Brawler Bash Battle Reports from Erik Lindley, Player's Choice Winner

Hold on to your hats, folks!  We've got a long set of battle reports, but boy are they worth it.  These were written by our friend Erik Lindley, who won Player's Choice at Brawler Bash!

I finally finished my bat rep from the Bash. I thought I would put it here also in case you local folks wanted to read it(originally posted on IWFB and the Daemonic Legion). If you were at the BB, I am sure you had a good time. If you didn't make this one, you should come next year!

Brawler Bash III 2010

There are very few GT's in the south east. So few in fact, that we had to start one locally just to have one within 200 miles. The Brawler Bash in Raleigh, NC has been growing for 3 years. This year there were 38 players. It has a very talented pool of participants and one of the best scenario systems that exists. The venue is a clean Hilton hotel with good access to all the things gamers want (mostly decent bars, fast food, other hotels, etc...)

My list:
Keeper of Secrets- Lvl 2 wiz+ Spirit Swallower (every wound caused in combat heals a wound-up to starting value)
1-Herald of Slaan in a chariot+ Ether blade (no AS)+ Lvl 1 wiz
1-Herald of Slaan on Steed (in big 'nette unit) + Lvl 1 wiz
1- Herald of Slaan on foot (in small 'nette unit)
28 Daemonettes with full cmd
18 Daemonettes with full cmd
18 Bloodletters with full cmd
6 Seekers of Slaan with full cmd
1- Fiend of Slaan
1- Fiend of Slaan
6 power dice, 5 dispel
It comped at a 3008 (15) in WPS scoring. This tourney was heavily weighted to high comp. It effected your match-ups in the first 2 rounds and also how many battle points you got for wins/draw/loss.

The list is very effective, but it does lack a lot of the nasty combos that make DoC so darned tough. It is very fast and compact. It could even be called resilient (5+ wards on everything) but not if you saw how I roll wards



More picts of the army can be seen here:
http://z7.invisionfree.com/wyrmling_x/inde...?showtopic=7102


On to the games!


Game 1: Andrew Weber O&G
Andrew drove down from Ottawa Canada. He is a friend of mine and a super swell guy. I was super excited about playing him. We have talked a lot about warhammer, but never played. He has several fantastically painted armies, but chose to bring his O&G. We grudge matched each other which was a tough road for his 4400 comped O&G vs. my 3008 WPS Daemons (The Bash comp bracketed for the first 2 rounds), but Andrew wouldn't have it any other way!
We had a board that was peppered by small pieces of impassable terrain- a lot of it. There were a few open spots and the board did look very nice, but it definitely put the screws to our movement. He deployed heavily on his right flank and I did as well. That left us on opposite ends of the board, but no worries-our fast stuff will meet quickly anyways :>

His army from memory:
BlkO gen on foot.
Blk O BSB on Chariot
Goblin Shaman Lvl2
Orc Shaman Lvl 2
Big unit of BlkOrcs (28)
Unit of Orc Boys
Unit of Boar Boyz
2 units of Arrow Boyz
Unit of night goblins (3 fanatics)
Giant
2 bolt throwers

Turn 1:
I go first. Mostly everything moves forward or towards his lines. Kos moves up a flank along with the chariot. I try to get into range to spam the stupid spell (stupid and greenskins is like PB&J!), but failed on all my casting rolls (3 tries at 5+ on 2 dice) All game I think I got off one stupid spell that stuck and it was never failed so I won't mention it again. [ Magic wasn't integral to my battle plan with this army build, which was good as generally, I got very little of it off. :> ]

There was some maneuvering here and there. We both did a decent job of getting where we wanted to be. Animosity didn't really hamper Andrew too much that I can remember.

There was a pivotal point in the early turns where my keeper and chariot overran into his giant (his boar boys fled a charge and I EitW) Giants are weird, whacky things those giants... The KoS must have took a shine to him though, since he was very reluctant to kill it. It lasted through 3 combat phases with the KoS and the Chariot herald! It got thump with a club twice and on the second time I failed the initiative test! So Andrew rolls up a nice even 10 wounds on his 2d6. It is all riding on the ward save... a 6! KoS is safe and giant is dead soon after. We both laughed, we cried, it was better than "Cats."

