NecroBlade's ScapeCon III Battle Reports

[NecroBlade]

Three Headed Hydra (480▲/18 )

I ran Heavies x3, Grimnak, Nerak, Otonashi. Team T.H.I.R.D. (That’s How I Roll Dice) won every dice-off and chose to defer matchup bans every time. I won all 4 games, and at the end of every game I had 1-2 Life Grimnak and 1-4 Heavies left (plus Otonashi).

I felt pretty good about my semi-mirror matchup against Blade Gruts on Healing Waters. My opponent (KnightOfLight) outnumbered me (only by 3 figures since he had to sit 1) and had the better endgame piece (Erevan Sunshadow) but I had better stats. This was the only game Otonashi died, as she ate a Wannok wound. This was a big Chomp and smack fight over the high ground, that I did eventually come out on top of. I got a couple Heavies to Erevan but he was able to Fey Step away and draw the fight to the low ground around the tree and glyph, where it was extremely difficult to maneuver Grimnak. I got the win eventually, but not before he made this the closest game of the day.

Zombies/Kaemon Awa (Dysole) on April 9 could be difficult since there were already a lot of Zombies before they start coming back. I sent Grimnak toward the right side where the Zombie screen was thinnest, while she set the screen up across the entire map and switched to Kaemon. I thought this was a good strategy since losing screen Zombies while OMs are elsewhere isn’t too bad since they’ll come back later. Kaemon wasn’t able to pick his targets from behind the ruin, so he took a suboptimal spot that let me pivot Grimnak into Chomping one Zombie and smacking another, making a hole for a pair of Heavies to get at Kaemon. Kaemon went down, but Zombies were doing their thing. They even Overwhelmed Nerak successfully after he helped fight them off the Attack +1 Glyph which was a great tool for them, though thankfully they didn’t get to bring one back for that. I don’t remember exactly how many Zombies came back over the course of the game, but eventually the apocalypse was put down for good.

Facing Glads/Blasts (boromir96) didn’t sound too bad thanks to Chomp, but unfortunately it was on Ascension and Grimnak doesn’t fit alongside the ruin. I needed plan B, C, and D to pull this one out. First, I was able to rush Raelin with a couple Heavies before the Glads screened her off, but I didn’t kill her and any damage I may have done was irrelevant since I could no longer reach her. With Grimnak positioned as best he could boosting a couple Heavies but not getting surrounded by Glads, Nerak moved in to take a swing at a Glad. I don’t remember him succeeding at clearing a hole, but the return fire took all 4 shots from Blasts to kill him, so at least he bought me a turn. Thankfully at this point, the remaining Glads were tied up with Heavies, leaving Grimnak to make a flanking charge around glaciers. Blasts screened for Raelin for a couple Chomps, but after 2 tries Grimnak got her, too. Wounded Grimnak and the remaining Heavies cleaned up now that their defenses were down.

Last game was against Sacred Band with Marcus, Parmenio, and Airborne Elite (S1RARTOR1OUS). Airborne Dropping and killing Grimnak would be very bad for me, but thankfully that didn’t happen. They did Drop, and they and the Band put up a good fight, but ultimately Chomp was just too much of an advantage.

Meanwhile my teammates each went 2-2, but in the exact right way. We picked a couple sacrifice matchups and a couple 50/50s to give us the best shot at the other games. Our record was 8-4 in games and 4-0 in matches, earning us first place and first seats in the Sunday Championship.

[NecroBlade]

VC Pre-Built Armies

There were only 4 players and 3 of us went 2-1 in the round robin. Mike (OEAO) deferred prizes making me “first” since I had won the head-to-head with Phantom.

This was a fun event where I mostly tried to pick armies I hadn’t played much. Round 1 vs Mike on Origin I had Greenscales x4, Zogross, and Murphy vs his Gorillinators x4 and Zaeus. I led with Murphy to try to thin some out with his Special but he only got 2. Outgunned and facing an uphill battle, the Greenscales only killed 1 more.

