Anybody want to share their WTC experiences?

Hi, I went to play for Wales Dragons. I used Grayle Wolfsworn and Baldur 2 Bones. I thought going into the tournament that Baldur2 was a bully, and Grayle had enough left-field jank to play into matchups where I knew I could not drop Baldur2.

Round 1: Baldur2 vs Amon Team New Zealand. Played on the Page5.de stream. A tough match that while I was playing I thought turned after one poor turn of damage output for me. Looking forward to re-watching this. Team went down 0-5.

Round 2. Baldur2 vs Vindictus Exemplar Interdiction Team Belgium Prinzesschen. Despite blessed warjacks, as the battlegroup was 2 crusaders and a devout I felt OK playing Baldur2 here as their slow speed and lack of pathfinder meant I could control them with Rock Wall and Megalith's animus. I killed all the infantry (2 units errants, 3 units exemplars) and Jacks to leave Vindictus and solos. Game was going to be most CPs at the end of 7 rounds and I was on to win it, but my clock was v. low and in my haste to clear a zone I messed up Baldur's position and left him within 12" of Vindictus. Vindictus came in for the kill. Was the only game I punted all weekend - really annoyed at myself. Team went down 1-4. Time for a beer.

Round 3. Baldur2 vs Una2 Devourer's Greece Prime. Interestingly after the match both me and my opponent felt v. confident going into this. I thought the griffons had no chance against the armour, he thought that 3 of them would take off a woldwrath. Not yet done the maths to see who was right. Anyway, the game was a bit of an anticlimax as my opponent messed up and left Una within 10" of the woldwrath at the top of turn 3, and after clearing a few intervening models he went in for the kill. The team takes the round 4-1.

Round 4. Grayle vs Reznik2 Creators wrath Netherlands Windmill. Took one for the team in the pairing process this round. Spellpiercer mean't there was no chance of playing Baldur2, so I dropped Grayle. Extremely touch match, and after a nice move by my opponent to get Scourge of Heresy into my only heavy that was hiding deep in a forest, the game was effectively over. Nabbed a few CPs to make my opponent sweat but attrition soon took over. Team lost 2-3

Round 5. Baldur 2 vs The Dreamer Denmark Little Mermaids. Lost out the list chicken here after my opponent employed some fiendish double-double-bluffing! Scenario was spread the net and I went 2nd. The potential for Blessed enraged, manifest destiny Skin and Moans scared me so I decided to try and shoot one of the three skin and moans off before engagement, when instead I should have got in the zones pronto and accepted some casualties. Lost quickly on scenario. Not so bad as the organisers had bought beers to ease the pain of the fastest losers this round! Shout out to my opponent for talking me through Grymkin after the match. Team lost 0-5.

Round 6. Baldur2 vs Caine3 Belarus. This was a good matchup for me. My opponent had little chance of shooting my heavies off before engagement, and I was able to camp heavily behind a wall with Baldur to take the assassination off. I basically ran a Woldwrath at Caine until it was able to punch him to death. Team won 4-1.

Overall we finished on 2 wins, and were a bit disappointed our performance was not better. However we were pleased that we did not give the opposition many easy wins, and respected that the preparation of a lot of the higher placed teams was more thorough, so we probably got what we deserved. The standard at the tournament is very high - it was great to get 6 top-quality games in in one weekend. I had no experience of opponents being gamey or unsportsmanlike - quite the reverse. The friendliness and style with which our opponents beat us was admirable! Shout out to them all and everyone else I had the pleasure of meeting over the weekend.

Thanks for the write up, Shonkhor.

Do you think that if you had had access to the new themes it would have significantly affected your choices?

I attended the WTC for team China TaiChi and had a blast. This was my third year attending and while accommodation has sometimes been a bit hit or miss this year was definitely a better year. Food was amazing (though my opinion may be colored by the fact I got to eat food that I haven't had in years) and the players, as always, were great to play against. I hadn't really planned on a write and I'm doing this on my phone so it'll be brief.

Game 1 streamed (recorded) vs Russia. I took on Haley3 with eKrueger and lost the roll off so I went second. Not such a bad thing since eKrueger loves scenario. Attrition certainly went my way and between feat and follow up I managed to get a strong CP lead. Forced my opponent to a turn 7 loss where he couldn't catch up the lead in attrition or CP's. We won the round 3/2.

Game 2 vs Switzerland Chocolate. I put eKrueger into Haley2 which I didn't particularly enjoy (the caster, not the opponent). My opponent was slowly grinding me out on attrition as I couldn't put enough into his Stormwall but the game changed when I left it on 4 boxes and it died to fire. Suddenly my opponent had to change gears and went for the assassination (no alternative) and I he pulled it off. Preventable, but small errors cost games. A great opponent and a really hard fought game. Team lost 2/3.

Round 3 vs Team With Makeda 1. I won the roll off and went first. My opponent feated bottom of 1 and I counter feated. My opponent took a 2 CP lead but I was ok with that since I only needed to clear 5 Ferox (no tough, no defensive terrain) bottom of 2 to score 2 myself and essentially take a whole side of the board. However dice failed to cooperate and after a fully loaded BE, 2 Wyrds, Wayfarer, Stoneshapers, manakin and eKrueger contributed I had killed off 2. From here my opponent finished off the scenario victory. I believe we lost 1/4.

Round 4 vs Poland. I dropped eKrueger into eBaldur (the one and only time I should have dropped Wurmwood). Nothing I can do about his Woldwrath so I focused on my opponents other models but a few poor dice meant I failed to kill his BE when it really needed to go. I slowly got ground out on scenario. This was certainly one of the worst games I played also. Props to my opponent who played a beautiful game and made the right call every turn to just take me apart.

Round 5 vs Spain Red. I dropped eKrueger into Scaverous Dark Host. My opponent won the roll off to go first which was devastating. I didn't really contest well enough turn 2 (trying to give myself time to thin out numbers) allowing my opponent to score 3 top of 3 (a lone manakin stopped it being 4). I then pushed back and with feat limited the return damage while clearing a ton of models. Ultimately he stopped being able to attrition effectively and I pulled it back to win at the bottom of 7 with 9CP's to 6. Team lost 2/3.

Round 6 vs Switzerland Cheese eKrueger vs Zaadesh2. I won the roll off and took first. My opponents list was pretty slow so I was able to feat top of 3 and score 2. He couldn't get much to the side I was focused on except for his remaining Animantarax (Woldwrath had man handled the first after a positioning error). Turn after feat I managed to get to 5 (using a lot of brainpower to prevent counter charges and Hyper Aggressive triggering). A great game. Team went 3/2 this round.

Overall a disappointing team result but satisfied with a 3/3 personal record. The players I met were all extremely good sportsmen and not once did we have a rules dispute that couldn't be resolved quickly. An absolutely cracking event!