Chicago GT Wraps!!

10/5/2008 @ Crowne Plaza O'hare

Welp the Chicago GT ended today, I went from being very happy with my performance on Saturday to being pretty disappointed by todays. I should start by saying the Chicago GT is a very well run event, everyone was on the ball and very professional, the tables were well set and referee's were numerous. While its lacks the flair, attendance and event selection that is Adepticon. The one thing I can say for the GT that it was verywell staffed, if you needed anything someone was right there.

Attendance was lower than I expected but with poor economic times the $125.00 ticket was steep. They did give away alot of product along with the winning trophys, Awards such as Best Sportsman, General, and Painted are now given with 1st through 3rd Places a total of 11 awards for WFB. The other events where similar. They also gave serious swag away in the name of new 40K drop pods to around 10 people random selected from hat as Door Prizes, so don't say GW isn't stepping up the GT trying to please the masses, Dave Taylor is clearly listening to feedback and trying to make the GT's the best events possible. Attendance numbers where 40K -54 players, WFB 44 Players, LotR 12 players. Nowhere near Adepticon numbers, but alot of players did come from all over the Midwest.

I ran a pretty similar list to what I normally run with Empire- I always get told my lists are too "soft' for a competitive tournament without running a War Altar or Steam Tank. I ran an Arch Lector on a Horse, two Priests, (one being Luthor Huss) and a BSB with the Imperial Banner, with as much infantry and shooting as I could jam in.
There were of course brutal lists..but not of the variety I had been "Warned" about. While Demons and VC where numerous, There where only 3 Bloodthirsters (one winning the whole thing) VC lists where all over the map and new Dark Elves did very well. The top 10 players broke down to 4 Demons, 2 VC, 1 Dark Elf, 1 Wood Elf and 2 Empire. In short the Empire can compete it just a matter of "how". The were 5 Empire Players total, no one ran "4 Cannons" and "two steam tanks" I placed 4th of the 5 Empire Players the 1st having a lone steam tank, the second with both Stank and War Altar, the third with just the War Altar, The last place finishing Empire player had and Infantry artillery list similar to mine and did similarly well in battle points (39 to my 40) I finished 30th of 44 players with Score of 125, Again my Painting and Sportsmanship or "soft scores" where almost maximum pulling me to the top of bottom third.

Game 1 VS Orcs.- (Jon from Pittsburgh) This list was way off the map crazy, 40 Squig Hoppers, 5 Pump Wagons, Two big blocks of Savage Orcs...Level Shaman. Great Game, I took out all his characters with Cannonballs, except his Black Orc Boss who my Arch Lector killed in Challenge with Von Horstmans Speculum. My Lector was eventually killed but In the end my main block survived and that is alot of my points. DRAW but + 271 in my favor...missing a MV by a few points.

Game 2 vs Orcs. ( Dave from Columbus)- Standard Orc stuff I faces tons of times, Two big blocks of Boyz with Characters, 2 Chariots, a Giant, 4 Spear Chucka's ..A Doom Diver, etc.. My Cannons where Aces..Taking out lots of Warmachines and both Chariots..the Helblaster Blew up but with a "6" (30 shots) Shredding the Giant like tissue paper. Hard fought great game...a DRAW at 90 points in my favor. Dave was choice for Favorite Opponent.

Game 3 vs Dwarfs ( Jeff from Michigan)- this was Thorek and Anvil with a gunline the dreaded, nastiest / cheese style Dwarf list. It was also on a very open Desert Table..I figured I was toast so I would just go for it. The first two turns...the Anvil just brutalized me...his Organ guns also brutalized me...I literally lost 1/2 my Army by the second turn. I did manage to take out both his cannons however before they hurt me. Turn 3 it turned around for me. The Anvil misfired and was held up until turn 5. That allowed my to get my main block into combat with his Hammerers (the only infantry unit) and Luthor with one Suriving Knight and 1 lone Pistolier into combat with Anvil..The keep chipping away and winning combat so I had Thorek ties up the rest of game and Anvil did me know more harm. My Swordsmen broke the hammerers in turn 5 and ran them down...one detachment did wonders tying up so thunderers saving me from shooting..I had one cannon left and kept popping war machines. When the smoke cleared I was up +431 points
and has a MINOR VICTORY..I figure If I can beat this list..I can beat anything with a bit of luck

