Dysole's Battle Reports

[Dysole]

SCAPECON III

I entered this convention wanting to try and not stress myself out with games. In previous years, I spent too much time worrying about making sure I was going to make Day 2 or that I was going to win dice and it wasn't good for me and partway through last Scapecon I stopped feeling the need to "prove myself" or something and so I decided this year I was going to make an attempt to get to Worlds but I wasn't going to stake everything on that or walking away with dice.

Three Headed Hydra

Chris Perkins approached me months ago to try and set up a three headed hydra team with Cleon and I agreed. After much deliberation we decided that Zombies, Hounds, and Q9 builds gave us the most answers into things. This proved to be correct as I rarely felt like we had to worry about a bunch of bad matchups.

Chris ran Q9, Rats x3, Arkmer
Cleon ran Hounds x4, Airborne (we figured AE just win some games for him and they don't have to worry about plague)
I ran Zombies x5, Kaemon, Isamu

Round 1

Our first matchup was into Q23, infectedsloth, and I.S.B.3. Q23 had Stingers x4, Raelin, Tarn, IS had dividers x5, Q10, Iskra and I.S.B.3 had zombies x5, Krav, Guilty. We banned the zombie mirror and then they paired me into Q23, infectedsloth into Cleon, and I.S.B.3 into Chris

I played Major Q23 on April 9th. I quickly found out how good this improved attack glyph was for the zombies because I was often able to hold it and use it to bring back more zombies. Raelin was proving to be annoying and I took a few turns to kill her with onslaught. Once that happened, Stingers started falling rapidly and Q23 was not able to keep up.

W 6 Zombies, Isamu left
1-0

The rest of the team swept if I remember right.

Round 2

Next up was the Louisville crew of Deroche, Viideosayg, and Necroblade. Deroche had 4th x4, Sam Brown; Viideosayg had 10th and Raelin; and Necro had Heavies x3, Nerak, Grimnak. We banned 10th into me since it was the worst matchup in the pool and we felt like Hounds and Q9 could win the other two matchups pretty easily. I got handed Heavies, Chris played 10th, and Cleon played 4th. We chose to set me up on April 9th with the juicy juicy attack glyph.

Necro played this one cleverly enough that I wasn't able to get good attacks on him with 2 attack, so I switched tactics. I decided to use Kaemon as a sniper from behind a zombie wall. Unfortunately, what I thought would give me line of sight didn't and then my backup placement for Kaemon fell super quickly to a chomp and a Grimnak attack getting through and Kaemon died very quickly to boosted orc attacks. I still made a game of it but now with him killing zombies faster than I could regenerate them he managed to fend off the horde and Isamu died in like the first hit he took.

L 5 orcs, full life Grimnak, Otonashi
1-1

Chris managed to beat 10th but Cleon suffered a brutal set of wild pack rolls to open his game and almost made a comeback but it wasn't enough.

Round 3


Our next round was against the Hexpendables made up of Dragon Ruler, Houndsrule, and Triviaknight. Dragon Ruler had 10th x3, Raelin, Tarn, Houndsrule had 4th x4, Sam Brown, and Triviaknight had Cutters x4, Kaemon, Syvarris. We all felt like we had a good matchup into Cutters and so we banned me into 10th again. Anyways I ended up going into Cutters on Nightfall.

We sat down next to dok who looked at the matchup and said "oh that's a loss" Triviaknight didn't think so. He changed his mind after seeing that I could move 6 zombies, engage up to like five cutters, attack with whichever zombies I wanted, and regen zombies on basically every attack. Kaemon stuck himself in a spot where I couldn't onslaught so I would take one zombie a turn with the attack glyph to do a 3 v 4. Eventually I took him down this way since I could regen counterstruck zombies via Cutters pretty easily. He conceded once I had him down to 3 cutters and a 2 life Syv.

W 10 zombies, Full Kaemon, Isamu
2-1

The rest of the team swept.

Round 4

Final round was Team BFF made up of dok, Matthias, and OEAO. dok had Q9, Rats x3 and Tarn, Matthias had Band x4, Parmenio, and Shotgun, and OEAO had Kurrok, Fire Elementals x10. We decided to set matchups after they banned Q9 into Band. We played me into Band, Q9 mirror, and Hounds into Firestorm. We set up on Dark Fulcrum which was great for melee.

I started off by making a big wall of Zombies while Matthias took ping shots with Shotgun. I saw a lone band and went to have a zombie attack it and succeeded in getting a kill which was actually to my detriment unbeknownst to me at the time. I then press my advantage allowing Matthias to eventually out attack me and even press the advantage on Kaemon although Kaemon took out a lot of figures with Counter strike and his attacks. Afterwards, he said I should have just kept the zombies on height and pinged with Kaemon. Looking back, I agree. Thankfully my two teammates won their games.

L 3 Band, Parmenio, Shotgun
2-2 ish (3-1 team)

Delta

I wanted to play Protectors in an event and the small maps and point total plus Rule of 12 made Atlaga, Protectors x4, Marcu perfect for this.

Round 1

Mr. Wookie (Eltahale, Marro Stingers x4, Sam Brown) on August 2nd

Stingers vs flying stingers. What we found out is that flying stingers can reinforce their position a lot better. It helped that there was never an initiative switch he could take advantage of to regain lost ground and so he made more 3v4 attacks and I made more 4v3 attacks. Eltahale could have made things very scary if he hadn't placed an order marker on Sam Brown first, whiffed the attack and then watched as Eltahale got obliterated by Protectors (including getting a 7 die attack on her with one life left) to eat 2 OMs. Sam Brown then also took a 7 die attack with 1 life the next turn.