Round 2 was my Gorillitroopers x3, Laglor, Kyntela against ScaredCultist’s Deathcommander, Deathstalkers x4. This was a great game. Aside from the filler Elf, every power on every card got used. Deathstalkers succeeded at a couple Mauls, Deathcommander bonded, used his Special, and gave out a few re-rolls. Laglor boosted Range and used his Special, and Gorillitroopers bonded, Toughed out some attacks, and used all modes of Autocannons. Ultimately, Gorillitroopers came out on top.

Round 3 was my Shaolin Monks x4, Master Lao Xin vs Phantom’s Marro Drude x5, Marro Hive, Re-Tak-Shi on Ascension. He tried to set up around one of the Glyphs, but Master and Monks made quick work of that vanguard, forcing RTS to retreat to his start zone. With control of the map, I was able to keep leaping in and Whirlwinding multiple Marro. They fought back, but went down too quickly for Rebirth to keep up.

[NecroBlade]

Age of Rebirth (480▲/18, restricted)

Despite getting nerfed on the Restricted list, I decided to stick with Death Chasers x4, Knight Primus Adelbern, Ogre Pulverizer (MBS & Nerak pre-Restriction), Isamu.

Round 1 vs MR_Chompy’s Death Chasers x6, KPA on April 9. I didn’t love that he outnumbered me (by 5 after sitting 1), but I had a second Bonding option. I sent the Pulverizer in first to try to soften up his KPA and leave mine the last one standing. This worked, though mine had 3 Wounds. At the end it was my 5 Life KPA vs 2 Chasers. I won Initiative which left him in an unwinnable position: KPA could Crush 1 Chaser and the most damage the other could do was 4, leaving KPA at 1 Life and Crushing for the win; he conceded.

Round 2 vs Dragon Ruler’s Festering Honor Guard, Marcu Esenwein, Marro Stingers x4, Queen Maladrix the Conqueror on Nightfall. This seemed like a tough matchup given the number of activations he could achieve, plus having some amount of Range. We traded pretty well for the most part, and the Queen failed her Infect chance before making the fatal mistake of leaving an FHG on height next to her, allowing me to clear it and take attacks down. The remaining Squad figures fought well, but with the Queen gone I now had the upper hand in offense and eventually took the win.

Round 3 vs KnightOfLight’s Axegrinders of Burning Forge x4, Darrak Ambershard, Dorim the Bulkhead Brawler, Marcu Esenwein on Healing Waters. This was going to be rough with Fearless Advantage working against both my Heroes. Outnumbered, I wasn’t able to do enough damage and he got a sweeping turn where Dorim and all 4 Axegrinders killed my last 5 Chasers, costing me OMs and ultimately the game. I then dropped to join 4x350.

[NecroBlade]

4x350 (350▲/14)

Round 1 my Dwarves x3, Migol vs Vegie Dad’s 4th Mass. x3, Eldgrim on Ascension. I don’t play Dwarves much, but immediately realized I’d have no chance if I didn’t sprint up the hill. 4th won Initiative and after their second turn and shots I still had a couple Dwarves within striking distance, so I started bringing up Migol. I was able to wrest control of the mountain and even though I still had to charge into WTF, alternating sprints and Bonding let me keep the pressure on and get enough activations to clear out his SZ. Win.

Round 2 my 4th x3, Eldgrim vs Mr_Chompy’s Blade Gruts x3, Grimnak, Guilty McCreech on Origin. I overextended Eldgrim to the Move +2 Glyph so the Orcs came that way to get rid of him. Meanwhile my 4th easily jumped onto height and shoot down. Grimnak only got in a Chomp or two before I was able to WTF him to death. Guilty came out shooting but was too squishy to turn the game around. Win.

Round 3 my Deathreavers x3, Major Q10 vs ViideoSayg’s Fire Elemental x6, Kurrok the Elementalist, Marcu Esenwein on Healing Waters. This was a dumb game where I don’t think I killed anything. I should’ve stayed put and forced Kurrok to come across the map, but I tried to move onto the hill. Never could set up a screen because the Fire were burning hot, and it only took a few attacks to kill Q10. Loss.

