Florida Frenzy 2007 - Sisyphus' Battle Reports

[Sisyphus]

Format is shamelessly copied from Vydar's report.

If any of my opponents remember a battle differently, feel free to post the details here. After 7 games, my much of the tournament has become a blur.

Introduction
The Florida Frenzy NHSD tournament was held in Orlando with 18 attendees. NecroBlade and dbzking ran the tournament amazingly smoothly for a first time event. A HUGE thanks to them for all their time and effort!


In an effort to encourage diversity in armies, Florida Frenzy gave incentives to avoid playing "power pieces:"

Hendal sent a gold nugget to us with the criterion that it should go to the top ranked player not playing any of his "Big Five:" Q9, Krav Maga Agents, Airborne Elite, Marro Warriors, and Raelin (either version)

Armies without Q9, Raelin, 4th, or Deathreavers received +1 SoS for every army they faced that contained any of these A+ units from the Power Rankings.

Both Negation and Summoning glyphs were included. These glyphs can seriously maim armies centered around Raelin or Q9.


The format was:
- 440 point armies.
- 24 space starting zones.
- 2 random glyphs per map.
- Five swiss rounds plus Top Four.
- 50 minute rounds.

Maps: Mole Hills, Klomar's Training Ground Location VII, and Highways and Dieways.

Glyphs:
Valda - Move +2
Lodin - d20 +1
Erland - Summoning
Gerda - Defense +1
Nilrend - Negation


My Army
I was determined to create around the new Marro Stingers. I also assumed that my Stingers would not do well against strong melee squads(Romans, Minions) on their own and so I decided to forgo the SoS bonus and include two squads of deathreavers. I included the Krav because I believe that most good armies need figures with range 7(or more). Since I wasn't getting any SoS bonus there was no reason not include Raelin as well.

180 = Marro Stingers(3x)
100 = Krav Maga Agents
080 = Deathreavers(2x)
080 = Raelin
-----
440 points


Round #1
I battled Blue Dane on Mole Hills:

240 = Marro Stingers (4x)
150 = Major Q10
050 = Me-Burq-Sa
-----
440 points


My battle plan was use my first two turns would move Deathreavers to the glyphs and on the third turn I would bring my Krav out. Raelin was near the edge of my starting zone so the Krav could perhaps remain in her aura and get some shots off. The next round, if Blue Dane charged with Stingers I would counter with Krav and Deathreavers and if he charged with Q10 I would counter with Stingers.

My first round went according to plan. I won initiative and so was able to secure both glyphs. One was the movement glyph which I kept for most of the game. Blue Dane ripped it lose with Stingers near the end of the game but by this time it was too late. The other glyph was summoning but I had no desire at all to give Blue Dane free movement into my territory so I merely summoned another Rat.

Blue Dane did initiate his attack with Q10 so on Round 2, I put the first two order markers on the Krav (as they had good position) and resolved to use Stingers after that until Q10 went down. The Krav\Stinger combination quickly took Q10 down to 1 life. On the third round, Blue Dane put all his order markers on Q10 and mine were all on Stingers. I was sure I would be able to kill Q10 and ravage the rest of his army. Boy was I wrong. Q10 shrugged off two turns of attacks from Stingers with height and engaged and took down two Krav Maga Agents. I had still come out ahead but Blue Dane had removed the Krav Maga threat. After this came my first of several Stinger vs. Stinger battles. I very cautiously moved Stingers into position so I would always get three attacks and take maximum advantage of Raelin's aura. Blue Dane attacked with reckless desperation but his Stingers were cut down. All that remained was to track down Me-Burq-Sa and my Stingers were victorious.

I did learn something important that I should have known already. The Deathreavers are not that good at tying up Stingers. Deathreavers help of course but they are not as dominating. The problem is that the Stinger is very likely to have height and attacks of 4 kill Deathreavers quickly and you don't have enough Deathreavers to hold glyphs and run interference for long.