If big nasty fails that ward then the game changes drastically. With the giant out of the way and his left flank in full retreat, all that was left to do was feed his general's unit a juicy unit of 'nettes with herald (which he gobbled up happily) and try to secure bonus points.
Win to the DoC. I finished with max bonus battle points for a total of 12
After battle thoughts: Andrew beat me in deployment for sure. I think he had a tight rein on his main troop blocks to protect from terror. He kept them close to the general until the right time. He had a few chances to kill the KoS (bolt throwers also) and nearly did it, but it just wasn't to be. The win was very one sided at the end, but the game as a whole was a close one that could have gone either way. Excellent game!

Side note: We had a friendly wager on this game. For 1 month after the tourney Andrew has to sign any post he makes in a WFB related forum as:
-andrew (I lost the right to capitalize my name in a game of WFB)
(to be a little more even I spotted him 300 VP for purposes of the bet-but if it ended in a draw, we both suffered the consequences)

Game 2: Lance Lagroue -Bretonnians
Lance predicted that we would meet in round 2 of the tourney. He turned out right and we threw down. Lance and I play fairly frequently, so I knew we would have a good game and whoever won would have to earn it.
His army was (from memory)
Lord kitted out to kill large targets (no way my KoS is getting near that thing)
1 scroll caddy
3 heros- 1 was BSB- all had magic weapons
5 lances of knights (7-9) with all but one lance being Errants
1 unit of 3 peg knights
1 unit 5 grail knights
1 unit fast cav, 1 unit of bowmen (10) , and 2 units of Men at arms

I deployed heavily to my right flank while he deployed fairly evenly across the board. His general's unit was opposite my KoS on the right flank. I did have the small unit of nettes with non-magic herald on foot on the extreme left flank. That unit (along with the no AS chariot herald for most of the game) held a stalemate on that side of the board with his BSB's unit and the fast cav/archers. The real game happened in the middle and right flank.

Turn 1:
I get to go first and I make a bold move with the Keeper. I move him up 20" and tuck him into some cover that shields him from charge arc of the general's units. I am march blocked and in a dangerous position, but he is now hemmed up as well. I can also threaten terror and throw my stupid spells from this position.

We entered into a maneuver and counter maneuver contest because of our fast elements. Neither person could get the edge they felt they needed to commit to the battle. It finally broke free with a charge by the Brets into the big 'nette unit on the far right (combo charge of grails and General's unit) and the central bloodletter unit by a hero lance and Men at arms (unfortunately the MaAs failed the fear test and stranded the knights). Those two units held and allowed a vicious Deamon counter charge series in my turn that saw the chariot smash the flank of the MaA and overrun into the Knights/bloodletter combat. The KoS went into the flank of the Grails and cleaned them up (challenge was ongoing elsewhere in the combat-so that option wasn't open to them) That round of combat saw all those Bret units destroyed and run down. The loss of those units was too much. Those combats could have gone much better for Lance than they did, lots of failed wards.

Win to the Daemons.

After battle thoughts: This game was decided on movement, plain and simple. We had two of the fastest armies in WFB and our first combat was bottom of turn 3. I decided early that I wasn't going to risk anything needlessly. I had units that Lance couldn't blow through (statistically :>) in one turn- we both knew that. Same was true of his units for me. My lack of high strength attacks and his ward made it unlikely that I could break him on the charge either. The effect was we both set our countercharges/traps and tricks and waited. All the while we were attempting to force targets of opportunity for soft points in case it devolved into a draw scenario. What a great game. It could have gone either way.


Round 3 Brian Griffen- Dark Elves
It turned out to be Brian Griffen and his Dark elves. I have always wanted to play Brian, but we hadn't gotten the chance up until now. His army:
Master (gen) steed+crimson death
Hag+cauldron BSB
2 x lvl2 sorceresses 2 scrolls total
2x 23 spearmen
3x Dark riders with mus and x-bows
18 Black guard with ASF banner
5 shades
2x Bolt throwers
Hydra

I am sitting at 2 wins and decent battle points. I knew that there were no more comp bandings for games 3 through 5. I knew that I would be facing a tough opponent. I was not disappointed! I was excited to learn I was playing Brian Griffen and his Dark Elves. I was NOT excited to find out that we were playing on the river table (the entire table is bi-sected by a large river- the river has 3 crossing points). Gahh! I knew that while Brian’s list was not abusive in the shooting phase, he had more than enough to punish me severely while I crossed that heinous landscape.