Round 4 my Nilfheim, Nakitas vs ISB3’s Fyorlag Spiders x4, Wyvern x2 on August 2. I didn’t love this matchup because either Wyvern could make short work of Nilfheim and the Nakitas could have a tough time from there. A Wyvern actually flew past and started scooping up and killing Nakitas while Nilfheim was busy with Spiders. It wasn’t until the very end of the game we realized at Height 2 the Spiders shouldn’t’ve been engaging and attacking Nilfheim from some of the spots they were, which was a huge disadvantage for me. Thankfully neither Wyvern went of and Nilfheim was able to survive on 1 Life. Win.

[NecroBlade]

Reverse the Whip (460/18 )

As I had had more success at SCI with a while-but-weak approach than at SCII with a splash army, I was looking to go back to that. I had looked at AGs (SCI army) but it wasn’t until I bounced some ideas around with Dysole that I landed on Arrow Gruts x3, Mimring, Ice Troll, Swog Rider, Raelin RotV.

Round 1 vs Samuelfrost4’s Alastair MacDirk, Kyntela Gwyn, MacDirk Warriors x3, Sir Hawthorne on Hydra. He opened with Alastair smacking Hawthorne (chosen by MacDirks), Overextending, and smacking him again to finally get 3 damage on him. A novel strategy that made 5-Attack MacDirks. While scary, their Heroes were still in the SZ and their 2 Defense was still squishy. Two of them did manage to block a 2-skull Fireline from Mimring, but when all of Mimring’s Firelines were 2-4 skulls they didn’t last long. This was probably the best Mimring rolled Firelines all day. Eventually with Alastair joining the fray Mimring did go down, but before long it was half Sir Hawthorne against the rest of my army. Win.

Round 2 with Mr Migraine’s Marro Dividers x3, Protectors of Ullar x2, Raelin RoTV on April 9. I was hopeful Protectors could take Mimring down, so I led with them. The key to beating my army is bullying Mimring and not letting him run away with the game. I was able to position Raelin to cover my advancing Protectors and the Glyph, so I could throw one down there to help punch through and start Arbalest. I wasn’t too worried about return fire from Arrow Gruts as it would still only be 2v5 without the Swog. Mimring did get caught outside Raelin’s Aura and was taken down pretty quickly. I was able to follow that up with a shot from height with the Attack +1 from the Glyph onto his Raelin for 5. Whiff. His Arrow Gruts and Swog started fighting back at that point, winning the battle of attrition with my Protectors. I switched to Dividers to try to close out the game. I got about 3 Divides over the next part of the battle, eventually coming down to about 5 Dividers against the Ice Troll. I was able to surround it and beat it down before it could Regenerate its way to victory. Win.

Round 3 vs johnnyfrisbee’s Estivara, Fyorlag Spiders x4, Marcu Esenwein, Wyvern x2 on Healing Waters. While I would have loved the high ground, the map was too small and johnny’s army too fast, plus he perched a Wyvern up there quickly for good measure. So I was basically just camping on the hill by my SZ and sniping with Mimring. Neither Mimring nor the Wyverns rolled very well all game. Estivara did get a wound through with her Special, but thankfully no more. This was purely a battle of attrition where I had to sit back and shoot and he rushed in and repeated. Mimring did die, but the rest of my army held up. Win.

Round 4 with ISB3’s 10th Regiment of Foot x1, 4th Massachusetts Line x1, Ashigaru Harquebus x2, Raelin RoTV, ,Wyvern x1 on Hydra. This was an excellent build that I did not look forward to trying to play into my army. The only thing I had that could bully Mimring was the Wyvern, so I led with that. The rest of my army was too squishy, even with Raelin. I wasn’t even able to get to Mimring, really, but I was able to scoop up Raelin and move her closer. The Wyvern’s attack only did 1 damage, but putting Raelin out of position was enough. My Harquebus (brought out next since I could maintain numbers) made short work of her and started battling Mimring and Arrow Gruts. He did well to snipe a 10th and a 4th, in addition to the Harquebus, to get those Squads below full strength. I WTF Mimring down to 1 Life, but he was not engaged. Missed opportunity here for the sacrifice play to have Mimring swoop into my SZ to line up 4 more Squad figures before going down. Even failing that, I was having to switch between Squads now and had to get lucky to take the Troll down in 1 turn so it couldn’t Regenerate through my remaining figures. I did and it didn’t. Win.

