6th Annual Japan Open Warmachine/ Hordes Team Tournament

Welcome, welcome, welcome! I know you have all been as excited as I about the tournament, and finally... finally it is here!!!  That's right, once again, the Rumble Round the Ramparts, the Clash at the Castle... Last weekend, 22 players for 7 teams assembled from all corners of Japan... well, almost all corners... from Kyushu, Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Okayama and Fukuyama at least!  A mighty battle reigned, but at the end, only one team stood above all others!  We were expecting a typhoon to blow through and disrupt everything, but in the end, the weather was amazing... sadly, due to the warning of the typhoon, the sports festival at my poliwog's kindergarten was moved from Saturday straight on to Sunday.  NOOOOOOOO!!!!  Kindergarten sports festivals only last half a day, but half a day was two rounds of a three round tournament, and that means that I had to withdraw from my team, and our fearless alternate, The Kid, took my place.  Thanks, Kid!  Good luck!  I managed to arrive perfectly in the down time between round 2 and 3, and since we had only 7 teams, one team each round had a by round, and I managed to catch a game with the guys stuck with the pass.

And now, let's take a look at our teams!

Team 0.3 Ton (Saijo) 

Our good buddies out of one of the suburbs of Hiroshima City, this team is made up of classmates from the local university.  These guys are some of the loyal members of our sister group, the Saijo Gaming Club.

Beru, with his Cygnar army, using Captain Allister Caine and Commander Coleman Stryker

Ryosangata, with his Retribution army, using Issyria and Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard

Tetsu, with his Mercenary army, using Ashlynn d'Elyse and General Ossrum

Band of Heroes (Osaka)

The Osaka Troll trifecta returns!  Three amazing players, with amazingly painted armies, have banded together to make sure everyone knows the power of the Trollbloods!  Since players on a team cannot use the exact same caster, the Band of Heroes members each use a different incarnation of Doomshaper!

Daizo, with his Trollblood army, using Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia and Captain Gunbjorn

Genki, with his Trollblood army, using Madrak, Great Chieftan and Doomshaper, Dire Prophet

Tabibito, with his Trollblood army, using Grim Angus and Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

Dhunholy Alliance (Fukuyama)

My intrepid team.  Sorry for not making it to the fight, but luckily The Kid from the Saijo gaming group was there, just waiting for a team to jump into!  He fought bravely for the Dhunholy Alliance!


DTB, with his Trollblood army, using Kolgrima, Winter Witch and Madrak, Great Chieftan

Sarge, with his Cryx army, using Goreshade the Cursed and Asphyxious the Hellbringer

The Kid, with his Convergence army using Forge Master Syntherion and Axis the Harmonic Enforcer

Eternal Journeymen (Tokyo)

This year only one team made it from Tokyo!  We were glad to see them, especially since Mitchell is one of my favorite people to play against OF ALL TIME!!!  Good luck, boys, and thanks for coming all the way to Fukuyama... it's a long trip!

Aoichiro, with his Convergence army, using Aurum Locke and Eminent Configurator Orion

Mitchell, with his Cephalyx army, using Cognifex Cyphon and Exulon Thexus

Yamazaki, with his Legion army, using Fyanna, Torment of Everblight and Anamag

Signs and Portents (Hiro-saka) 

A mix of two Osaka players with the strongest player from Saijo, Signs and Portents is the team to beat at the tourney this year!  These are very, very good players who make very few mistakes, and know your army better than you know it yourself!

Rantei, with his Skorne army, using Dominar Rasheth and Makeda & the Exalted Court

Kimtaku, with his Cryx army, using The Witch Coven of Garlghast and Wraith Witch Deneghra

Vladamir, with his Khador army, using Old Witch 2 and Vladimir, the Dark Champion

Team Kyushu (Kyushu)

Another team from far far away, the Kyushu team is made up of great veteran player and a couple of newer additions to the gaming world.  We were happy to have them, and hope the new guys had fun and stick with it!


