The Full English GT

This is my write up of the recent English GT held at Wayland Games in Essex.

Before I start I will warn you this is not for the faint of heart or for those with a nervous disposition. There will be graphic references to playing very, very poorly along with gratuitous sulking. To help people avoid this any sulking and/or whining will be marked out in red.

So my first ever two day event and also the event I'd chosen as my gaming target this year. I wasn't feeling too confident going in due to being really out of practice, work and illness has meant that I've hardly played for the last few months.  So determined to give it a shot and have a couple of fun days of gaming I headed off to Sunny Hockley Saturday morning.

No hassle getting there and even time to run over to the cafe for a tea before standing about outside Wayland chatting to all the regular faces and a couple of new ones as well.

The doors opened and we all rushed in to join the queue (very British) to register with first time TO Stuart SNEZZLEY Snares and his better half Claire. We all received a very snazzy English GT bag containing our score sheets and some sweets. At which point people split into two groups. The people who think its OK the eat haribo for breakfast and the people who are wrong.

So onto game one.
Turf War
Me vs Graeme Nicholls
Molly vs Mah

So first game of the GT I'm facing gremlins on a table that has planets across it (I was beginning to think there was more than sugar in those sweets).
I was confident to start throwing Molly across the board for a turn one summon or two then some punk zombie action. It was all down hill from there...
The swarm of rooster riders sprinted down one side of the board to tie up my rogue necro and phil & nan while Molly and sybelle tried to hold the centre and scheme run at the same time.
Stupidly I tried to score Convict with 2 marker with in 3" of the centre line instead of vice-versa.
I got a couple of points for my necro being roostered to death but not much else
Finished 4-10. Really fun game and despite the loss I was almost happy with how I played.

Lunch! Wayland special. This time I opted for a cheese burger over the hot dog (I'm not sure if it makes any difference) Quick, easy and filling and then its back to the action.

- Quick run back to the cafe area for a top up of tea.

Game two.
Head Hunter
Me (again) vs SNEZZLEY. (TO pulling double duty as ringer)
Seamus vs Lucius

As relaxed of a game as you are ever likely to get at an event. Seamus shot things, Bete slashed things , Nekima tore through everything... Lucius wondered around looking posh and getting in the way. (He really is the David Cameron of Malifaux)
Finished 8-5 in my favour... I could say I played great but Stu was running Lucius if I'd lost I should of been handed the spoon there and then. Always a pleasure to play Stuart and it was nice to score some points.

Game three.
Collect the Bounty
Me (still) vs Anthony Fenton
Seamus vs Tara

Always a game to look forward to, I'm fairly sure Ant is my most played opponent this year facing off at about three Wayland events.
It started well Seamus took out a void wretch, necro punks got some markers down and student of sinew was in a position to flurry next turn...
It turns out that would be all I would succeed at this game. After Seamus and a shikome failing to make a mark on the nothing beast then the nothing beast vaporising the shikome and a necro punk.
Tara managed to be an effective scheme runner and also keep my models pinned down with slow before Sybelle killed then.
To sum up this game Anthony had no hand left Seamus took a shoot and two Ca at a belle, not a single one hit. the all missed by 1.
Final score 1-10 and a well deserved win for Tony and Tara.

End of Day one. Lots of sad farewells and wishes of good luck for those risking a night out in Southend, to be honest I didn't expect all of them to survive.

Day Two (I've never had a day two of an event before I'm very proud of myself for this mediocre achievement)

Starts off with a repeat of day one. Tea, chatting outside, a bit of a queue etc.

Game four.
Reconnoitre (my least favourite strat)
Me (just about) vs Kai Young
Molly vs McMourning

The plan here was to hold back use Molly and Datsue to swamp one side of the board while McM came to me... What is the first thing I did? Run Molly and Datsue off in different directions spreading my crew out too thin to do much of anything. (I'm a bloody genius)
Kai (Mr ranking himself) Did a great job of keeping his models in just the right position to score and other than me killing McM he had the upper hand the whole game.
Great game right to the end despite my inability to score points.
3-10 to Kai.

Lunch!!! Once again a copy of day one but this time I also spent some money in the shop and put my crew out for the painting comp.

Game five. The Final
Extraction
Me (I think) vs The one and only Ben Panzer Harris.
Molly vs Hoffman

I knew going into this game that it would be brutal, neither Panzer or Guild are known for their subtlety.
But the the power looped burning train of death that is the rail golem smashed into Molly turn 2. I quickly soulstones keeping her alive (barely) The come back never quite happened due to an inability to draw a crow or any card above an eight.

went through all my
It was great to finally get to play Ben, even if it meant being destroyed. (not unexpected really)
Finished up 1-9 to Mr Harris.

And that was it five games over two day done. There were prizes given out but I have no idea who won what if you really want to know pop over to the rankings and the results will be there somewhere.

I have to say it was a great weekend and really well run by Stuart (more likely Claire did all the hard work)
I learned a few lessons, mainly pay attention to whats happening, choose schemes you actually think you can do and remember the bloody plan.
Also whine about cards and luck less (this maybe a separate rant in the near future) and realize earlier that because of a dodgy tooth you've been spitting when you talk all weekend and you really shouldn't be allowed out in public.

Thanks to everyone for the games and the chat and everything else I've forgotten.
I think it's time to put away Molly and Seamus for a while they've had a good run this year. Next up will be some Nicodem with a bit of Marcus thrown in for variety.

If you liked the sound of this remember there is a Scottish GT coming up that you should all check out and plenty more events to try out as well.