UTAH: 5th annual NHSD Oct. 9, 2010 -- "Wasatch Warfare"

[Deadmaxx]

Hiya just wanted to say I made it back safe in sound from the long drive back to good old Wendover, NV... Finally nice to meet a lot of you! I'm pretty sure I'll be out again to get my butt wooped over n' over at Heroscape.

Brian Blake

[UtahScott]

Looks like everyone made it home okay, good.

We can use this thread for the smaller details of the tournament.
I'll be putting my thoughts down later, but for now I'd like feedback from everybody:

1) How was the tournament, generally? Compared to previous years?
2) How was the room setup, easier to move around?
3) Which maps did you like/not like? Which would you recommend to others?
4) What army cards/army combos impressed you? Which fell short of your expectations?
5) What was your impression of other players? Good/bad anecdotes?
6) What was missing (besides adequate chairs)--what things were confusing, missing, not covered?
7) How was the pre-tournament organization? What needed adjustment? What can be improved for next year?

[BiggaBullfrog]

I'll take a shot at this, though I'm not sure how helpful my answers will be:

1) I thought it was awesome! I can't really compare it to previous years, or other tournaments (for I have been to neither) but I loved that you took the time to set it up so we could meet other 'scapers and duke it out. Definitely going to more, if/when I can.
2) I could get around easily enough when my matches finished early. Easy enough to check out other games going on with every sitting, so I'd say it was good.
3) I liked all the maps I played on, and most of the ones I didn't. Really, the only one I ended up having concerns about was the Wasaru Castle one, which, in my opinion, would have been a terror to fight dragons or ranged fliers on.
4) You mean besides from my own? (And yes, I was very pleased with my combo.) Well, ScottManDeath's army was a beast (and I didn't even have to play him), and the B.I.V.'s army looked good too from his battle report. Vivaldi's use of a cheap, offensive screen for Q9 also seemed to work well.
5) Well, I won't mention any names, but...
No, everyone I met was great. Easy going people playing a game we all love, I don't know if there's much else to say. There were a bunch of kids, but I think those little dudes (and little dudettes) are awesome.
6) Honestly, I would've been fine with standing. In fact, in the game Vivaldi and I played, we both ended up on our feet anyway. All that I can think of that might have helped would maybe be a projector for the matchups/listings, because then you could cover a whole wall when needed. But the TV was great (and official-looking, too).
7) I think all the important stuff was covered quickly enough (maps, point totals). The only last minute stuff was glyphs and the trap, but I don't think either of those were so important they couldn't have waited (I was testing with most of the same glyphs, anyway, and traps are easy enough to adapt to).

All in all, a great tournament. Thanks again, Scott.

[ScottManDeath]

1) How was the tournament, generally? Compared to previous years?

Perfect, like last year.

2) How was the room setup, easier to move around?

It was easier to move around than last year. I liked the projector with the tournament schedule a bit more, but I can imagine that it would have been difficult to do it again with the changed setup. The TV was doing its job fine!

3) Which maps did you like/not like? Which would you recommend to others?

Coincidentally, I playtested on all the maps that I ended up playing during the tournament; we picked them since they seemed to be the more difficult ones. I like Black Root (though it made Nilfheim a little bit claustrophobic ) and Shrine of Mo-Ne-Ca. I didn't like Out Cold too much though.

4) What army cards/army combos impressed you? Which fell short of your expectations?

I didn't see much from other games, but reading the battle reports makes me want to play a warforged army now :P And the Minions just scared/impressed me.

5) What was your impression of other players? Good/bad anecdotes?

A good crowd.

6) What was missing (besides adequate chairs)--what things were confusing, missing, not covered?

Epic Games and their 25% discount

7) How was the pre-tournament organization? What needed adjustment? What can be improved for next year?

Important information, such as maps and army points limit were announced early in advance. And for next year, it seems we have precedent for the glyph pool (well, I still think that the commin/unique attack +1 could be omitted).

P.S.

Is the tournament director software available for download form somewhere? I'm thinking about running a small tournament when I go home for the holidays, it would be very useful then

[cmgames]

For those of you who got a chance to play on the Shrine of Mo-Ne-Ca map, how was it? It looks interesting, and if it was a good tournament map, I am thinking of suggesting it for our next tournament.

~Z

[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by cmgames

For those of you who got a chance to play on the Shrine of Mo-Ne-Ca map, how was it? It looks interesting, and if it was a good tournament map, I am thinking of suggesting it for our next tournament.

