WPS GT Birmingham

Warmaster

WPS Grand Tournament 2001

he WPS held the first Warmaster Grand Tournament on the 10th and 11th of November (2001) as part of the Fanatic GT in Birmingham. The event included not only a Warmaster tournament but Epic 40k and Blood Bow tournaments as well. The WPS did so in conjunction with Fanatic which added an semi-official touch to the whole affair. To underline the involvement and support of Fanatic Jervis Johnson showed up on Sunday and Rick Priestley on Saturday and players took the chance for a chat and to give their opinions about the games directly to the authors.

The WPS has plenty of experience in organising tournaments and everything went absolutely smoothly .There were no rules quarrels or disputes to disturb the air of friendly competition and the fact that most players stayed in the same hotel gave players the opportunity to talk shop outside the tournament and to socialise. Some of the more enduring characters did so until the early morning hours. I dare say that all 22 Warmaster players had an enjoyable (but for some exhausting) weekend.

Rules
Every player had to fight 5 battles using a 2k Warmaster army. No restrictions to the army selection were given. There were three pitched battles, one fog scenario and an flank attack scenario to be played. Players were asked to bring along up to 3 terrain pieces and players placed them alternately on the bare table but outside an 30x30cm area in the table centre. When all pieces were placed each was moved 3D6 in a random direction and turned facing into a random direction. This worked without glitches, but IMHO it is neither better nor worse than having pre-set terrain.

Armies
Each nation but the Lizards was represented. It's an easy guess to hold the recent release responsible for that. The Empire army was the least common and the High Elf the most common. Quite a few player entered the battle field without an Orb of Majesty which came as a surprise.

My army list
I choose an O&G army for a change and used the Crown of Command instead of the Orb of Majesty, but after loosing the CoC in turn 3 or earlier in 3 of the 5 games, I doubt that I will use it again in a tournament.

A Hero on a Wyvern was for me a rather untypical choice, but I must say he earned his cost (just). Everything else rather standard including a high quota of Trolls and Ogres. I love the Troll and Ogre models, so I always take some. By the way the Trolls won me one game and lost me one game, so I'm content with them (not really, but nobody in his right mind would tell them).

Now some days after the tournament I'd say, the Orb would have been the better choice over the Crown of Command. And the low leadership of the Orcs doesn't fit my aggressive and "sweeping" (the low leadership changed that into a weeping) style of play.

The army consisted of

Number	Unit
1	General with a Crown of Command
1	Orc Hero on a Wyvern with Sword of Fate
1	Orc Hero
2	Goblin Shaman one with a Scroll of Dispelling
4	Goblins
4	Orcs
2	Trolls
2	Ogres
2	Wolf Riders
3	Wolf Chariots
3	Boar Boyz

Results
The organisers decided to give the same basic score for army selection and painting to all players. But 5 bonus points would be added to army selection for an background story and 5 bonus points to the painting score for well painted/presented armies (including terrain). Players had also to fill out an sportsmanship questionaire after each game and this affected the total score as well.

Both days saw an overhelming Chris Burnett who crashed all oppositon.

Name	Army	Game score	Army selection and painting	Points
C. Burnett	Kislev	96	40	152.75
E. Jackson	High Elf	76	40	134.5
M. Bolton	Dwarf	73	35	126
T. Reid	Chaos	76	35	125.75
M. Turner	Undead	68	40	124.75
W. Rozier	O & G	66	35	118.5
J. Hughes	High Elf	66	35	118
B. Lynch	Bretonian	63	35	116.5
S. Robertson	Undead	63	35	115.75
K. Stronstad	High Elf	68	30	114.25
S. Hess	O & G	61	35	113.5
N. Cridland	Chaos	61	30	109
G. Burt	Undead	63	30	107.5
C. Stone	Kislev	53	30	100.75
C. McConnell	Empire	53	30	99.75
J. Curtis	O & G	45	35	98.25
A. Thompson	High Elf	53	30	97.75
R. Walker	Dwarf	50	30	95.75
A. Campbell	High Elf	45	35	95.75
C. Gonsalves	O & G	30	35	83.25

There was also an price given for best painted army and it went jointly to the armies Erwin Jaqckson's High Elfs and John Curtis

Photographs
I show only photographs of armies I haven't shown before , so there are for example no pictures of Erwin's army even so it is beautiful and was one of the two "voted best painted".

Justin's Orcs