European DDM Championships - the Organisers' perspective

My Son winning 4th prize!

I can be an optimist - incurable at times. I suppose it is in the nature of salesmen and teamleaders to think about what could be. My last post was as the European IT Teamleader for a large plastics manufacturer and a very early learning was that when Europeans mix, special things happen! Roman expansion, the 100 year war, the Saxon invasion of England, Viking raids, Napoleonic wars, two World Wars, the plague and many more special events. Hell - left to our own we'd have a great time... But - as a teamleader - I also saw that the unique interaction that we have. Our differences are equalled by curiosity and friendly competitiveness.

In 2005 I saw some Italians play on Vassal and saw that they were good. I even played Orion online (and beat him ;) ) and a few others. Their skill level was awesome. It made me wonder what was going on in Europe. The Italians had a very well developed DDM community and is very active on the Italian Forum. In doing my research I found a fairly quiet forum in France, a couple of very quiet ones in Germany and about 10 or so posting on a roleplaying forum in Sweden. That was about it. Maxminis and the WotC websites were the busiest by far and had most representation from most of Europe. I searched Google and Yahoo and found some DDM mailing lists - including 2 for the UK.

The UK Nationals were coming up and I felt that it might be fun to invite some of the Europeans. I saw a couple on Vassal speaking German - however, they were Austrians. I suggested they come. Interest was there. I suggested to some Italians online that they should pop over. There was interest there. I emailed the Berlin DDM forum and Adkainen said he was coming. There the idea grew for a genuine European Championship. I had trawled the Internet for names, forums, email addresses and so on. The Italian famous 5 and Adkainen whopped our collective UK bums.

 

 

So, I started plotting (ooops, planning) for a genuine European Championship. I did more research, tried to work out a venue (ease of international travelling, cheap and good hotels, some assistance from friends, evening life - we didn't want the silence of Bognor Regis - and other criteria were used). The date turned out to be the May day bank holiday - ideal since it is a long weekend in most places in Europe. I'd already emailed and chatted to Kiddoc about this concept the pervious year and he gave me a lot of supportive ideas and input. The location - Birmingham - it was fairly central and fairly easy to get to from a lot of the UK low-cost airports. Not perfect though. Stanstead and Luton are over 2 hours away and I had to consider those airports since they are the largest low cost airport hubs in Britain. Initially I had chosen London (north area) since it would be close to those airports. However, there seemed little hope of finding something at a good price and with the quality I wanted. In the meanwhile I started sending out emails to an ever increasing email list (over 300 Europeans on it now) and to shops around the area. I reached 80 or so possible attendees from all over the place. I assumed this might grow (the ever present optimist) and so started planning for 100! The room, the coaches and the price for attendance was based on these kind of numbers. In the end 53 arrived (plus Kiddoc and I).

 

So, our attendee list included English, Scottish, Italian, Greek, German, Serb, Czech, Polish and the Welsh. Oh - no Welsh... ;). One big surprise to me was that, although there is a lot of DDM going on in the UK, few want to leave their local gaming scene. Another surprise was just how long people would take to actually book online. I was having kittens here at times wondering whether I'd end up with no players and a large hotel bill...

 

The hotel got booked. The coach size was assumed to be for 50 people and then the nightmare started. People starting dropping out of the game from all over the place. Three Finns, the possible four Spanish, no Swedes, the French and the hoped for increase from places such as Greece didn't materialise. Suddenly everything was looking bleak. So - we expanded the event to cover the costs, spent a lot of time seeking a good value coach company and decided to run a couple of raffles with various prize support that we'd been offered. We added a roleplaying event, Warmachines competition and Flames of War. In fact, once they were in and the table plans were pulled together, we had filled the space anyway.

 

 

We started the whole process as gamers with a vision. Hasbro's European Organised play plans only seemed to include GenCon UK (cancelled this year) and Magic. Countries were crying out for support for sanctioned games. So, I hadn't even spoken to Hasbro in detail. The Hasbro story is very interesting. So I won't tell it.

 

Oh, OK - I will.

 

I initially sent a few emails to the UK Organised Play manager and got no response. As time started running out I started calling him and got no response. However, he did suggest speaking to his colleague on his voice message. This I did. In the meanwhile Winter Fantasy was on and I asked the IRC chaps and Kiddoc to see what they could do there. Talafenix probably got it between the eyes and he pulled some strings and things seemed to come together. So I called the second number and got through. The news had arrived and they would support the event. However - the Organised Play Manager was off on long term sick leave, his assistant had just had a serious car accident and was snowed under with two people's workload and all deadlines were horribly close. In the end he pulled out great prize support in the form of Cases of boosters and starter packs and hundreds of promo minis. I also got through to the main distributor in the UK who sent me the same amount of stuff. Hasbro also got Atari involve and they came and setup stall and provided further prize support. So, all in all, they were very helpful. I also had a 1 hour conversation with Talafenix which was very insightful and he provided some great input.