As a side note- the fact that I had resigned myself to a loss took a lot of pressure off and allowed me to settle down to have a good enjoyable game of warhammer. I am sure that helped.
For deployment we both deployed very heavy on my right flank. He split his bolters to opposite ends of the board. Brian had dark riders and shades on the light left flank. I had one fiend and the unit of Seekers threatening that flank. My plan was to send in the solo fiend to be shot and sacrificed to hold those units up and leave the reaper stranded with nothing good to shoot at.

Turn 1:
Brian’s heavy deployment in the right corner would end up working against him. I got first turn and moved everything up across the board. Now my KoS, chariot, and large unit of ‘nettes with mounted herald were threatening his black guard unit. That BG unit was in front of everything else and sort of bottling up some of his other support units. Because of the scenario card I played, a few of his units had moved forward 3” before the game. One of those units was the bolt thrower that could have drawn LOS to the Keeper. That earned me 1 free turn without getting bolted to death :>

Turn 1 of the DE’s went well on the right flank, but poorly on the left flank. His bolt thrower and dark riders failed to kill my single fiend who was lined up to take out the bolt thrower next turn. On the flip side Brian got off a devastating black horror spell on the large ‘nette unit. It hit 29 models! I was semi-fortunate when only 7 or 8 ended up dying. That, along with his concentrated shooting took out a large chunk of the 30 strong ‘nettes.

T2 I declare a combo charge into the BG unit. Keeper, chariot and mounted herald out of the ‘nettes all go into the front of the BG’s. My single fiend on the left eats his lone bolter on that side and overruns off the table. My single fiend on the right flank charges a dark riders unit near the table edge. It breaks them and pursues them off the table. In the center, my characters start chewing on his BG unit. I get rid of his general with the Keeper, fail to kill the sorceress in the unit and do enough wounds to easily win combat. The BG are stubborn of course, so go nowhere.

T2 for the DE’s stats off with a failed terror test on the spearmen near the BG combat. They did roll really low for the flee though and stayed on the table (to rally next turn). He moves up his hydra and blow flame on the remaining big unit of ‘nettes. Through magic, shooting and flaming, the 30 man unit of ‘nettes is now a 7 man unit of ‘nettes. Magic ceases to do all that much, a random MM here and there. I won’t speak of it any more. In combat, more BG die. I fail to kill the Sorceress in the BG unit with the Keeper’s 6 attacks! (Brian had the 5+ ward save from the cauldron on that unit ) Somewhere during this melee the Herald on Steed of Slaanesh is killed. BG lose combat again but make the test. They made every test they needed to take. I ultimately end up taking 2 or three more combat rounds to kill them to a man.

On DoC T3 I decide to cross the river in the center with the 18 ‘nette unit with herald to engage his waiting spear block #2 and shade unit. I also decided to move my seekers unit over to the lightly defended left flank since the demise of his blot thrower made travelling that way much safer I finished off his sorceress in the BG unit and finish the unit off. I charged the hydra with my near dead unit of ‘nettes. I moved up my bloodletters behind the nettes to either fight it when the ‘nettes died or move towards the x-bow DE’s that were shooting my units to ribbons. The hydra killed all but one or 2 ‘nettes (after combat res).

T3 for the DE went something like this: He maneuvered his spearmen unit in the middle to intercept my ‘nette unit+ herald at the bridge crossing. He shot that unit with his shades and my bloodletters with his x-bows. The Hydra killed the remaining ‘nettes and sat around waiting for the bloodletter charge that was coming. The spearmen that rallied got into position to support the hydra in that coming battle.

DoC T4 I charged the hydra with the bloodletter unit that is now down to around half strength due to magic and shooting. I charge the spearmen unit in the middle with the center ‘nette unit+ herald. I charge the chariot herald into the CoB. I move the seekers and single fiend to threaten the unit of shades and a unit of DR. The fiend on the right side sets up to charge the remaining bolter. I move the Keeper to the hill to see the cauldron, the rear of the hydra and the spearmen. In combat the hydra kills a few bloodletters, but loses combat, fails the break test and runs. I pursue, but don’t catch it, but do run into the waiting spearmen. The hydra stays on the board. The chariot gets challenged by the hag on the CoB and sits in combat with it for 3 combat rounds. The center ‘nettes break the spearmen on the charge and catch them on the pursuit.

