GenCon 2012 Battle Reports

[vegietarian18]

I know that I personally tried to find some GenCon reports a couple days before I left, but it seemed like there were only individual people's (usually those who won something) reports in each thread. It was kind of a pain to find individual reports and truly get a feel for what happens (outside of those lucky winners), so here is a thread for everyone to post their tales of success and failure at the Con! If you want to post them in your personal battle reports thread too, go ahead with that. It'd be really cool if you posted them in here as well. It's always fun to get multiple perspectives on the same battle.

I'm going to type up a couple events reports now, and I'll finish the rest later.

Main Event

My army was:
Romans x4
Marcus
Me-Burq-Sa
Marcu
Raelin

I thought that it was a pretty strong build that could get extremely high defense numbers when played effectively, and also had an answer to everything.

Round 1 vs. jdtenor (Romans x3, PKs x2, Marcus, MBS, Isamu) on Ticalla Sunrise

It was sort of a mirror match, but the parts of our army that differed were much more important than the parts that were the same. He led with MBS and Romans, and my MBS was able to get height and take out his first Warlord in two turns. This gave me time to get Raelin on to a good perch and roll up Romans. His PKs came next, going for my kyrie. They were successful in their assassination, but they died shortly after it was completed. Afterwards, it was simply a war of attrition, and the numbers were on my side. My Romans slowly whittled away at Marcus to limit his activations and move, and he fell. The remaining romans were caught in the low ground swamp, and it was easy for me to take height and finish him off. Isamu pulled off some Vanishing magic for quite a while, but I got him with the wound glyph.

1-0

Round 2 vs. ?? (Kato, Harqs x2, Yari x3, Isamu) on Fossil
I've never played against Harqs before, and I was a little bit afraid of how I'd do. My initial scheme was to move Me-Burq-Sa out for an early assassination attempt on Kato, but the 8 activations per turn really threw that off. He always had at least one spearman standing on the path that I planned to take. The battle wasn't all that eventful. I kept almost all my figures huddled together for Shield Wall and Raelin's aura, and he almost never defended with his 1 defense Ashigaru. Isamu vanished around again on me, and I had to Wannok him to death again.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Deroche (Glads x3, Blasts x2, Raelin) on Trailblazer
Unfortunately, both of my opponents dropped after their second game. I knew that I'd have to go 4-1 to make Day 2, because my SOS would be super low. My third matchup didn't make things easier. I put Raelin and MBS on Lava to get height, and only took about 2-3 wounds because of it the whole game. His Raelin just wouldn't fall, and he rarely moved his figures outside of her aura. The game came to time and I lost because I couldn't kill his last Glad, which is frustrating because I was playing much faster than he was, but I guess that's just how these things go sometimes.

2-1

Round 4 vs. Orcelmyfarone (Nilfheim, Raelin, Greenscales x3) on Fossil
Since my game with Deroche went WAYYYY over time, someone came over and wrote down the results while we were picking up. Deroche was saying something about how he didn't play very well, and was confident I would have won had we played it out, and the person who wrote down our scores interpreted that as him saying he lost, so I was entered into the computer as 3-0, giving me a 3-0 opponent. Oops.

This army was the one that I first decided on for my RTW army, so I had a bit of an idea on how to beat it. Raelin was a crucial part of the army, so MBS had a big role in my plan. He stepped onto the highest point on the board (Nilf occupied that spot on the mirror end) and fired down on Raelin every single turn. She went down, and the Greenies fell quickly after that. He did the best he could, but it was a bad matchup for him.The game was a fun and fast-paced one. We finished fifteen-twenty minutes before time was called, which is great.

3-1

Round 5 vs. jacob_p (playing PKs x3, Q10, Raelin, Isamu) on Jotun's Gap

This game was pretty much decided in the first round. I moved MBS one space out of Raelin's aura after I miscounted, and I really didn't want him to die without killing Raelin, so I plopped my own Raelin right in front of him. My Raelin rolled awful shields (dying in around four attacks of three, some from low ground), and MBS didn't do much better. I tried my best to recover from that, but I don't think I killed much at all.

3-2

My strength of schedule put me two points out of Day 2, because three of my opponents made Day 2. A lesson to all: don't drop. You never know what effects it has on others people's SOS, and I really felt that I was playing well enough to make it to the second day and at least try and win my first game. Oh well, there's always next year I guess.

General Wars

I played:
Redcoats x6

I figured that since it fit perfectly in the point total and hex limit, I wouldn't be the only guy playing this trying to win Einar. I didn't really ask for too many people's heroscape names during this event, as I was kinda having more fun than I did at the last one and didn't really care.

Round 1 vs. ?? (Nilfheim, 4th x3, Tarn)

I thought this was one of those "lead with your dragon, make your 4th Valiant when he dies" armies. He played it the opposite way. He led with the 4th, and I got height and they fell quickly. Nilfheim tore through my army when he came out, but he eventually was taken down from his perch on height, and I was able to WTF him down. The Tarn put up a good fight at the end, but my remaining two squads of Redcoats dispatched them. I gave him the idea of making his 4th Valiant by leading with the Tarn and Nilf, and I think he did that later in the day and had more success with it, which is good to hear.

1-0

Round 2 vs. ?? (Romans x4, Marcus, Master of the Hunt) on Elswin Plateau

The guy I played was a good player, but my army was a lot better and I rolled a ton of skulls, and the MOTH was a bit of a waste of points because I had no heroes. I secured the move glyph early, and had 10 move Redcoats charging down the road and using the Bayonet. It was kinda crazy. I targeted Marcus early, and he took five wounds but held out for at least two more rounds before dying. The Romans were slowed down after that, and the 10th were able to hold height and WTF the rest of his army.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Megasilver (Venocs x7, Venoc Warlord, Arkmer) on Trailblazer

I've played against Mega's Venocs before (and lost), but I had a bit better of a strategy against them this time (hint: don't roll your figures up). He got a double frenzy on turn two and blew threw quite a bit of the redcoats, and I had to recover from that huge blast. The tide turned when I killed four vipers on turn 3, and then won initiative and wait then fired and killed four more in his start zone, bringing him down to two vipers. I killed them, and he lost an OM. I killed Arkmer, and he lost an OM. I went for the Warlord, who got one attack in before dying.