 

Kiddoc came and was incredibly valuable from all kinds of angles. His involvement was key to much of the success.

 

 

I then proceeded to take them on a marathon walk around Manchester, showing the industrial heritage areas, the redeveloped canals, the rebuilt areas around the last IRA bomb attack here that have been redeveloped, the Cathedral and many more places. I think we clocked up 7 or 8 kilometers of walking. Then off to the curry mile for a typical British meal - samosas and Lamb Tikka with curry sauce.

That night Kiddoc treated us to another British delicacy - a Chinese meal in China town. Something that wasn't typically British was the weather - it was sunny and warm. The night passed - they slept in the guest suite together with my 3000 or so plastic minis guarding them.

Friday morning. Having filled the cars with booster cases and an enormous amount of stuff, including local, younger, gamers, we set off for Birmingham. Arriving at 6pm or so at the hotel and find that, even though there is a key to the suite, no one know how to use it. Wow... this is going to be good. It took some time for them to realise that the key was for the deadlock and needed twisting. They were astonished when I showed them how to use their key. This was the conference manager? Wooottttt??? Did he just roll a 1 on his Intelligence Check. From there on the hotel management really impressed me with their total and utter incompetence. I have to say that I was on the edge of finding a new, and pleasurable, use of a booster case at times.

Kiddoc and David proceeded to help rearrange the room a bit, Tritex and Fanboy3 setup stalls. KT, PC and RD came and completed their bits. We set up the registration systems, prize display, open the dragons from Tudormint and do a bunch of smaller jobs. Then off for a foreign meal at the hotel and a few drinks. Seeing Kiddoc in action, introducing his friend to hen parties was a sight to behold! As we sit there, the coach driver calls me to let me know that one of the flights is delayed and he can't leave for Stanstead yet. Soon the phone goes and the Stanstead group are wondering where the bus it. Minor stuff....

Saturday morning - quick breakfast in the room as we setup the Bifur tool (actually, this picture is from the Sunday booking session):

the pay station and the DCI reporter. Janos M had printed and mounted name tags with flags for all attendees - perfect! (Thanks). Just time to click a picture of the empty room:

Then more people arrive and things flow forwards and upwards as Brian confuses the bgzs out of the delegates (is he blaming me?):

At last the games start! Now my focus is to keep things moving, make sure things are in place, judge and lead the various parts of the team. At this point I really want to thank Fanboy 1 member, Dave Salisbury, for his DCI Report entry service, generous support in terms of boosters and practicalities in many ways. Running rounds, ensuring we were all communicating, entering results, rules' questions, refereeing and much more kept me busy during the morning. Then a really bit disappointment. Following the excellent room facilities - good tables, nice and comfortable chairs etc. - the lunch came. What a disappointment! Dry, unimaginative, sandwiches in small quantities that weren't being replenished as they ran out. A little salad. That was it... £5 per head for the equivalent of 1 sandwich and a little salad. I had to apologise to the contestants...

At the first meeting, with their first event organiser (who consequently left), we had agreed finger food and drinks. For dinner we had agreed a traditional British carvery with Lamb (not Turkey - that's American....). Well... that comes later.

I have no pictures of it, but Kiddoc gave a great 30 mins presentation on the development of the Rikka miniature and the stages that they went through.

The games commence:

I gradually became aware of my son's progression upwards. I wish he was a chip off the old man, but the warband and idea was all his own. He played it with his own strategy. I couldn't believe that he actually beat Adkainen - I watched part of the game. That warband was just too awkward to manoeuvre around in the way that Adkainen likes to.

As the day progressed it was time to ensure that the prize table was fully populated. We had had some very kind donations from all over the place. Of special mention was the Czech Dragons that we used for the Atlantic Cup! Of course, we had more - vodka from Poland, English Shortcakes, lots of German beer, Scottish Whiskey, Belgian Chocolates (David won this - and I felt obliged to help him eat some - hmmmm), DDO special edition, Templates, Boosters, promo figures and so on....

My daughter loved being Father (sister) Christmas, passing out promos and templates during each game - we had such a lot that we felt it would be a shame not to share it as we went. Each round gradually provided most players with sets of promos and spell templates. My wife and the mother of one of the younger players, Declan, ran around providing results sheets to each player at the beginning of a skirmish round and sold raffle tickets!

