NJ/PA NHSD '12 Post Tourney

[Northgate]

Thanks for all who made it to the tournament. Hope all had a great time! Welcome to Jesse and congrats on his first tournament win!

1. Jesse (4-1, 2482) Phantom Knights x3, Kaemon Awa, Nilfheim
2. Dad_Scaper (4-1, 2436) Tor Kul Na, Nagrubs x4, Raelin, Krav
3. KidScaper (4-1, 2430) Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4
4. Hose (4-1, 2270) Arrow Gruts x3, Swog, Mimring, Ice Troll, Krug, Marcu
5. Spidysox (3-2, 2287) Taelord, Raelin, Stingers x4, Marcu
6. Northgate (3-2, 2220) WoA x4 (Drop 1), Eltahale, Nakitas, Theracus, Marcu
7. Clan (3-2, 2159) 10th Regiment x3, Kaemon Awa, Sgt. Drake (SOTM)
8. Ed (2-3, 2391) Krug, Hydra, Stingers x4, Guilty, Isamu
9. Peteparkerh (2-3, 2301) Rats x3, Nilfheim, Braxas
10. Mason (2-3, 2145) Dividers x5, Raelin, Nilfheim
11. Man of War (2-3, 2048 ) Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4
12. Xanth (2-3, 1965) Charos, Braxas, Krav
13. Shooter McGavin (2-3, 1948 ) Knights x3, Gilbert, Q9, Dumatef
14. Eric (1-4, 1850) Stingers x3, Phantom Knights x2, Hydra, Finn
15. Hosey (1-4, 1806) Blasts x3, Glads x1, DW9K, X17, Isamu, Otonashi, Eldgrim, Guilty
16. Johngee (1-4, 1782) Mimring, Nilfheim, Zelrig

[Dad_Scaper]

Northgate, we had an excellent time. We like traveling out of town to see people outside our usual suspects, and that was *quite* a shop hosting this event.

As soon as I can scrape together a battle report I will do so.

Many thanks for arranging and directing.

[spidysox]

Thanks Northgate for arranging and hosting. I had a great time as always.

My army performed pretty much how I thought it would. I knew that there were going to be some bad matchups for it and that proved to be true. Kidscaper and Man of War brought the exact same army and I had to face it twice in a row losing to both of them. In the end, I just couldn't kill Zelrig fast enough to keep him from ripping apart my start zones. On top of that, I made the classic blunder by not engaging him right away and forcing him to not use his special. Even if I had taken care of him quicker, I am not sure that I could have held up against a horde of 10th foot.

Still, I had a great time and was glad to see and hear that everyone managed the storm well. Looking forward to the next one!

[peteparkerh]

Northgate, thanks for hosting. Great event.

[Shooter McGavin]

We had a great time. Thanks for another awesome event.

Congrats to Jesse on winning the first tournament he has ever played in. He had an awesome time and can't wait to go to another one.

[Dad_Scaper]

Congrats to Jesse on the win.

Following is my tourney report; I hope it's not the only one:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

PA/NJ NHSD 2012

Tournament Report

The format was 520 points, 18 hexes. Otherwise vanilla. Tournament thread here, post tourney thread here.

I thought the metagame encouraged high priced squads so I wanted an auto-wounder. My first thought was Stompy, three squads of Nagrubs, and Braxas, but that would have been a bit overkill on the auto-wounding.

The PA/NJ crew is *really* good, so I figured I'd load up on the cheese and go TKN, Nagrubs x4, Krav Maga and Raelin. Not pure cheese, but a moderate amount.

So Kid_Scaper, running Zelrig and 10thx4 (yes, 40 points light) drove two hours to West Chester, Pennsylvania, way outside our normal range, with revenge on our minds for the butt-whipping we both suffered at Mechanicon last year.

Round 1:

Johngee: Mimring, Nilfheim, Zelrig
DS: Stompy, Nagrubs x4, Raelin SotV, Krav

Well, look at that. Round 1 and nothing to stomp.