3-0

Round 4 vs. orcelmyfarone (Heavies x4, Grimnak, Nerak) on Fulcrum

This was another fun game against orcelmyfarone. He plays fast and just makes the game enjoyable all the time. I went for Nerak first, and I got him early. Grimnak came down next, but he chomped least four guys before dying, and boosted attack and defense for quite awhile. Towards the end I think it was five Redcoats against six gruts, and I just couldn't get through the Heavies defense, even with height. He did roll a lot of shields, but it made up for the ones he didn't get in our game in the main event. I was fine with losing to him, and he went on to win the whole shebang.

Round 5 vs. El Diabolo (6x Redcoats) on Invasion

A mirror matchup to decide the Einar title. It was going to be a looooonng game. I won the first initiative, which probably sealed the game. I got height first, and I was plowing through his Redcoats, and taking minimal casualties. I also secured the wound glyph. Then, late in the 2nd round, the tide turned. He killed my wound glyph guarder, took height, and started blasting down at me. I was the one losing lots of figures now, and I had to make a play. I killed his guy on the wound glyph, and took it back. I reclaimed the height. The game got down to five redcoats vs. two, and I made all the efforts possible to hold the wound glyph to win, and it paid off. It was a really close game throughout, but I had the advantage of getting to watch a Redcoat mirror match earlier in the con, and I got some advice for it. The biggest thing that I did differently than him was I went for height over the Bayonet attack and melee defense, and when I would Bayonet, I would do it with two figures to prevent him from Bayonetting without disengaging.

4-1

My SOS was just high enough to squeeze me out over the two other Einar 4-1s (one lost to the other though), and also the 4-1 from Aquilla who played in the title game. I got 3rd place and a SotM, RoTV, 5$ Auggies gift card, and an awesome plaque with the Einar symbol on it. SOS screwed me over in the Main Event, but helped me in General Wars.

[sixthflagbearer]

4x400

Armies: 4th Mass x4, Kyentela
Dividers x6, Krav
Stingers x4, Q10, Isamu
Nilfheim, PKs x3


This was the first one, and sadly I dont remember alot about it, other than I won with each army, and faced Filthy at the championships. He chose my Nilf/PK build, which I was expecting, so I chose his Arrow Gruts. Alas, Nilfheim went down early to a swog on height, that he just couldn't kill, and everything went downhill from there. He beat me handily, and our rivalry began. I got a SotM master set out of it, and a wave D3 booster (Bugbears and Orcs).


Lightweight

Army: Stingers x5

I didn't do as well in this one as I was hoping. I believe that I ended up 13th. I faced Filthy's cutters x4+ Mindflayer in either round 2 or 3. It was down to 3 stingers vs his full health Mindflayer, and his Mindflayer was victorious. he did get 2 successful OM takeaways, but both were my X marker (Woo-hoo!).

Day 1

Army: Dividers x5, Q9, Marcu.

I was really just hoping that I would be able to make day 2, which is why I put in Q9.

I dont remember who I faced the first 3 rounds, but I know I won them all. My round 4 was against Mattster, the eventual winner of the Championship. He was playing Glads/Blasts/Raelin, and I played Q9 out too far, he got surrounded by Glads, and died . It was pretty much over after that. Round 5 was against the guy who got 3rd Place (not sure of his name). He was playing PKs x3, Braxas, Marcu, Otonashi, and Isamu. He brought his PKs out early to take out Q9, in which they were eventually successful. The Dividers cleaned them up, but then Braxas came. The dividers could do nothing against her, and quickly died. Marcu tried to come out and get her, but was only able to do 2-3 wounds before her regular attack took him down. I ended up being the highest ranked 3-2, mainly because I won my first 3, and I had a full half point of SoS over the #16.

Day 2

This was fun. For gettimg to day 2, everyone got a Skahen. My first round, I had to play PKs x3, Q10, Raelin, and Isamu. I was able to take out Q9 relatively early, before he could take out too many Phantoms. I put Q10 on a shadow space, in Raelin's Aura, and also a few Phantoms, and began firing away. It was looking pretty good, until Q9 died to a lucky blow. It was pretty close, but in the end, I was defeated. I got a castle set and a $5 Auggie's giftcard for getting in the 9th-16th range.

I'll give accounts of General Wars and the Team Tourney tomorrow.

[NecroBlade]

4x400

Round 1: Roman Legionnaires x5, MDG, MBS vs Death Chasers x3, Ogre Pulverizer, Raelin RotV

One of my favorite armies facing one of my favorite armies! Unfortunately I didn't take notes beyond that and it was the first game of the 'con, so all I can tell you is that I won (numerical superiority will do that).

Round 2: Phantom Knights x4, Kaemon Awa vs Death Knights x3, Dumutef Guard x5, Sir Hawthorne

A little disappointed not to draw a ranged matchup for my Phantoms, but seeing different armies like this one is what makes the format so much fun for me. Despite losing defense dice, Awasome did manage to Counter Strike something. In the end, the combination of two of my favorite figures was a success.

Round 3: Venoc Vipers x7, Venoc Warlord vs Nilfheim, Greenscales x2, James Murphy

Pretty much the worst matchup possible for the Vipers, and getting only one Frenzy didn't help. Winning Initiative near the end to have Mittens kill Nilf from height kept things close, though, but it only took Murphy one Shotgun Blast (no Whip) to finish him off.

