Chicago GT 2002

It has always been a dream of ours. To play in a Grand Tournament.

But first let me introduce myself.....My name is Jonnel Mendiola and I live in the Philippines. I first started playing Warhammer 40,000 since the rouge trader days in 1988 or 89. I got the book during my trip to Malaysia, and wanted to try something different from role playing games. I also got a box of RTB01 Marines, some of which are still at home. Those were the days when I had nobody to play with and with no modelling or painting experience.

In College I met a bunch of people whom I convince to play Warhammer. These were the days of Epic 1st and 2nd edition. And we maneuvered our Titans, Phantoms and Gargants across a wooden table in the Ateneo covered courts. We'd play from 'Dusk till Dawn', literally.

It wasn't until 1998 when I went back into playing 40K. My Hobby Store just started promoting Warhammer and 40K and my old friends in Epic jumped in and started their own armies. I already had a Marine and Eldar Army by that time all made up of 'classic' miniatures so I just expanded them further. I also started my fantasy army of High Elves.

In 1999 and 2000 I joined the Grand Tournament in Honk Kong playing with my elves. That was indeed a lot of fun for me so when I was due for a vacation to the US, I decided to join the nearest GT at the time. Owen Ilagan, one of my college friends since Epic also came along for the experience.

We arrived in Chicago early Friday morning. I had an uncle who lives in Chicago and he picked us up at the airport. Now I know why Chicago is known as the city of winds. Brrrrrr it was very cold for me. We even went to the wrong Holiday inn, there being two of them within the same area. Anyway we wanted to get some rest before playing the next day and get over the Jet Lag, afterall traveled, half way around the globe just to play, 17 hours on a plane. And all that time we were worrying about our figs in our cases. After some lunch we took some Zzzzz's first.

That evening we decided to look around the gaming tables and nose around. Here are some of pictures

Here's a picture of Joe and Me......Joe won the players choice award during the tournament. That's no wonder, just check out some of his work from below. Joe made a whole cathedral as a display background for his army. I was also surprised to learn that Joe is a Filipino just like me, though he grew up in the US and is now an art teacher.

Great Work Joe!

Here's Owen Ilagan. Owen has been playing WH40K just as long as I have been. We both had our start in Epic and I was able to convince him to come with me to Chicago and play. This was our practice game the night before the tourney. Since we didn't have an ice table back home we elected to play there.

The Dragon Knight Marines. This was the army I played with in the GT, to the right is my converted Emperor's champion with a Dragon Helm. I won with this army in our GT in the Philippines the year before.

The Dragon Knights are essentially a Black Templar Army, which happens to be my current favorite among the different chapters. However I designed my marines to be playable with 'any' list hence my own unique color scheme.

Above: The trophy's for the GT. You can only dream of actually winning one of these. Maybe next year I can start my collection.