The War Kings Strike Back

Once again the War Kings have marshalled their forces to see who shall reign supreme.

War Kings V - The War King Strikes Back was held Nov 23 & 24, this time in Lebanon IN (in the same fairgrounds as we have been having Hoosier Storm, but a different building).  (Finding venues is HARD).  A few people had issues finding the different building (they quickly realized that the 'more mature' women in the annex were NOT our tournament), everyone did get there on time.

This year we only had 14 players, but everyone had a lot of fun.

Robert Lesh, Sam Kula, Jon Carter, Cyle Pool, Felix Castro, Paul Cravo, Grace Patterson, Marshall Temple, Scott Sallee, Jeff Franz, Kara Brown, Erich Trowbridge, Matthew Temple, Austin Lest

Round 1

Erich Trowbridge v Jeff Franz

Grace Patterson v Matthew Temple

Cyle Pool v Austin Lesh

Marshall Temple v Felix Castro

Jon Carter v Robert Lesh

Kara Brown v Scott Sallee

Sam Kula v Paul Cravo

During lunch, everyone set out their armies for 'Favorite Army' voting and paint judging, while the players enjoyed Jimmy Johns sandwiches

Paul Cravo's Empire of Dust

Scott Sallee's Halflings

Erich Trowbridge's Dwarfs

Kara Brown's Riftforged Orcs

Matthew Temple's Forces of the Abyss

Grace Patterson's Order of the Green Lady

Jon Carter's Ratkin Squirrelkin

Felix Castro's Halflings

Robert Lesh's Empire of Dust

Jeff Franz's Forces of the Abyss

Marshall Temple's Undead

Cyle Pool's Goblins

Austin Lesh's Undead

Sam Kula's Forces of Nature

And then we got started with Round 2

Erich Trowbridge v Paul Cravo

Jon Carter v Kara Brown

Austin Lesh v Sam Kula

Jeff Franz v Grace Patterson

Matthew Temple v Scott Sallee

Marshall Temple v Cyle Pool

Felix Castro v Robert Lesh

I always try to provide decent trophies and door prizes.  So everyone will get a prize - and I have enough ambush boxes that everyone can take that as a prize.

The ambush boxes in the back have the same one underneath them

Unfortunately the sword broke off the war king trophy - I will replace this for the winner when I get home.

The Overall Champion gets a skull (to drink the blood of their enemies), and the winner

 of the Jesse Cornwell Sportsman award gets the Ogre Warlock that is based off of him.

 

Last place gets the Dice Hate Me award (because it is the dice's fault).  They get new dice and wound cards.  (And I am finally out of Ohio War Kings dice - I guess I need to order some more).

Then Round 3

Kara Brown v Marshall Temple

Scott Sallee v Grace Patterson

Matthew Temple v Erich Trowbridge

Paul Cravo v Jeff Franz

Felix Castro v Sam Kula

Robert Lesh v Austin Lesh

Jon Carter v Cyle Pool

Everyone then retired to Klooz Brewz, a local brew pub, for some delicious food, fun conversation, and wonderful adult beverages.

A good night's sleep, and everyone was rested up so we actually got started a little bit early for Round 5 (people love getting done early so they get home earlier)

Jon Carter v Paul Cravo

Marshall Temple v Austin Lesh

Cyle Pool v Erich Trowbridge

Scott Sallee v Felix Castro in a halfling-off

Sam Kula v Jeff Franz

Grace Patterson v Kara Brown

Matthew Temple v Robert Lesh

While everyone munched on Domino's pizza, the War King special character(s) were put out for voting

Jeff Franz

Jon Carter

Kara Brown

Marshall Temple

Matthew Temple

Paul Cravo

Robert Lesh

Sam Kula

Scott Sallee

Austin Lesh

Cyle Pool

Erich Trowbridge

Felix Castro

Grace Patterson

Round 5 then started early as well

Matthew Temple v Kara Brown

Felix Castro v Jeff Franz

Austin Lesh v Erich Trowbridge

Robert Lesh v Sam Kula

Cyle Pool v Paul Cravo

Scott Sallee v Jon Carter

Marshall Temple v Grace Patterson

And with that, it was all over.

Dice Hate Me - Felix Castro

Favorite Army - Grace Patterson

Favorite War King - Grace Patterson

Counter Charger - Jon Carter

Best Appearance - Matthew Temple

Best General - Cyle Pool

Jesse Cornwell Sportsman Award - Scott Sallee

Erich Trowbridge - Overall Champion

So after six years, the King has returned with our first repeat winner (Erich won the first War Kings GT back in April 2018 (yes, we missed TWO years due to the dark times).

Everyone seemed to have a good time, even with fewer players than before (but then that seems to be common for anything but the HUGE tournament (Lone Wolf, Masters, etc.)  (Yeah, we can't compete with the UK - but then we have a much larger area to cover).

Command Dice

I decided, even before I had the rules, to embrace command dice for my tournaments for this coming year - to give them a fair shake.

I didn't hear anybody saying the new command dice were 'bad' - though the faction orders varied from too good (4 points for Forces of the Abyss to allow a unit to re-roll regeneration rolls.  Add this to the Negarri that have Aura(Regeneration(4+)) and they can recover a ridiculous amount of wounds.  I watched in a game where Matt Temples lower abyssal hordes had 7 points of damage on them, and took 42 more.  Kara then rolled snake-eyes.  And the unit regenerated 32 of those - leaving them at only 17 - so they weren't even devastated), while others are meh or worse (the Ratkin command for 3 points that allows a unit under the effect of rallying to have a max of +3 instead of +2.  Does not give anything rallying, so it only is EVER useful in a situation where a unit even has is under the influence of more than 2 points of rallying - so situational an rare as to almost be useless).

While I haven't played with them yet, the Trident Realm orders seem great!

People (me included) did not care for the general order that allows you to re-roll an attack/wound die - but the point must be spent before you roll the dice - so it can be wasted.  Since it is only usable once per turn (and a unit cannot benefit from more than one order a turn), I don't see why it shouldn't just be the 1 re-roll - spent when you need it rather than spent when you potentially need it.

The movement ones all seem to be liked.

There was a concern that I gave the special character Command(Blue), and he had a command order that allowed him to save a point for the next turn by spending 2 (up to a total of saving 3).  The concern was people playing with large command pools.

One suggestion was a different way to generate the pool was for both players to get Double the maximum amount of command points they could roll at the beginning of the game for their pool - and then had to manage that dwindling pool for the entire game.

Next up is the Gem City Massacre, December 15th at Epic Loot in Centerville OH, and then Hoosier Storm will be returning to the Boone County Fairground, February 23-24 in Lebanon IN (back at the 4H Annex building).

You can see the round details and well as full results at the tournament page 

Because it is all fun and games . . .