Record 1-0


Round #2
I took on our worthy host NecroBlade on Highways and Dieways:

150 = Major Q10
120 = Kaemon Awa
120 = Marro Stingers(2x)
030 = Eldgrim the Viking Champion
020 = Marcu Esenwein
-----
440 points


My battle plan was to use my first two turns to grab glyphs with my Deathreavers and clog the roadways. The third turn I would my Stingers onto the road system. On the third round I would fly Raelin across the river and battle with Stingers. I didn't intend to use my Krav unless I was forced to because I believed that it would be too easy for my opponent to use road movement to engage them.

My first round went according to plan. NecroBlade did get the movement glyph by overextending Eldgrim but my Rats uncovered the summoning glyph and I summoned Eldgrim off the movement glyph and placed one of my Rats there instead. NecroBlade advanced his Q10 onto the road system. The next round I won initiative and flew Raelin onto a handy perch. NecroBlade could not resist temptation and used road movement to give Q10 the opportunity to use his Wrist Rocket special on Raelin. But this was exactly what I wanted as it ensured that my Stingers would have height the next turn. Q10 did not manage to do any damage to Raelin(who of course had height) and the next turn my Stingers killed Q10. I realize now that I was incredibly lucky to get rid of Q10 in one turn but at the time it seemed like the Stingers could do anything. Things were looking good but this was only the first skirmish. We both brought our Stingers to battle. I thought it would be easy and I neglected in the beginning to use Deathreavers to tie up NecroBlade's Stingers. NecroBlade rolled for Stinger Drain several times and despite Raelin's aura, he managed to kill most of my Stingers. I believe Kaemon Awa took out the last couple and I was forced to bring my Krav out for the final push. I did not want to send my Krav against Kaemon on that map. He could quickly engage my Krav on the road and once Quick Release downed one, I would be in trouble. So the first thing I did was use my rats, not to engage Kaemon, but to clog the road ways so Necroblade could only really attack my Deathreavers. My Krav then destroyed Kaemon from range. Necroblade's last hope was Marcu who flew out and hid behind a tree. A brought my Krav onto height outside Raelin's aura in an attempt to kill Marcu in one turn. I succeeded and won the match.

I believe I mentioned to NecroBlade in this match that it was not worth rolling for Stinger Drain in the Stinger vs. Stinger battle. It is certainly true that against defense 3(or even 5) Stingers you will do worse on average rolling for Stinger Drain than not but I now agree with NecroBlade's decision. If juicing will allow you to win, you should do so. You might do better on average by not rolling for Stinger Drain but if average is still a loss than it is good to roll for Stinger Drain and hope for the best.

Record 2-0


Round #3
I battled Buddy Lee on Mole Hills:

200 = Microcorp Agents(2x)
150 = Major Q10
090 = Crixus
-----
440 points

My battle plan was similar to my first battle on Mole Hills. First two order markers would go on Deathreavers. Then I would battle with Krav backed by Raelin until one died and then switch to Stingers. I figured I would need the Krav to defeat the 7 range Microcorp agents.

This was my first game that didn't go as I expected it would. I lost the first initiative which meant that Buddy Lee was able to grab the summoning glyph. Raelin was summoned and killed in two rounds of Microcorp fire. I did get the defense + 1 glyph which I held for the remainder of the game. I brought my Krav out but two quickly whiffed on defense rolls of 4 and 5 against the Microcorp. Buddy Lee had a few Microcorp in the lake who were safe from my land bound rats and was rolling well for stealth armor. Things were not looking good for my army but my Stingers saved the day. Their attack of 3 was able to puncture the Microcorp's high defense and I eventually forced Buddy Lee to switch over to Q10. Q10 had height most of the time so I used Stinger Drain for the first time in the tournament. I believe on my three attempt I gained an attack die once, lost a Stinger and turn once, and had normal attack once. Q10 was killed and it was all down to 3 Stingers and a few Rats against Crixus. Crixus' One-Shield-Defense only delayed his destruction.

