This is going to be the start of a series on blog posts on the 2013 WTC. First we get started with the performance of Team Switzerland at the 2013 WTC. In form of really short battle reports mostly in pictures.
For those readers who don't know what the WTC is: it's the World Team Championship in Warmachine and Hordes and you can get extensive information in the
official blog and the
results page.
Round 1 - Team Switzerland vs Team USA Blue
For Team Switzerland, this initial draw was like a dream come true. That we could win this was never the question, but it was a big honor to play against our idols so we focused to give them as much of a hard time as possible. We considered ourselves really lucky to get this matchup because after Round 1 we were extremely unlikely to see any of the two US teams again.
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| The matching process begins. |
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| Gergely has Will Pagani thinking... |
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| ...what could possibly be the most beardy tactic. |
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| After the game, Will Pagani complimented his Ghetorix who killed around 32 Cryx infantry models. |
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| Moritz battling Brian White. |
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| Jake VanMeter playing against his Swiss padawan. We see here Legion vs. Legion; in the run of the tournament Jake will have to play vs. Legion repeatedly again. It seems like everyone is afraid of Legion except Legion itself. :-D |
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| Henrik battling Danny Modesto. |
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| Dominic defeating Jason Flanzer eventually with an assassination run. We were really proud of Dominic since he showed we may not be one of the top teams, but still good for a surprise victory if one makes mistakes. After the game, Jason said he considered his eMadrak to be the weaker of the two (with the other being Runes of War T4) and he wanted to get rid of it in Round 1 to always have the freedom of choice in the following rounds. Well, the gambling paid off and there's no doubt that a player weaker than Dominic (like me) would still have been defeated by Jason. |
Round 2 - Team Switzerland vs Team Netherlands
While Team Netherlands was a bunch of cool guys to play with, this 3-2 loss was bitter for Team Switzerland as we felt that although Team Netherland was a tad better, we could have defeated them with smarter games. Oh well. Maybe we'll have another run in 2014. :-D
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| Dominic vs. Casper Jellema |
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| Botond vs. the Team Captain, Aat Niehot. Aat played an interesting eGrim list that I will talk about in a later article. In this game, Aat survived eVayl's assassination attempt and then struck back for Botond's defeat. |
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| Gergely battling Robert Willemstein and eventually winning the game. |
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| Moritz battling Tom Starren. |
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| Henrik battling Harm Kleijnen and eventually winning the battle as well. |
Round 3 - Team Switzerland vs Team Portugal
When I previously said that Team Netherlands was a tad better than we were, then I think it's acceptable to say that Team Portugal was a tad worse. Team Portugal also ranked on the last place in the end, but don't make a mistake and think of them as easy prey. If you play at WTC level, you play well and there is no such thing as an easy opponent. Team Portugal played great games against us, but finally we were relieved when we were able to tip the scale in our favor - winning 3-2 showed we were able to dominate this round, but it's not like we steamrolled them totally - they massively fought back and were good at it!
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| The matching process starts once more. |
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| Botond battling Nuno Sequeira. |
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| Dominic battling Paulo Morais. |
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| Moritz battling Miguel Marques Correia. |
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| Henrik battling against Joao Nunes. |
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| Gergely battling against Joao Morais. |
Round 4 - Team Switzerland vs Team Ireland
Fighting the Irish on a Sunday morning sounded like a very promising thing to do - but they were sober like the desert is dry. The same applies here what I wrote about the Netherlands: a tad better than we, we could have had them if we had played smarter games. The 2-3 loss properly reflects the strength of the teams here as well.
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| The matching process starts again. For a change we tried strategy. :-D |
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| Dominic battling Gerry Nolan. |
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| Botond battling Enoin Brennan. This game was over quickly because... |
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| ...Botond showed the Ladygoat how eVayl's assination run works. |
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| Likewise Gergely won against Ciaran Bolger, the other Team Captain. |
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| Unfortunately, Henrik was less lucky against Stuart Gorman. For a long time, either player could have won this. henrik pac-manned his way through Stuart's entire army, but less fortunate dice rolls made Henrik lose his elephants more quickly, so Stuart basically won on attrition. |
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| Moritz battling Anthony O'Reilly. |
Round 5 - Team Switzerland vs Team France Bleu
This round was a huge let down as we expected to do better at the bottom duels, especially after losing 2-3 vs. the Netherlands and the Irish. However, France Bleu simply wiped us out. They were really friendly guys, but their lists were really nasty and all geared towards assassination. Not really scenario play, not really attrition, but full hardcore get to the throat assassination. Hence one after the other Swiss player fell.
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| Gergely battling Baptiste Schmittlin. Baptiste was really excited to play against eGaspy because hardly anyone seems to play him in France, but Gergely killboxed himself for Baptiste's early victory, which Baptiste gladly accepted, of course, but still was a bit disappointed that it was over already. |
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| Dominic battling Marc Simoni. |
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| Henrik battling Valérian Tschanz. |
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| Moritz battling Franck Primavera. |
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| Botond battling Matthieu Buttin. |
Conclusions
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| Team Switzerland after a tiring tournament. :-) |
So what are the conclusions of all this battling nonsense?
- We had a heck of a good time. :-)
- We ranked 29th of 32 and met our goal not to be last. :-)
- While we may not be the top contender, we don't have to hide ourselves either. The Netherlands and Irish are waiting to be defeated next time.
- In order to defeat the Dutch and the Irish, more training is required and better strategy. We had to play too many unfavorable matchings. :-/
- We really need to form a second team Switzerland for the 2014 WTC. I am looking at you, +Robi Deola and +Andre Suwanda. :-)
So to all opponents of the past and of the future: see you in 2014! :-D
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