W 3 Protectors, Atlaga, Marcu
1-0

Round 2

Chill (Dwarves x3, Mogrimm, Krav) on Origin

This was a bad map to get the Krav draw. I knew I was going to have to play this one really aggressively and try to kill the Krav as quickly as I could. I managed to speed across the map with the move glyph and flying and catch him a bit off guard but my melee attacks on the Krav resulted in only one going through before he was able to recover. I was never quite able to regain that momentum as Krav, Dwarves, and Mog slowly cut through my troopers. I didn't spend a lot of time attacking Mogrimm as I needed to reduce the number of squad figures I was facing. This meant that Mogrimm was able to do a lot of damage at times and I didn't get the kills I needed to pull this off. Witherwood failed and Atlaga put up a valiant effort before dying and Marcu betrayed me fairly early into his endgame and just died from Krav attacks.

L Mogrimm, 1 dwarf, 2 Krav, Oto
1-1

Round 3

Evantage (Grimnak, Heavies x3,Marcu , Nerak, Sahuagin Raider) on Hydra

The small map and the matchup meant that whichever way the pendulum swung, it would probably continue swinging that way. He played cautiously while I grabbed height. My early attacks on Nerak didn't yield fruit so I focused on reducing the number of orcs. Unfortunately, not getting good attacks to land on Grimnak or Nerak meant that he quickly outnumbered me in attacks. I did get the Witherwood on Grimnak so moral victory or something.

L 2 life Nerak, 2 Heavies, Marcu, Sahuagin
1-2

Round 4

Hawaiian Grizzly (Monks x4, Woo, Sonlen, Oto) on Healing Waters

Now ready to play the afternoon event, I figured I would just play to see what I could win. I got a great matchup for me. Monks are fast but as long as I kept Protectors separated I could rain fire down on the monks and they just died as they came forward. He brought forward Sonlen to help mitigate things but being the hero killers that they are Protectors managed to down him (I think there was an eight die attack to finish him off the highest I got of the day). Woo lasted a little bit longer because partway through killing him I turned back to the monks but it was a game I was in control the whole time.

W 5 Protectors, Atlaga, Marcu
2-2

Round 5

Gingerkid16 (TKN, SBN, Grubs x4, Isamu) on Ascension

It wasn't the best map for me but it did mean I could jump around it pretty easily Gingerkid did a good job of tying me up with Grubs and keeping me from finishing off TKN despite piling a lot of wounds on him. SBN came up and managed to kill a Protector only to immediately get hit for three wounds. I finished him off the following round and TKN fell not too long after but he had eaten through almost all of my Protectors with Isamu managing to kill the last one. I rolled a 1 on Witherwood for Isamu but managed to kill him not too long after.

W 2 life Atlaga, Marcu
3-2

VC Bring 2, Strike 1

I wanted to play bugs. First pod was Fyorlag Spiders x4, Kozil, Wyvern, Marro Warriors and the second was Heracles, Xualtiaca Fire Ants x4, Marcu. Heracles and Marro Warriors helped me feel good about the lower power levels of the rest of the pools.

Round 1

Vydar_XLIII (Kira Jax, Teeth of the Makwa x5, Zetacron & Agent Skahen, Nhah Scirh Cultists x4) on Nightfall

I actually liked the spiders into both his armies (and Makwa into Cultists) and I felt confident playing Heracles into my spiders so I struck nothing. Vydar took the Makwa and I responded spiders. Zetacron managed to get an early height position and took one attack down on Kozil dealing a wound before he got surrounded by spiders. He learned really quickly that 2 attack spiders are a real threat to anything with 2 defense as I slowly chipped away at his stuff using Wyvern and Kozil to eliminate Makwa as well. I don't think I ever stole an OM but I never really needed to as the spiders just let me control the board so well. He conceded when I had him down to 2 Makwa and Kira

W 6 spiders, 1 life Kozil, 2 life Wyvern, Marro Warriors
1-0

Round 2

Ultralord (Agent Carr, Agent Skahen, Deathreavers x3, Krav Maga Agents
& Death Chasers of Thesk x5, Isamu, Nerak, Ogre Pulverizer) on August 2nd

We had to do a bit of explaining of things at the start but I struck his Krav and rats build primarily because I felt like the Heracles, Fire Ants build would beat it while the Chaser build would be beaten by spiders and it would likely be a more enjoyable game if the army he played against was mostly classic units. Kozil did absolute work this game though with a hot Wounded Rage and managing to put a lot of wounds on both Nerak and the Pulverizer. I used spiders to screen Wyvern until the Chasers were thinned out and the Pulverizer was dead. I think I stole an order marker as well at one point. He conceded with 2 Chasers and Isamu

W 5 spiders, 2 life Wyvern, Marro Warriors
2-0

Round 3

MajorQ23 (Arktos, Guilty McCreech, Varkaanan Darkclaws, Varkaanan Greyspears, Varkaanan Swiftfangs & Havech Eradicators x4,Horned Skull Brutes) on Origin

I decided not to strike anything and he took Varks. I followed up with Heracles and ants figuring Heracles should be good into the Varks. I led ants and they did...poorly. They managed to kill I think a Swiftfang and a Darkclaw before they were dropped down to like 3 figures. Heracles came out swinging and killed the forward 2 Swiftfangs and Darkclaw. He stuck the last two on the glyphs and brought up Arktos and Greyspears. A key initiative meant Heracles killed two of them before tanking hits from Arktos and Greyspears and then finishing off the rest of the Greyspears and Arktos. He then goes over and kills the Swiftfang on the glyph while the Darkclaw is approaching to try and attack him. Instead of going for the Darkclaw Heracles goes to attack Guilty and murders him with the special power of lots of attack dice and then finishes off the Darkclaw.