The day was really fun, with many people pushing very hard for victory. However, the tournament was really well humoured with everyone taking it light heartedly. Lots of laughter could be heard as well as groans and jubilation.

I've already mentioned Brian and his excellent role as Judge and ambassador. He also did a massive amount of recording of the event, with videos from his digital camera. I've seen some... scary.

As the end of tournament arrived we could pull out the top 8. 4 from each pod. Pod 1 was easy - there were 4 players on 5-1. Pod 2 had 3 players on 5-1 and several on 4-2. The top one of those was my son. Imagine the pride... my son, a young man of 13 who nearly gave up the game after helping me perfect the handling of an Archmage warband is up there. And he was loving it!

Even more impressive was the fact that he progressed to the semi finals, where he, finally, met his match.

In the meanwhile all non-Italians were beaten out of the competition and final was battled out between Marco and Cesare (on crutches after a football injury). Of course, the lady of the game, Tiamat, got best seat.

I hope the hotel reads this now though - I'll try to point them here. Their dinner was atrocious, pathetic and an insult. After all the assurances and calls I had made to them letting them know we'd be finishing late and that I wanted Lamb in the carvery selection and not turkey they let me down. Once the games are starting to draw to a close, I went out there and found that they had nearly run out of food "you never told us it was going to be late", and there was no Lamb! The beef was dry and old, the TURKEY was being self-served (until I complained) and that was about to run out. After 5 mins they arrived with a ham roast. I admit that the ham was tasty... but the whole meal thing was a shambles. Next time I'm going to outsource the whole food thing and not use a hotel. I suspect they were being particularly greedy on this weekend. So, 2 meals and 2 major annoyances. I have had many comments back from the competitors about this and I just can't disagree. As soon as I saw it I complained. That improved things partially. OK - off my high horse now. On the positive side, I had time to finish about 40% of my dinner before it was time to dash in and crown the European Champion! Cesare Carini! A much nicer guy there isn't!

Except, of course, the number 2, Marco (who knocked my son out on the way up and trashed me in the Atlantic Cup) - a very good friend of mine.

And that was the end of the first day of competition. All was well. Returned to the hotel and flopped out. I hear that Kiddoc and David yet again spent some time meeting hens at a party. The Italians got him drunk and wheedled out his warband from him.

Next day - we register the 500 pt warbands - some very interesting builds and the battle begins. I haven't got many pictures since I played in the 200 pt sealed with Kiddoc. In fact, we were due to meet in the 5th round, but opted not to play.

Instead my wife took a less than flattering picture of me in the first round:

I'll write a very brief outline of the games I had.

I ran low activation warband (very risky and party to blame for it's one loss). Included Hunting Cougar, War Trollx2, Warforged Captain and a single Skeleton.

Round 1: Young Master Mathieson (seen in the picture). A young man to watch out for. He played well. My Wartrolls simply stood and fought his off while gathering tile points. He got one down to a morale check, which it passed (just - rolled a 6). I'm sorry that I can't remember his warband...

1-0

Round 2: Roger Witte. This was a game I strongly expected to win. Included a flame skull, HGB and Inspiring Lieutenant. I tried 3 shots with the trolls on the HGB and missed all. I holed up to keep the commander safe. However, the one move that turned the whole game was 1) routing one of the protective trolls and then 2) killing the commander before the rally attempt - this needed a bunch of rolls to work and I simply couldn't believe it. Nevertheless I feel he needs to be congratulated on the win - he worked it out and executed it neatly.

1-1

Round 3: Ondra Michalek. Ondra is a very clever young Czech player. I forget his warband but it included a Wemic and Zakya Rakshasa. I selected the Wemic for my commander effect. He pulled it up too close and 2 hits later it was running off the board. That was really the game there. Then it was a matter of mopping up. Having said that - it wasn't so easy - he is a very skilled player with a lot of talent and he manoeuvred very well.

2-1

Round 4: Wolf. Warband included Hill Giant Barbarian. This monster is simply too good as an uncommon for sealed events. Simply too good. However - this game was CLOSE. I was ahead on tile points and had him chase me down again and again. I lost one wartroll early-ish and the second one was being beaten down. It was on 25 pts when we were about 150-170 in points. Killing it was his win. I can away, gradually regenning. He kept missing it and when we came to the 170-190 it got back up to 35 hps. Two hits required. He missed the first - game over. Very good player again.

3-1

Final matchup was against Kiddoc - we both agreed we needed a rest before the Atlantic Cup. The last round was anyway moot and we didn't need it - Gloom_ was already the clear winner. We ran an extra round of games with the winner gaining a booster.

Since the 500 pt ended there was an impromptu 200 pt constructed tournament for the under 18s. My son won that one also - wow.... the pride of a father!