Round 5 vs OEAO’s Air Elemental x1, Arkmer, Heavy Gruts x3, Jorhdawn, Kyntela Gwyn, Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider on Hydra. All the road connected to all the height meant it would be very hard to play Mimring safely except from the longest Range. Mike did well to position Heavies all over the roads so he could threaten to rush Mimring at any time. Mimring did just enough sniping to keep the threat below maximum, and when the Orcs finally did come in both Nerak and a Heavy whiffed their first attacks. My Dragon and Orcs in turn kept thinning things out, and the Ice Troll even got involved to take up space and a big swing since Mimring would’ve only had 1 target anyway. The Heavies turned their attention to the Troll, getting it to 1 Life. I had 1 turn left in the round which I used to heal the Troll, then won Initiative and healed it again. Down to all but the Elf & Air pod and no more damage going on the Troll meaning my army was returning to 0 damage on it, Mike conceded. Win.

Top 8 with Dragon Ruler’s Ashigaru Harquebus x3, Master of the Hunt x1, Otonashi, Raelin RoTV, Tarn Viking Warriors on Origin. Oh great, more squishy Harquebus. At least I had MoTH to bully Mimring. And bully he did. R1OM2 he killed the Swog that had tried to set up a pod right outside the start zone. R1OM3 he disengaged from the Troll and 3 Arrow Gruts taking 3 wounds (no other damage so far) to attack Mimring from height. 4 skulls into a whiff, plus 2 more from Mortal Strike and Mimring was dead in one shot. Winning Initiative, R2OM1 saw the exact same to Raelin: 4 skulls, whiff, 2 more from Mortal Strike. In just 3 turns, all his Heroes except the Troll were dead. The game was by no means over. The Troll and Arrow Gruts with height (2v3 is still a very good attack) started thinning out my Harquebus while my Tarn tried to intercept. This didn’t accomplish much except dead Tarn. With only about half the Harquebus left and the Ice Troll now engaged and swinging, I had one shot to take it out before it started Regenerating and swept the game. WTF got there, and it was just a matter of cleaning up Gruts. Win.

Top 4 vs Nathan I_S’s Brave Arrow, Estivara, Fyorlag Spiders x4, Theracus, Wyvern x1 on Dark Fulcrum. This was a slightly less scary version of johnny’s army I beat earlier, so I felt OK about the matchup. At first I thought the map draw would be in his favor with all the defense bonuses, but there were no Glyphs for him to control (my army isn’t the best at contesting them) and I could just pod on the hill right next to the SZ. Not my favorite way to play, but that’s what I did just like the other Spider matchup. Mimring and Arrow Gruts Firelined and shot everything that came over the hill. Estivara took a shot at Venoming Mimring but didn’t connect. Spiders had one chance at Entangling Web but didn’t connect. Then it was back to the Dragon & Grut show, with 1 or 2 moves of the Ice Troll to clog things up. Win.

Final with Chris Perkins’ Death Chasers of Thesk x2, Me-Burq-Sa, Nakita Agents, Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider, Raelin RoTV, Roman Legionnaires x1 on Nightfall. This could be a tough matchup. It’s a slightly splashier build than mine, so I don’t love the low numbers of any given unit or relatively low Defense (though Nerak and Raelin help some). I do however get Death Chasers, so I decide to try to use Battle Rush to bully Mimring. Nakitas can’t Smoke Powder Fireline and should clean up well in the endgame. Chasers take a beating but are able to force a wounded Mimring back to his SZ and MBS snipes the Swog who had podded up just outside. As planned, I’m able to switch to Romans when Chasers get low to keep MBS going. Despite successfully Staring Raelin, I shoot Mimring since I can’t kill Raelin in 1 turn. Meanwhile Romans use the road to advance and kill 1-2 Gruts. MBS then risks 3 disengages while already at 1 wound but only takes 1 more so he’s able to get another shot down on Mimring. With Mimring down to 1 I use an Initiative win and OM1 on Nerak to attack Mimring in his SZ. I don’t kill him but he is tied down unless he wants to risk Disengage. Eventually it comes down to Raelin and Nakitas (plus 1 random Chaser) vs Raelin, Ice Troll, and a handful of Arrow Gruts. Nakitas keep up the Smoke Powders until the Troll is able to cross the map and take a swing. He misses, which allows my 3 Nakitas to kill him next turn. They clean up Gruts and it’s Raelin’s turn to come in. She takes Engagement Strike from one and kills it. But the last 2 Nakitas take her down. Win.