Round 4: Gladiatrons x3, Blastatrons x2, Guilty McCreech, Isamu vs Harquebus x5, Raelin, Marcu

Sheer numbers on the other team had me worried, and since we were on Jotun's Gap all I could do was pick one hill, use my superior Range, and hope the dice held out. They did, though it was still a pretty close game.

Overall I went 3-1 for a top 10 finish (roughly 7th, though one incorrectly-recorded game kept me from knowing for sure).


Lightweight with Aubrien Archers x4, Marcu

I was hoping to beat Stingers x5 with this army, but didn't face any. I went 2-2, losing to Goblin Cutters and Phantom Knights (horrible matchups) and beating 4th Mass and…I forget what else.


Championship with Death Chasers x4, Ogre Pulverizer, Raelin RotV, Nerak

Round 1 vs 4th Mass. x4, Drake SotM

This was a tough matchup, but also why I love the Death Chasers so much. That initial Rush onto the battlefield helps so much against Range. Thanks to that I was able to get to him before he could really set up, though it was still a very bloody assault. At one point, Raelin had picked up the Attack +1 Treasure Glyph, and needed to move to a new position anyway, so she dropped a 5-dice attack on Drake from height. I don't think she hit, but the distraction and Defense for the rest of my team allowed 4 Chasers and half a Pulverizer to go the distance.

Round 2 vs Marro Stingers x4, Phantom Knights x3

Even though I didn't have Range that was scared by the PKs, 4 Squads of Stingers could've been difficult on its own. Things went my way this game, though, and without remembering too many details, I did win.

Round 3 vs Knights of Weston x3, Airborne Elite, Gilbert, Eldgrim

I got beat fair and square by a brutal first-round Drop. After the game, I realized his army was illegal by 5 points. I brought it to the judges' attention, knowing he might be forced to change some of his results thus far to losses, but hoping there was a way for him to continue playing as well. Since it was round 3, though, he decided to drop after his results were changed. I hated to be "that guy" but it also would've looked really bad for the mistake not to be realized until he was in the finals or something like that (or, it would've been really funny Day 2 to say "Judge! My opponent is playing an illegal army!" ).

Round 4 vs Arrow Gruts x3, Krug, Nerak, Raelin RotV, Swog Rider x3

The matchup here would've been hard-fought again but for two things: we drew Isenfell for our map, which is pretty much the best one in the pool for Chasers; and winning an Initiative switch against Krug let me kill him before he got any Wounded Smash attacks.

Round 5 vs 4th x6

My opponent asked if I wanted to draw since we were both in Day 2 at this point, but I came to play 'scape so I asked if he wouldn't mind playing it out, even though there was no way in heck I could beat that army. I didn't; only took 2 full Squads with me. Either way, I advanced!

Day 2 Round 1 with Nilfheim, Greenscales x3, Raelin RotV

Another good map draw, Fulcrum, really helped me here. My opponent played it well, but Nilfheim decided to be one tough customer. The dragon rolled lots of shields early, suddenly took 5 wounds, then got the shields back just in time to survive multiple 4-attack turns in a row.

Day 2 Round 2 with Glads x3, Blasts x2, Raelin RotV

This time the Fulcrum draw helped my opponent more. I also could've chosen a better spot to set up the pod, but realized it too late. Still, dice were not kind to me, rarely hitting more than one skull on offense while he consistently had 3+. My Pulverizer also did well for him, after rolling pretty terribly for me all day Day 1. I lost, but finished in the top 8.


Team Tournament
Phantom Knights x4 + 4th Mass. x3, Sam Brown

Turned out Lonewolf & Scaper Dude brought the same army to finish second, so that makes me feel pretty good.

Round 1 vs
4th x2, MDG, Isamu + Q9, Raelin RotV, Rats

All day, my teammate and I were able to prioritize targets very well, and took out Raelin pretty quickly, followed by a focus on the non-Valiant 4th. Q9 didn't roll hot, either, which made cleaning up the rest of the army (armies) pretty easy.

Round 2 vs
Mezzodemons x4 + Q9, Raelin, Guilty

Our plan was to completely ignore the Mezzodemons until the other army was smoked, and it worked beautifully. Even though the Mezzos got extra Attack against nearly our entire army, two attacks per turn weren't enough to take out our swarm. Raelin, then Q9, then Guilty fell, leaving us with Mezzos. They had only lost 2 Exoskeleton Markers to pot-shots up 'til now, but with our entire focus on them, we actually managed to kill them all just before match time ran out.

Round 3 vs
Phantom Knights x3, Concan + Sentinels of Jandar x2, Marcu, Isamu, Otonashi

A lot of tough Defense on the other side for the 4th to shoot at. Knowing that going to time was a possibility, we went for the more expensive Sentinels first. The sheer number of attacks we brought against them took them out without too many casualties on our side. Concan came in while the PKs held the Unique Attack Glyph, but he died, too, without hurting us too badly. This was the only game that went to time, and we won 410 to 280.

Round 4 vs
4th x4 + Q9, Heirloom

We had a very winnable matchup on our hands, on Elswin Plateau, but the dice wouldn't allow it. Q9 rolled 2 skulls on almost every single Queglix attack, and averaged almost 3 shields on defense. Despite triple WTF from height, it wasn't until the very end of the game that we got 3 wounds on him. At least we lost to the Team Event winners, and got 4th place ourselves (which was hilarious because we were team T.H.I.R.D.).

[infectedsloth]

I did not take notes except in the beginning and only for map and match up so if you remember the match differently your probably right.

4X4

• Zombies x5, Krav
• Knights x4, Gilbert, Isamu
• Phantoms x4, Fen Hydra
• Vencon Warlord, Venoc Vipers x7

No preparation for this event what so ever, I never play Zombies or Vipers so this was more of a fun event for me.