~Z

I thought it was a great map. I played a mostly melee army on it, and won against a mostly flying ranged army. Of course, I had Tactical Switch on my side, but I would have felt comfortable fielding any other melee-heavy army on it--it's going to be as uphill a battle as any melee vs ranged match will be, but the glyphs really help draw attention away from the shrine itself, and the jungle provides great cover. I'd recommend it for any tournament. (I really wish I had a jungle set so I could build it myself).

[tannergx]

Hi cmgames,

As the author, I'm at risk of bias. But I thought it held its own amongst the other maps and felt very balanced for a castle build. I played it once during the event, and have a battle report - I had all melee and beat a hodge-podge Q9 build:

http://www.heroscapers.com/community...48#post1226948

And the 2 players that went undefeated both have battle reports with it as well:

ScottManDeath - http://www.heroscapers.com/community...93#post1225593

BiggaBullfrog - http://www.heroscapers.com/community...59#post1225759

There was also a note about ScottManDeath's roommate having his Braxas + Greenscales army taken out by a DW 8000 on Shrine. The fact that someone could get one of Utgar's non-competitive big-borgs up on the platform and have it take out a dragon build made me very pleased.

Cheers,

~tgx

Edit: BiggaBullfrog ninja'd me... what he said

[Vivaldi]

Originally Posted by UtahScott

Looks like everyone made it home okay, good.

We can use this thread for the smaller details of the tournament.
I'll be putting my thoughts down later, but for now I'd like feedback from everybody:

1) How was the tournament, generally? Compared to previous years?
2) How was the room setup, easier to move around?
3) Which maps did you like/not like? Which would you recommend to others?
4) What army cards/army combos impressed you? Which fell short of your expectations?
5) What was your impression of other players? Good/bad anecdotes?
6) What was missing (besides adequate chairs)--what things were confusing, missing, not covered?
7) How was the pre-tournament organization? What needed adjustment? What can be improved for next year?

1. Fantastigreat! I dare say best I've been to.
2. Very roomy compared to GNG in 2008. It was just fine.
3. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of Wasaru Castle, and I think if I played on Out Cold I might have disliked that some as well. I liked Migol's Gate, Boiling Point, and (from playtesting) Shrine of Mo-Ne-Ca
4. I didn't expect to see warforged, so that surprised me. I really liked HokshillaTo's all Ullar(favorite general) army. Also I liked to winning army so much I borrowed it.
5. Everyone was very friendly and enjoyable, I hope I was the same.
6. The tournament ran on-time and smoothly IMO. That says to me most everything was in order.
7. You can see some of my thoughts on the breakdown of the two brackets here.

[The B.I.V.]

I fear greatly that I may have left my Ornak and 4 Blade Gruts on he last map I played on. It was against Myren's daughter Cecily on Jagged Causeway:


If anyone has an info, I'd appreciate it!

EDIT:Great all-around tournament. 3 things:

1. I was somewhat surprised to see Dragons/Greenscales. I figured the 450 point limit would be too restrictive. I'm also surprised that they did so well. I really don't think they're that great on paper. I think the inclusion of Raelin was key (again something I didn't expect at 450 points). Nilf is definitely the best option for this army (as the results showed). I think my army was well suited to taking these armies down (as Cyprien could easily take out Raelin/the Dragon. If not for that lucky roll, I think my army had a great chance against the Braxas build. Had I won that, I would have been 5-0 and Braxas would have gone 3-2. Ah, could have beens...

2. K, I'm gonna sound like the bad guy but I was little annoyed at all the kids in the adult bracket. Maybe it's because 3 out of 5 of my matches were against them. I felt kind like an Ogre beating up on them, which wasn't fun but at the same time, I didn't want to lose...not really sure what can be done about it (or if anything really should be done about it at all)...just an observation.

3. Never got to play against the minions or the Warforged. I also saw a Hydra x2/PK army that looked pretty mean. I'm surprised that didn't do better...

Brandon

[UtahScott]

Originally Posted by The B.I.V.

...I'm gonna sound like the bad guy but I was little annoyed at all the kids in the adult bracket. Maybe it's because 3 out of 5 of my matches were against them. I felt kind like an Ogre beating up on them, which wasn't fun but at the same time, I didn't want to lose...not really sure what can be done about it (or if anything really should be done about it at all)...just an observation.

Originally Posted by UtahScott

I always let the kids choose who they want to play, most of them went with the adults this year.

Hmm. Maybe if I rename it the teen bracket...
Naw, I'm good with their decisions.

Anybody seen Brandon's orcses? Details above...