[NecroBlade]

Lightweight Berserkers (300/12, free Tarn)

I ran Nilfheim, Airborne Elite. At such a low point total, Nilfheim can hold his own and Airborne Dropping could be absolutely devastating. Plus it just sounded fun.

Round 1 vs MegaSilver’s Fen Hydra x1, Kaemon Awa, Zetacron on April 9. Seemed like a decent matchup, and Airborne Dropped round 1. They proceeded to kill Zetacron and deal 0 damage to anything else… Then Kaemon killed the Airborne. Then Nilfheim killed Kaemon. Then the Hydra killed Nilfheim. My Tarn didn’t stand a chance against his plus a THH. Loss.

Round 2 vs Phantom’s Ne-Gok-Sa, Roman Legionnaires x2, Valguard on August 2. NGS is scary in this format, but slow Romans are pretty easy pickings for Nilfheim. We both led with Tarn, his Charging to get in some surprise attacks that left me with 1. I set him up to take space on the 3-hex perch for Nilfheim to land there more safely if needed. Airborne did not Drop early, so it was up to the Dragon, who carefully stayed just far enough away to Ice any Roman that could reach him by leaving the road. Eventually they got to him and Valguard put in a couple First Assaults. Nilfheim was still whittling them down, but was down to just 1 Life before the Airborne finally Dropped at the last possible moment. NGS was a tough nut to crack, but scattered and engaged Romans and Valguard weren’t much of a threat, and the Airborne closed out the game. Win.

Round 3 vs The Orange Mailman’s Parmenio, Roman Legionnaires x2, Valguard on Ascension. Not sure why Parmenio was here in place of NGS, but I wasn’t about to complain about an easier matchup. Given I had won the previous game and the Drop happened much sooner, this went about as expected. Win.

Round 4 vs caps’ 10th Regiment of Foot x3, James Murphy on Nightfall. Finally, some more Range to face! Nilfheim had to play carefully, bouncing back and forth between sides of the map to limit return fire and WTF opportunities, since Airborne didn’t Drop right away. We traded 10th for wounds on the Dragon until the Airborne finally did Drop. They also traded with 10th but were also able to take the Attack +1 Glyph and make short work of Murphy. What was left of Nilfheim, Airborne, and Tarn eventually went the distance. Win.

[NecroBlade]

Marvel Mastermind (430▲/9, free Red Skull)

Captain America, Marro Warriors, Zetacron

Apparently if you win 9 games of Marvel in a row, you get the 10th win free (I got the round 1 bye; lame).

Round 2 vs The Orange Mailman’s Deathwalker 8000, Morsbane, Nakita Agents, Shiori, Zetacron on August 2. This was a neat build, though it loses points for not having a Marvel Hero outside Red Skull. If I could get rid of Nakitas and DW8K, my Marro Warriors would have little to contend with in the way of multi-attacks and could run away with the game. He led with Zetacron which didn’t give me time to set up a pod. My Zetacron attempted to kill his first, but he won the duel. Luckily Cap stepped in and immediately evened things back out. His Nakitas spread out to the Glyphs while my MW took shots at them and Cap moved toward the other Heroes. Cap killed DW8K in one hit, but was immediately killed my Morsbane (with help from the d20 +2 Glyph). That left a tall order for my MW. They did manage to Clone, kill the Nakitas, and Clone some more. I ended up down to 2 and failed both Clones. Morsbane killed another with a 20 (whew! No Negation), then the last one failed to Clone again. That’s OK, I got him back to the d20 +2 Glyph that was on swamp water and failed to Clone… Somewhere along the way I had killed Shiori, so it was my Red Skull vs his plus Morsbane. I killed Morsbane, but my Red Skull took the first wounds of the duel. I managed to pull ahead with his Red Skull at 1 Life and stuck on lava at the end of the round. So naturally he chose that moment for Dust of Death to succeed against mine. Loss.