W 3 life Heracles, Marcu
3-0

Round 4

Cleon (Stingers x6, Raelin (RoTV) & Blade Gruts, Grimnak, Heavies x3, Marcu, Nerak) on Healing Waters

I made a mistake. Do not abandon your bugs Dysole. I should have struck Stingers and then grabbed Spiders into whatever he decided to play (or Ants into spiders). This map was too good for Stinger horde. I thought I could slow play it with Heavies but I just couldn't contest the hill and he won this pretty handily.

L 5 Stingers, Full Raelin
3-1

Game ended up being the championship after the pairdown lost. I did get a neat set of Acolarh style OMs for second place though.

VC Monster Mash

It was simple. I wanted to run Constructs. Given that I expected Hounds, Dwarves, and Varks, GIE's engagement strike and Avernus's Wave of Flame all felt like good meta calls. Boreos would also be very helpful in a dwarf match. Lilja gave me a way to get multiple attacks. Final build was Talingul, Lilja, Boreos, GIE, Avernus

Round 1

Orculon (Arktos, Rygarn, Varkaanan Darkclaws, Varkaanan Greyspears, Varkaanan Quickblades, Varkaanan Swiftfangs) on Healing Waters

I knew I had to be careful not to get Talingul in trouble and so I set up GIE on the raised hexes in the middle of the map to deter movement there and Avernus up onto the hill while they moved up Varks. We got into a bit of a cluster mess around the bridges with me trading pretty well into the Varks. I also had Boreos go over and attack near their start zone to try and get more Vark kills. I wasn't so much interested in trying to kill order markers (because of Rygarn) as to reduce the power of each Swiftfangs and Quickblades for Avernus and Boreos. Lilja also did a lot of work cutting down Varks near the startzone. Orculon had set up a small pod of Greyspears and Darkclaws near the startzone but I kept whittling this pod down with Boreos and Lilja and a few hits from GIE. (I think a Darkclaw died to Ice Spikes) GIE managed to attack Rygarn before he could really start doing any range shenanigans and he failed both Temporal Jumps from 6 dice attacks.

W 5 life Talingul, 3 life Lilja, 1 life GIE
1-0

Round 2

S1R ART0R1US (Arktos, Eldgrim, Varkaanan Greyspears, Varkaanan Quickblades, Varkaanan Swiftfangs, Vulcanmech Incendiborgs) on April 9th

I felt decently good going into this matchup but he led with Greyspears and they managed to just annihilate Avernus and Lilja before I got to really kill much (Eldgrim and like a single Greyspear if I remember right, Eldgrim going on the VIs). Avernus whiffed with 5 dice on the first attack he took and Lilja basically got two shotted before she could engage anyone. GIE and Boreos did make it a game though with both of them killing a lot of Varks before they died. Unfortunately that also meant I had Talingul against the VIs with all their markers and he was just able to plop off one redundancy marker before dying. I think if Avernus and Lilja live a few turns longer, I should be able to reduce the Vark numbers enough that they have a hard time dealing with the remainder of my constructs and I probably remove enough redundancy markers that I can win the kite game with Talingul.

L 4 life Arktos, VIs with 2 redundancy markers
1-1

Round 3
bishop2003 (Talingul, Breach, Iron Golem x2, Augamo) on Healing Waters

We realized as we were setting up that he had gone with the metal version of the constructs and I had gone with the elemental one. Like in Round 1 I dropped a construct on the raised middle hexes but this time it was Avernus while I kept the Ice Elemental ready to contest the hill. Breach and and Iron Golem came rushing on in to attack. This allowed me to set things up so Lilja got two attacks of 5 down on Breach while Avernus got to burn them both and then attack down on either while the rest of the army watched. I burned through the first Iron Golem and Breach before Augamo killed Avernus. I had Lilja take his spot while the Ice Elemental grabbed height on Augamo which allowed me to kill him. The GIE fell to the second Iron Golem's 6 attack though but did get an Ice Spikes and a wound from a regular attack through before it died. Lilja ran into the start zone and got two wounds on Talingul but the Iron Golem managed to kill her (Shards was a complete dud). Using Boreos superior movement I managed to keep out of range of Iggy for a response. I backed up Talingul and rolled 4 skulls to a blank to get a dead enemy Talingul. Boreos managed to grab one of the center hexes and finish off Iggy

W Talingul, 1 life Boreos

VC Quad Pod

I decided I wanted to just play Ebon pods so I went with Ebon, Izumi, Oto & Kozuke, Ninjas & Nakitas, Gorillinators & Tagawa, Tarn, Eldgrim. I didn't put a ton of thought into it, it was mostly just things I wanted to play.

Round 1

Megasilver (Teeth x3 & M43 x3 & Specters x2, Zettian Guards & Bol, Oto, Vark Blade Dancers x2) on August 2nd

Mega led and grabbed Teeth. Realizing that the only threatening range left was M43 and Nakitas, I grabbed both. Mega realizing there weren't great options left chose Specters and ZGs.

