Since the GenCon report idea didn't really take off this year, I'm cannibalizing this thread for my future GenCon reports. It's just for the main event this year.
In the Main Event, I tend to gravitate towards armies that have un(der)used figures. I think it gives an advantage on both days, since the opponent will not know how to play with and against unseen figures. Last year, I used Mimring, and this year I used Taelord.
Taelord
Raelin
Marro Warriors
10th Regiment x2
Along with the obligatory Raelin to add consistency to the army, I played two squads of Redcoats and the Marro Warriors. The general idea of the army was to fish opponents in with the Marro Warriors, and then blast with pumped up Wait Then Fire shots. Using Marro Warriors to fish in figures to Wait Then Fire range was very effective in the Betrayal From Within tournament that
@
kevindola
ran online. Adding Taelord was inspired by the army that
@
The Orange Mailman
won with in 2013, where he used Marcus for his attack boost on two squads of Redcoats. I liked the extra 3 spaces of aura to make the fourth Redcoat attack die all but guaranteed. The army worked for a couple of other reasons: the four different people who practiced against the army lost against it the first time; it can make opponents uncomfortable with the amount of dice it dishes out from a long range; people don’t know how to play against two cheerleaders; it’s fragile enough to tear apart on Day 2.
Game 1 vs. Rollitontop (Warforged x4, Raelin, Deadeye Dan) on Fossil
I opened with the Marro Warriors to try to thin out Warforged and put pressure on the figures he put on Wannok. He responded with a conservative Raelin placement, behind the evergreen tree on level 3. She covered a lot of spaces, but not spaces he could attack me from. I picked at the edges of his army, tanking the Wannok wounds with the twin kyries. Eventually, he was forced to go in to a hoard of bayonets, and attacks of 5 tore apart the Warforged. Deadeye Dan had some good moves, but the Redcoats Wait Then Fired him down. My opponent really suffered from not having any range that he could threaten me with.
1-0
Game 2 vs. Heirloom (Greenscales x3, Charos, Marro Warriors, Marcu) on Remains of Clionesia
He used Charos very aggressively, going straight for my Raelin. A second round full of Wait Then Fire volleys took out the dragon before he managed to bring down the kyrie. After that, the Greenscales struggled to get rid of any Redcoats or Marros with 2v6 attacks. His Marros were difficult, but eventually I managed to run them down. I retreated my army to my startzone, let Marcu pick up all the treasure glyphs, then blew him up with Wait Then Fire when he went in. I think a Marro Warrior opener would have made this matchup a lot closer than it ended up being, but a lot of people prefer them as cleanup.
2-0
Game 3 vs. Cleon (Braxas, Fen Hydra, Marro Warriors, Deathreavers x2) on Fossil
This was one of the stronger armies in the pool, and a good one against my army. Cleon opened with Rats. I had never tested against a Rat army, since I thought most people considered them taboo to play. I don’t think I’ve played against Rats in a few years honestly. They were extremely hard to deal with, shutting down the Marros completely, and the glyphs (Unique Attack and Lodin) were great for his army. Braxas swooped down on my tied down Marro and gassed the remainder, but they managed two wounds on her. A lucky OM3 on the Redcoats after Cleon failed 2/3 acids allowed me to blast Braxas with Taelord boosted Wait Then Fire for 6 wounds, and an exact kill. I was feeling like I had a chance then, but his Marros repeatedly were able to pick at my Reds and successfully switch the initiative and escape to clone. The Hydra never even took a wound before he finished eating through the remaining Redcoats and their cheerleaders.
2-1
Game 4 vs. Dad_Scaper (Deathchasers x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter) on Dance of the Dryads
After the Orcs came rushing across the smallest map in the pool, I was pretty worried that I would lose my Marro Warriors before the end of round one. My OM3 on the Redcoats turned out to be poorly placed when he instead led with Brandis Skyhunter. Brandis was able to step up on to height and drop 5/6 skulls to instantly slay Raelin. I tried to stay confident and just Wait Then Fire down the incoming orcs, and for the most part it worked. 5 attack dice on 2 defense dice is a pretty favorable attack. The Warhulk made some noise but I eventually silenced him with Wait Then Fire. I was fortunate that my cheerleaders were able to block the path into the startzone to draw fire away from my Redcoats, as losing activations could have cost me the match.
