Howdy y’all! In case you haven’t heard, Lonewolf GT is being held this weekend in Fort Worth, Texas by tournament organizer Mark Cox. Given that Lonewolf will be the first large tournament (50+) held in the United States since the U.S. Masters/Best of the Rest all the way back in February 2020, we here at Dash 28 thought the community might be interested in a deeper dive into everything Lonewolf before the tournament this weekend.
I will be attending the tournament myself and plan to act as your trusty correspondent throughout the weekend in various forms, including posting pictures from the tournament in the Kings of War Fanatics group on Facebook and possibly some Facebook live videos as well. If you are really lucky, I may even muster the energy to do a quick day-one recap post here on Dash 28 tomorrow night. And after the tournament I will be breaking down the results and what they mean for the U.S. meta heading into the U.S. Masters tournament being held in July 10-11, 2021 at, coincidentally enough, the same venue as Lonewolf by Mark Cox and his team.
But enough throat-clearing, let’s get to it!
The Tournament
Lonewolf GT 2021 will be five games at 2300 points. There are three games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. The round times will be 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Players who play on the clock for at least four games will earn Sports points (two points per game – up to a max of eight points). If a player offers to play on the clock and the player’s opponent declines, the offering player still gets the Sports points for offering. If a clock is used, each player has 70 minutes.
Most Texas GTs use custom (read: slightly–or not so slightly–customized versions of book scenarios) and Lonewolf is no exception. The player pack contains eight custom scenarios which will be randomly selected at the start of each round.
The Special Characters
Each player must add one of the two special characters created for the event: either The Lone Ranger or the Lonewolf. The same character must be used in all five games. Here are their statlines:
| Spe | Me | Ra | De | At | Ne | ||
| The Ranger (Inf) | 6 | 4+ | 3+ | 5+ | 5 | 13/15 | Individual, Duelist, Elite, Texian, Loner, Silver Bullets |
| Spe | Me | Ra | De | At | Ne | ||
| The Wolf (Cav) | 8 | 3+ | – | 5+ | 6 | 13/15 | Individual, Mighty, Vicious, Pathfinder, TC (1), CS (1), Texian, Loner, Howling |
- Texian – Self inspires, Unit Strength 0.5
- Loner – Treat as an Ally for all purposes.
- Silver Bullets – the Ranger armed with a Magical Repeating pistol: Range 16” Piercing (2) & Shattering (1)
- Howling – the Wolf is truly fearsome, it has Dread
The Attendees
As of this writing, fifty-six players are registered to attend. Over thirty players are Texas residents, which means Lonewolf will have an incredible out-of-state contingent coming to play games and hang with us. This includes, by my rough count, six players from California (!), six from Memphis, TN/surrounding areas, five from Oklahoma, three from Nebraska, two from Arkansas, and one from Idaho.
In addition, some of the biggest names in Kings of War media will be present including Rob and Jeremy of Countercharge fame and Ben Stoddard, author of “Drowned Secrets” and KoW loremaster. Rob is brining his fancy new audio equipment to record hours of podcasting goodness at the event for your listening pleasure.
The Competition
In addition to being an awesome hang, Lonewolf is also famous for the high level of competition present. Fully half of the players have attended one or more U.S. Masters and a few more are locks to join those ranks this year. Five of the eleven top finishers in Battle at the last U.S. Masters will be in attendance (Adam Ballard, Aaron Chapman, Dustin Howard, Jeremy Duvall, and Travis Timm). There is also a past U.S. Masters coming, Brad McKay. Adam and Brad play each other in the first round, which is sure to be one of the best games of the entire tournament. I feel sorry for whoever has to play the loser in the second round.
The Hobby
Lonewolf will also have an absolutely ridiculous number of gorgeous armies in attendance, which myself or others will be sure to photograph and post to Facebook.
There are probably a dozen attendees who have or have the ability to win Best Painted Army at any tournament they attend, and many more whose armies are extremely nice. Suffice to say that the painting competition will be no less fierce than the competition for battle points.
The Tributes
Many of the players attending will be honoring a departed friend this year at Lonewolf.
This will be the first Lonewolf run since the passing of David Bowman, a Texas wargaming legend. David was a phenomenal individual who many had the privilege of being friends with. He was the person who started Lonewolf GT so many years ago; in addition, he was a genius tactician and won a massive amount of events while being one of the politest sociable games any one could enjoy. Back in the Warhammer days, David’s army was selected for White Dwarf when at the time it was extremely rare for an American to get White Dwarf honors, but David’s army was just that awesome. For those that don’t know, the Best General award at Lonewolf (aka “The Bowman”) is named after him.
Of course, everyone in the community has heard about the passing of Jesse Cornwell this year, another wargaming legend. By my counting, at least five players are paying tribute to Jesse in their armies this year by bringing Ogre allies–including, of course, a mammoth or modeling one of their monsters in their army as a mammoth. Jeff Swann has gone so far as painting a completely new Ogre army in tribute, complete with all the units that Jesse hated (fun fact, Jesse actually hated the Mammoth on the table even after it got Strider as that happened at the same time as the Colossal Giant which completely outclassed the Mammoth).
Finally, a friend of Matt Young with whom he played Kings of War passed away earlier this year. Matt is choosing to honor his friend by playing his Trident Realm army at Lonewolf this year after some minor clean-up and additions.
Covid Precautions
Covid is of course something very much present despite the rollout of the vaccines across the country. Lonewolf is taking the following precautions which must be followed by the players if they want to participate:
- Masks will be required to participate in the event and must be worn while in the event hall
- No physical contact such as hugs, handshakes, or high fives
- No handling other people’s models or dice
- No-touch temperature screenings will be performed on players both days, refusing entry to anyone above 99.4
- Playing surfaces will be spaced as far apart as can be managed
- Hand sanitizer will be available and usage is encouraged
Mark has also offered a no-questions-asked full refund for any player that needs to cancels due to feeling sick before the tournament.
Finally, in what I believe is a first, Mark is offering five tournament bonus points for proof of either (a) a vaccination or (b) a negative Covid test taken in the week before the event. As of the first week of March 2021, more than 20% of the attendees had proven some level of vaccination to Mark and received those bonus points (including yours truly, who is now fully vaccinated). That number likely has increased in the ensuing month-and-a-half as vaccinations have picked up in the U.S. and does not include those who have some level of immunity from a prior bout with the virus.
The Links
Finally, here are some helpful links to use as you follow along this weekend:
Lists
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/247bo51a5388sl6/AAD5SFiHtSFeqIbbCgkHXelGa?dl=0
Lonewolf Round1 Matchup Cast
Lonewolf Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/lonewolfgt
WarScore event tracking and results
http://warscore.net/event/897/view.html
Live/ Archived footage of the event
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC99so8pf40x3X5PQnbzR3Ug
