Hreidgotaland Trollkin: OETC 2012 recap

Team Switzerland - The Unboostables @ OETC 2012. From left to right: Konghar, cb_crusader, Botond, Grailhunter (me), QiLin, and McMortison. Picture by courtesy of Eva (via Jan).

Team Switzerland - The Unboostables:
Konghar - Circle of Orboros
cb_crusader - Protectorate of Menoth
Botond - Cygnar
Grailhunter (me) - Reserve player (Trollbloods)
QiLin - Retribution of Scyrah
McMortison - Trollbloods

Well, as promised here is the recap of the 2012 OETC. It was a blast and we experienced tons of cool things, so here is just a summary of the highlights of the tournament. Generally we agree that it was an amazing experience as a tournament as a team, but it was also very good in terms of getting to know each other better in the time off the gaming table.

If we continue to go to tournaments as a team in this formation is open for discussion. The WTC 2013 allows one team per nation so we will have to establish a national qualification system for the event. With the gaming experience we have on our belts we may be interesting candidates in the qualification process, but of course we can still be beaten by a better player any day.

With that all said lets revive the joys of the recent past. :-)

The OETC 2012 venue - an amazing piece of modern architecture that blends steel, glass, greenery, and top notch facilities for added gaming comfort.

Day 1

QiLin manages to kill pButcher and eButcher in two games when his situation seemed very desperate, but his archers (Retribution) were able to pull it off. Now we are all worried in Switzerland about the security of our own casters and locks. ^^
cb_crusader was able to deathclock one of his opponents. Looks like the European scene isn't that familiar with clocks in general, though, and the tournament definitely aren't run as strictly as in the US in terms of clock management.
In the third round of the day, we had to face Team Sweden - tough players but with a very gentlemen style attitude, so the games against them were a truckload of fun. During the award ceremony on day two they were one of the teams getting extra applause form all players - looks like they left an excellent impression on other teams as well (despite calling their team Rånbögmördarna). :-)
Salzburger Nockerl FTW!!!

Busy times at the OETC 2012. There was a total of 24 teams with 5 players each, so 120 people were throwing dice at any given moment. Picture by courtesy of Eva (via Jan).

Day 2

Andrew Galea gives his very own Team Australia shirt to Botond as a gift.
After he got the shirt, Botond and eCaine show the path to the scrap yard to an army of undead Cryx. (Botond now calls the shirt his lucky shirt.)
McMortison has to face a Minions army - pigs everywhere. Rök likes pigs and keeps eating them up until he Sturm & Drang are gulped down, too.
On Day 1, Konghar learned double teleportation move from another Circle player that was new to him. In the hotel room on Day 1, Konghar practices the move with his miniatures before going to sleep - and on Day 2 he uses his new move to score his very own caster kill! ^^
During the award ceremony, Team Australia 1 & 2 get extra applause, too, simply for showing up. It's an honor to have two teams travel across half the globe just to play with us and they are the main factor that makes the OETC 2012 into the WTC 2013.
Botond wins Youngest Player and gets a new (plastic) warjack for his Cygnar army.
Team Switzerland is getting rank 23 out of 24 teams - in other words, we met our goal not to rank on last place on our first participation at the tournament. :-) However, maybe we should have aimed for last place because that team got prizes. ^^
Apfelstrudel FTW!!!

Botond and his new lucky shirt.

Steve, the TO and Leader Maximus, is busy calculating the final rankings.

The certificate being witness of our achievements.

General impressions

The painting of the armies generally was at a very high level. One reason definitely was that the rules said armies have to be painted to table top level, but more often than not the armies were amazing works of art rather than just miniatures with paint slapped on. If WM/H is said to be the game with unpainted minis, I don't see where that game is - it seems like the amount of unpainted/basic painted/well painted models is just as high as in other games, too.
The best part about the event was meeting gamers from anywhere in Europe and being able to hook up with them immediately. It didn't matter where somebody came from, what cultural background he had, and what language other than English he spoke, the game was all it took to have a common ground and connect immediately.
The process of the team captains negotiating the pairings and scenarios at the beginning of every round was highly entertaining and added additional depth to the game. Our team felt that we were able to get rather favorable pairings. On the other hand, so thought our opponents, so who knows. ^^
It's already a longtime standard for the Swiss 40K ETC team to have an extra/reserve player and this strategy also proved its value at the WM/H OETC. Having an extra guy simply is helpful for carrying stuff around, taking pictures and videos, check out how the opponents are doing, etc.

Team Switzerland discussing potential pairings prior to Round 5 against Poland 4 .

Round 5 played against Poland 4. Playing in the corridor was my favorite spot as there was plenty of room, less noise, and a lot of light coming through the luxurious windows.

Final standings