The Situational - On site reporting from the tournament

[Sgt. Cannonfodder]

Time: 08:28
Situation: Sipping lukewarm coffee and surveying everything

Close Race

As I look out across an almost empty hall, that carries with it all the signs of heavy use and abuse by a throng of tabletop gamers, it is time to take stock of the situation:

The main point of today, is of course the top tier of the Warm Up teams. With only 25 points separating the leading team from the runner up, you can be assured that we'll see some fierce battles. I spoke with Stefan Nielsen, one of the organizers of the event, to hear just what we can expect from this last round..

"It is actually possible for the Germans to win now" he told me, explaining that since the German and Danish ETC Team are set to meet each other in this final round, they only have to pull off a 95/65 victory to leave the tournament victorious.

"I expect we'll see a lot of defensive play from the Danish team now," Stefan said. "But its definitely interesting, that the Danes actually have to put up a fight to retain their first place, instead of having an "easy" last game."

As they are matched against each other, even losing a game with only 12/8 will mean a difference in 4 points between the two teams, so the boys in red and white have to hang in tight, to avoid the Germans, who are now breathing down their neck.

Talking to Danish captain Troels Cederholm, he confirmed to us, that the Danes would likely go for the so called "limp dick" strategy – hugging the table edges and doing their best in denying points to the opposition.



The blokes from Germany are gunning for the Danes in this last and final round


/T

[Sgt. Cannonfodder]

Time: 12:00
Situation: Touring the battlefields

The Final Countdown

To show you what the ETC guys mean by a "limp dick", take a look at a couple of pictures from the start of their last game.



Asger's Dark Elves are playing the popular game; "protect the corner"



I call this one "Sophie's choice" - Facing a Vampire Count, Kent decided to split his army in two halves, and place them as far from each other as possible. This way his enemy's troops (who needs to stick close to the Vampire) can only get half of his points.




"The mad meat shield" (those a flagellants deployed at the front)




"The attack on Bunker hill" - I think the general plan is to avoid the horsies for as long as possible here.


/T

[Sgt. Cannonfodder]

Time: 14:00
Situation: Writing my last post.  

Endgame

So, it has come to this. After spending close to three days in the name of gaming, a victor is now found:
With a total of 554 BP, the winner of this years ETC Warm up is Team Denmark, with Germany coming in second with 535 BP.

The Danish ETC Team, who where by many considered the favourites, pulled of a successful endgame strategy, and managed to stave of the advances from the Germans by denying them the points needed.

Results from the final games are up in the Results-thread, found here

All that is left now, is for the happy gamers to return their armies to their respective cases, and then begin the (for some) long way home. Thanks to the participants for a exciting tournament, and to the readers and commenters for following this live reporting effort.

From Brande, Denmark, this is Thorsten Weitling signing out.

/T