Once again forces have gathered in the Hoosier state to battle in a clash of the elements. Rain, wind, fog, thunder and lightning will raze the battlefield as valiant armies clash for the title of Hoosier Daddy!
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| Front: Kara Brown, Grace Patterson, Brian Pekarske, Scott Sallee, Matthew Temple, Steve Malone. Back: Nathaniel Johnson, Jon Carter, Erich Trowbridge, Paul Cravo, Marshall Temple, Robert Sautbin, Austin Lesh, Jeff Franz |
We had 14 players again this year returning to the Boone County Fairgrounds in Lebanon IN (a bit northwest of Indianapolis). There was some slight confusion with players new to our event because the address is of the fairgrounds, NOT the actual building we are in. But everyone found it, and we started on time.
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| Steve Malone v Paul Cravo |
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| Matthew Temple v Nathan Johnson |
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| Kara Brown v Marshall Temple (who has the best hat?) |
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| Jon Carter v Jeff Franz |
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| Scott Sallee v Erich Trowbridge |
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| Austin Lesh v Robert Sautbine |
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| Brian Pekarske v Grace Patterson ( also in the running for best hats) |
During lunch, everyone set out their armies for judging and voting. Since it was a fairly small tournament, the favorite army votes add into the best appearance award.
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| Erich Trowbridge's Trident Realm of Neritica |
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| Paul Cravo's Empire of Dust |
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| Kara Brown's Pirate Ogres |
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Jon Carter's Ratkin Squirrelkin |
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| Scott Sallee's Halflings |
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| Jeff Franz's Salamanders |
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| Austin Lesh's Undead |
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| Robert Sautbine's Halflings |
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| Grace Patterson's Order of the Green Lady |
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| Marshall Temple's Undead |
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| Matthew Temple's Forces of the Abyss (the crystals in the units light up when they are placed on the display board!) |
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| Brian Pekarske's Ratkin |
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| Steve Malone's Elves |
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| Nathaniel Johnson's Dwarfs |
I do have to say that some of the display boards are really going above and beyond. Nathaniel's was the first I have seen incorporating video AND lights, though Matthew Temple's has lights and Jon Carter has music in his (back in the day when I played the Grateful Undead, I had an iPod at the back of the display board playing Grateful Dead music (with the screen on it acting as the backdrop for the concert stage).
I'm actually considering making a new category for best display board at some point.
Then Round 2 started up
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| Erich Trowbridge v Paul Cravo |
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| Jeff Franz v Grace Patterson |
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| Nathaniel Johnson v Austin Lesh |
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| Marshall Temple v Brian Pekarske |
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| Robert Sautbine v Kara Brown |
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| Matthew Temple v Jon Carter |
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| Steve Malone v Scott Sallee |
There are some fantastic armies here, I wanted to highlight some of the models (because the army shots don't do them justice).
Jon Carter has been playing is converted ratkin squirrelkin army for some time now. Every model is converted and he can go all out on the theme.
One of my favorite of his models is one of his Mutant Rat-Fiends. He 3d printed a head of "Sandy Cheeks" from Spongebob Squarepants. (The other is Conker from the video game).
This made for a cool cyborg squirrel conversion. The googly eye also helped a lot. Very much a "Five Nights at Freddy's" vibe.
And then disaster struck. Apparently the resin head did not fully cure - most likely because it was hollow and did not have a drain. Because of this it split open. He brought it to our regular game night and was talking about printing another one, but once I got a look I said he needed to keep it and really go into the monstrous machine breaking down vibe. So a bit of paint inside, and voila!
Wires and machinery exposed in the cyborg mutant - truly an awesome "happy accident' that made this go from weird to truly creepy.
Another unit people love of his are the tunnel runners that are giant acorns. Apparently one of the easiest conversion, just printing the tops. Also a lot of his model are actually on round bases that fit into movement trays, so he can actually play this army as Veer-Myn in firefight.
Scott Sallee has an awesome model for this storm elemental
I love Jeff Franz's Phoenix
From the back is a better view of this flaming bird
He also converted the orc slasher rider to a salamander. I sweat Jeff is a machine grinding out armies constantly.
Grace Patterson is known for he fantastic colorful armies. Here old nightstalker fish army was beautiful, and now she has an Order of the Green Lady army that is mushrooms and fairies.
One of my favorites is this conversion of the "prophet of pizza jesus" sculpt of Jesse Cornwell (that I use as the trophy top for our "Jesse Cornwell Sportsman" award.
The gradients and details on the wings is just amazing.
I just love the simplicity and humor of Austin Lesh's Wights (or should I say Whites?)
Brian Pekarske's ratkin are fun, but really the rat swarm made of old warmaster skaven - so tiny little rat warriors.
One other thing Brian does is banners. I really miss banners on units (so many people don't do them since they have no game effect).
Marshall Temple has been pushing his multibasing for his army to the next level. Zombie regiments and hordes just having a good time, playing the piano and dancing.
