The European Team Championship (ETC) is a tabletop miniature game tournament that has been running in various European cities since 2006. It has a number of game systems, but those of you who know me, I’m a one system kind of guy… So lets talk 40k.
Australia has sent a team now 4 times, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, it’s actually how I really got to know a number of my mates both interstate and internationally. Lets take a look at our 2018 team and some of their highlights.
So with a team of 9, 8 Players and a Coach, it is hard to cut this down, even after trying to break this into multiple articles, but lets see how we go. We’ll start by taking a look at who was on the team.
Simon Gojkovic (Captain), Pete Platell, Adam Camilleri, Ben Clarke, Jack Bowring, Matt Blair, Richard Gwatkin, Pascal Roggen, Andrew Armstrong (Coach), and lets not forget the efforts from Sonia who herded these cats for the week and lead up.
So tell us a bit about yourself, when did you start playing 40k and what are some of your 40k achievements besides playing at the ETC?
Simon: I am an avid gamer throughout my life. I started when I was 15 (I am 36 atm) as a friend of mine had a 2nd ed Tyranid codex, which I absolutely devoured! I was working at Coles in a shopping centre in Garden city (Brisbane) which had a games workshop open up within. I would spend lunch breaks going to GW and even though I earnt $8 an hour, I would spend a big chunck of that on buying my first all metal Tyranid army.
I have been recording almost all my tournament games with a timelapse camera over the past 5 years (which you can find over at Godhammer Gaming). This has not only upped my game but documented my long and slow slog to one of the top players in Australia. Last years string of tournament victories with a 3rd place in Cancon (after beating the 1st place player – Jeremy) was a great feeling.
Pete: I started 40k in 1997 with my cousin. Actually started playing properly in 2006, with my first tourney in 2008 that I podiumed at. Multiple podium finishes at WA Masters, WA ATC team member from 2014-present (Captain twice), 2nd at ATC in 2016, 2 Gold and 1 Bronze at Golden Demon.
Adam: I started playing 40k when I was about 11, but went back and forth and didn’t really get stuck into 40k until I switched from fantasy when it died, and started playing competitively 3 years ago. I played Imperial Guard throughout all of 7th edition and managed to do very well with it, some notable achievements are coming 3rd in the ITC rankings and getting Reconnaissance man at the 2017 Cancon championships, back to back Best Imperial Guard player in Aus for the 2016 and 2017 ITC seasons, coming first at Terracon 2017, coming first at Eastcon 2017 and coming 3rd overall in the Aus ITC rankings for 2017.
Ben: Been playing since 2nd Ed. Proud to have won an Arcanacon and followed it up with a podium the next year, as well as winning Eastcon and a few tourneys in North Queensland.
Richard: I got back into 40k about 2 years ago after a long hiatus. This year I’ve made a concerted effort to play more competitively, and it’s definitely paid off with a recent win at the Warhammer World Grand Tournament Heat 3, as well at placing in the top 20 at the London Grand Tournament for 2 years in a row. I’m also part of Team Draco, which is one of the top ranked teams in the ITC at the moment.
Pascal: I started my addiction in 1990, and fell in love with the blood angels. I played for about five years with my friends and I think I may have won 3 games. I ended up moving to London and lived there for 10 years, being a musician I didn’t have the time, money or space to play the game. I came back to NZ about 7 years ago and some of my friends were back playing the game and ordering online with good prices was still a thing. I really enjoyed playing weird lists that no one thought were any good (storm ravens, dreads, death company and a single scoring unit of five assault marines in 5th ed) and dong pretty well at tourney’s. I even won the first ITC league best blood angels army, as well as two Lvo’s where I got best BA army.
I had one friend who desperately wanted me to play another army so when knights came out I thought “brilliant 5 models is the whole thing”. I now have 14 painted knights and another 7 waiting to be painted.
Q: how did you find the lead up to the ETC, team meetings, list design, etc, how would you compare that to a singles event?
Simon: one of the things I believe is my strongest traits is that of visibility, transparency and communication. Keeping people up to date with what is going on and what is expected seemed to go really well this ETC. List design I think went well, in that almost everyone was spending extra time ensuring their list was the best it could be. While the meta analysis to list design process could be a bit more matured, I honestly believe that the ownership given to people in their list design helped the team and players more than it hurt.
Pete: The team element is always my favorite part. Team meetings are always a bit remote being the only WA player this year, but the regular chat and Discord meetings were really good. List design is always a tricky one; accounting for the varied nature of the Australian communities and Meta, yet alone 31 other countries! Given the current nature of 40k, it’s largely impossible to be perfect at everything all of the time (though the pointy eared armies give that statement a run for their money). Going to a singles event you are looking to be good at as many facets of the game as possible as much of the time as possible. Match-ups allow a team to bully some match-ups or protect some lists from others. It’s an element of a team event I really enjoy.
Adam: The lead up to the ETC was great, if not amazing. Due to the logistical issues of having a team that represents all the states and territory’s of Australia its very hard and at times impractical to organise practice games. But to mitigate that we had monthly team chats over the internet and were engaging each other through messengers for list construction and discussion.