3-1
Game 5 vs. ManTrainChooChoo (Tagawa Samurai Archers x3, Raelin, Marro Warriors, Torin) on Sidewinder
This game I played much more aggressively than I did the rest. After I won initiative and saw a round full of markers on the Tagawa Samurai Archers, I left my auras behind and decided to aggressively gun for the Samurai, since they would struggle to hit back with only 2 attack. Thanks to some incredible skulls the plan worked incredibly well. I gunned through all but one of the Tagawa only losing a single Marro, and then I retreated back to my startzone. He moved up Torin, but after he moved up Raelin next to him, I just refused to shoot and waited for him to come to me. He brought up his Marros and had a lot of success, but Wait Then Fire brought them down. He had been a little frustrated all game at my refusal to leave my start zone or to shoot at his Torin, so he conceded with Raelin, Torin and a Tagawa still left. It definitely was tough to win from there, but I felt bad that my choices frustrated him to that extent. I think he was just upset since he was so close to Day 2, but luckily his SoS got him in anyway.
Thoughts after Day 1: I think my army was what I intended it to be. It’s a difficult to play against, slow, anti-melee army that can throw a ton of dice. 4-1 actually seemed a little out of reach to me when I was thinking through matchups, but I’m happy I was able to do it. I don’t know how well I am going to do tomorrow, since there are quite a few melee armies in the pool and those are very bad matchups for this army. But no matter how I do I’m happy I was able to get Taelord to Day 2.
Day 2
Game 1 vs. BigBoa (Deathchasers x4, Raelin, Nerak, Brunak) on Fossil
I drew one of the best boards in the pool for my Redcoat army, especially against melee, so I was kind of worried. I opened with Brunak, carrying Raelin to an aggressive perch that covered the middle of the board. Once I saw his order markers split between Redcoats and cheerleaders, I decided to hard engage on the 10th. I had great dice and slammed through two on the first turn of the engage, and then brought Nerak up and killed three more on the following turn. Just like that, his army was running out of steam. Since I was basically on top of him, it was relatively easy to catch the the Marros and shut down his comeback mechanism. I ground out the rest of his army with the orcs, never activating the Brunak and Raelin combo. I think this game showcased the biggest advantage of my army; the awkwardness of picking it up without knowing how to play it. Opening with Marro Warriors would have both thinned my army more effectively and left him with better tools to deal with the weakened orcs.
on to Round of 8
Game 2 vs dok (Tor-Kul-Na, Nagrubs x3, Me-Burq-Sa, Marcu) on Fossil
Well, I drew the worst board in the pool again. This time I was handed a weaker, still melee army, and I was playing against a pretty decent player. It was going to be a tough game to win. I opened with Raelin flying to a more conservative perch than in the previous game, but she could still help the double-spaced TKN where he was planning to go. I rolled the Marros up the hill and waited for a good chance to strike. I couldn’t manage to lose initiative early, so I had to go in and give him the initiative switch. Luckily my defense held out fairly well, and I was able to smash through the Redcoats and keep TKN alive. The game ended up hanging in initiative. If I win, I can trample up to 3 Marros and crush his chances to come back. If he wins, he’s able to mow through grubs, cut TKN’s healing off, and take control of the game. He got it, gunned through Nagrubs and denied the big trample, and TKN fell shortly after. MBS tried to make a game of it, but it was basically impossible with dok’s liberal use of water clone. He did a good job of making sure I had no way back into the game once he killed the Hivelord. I’m not sure if I would have done much differently though. It was a very tough matchup, definitely less than 50% to win on paper, so getting the game to the initiative coin toss was actually an accomplishment I think.
eliminated
I think overall my army was a good choice for the event. The abundance of melee armies in the field this year helped me on day 1, but hurt on day 2. I can’t be too disappointed in my losses, as they were both to good players with favorable matchups. I really like the Reverse the Whip two day format for GenCon and I hope to see it continue in the future.