DE Turn 4: The shades and DR kill 4 of the seekers with missle fire. The spearman block holds against the bloodletters. The x-bows+ remaining sorceress go stupid because of a spell I got off on them earlier. The CoB lasts one more round in combat with the chariot herald. The hydra fails to rally and runs off the board.

DoC T5 I combo charged the remaining DR unit with the 3 remaining seekers and the fiend. The Dark Riders fled the charge and I redirected into the rear of the X-bows with the fiend. I charged the rear of the spearmen unit with the Keeper. The center ‘nette unit turned around to get shot by the shades. In combat the chariot herald killed the BSB death hag on the CoB. The remaining hag broke from combat and the chariot overran into the flank of the X-bows. The keeper and the Bloodletters cleaned up the spearmen block, running them down. I wiffed all my attacks against the X-bows and the Sorceress. The sorceress kills the chariot out from under the herald, but I still win combat, the DE’s hold.

DE T5 and beyond: The shades shoot up the remaining seekers. Then they slink away to live another day. The sorceress dies a horrible death by the herald on foot patrol. I have control of the board. I can’t remember if the x-bows actually held and survived, or if they died in combat. Either way it was clear that the Daemons had won the game. WOW
I ended up getting a few bonus points from that game and finished the day with 30 battle points (out of a possible 36)

After game comments: I did not expect to win that game. Had a few rolls early on gone a little differently it still might not have been. Brian’s deployment really hurt him on the heavy flank. The BG held really well, but nothing could get to the aid of that unit in time. It was a very fun game. When he got off that T1 Black horror I just figured that was how the game was going to go :>

I wasn't at the top in battle points, but I was close. I knew with soft scores added in that I had a shot at winning the whole shebang. It would all depend on my next 2 games!


Andrew, my wife Denise, my brother Kevin and I ended up hooking up with Ben Tuite and crew for drinks and dinner at the Carolina Ale house. The beer was expensive, but good as was the food. We had a very relaxing evening and even managed to get back to the hotel at a respectable 10 p.m. The rooms at the Hyatt place where we were staying were very nice. They had a great set-up for hanging out with a separate “living room” area with a sectional couch and refrigerator. After an hour or so of talking we called it a night and hit the rack.

I woke up early and met Andrew and Kevin for breakfast down in the hotel lobby. We talked about strategy and engineers (the building kind, not the train driving ones ) that are missing pinky fingers… you had to have been there :>
I get to the venue about 30 minutes before go time and talk to some of the guys. Rob Canterman tells me that his mission is to destroy the hopes of his next two opponents! (all in good fun of course). Guess who his next opp was? Yeppers, me!

Rob Canterman’s VC (from memory)
General Vamp with 18” charge, nightshroud and magic ability, also was stupid and had red fury with sword of might?
Vamp with master of sorcery and the helm on nightmare
Wight BSB with Regen banner
Vamp with magic on steed.
Big unit of ghouls
Big unit of Skels
Big unit of Zombies
Unit of Black knights
Unit of fell bats
2 units of dire wolves
Black coach

Rob and I have played before. I met him at the first Brawler Bash. Our games are always fun. I knew that this one would be no different. I settled down to have a good time. We were on table “2” Table “1” to my right was Alex S. and his O&G vs. Chaves and his TK. Table “3” to my left was Jason Conca and his Kholek army vs. Collins “the Kid” Mullins and his Teclis army. Jason is a large man and Collins is a slight, young man. Their game was very interesting and I kept looking over, but mostly to make sure that Jason didn’t eat Collins! I would have liked to watch both games in their entirety because they both looked very interesting. I was surprised (and happy) to see an O&G army at the top table. That is surely a testament to the player as much as the comp/scoring system the Bash used.

I could talk about this game in a turn by turn format, but truthfully it was decided early on with very little maneuvering, so I’ll just abbreviate the narrative a little.
We both deployed heavy on the left flank. I had the unit of seekers and a fiend on the right to threaten while he had his 2 units of dire wolves, fell bats and the coach there. Everything else was squared up against each other in the middle and left flank.
Rob got the first turn. He was a gentleman and warned me before the game that the ghoul unit could move after deployment and the Gen could charge 18” so watch out for a T1 charge. He did just that and solo charged my single fiend. The gen broke through and was behind my lines. On my turn I maneuvered a little and dispelled Curse of years on the big ‘nette unit. He got Curse of years off on that unit 3 times. I was able to dispel it in MY turn each time, but it cost me most of my power dice each turn. My magic was inconsequential for the game, his magic was devastating.

