Columbus, O-H-I-O NHSD 2012!

[lettucemode]

Thanks again to Wookie and Johnnylama for the event! It was a blast, and I really liked choosing between 4 armies at the start of the game.

My armies were:
Grok Riders x2
Ne-Gok-Sa
Me-Burq-Sa
Theracus
Dund

and:
Atlaga
Minions x4
Marcu

Here's how my games went, as best as I can remember:

Game 1 vs. ShadowNinja on Mogrimm's Mine
Shadow Ninja chose his army of 2x Minions, Krug, and the yellow ghosty shadow knight things, and I went with my Minions x4 and Atlaga army. I went straight for the wound and defense glyphs and sat on them as best I could, fighting off the ghosts. When Krug came up, I was able to down him in 2 or 3 turns with sustained Minion attacks. After that, we had a heck of a time trying to figure out whose minions were whose .

Game 2 vs. Wookie on Sirocco
Wookie had first pick and went with his Havech Eradicators x5 army. I looked at my Groks and was like "Nope". I wasn't sure the minions would be able to take them down either, so I opted for Wookie's Mohican x5 + Mittens army. It was a very interesting game - I tried to keep him off the movement glyph while taking some potshots from range at the Eradicators. He attacked while adjacent most of the time, not wanting to have to roll for possible destruction and risk Concealment. I managed to come out on top - but that last Eradicator took down like 5 Mohicans all by himself.

Game 3 vs. Nirek on Fire Isles
Nirek is a friend of mine from college, so we agreed to play a more relaxed game - he went with his Elf Wizards army and I chose the Groks. The Groks have always been my favorite unit. I used to post about them back when I was semi-active on this forum, under the username kafkaesque.

Anyway, the point of Theracus is to carry Ne-Gok-Sa forward on turn 1 so that he's engaged to the enemy by the time the Groks catch up. Which worked well; I was able to get Ne-Gok-Sa engaged to some elves on turn 2 of round 1. He killed Kyntella Gwyn, and that's when things got interesting.

Round 2, Ne-Gok-Sa mind shackled Arkmer. Round 3, Morsbane got a 20 on Negate and blasted Ne-Gok-Sa out of existence. Whoa!! Morsbane also sucessfully negated Me-Burq-Sa a few turns later. In the end, the Groks managed to whittle the elves down, helped in part by a few whiffed Jordawn (sp?) bombs.

Game 4 vs. KrugMuffin on Frossenmere
KrugMuffin won the pick, and chose my Minions + Atlaga army. I chose his Nilfheim + those small green dragon dudes + Cyprien. We set up our start zones in such a way that he was able to use Bolt of the Witherwood on his first turn! Thankfully, it missed, and I chased Atlaga away with Nilfheim. I tried to be tricky with Cyprien but ended up getting both him and Nilfheim engaged to several Minions. Whoops. A lot of dice rolls later, Cyprien was dead, but Nilfheim barely lived with 5 wounds. He and the one remaining green dragon guy were able to defeat Marcu and the lone remaining Minion. Close game!

Game 5 vs. Nate on Blackroot
Another very, very close game. He chose his Minions + Taelord army, and I didn't like going up against that with my own minions, for some reason, so I chose his Roman army, which also included the Airborne Elite. They didn't drop for like the first 5 rounds, so I was sweating as the Minions flew in from everywhere and picked off Romans one at a time. I think it's safe to say this game was won by the dice: at one point, I attacked a Minion on height with a Roman. Got 1 skull, he whiffed 7 dice. Frustrated, he put another Minion in its place and attempted to kill the Roman: blocked. The Roman then did the same thing: 1 skull, whiffed defense. Right after that terribly unlucky situation, the Airborne dropped and mopped up the remaining Minions and rats. Very close and a lot hinged on the die rolls.

Game 6 vs. Shieldcrusher on Capuan Arena
This map is weird. Like, so weird. I didn't know what to do with it, so after I won army choice I passed it off to Shieldcrusher. He picked his Hydra + Cyprien + Wyrmlings + Krav Maga army, and I went with my Minion x4 + Atlaga. As soon as we were setting up the starting zones, he looked at the map again and was like "Oh." I looked too, and realized the same thing. 5 move Minions could engage his entire army right on turn 1. The Minions were the obvious choice for this map, but neither one of us saw it until we were setting up our armies.

I killed all 3 of his black wyrmlings on the first turn. After that, I wounded the Hydra to make orders on it less attractive and ganged up on Cyprien, who lived for a couple of turns. Shieldcrusher played it very well and took out a lot of Minions, and it was very hard to predict where his next order maker was going to be, but in the end the proximity of the Minions to his entire army right from the start was too much of a disadvantage.

I wanted to play the Groks more, but any time there's more than 2 of the same squad in the opponent's army, it's best to leave them behind . Thanks again to the organizers and everyone who participated! I'm looking forward to next year and still riding the high of victory.

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by lettucemode

Game 5 vs. ??? on Blackroot
Another very, very close game. He chose his Minions + Taelord army, and I didn't like going up against that with my own minions, for some reason, so I chose his Roman army, which also included the Airborne Elite. They didn't drop for like the first 5 rounds, so I was sweating as the Minions flew in from everywhere and picked off Romans one at a time. I think it's safe to say this game was won by the dice: at one point, I attacked a Minion on height with a Roman. Got 1 skull, he whiffed 7 dice. Frustrated, he put another Minion in its place and attempted to kill the Roman: blocked. The Roman then did the same thing: 1 skull, whiffed defense. Right after that terribly unlucky situation, the Airborne dropped and mopped up the remaining Minions and rats. Very close and a lot hinged on the die rolls.

That was Nate.

Good games! And congratulations!

[lettucemode]

Thanks, edited.

[Sheep]

Just posted in Champions For A Day... for the Groks and Dund. They only won one game, but they won a game. So... Again, congrats to lettucemode, the winner of NOHSD.

[Sheep]

How long does it take to finish an online game? I always thought it would be cool for people who can't make it (like KC this year) to still be able to participate in the tourney by playing online.

I know MLH allows like a week for games to be finished, but with a whole day dedicated to playing I think it would work. All someone would have to bring is a laptop for each person participating from online to the tourney. Then act like they're there. Comprendo?

[flameslayer93]

Originally Posted by heroscaper2010

How long does it take to finish an online game? I always thought it would be cool for people who can't make it (like KC this year) to still be able to participate in the tourney by playing online.

I know MLH allows like a week for games to be finished, but with a whole day dedicated to playing I think it would work. All someone would have to bring is a laptop for each person participating from online to the tourney. Then act like they're there. Comprendo?

In my (limited) experience, its about an hour and a half up to 2 hours.

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

In my (limited) experience, its about an hour and a half up to 2 hours.

Darn. Probably too long.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

Here are some pics from the tourney:


























Winners (in order):

[Sheep]

Awesome pictures, Shieldcrusher! Great job, everyone! Thanks again to Wookie and Johnny for running this awesome event!

[WOOKIE]

Yes! Thank you Shieldcrusher for the pictures.
I appreciate the donations given & the great mood everyone was in. All of us made this event happen.