Round 1: Map Burial Marsh
My Army: Knights x4, Gilbert, Isamu
Opponent: Wookie: Grimnak, Heavies x4

We got confused and accidentally played our number one army since it was round one. We advanced up the right side with me getting the better of the engagement. It was a tight game and we were both playing slow, not wanting to make a mistake. They called out a 5 or 10 minute warning. Then Grimnak started eating through my Knights on the way to my starting zone. I pulled knights from the other side to combat his advancing Heavies, Time was called not much later with me killing 11 Heavies and him killing 9 Knight. My lack of Gencon experience showed here as I did not figure up the points when they gave time warning, if I did I would have played differently and had a much better chance of winning the game. But I was still happy with a tie for my first Gencon game and was moderately pleased with how I played.

0-0-1

Round 2: Map Trailblazer
Army: Venoc Warlord, Venoc Vipers x7
Opponent: Orcelfarmyone: Major Q9, Krav , Rats x3

I don't think I have to write a report for everyone to figure out how this game went. Orcelfarmyone is a very good player who did not make any mistakes for me to capitalize on. He turtled making me come to him, my vipers could not get through the 4 defense rats and Q9 would proceed to shoot down all vipers in range. My only hope was a ridicules frenzy turn, but I only got 1 or 2 the entire game. His Krav finished off my warlord. I killed 2 or 3 rats total, but I don't think I could have done any better he played too good and the mach up was too bad.

0-1-1

Round 3: Map: Burial Marsh
Army: Knights x4, Gilbert, Isamu
opponent: Mcheroscape(sp?) Drow Chain Fighter x4, Estivara, Deepwyrm Drow, Spiders, Pelloth

It was at this time that I realized that I played the wrong army for my first match. My opponent told me to just play my knights again since that is what I should be playing now. The knights moved out and with 5D most of the time and superior numbers he could not push me back. I won losing a couple knights in the process.

1-1-1

Map: Elswin Plateau Opponent: Sir Dendrik
Army: Zombies x5, Krav
Romans x5, Me-Burg-Sa, MDG

I made the some horrible strategic mistakes that cost me this game. I have never played against Romans in the hands of such a skilled a player like Sir Dendrik so I overestimated the Zombies ability to kill the Romans, and I overestimated the zombies hoard movement and lastly I underestimated Me-Burg-Sa. He moved Me-Burg-Sa up to height while his Romans moved up the middle and secured the move glyph. He continued to advance Romans from his SZ to the middle, while he positioned Me-Burg-Sa on height, while not being adjacent to the road. With 8 range he killed off my first wave of advancing Zombies. With Me-Burg-Sa in such a good position I decided to abandon the high ground and attack the middle, but by this time almost all his Romans had advanced and were in a impenetrable shield wall. He moved up MDG so with the extra attack die and 5 attacks per order marker were too much for my zombies as they quickly fell. I used some Zombies as an attacking screen that allowed my Krav to kill a couple Romans before becoming engaged and dying. He had a full life MDG, Me-Burg-Sa and somewhere in the low teens of Romans. I thought I played a good tactical game but my strategic mistakes were so bad that I beat myself before I made my first move.

Overall 1-2-1 for my first losing record.

Lightwight

I thought that most people would be playing 4th mass or stingers or maybe something like Romans x4 MDG so I choose Rats x3, Krav, Raelin.

Map: Burial Marsh:
Opponent not on Heroscapers: Ogre P, Heavies, Grimnak

With his army there was nothing he could do, I won handily.

1-0

Map: Fossil
Opponent: Cleon: Stingers x5

Cleon is a fantastic player but the army he brought was exactly what my army counters. I set up my Pod with Realin on height behind the road with Krav behind the large tree. Krav sat on the elavated sand near the edge of the map. All the krav were in Raelin's aura with rats clogging the middle. He moved his Stingers to height and strategically attacked either my krav or rats. I was killing his stingers but they just kept on coming. I could have done a little better with some of my scurry's because he was able to break through the far right side, forcing me to retreat back to my starting zone. I was able to push his stingers back while he took shots at Raelin and eventually killed her. Somewhere in all the battling a Krav fell, but the last two with a depleted rat screen were able to finish off his last stingers.

2-0

Map Burial Marsh for the 4th time in 7 games
Opponent: Orcelfarmyone's Dad: 4th mass x4

This was another army that I counter well. I put my first two order markers on rats to clog the left side and secure the unique attack glyph then I moved Raelin to height, right behind the rock outcrop. Looking back I should have put all 3 order markers on rats. He was able to get some attacks off on Realin, then with an initiative switch, even more. I moved up my Krav but I could not get too close, for fear of becoming engaged. His 4th were able to withstand 2 of my attacks and finish off Realin and a Krav. My Krav moved up to even ground and killed off his first wave of 4th mass. I secured height with a rat screen in front of me, but it cost me more than it should have. My rats and his 4th slowly died off but my Krav stood tall. I was able to position a rat right in front of his start zone were he would have to give up hieght if he wanted to make a charge and come at my Krav. My Krav were on the opposite height, as were his remaining 4th. He opted to go around the map and attack up at my Krav. It was now a rat and 2 Krav versus 2 4th mass. I thought I had the game won but I whiffed leaving me with only one Krav. He killed one 4th mass but he got engaged and fell. Time was called with me having a rat and him having a 4th mass. I should not of lost that game, but I made an early mistake and got unlucky at the end. If I didn't make the early mistake I could have overcome my late game unluckiness and won, so I can only blame myself.

2-1

Map: Jotun's Gap
Opponent: Cornpuff: Grimnak, Baldes x3, Isamu, Nerak

This was the army I was going to play if I did not play my army. I went from a probable 3-0 to a almost certain 2-2 all in the span of about 2 minutes. I suppose I could have turtled in the back corner of my staring zone and not moved, but I really don't want to play like that and I still probably would have lost if cornpuff played it right which I'm sure he would have.