Game started with him pushing Teeth forward while I moved up Nakitas and Gorillas using the Gorillas to keep the Nakitas somewhat safe but he managed to kill one. Thankfully for me, I got multiple kills and did even more after I switched to Gorillas. The Teeth managed to knock out a Gorilla and another Nakita and so I switched to M43 but the Teeth had lost about half their forces in the onslaught. M43 only having 2 attack usually hurts but with the low defense Teeth I was getting kills consistently enough that Mega had to switch to Specters. I had moved Gorillas onto the safe raised hexes in the middle of the map near his start zone and they were a bit of an annoyance for him to dislodge. He managed to kill one with the Specters and a couple M43s but by this point I had the high ground and 3 attacks on 3 defense was killing more Specters than I was losing. He felled the other Gorilla with his last couple Makwa and I lost an M43 to lava. He switched over to Zettians but they weren't able to do much before M43s managed to crack their defense.

W 1 Nakita, 4 M43
1-0

Round 2

Loki619 (10thx2, MBS & Blades x2, Grimnak, Isamu & Nerak, Heavies x2, Marcu & Romans x2, Marcus) on Nightfall

He won the opener and grabbed 10th. I briefly considered grabbing Grimnak and Romans (Grimnak being excellent in the squad heavy pools and depriving him of a bonding squad for MBS) but decided I'd rather have the orc pods because I liked both of them into Romans and 10th.

I opened all Heavies while he split OMs between 10th and Romans. He set up a small Roman pod and used his 10th to take some Wait then Fire shots on Grimnak. 3/3 and 4/4 (Marcus boost) were both met with whiffs. With no Grimnak I realized I needed to remove 10th very quickly to have a shot at this game and proceeded to play the most aggressive game with orcs I have ever played. I charged Nerak up and charged orcs into his positions, taking every optimal attack I could and quite a few that were less than optimal. Nerak held up to wait then fire surprisingly well and killed quite a few 10th before falling. I had to clear out a number of Romans to get my attacks in on the 10th but once I did I prioritized attacks on 10th and soon I had eliminated them all although I did have to switch over to Blades for the last finish off. Thankfully, they too were able to charge across the board and make attacks. MBS moved up and took some shots killing a few blades but he got surrounded and fell due to some timely 2/2s from Blades (I think I might have also stolen an OM from him with killing his last Roman). Marcus had spent the whole game on a shadow and he died on that shadow as even 6 life 4 defense falls to attacks of 3 (2 + height)

W 3 Blades, Marcu, Isamu
2-0

Round 3

Chill (MRT x3 & Brave Arrow, Brutes x2 & Estivara, Spiders x3 & Red Wyrm, Black Wyrm x2, Wyvern) on April 9th

He opened Nakitas and I took my Ebon pod and my Tagawa pod with him finishing up with MRTs. I figured he would take MRTs and Nakitas and felt like the map would be small enough that I could leverage the Ebon regen abilities to negate Nakitas and MRT range advantage. In hindsight, I should have grabbed MRTs and Brutes as Brutes played well into everything and MRTs would have allowed me to contest range.

He opened all Nakitas and I opened all Ebon. He managed to pick me off somewhat easily and I suffered an engagement strike on a Nakita. He played this really well using Gorillas the whole game as just a screen without ever putting an OM on them. He then switched over to MRTs as I switched to Izumi, Eldgrim, and Tarn. I dropped Eldgrim on the attack glyph and he died and I decided to put his spirit on the Tarn hoping some good Berserker rolls would help. I got none of them and they died to range only taking some of his figures with them. Tagawa fared no better and Ebon reviving took a few turns only to keep dying to engagement strike. (I think he got 4 over the course of the whole game) Despite my high defense, he was able to just ping me to death. He might have gotten slightly lucky on what he was able to kill but I do think I made the bad drafting decision here.

L 3 Mohicans, 2 Nakitas, 3 Gorillas
2-1

Assassin's Creed Heat of Battle

This was a night event and I wasn't taking it too seriously. Brought Rats x1, Romans x3, Marcus, Valguard, and NGS because it felt like it would be an absolute nightmare no matter which hero you chose. Rats gave me another blocker.

Round 1

JandArvey (Heavies x2, Tornak, Krug, NGS) on Ascension

He chose Marcus and I chose Tornak. He set up a wall of heavies near the edge of the map while I used Romans to fill the center and set up a small pod right next to his wall along with Valguard. Tornak went behind the wall. Krug and NGS were nearby but weren't actually blocking off anything. My own NGS stood nearby as well. Meanwhile on the other side of the map, I walled off Marcus with rats.

I managed to punch through a number of heavies between Romans and Valguard and was able to reinforce whatever he killed with Romans from the height especially after grabbing the disengage glyph. It ended when I disengaged Valguard to kill a Heavy and then came back to smack Tornak killing him.

W 2 life Valguard, 7 Romans, all rats, full life NGS, MDG vs 2 Heavies, full Krug, NGS
1-0

Round 2

vegietarian18 (Greenscales x2, Braxas, Thorgrim, Raelin) on Dark Fulcrum

This map was a good pull for vegie whose army didn't care how much defense I was getting. He chose Marcus and I chose Raelin (I should have chosen Braxas to hinder how aggressively he could play her). I set up in the middle and vegie chose a side to just build a small fortress of greenscales. He stuck Raelin on shadow next to Thorgrim and walled off by Braxas while I again threw Marcus far from the action. I did get to put NGS exceptionally close to Raelin.