I thought about being coy and playing shifty for a possible draw, but the truth was it would be tough to pull one since he was dominant at range(magic) and had me beat in deployment and equal in maneuver elements. Soooo I decided to go all in :> I forced the big battle for the game right off the bat. I charged the KoS and the big ‘nette unit into the front of the ghouls (containing the BSB and support Vamp). I charged the Bloodletters into the flank of that same unit. I charged a unit of dire wolves with the seekers. I charged the black knights in the flank with the chariot herald. This is gonna’ be great right? Carnage galore right? Not so much The chariot herald had to go through about 1” of woods to complete the flank charge on the BK’s- roll up the damage to chariot and it kills the chariot out from under her-failed charge. KoS+Nettes+bloodletters fail to do much more than kill the champion in their combat. The power of the regen banner was far too great for me to overcome. That means they are exposed to multiple counter charges in the next turn with no support in sight. The Seekers did punch through the dire wolves and got a decent overrun, but magic in the coming turns assured that he got his coach into their flank ending their escapade.
Could it have gone differently? Sure it could have, but it wasn’t a good plan to start with. With that round in the bag the game was done and all Rob had to do was sweep up the pieces. Full win to the VC and no bonus points at all to DoC.

After battle thoughts: Well, Rob beat me in deployment then he out played me. I had a really silly plan that vastly underestimated the regen banner. If I got a do over, I would play much more conservatively and try to take out points with the mobile elements instead of supporting my troop blocks. I should have left them to their fate. It would still have relied on rolling the bones to get good combats, but probably would have ended better for me in the end. This army build really struggles with tourney hard VC.
So I end up with “0” points going into game 5. That dropped me considerably in the standings, but it also took the pressure off. :> I would be matched up with Dan Rothrock and his ogres for game 5!


I had already had 4 great opponents during this tourney. I have NEVER had a 5 game tournament where all 5 opps were fun to play. Dan Rothrock walked up to the table and I immediately knew that I was in for a first-5 fun opponents at a tourney!

Two other things make this game extra nice from the get go:
1- Dan’s ogres are easy on the eyes and
2- The table we played on had more space around it than any of the other tables. That was a serious bonus because some of the tables were pretty cramped.

Dan’s army (from memory-I could be wrong on some of this-I didn’t fight a lot of his army)
Tyrant- Greedy fist, greyback pelt and a big name (maybe longstrider?) maybe magic weapon?
Butcher- 2 dispel scrolls
Maybe 2 other bruisers?
Unit of 2 Bull Rhinox
Scrap Launcher
Unit of 3 Leadbelchers
1 unit of gnoblars
Slave Giant
2 units of 4 Iron Guts
2 or 3 units of Bulls

I hate to be anticlimactic, but there wasn’t a lot of excitement in this game to report. While Dan and I had a pleasant game, it was clear from the beginning that we would be playing for points.

The board had a lot of terrain on it, mostly woods. There was also a hill and small stream on my board edge. He deployed heavy on the left flank and I deployed heavy in the middle and on the right flank. I played the card that gave me bonus points for holding terrain features (there were many to choose from) and for having units in the enemy deployment zone at the end of the game. Dan played the card that gave him bonus points for keeping his most expensive AND his least expensive unit alive. To that end he hid the gnoblars behind terrain in his corner and only used the Rhinox riders to threaten-never committed them to battle.

I had the seekers and a solo fiend to threaten the left flank. He had a unit of bulls and a unit of ironguts behind them holding that table area. We had a standoff on that flank the entire game so I won’t mention that side again. **No units on that flank were harmed during the filming of this batrep

The real game happened in the middle of the table and the right flank. There was an open slot about 2 feet wide in the middle of the table.

Honestly, I can’t remember who got first turn (I think it was Dan), but I moved my entire army up and towards his left flank position. I moved the casters close enough to throw the stupidity spell on a few units. No combats at first. I did get the stupidity spell off on the scraplauncher who was Ld6 with no general anywhere near. He dispelled some, but saved his 2 scrolls for later in the game.