Round 3 vs MrWookiee’s Captain America, Marrden Hounds x2 on Ascension. Even Hounds x2 is scary with this low figure count. They managed to cross the map and Plague/kill Red Skull and all the MW. Thankfully Cap was taking them out steadily, and when they failed their Movement roll 3 times in a row he was about to run around and clean them up. When his Cap came out, I was able to boost Zetacron with Tactician but only did 1 damage. I got my Cap to height, and since I believe mine was already damaged as well he went for the haymaker from adjacent. I blocked and then killed his Cap. Then Cap ran down the mountain, bouncing his Shield off the back of Red Skull’s head (he was facing away from the battle the whole time), and finished him off the next turn. Win.

Round 4 vs Mr_Chompy’s Captain America, Kozuke Samurai, Torin on Nightfall. Kozuke can be dangerous and Torin potentially posed a threat to Zetacron. When Torin led the charge I risked a Tactician-boosted Zetacron shot at him, which did a damage or two. Then closing in further I engaged and finished him off from height. I won the Captain America duel again. The Kozuke did some damage, but I steadily took them out, Cap getting a boost from the Attack +1 Glyph held by a MW to finish the game with a 7v3 while at 1 Life (technically risking Counter Strike, but failing a 4v3 then eating 5 Attack would have been worse; 90% that I hit and 3% chance of CS vs 35% chance to miss and 43% chance of getting killed on the follow-up attack). Win.

[NecroBlade]

4x4 Kill Your Swill (450/12 minimums, must include 2x Squad)

We all knew SamuelFrost4 was going to have a horde of Dumutefs, which he was supposed to put in slot 4 so the rest of us could run ours in other slots and still lend them when the time came. About 30 minutes before the event I also convinced him that it would be funny if one of his Swill armies was the crazy Major Q9, Rats x7 that someone had brought to Reverse the Whip, so he changed one of his armies to that.

Round 1 vs army 4 (Obsidian Guards x3, Otonashi, Saylind the Kyrie Warrior, Shiori) with Samuelfrost4’s Deathreavers x6, Major Q9, Raelin RoTV on Ascension. You may notice someone accidentally put his armies in the wrong order. No, I did not pay Ken for this. Win.

Round 2 vs army 2 (Ashigaru Yari x2, Hatamoto Taro, Templar Cavalry x2) with Dysole’s Eldgrim, Kelda, MacDirk Warriors x2, Morsbane, Saylind on April 9. Tough matchup since the Templar could easily mow everything down, but I lost Initiative round 1 and gave myself the best shot I could: do nothing until OM3 where the MacDirks Bonded with Eldgrim who Overextended (and stayed safely behind the other Heroes) and hope for an Initiative switch. I got the switch, Bonded and Overextended again, and sent 4-Attack MacDirks to kill Templar. They did not trade well, only getting about half of them and leaving my Heroes to fight the rest. A couple Heals from Kelda and a whole lot of single attacks later and the Templar were down, but I only had half Saylind, half Eldgrim, and half one other Hero left. They took to one hill with Salind Summoning Eldgrim along with her, but there were just too many Yari and Encircle is very effective in this situation. 4 Yari and HamTaro remained. Loss.

Round 3 vs army 3 (Deathwalker 7000, Kelda, Moriko, Roman Archers x3) with Vydar_XLIII’s Air Elemental x2, Marro Drudge x2, Runa, Sharwin Wildborn, Water Elemental x2 on Dark Fulcrum. Runa could be a wildcard, but I liked Sharwin into the Roman Archers with their low defense and need to group up for their Volley. Sharwin did in fact charge across the map and fry most of the Archers, dodging DW7K on the way. Using Grasp and a couple attacks down, she also got rid of Kelda before Moriko ended her reign of terror. I expected Moriko to be the top Hero of this matchup, but Drudge actually dispatcher her relatively quickly. DW7K made his way across, swatting a few Drudge, but I kept them separated and despite the map’s defense bonuses eventually got a shot through Stealth Dodge. I cleaned up the remaining Archers from there. Win.

