[Tournament report] French Open 2012

[Zoroastre]

I know the big thing this week-end is the UK masters, so we have to outbuzz them somehow ; )

Jump to the final rankings

Definitive docs&pics bundle:

Rule Set: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...12.ruleset.pdf
Army Lists: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...ists.final.pdf
Quiz: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...hOpen-Quiz.pdf
Quiz answers: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...uizAnswers.pdf
Rankings spreadsheet: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...2.Rankings.xls

Pictures (Picasa album): https://picasaweb.google.com/1016889...FrenchOpen2012
Pictures (Folder): http://www.igorzoroastre.com/images/...26-FrenchOpen/
Pictures (.rar files): http://www.igorzoroastre.com/images/...pictures_1.rar and http://www.igorzoroastre.com/images/...pictures_2.rar


Well the French Open 2012 has just started and I thought I would share some pics of the action with you as a teaser. Link to the tournament forum to know what I'm talking about: http://www.battle-group.com/forum/index.php?board=73.0









I'll try to keep you appraised during the week-end!



I.

[Ruad]

Nice! Keep going!

Ruad

[Zoroastre]

The first salvo of Incursion in 50 pts saw some of our veterans fall and new stars rise. Unfortunately our Danish guest Zargar couldn't join the fray because of a nasty virus (we hope we'll see him tomorrow so that his long flight isn't in vain ; D). After the game players were amply fed by our elite team of sandwich-makers... and it was army display time!









The players are now under the bombs of Incoming, still 50 pts.


I.

[ReaverQueen]

That giant cleaver looks SO COOL!

[Zoroastre]

Some pics from the Incoming games:









I.

[ReaverQueen]

dat pressganger

I'd pressganger

[paradox]

I'm assuming that is a proxie Madelyn Corbeau next to the converted Nomad.

Amazing. Both of them.

What model is that based on?

[Arlaharen]

Very nice, I really have to join you sometime. Maybe next year. Keep the pretty pictures coming

[Defenstrator]

As usual the standard of french painting is top notch. Although a certain pink cryx army seems to be conspicuously absent.

[gregoire]

As usual the standard of french painting is top notch. Although a certain pink cryx army seems to be conspicuously absent.

This guy keeps being the TO because all the others want to play... ^^

[PG_Ghool]

I have to say; you French guys sure know how to paint.
Them's some nice looking armies.

[PG_and Riot!]

I'm assuming that is a proxie Madelyn Corbeau next to the converted Nomad.

Amazing. Both of them.

What model is that based on?

Not sure about the name, but it's a Studio McVey piece.

The armies look great. Can't wait to see more pictures.

[gregoire]

Not sure about the name, but it's a Studio McVey piece.

The armies look great. Can't wait to see more pictures.

No it's a French exclusivity from Ravage Magazine.

[Zoroastre]

No it's a French exclusivity from Ravage Magazine.

I may be wrong but I believe it is both.


Anyway... I played in the last round of the day (Sacrifice) to relieve my bye-player counterpart, so no pics from the third round. So while the others are probably drinking to their victories/drowning their defeats in a Lyon bouchon I wanted to give you a little something by publishing the rankings so far!



As you can see Butier, our Skorne guest from Spain and a great hobbyist, is ahead by a small margin. The Trollblood Klarick falls just behind on Destroyed Army Points, and other savvy French tournament players are not far. Tomorrow shall prove interesting: after the Ukrainian Steel_Rat last year, will the 1st prize be one once again by a foreigner? Well stay tuned!

Some random cool pics:








I.

[PG_Sechs]

No it's a French exclusivity from Ravage Magazine.

I'm pretty sure it's a limited edition (already sold out) coming from studio McVey :



And french Warmachine players are definitely great painters.

[jandrese]

I'll say one thing for sure, the French sure love bright colors.

[Brandubh]

Beautiful models and great conversions. I'm very happy to see the use of appropriate proxies and creative conversions.

[freelancerebel]

Saw this last year, I think, and was surprised with the awesome paint jobs. Glad to great models again this year.

[mcpolle]

How many points are those armies, they sure look big.

But some very nice models.

Polle

[Brandubh]

How many points are those armies, they sure look big.