He Moved up Grimnak conservatively to height on my right side while I moved up my pod to the left and completely clogged the middle with just two rats. His blades moved up and killed my Krav very quickly but Realin survived far longer than she should have. My rats were able to kill a good amount of blades before Realin fell and Grimnak chomped me for a loss.

2-2

Main Event

My Army: Phantom Knights x4, Fen Hydra, Marro Warriors

Round 1: Map: Fossil
Opponent: Orcelfarmyone's Dad: Death Chasers x4, Ogre P, Realin, Nerak

I moved Phantoms and Marro Warriors into position on Height while he moved his entire army to the road area making sure I could not get height. If I remember correctly this took 2 full rounds. Death Chasers with 5 defense are brutal, but I was able to soften them up with my Marro Warriors from height. He sent out his Ogre P and I was able to take height, killing him without him doing much damage. My last Marro warriors fell soon after. I was able to pick my battles with the Phantoms and started depleting his Death Chasers, but my Phantoms were also becoming scarce. I was pushed back to the sand outpost on the right side of my starting zone. I moved out the Hydra who killed Nerak in one turn who had moved up to kill my Phantom on Wannok. Time was called with me having a full life fen hydra and 3 Phantom Knights and him having 5 Death Chasers and a full or one wound Realin.

0-0-1

Round 2: Map Fulcrum
Opponent David: MDG, 10th, Romans Me-Burg-Sa

We played next to each other the first round and we both tied. I opened with putting Fen Hydra on the 3 hex Height and Marro Warrior in front of him to make him less susceptible to attacks. The other Marro Warriors moved out to meet his advancing Romans. They did very well, killing 5 or 6 before they died. I now sent out my Phantoms who fought his remaining Romans and Warlords. As that happened I slipped a phantom in behind and attacked his idle 10th reg. I moved out Fen Hydra who finished off MDG and the last of the Romans. My PKs killed his 10th reg and I had a full life Fen Hydra and 3-5 PKs left.

1-0-1

Map: Ticalla Sunrise
Opponent: Turkeyclupsamich: 10th reg x4, Cyprien

He started slowly moving out 10th reg while I spread out and sent out my Marro Warriors to take advantage of the 10th reg range weakness. They killed 5-7 10th reg before they all fell. He moved out some more 10th and Cyprien while I countered by moving some Phantoms into position and moving my fen hydra towards Cyprien and Wannok. I don't recall exactly what happened but I know my Fen Hydra and His Cyprien both underperformed and by the time they both died the battle over wannok was over. We were both at about 8 or 9 PK's or 10th. We battled evenly, mainly because one of his 10th that he had long since abandoned refused to die. By the time I did kill him we had 3 of our respective squads apiece and they were all engaged. I won initiative and killed 2 or 3 securing me the win. It was a well played and hard fought game that could have gone either way.

Map: Trailblazer
Opponent: Deroche: 3x Glads, 2x Blasts, Raelin, Otonashi

I moved up my Phantoms and secured the unique attack glyph early. With their boosted attack I moved up my Marro Warriors who did a lot of damage to his smaller starting zone before he could set up his pod. He set up a strong pod with Raelin on the height non-lava tile surrounded by lava or glades with another wall of blasts then an outer wall of glads. Without any range I had to pick my opportunities with my Phantoms. I hit what I thought was the only weak point (if you could call if that a weak point) and was able to battle trons outside of Raelins aura. His four attacks of 4 or 5 could get through my 7 defense dice. With time Running out on my third order marker I moved up Fen Hydra hoping to win initiative and attack his main pod but time was called before I could implement my plan. I had a full life Fen hydra and around 5 Pks and he had a full life Raelin, 7 blasts and around 5 or 6 glades.

2-1-1

Map Burial Marsh
Opponent: Cleon's Dad: Krav, Tagawa Samuri, Rats x2 Guilty Keamon Awa

I moved up the Marro Warriors to attempt to kill some Tagawa before they could get blood lust going because that was his best hope of winning. They were able to hop on both treasure glyphs and kill a Tagawa. I then sent out the PKs who killed Kaemon relatively fast (the marro might of helped) and kill the Krav. His last two Tagawa were able to get Blood Lust going but with only two of them it was just a matter of time before my phantoms got through. The remaining Phantoms killed Guilty, and Fen killed the Rats.

3-1-1

After a disappointing Tuesday I was extremely happy to make it to day 2. I think I made it in with either the 2nd or 3rd weakest army, which is what I was hoping for. With the way I was playing I felt like I could make a run at the title. I had to stay late for Major Q23's Treasure quest event but I was done for the night...or so I thought.

Treasure Quest

They needed another player for the Treasure Quest event so I decided to jump in and fill the last spot. I did not have many figures to work with but in about a minute I threw together what I thought was a respectable army. It was

Krug
Realin
Keamon Awa
Fen Hydra
Marro Warrios

I was given a quick overview of the rules, then it was off to my first match

Map: Fossil
Opponent: Dok: Nilfhiem, Greenscales x2, Cyprien, Sonya

Dok was my first opponent...you've got to be kidding me . After the first round I could tell that this was way different than normal scape. I played a deathmatch style game, moving Raelin onto height behind the hive and krug on the road with height on one side and the fen Hydra up the other side. While I was doing this Dok flew around with Nilfhiem grabbing Treasure glyphs. Next round I moved up Krug to engage Nilfhiem but he just used the glyph to disengage me without letting me roll, I thought that you could only use it once so my plan fizzled completely. This might be a good time to let everyone know that I NEVER play with treasure glyphs. I've picked up one in my life at the end of an online game so I have very little idea how to play with them and the details of what they do. He grabbed the rest of the glyphs and I lost.

