I was asked by a friend of mine (TJ) if I wanted to fill in as their 5th player in the WM/H Michigan Cup (they had a late dropout) this past Sunday October 14th and I decided to fill in and play my list I just practiced with the night before. Here is a description about the Michigan Cup:
This is a slightly modified version of the popular World Team Championship competition format. This challenging format features 5-person teams squaring off after a strategic round of pairing that can be as important as the actual games! Specific rules for this event at the Michigan GT are forthcoming but will follow the structure of the official WTC.
Sunday morning I woke up early and made the drive out to Lansing, MI. The drive actually was not bad, Lansing is only 115 miles from me so it took just under 2 hours to arrive. I missed out on attending last year due to car troubles, so this is the first year I had attended. The hotel was easy to find and the conference center was nicely marked so I had no issues finding the ballroom.
After I dropped off my bags and got my army ready on my display tray, I took a quick stroll around the hall to see what other events were going on. Warhammer 40K is their main attraction so that was obviously there, they had Star Wars Legion, X-Wing, Dark Age and some other events going on. I even saw Dave Taylor there playing Dark Age.
Star Wars Legion tables.
Dave Taylor playing Dark Age.
After looking at the events that were happening, I checked to see if there was a vendor hall setup, they did not have a separate hall for the vendors, instead there were a few vendors around the walls in the main ballroom. There was not really anything that I needed, one vendor did have a few WM/H items, but I think I am pretty good for now on models to keep me busy for awhile. At the registration desk, I did see some Michigan GT dice that were black/silver/green that I thought would look cool with the Cryx army I am going to start working on, they were $10 for 10 so I decided to pick up a bag.
Michigan GT dice.
Now it was finally time to start gaming and my army was ready to go. Our team was there just to have fun so there was no pressure to win...great, because I am not that good...LOL.
Vlad1 Khador "Jaws of Wolf" army.
My first game was against a Hordes Legion player and it has been a long time since I played against Legion, probably way back to MkI. I lost my 'Conquest' in this game and ended up losing 10-4 in Control Points. At least I did not clock out, the clock is usually my nemesis. I ended up destroying 49 points of Legion and my opponent scored 83.
Game 1: Legion vs Khador
My second game was against Warmachine Cryx, no one else wanted to play against Cryx, so being the filler player I was paired against him. Since I do not get to play many different players much, just like in Game 1 against Legion, I have not played Cryx in a long time. My opponent Thomas was from the Kalamazoo area and I actually met him a few years ago when I first moved to Michigan, my first game in Michigan was actually against him (I knew the name sounded familiar when we were matched up). He decided to play his 9 'Slayer' spam list, and I was actually really curious how this plays. So for me it was more of a game of learning to see how Cryx 'Slayers' worked. Even though I lost in Control Points 5-0, it was a pretty close game, I destroyed 76 points to his 78 and just about half of them came from my 'Conquest'. It was cool seeing my 'Conquest' take out 2.5 'Slayers' in one turn.
Game 2: Cryx vs Khador
Slayer hoard approaching.
With only 6 teams in attendance this year (probably due to this years requirement of fully painted armies), Game 3 was going to be our final game of the day. Once again I was paired up against a Cryx player. Instead of running a 'Slayer' spam, Brando was running about 4 'Slayers' led by Deneghra2. This game was not even close for me, I was slaughtered to the last man (actually 'Manhunter'). Control Points it was 9-3, but Vlad1 was assassinated and Brandon scored like 123 points to my 35.
Game 3: Cryx vs Khador
So for the day I was 0-3, and unfortunately so was our team. We ended up in 6th place (sounds better than last), but it was a fun day and I really glad I got to see how Cryx works.
Afterwards our team and the team from Kalamazoo decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for a cold one and reflect on the day....it was good times.