Record 3-0


Round #4
I had to face Ant Q9 on Highways and Dieways:

240 = Marro Stingers(4x)
150 = Cyprien Esenwein
045 = Sonya Esenwein
-----
435 points

I have to admit I was not looking forward to this match up. Not only did Ant Q9 have the most terrifying army that I had yet seen but he would no doubt be wanting to avenge his father's(Blue Dane) defeat from my first match. I hadn't wanted to use my Krav on Highways and Dieways against NecroBlade and I certainly didn't want to use them when Cyprien was on the board so I hid them behind my ruin and surrounded them with Deathreavers and Stingers. Other than my starting zone defenses against Cyprien, my game plan was the same as against NecroBlade. First use Deathreavers to grab glyphs and then fight with Stingers backed by Raelin.

Ant Q9 won the first initiative which allowed him to get the movement glyph with one of his Stingers. My Deathreavers got the other glyph which turned out to be the negation glyph. One roll of the D20 and Cyprien was negated. I felt really bad for Ant Q9 especially considering that this had happened to him in a previous game but I felt that it made up for what happened to my Raelin in my previous game. Without Cyprien, Ant Q9 didn't stand much of a chance but he valiantly battled on. I won yet another Stinger vs. Stinger battle and had 3 Stingers remaining. Ant Q9 had all his Order Markers on his now dead Stingers so I rushed my remaining Stingers across the board to Ambush the negated Cyprien and his bride. I rolled twice for Stinger Drain and got an extra attack die both times. Cyprien was killed and it took only one shot to kill the heartbroken Sonya.

After this is when I finally realized how much of the game depended on who got to the glyphs first and consequently how important the first initiative roll was. Either the summoning glyph or the negation glyph can end the battle before it begins.

Record 4-0


Round #5
I battled Dustin on Mole Hills:

120 = Kaemon Awa
110 = Airborne Elite
110 = Drake
100 = Deathstalkers
-----
440 points

Dustin was the only other undefeated player at this point. I think we were both guaranteed a spot in the finals but that didn't mean we were going to play easy. I thought that Dustin's army was a trifle weak especially considering Ant Q9's Stinger/Vampire army. This scared me because it meant that Dustin was a very good player. I was however happy with the variety since this was the first army I faced without either Q10, Stingers, or both. Since the Airborne Elite did not drop the first round I stuck to my conventional Mole Hill strategy. I just knew that I had to keep Drake away from my Krav and engage him with Deathreavers until my Stingers could take care of him.

I won initiative. This allowed me to get both glyphs. One was the movement glyph and the other was summoning. The summoning glyph was far from my army so, just for kicks, I summoned his Drake and managed to do a point of damage with my two adjacent Deathreavers. The next round, Dustin's Airborne Elite dropped but I killed most of them with my Krav. I found that, unlike most ranged squads, my Stingers had enough power to rip through the Deathstalker's defenses. I then engaged Drake with my Stingers. I rolled for Stinger Drain three times and lost a turn and a Stinger once and gained an attack die twice and Drake was killed. While Drake is good against most ranged squads, the Stingers are almost as good as a melee squad against Drake. All that was left was to kill Kaemon Awa from height and destroy the one remaining Deathstalker.

At this point I was feeling very confident. I was going into the finals and I had just handily beat the second place finisher.

Record 5-0


Semi-Finals

I faced the champion army of Vydar on Ambush:
160 = Gladiatrons(2x)
150 = Major Q10
120 = Blastatrons(2x)
-----
430 points

Going into the game I didn't think Vydar stood a chance. I thought the map was really unfair because it negated the strength of the Glad/Blast combo and it would be an easy victory for me. Boy was I wrong. My strategy was to use my first to turns to move my Deathreavers to glyphs and block Vydar from the bridge. I would then bring my Krav up to the top and rain destruction down on Vydar's army. My Krav would have 6 defense Stealth Dodge(3 + height + Raelin) and it would be physically impossible for Vydar to engage them thanks to the bridge and a single Deathreaver.

