Guild Ball: Bourbon Trail Open 'Goals'

It was very nice that the TO for Bourbon Trail Open IV provided the players with a little swag bag, and inside each bag were a pair of dice, a BTO IV button, and a custom painted 3D Goal.  The Goals I usually use for my Guilds are made from acrylic and have the Guilds logo on them, but it was nice to actually have a 3D Goal, and one in the shape of a Bourbon barrel.

Seeing how my son also received the same swag bag, I thought it would be nice to get both of these painted up and they can be used for future events.

 Dice and button from swag bag.

 Red for my Butcher's and Cook's, Green for my son's Hunter's and Alchemist's.

Painting Points: 10

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Daily Chronicle: Bourbon Trail Open IV Recap

Well late last night the Bourbon Trail Open IV here in Radcliff, KY has ended and Alex Botts with the Butcher's Guild is the Champion after 6 Rounds of play.

The results from Bourbon Trail Open IV can be found HERE on Longshanks.

Out of the 6 Rounds, I only played in 3.  My first 2 games were mirror match ups against Butcher's and my third game was against the Alchemist's Guild, and it was probably my least fun game of playing Guild Ball ever and I really did not feel like continuing afterwards.

Round 1 vs Brad Moreland (Butcher's)
Lost 12-4, fun game, great opponent.

Round 2 vs Keith Golimowski (Butcher')
Lost 12-4, fun game, great opponent.

Round 3 vs Nicholas Garcia (Alchemist's)
Lost 12-2, worst game ever, no player interaction.  He never crossed his starting line till Turn 4 and kept on retreating to his goal.

So after 3 Rounds, I was done...now I wish I would have played my 4th (it looked liked it may have been against my friend Frank), but at this point I was ready to hit the bar and drink some Bourbon, which I enjoyed much more than game 3.  I also was able to finally watch Alex Botts play a game with his Butcher's during Round 4.

My son ended up going 0-4 with his Hunter's, and my friends Frank (Brewers's) went 1-3 and Josh (Navigator's) went 2-4 and actually stuck it out through all 6 Rounds.  After Round 4 it was time to get some dinner and relax for the evening.

Here are a few pics of the event.

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Daily Chronicle: 1 Days Till "Bourbon Trail Open IV"

Less than 24 hours before the Bourbon Trail Open IV officially kicks off and we are all ready to go.

Guilds are packed, dice are packed, widgets are packed.... in just under 2 hours, the adventure down to Kentucky begins.

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Daily Chronicle: 2 Days Till "Bourbon Trail Open IV"

Just 2 more days until Bourbon Trail Open IV kicks off and I am getting more and more excited.

Not that I was expecting much of a swag bag, but the TO has posted a few items that the players will receive, and the gesture is very nice.  Here are some of the items we will be receiving.

 BTO IV buttons

Custom Goals 

 BTO IV custom dice

Painted Goals for Table 1

Tonight we will finish packing and make sure we are all set for tomorrow's trip.

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Daily Chronicle: 3 Days Till "Bourbon Trail Open IV"

OK, so I am very excited for this weekend's "Bourbon Trail Open IV" down in Radcliff, KY at the Boundary Oak Distillery.  This will actually be the largest event I have attended to date for Guild Ball (there are a few more later this year that will/may top this one) but I am really looking forward to this one.

I think part of the reason for the excitement is the ambiance of the venue itself, it is tough to drive 6+ hours for an event that will be held in a gaming store (one reason why "Spring Fling" was a tough decision to attend), but to play Guild Ball in a Bourbon distillery, that was an easy decision to make.  If you are not doing so well on the Pitch, then just slide yourself over to the bar and drown out your sorrows.

I am also looking forward to purchasing one of the distilleries special bottles called "Lincoln", I am just hoping they still have them available when we arrive.

Tonight I will probably start packing the Guilds and some of the accessories and then finish my packing Thursday night.

Just 3 more days till Kick-Off.

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Weekly Chronicle 2019 #7 (Week of Bourbon Trail Open IV)

Seven weeks into 2019 and honestly I am way behind on what I had set myself out to complete for this year.  I have only played 6 games of Guild Ball, 4 of Destiny and that is it, I only finished painting 1 model and that was 'Rookie Seenah' way back at the beginning of January.  I had really expected to have more games of Guild Ball in by now, along with a few of X-Wing.  AdeptiCon is coming next month and I have no practice games of X-Wing in, I think next week it will be time to sliding in a game a week.

This past week was almost a pretty pathetic week for me, but yesterday made some of it back up.  I was suppose to play in a Guild Ball event on Saturday up in Grand Rapids, but some personal business I had to get done had me driving to Chicago for the day, there went 4 games I could have played.  Luckily yesterday evening my son and I were able to squeeze a practice game in (short report coming later).  Also yesterday morning I actually did a lot of work on 'Veteran Calculus' and she will be getting finished up today, so at least for next week I will have a model completed.

With Bourbon Trail Open IV coming up this weekend, we may try and get in another practice game tonight (but part of me is leaning towards a little X-Wing) since next Saturday is going to be a very long day.  With over 40 players registered, it looks like it will be a 6 Round event.  I know I have no chance in winning, let alone winning an actual game, but since we are driving all the way down there and spending money on a hotel, I am going to try and play as many rounds as possible.  More than likely I will play in 5 rounds and then probably drop the final round so I can watch the top table and enjoy some bourbon (but we'll see what my record is going into the final round).  At least that will get me 5-6 games of Guild Ball for the week and add to my yearly total, my goal for the year is to get in 50 games of Guild Ball.

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 1

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Daily Chronicle: Announced "Bourbon Trail Open IV" February 23rd, 2019

Well I have my first event/convention/road trip officially booked for 2019 and the year for me will start with the "Bourbon Trail Open IV" a Guild Ball event in Radcliff, KY on February 23rd.

For me the last few years, the first event of the year ha either been the "Las Vegas Open" or "AdeptiCon".  With "AdeptiCon 2019" being the last month of March in 2019 and now the "Bourbon Trail Open" at least one month before, it will make attending both events easier.

Last year I was considering attending the "Bourbon Trail Open", but two reasons had kept me from going.  One, it was only two weeks before "AdeptiCon" and the cost of attending both would have been hard.  Two, last year the organizer had moved the event away from a distillery and into a gaming store.  The "Bourbon Trail Open" originally started in a gaming store back in 2016, then in 2017 the organizer moved it into a distillery and the event was a huge success and a lot of players attended.  Then in 2018 to keep the costs down on renting a facility it was moved back into a gaming store and it really hurt attendance with only 21 players that attended.

This past Thursday afternoon "Bourbon Trail Open IV" was announced for 2019 and it was going to be back in a distillery hosted at "Boundary Oak Distillery" with a cap on player attendance at 36.  Once I saw the information on Facebook, I quickly sent in my payment and registered for the event.  I had asked my son if he wanted to attend also, but he wanted to verify it would be okay to take the time off first and was going to check with work on Friday afternoon.  By the time morning came the event was already 1/2 sold out and instead of gambling and losing out on a ticket, we went ahead and purchased one for my son also.  With the location only being 5 hours away, we can plan the trip where my son would only need Saturday off and we an get him back to work on Sunday.

With only 10 spots left later in the day, I asked my friend Frank if he was interested in attending and he he thought it would also be a fun event and jumped on registration.  With only 2 spots left now, we were able to also get Frank Jr a spot in the event and then shortly after the event was already sold out.  The "Bourbon Trail Open IV" still being 4 months away, sold out 36 spots in 24 hours.

Now it's time to go get some practice games in.

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