Friday, April 18, 2014

Adepticon ARR / Update

So after taking a week and a half to get back into the swing of things at work, here is my update from Adepticon.  I won't go back over my list as you can check it out on my last post.

Thursday:

Mike Jacobs (Cornishkeebler) and I meet up at my house and drive down to Chicago together.  I have my trunk loaded with 9 six-packs of Wisconsin beer and a cooler with wheels.  As Mike said - I was trying to buy my way to a good sportsmanship score (didn't work!!).  We drove down and had lunch at Portillo's.  When I used to live in Chicago, this was my place to go.  We then headed over to the Convention and met up with old friends.  After checking in, we got a practice game in with our Minnesota friends.  I went up against Keith Gilmour and his Brits.  We rolled up Breakthrough and had a go.  NGFS did its thing and Keith did his thing.  We ended 4-3 to me.  After that and dinner, I headed to O'Hare to grab Eric Turner (Paw Paw) and brought him back.

Friday:

Round 1: Encounter (Fair Fight Mission)

I get Byron Sinor, who is the top ranked American right now.  He has the 80th ID from Citizen Soldiers.  While I like the PDF, getting to pay for Trained artillery that hits like Vets is a great bargain.  And that is what he ran.  So right away, I get Blue v. Blue with an excellent player.  Details aside, we play.  We arty each other.  We continue to arty each other.  I try a ballsy move that almost pays off for an early win.  He counters.  We arty each other.  3-3.  Byron goes on to win the tournament.

Round 2: Hastyattack (Mobile Battle)

I play Shane.  Great fun!  He runs German Grens of some type.  He waits for Reserves.  I arty him.  My Pios, Boat Section, both arty platoons and Towed TDs are on the board to start.  PSV lays wire to slow the advance.  I arty him.  He is able to get a platoon into my zone, which I promptly run.  I get him down three platoons and with no hope of securing an objective or doing damage, it ends 6-1 to me.

Round 3: No Retreat (Defensive Battle)

I play Jesse Shaeffer.  He runs a Hungarian Assault Gun Company.  Nasty list.  Heavy arty, Recon and air support.  We go something like 14 turns and it end with a 4-3 to me.  Basically, NGFS hits.  Jesse rolls armor saves and passed a lot of them.  He then makes guns and infantry evaporate with Breakthrough guns.  He plays a great game and it was close.  Jesse goes on to finish 3rd.

For dinner, Mike, Eric, Jeff Hady, Dan Larson and I head out to dinner at a nice Mexican place.


Saturday:

Round 4: Breakthrough (Mobile Battle)

I play Todd and his Hetzer Company.  With a large village in the center, I am able to use NGFS perfectly against his list.  In a very smart move, he puts as many Hetzers in Reserves as he can.  I wish I could say the game was close.  It wasn't.  Bad match up for him.  6-1 to me.

Round 5: Surrounded (Defensive Battle)

I play Charlie Clay and his massive Croc (6!!) list from Overlord.  Hard fought 3-4 to him.  It was bloody on both sides.  Charlie goes on to finish 4th in the tournament.

Round 6: Free For All (Fair Fight)

I play an old friend Paul Devolpi and his Soviets.  Yes, Soviets are back!  He led the tournament after Day 1.  Again, I almost pull off the Hail Mary play and get on an objective.  All I need to do is NGFS and arty his 1iC (bail would be perfect) to keep him from contesting.  I hit him and he rolls a...  6.  Saved.  Paul is able to contest and make my recon jeeps run.  3-3.  Paul goes on to finish in 6th place for the tournament.

Final Result - I finish tied for 8th (9th after tie breakers).  I go 3-3, 4-3, 3-4 and 3-3 against 4 of the top 6 finishers.  Brutal draw for me.  If you want any details on the scoring fubar at the end of the tournament, check out the forums at WWPD.

Saturday night, Mike, Eric, Chris Hecht and I head out to get some Hibachi, drink and watch the Badgers play in the NCAA Final Four.  I had a great time!


Sunday:

Mike and I team up and enter the Doubles Tournament.  700 points for each team member and you can share 50 points across.  We run cheesy Boat Weasels.

Round 1: Hastyattack (Mobile Battle)

We play two great guys - one of whom I played in my very first tournament at Adepticon three years ago.  We didn't play Nats, but the Baby Seal Tournament.  He runs Grens (Assualt variety) and his partner is running 2 King Tigers and a Grille platoon.  Mike basically arties him (Mike has the NGFS platoon) and I use the other arty and Towed TDs.  The game is over in 3 turns as NGFS takes out both KTs, and helps get the Grilles to die.  6-1 win.

Round 2: No Retreat (Defensive Battle)

Due to a scheduling snafu with Eric (he thought his flight was at 10am - it was 10pm), he and Jesse decided to enter the tournament.  Rematch for me against those damn Hungarians!!  This game was closer than the score indicates as they did a great first turn move to try and put a world of hurt on the TD Section.  I was able to disengage and leave enough room to pop.  Return fire and some arty took care of the Hungarian recon tanks.  But they pressed the objective and NGFS did its thing.  We were able to break the Hungarian Company (no 1iC to take the Company Morale Check).  6-1 win.

Round 3: Encounter (Fair Fight)

We play our good friends Chris Fretts and Andrew Hopson.  They are running mirrored US Tanks with Jumbos and Easy Eights.  One has armored mortars in reserve and the other has ARP in reserve.  Basically, it was a tough matchup for them.  Chris has posted an AAR over at WWPD in the thread about NGFS.  Game is over on Turn 4.  We NGFS Andrew's Company to death and he fails the Company Morale roll.  6-1 win.

Mike and I win the tournament going 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1.  NGFS (again) was the difference.  I have vowed never to run that list again.  Now, in what I thought was even cooler - Mike and I got "Favorite Opponent" form all three of our opponents!  That was pretty cool considering what we were running.  But since we won, the prizes went to another team - totally agree with that!

Last Night:

We are now trying to figure out a home for our group.  Our LGS has moved and essentially closed their retail operations.  Mike and I have run many games in my house (I have a good setup there), but we need a place to handle 3 or 4 tables.  We have been trying a location on the other side of Madison and we finally got 6 players to show up.  We played a 3 on 3 modified version of FFA across two tables.  Great fun.  Smooth Riding Americans did the job!  We each brought 1,000 points, so I went with two platoons of 2 E8, Jumbo and Sherman.  1iC in E8 and 2iC in Jumbo.  It was fun just to mess around.

So there is my update!