Hai!  Yamanaka-desu! with his Mercenary army, using Magnus the Traitor and Ashlynn d'Elyse

Ryo, with his Khador army, using Koldun Kommander Zerkova and Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff

Zweifel, with his Cygnar army, using Major Prime Victoria Haley and Major Victoria Haley

Trick or Treat (Osaka)

Who let these Dread Rots in here???

Triple Grymkin!  Squee!  I love love love Grymkin armies, and I have been in love with Enzo's army since he showed up with it last year!  I was super excited to see it again!


Enzo, with his Grymkin army, using Zevanna Agha, the Fate Keeper and The Child

JC, with his Grymkin army, using The Wanderer and The Dreamer

NiwaNiwa, with his Grymkin army, using The King of Nothing and The Heritic

The Tables:
We had some really great tables set up this year... last year's tables were already amazing, but we got a couple more mats, a lot more terrain, and there were some amazing themed tables ready to turn into hellish battlescapes!  Twelve tables were prepared, nine of them as thematic masterpieces.  We tried to throw in some tactical importance as well when it came to choosing tables... some were fairly open terrain, while others were very hard to navigate.  Here are some of our favorites!

     The Beach -

Pretty neat, huh?  I love this new mat!  We toyed with the idea of making the ocean side of the map rough terrain, but in the end decided that that would be too much. 

     Farm Fields -

This is one of the super wide open ones.  Anyone with a colossal or a gargantuan probably would want to take this board.  There was some debate with the wheat field terrain pieces if they should be rough terrain or forests, but most of us decided to use it as a forest.  Just cause, you know... funny!

     Thornwood Hell -

Orgoth towers are always fun terrain.  Add a million forests and you've got a battle that's bound to get bogged down!

     Taiga Circle -

A little table dedicated to the Circle Oroboros, who did not make an appearance this year!  Those pesky ley lines were harnessed on the dais in the upper right corner, with a wizard's tower near the middle.

     Cityscape -

Nope, your eyes aren't tricking you, the board is tilted!  This mat was made before pre-measuring was allowed, so to make sure that you couldn't just eyeball distances, the mat was designed to be slightly off center.

After that, we had the four main warmachine faction tables (Cryx, Cygnar, Khador and Protectorate), and then three "basic" mats.  The most hated mat of the day?  Khador (of course, haha).

     Khador -

It was just too hard to maneuver around the positioning of the big gun in the back and the ammunition crates and extra shells.  So much hate!

Our Gracious Sponsors:
No tournament is complete without prizes.  And for us, we had some amazing gifts from several great companies!
    - Privateer Press  https://privateerpress.com/ 
          Privateer Press donated several models, templates, markers, and etc.

    - Broken Egg Games http://www.brokenegggames.com/ 
          This is an awesome company that makes incredible products.  They offered a massive discount
                and convention exclusive items TO EVERY PLAYER!!!  Amazing!

    - Discount Games Inc. https://www.discountgamesinc.com/ 
          Discount Games gave us gift certificates to the three members of the winning team!

    - Frozen Forge https://frozenforge.com/ 
          Frozen Forge also gave gift certificates for the three winning members!

Thank you so much to all of the sponsors!  The tourney wouldn't have been a success without you! 

Round 1 - 

And now, on to the gaming!  Yeah!  Here are the match-ups for the first round!

     0.3 Ton VS Eternal Journeymen
     Dhunholy Alliance VS Team Kyushu
     Trick or Treat VS Signs And Portents
     Band of Heroes takes the pass this round

This round, we used the "Pit 2" Scenerio.
Good games were had all around... Dhunholy Alliance, my poor team, managed to get three wins out of the round, even though I wasn't there, so good work, boys!  The Kid really jumped in with both feet!  DTB's battle was a long semi-bloody slog, where no units were fully destroyed on either side, and the only solo death WAS THE PATROL DOG!!!!  Hahahahahahahaha!

Winners for the round - Eternal Journeymen, Dhunholy Alliance, and Signs And Portents!

