2013-08-18

2013 Zürich Open

That's the view you get on the city center from the terrace of the Zürich Open.

For months we were looking forward to it and now it's history already - the first WM/H tournament in the city of Zürich ever, the 2013 Zürich Open+Gergely Gati and +Sven Emmert worked tirelessly for weeks to make it happen and they created an event that is on par with other European tournaments! Thank you guys for this big effort!

+Gergely Gati and +Sven Emmert, the guys who made this possible.

Winners got trophies... (1st to 3rd from left to right)

...medals...

...and certificates.

The corresponding palyers also got "best faction general" badges.

The Winners


Josch got a special newbie prize as the first game at the tournament was his 8th game ever. :-) Welcome to the community, Josch. :-)

ePhilipp got best Trollbloods general. pPhilipp, that would be me. I feel a grudge coming up. :-D

+Dante Suwanda and +Botond Gati both happily shared 4th rank. In six years their names will be known all over Europe - in some parts they already are. ;-)

Our German guests came for winning this thing and so they did. Riccardo Rubbiani with Skorne won 3rd place.

+Dominic Beyeler defended our Swiss honor by placing 2nd.

1st place went to a German again, namely Magnus Matz.

My games


I am trying a new system for writing my game reports in hopes to improve their readability. In case you care, drop me a feedback if you think it's better now or not.

Game 1 - eGrim vs Dante Suwanda's eSeverius

Early game
Dante Suwanda had never played against eGrim, so I had some sort of advantage there. My Fennblades aggressively charged, my Scattergunners were moving into position behind them. Alas, the two Warjack's in his center proved to be too strong to inflict any significant damage really.

Midgame
The game went back and forth without any significant advantages, just the infantry on both sides died.
Endgame
In the end, Dante's Warjack tanked through the center and killed eGrim with their reach weapons. My big big big mistake here was that the Impaler was the only Troll not at his Fury limit, so I couldn't transfer neither to the Bomber nor the Pyre Troll although they still had full health. :-/

Game 2 - pDoomshaper (Runes of War T4) - vs. Patrick Liebi's eSorscha

Early game
Patrick spread out his forces, so I decided to have the Runeshapers run on my left flank. They were perfect for that job since they are very autonomous plus I somehow had to deal with the two zones that need to be controlled/contested.
Midgame
Patrick popped his feat early and had his Conquest charge my warbeasts; Mulg and the Mauler melted like butter in the sun. On the left flank the Runeshapers were hacking a blood path through the Winterguard.
Endgame
My situation grew so desperate I even had the Krielstone unit charge the Conquest just to keep it busy - and with their Tough rolls they even managed to do so. Yet in the end, the sheer Khador power was overwhelming and pDoomshaper got killed when even he himself had no other option left than to charge into close combat. (running down the clock was no option as Patrick still had plenty of time left)

Game 3 - eGrim vs. Robi Deola's eBaldur

Early game
I went for my eGrim list because I am still sort of hoping that shooty Trollbloods are my best hope against teleporting Circle. However, with eBaldur I was soon to find out that his armor buffs make my damage rolls go puff.
Midgame
During Midgame, eBaldur got dangerously close to my eGrim. However, his Druids' solo had some sort of spell that wouldn't let me cast spells on him, so Mortality was out of the question. Also it was his feat turn, so I gave him bombs, Scatterguns and the full load by eGrim's group, but to no avail. After that, eBaldur moved away to happily camp behind a wall.
Endgame
In the end Robi won on control points because he managed to clear the zone to the right by killing my Pyre Troll.
Speed up!
And we were both dangerously close to deathclocking each other.

Game 4 - eGrim vs. Rodrigo Recinos pLylyth

Early game
I didn't like this table at all - the two houses near my deployment zone meant I'd have to split my army in two and have them join again once they passed them. :-/
Midgame
The Incursion flag to my left disappeared and I continued to dislike this game as it put Rodrigo into a stronger position with his refused flank. However, eGrim saw that flag in the center of the table and started to move toward it.
Endgame
eGrim dominated that flag as if it were the last thing to do ever. Fennblades died and to a lesser degree the Scattergunners, but eGrim couldn't be moved og his flag. On the right, Rodrigo's unit controlled the flag on and off because I kept sending infantry over, so I accumulated my CP's quicker than he did. It also helped big time that he forgot to use pLylylth's feat. I'm sure he won't be so nice again, but I did clearly win on CPs. :-)

General observations

I finally ranked 15 out of 17 players. At the last three tournaments I have been able to win my last (in the "cellar duel" as we call them in German), so I see trend there of becoming the best among the worst. :-) If I can work out the big mistakes described above, I should be able to slowly move into the midfield on the scoring charts. :-)