Action From Gathering in the Desert 2010

Here are a few selected pictures from Gathering in the Desert 2010, enjoy!

TK

Winners of Gathering in the Desert 2010

Okay,

Today we get to see the Motley Crew that was Gathering in the Desert 2010, this is their moment of fame, their time to shine and look good for the cameras! So first up is the whole crew that attended, and if you look closely, you will see a certain someone wearing his "crown".

Matt Kimball - 3rd Best Sportsman

Gary Lane - 3rd Best General



Jeremy Williams - 2nd best Sportsman

Tim Cornstubble - 2nd Best General

Brent Sinclair - Best Appearance & Red Dragon Winner for Calvary Model

Tim McKnight - Best Sportsman

Kyle Toth - Best General & Winner of March to Mount Doom

and last but not least

Thomas Keegan - Best Overall Winner of GitD 2010

I want to thank everyone that came out to Gathering in the Desert 2010, we had folks from Florida, Massachusetts, California, Colorado & Illinois come out to the event. Also a big thank you to the local group that is still supporting this event and attending. Planning has already started for 2011 and I look forward to seeing you all back next year.

TK

Gathering in the Desert Coverage - The Tables

Gathering in the Desert got going on Friday February 19, 2010 around 11:30am with me hauling all the stuff out to Empire Games. One of the suggestions from last years GitD, was to have some sort of banner outside for the folks to see that were not from around the store. So I had printed a small (6'x3') banner for the event.



The fun part was trying to get this thing hung up! One thing I forgot was rope or twine, so my wife headed to Walmart for some rope. Now, when we arrived at Empire Games, there was no wind and the weather report was calling for some chance of rain over the weekend. So I was not worried about the banner being up since there was only 30% chance for bad weather.


Well no sooner did we get the banner hung up was when the wind decided to start blowing. The banner made it thru most of the night with it only having to be re-hung once (Thanks Brandon for doing that). But by Saturday morning the 30% chance of rain turned into 100% and it started to pour, so we took the banner down and brought it inside.

Anyway, here are the tables for the event this weekend, table #1 had this stream running across it with only one bridge (that I built last week) that was just wide enough for a 40mm base to fit on. This layout reminded me of something from Bree in Middle Earth.

Table #2 was made with a Realm of Battle table and a few GW trees that Rob Brightwell painted up in a fall color scheme. Added a few ruins and fences and we had a nice looking table.

Here is table #3 which had just a few GW hills on it as well as a few ruins and tree bases. It was another generic Middle Earth looking table.

I did not get a shot of table #4, but it had a GW arcane ruin in the middle of it along with two sets of Battlefronts new rocky hills. We called it a Mordor table and most folks enjoyed playing on it.

Table #5 was the dreaded Osgilith table built by Tom Opalka which made an appearance last year at GitD. Although Tom had toned it down and made it more player friendly by not adding as much terrain as last year. It was still a hard fight for folks and it captured the feel of Osgilith pretty well.

Table #6 was another Mordor table that I had put together for the GitD Primer but forgot to set up. The Temple of Skulls in the center is the same piece that I had on the blog with the lift off GW tower. Once again another nice looking table that fit the Mordor theme pretty well.

Table #7 was from Tom Opalka again and was to represent Rohan. Tom used Jr Minis rivers & roads on this with a few buildings from the Old Glory line for the Rohan buildings. This was another river table and you can't see it but there is a bridge just behind the trees on the center left of the board. A few inches away was a ford for crossing as well. Most folks who played on the table enjoyed it and it provided to be a very tactical table to play on.

Table #8 was a Harad table that I used last year. The buildings are from Crescent Root Studios and the Palm trees are from Pegasus Hobbies, from their museum line. Once again it seemed to capture the feel of a Harad table.

Table #9 was another Harad table that used some of Empire games terrain. it was more of an arid looking table and it felt like being in the desert.

Table #10 was my Fangorn table from last year. It used a few GW trees and hills and after I took this picture I noticed that there was a long line of trees creating a sort of avenue through the forest, so I moved them around to break up the table.

Table #11 came all the way from Massachusetts from Jeremy Williams. Jeremy wanted a huge line of sight blocker and came up with this ruined gatehouse and wall. From what I heard, some players hated being on this table. Nothing like coming around the corner to find a whole army waiting to pounce on you! Once again another great table for GitD.

Table #12 was Weather Top which was made by using a Realm of Battle board and a Castle Kits "Not Weather Top" kit. I got to play on this board Friday night and it is just so cool, it really fits the LotR theme.



Table #13 was Amon Hen or the Seeing Seat. I built the Seeing seat last year and the board was made up with another set of Realm of Battle boards. This was another great board and folks seemed to like this board as well.

So there you go, that was the tables for GitD 2010. Now you can see what I have been doing with my time since the lack of picture posts on the blog.

in the next update I will have some pictures of the games going on themselves as well as the Red Dragon painting competition entries and winners. So stay tuned for more GitD coverage!