And Now For Something Completely Different:
No, no Monty Python today!  After the end of the first round, teams headed out to find themselves some rations to keep their energy up into the next round, and our intrepid TO Leland took a look at the armies to determine the prized Best Painted Army!  Some (but sadly, not all) of the armies up for the honor:

Rantei's Skorne -

Daizo's Trollbloods -

Mitchell's Cephalyx -

Enzo's Grymkin -

Genki's Trollbloods -

Vlad's Khador -

The Kid's Convergence -

That's all for now!  Tune in to find out who will take home the coveted Best Painter award!

Round 2 -

As the JOTC is a three round tournament, round 2 is mega important as it will determine who is going on to the championship game!  The match-ups for round 2!

     Dhunholy Alliance VS Signs And Portents
     Eternal Journeymen VS Band of Heroes
     0.3 Ton VS Team Kyushu
     Trick or Treat takes the pass this round

This round used the Mirage scenario, which is also one of my very favorites, though it can lead to a brutal and quick finish for teams that are not used to scenario play.  This scenario uses two circular zones and three... yes, that's right, THREE flags!!!
Dhunholy Alliance managed to scrape out another round victory, with DTB and The Kid wresting victory from the hands of our enemies.  Surprisingly, Sarge lost his game, but since it was a team effort, the Dhunholy Alliance was rocketed into the finals!  YES!!!

Winners for the round:  Dhunholy Alliance, Eternal Journeymen, and 0.3 Ton!

Round 3 -

Well, well, well... the whole last week before the tournament started, the Dhunholy Alliance was working out strategies, match-ups, anything to help us take our game to the very top.  Then, I was out, and it looked like all of out hard work went out the window... and then The Kid swooped in and saved the day, helping lead our team all the way to the championship table!  That's right, we're in the finals, baby!

     Championship: Dhunholy Alliance VS Eternal Journeymen
     Trick or Treat VS Band of Heroes
     0.3 Ton VS Signs And Portents
     Team Kyushu took the pass round this time

As the fates of all lay in the dice on the table, I had finally arrived in time to cheer my teammates on in their games.  I ALSO got to get a game in with Zweifel from Team Kyushu, a relatively new player who had a by this round.  He was a super nice guy, and we had a great game, but sadly for him, he was unaware of the AMAZING POWERS OF THE TESTAMENT OF MENOTH who walked through his front line and smashed Haley 3 in the face repeatedly until the submitted.  A big pile of souls reclaimed from his fallen comrades gave him so many shots at her that it was almost impossible that she would survive.  And she did not.  VICTORY!!!!

Winners of this round:  Trick or Treat, Signs And Portents, and.....
                                                                   and....
                                       and...

Results - 

Eternal Journeymen WINS!!!!!!!

Yes, the Tokyo team pulled out a victory over our very own Dhunholy Alliance!  In an amazing 2-1 victory, they really proved that they deserve to be the Team Champions of Japan!  In fact, only The Kid managed to pull out a victory for our team, so it was a GREAT thing that he was our alternate!  Good Work, Kid!  Thanks again!

Taking second place, DHUNHOLY ALLIANCE!!!

In fact, only The Kid managed to pull out a victory for our team, so it was a GREAT thing that he was our alternate!  Good Work, Kid!  Thanks again!  You all fought the good fight!

Arriving in third place, Signs And Portents!

Amazing work from this very strong team.  The second and third place standings all came down to points, and Signs And Portents has just too few to squeek out the second place spot.  A very strong showing from these guys... I know they'll be back with a vengence next year!

And finally... the winners of the Painting contest!

Taking Bronze - Rantei with his Skorne army!

Taking Silver - Mitchell with his Cephalyx army

 

Taking Gold - Vlad with his Khador army!  Congratulations on this great army, Vlad!

 

And finally, because I can never get enough of this army and how amazing it looks, the Commissarial award (this blog's best painted category), here are more shots of Enzo's great Grymkin army!

And with that, the 6th Annual Japan Open Team Championship is officially closed!  Thanks so much to everyone who came to take part, and especially to Leland for taking over the TO position.  It went great!  I can't wait to see everyone again next year!