You can’t really compare ETC preparation to a singles event, its a different beast. In a singles event you can plan for the meta, you can tailor your list or play style to overcome obstacles in your army. For a team event its all about your role in the team and how well you can execute that role on the table so the team can have a reliable direction to take the armies. In ETC the role defines the army, not the player.
Ben: Lead up was good organization wise, list building was where i think we fell down in hindsight. We were discussing what we were playing and what we were comfortable running, but on top of that we should have included what we were strong/weak against and kept a running tally of current counters and such as a team so we could properly follow or even foresee current meta as our team built lists. This could have allowed us to start tweek our lists towards roles and opponents while giving us practice with armies we weren’t potentially thinking of. I don’t think or write lists like this for a singles event. I paint and model what i want and see how it goes, mostly… I do throw in some meta stuff but not to the full potential.
Q: how much did you practice with your list before the ETC? What kind of practice did you find worked best? Playing at tournaments with the list vs playing a specific matchup multiple times.
Simon: A lot of practice. 3-4 games a week on average, with the most being 15 games (per week) in the last few weeks before list submission.
Pete: I was playing 1-2 games a week with a huge variety of Marine builds vs a great number of opponents. I am lucky that most of my friends who are hobbyists are amongst the top players in WA, so the standard of game is always high. There’s a bit of an event vacuum in WA mid-year that makes life a little difficult, as the competitive and time-bound nature of an event are always fantastic disciplines to practice (there is no excuse to not finish games. Period). The list I ran was quite swingy, so understanding how to interpret this during games was very important. Especially for matchups and giving feedback to the team coach during rounds.
Ben: Practice beforehand was mostly taking variations of what I thought would be my final list or keeping a core idea and tweaking units around it to see what did what. I had hoped to see most varieties of opponent’s but I missed a lot of variants/builds. One which lead to my last round loss against Belarus. I didn’t know the trick with vets of the longwar and blades of putrification, he did like 30 mortal wounds to my Talos in one combat phase, and that cost me the game. You can’t rely on one method to test. Both are required but also I think once you get an idea of role within the team its important to practice that kind of matchup.
Q: what was your most memorable in game moment at either the singles or team events?
Adam: I guess I have a bunch, but top of the pile would be game 1 of the team event. I was asked by the captain if I was ok with being the put up, that means I was first up to be paired and most likely to get a horrible matchup. I had a look at the tables and told him that I wouldn’t give away a 20 no matter who I paired against. I ended up going against a pretty bad matchup but got an 11-9 win! Really proud of backing myself and it cemented in my head that I could put my money where my mouth was and contend on the world level.
Pascal: Vs 200 plague bearers…. a slip up in the pairings meant I ended up playing this crazy list. Very weirdly, I hadn’t gotten to play vs this list and during the singles I spoke to a guy who had the army about how to beat it. “Sometimes people make mistakes and leave their characters open to attack.” I end up playing the guy and during deployment he does just that, leaving room for a smash captain to forlorn fury up , jump in and kill 4 out of 5 of his characters. I almost thought it was a trick! I ended up getting a 20 point win out of that match, which was enough to save a draw for the team. Probably my happiest moment of the tourney.
Richard: Mortarion just refusing to die in my game vs Andrew Gonyo. Andrew was a gent throughout the whole game, even though the dice were clearly against him. Definitely my favourite game from the whole weekend.
Q: who was your favourite team to play against and why?
Ben: USA was great fun. I saw the whole team enjoying themselves regardless of results and they were having a laugh too. Whole point of the hobby. Very good players, obviously as they won.
Richard: It would have to be the USA. All their players were really great guys, and we had a ball playing them. Their team was stacked with some of the biggest names in 40k, and it was great to see them finally take the title. Well done boys!
Pete: I really found it great this year with 5 of my opponents being really great games. Of these, I have to say USA. Tony Kopach may have flattened me in our match-up, but he was an absolutely great guy to play. The entire USA team were exactly the type of competitive players everybody should look to emulate; great lists, well-practiced, drilled and rehearsed and genuinely good people. The teams with conduct issues should take note. It was also really special for Australia as we have never played the eventual winners before. It was a great round and shows us exactly the next steps we can take.
Round Up.
So a lot of the team tend to echo each other, it is how I was able to cull some of the detail, but I want to really hone in on a couple of points.
- Practice is key for an event like the ETC. Some of the Players got more practice than others, but even those putting in the effort, getting in games, still made note that it is not just about how many games you play, but the type of games you play.
- Any player can win in any given game. Whether it be good or bad matchup, good selection of table, or just the dice going your way (or their way), back yourself, keep an eye on how the game is going, and in a team environment you need to know when to conserve points.
- Just because this is a competitive event, doesn’t mean you have to be “that guy”. Team USA was voted Australia’s favourite team. All the Aus Players, regardless of winning or losing were having a ball. It just goes to show that you can win while still being a “good sport”.
Whats Next?
Well I had a big long list of questions for the guys, and it just was too much for one article, so I will try and get Part 2 of this out sooner rather than later. But in the mean time, head on over to the ANZ40K Facebook Page, and look into the selection process for the 2019 ETC Team. Get involved in one of the most exciting 40k events you will ever attend.
Till next time.
dif