0-1

Map: Fossil
Opponent: not on Heroscapers: He had Atlaga that's all I remember.

His Atlaga secured the Unique attack glyph and one hit my Fen then Killed my Kaemon in one or two. I was planing to hop on one of the last two unrevealed glyphs with Krug and not reveal it. Then I sent up the marro warriors with Raelin's aura. Right before I was about to do that Dok came over and said something to the amount of good luck in day two. My mind started wandering to potential match ups, different strategies, etc. When I hopped on the treasure glyph I was not thinking and instinctively revealed the glyph. I noticed what I did a second too late and the next turn he revealed the last glyph giving him the win

0-2

I had no hope the first game and the second I should have won but got really unlucky and did not really know how to play. At this point I really did not care because I was extremely hungry and tired, plus my mind was in another place. I was treating these games like casual games.

Map: Fossil
Opponent: Vegetarian18: Deathchasers

We knew each other from local tournaments and all I remember was talking smack to each other, talking about our past games, or other heroscape related things. I lost obviously and I don't think it was close. I honestly could not tell you my strategy for this game, due to the fact it was nonexistent. I'm sure if I played for real I would have lost anyway, veggie is a good player and his army was better than mine for this event.

Map: Elswin Plateau
Opponent: Jdtenor nephew: Army ???? no clue

My adrenaline from making day 2 was wearing off a little and I did not want to go winless. This time I actually thought of a strategy . I moved Raelin with Fen Hydra And Krug to the lower level to snag some T-glyphs. After that, I don't remember anything except asking Jdtenor, who was playing next to us, a ton of questions about T-glyph/treasure quest rules we did not know.

1-3

In case you did not pick up on the tone of my treasure quest report, it did not bother me that I went 1-3. I got to play 4 more games of scape, experience a new play mode that might come in handy at next years gencon, and most importantly have a good time.

Main Event Day 2

Map: Isenfell
Opponent: Pickle4192: Phantoms x4, Fen Hydra, Marro Warriors
My Army: 4th mass x6

When I saw the map was Isenfell I grimaced because this map is amazing for Phantom Knights. When he started pulling out 4th mass I knew I was in trouble, not only are 4th mass atrocious on this map but the Phantom knights counter them really well. This was the one of the few match ups I did not want and on the map I did not want over any other.

He put his first to order markers on his Fen Hydra and the X and 3rd on PKs, he moved his Fen Hydra to a vulnerable position and I was able to kill him the first round with my advancing 4th without losing a solider. I had hope now! that is until he unleashed the Pks which he played very well never allowing me to get high and attacking down when ever possible, for my part I made sure to never be in a position to give up high advantage unless I absolutely had to. With Isenfell raised I had to constantly move up troops which meant my attacks were usually 2v5. What made things difficult was my lack of shield rolling. There was a span where about 10 4th mass all died with out defending or maybe 1 shield. Because of this I could never get WTFs in at 3v5 or maybe even 3v4. My 4th mass died out with him still having 5 or 6 PKs and Marro Warriors.

0-1

It was a big let down losing but sometimes things just don't go your way. I did not have too much time to dwell on it because I was busy watching my brother I.S.B.3 win the kids tournament and my cousin Major Q23 make a strong run at Heat of Battle losing to Dok in the semis and finishing 4th or 5th.

General Wars

I was planning on playing the same army I did for the main event but I thought I would have an event in between so I wouldn't play back to back, but since I made it to day 2 I decided to change it to PKs x4, Cyprien, Marcu. I did not have much units to work with and I did not want to run Einar, Utgar or Aquilla because that is what Unseen Shadowz, I.S.B.3 and Major Q23 were playing and we did not want to overlap. I was still happy with my army, a thanks to Arrow Grut to lending me his Marcu.

Round 1: Map: Ticalla Sunrise
Opponent: Cleon's Dad: 4th mass x4 Sgt. Drake v2

The first few rounds did not see much casualties. I moved the majority of my PKs to the sand high ground and secured the Unique attack glyph making sure that his 4th could not engage me. He started moving out his 4th to the height just outside his starting zone and to the edge of his starting zone so he would have height if I tried advanced to attack him. I sent out Cyprien to the sand height and killed a couple of his 4th taking some wounds in the process. I retreated with Cyprien and relocated behind Wannok, he thought that I was done with my third order marker so he moved up some of his 4th where I could get to him without giving up height. I moved Cyprien up and killed both 4th taking me down to 1 wound, next round I won initiative and flew him back towards my starting zone. He now started to be more aggressive with his 4th, after a couple more rounds of back and forth battle we were even on points and time was called.

He played a strong game, never allowing me to get height once, so I was happy with the tie, it was my 3rd one this Gencon.

0-0-1

Round 1: Map Isenfell:
Opponent: Dok: Goblin Cutters x5, Cyprien, Sonya

The first 2 rounds I moved up all my PKs to the plateau, positioning them so he could not get a mob attack on any of them. While I was doing this Dok was carefully positioning his goblins. My plan was to fly around with Cyprien, killing goblins, then either grabbing the heal glyph or retreating behind my wall of PKs. Cyprien moved out and killed a couple goblins but took some wounds from mob attack in the process. With His third order marker he moved up Cyprien but missed his attack and chilling touch. He got an initiative switch but failed to put a wound on my Cyprien again. On my first chilling touch with my Cyprien I rolled a 20, killing his Cyprien in one hit. What made it even more lucky was the fact that his Cyprien was within 8 spaces of the heal glyph, so if I rolled even a 19 he would have just healed back to full health. The next couple rounds consisted of my Phantoms trying to engage as many goblins as they could so they couldn't all scurry away. He killed off most of my PKs but Cyprien flew in to finish off the remaining goblins and a heart broken Sonya.