I'm guessing 2 50point lists - so that's why you see the big group shots but the tabletop forces look smaller. For the Orange/blue trolls, I'm counting about 50 points worth of stuff.

[mcpolle]

Ah ok, thats why then, cheers, :-)

Polle

[gregoire]

I'm pretty sure it's a limited edition (already sold out) coming from studio McVey :



And french Warmachine players are definitely great painters.

Sorry, mixed it with this one : http://poildemartre.forumactif.com/t...avaux-en-cours (blushes away).

And yes, first day is all about 50APs armies. Tomorrow it's going to be 35APs.

[hackdZ]

Some beautiful armies on display there. You have some really talented painters.

Hope everyone had a good time.

[jandrese]

Another thing that surprises me is how many CPs have been scored all around.

[Zoroastre]

Another thing that surprises me is how many CPs have been scored all around.

Maybe French Player are just classier ; ) Just kidding, I think it has a lot to do with the amount of terrain and choice of scenarios. Still, there was quite a few fast assassinations.

Round 4 (35 points) has come and gone and Butier still holds first place after a hard grinding game that went to Dice Down! Here are the pairings for the 5th round (bear in mind that these account for players that already did play against each other and that the SoS is actually that of the 5th round, because of the way my spreadsheet works) for Supply & Demand.



And some pictures of the last round:








I.

[Zoroastre]

Players are currently playing the 6th and last round! In round 5 things began to crystallize as a local Cryx player, Portal, toppled Butier the Spanish tormentor. Everything's still on! There's heavy and tense Warmachining on the top 3 tables as Close Quarters unfolds.



Some pics of the round:







But my favorite moment of the day was the Rules&Background quiz, where everyone sits quietly during 10 minutes... Would you have answered the quiz? Check it out: http://www.igorzoroastre.com/docs/fr...hOpen-Quiz.pdf


I.

[PG_Pake]

Holy smoke, Batman! Those are ALL amazing armies!
If I move to France, will I be able to paint to that standard?

[Defenstrator]

No kidding. I just can't get enough of the pirate army and all those octopi. So sweet.

[Knight]

Purple and Orange Trolls. Top notch paint jobs. I really like the bright pallet some painters have used.

More pictures, if you have them.

[Zoroastre]

The 250+ pics I took will be online as soon as possible.

In the final round the ranks shuffled as the heading player Portal fell against top Ret player Feyall, while the rainbow Trollblood UlysXXX made his way to the top 3. The champion of the day was Q², the International Trollkin of Mystery, who won both on and off the table with good hobby and quiz scores. Here are the final standings!



To get the full picture: the final score is the sum of tournament points (/6), Painting Grade (max 15, normalized to /1), Quiz (max 20, normalized to /1) and SoS (divided by 30 to normalize to /1), so it's a score out of 9.

Overall I think everyone had a pretty good time! Many thanks to our sponsors Privateer Press (greaaat support), our LGS Trollune, and the French stores Hobby Max and Ludikbazaar, as well as the generous donations of some of our players (you know who you are). My biggest regret as a TO was that no Italian made it to France this year - maybe sometime in the future!

Our next International event will also be held in Lyon at the end of August (25/26) - it will be a much more standard Steamroller 2012 50 points tournament with 5 games, Divide&Conquer(3), Chess Clock and Hardcore Painting. I hope the timing will be convenient enough for some of our European friends on their way to the OETC.




I.

[Ticamp]

Yeaaaaah ! It was great !!! Thanks Zoro !!! Thanks to all !!!

Titi

[Minotaur]

Wow, those armies are all beautifully crafted and painted, makes my own painting and models feel ashamedly inadequate. I feel sad now...

[Zoroastre]

A first series of pictures (picasa, folder and .rar file):

https://picasaweb.google.com/1016889...FrenchOpen2012
http://www.igorzoroastre.com/images/...26-FrenchOpen/
http://www.igorzoroastre.com/images/...pictures_1.rar


I.

[jandrese]

Hmm, is there an answer key for the quiz? I think I got 18 of 20 right or so (had to guess on a couple).

[Portal]

Hi,

I hope my bad english will be understandable.

It was a really great event. Good players with good mood, lot of games with 6 different lists, nice painting...