Still, I was pretty confident Tor Kul Na's huge attack and healing ability would be enough to take care of the scary dragon horde.

Spoiler Alert!

I placed Torky on the two start zone road hexes. When the game began I led with Raelin and the Krav and JohnGee led with Mimring, trying to position for a good Fireline. I also brought Torky up the road.

Looking at JohnGee's OMs I realized he had one on Nilfheim or Zelrig still in his start zone, so I pushed my luck (hard) and sent Tor Kul Na *way* out ahead of Raelin, and temporarily ahead of the trailing Nagrubs, to get him adjacent first to Nilfheim and then to Zelrig, both still in JohnGee's start zone.

Over the following couple of rounds I managed to slip a couple Nagrubs between the dragons to keep Tor Kul Na alive as he first thrashed Zelrig

Spoiler Alert!

and then badly wounded Nilfheim. The two surviving Krav didn't have any trouble finishing off first Mimring and then, along with a couple Nagrubs, bringing down Nilfheim.

1-0

Round 2:

GameBear's Gravel Garden

I love this map. It is a real brain burner, which is why my game went to time this round. I am sure I have somewhere an excuse for why my round 3 game also went to time, and probably decent excuses why I was playing the last game to finish in rounds 4 and 5 also, but I left my notes in Pennsylvania (again) so I don't have those excuses anymore.

But I highly, highly recommend this map. It is like a boss.

Peteparkerh: Rats x3, Nilfheim, Braxas
DS: TKN, Nagrubs x4, Krav, Raelin RotV

More dragons!

Pete and spidysox are both terrific players and I wish we got to play with them more often, but it was great to see them and as Pete and I played this game, spidysox and KidScaper played on the next board over. So this round was a double treat for me.

Pete spent a couple OMs positioning his rat screen and I spent a couple OMs positioning my units. Nothing is easy on this map. In round 2, Pete sent out Braxas and I tried to meet her in the center of the board with TKN. Braxas risked a disengage, though (I missed it) and circled away from TKN toward my start zone.

So TKN went storming into Pete's start zone, trying to catch Nilfheim. I successfully trampled more than a few rats but couldn't quite get to Nilf, partly because the sculpts made it impossible at one point.

Braxas meanwhile was struggling to get much done in my start zone, because my Nagrubs were alternately scattering and engaging her.

Pete did get one huge roll on the 20 sider, killing a full health Raelin with Acid Breath, but the pesky Nagrubs, moving in and out of her range, eventually brought her down with the help of one or two surviving Krav.

Eventually Tor Kul Na and Nilfheim met near the center, with Tor Kul Na both more healthy and buoyed by lingering Nagrubs. The Ice Dragon went down, and I secured the win.

There was a lingering Deathreaver hiding under a bush.

"How," I asked tournament director Northgate, "should I score a game called on time? Should the winner take the full 520, or subtract what remains of the other player's army, which here would be 510," I asked him. "Partial card scoring," he said, which is I think the way it's normally done in our area.

It was all the same to me; it was the difference between 510 and 520 points. I was happy with the win, but Northgate's answer would have effects beyond this round...

2-0

Round 3:


KidScaper: Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4
DS: TKN, Nagrubs x4, Krav, Raelin RotV

Somehow, after two rounds my kid and I were the only players at 2-0. So after spending two hours in the car with him I was playing him in round 3 at the event.

Though the matchup was not a bad one for my army, the combination of the map and the matchup was tough. Tor Kul Na could not really get up and down the hills to chase Zelrig, and Zelrig could, from those perches, bomb the snot out of my start zone. Still, Zelrig's magic does not work on the unique Krav, so I led with Raelin and the Krav and KS countered with Zelrig.

KidScaper did not get his point's worth out of Zelrig, but unfortunately the awful dragon did manage to kill off all 3 Krav, which left me in a tough position against the 10th. I managed to kill most of them, but Tor Kul Na was pretty much a goner when this match was called on time (I had 30 points left on the board, he tells me), and he still had six or seven of the Redcoats hanging around.