1-0-1

Match 3: Map: Isenfell
Opponent: Fomox: Dwarfs x4, Mogrimm, Brave Arrow

I knew that I was going to have to get some luck again to win. Fomox really knows how to play dwarfs and he had a good match up, but the map did favor me. He moved up to the side with the move glyph, while I sent up my PKs to try to hold him off. He could not roll high enough for command strike as we traded blows for a little while. Then my dice got really hot and his cooled off. By that time I had around 4 PKs left I sent out Cyprien, who rolled another 20 on his first roll to kill Mogrimm. Cyprien and the PKs finished of the rest of the dwarfs and Brave Arrow

2-0-1

Round 4: Map: Fossil
Opponent: Major Q23: Dwarfs x4, Mogrimm, Brave Arrow

Going in to round four myself, Major Q23, Unseen Shadowz and I.S.B.3 were a combined 10-1-1 with all of use having a legitimate shoot at at winning our general. So I was disappointed that we were playing each other. I've played dozens of games versus him and knew that it was going to be another tough game. I used the same strategy as my game before, use my PKs to try to take out the axegrinders then sent out Cyprien to take chill touches to Mogrimm and use his normal attack to life drain his remaining dwarfs. It did not work, my Phantoms were able to get height occasionally but they rolled only average. After my PKs had died out I sent out Cyprien who was able to fly around and kill a couple dwarfs, but there were to many left and Cyprien eventually got swarmed and died.

2-1-1

I was felling a little under the weather before Gencon and it was getting slightly worse throughout the Con. But during my match with Major Q23 my health rapidly deteriorated. By the time I played my last match I could barely talk and my stomach felt like it was going to explode. I decided not to drop my last game because I was still going to have to hang around there anyway and it stinks when your opponent drops.

Map: Burial Marsh
Opponent: Tino: Krug: Stingers x5, Macu, Isamu

My plan was to use my first two order marks on Cyprien to grab a T glyph and then fly back to cover, but I rolled for the trap and his Stingers killed him before he could move. Again I thought about dropping but did not want to seem like a poor sport. I moved up my Phantoms but I did not think think through my moves or see if his stinger could engage me on his next turn. I started losing PKs pretty fast, I was barely playing so I decided at the end of a round to just call it. I think I had 5 or 6 PKs left.

2-2-1

I said some good byes even though I had the Team Tournament tomorrow with Q23. The only way I would not play is if I physically could not get out of bed but I feared that that could happen. Fortunately I started feeling a little better on the way to the hotel and after I got some food, medicine and sleep I felt up to play in the Team Tournament. The bad thing was we still did not know what we were going to play.

Team Tournament

Like a lot of people I thought rats would be good in this event, but Unseen Shadowz and I.S.B.3 were already using most of are rats, so we decided to go a different rout. I was in a favor of running 4th mass but it's hard to pursued someone who thinks 4th mass are overrated.
But after seeing the 4th mass in action (dominate) throughout the Con he began to change his mind. Going into the Gencon I was favoring using 4th mass x4 with Zetacron and PKs x3, but I had played phantoms a lot in the past couple days so I did not really push for them. We finally decided on 4th mass x4 with Heirloom, Kaemon and Marro Warriors. We had two types of special and strong clean up options.

Round 1: Map Burial Marsh
Opponents: ? they might have been on heroscapers, this was the one game I forgot to ask there screen names.
Armies: Mogrimm, Dwarfs x2 Isamu-Glads x2, Blasts x2

I moved up Heirloom, who pulled back the T glyph to the road just behind hind him. Our opponents started moving out the dwarfs and trons up the same side. Q23 sent out the majority of his 4th mass up the same side as our opponents right in front of my Heirloom. I moved my Keamon up and grabbed the T-glyph that Heirloom had pulled back, it was a heal glyph. We set to work trying to kill glads, but they rolled strong early defense dice and were able to engage my heroes. Q23 used IMO a ill advised WTF which allowed them to engage my heroes, and he did roll really poorly. It would have been the right play had it been a one on one battle, but I didn't have the order marker flexibility that he had, and needed his screen. After the game we discussed the differences between team and stranded battles and how we would adjust going forward. I think we came back stronger in our later games as I made some mistakes also. With Keamon surrounded he took some wounds and had to burn the heal glyph. Q23 was able to destroy the glads by my heroes and we began to do battle with the advancing dwarfs while his blasts moved up to the high ground. His Mogrimm engaged my Keamon but rolled poorly on attack and I was able to kill him with quick release and then swing around to hop on shadow. By this time his glads were being depleted and we were starting to get the upper hand, as Q23 4th continued to advance. His dwarfs were hesitant to attack attack my Keamon with 3v5 because of counter strike. With no bonding option and very little glads left it was only a matter of time. They were able to kill Keamon and Heirloom but my Marro Warriors and his remaining 4th were enough to close it out.

1-0

Match 2: Opponent: SlipperySlope and MegaSilver
Map: Elswin Plateau
Armies: Major Q9, Axegrinders/Realin, Krav, rats x3

Going in we knew that this game was going to be tough, and we were right. I moved up Keamon to the road high ground and Heirloom on the opposite side adjacent to a jungle tree. Q23 slowly moved up his 4th mainly to the middle area. They moved up Q9 adjacent to a jungle tree a flooded the map with rats, they also set there Realin and Krav pod. They engaged my Heirloom with rats which was exactly what I was hoping for. I called off Q23 attacks on the rats adjacent to my Heirloom. Next chance I got I disengaged the rat and took a wound which allowed me to grab the move glyph and heal. My plan to remove the heal glyph so there Q9 could but it was still an up heal battle. Q23 4th really could not do much except kill the occasional rat, move reserves up and keep out of range of his 6 defense Krav. Heirloom got one or two force orbs before being tied down and falling a little faster then I had hoped. Q23 had to risk a lot of disengaged and I almost every time they rolled a skull, my Keamon Used the road to run up and try to kill Q9 but only manged a wound or two. Time was soon called a we lost by a wide margin.