On the first OM I was able to engage Raelin with NGS and had I rolled a 20 would have had my shortest game of Heroscape ever. Instead there was a lot of positioning from me with NGS taking attempts on Raelin while vegie slowly whittled his way through my army. He took some key losses and it felt like I might be pulling my way to a victory but then he gassed NGS and was able to plug the holes to Raelin with Braxas and his last couple scales. Valguard was able to keep punching through high defense but with Braxas bouncing around to cover the gaps and reducing the number of squads I had at a rapid clip I was never able to get more than the initial 2 wounds NGS had inflicted. He eventually managed to gas Marcus to finish it off.

L 5 life Braxas, 3 life Raelin, Thorgrim, 1 Greenscale
1-1

I called it a night and went to play games. (dog fur that is all)

Lightweight Berserkers

I was originally going to provide commentary for VCheese but that ended up not happening so I played in the morning event to try and get wins for one of the three wildcard slots.

I figured Knights and Romans were the obvious plays with free tarns and so grabbed 10th x2, Q10. I honestly should have just gone with Foudzing's suggestion of Nilfheim and Krav but c'est la vie.

Round 1

Deroche (Grimnak, Heavies x2, Guilty, Isamu) on Dark Fulcrum

We both thought this was a match I was favored in despite the shadow/jungle combo. He moved up Tarn first to clog up the middle before moving up the orcs. I had moved up 10th into good position and had taken some shots on Grimnak. By the time we were all set to clash, I had him down to 2 life. If I win initiative I get 3 heighted wait then fire shots on Grimnak and probably kill him allowing me to take control of the game. I lose the initiative and Deroche has Grimnak chomp a 10th, kill a 2nd one and then orcs engage the others allowing me to only have one height shot on him and a couple bayonets that don't go through. He then kills all but one in only a few turns before surrounding Q10 and murdering him with me unable to kill anything in response.

L 3 Tarn, 2 life Grimnak, 7 Heavies
0-1

Round 2

Hawaiian Grizzly (Airborne, Drake v1, Finn) on April 9th

I knew if Airborne dropped Round 1 I could be in real trouble. I decided to lead Q10 and had him take shots with his normal attack until I made my way to the height next to the glacier near his start zone and machine pistoled Drake. Airborne dropped the next round and grenaded my start zone with 3 0/2 and 1 1/2 which was blocked by all but a single 10th. Q10 killed an Airborne with a machine pistol, took 2 wounds from Airborne but then finished the rest of them off with machine pistol before dropping Drake down to 1 life the next turn.

I went all 10th as Drake was coming for Q10 and I figured I could beat him with a lot of bayonet attacks which is exactly what happened while I shot down on the other figures.

W 5 10th, Tarn
1-1

Round 3

Retlaw (Moltenclaw, Greenscales x2, Isamu) on Hydra

Not a great map for me as Molty could be on me before I knew it. I probably should have led 10th but was worried about Molty getting a good burnination in. Sadly Q10 was absolutely miserable at killing Molty and proceeded to die without doing much of anything. Retlaw then tied up all the 10th and fired away at them. It was easily the biggest blowout of the con for me.

L 4 life Moltenclaw, 4 Greenscales, Tarn, Isamu
1-2

Round 4

Majora's Incarnation (Romans x2, Valguard, Zetacron, Eldgrim, Isamu) on Healing Waters

This map is a great pull for me and his army is exactly the kind of thing I was expecting to see. Everything goes basically according to plan as 10th grab all the height and kill Zeta quickly and while Valguard is able to kill 1 10th with First Assault, he gets swarmed by bayonets and murdered pretty quickly. MI conceded with only Eldgrim left.

W 5 10th, Q10, Tarn
2-2

Sideboards

Past Dysole saw all the good special attacks banned and thought Cutters are good here. I should do that. (Narrator: Cutters were in fact not good here) Added in Eltahale because she was a good all arounder and I felt she could kill anything that had special attacks. I grabbed Laglor, Nakitas, and Syvarris for my ranged support, and Eldgrim to fill out points. I figured I needed to go 3-1 or better to make wildcard here.

Round 1

vegies dad (Arkmer, Iskra ,Kyntela Gwyn, Hounds x5, Repulsors x3, Otonashi) on Dark Fulcrum

A bad matchup and a bad map and we had 400 to work with. I figured I needed Eltahale and Syvarris to win this and went with Cutters x3. He grabbed Hounds x4, Repulsors.

I led Syvarris and watched him start off killing a Hound and then proceeded to whiff on 4 dice multiple times. He was able to run away and find a perch thanks to a timely 2 from VD's pack movement. Unfortunately, what he lacked in movement he made up for in plague and attack as Syv fell having taken down less than squad of hounds. (VD thought maybe I played too aggressively and should have taken shots behind the cutters; I think this is probably correct that he probably lives longer but I don't know if he actually kills any more Hounds because I'm going to be doing 3 v6+ instead of 4 v5+)

Eltahale manages to kill another few hounds but hot plague just cuts through all my stuff. I am not getting the kills I need and before long I'm down to just cutters which the hounds mop up easily.

L 7 Hounds, 3 Repulsors
0-1

Round 2

Master Roshi (TSA x4, Swarm Rae, Kozuke, Guilty, Syvarris, Zeta) on April 9th

At this point I figure I'm probably sunk when it comes to wildcard but let's play and see what happens. We get 380 points. It's a good matchup and I go Cutters x3, Laglor, Nakitas to counter his range and counter strike. He goes TSA x3, Zeta, and Syv. Nakitas open the game and kite the crap out of his army killing Zetacron and several TSA before he can launch any kind of counteroffensive. Zetacron had done two wounds to Laglor but that was it. He manages to kill a Nakita with TSA but I've switched over to Cutters by this point and I manage to finish off the rest of the TSA and Syvarris losing only a couple cutters in the process.