But something is really amazing : during the games, people from the event organization come to you to fill you with cold drinks and sweets... I'm sure we could dream of having a pole dancer next year... Everyone get a prize, thanks to all sponsors, we will buy a lot of miniature to show our gratitude (ok, we wil certainly buy it just because Colossals is coming).

All of us, french players, are certainly not the most competitives ones, but I feel like the painting is above standards.

And I will sure definitely remember that Overrun could be cast only once by turn (cost me the last game). Great to learn something during tournaments.

[BLUTAXT]

The pics look really nice, it seems that i have do make a trip to some of my friendly european neighbours just to have some games against such great painted armies. As a sidenote..., no one cares about competative gaming, as long as such events look so FUNtastic

[viperidae99]

Amazing work on those forces . Would love to see some threads in the Painting section on the Pirate and Skorne armies, even if only to see more closeups of the models themselves. In fact, virtually any of those armies would be great to see more of. Really great work.

[LordGrimlok]

Bowen away by the quality of paint jobs for entire armies. They should be put in the painting sub forum. I've heard about the ” french style” of painting before, and it's definitely pretty to look at. Congrats to the winners.

[Zargar]

I had a fantastic week end. I went to Lyon to participate and here is a write up of my experience.

This may belong in the batrep forum (sorry about length) but its as much about the event as a whole. I went to the tournament with the expectation of having a great time but losing most (or all) of my matches because I’m not an experienced player. I’ve only ever played against my friend who plays Trollbloods and those were 10-15 games so I’m also shaky on the rules. And I hadn’t played 50 points yet. However, I was REALLY looking forward to this and painting as much as i could up to the event to be ready.

I arrived in Lyon on Friday early afternoon and met up with a few people in the shop Trollune. I hoped to get a game in to iron out as many rule questions as possible and to try to play fast since there would be timed turns during the tournament. I talked Spiff into playing a game against me, he hadn’t brought his army but borrowed a 35 pts eSkarre list from Portal. I played my pStryker list and during the game I learned that:
1) eSkarre’s feat is pretty mean and so is the Deathjack
2) What a fully buffed and supported unit of Satyxis Raiders can do (although I held them back for 2 rounds with my stormclad at a choke point and when i finally got to strike back I killed 9 of them in 1 go... for great justice!
3) How the trample rules work, which I had never tried – I had misunderstood some things about it. His Deathjack trampled 4 Precurser Knights and 2 Gun Mages ><
I held my own during the game and it was close. After his trample move I was low on options though and Stryker got killed by Skarre the next turn. It was a really good game.

We took a walk in the city, met up with some locals and had drinks in the sun at the river Rhone for a few hours. Good times

Saturday morning ahoy!! I woke up REALLY sick. I tried for over an hour to get ready to go to the tournament but finally had to realize that I had to stay in the hotel for the day. It was very disapointing. At around 18.00 I felt well enough to go outside and I walked to the venue that was just 15 minutes away. I was greeted warmly and was pleased to see a mature crowd in very high spirit. There was nothing to be felt of the less pleasant sides of competition, it was very cool.

Sunday rolled in and I felt well enough to participate although somewhat exhausted. The day was going to be 3 games of 35 pts (sorry I didn't capture all the lists).

Game 1: Process of Elimination
In my first match I met... Trollbloods!! At least I’d know them right? Wrong. I took my most shooty list (but also weakest – I did not have time to paint Rangers for Kraye). My troll opponent picked a list even more shooty than mine, run by Jarl Skuld that I hadnt played before. He used a fully buffed unit of Fennblades as shocktroopers to storm into my Gun Mages and B13. I tried to draw fire to my Hammersmith while my Stormclad got into position. Let’s just say I succeeded at that, I hadn’t quite realized how much damage he could deal out at range though (between bushwackers, firebomber, impaler, the canon and caster), and the Hammersmith became useless in 1 turn. The Fennblades made it into my guys but didnt manage to kill a lot, they did succeed in locking down my ranged attacks though. My Stormclad got his charge in on the caster but after a few attacks and transfers he was still standing. I had made a critical error of not feating ><. I don’t really know what to put that mistake down to, but will say that I doubt I’d have gotten the kill even with the bonuses the feat would have given me. It turns out he had purposely drawn me in to isolate the Stormclad, the last piece that could really hurt him. Quite a gamble I’d say, but it paid off. Cleaning up the Fenblades I scored a VP but Kraye got killed the turn after. It was a good and enjoyable game. Lessons learned:
1) Don’t play Kraye without Rangers
2) If you’re going to bait with a jack (Hammersmith) you should run Journeyman for Arcane Shield
3) I shouldn’t fear the clock so much, I ended with plenty time left and had made several rush mistakes