I had so much speed that I was able to pretty much choose where the battles were fought. The KoS and the fiend combo charged a unit of bulls then overran. The iron guts were lined up to get a nice flank charge on the KoS when he overran , but I was able to move the solo fiend in the way so that he had to charge the fiend and overrun into the front of the KoS. By the time that combat happened between the IG’s and the KoS I was able to bring up the bloodletters who charged the scraplauncher killed it and overran into the KoS/IG combat. They predictably broke and the Bloodletters held while the KoS ran off the table (saving him from the leadbelchers that were poised to shoot him) The lead belchers shot the bloodletters and then fled the charge.

During this right flank action the middle saw a standoff between the big ‘nette unit , smaller ‘nette unit and the chariot herald vs. a bull unit, giant and the leadB’s (also the Rhinox riders early on). Once the right flank broke, I committed to the combat around turn 4 or 5. By this time Dan had pulled his Rhinox riders back to his left flank. After I took care of the bull unit, I was able to move my troops up unmolested to take a few terrain features. A turn 6 charge on the giant got my small ‘nette unit into Dan’s deployment zone. Along with the KoS who just menaced the rest of the game once he came back on the table.

Our game kind of just coasted to a close. I think it was around turn 2 that we both realized that this game wasn’t going to be all that exciting. We both apologized to the other person and went about our business :>
In the end, I ate enough of his soft points to secure the win. I also was able to get all 5 bonus battle points for the scenario. That gave me the max 12 points for the game. I finished the tournament with 42 total battle points (out of a possible 60) and very respectable 4-1 record.

After battle thoughts: Well, Dan played it extremely conservative. He told me early on that he didn’t think he had anything that could deal with some of my units. Personally, I was very concerned about the Rhinox riders and the highly mobile, wizard level eating Tyrant slinking around. I wasn’t taking many chances on my end either. I had very little reason to really. There were enough points available on the right flank to secure the win without risking the majority of my army. I was also able to accomplish all my bonus points without demolishing his army, so I was happy :> Daemons are a tough draw for ogres no matter how you slice it.

We never found out what would have happened if we had committed to an all out brawl… the world may never know

Wrap up:
I knew I was up in the top 5-10 in terms of battle points. I also knew that my soft scores were pretty good. It wasn’t totally out of the question that I might be in the race for overall.
The winners were announced starting with Whipping boy (I can’t remember who won this one) and Best Sport (Ian Holland). They then went on to Best painted (won by our Canadian friend Andrew Weber with his amazing O&G). They then moved on to Player’s Choice and called my name! Of course, I knew that since I had won the PC award that I had missed the Overall (At the BB you can only win one major award), but I was ok with that. Denise and I were very happy and proud to win the PC award this year. There were several inspiring armies in attendance. That was our 2nd Player’s Choice award at the Brawler Bash. Best General was Alex Chaves with his TK and the Overall grand champ was Eoin Wheelan with his very pretty Slaanesh DoC. I ended up 5 points behind Eoin in second place overall.

I don’t have a problem with WPS comp, even though it is extremely harsh to DoC. I think that it did its job of encouraging varied army builds and books. I was wrong in my pre-GT prediction that an army that was in the 3k+ range would win it all. Eoin’s DoC scored 2012, but it was beautifully painted and he got several favorite player votes. Those things added in to his overall win. What you did see was 2 O&G, TK, Ogres, Brets, and 2 WoC (NON- gateway FTW) in the top 10. The army spread for the tournament as a whole was very wide as well:
6 DE, 6 WoC, 4 TK, 3 DoC, 3, VC, 3 Brets, 3 Lizzie, 3 O&G, 2 Dwarf, 2 WE, 2 OK, 1 Skaven
It was a nice change from the same old builds and combos you see repeated over and over in the overwhelming majority of GT’s. I do hope that special characters are not allowed next year. I wish they could be, but they are too random in their power level. Some are fine, but others are totally bent.


It was an awesome tournament. There was nice growth from the year before (24 to 38 players). The venue was clean and well staffed. There were some really talented players all over the place and spread through the comp brackets. For such a modest player count the competition was stiff. A great way to spend a weekend! All things considered, this was probably the most enjoyable GT I have ever participated in. I enjoyed seeing new faces and meeting lots of new folks. I also enjoyed seeing the folks I already knew. Andrew enjoyed the tournament so much that he vowed to bring back more of his countrymen with him when he returns.