TK

Results from Gathering in the Desert 2010

Well,

Here are the total results from Gathering in the Desert 2010, more in depth coverage will follow in a few days, so stay tuned.

Name		Battle	Sports	Appearance	Overall
Thomas Keegan		85	53.6	34	172.6
Kyle Toth		80	52.6	30	162.6
Brent Sinclair		65	53.6	40	158.6
John Petrelli		65	52.8	37	154.8
Frank Brown		68	52.6	31	151.6
Tim Cornstubble		70	53	28	151
Gary Lane		70	53	26	149
Chris Langland-Shula		68	49.6	31	148.6
Jeremy Williams		60	54.8	33	147.8
Keith Hruska		66	52.4	26	144.4
Tom Opalka		53	52.2	34	139.2
Travis Paul		62	52.6	19	133.6
Howard Beam		48	50.8	34	132.8
Aaron Hunt		53	51.4	27	131.4
Rob Brightwell		45	53	33	131
Matt Kimball		53	53.6	24	130.6
John Hess		57	50.6	22	129.6
David Robarge		56	50.2	19	125.2
John Long		43	53.2	29	125.2
Mike Gingold		47	50.8	27	124.8
Tim McKnight		34	54.8	29	117.8
Rob Elhers		40	49.4	18	107.4
Jerry Autieri		40	32.2	25	97.2
Ringer		20	1.2	0	21.2

Best Overall - Thomas Keegan

Best General - Kyle Toth

2nd Best General - Tim Cornstubble

3rd Best General - Gary Lane

Best Sportsman - Tim McKnight

2nd Best Sportsman - Jeremy Williams

3rd Best Sportsman - Matt Kimball

Best Appearance - Brent Sinclair

Red Dragon Winners:
Single Figure - John Petrelli
Cavalry Figure - Brent Sinclair
Large Figure - Tim Kulinski
Battle Scene - Tim Kulinski

TK

Just a few days and a million miles!

Well,

Quick update tonight, we have just a few days before Gathering in the Desert 2010. All the hard work of planning, building and painting will come to a head on Friday with the kick off of the March to Mount Doom mini tourney. Saturday the real battle begins at 10:00am and if your interested in coming out to play, we still have room. Or if you want to just come and check it out that's fine as well.

There are a few folks I would like to thank, first up my wife, Shannon. She is the treasurer for GitD and she will be doing all the data entry for the event. It's nice to have my wife helping out, most wives barely tolerate their husbands playing with toy soldiers.

I would like to thank Games Workshop, specifically Ed Spettigue for the continuing help with GitD and for supporting independent tournaments.

Rob Brightwell also gets a big thank you for building and painting a ton of terrain. If you get the chance, ask Rob about the GW trees, he just loves them!

Jerry Auteri gets a big thank you for his art work this year as well as the last three years.

Brent Sinclair also gets a big thanks as well. he is running the Friday night gig and I really appreciate it man!

And a big thank you for all the players traveling out to GitD this year. It means a lot to me that you guys want to come to this event. As well as a big thanks to the local players for supporting GitD.

I plan on taking a ton of pictures and I will try to get them up as fast as I can. So stay tuned for GitD 2010 coverage coming soon. I am also planning on doing a little interview with some of the players for a video that I want to put up here, so we will see how that goes.


On a side note, I just finished an awesome book called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller The book talks about the author having to write his own screenplay about his life and he takes an interesting look at himself and finds that he is not living a very good story.

He (Donald Miller) talks about how we live boring lives (aka stories) that are not very meaningful. He puts his life under a microscope and decides to change his story and start living a more meaningful life.

I highly recommend this book and it has made me look at my life in a different perspective. It makes me want to change my story.

TK

What Does it take??

So what does it take to run an Independent Lord of the Rings Grand Tournament, well here is a picture of some of the items that I am bringing to run this event.

In this stack you will find:

5 containers full of terrain that was assembled and painted for this event.

1 Realm of Battle board

1 Box full of $600.00 worth of Prize support

1 Box full of Trophies and Plaques

1 Box of Shirts for the event

1 6'x3' Banner for event

1 Box full of Badges, lanyards and tournament packets

3 Boxes of terrain from Massachusetts from Jeremy

1 Folder with all the FAQ info for LotR along with a few White Dwarfs.

All my Rule books and supplement books

1 container full of objective markers

4 cases of sodas

3 cases of water

Bag of utensils, napkins, plates for catered lunch.

.

And if that was not enough, I still need to bring the "Ringer Army", in case we have an odd number of players. My Red Dragon entries, my dice and other game items.

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Now this is not all of the stuff, my buddy Drunkensamurai has to bring the other Realm of Battle board and the rest of the terrain that he has been building and painting. I also have Tom bringing two tables worth of terrain (Rohan & the dreaded Osgilith table from last year!).

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One last thing, the last two years I have forgotten to bring Serving spoons for the lunch's, this year I remembered to buy them as seen below, now I just need to remember to bring them! LOL

TK