Round 4 vs army 1 (Anubian Wolves x2, Dumutef Guard x2, Khosumet,Taelord) with johnnyfrisbee’s Kelda, Morsbane, Otonashi, Sahuagin Raider x3, Shades of Bleakwoode x2 on Origin. I thought my army was funny because it packed a whole lot of synergy but couldn’t really do much with it. Dysole commented that getting up to 11 attack was scary, but IMO throwing 11 dice at a Yari or some other swill wasn’t a big deal. Being handed this d20 heavy army, I looked at johnny and said, “Here’s what we’re gonna do: Shades are going to steal Khosumet, then you’re going to roll a 1 for Unleashed Fury.” How’s that for Kill Your Swill. I started using Otonashi’s Tricky Speed to take the Move +2 Glyph, giving my Shades 9 Move. After launching them across the board to engage his Unique Heroes, they stole Khosumet on the first try. So far so good. Shades also threw a few wounds into everything else, but were unable to steal Taelord as their own numbers dwindled. A few turns later and the Anubians rolled a 1; we did it! Kill Your Swill, baby! By the time I was out of Shades, johnny was out of most things, too. Morsbane came across and negated Taelord, the later killed him with a 20, too! Morsbane cleaned up what was left, never needing Kelda or the Sahuagins. Win.

[NecroBlade]

World Championship (Draft pools)

Top 16 vs Cleon on Origin with the Utgar pool. Draft was:

Cody won the dice-off and picked Dwarves (70/4)
I picked Mimring and Dwarves (220/5)
Cody picked Heavies x2 (210/12)
I picked Arrows x2 (300/11)
Cody picked Ornak and MBS (360/14)
I picked Moltenclaw and Krug (590/13)
Cody picked Nerak and Darrak (470/16)
I picked Isamu (600/14)
Cody picked Marcu and a Swog (515/18 )

Sadly, this whole game needed a do-over. You’ll notice Cleon’s total only went to 515: because draft pools were formed from various people’s collections, ours happened to have Delta pricing stickers on the cards, which was the prices he was going by (and the one question no one happened to ask during the briefing beforehand). After drafting so many Squads early, he did have to sit figures anyway, and he dropped the Swog, 1 Heavy, and 2 Dwarves. He used Ornak to move Marcu and MBS behind his ruin, and I led with Mimring. Here’s the other reason this game needed a do-over: Mimring could see MBS’s gun, and looking at his card in the Sunday morning brain fog I thought he could still attack him since Fireline said “line of sight” and not “clear line of sight”. We called a judge over who confirmed, obviously suffering from the same brain fog that mixed up the difference between “clear sight” and “line of sight”. Ultimately Mimring rolled poorly for Firelines all game long and only ended up doing 2 damage to MBS. Granted this shouldn’t’ve happened, but it would have just ended up elsewhere like on Nerak or killing a Heavy instead. Arrow Gruts did most of the work, including surviving a 2-skull attack from Marcu and finishing off MBS. The few remaining Heavies and Heroes did a ton of damage, though, killing Mimring and wounding Moltenclaw. Krug couldn’t land a hit to slow them down, but my biggest mistake was not putting OM1 on Moltenclaw when I had the chance to win Initiative and kill the last 2 Heavies that were finally in a line. By the time the Dwarves needed to start crossing the board, though, match time was called (my only game all Con to go to time) and I had more points on the board. Win.

Top 8 vs dok on Healing Waters with the Jandar pool. Draft was:

I picked Skahen (120/1)
Adam picked Knights x2 (140/8 )
I picked Mezzos x2 (250/5)
Adam picked Alastair and Sentinels (360/12)
I picked Concan and PKs (400/9)
Adam picked Sentinels (470/15)
I picked PKs (470/10)

I knew I could pod up right next to the start zone and make him come to me. With Wannok on the map I went with Concan/PKs over Sentinels so I had somewhere to put the wounds. Concan did take a couple of them. The pod stayed put and I picked off a few things on the way in. After enough setup, before the Knights and Alastair could really crash in, I moved some Mezzos to fill some holes and take some shots. Alastair started clearing Exoskeletons off the Mezzo clogging the hill by the road, but went down before he could break free. PKs tied up and traded with not-so-Phantom-Knights. His superior numbers eventually won the battle of attrition, and Sentinels were finally able to get to Skahen. She wasn’t able to blast through their shields fast enough. 4 Sentinels and 1 Knight survived. Loss.