Game 4 vs Vampire Counts ( Paul from out of town) Typical stuff...Grave Guard, Drachenhof Banner, Conrad, Corpse Cart.. 6 Banshee which scared me because I had nothing except Soul Fire prayer to kill them. It looked positive from the get go he did not roll "Dance" which is key to VC strategy. Ok I have played VC tons, have the book..I know what to do -problem is nothing worked, the Dice let me down time and time again...Knights get with Curse of Years again don't dispel until it wipes out most the unit (including luthor)..they panic anyway from some banshee howls and run..fail to rally, rally on the second chance. Dice a creaming me...can hit anything or am hitting everything and he is making his saves...Paul his running his General around solo on foot unprotected throwing 3 and 4 dice every spell ( my friend Bill would call this INSANE) I hit his General with THREE cannonballs and failed to score a single wound, nor did he throw a single miscast with 11 power dice. I killed the Varghulf but it tied up my greatswords for too long and a misplaced detachment allowed his Graveguard to overun with an "11"!!! and just reach the flank of my Swordsmen block...I hold the first turn after taking heavy losses from the the flank cant get my characters into combat and my pistoliers who are hitting his flank as support can not make the leadership "9" with TWO chances...then they flee "17" of a potential "18" taking them off the table by an inch, So on and So on.. I lose by MASSACRE -.My opponent told me I should melt my dice after game...He got massacred the next round by Dark Elves..go figure. Super nice guy..frustrating game

Game 5 vs Wood Elves ( Eric from Pittsburgh) - Ancient Treeman, 4 Treekin, 5 Wild Riders 12 War Dancers. 10 Glade Guard x 2, 5 Glade Riders x 2, 8 Dryads X 2...Board has three forests on it...I knew I was in trouble. all the forests kept me from deploying my blocks close together
once the Tree Singing started, I had a tough time maneuvering my Cavalry...his shooting was brutal, mine cannons went cold...I started rolling "10" on my guess range every time for the first 3 shots over shooting everything, then a couple misfires and my Artillery was toast..had 1 cannon in turn 4 with awesome grapeshot that would pasted some annoying dryads and left me clear shots at the treeman for the rest of game, misfires, blows up. Greatswords break the Treekin but can't catch...Wardancers and Dryads charge the next turn finish them...my main block broke some glad riders and wardancers but could catch either..I even got off a nice Soulfire on some dryads..in the end he got at my block from all sides, and even after using the VHSpeculum to swap stats with Ancient in a Challenge..all it did was save me some wounds and put 1 on him.. eventually I broke...game over... MASSACRE for him...I had movement issues and when I needed to capitalize I couldn't. Also Eric's WE army was awesome..best looking WE army since James Hyde's I have seen...awesome scratch built treeman...I didn't get any pics but GW staff did..so look for it an upcoming White Dwarf.

1 Win, 2 Draws, 2 Losses..in the end....1 decent win today and I really could have placed well, hell a massacre would have put me in the top 10..that's way it goes I guess..a couple bad dice rolls is all that really stands in the way between the top 10 and bottom 10. I am serious considering getting a Steam Tank for Adepticon in the Spring just to be more competitive.

Finally let me say this about Best Appearance. Coming off fresh my second Best Appearance win in local tourneys I was cautiously optimistic. Tim Lison was WFB judge so it was scored by a pro, I got 35 out of 40- I know I got knocked on my Display base and 1 point or 2 for conversions..(I don't have any "full" scratch builds) a..and maybe a 1 point or 2 on the overall for "extreme highlighting or Blends" Anyway...I know I need to jazz up my base...while mine was nicer than most as is and the Forge World cannon emplacement really helped, (glad I got them done)but it still needs more. I know where work needs to be done on my army I'll do more by April for sure.

Below are some shots of the winners in painting for the GT, I didn't expect to win and there were 4 Armies definitely way better than mine and several that were equally comparable...If we placed in painting..I consider myself 5th only because I got more player's choice votes that others with identical scores to mine.



Jeff Schiltgen's Empire Army.. 3rd Best Appearance ( Jeff came is 2nd place overall and won last yeats Championships at Adepticon I don't know how he wins with that army as it looks like to low of a model count for my style of play- but he rocks it..I am taking notes)



Mike Butchers- Nurgle Legion 2nd Best Appearance.- While I voted for Jeff as he's Empire after all In my opinion this was the top painted Army. This Army did well on the battlefield as well placing 5th overall.

Scratch Conversions like this will get 40 out of 40 for painting scores Impressive.



Shawn Welte's Khorne Deamons. Chicago GT 2008Best Appearance
While very impressive- not as strong as the Nurgle Legion or in my opinion Jeff's Empire or the Wood Elf army I spoke of.. The display base thou was freaking beautiful and really helped carry this army to the top spot- while the many shades of red were stellar the glossy finish made it "too red" for me. Many details where buried on first glance and it wasn't until I sat down and really looked at it during lunch today that I could appreciate it. Don't get me wrong I like it..I just think it needs a more subtle touch. (It's a taste thing I am not a gloss finish guy)
This army didn't do too well on battlefield placing below me...I don't know what happened there a Bloodthirster and a bunch of Bloodcrushers should have owned.

Finally congrats to Chris Grafton from Club Night at the Oak Park Shop for winning Players Choice Favorite Opponent!- yeah Chris!! at least one of us won something!!