W 10 Cutters, 3 life Laglor, 1 Nakita
1-1

Round 3

Chris Perkins (AGsx5, Eldgrim, Ice Troll, Krug, Mimring, Oto, Swog x4) on Nightfall

Another bad matchup but the map is actually pretty decent for me. We get 440 to work with. I figured I would need Eltahale and Syvarris can kite things and I also figure I'll need all my Cutters. Chris takes AGsx4, Krug, Mimsy, and Oto.

I lead with Syv trying to kill Mimring before he annihilates all the Cutters. I only get a couple wounds on him before AGs take the attack glyph and murder him. Thankfully he rolls 1 skull on 3 cutters and they all block. Eltahale is able to jump up and kill him and he isn't really having a good time killing her. I manage to get a height shot on Krug but only deal a wound. Krug moves up on height and knocks her down to half health. I forgo putting any active order markers on her because I worry about losing an OM. Maybe I should have as eventually we get into an endgame where I am getting several good attacks down on Krug (including some with the attack glyph) and managing to kill AGs but Krug lived too long killing enough Cutters that he was able to finish me off with the remaining AGs.

L 4 AGs, Oto
1-2

Round 4

Firewings (Ashra x6, Jorhdawn, Ulginesh, Arkmer, Emirroon, Kyntela Gwyn) on Healing Waters

I'm pretty sure I'm out of contention at this point but it's a good matchup on a good map and firewings is caps' kid who is pretty new to Heroscape so I should pull this off. We get 440 again and I go Cuttersx4, Eltahale, Syvarris while he grabs his Ashra, Arkmer, and Emirroon.

I wasn't sure if he had played against these figures before because Syvarris killed a ton of Ashra before I abandoned him for Eltahale who killed even more and took a Thunder Step to drop 7 dice on Arkmer which killed him. With the engagement strike threat gone, I switched over to Cutters to finish it out and while there was a bit of a grind through them, cutters worked their way through everything. I finished with a lot of cutters and a 1 life Eltahale.

I ended up about 2 wins behind the last wildcard slot.

Kill Your Swill

I had a pretty good idea what I was going to bring to this format. I tried to minimize range. I tried to minimize commons and I tried to minimize defense. I probably could have done it better but I was still pretty happy with it.

Round 1

KnightofLight on Nightfall

We were playing our #4 armies. Knightoflight is an Oregon local and had just an absolute great con and it was great to see him there. Unfortunately for him, his army was better than mine which was great because I got to play it. This army I had decided Pelloth was worse with chainfighters than Drow just because they'd be harder to maximize usage. Vipers at 2x could get lucky with frenzy but they also die to a stiff breeze so I'd probably be able to kill with what was left. Brave Arrow needed to go in an army and this one had scouts. Sudema and Raiders filled out points/figures.

He gave me Drow x2, Pelloth, Iskra, Rechets, Ana Karithon, Otonashi
I gave him Venocs x2, Brave Arrow, Pelloth, Chainfighter x2, Sudema, Sahuagin Raider x2

I led with the Drow and he put an order marker on Brave Arrow and the chainfighter before moving to all Vipers. Chainfighter killed a Drow and the Vipers and Drow basically traded for each other which was good for him although Iskra and Sudema were the ones to actually finish off the squads. Iskra summoned Rechets on her second try. They stung a full life Brave Arrow who was about to take a turn and put some wounds on Sudema. They would then sting her while she had full life. After that it was just a matter of placing Order Markers on the Rechets and Iskra and finishing off his stuff.

W Iskra, Pelloth, Rechets, Oto, Ana
1-0

Round 2

Necroblade on April 9th

For this one he gave me Templar x2, Yari x2, Taro
I gave him Macdirks x2, Eldgrim, Saylind, Kelda, Morsbane

This army was one I wasn't sure about. Macdirks and Eldgrim is an idea I've toyed with but I've also been told it was terrible. I decided to test that here. Yeah Macdirks could cause a lot of trouble but 2 defense meant I should be able to hit them back pretty easily. Kelda, Saylind, and Morsbane are all really bad in this format so all three got put in this army due to my worries.

I led Templar and he sat in his startzone until OM3 when he put a wound on Eldgrim and moved up. He got the init switch but no kills with now 4 attack MacDirks attacking up on heighted Templar (he may have managed one kill). Templar responded by hitting him from height and clearing out the forward MacDirks. It took a bit of doing to clear the remainder out but I only lost one squad in the process. I then put wounds on Saylind, Kelda, and Morsbane. Kelda healed Saylind to full and a wound off of Eldgrim before Templar finished her off. I then spent two OMs to get Taro onto the attack glyph while he finished off my last two Templar. Yari advanced and while I was losing like one a turn, I was getting off encircle attacks and Saylind, Eldgrim, and Morsbane just weren't enough to make up for getting 6 dice thrown at them each turn.

W 4 Yari Taro
2-0

Round 3

Muskie on Origin

This was another pod I was super worried about.

