's Halflings

John Blakemore's Free Dwarfs

Jeff Franz's Trident Realms

Grace Patterson's Fish Stalkers Night Stalkers

Kyle Martin's Undead

John Dorney's Empire of Dust

Matthew Temple's Foreces of the Abyss

Jackson Blackmore's Order of the Brothermark

Dave Baker's Salamanders

Henry Williams' Forces of the Abyss

Steve Malone's Varangur

Erich Trowbridge's Orcs

Kara Brown's Riftforged Orcs

Paul Cravo's Sylvan Kin

Scott Salee's Salamanders

After lunch round 2 started.  Unfortunately one player had to miss this game as he had some family business to take care of, so I stepped in as a Ringer.

Round 2 getting started

Jeff Franz v Henry Williams

John Blakemore v some bald guy that kept blinding him with the light reflecting off of his dome

David Baker v Andrew Summers

Kyle Martin v Felix Castro

Kara Brown v Matthew Temple

John Dorney v Steve Malone

Paul Cravo v Grace Patterson

Erich Trowbridge v Jackson Blakemore

One of the fun things is that everyone had to bring a "Storm" Elemental - a monster on 50mm base that would be used for scenario points, and like a storm, the powers changed each round.  Players voted on their favorite Storm Elemental model

Paul Cravo's Storm Elemental in winter

Matthew Temple's Elemental is about to whip you into shape

John Dorney's translucent elemental

Jeff Franz's Coy Elemental

Henry Williams' OSL demon elemental

Andrew Summer's leering elemental

Felix Castro's elemental

Jackson Blakemore's Elemental

Grace Patterson's Elemental

David Baker borrowed a Beer Elemental (painted by Jon Carter)

Erich Trowbridge went old school with one of the Giant's of Albion for his

John Blakemore's Elemental

Henry Williams' Elemental

Steve Malone used a cute dragon for his vicious Varangur

Unfortunately I missed getting pictures of Scott Salee's and Kara Brown's elementals (though Kara borrowed here from Andrew Summers).

Round 3 got started, and all 16 players were back again (so I got to sit down and work on entering painting and favorite army / elemental votes).

Round 3 to finish off the day

Kyle Martin v Jackson Blakemore

Grace Patterson v Andrew Summers

Kara Brown v Scott Sallee

Steve Malone v John Blakemore

Felix Castro v Henry Williams

John Dorney v Jeff Franz

David Baker v Erich Trowbridge

Matthew Temple v Paul Cravo

Most of the players retired to McAllister's Deli in nearby Whitestown for dinner.

After a good nights rest, everyone was back for day 2.  Well, almost everyone.  Unfortunately we had a drop for day 2 due to family issues.  So once again I was stepping in as the ringer for games 4 & 5.  (Looking back I find it funny that if we had our original odd number of players, then I would only have played in 2 games as the ringer, not 3!)

Round 4

Felix Castro v Grace Patterson

Steve Malone v Jeff Franz

Matthew Temple v John Blakemore

David Baker v Kara Brown

Erich Trowbridge v Paul Cravo

Henry Williams v Scott Salee

Unfortunately, as happens all too often when I end up having to play in the tournaments I am running, I get involved in the actual games (plus the usual interruptions for checking line of site and interesting movement issues - very rarely actual rules questions) so that I end up forgetting to get pictures - so I missed two games in round 4.

After round 4 we had a quick lunch with Domino's pizza, and then quickly began round 5.  This time I apparently completely spaced out getting ANY pictures - for some reason I was distracted by actually having to play again after picking up the pizzas, trying to eat a little bit, and entering all the scores and doing the pairings for the last round.

The last round went smoothly, and we had our winners!

Dice Hate Me award (last place, but then he was only able to play 4 of the 5 games)

Henry Williams, Favorite Elemental

Grace Patterson, Favorite Army

Jackson Blakemore, Best Appearance (this was a tie breaker with Matthew Temple)

Unfortunately when I went to review things while writing this, I discovered I had switched the final round scores between Erich and Steve.  While Erich still won (by an even bigger margin), the next few places changed.

As a result, Paul Cravo actually won Best General - and I will be getting his trophy to him as soon as possible.

Matthew Temple taking home the Jesse Cornwell Sportsman award

Hoosier Daddy?  Erich Trowbridge

It was a great tournament, and bigger than last year (if only slightly).  We hope to continue to grow it - so if you are in the Indiana area next February - definitely come by and throw down with some great midwest players and a lot of fun (and get free lunch both days as well).

You can check out the tournament web site for full results.  Final Results

Because it is all fun and games . . .