Greetings, dear reader!
Another year has come and gone, and another
ETC is in the books! And what an adventure it was for all of us! In this series of reports, I will try to take you back to the
ETC 2023, and share with you the exploits of Team Belgium and of the
Beast Herds of yours truly. It has been a while since I wrote here, so do excuse the rustiness in my prose, and the inevitable tardiness of the reports to come. And the lack of pictures from time to time.
If you’re here reading this then you don’t need a long introduction about what the
ETC stands for, but I’ll point out that this year’s event has set the bar very high for future events in terms of organization. The event was so well run and had no surprises in terms of infrastructure that we were left wondering at points whether this was a “real”
ETC experience. Does it count as an
ETC if you haven’t travelled for two days back and forth, if you haven’t braved shoddy accommodation and unreliable public transport arrangements, if you haven’t lost at least two teammates in an unknown city when walking to or from a restaurant? Have you really felt the
ETC atmosphere if there were no broken chairs in the middle of a game, inciting a round of applause from all, or if the A/C hasn’t broken down on day 1 leaving all to deal with the sweltering heat as best they can?
Well, this year’s
ETC felt like a convention, and very close to what Disneyland for adult geeks may look like. Others have done a better job describing that in detail, so I’ll just say that I liked it, but at times I’d have preferred it to feel more like a
vacation (the Netherlands are neither very far from Belgium, nor known for their sunny weather).
But you didn’t come her for my travel impressions, did you? You came here to read all about the amazing group of players that is Team Belgium! And read you will, of the exploits of our Captain extraordinaire, Thomas, and of his co-captains Guy and Franck. And of the newbies that surprised us all with their resilience and cool headedness. And of the “boomers” (more like early millennials, but still) of our team, myself included, who try to counter lack of regular gaming by leveraging experience and the psychological factor.
This year our setup was as follows:
- Thomas with HBE: after a brief love affair with KoE, our captain was back to his beloved HbE. After close to 30 years of gaming, I still don’t know how the highborn elves work, or why they seem to win without even losing a single VP. But Thomas does, and that’s why we convinced him to take up the haughty elves again, if nothing else to challenge a bit the Polish supremacy for best in race.
- Guy with UD: Undying Dynasties were on our radar this year as being very strong again. We figured that people had forgotten how to play against the UD magic phase and that they would underestimate the ability of the skellies to come back again and again. Guy knows UD like the palm of his hand, and still maintains that they are not as strong as back in 2019. We agreed to disagree and were just happy we wouldn’t have to face his list during the tournament.
- Nico with WDG: Nico helped establish the Feldrak Ancestor as the powerhouse that it is, spotting its strengths early on during the year. Over the months leading up to the ETC he refined a strong pushy list revolving around single models with three big blocks of units to score and grind if needed. I’ll also note that he suggested a double Exalted Herald list and we foolishly deemed it not strong enough. The Italians would prove us wrong over the course of the ETC and would provide Nico with enough reasons to nag about.
- Merlijn with SE: aside from having the coolest name of us all, he is also a very experienced Sylvan general, having played exclusively the pointy ears for the past 5+ years. It did help that the Sylvans were amongst the strongest book this year. Merlijn brought as many bows as he could muster, plus a triad of strong combat units: Thicket Beasts, Dancers and Wild Huntsmen, all supported by the most recurring magic phase of the tournament: Master Druidism and double adept Shamanism/Cosmo. If you can’t beat them, join them!
- Jonathan with VC: footslogging vamps aided by the triple magical move wraiths, a big wall of 4++ Ghasts and everyone’s favorite – the big Bat Swarm. If there ever was a blocking list, that was it: Jon’s army could stop most opponents in their tracks. He’d had a great year with it, getting win after win against enemies that dared to underestimate the undead.
- Logan with DE: Logan has been playing DE exclusively for the past couple of years, and recording his successes and failures in his youtube channel (in French) that I heartily recommend. He was a pioneer in the creation of the Silexian SpearStar, and brought a very unique list that had a bit of everything. As it proved, this jack of all trades approach was capable of greatness.
- Geoffrey with DL: our former captain, a pillar of the ETC team and most experienced member of
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Exactly.
I think that by correcting that, it would be seen much more on the lists. Plus it would…