I gave him Roman Archers x2, Gurei-Oni, Retiarius, Acolarh, Kyntela, Theracus

He had Vipers x2, Sudema, Acolarh, Kyntela, Oto, Air Elemental (although I pointed out partway through he needed a second one and we just tossed a proxy in my start zone that never got used)

With the long map and him having the range I was very worried going into this match. I knew I would need to get some lucky frenzies. Thankfully, I got them around an init switch and grabbing Valda and was able to knock him down to a single Roman while only losing half the Vipers on approach. Vipers also managed to put two wounds on Retiarius and 3 on Gurei-Oni. Theracus made his way to the middle of the board only to get wrecked by the Air Elemental I had moved up. I rolled 1 skull 3 consecutive turns and Theracus blanked with 2 dice each time. He began moving up Gurei-Oni and conceded when Sudema stared Gurei to death.

W Oto, Kyntela, AE x2, Sudema
3-0

Round 4

Earl of Sandwich on Healing Waters

I had felt best about this pool but it had more range than I should have put into it. Still, that almost ended up not mattering. This became the championship game when the pairdown lost.

I gave him Yari x2, Taro, Shiori, Runa, Deadeye Dan
He gave me Roman Archers x2, 7K, Sudema, Iskra, and Rechets

I realized early on that Dan could just kill 7K and I was going to need him to win this match so I couldn't risk bringing the bot out until Dan was dead. I led Roman Archers ready to try and murder Dan at the first attempt. The problem was that Dan kept killing me on my approach as did Shiori. I managed to get a wound on him but the two of them dropped me down to a single Archer. He left the archer alone for a while as Shiori headed toward the start zone. I put another wound on Dan and then moved to Iskra who managed to kill Shiori and heal one of the two wounds Shiori gave her. I then flew her up and out of the way of responding attacks. Yari had begun their slow approach. At one point I realized I needed to use Iskra to kill them or else they were going to encircle the sleeping heroes I would need. Unfortunately I had to go to low ground. I failed to kill one but did summon the Rechets who managed to kill a Yari and Dan but failed to do much more. The Yari managed to kill Iskra shortly after that and it was too risky to put order markers on rechets with the very real possibility that they all die before I take an order marker. This proved to be prescient as the yari killed all but one of them back to back. I moved up Sudema and managed to stare two Yari in a row but blanked on the third allowing her to be encircled and one shotted. The remainder encircled 7K but failed. 7K killed a Yari but then failed to kill one on his next turn allowing the fatal Encircle to go through. I think if Sudema doesn't fail that stare. The Yari never really get that much of a chance to do anything to her or 7K and I'm the favorite to finish off Taro and Runa with Sudema and 7K (admittedly Runa could get a lucky 20 or 7K could whiff but the odds are in my favor)

L 4 Yari, Runa, Taro

VC Delta General Wars

Since I missed out on Worlds (sadge), I decided to play Bees in VC Delta General Wars fully expecting to go 0-4 as while I thought it was decent, it was like the third best Aquilla army in my mind, best case scenario. Beecause I was going partially memey to fit my aesthetic (bugs, although I also do hive space as a secondary aesthetic) I wore my bee dress and my bee earrings for the occasion. Amberhive Protectors x4, Mellifera, and Sujoah.

Round 1

gbizzy (Arrow Gruts x4, Ice Troll, Mimring) on April 9th

I got an amazing matchup to start. Two big low defense heroes is perfect for Sujoah's sting attack and the AGs 1 defense means that I don't need to use Sacrificial Sting all that much. I started by mostly just moving bees into heighted positions to deny good AG attacks. gbizzy opted to move the Ice Troll along the side rather than activate Mimring. I was wanting to place Mellifera next to the ruin and the tree overlooking the glyph where I felt I could get maximum aura but by the time I was ready to move her, the AGs were enough in position that I really couldn't so I opted for the glacier side not next to a tree. This beecame very useful as Frenzied Swarm was on fire this game letting me turn whiffs and blocks into a chain of about 2-3 attacks per bee. Sujoah's first turn on OM 3 involved him flying up next to the troll (which gbizzy realized he hadn't put on ice) and hitting him for a wound followed by two stings. Gbizzy won init and swung into Sujoah only doing one wound which was a real bee in his bonnet. He forgot to heal but it ended up not mattering since Sujoah's next attack dealt two wounds anyway. Mimring moved up and took a shot on Mellifera only for her to block a 3 skull attack with 7 defense (4 + height + Evasive 2). Sujoah took two turns to get to the dragon but when he did, it was 2 wounds + sting + sting + sting and then the rest of the game was just the bees mopping up. I sacrificial stung the last bunch just to ensure I would get the kills.

W 9 Bees, Mellifera, 5 life Sujoah
1-0

Round 2

Gingerkid16 (Grubs x2, Katie Ann (Kon-Tar-Na), Bramcephys) on Dark Fulcrum

I didn't love Dark Fulcrum but this was another great matchup. Grubs' 2 defense is a danger to 1 attack and only 6 squads meant I would have the attacking numbers. Sujoah and Sacrificial Sting both meant I could really put the hurt on the heroes.