Game 2: pStryker vs Ashlynn: Supply and Demand
Ashlynn d'Elyse
* Rocinante
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Mule (8pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts)
Harlan Versh
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile

Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Hammersmith (8pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Precursor Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)

Again a very shooty list across from me, but I felt pretty good about my own list, pStryker is the caster i have the most experience with. It was a pretty shooty game but with his Nyss Hunters he had way more mobility than me. I advanced my jacks into my control zone and took shots at everything in within reach. My Knights advanced up the left flank to threaten his fuel cache. The exchanges were about even, until his second turn (I had gone first) where he feated and blasted my gun mages and my entire precurser unit to pieces! The Hammersmith also took a fair deal of punishment and was knocked down. I should have feated, I thought I had another turn. 3 Nyss Hunters ran in to touch my fuel cache and score 1 VP and 4 ran in to surround my Stormclad. Ashlynn was standing with her 17 defence, her feat up and a smirk on her face. In my turn stood up my Hammersmith and moved him out of the way, but had purposely given him no focus so no attempt to clear out the nyss hunters. Stryker advanced very carefully (I took all my time, no mess-up to rush this time) and cast earthquake on Rocinante who was standing next to Ashlynn. Boosting the attack I rolled 5d and after he had picked off the 2 highest it was still a hit!! I shot at her with everything that could shoot and did a little damage, but the moment of truth came when my Stormclad trampled through the Nyss Hunters to reach her (Thanks Spiff for trampling my dudes on Friday or I wouldn’t have thought of this). There she was, on the ground with her pretty little belly button in plain air (paintjob was amazing on his entire army). A couple of pow 19 strikes later and she was dead. Lessons learned:

1) Now I know what all the fuss of Nyss Hunters is about
2) Mostly getting to know a lot of models I didnt know


Game 3: eStryker (me) vs Siege

Lord Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Hammersmith (8pts)
* Ol’ Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

It was the last match of the tournament and my opponent offered that we took the game casually. That was pretty cool and being an experienced Cygnar player he offered me a lot of tips throughout the match. This was the list I looked forward to playing the most, because even though I’d only tried eStryker once before he was a lot of fun. My opponent advanced his brick of Stormguards under foxhole along with Siege on my left flank while the rest of his forces (rangers, eiryss, storm blades) harassed my right flank whle the defender took shots at my gun mages. I started picking off stormknights in the foxhole to clear potential lanes. My Hammersmith was once again hung out to dry, but this time with AS on, which eiryss continually canceled and let the punishment rain down on him. He upkept foxhole, moved a bit forward with siege and feated and sent out another round of shots. The Stormguards fanned out and engaged my ATGM and made a forest of lances between Stryker and Siege. The Hammersmith took the brunt of it again. Come my turn i started clearing a charge lane with my shooting and even had some luck with my ATGM who were in melee. I shifted AS to stryker so he could handle potential backstrikes and old rowdy cleared the last few guards. Velocity + charge + 3d overload (should have done 2d, but it worked out) and Stryker made minced meat of Siege. A very enjoyable game where I learned a lot. Specifically:

1) I should get Seige soon, he seems like fun. Same with Stormguards, I liked the fanning out and clogging up the battlefield
2) Hammersmith can work great as a damage magnet but I would probably take Ironclad in the future. The 4 move is too slow for me
3) When going to a tournament, play stuff you know really well over stuff you think is good but just havent gotten to yet

A really great day. The armies were painted at very high quatlity, the athmosphere was great, none of my opponents showed even the slightest annoyance with my many rules questions. I was really happy with my 2-1 result but it wouldnt have been any less enjoyable had I gone 0-3. It’s a shame I missed Saturday, but the trip was definitely worth it, and the event was superbly run.

Zargar

[JJMJester]

French Warmachine/Hordes players = Making the rest of us feel like lazy slobs for playing with unpainted armies lol.

Thanks for posting the pics, it's always great to see the game being played on other parts of the world