That's the end of my pictures.

We then handed out prizes for the main events of the day and took a whole load of pictures. The Final 8 then were:

Marco Moretto
Cesare Carini
Pawel Ajnenkiel
Sam Fowler
Dario Pini
David Korejtko
Myself
Kiddoc

Round 1: Versus the European Champion with his twice Inspired warband. This was brutal. I had to block entrances and swarm HHs where possible. I counted out spaces for his FB to get to one position with a single GMA and activation and got it 1 square wrong... I thought I could draw him in. I also wanted to block access to the fire area. But.. not to be. He got in there. My damage output limited, I decided to ensure that each time a FB activated it could only hit once. In round 2 he won init and based my Rakshasa following a GMA - that counting in the head didn't work. Nevertheless, I have often lost the Rak and won so wasn't too concerned. I managed to move both my tile grabbing miners to safety from his GcRs. The DMM was doing an exemplary job of scoring points up in the fire area - killing and routing 2 wolves and a Xeph Warrior in the game. Even a lonely kobold miner got involved up there kicking up a fuss. With the minions, tile points and so on the game came down to a single FB missing one key attack on a HH. The HH critted his last inspiring marshal who then routed. The last FB was on 5 HP. second attack on that and it was dead. He only had 2 GcRs left and a badly injured wolf. I'd reached 200 points and the game was over. Winning over Cesare is very tough and I was so full of adrenalin afterwards I couldn't believe it. I was obviously pleased. I was also exhausted.

1-0

Round 2: Versus Marco. Big time bummer - nearly a mirror match up. However I know how to beat it and I know the way to work around other triple HH bands with a reasonable amount of fodder points. Use the Rakshasa to slide his attackers around and ensure I hit more often than he does. In turn also kill his fodder and keep the bridge as the location for the battle. I think he lured me into a trap - neatly - but placing Snig within 6 squares of one of my HHs - I bit and wanted to force a Morale Check. Only needed to roll a 2! I rolled a 1. Then on the next activations on him I rolled 2 more 1's. For some inexplicable reason I pulled my DMM towards the bridge and ended up being zapped twice by lightning bolts... saved both times, but routed. Snig passed his morale check when I finally did hit him. From there on my HHs are in disarray and he can pick them off one by one. I kill one of his HHs in return for my 3. Game is over soon after that. A long list of errors.

1-1

Round 3: Versus Pawel. I know this guy - he has always got a plan up his sleeve. He swarms the area with Quaggoths, plays Resistance and gets one round of tile points. Sadly I lose a miner early and he has 35 HP Quaggoth. I get rid of a couple of them and try for a an additional one. I roll another 1... not my day. His Ravager calls smite on one of my HHs and actually hits. I try little tricks with my Rakshasa - each saving throw works for him. In the end I have my Rakshasa routed, 2 miners on the bridge. From there on his Ravager hits again and again. Well - I have one HH nearly untouched and I have worked my way through the rest of his warband, less the Wardrummer, force a morale check - which he passes. I've managed to deny tile points for some time and he suddenly realises that he doesn't have a chance of killing the HH in time for him to win so he charges north to the tile grabbing area and we spend two rounds hitting each other. In the end he wins 206 to my 186.

1-2

Both of my losses were due to a combination of errors, opponents skills and just fluky bad rolls. Still - I feel they deserved to win and Marco apologised profusely for winning over me (what a nice guy). Neither of the losses could have been against nicer guys whom I respect more!

And good grief - I am shattered. Too old for this....

Kiddoc, David and I return to Manchester the next day - after a very long weekend. I have extreme respect for this man! He parties, stays up, flies across, is a nice guy and wins the Atlantic Cup. Kudos.... We had dinner at 12:30 in the morning and returned to the hotel at 2 am.

On return we tested out my warband against his on the Drow Outpost. The normal tactics don't work between my Rasta Horrors and his build. His NOST for that is the Wolf... The only counter is killing it and wasting time among his fodder and hope he misses a hit or two in 7 rounds, possibly even up to 8 or 9 rounds. To the death the HH's simply can't get through all the AC and nerfing that Aramil and the Couatl exerts.

It only remains for me to sum up.

The event was a success overall in my view. The food was terrible and very expensive (I still have to pay them for this - if I get a discounted cost I'll try to recompense the players). Kiddoc was great. The players were all there in the right spirit - to have fun. I also feel we had good prize support. Maybe we handed out too much though and people just got overload.

Next year? I hope to get involved somehow in the next EU Champs. It was a great privilege and a massive kick to see so many come, play and enjoy themselves. A lot of lessons were learned and next year I could make it even better!!!!