He led playing it cautiously while I put Mellifera on shadow and clustered the bees up on height. Sujoah took a place near Mel where he could launch himself at the nearest target. I did beeline one bee very far forward where it could get a height shot on a Nagrub. This bee then proceeded to tank about 5 or 6 grub attacks all by its dronesome including several from height. Katie Ann charged into the fray but quickly got separated from his grubs which allowed me to surround him with Sujoah and BEES. Suj didn't manage any wounds but Sacrificial Stinging 3 bees was enough to finish him off, but not beefore he took a wound off Sujoah and dropped Mel to half life. Bram moved and killed the pesky bee only for Sujoah to show up and Sting him dealing I think one wound but no stings. The bees managed to finish off all but one grub. He takes an LEA (2 wounds) but positions himself next to the rock outcrop so I can't get Sujoah next to him without giving up height and the lone grub is blocking Sujoah's access point. It's a great setup that will wreck me if I play into it so I spend my turns moving up the bees (and Mel) and just attacking up at that grub with a single bee on shadow in Mel's aura. It doesn't do much but he stays there while I regroup with the team and finally move the bee to do level attacks (by this time though all my bees are in place and Sujoah is back beehind the bee wall that has amassed on the mountain) and this move ends up being right on the honey as the bee finally kills the grub. Bram moves forward and kills the only bee he can reach without getting into a bad position. I throw a few bees in to Sacrifice Sting and we get him down to exactly 5 wounds which is just under what's needed for extra turns. He takes the opportunity to try and assault my setup anyway and ends up kicking up the hornet’s nest without doing much as he dies on the next turn to a combo of Suj and Sacrificing Bees.

W 8 Bees, 2 life Mellifera, 5 life Sujoah
2-0

Round 3

Mr. Chompy (Blade Gruts, Grimnak, Tornak) on August 2nd

Another matchup of low defense commons and juicy heroes. I was getting all the matchups. Map was going to bee a bit trickier as I couldn't just take height with no consequences.

He spent his early turns moving up Blades while I focused on getting a bunch of bees and Suj in position to go on the offensive. Grimnak and a set of Blades moved up into the center on the lava. I moved Sujoah up, killed a Blade and then put four bees around Grimnak. Three sacrificial stings later and Grimnak was dead and the last bee killed a grut with a normal attack which was just the bee’s knees for me since I had been very worried about losing more than that number of bees to Chomp. I claimed the center with Mel for myself and then spent some time moving up bees. I grabbed Lodin +2 and it actually got me some extra frenzy attacks against Blades that came up. Tornak managed to swing up and beefore I could get really good attacks on him managed to put some wounds on Mel dropping her to one life (a Blade might hive also done some of that damage). She died to lava damage later that round. I spent the rest of the game using Sujoah to kill a blade followed by Bees taking attacks of 1 or 2 if I needed them in good positions (or out of the aura) or Sacrificial Stinging if I really needed a blade dead. I managed to trade fairly well as I now had 5 attacks to his 4 and one of those was Suj who was consistently getting kills while the bees and blades varied wildly in how often they murdered each other.

W 2 Bees 2 life Sujoah
3-0

Round 4

Mr. Wookiee (Grok Riders x3, NGS, Hydra) on Healing Waters

It wasn't a great map for either of us but was probably slightly better for me. We weren't sure if this was going to bee the championship match at any point in the game as that game didn't finish until after this one but the pairdown lost making this the championship. I knew I was willing to sacrifice a lot of bees (and probably Sujoah) to ensure that the Hydra went down quickly. The Groks also had higher defense than my other matchups and NGS is a tank who can steal one of my bug heroes so I had to bee careful.

I played it cautiously, bringing out hordes of bees while keeping the heroes back and putting them beehind the bee walls. He also played it cautiously. I would shoot forward a bee to get any shots of 2 v3 that I could and also attempted a Sacrificial Sting on NGS (which failed and then he murdered it). I did manage to kill at least one Grok and snuck a bee onto Wannok. NGS took the wound. The next round the bee died but in order to do so he had to put a Grok in position for a bee attack and it did kill it. This bee would prove to bee a champ at defending for a few turns. I moved Sujoah way up and he failed to kill the grok which stung, but I used bees to hold groks in place. NGS stayed on the raised single hex not wanting to venture down into what was basically beecoming Disbeeland. He did move a Grok up to take a height shot on Suj which dealt a wound, but Mel moved up and killed him with a 4 dice attack and then a bee moved there to protect. I managed to sneak another bee onto Wannok and moved the champ bee so you'd hive to attack Wannok bee on even ground which worked as Wannok bee dealt another wound to NGS. I kept picking off Groks but I had left a hole when I sent a bee over to the Hydra to sacrificial sting it, which allowed NGS to wander through and moved up next to Mel. He failed to shackle her and his attacks didn't go through but the real buzzkill for Mr. Wookiee was Suj walking up to the Hydra, dealing two wounds and then sting, sting. (I did hive 3 bees ready to give their lives for the cause though if he'd failed). This happened to bee incredibly timely as his last OM was on the Hydra. Suj and the bees mopped up everything else with several Sacrificial Stings finishing off NGS for a well earned victory for these busy bees.

W 6 Bees, Full life Mel, 4 life Suj
4-0

First place victory on the last day AND I was undefeated when running bug armies. Things to think about for the future.

Final listed record 18-9 (oh look hi 9 following me around like a lost puppy) Including night events and Hydra I was 24-13.

It was a lot of fun. I had a great time. Thanks to everyone who helped put it on. Great to see a lot of familiar faces and a few new ones. Look forward to next year.

~Dysole, always having fun at these

[Matthias Maccabeus]

We banned me into Chris, not the hounds. I could care less about the hounds.

[MegaSilver]

I loved the bee puns.

[Dysole]

Originally Posted by Matthias Maccabeus

We banned me into Chris, not the hounds. I could care less about the hounds.

Ah thanks. I'll correct once I'm home. I knew y'all didn't like the ban in hindsight and I think my brain just remembered that one despite it beeing wrong.

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

I loved the bee puns.

I'm very happy I could bee a delight for your day.

~Dysole, updatingly

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

I loved the bee puns.

As did I! Great reports.