1-0

This was a frustrating lose not really because we lost but how we lost. The 4 of use spent so much time setting up for an epic battle and right when the real battle was about to take place we had to change our strategy. But even if we had another hour or two to play tings out odds are we would have still lost, but it would have been fun to play it out, and who knows we might have pulled it out.

Match 3 Opponent: Heirloom and Skytale
Major Q9, Fen Hydra/ SoBW x2, Marro Warriors

I moved Keamon up to the high ground while Q23 moved up his 4th to the plateau. Our opponents slowly moved Q9 to the snow topped middle, as there SoBW moved to tie up Keamon. The Major killed some 4th and wounded Keamon while we set to work trying to kill Q9. We put 1 or 2 wounds on Q9 and killed some SoBW but Keamon and some 4th fell in the process. That's when Heirloom when off, he killed the SoBW trying to soul devour him then killed Q9 and 2? SoBW with force orb. A Shade was able to tie Heirloom up by the heal glyph. I used the same strategy as the game before and disengaged him, but he rolled a shield, I moved back into engagement then disengaged again. Skytale figured out what I was doing and advised his partner to not roll for the passing swipe. Next turn I was still able to block off the heal glyph pretty well, and on my next force orb put several wounds on the Hydra. the 4th and Heirloom finished off Fen and the rest of the shades.

2-1

Match 4 Map Jotun's Gap
Opponents Cleon and his Dad
Armies: Stingers x4/Keamon Awa, Krav, Rats x2

This looked like a tough but winnable game. My plane was to rush Heirloom to our opponents start zone, because I could force orb them on my first turn. Then once he died send out Keamon behind the wall of 4th. This strategy would also help Q23 get his 4th to the high grounds relatively uncontested.

Somewhere in our long and constantly changing placement Heirloom got moved one place over so he could not force orb on the first turn. I did not notice this until it was to late and my turn had started so my strategy had to change. I took the high ground bordering the middle gap with Heirloom. He did little damage before being tied down, but he did not take any wounds and I stopped butting OMs on him, wanting to save him for later. Cleon moved up the right side while his dad moved up the Krav and rats up the left. My Keamon moved up with 4th to meet the stingers while the majority of Q23 moved up the other side. The 4th were able to take out 2 Krav in one turn, both were unengaged. Q23 4th were able to overrun the left side, but on the left side the fighting was more even. We lost Keamon and some 4th but Cleon lost a good amount of stingers. A time warning was called and even though we were in control of the game we were behind on points. We had to Kill the last Krav to win, I had 2 attacks of 3 all engaged. I killed him on my second attack and we won.

3-1

[dok]

Originally Posted by infectedsloth

Map: Jotun's Gap
Opponent: Cornpuff: Grimnak, Baldes x4, Marcu

Are you sure that's what he played? I only had one quick glance at his army (enough to say "Of course Tommy's playing blades" and "I really hope I don't play him") but I suspect he played Grimnak, Nerak, Bladesx3, (Isamu). There was a 16 space limit on the event, and the army you list there is 19 spaces.

Originally Posted by infectedsloth

Map: Fossil
Opponent: Dok: Nilfhiem, Greenscales x2, Cyprien, Sonya

Dok as my first opponent, you have got to be keeping me. After the first round I could tell that this was not normal heroscape. I played like a kill um game moving Realin onto height behind the hive and kurg on the road with height on one side and the fen Hydra up the other side. While I was doing this Dok fly around with Nilfhiem grabbing Treasure glyphs. Next round I moved up Krug to engage Nilfhiem but he just used the glyph to disengage me without letting me roll, I thought that you could only use it once so my plan fizzled completely. This might be a good time to let everyone know that I NEVER play with treasure glyphs, I've picked up one in my life at the end of an online game so I have very little idea how to play with them and the details of what they do. He grabbed the rest of the glyphs and I lost.

0-1

Yeah, I felt a little bad exploiting your inexperience, but then I remembered you destroying me in online play, and that you were in day 2, and I felt a little better.

Good games this weekend; it was nice to put a face to the name.

[mad_wookiee]

I have to say that I smile a bit every time I see a comment about the 4th not liking Isenfell.

[dok]

Originally Posted by mad_wookiee

I have to say that I smile a bit every time I see a comment about the 4th not liking Isenfell.

Unfortunately, not so good for Arrow Gruts, either. Casualties of war.

[infectedsloth]

Originally Posted by dok

Are you sure that's what he played? I only had one quick glance at his army (enough to say "Of course Tommy's playing blades" and "I really hope I don't play him") but I suspect he played Grimnak, Nerak, Bladesx3, (Isamu). There was a 16 space limit on the event, and the army you list there is 19 spaces.

Your right that's what he played, his Nerak did not do much so I forgot about him.

Originally Posted by mad_wookiee

I have to say that I smile a bit every time I see a comment about the 4th not liking Isenfell.

It's good to have maps that limit 4th/10th, The fact that I did not actually bring the 4th was the part that I was more disappointed with.

[OrcElfArmyOne]

Originally Posted by infectedsloth

Round 2: Map Trailblazer
Army: Venoc Warlord, Venoc Vipers x7
Opponent: Orcelfarmyone: Major Q9, Realin, Rats x3

I don't think I have to wright a report for everyone to figure out how this game went. Orcelfarmyone is a very good player who did not make any mistakes for me to capitalize on. He turtled making me come to him, my vipers could not get through the 6 defense rats and Q9 would proceed to shoot down all vipers in range. My only hope and it was a small one was a ridicules frenzy turn, but I only got 1 or 2 the entire game. I killed 2 or 3 rats total, but I don't think I could have done any better he played to good and the mach up was to bad.

0-1-1

I actually had Krav not Raelin(remeber they killed Mittens).