When I see this I just want to have a little Schroeder with is toy piano and the kids dancing in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Matthew Temple does excellent work. He returned to his Forces of the Abyss with the recent refresh. He is one of the best technical painters in this area.
Nathaniel Johnson's Dwarfs are really impressive. I like his Steel Behemoths.
Not to be outdone, Robert Sautbine made an Iron Beast and some Harvesters for his halfling army. (The trolls went on strike, so they are using tractors instead).
Kara loves here pirate theme, currently playing it as Ogres. He latest addition is a pirate Giant.
I just really love the scales on these Wyrm(rider)s. Very neat, looks great.
Paul Cravo has a really impressive Storm elemental model
However is is from the back where you can see the OSL (Object Source Lighting) - basically where there is some light source on the model that you can see shine and reflect off of specific surfaces. I think he did a great job with that.
Round 3 actually started a little bit early, as everyone finished their games within the planned time (even with chess clocks this doesn't always happen), and people didn't need a full half hour break.
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| Nathaniel Johnson v Jon Carter |
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| Robert Sautbine v Erich Trowbridge |
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| Grace Patterson v Paul Cravo |
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| Brian Pekarske v Kara Brown |
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| Steve Malone v Austin Lesh |
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| Scott Sallee v Marshall Temple |
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| Matthew Temple v Jeff Franz |
So, what is a tournament without prizes and awards? In general I like to separate these - awards are trophies or certificates, and then prizes are given to everyone. The idea of the winner walking off with the most 'stuff' doesn't really make sense, as in general they are the ones that need that stuff the least. Not only that, but the lower placing players are usually newer players - and as such don't have this huge collection of stuff, so can appreciate it more. The one exception is store events, where part of the prize support is gift cards to the store - those go to winners. But at events (like this) where there is no direct store, it all comes from a big bucket of prizes.
People have asked "Where do you get the prizes?". My favorite way is simply donations - companies giving product as promotional / marketing support. This has been the tradition with Mantic games until this tournament. Apparently they are moving away from giving us credit in the store - instead setting us up as a trade account - so I can order product at trade prices. In the past I have always added more than the gift code was for in order to get free shipping (which is also Fedex or equivalent, vs Royal Mail (i.e. a few days vs a few weeks)). This isn't quite the equivalent, but doable. In addition, I try to always have more prizes than players, so people can pick from the prize pool and not just be given some random box of models. Because of this I tend to have a fluctuating pool of available prizes. Lastly as a club we have members donate prizes - these actually are often boxes that they have received previously and never ended up using, so they give them back. I was worried about not having sufficient prizes, but after getting two boxes from club members and a trade order from Mantic, I think I am good.
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| A large selection of boxes (I love ambush boxes as prizes) |
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| However there are more than that - various blisters and even some Winged Hussar books. |
Of course the winners need trophies
The Jesse Cornwell Sportsman gets the Ogre Warlock model based on and designed with Jesse's help.
Dice Hate Me is the last place 'trophy' - this earns the player new dice and Ohio War King wound cards and dice bag. Unfortunately it turns out I have completely run out of Ohio War King dice (I guess I need to order some more). So this time it is Mantic dice (which may be somewhat rare even).
10 purple dice from the 1st Dungeon Saga Kickstarter. 8 white Mantic splat dice from the first Kings of War Kickstarter. 4 Kings of War dice from Adepticon several years ago, and 2 Mantic Helmet dice from the 10th anniversary. Jon Carter had the wound cards made up (and donated several decks), and my wife Diane made the War Kings dice bags.
We have kind of made it a tradition to go to
Klooz Brewz for dinner after the day of gaming. Not just because it is a whole 5 minutes from the venue, but they also have both good food and beer. (I think I have gotten their Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac & Cheese three times now!).
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| Good food, good drinks, great comradery |
So after an enjoyable dinner with friends and lots of conversations about tactics and gaming, we all retired for a good nights rest and met back up at 9 am on Sunday morning (we start earlier on Sunday because we don't need the time to set up, and also people want to get home earlier).
Round 4 started bright and early on Sunday morning (with no drops - YEAH!!!!)
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| Matthew Temple v Erich Trowbridge |
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| Brian Pekarske v Nathaniel Johnson |
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| Robert Sautbine v Steve Malone |
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| Austin Lesh v Marshall Temple |
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| Jon Carter v Scott Sallee |
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| Kara Brown v Grace Patterson |
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| Paul Cravo v Jeff Franz |
And so were enemies crushed beneath them and enjoyed were the lamentations of their women!
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| Regardless of awards - who had the best hat? |
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| Dice Hate Me: Scott Salee |
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| Counter Charger: Austin Lesh |
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| Favorite Elemental: Nathaniel Johnson |
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| Best Appearance: Jeff Franz |
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| Best General: Robert Sautbin |
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| Jesse Cornwell Sportsman: Jon Carter |
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| Hoosier Daddy: Erich Trowbridge |
Thanks to all the players this year, and we hope to see everyone (and more) next, either here or back at IndyStorm if it returns.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
The gradients and details on the wings is just amazing.
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