2-1

Round 3:

Man of War: Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4
DS: TKN, Nagrubs x4, Krav, Raelin RotV

Are you kidding me?

Check this out:

Round 2 opponent: KidScaper - Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4
Round 3 opponent: Man of War - Zelrig, 10th Regiment x4

The bizarre thing is, this army is 40 points light. And two people out of 16 both brought it. They had played each other in Round 1 in a mirror match, even.

But this was a very different map. Zelrig would not be able to threaten my start zone from anywhere I couldn't Loki him with Tor Kul Na.

Man of War led with Zelrig; I positioned Raelin and countered with Tor Kul Na. Zelrig took a couple disengages to blow Majestic Fires through my start zone and decimate my supply of Nagrubs, but in the end TKN got him by his majestic neck and that was that.

If you look closely at the image of the map you will see at roughly the 12:00 position the highest point on the map.

I parked my Krav/Raelin pod up there and spent the remainder of the game bombing MoW's Redcoats. On one order marker turnaround he got close enough to bayonet one of them, and he did kill off an OM-less TKN and the remaining Nagrubs, but the Krav dominated the game with their Stealth Dodge and six defense dice.

3-1

Round 5:

Clan 10th Regiment x3, Kaemon Awa, Sgt. Drake (SOTM)
DS: TKN, Nagrubs x4, Krav, Raelin RotV

For those keeping score at home, this means I battled, over 5 rounds, 11 squads of 10th Regiment of Foot, 2 Nilfheims, and 3 Zelrigs. Clan commented that this was the first time we've played each other one-on-one, but I recall playing against him once at an event at Collectors Corner when I had Deathchasers against his Mohicans. It's in my tourney report thread somewhere.

Anyway.

This was the only time when I looked at my opponent's army and thought "My army has a favorable matchup here." I could stomp everything, I defended well against his non-exploding ranged attacks, and I was pretty confident when we started placing our OMs.

Clan led with Drake, who I met in the center with Tor Kul Na and a few Nagrubs. Drake is quite a beatstick, but eventually he went down. Clan had also been maneuvering Kaemon Awa around the edge, but I was simultaneously positioning the Krav, and they bounced a few shots off each other harmlessly.

Then TKN, walking away from Drake's steaming corpse, stomped the samurai for one wound and smashed his skull in for the remaining three. Down went Kaemon Awa.

The rest was mop up, with Krav (all 3? maybe only 2?) and a healthy Tor Kul Na chasing around a handful of 10th until they'd all been smashed into paste.

Clan was a very good sport. This was a terrible matchup for him, and he was just as good natured as always.

4-1, 2436 points.

2d place.

Edging out my own son, KidScaper, with 2430 points.

If I played as fast as a normal person, and my game with KidScaper had drawn to its likely conclusion, it is almost certain he would have overtaken me for second place and dropped me to third.

Oh well.

We were very pleased with our fine results on Saturday, because we both have tremendous respect for the NJ/PA 'Scaping crew, and we have never, as a pair, had our butts handed to us like they were at last year's Mechanicon, also in West Chester. So with great pride and gratitude to Northgate, for doing a terrific job running the tournament, we took our prize money and got a Munchkin pack and the Ascention expansion that can be played standalone.

One day soon I hope to play it.

Many, many thanks to Northgate for running the event, and it was great to see Spidysox, Peteparkerh, Shooter, and all our friends from the 'Scaping region.

Thanks again, Northgate.

[Northgate]

Hose, I have your castle set in hand (supposedly it was delivered during the height of the storm) and I will get it to you at the next event.

[Shooter McGavin]

I was just putting away all of our figures when I discovered that somehow Eric picked up three Marro Dividers with his Stingers. So someone is missing 3 Dividers. It had to be from Eric's last match.

Northgate, it almost has to be from your son's army. I recall that he was playing Dividers. Just let me know who they belong to. I can even mail them to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Dad_Scaper]

No other tourney reports?

[Northgate]

Shooter- Yeah, they are from Masons army. I will pm you with my address.