Unfortunately for me Vydar won initiative which meant that he, not I, was able to gain control of the bridge and therefore gain height advantage for the whole game. This also allowed Vydar to get the nearest glyph to him which was the defense glyph. I was able to get the movement glyph but things were not looking good. At this point it was useless to put more order markers on the Krav as the Stingers had as good or better attack and the Krav's extra range and movement was unnecessary due to Vydar's static defense and my movement glyph. I was fully confident in my Stingers being able to take down defense 2 Blastatrons but not so much defense 4 Blastatrons. So my first goal was to liberate the defense glyph which I quickly did and I placed a Deathreaver on it. I brought Stingers backed by Raelin to pick off Blastatrons from the bridge. Even with height advantage Vydar's Blastatrons were inferior to my Stingers. I was picking off Blastatrons and Gladiatrons and hardly lost a man(or Marro) although I believe that a couple of damage was done to Raelin. Vydar tried to knock my rats of the glyphs but he was mostly unsuccessful and by bringing his Gladiatrons down to the glyphs, it allowed me to gain height over them although one Gladiatron survived five attacks from stingers on height. However, Vydar saw that his Blastatrons were not going to get it done so he sent his Q10 forward and used his normal attack on Raelin. I was not worried, I had been through this before. My Stingers changed targets and I attempted to Stinger Drain...and rolled a 2. I lost a Stinger and had to impotently watch another attack destroy Raelin. I brought forward more Stingers and rolled for Stinger Drain again... and rolled a 4. I lost another Stinger and lost more to Q10's Wrist Rocket attack. The next turn I attempted to Stinger Drain again and was quite happy to roll just an 8 but still my Stingers couldn't do any damage to Q10 and then they were decimated by Q10s counter attack. At this point I have 3 Stingers, the Krav, and 4 Deathreavers left. I still have a force to be reckoned with but I find out that we are almost out of time. I take one turn to attack the remaining Gladiatrons that I have height over but I don't remember what the result of these attacks were. Time is called shortly after I set down the first order marker for the next round. Vydar has 70 points more than me and we both have one turn left to play. I have only three attacks so I can't make up the points by killing Gladiatrons or Blastatrons so I have to go after Q10. I know if I successfully Stinger Drain I will have 3 attacks of 4 on defense 6 which means that I should do 3 * ~0.6 = 1.8 =~2 damage. Two damage on Q10 is 75 points and I win if I don't lost any Stingers on Vydar's turn. Or I might do more damage and be guaranteed a win and, of course, I have not forgotten that I took down NecroBlade's Q10 with Stingers in one turn in my second game. In my last ditch effort I roll for Stinger Drain and get an extra attack die... and I do zero damage. The game is over on time and I now get to fight for third place. Vydar goes on to beat Dustin for the championship.

After this match I was once against impressed with the importance of the first initiative roll. I also momentarily lost faith in my Stingers. There was no doubt that they had failed me but I soon came to my senses. They had failed but no other unit would have done better in their place. If I had brought my usual Aubriens instead, Q10 would have laughed at my puny attacks of 2 and would have mowed them down with Machine Pistol.


Battle for Third

My Stingers got a chance to redeem themselves against Roller on Highways and Dieways

150 = Major Q10
100 = Krav Maga Agents
080 = Raelin
060 = Izumi Samurai
050 = Me-Burq-Sa
-----
440 points

I was going to keep the same strategy for this map that brought me to the finals. I would send my Deathreavers to “collect and clog” and then fight with Raelin and Stingers while my Krav hid in the back. If Roller was foolish enough to bring his Krav out prematurely, I woud use Stingers and road movement to take them down.

The game was over the first roll of the D20. My opponent won initiative and so was able to get both glyphs with his Samurai. The first glyph was a summoning glyph which brought Raelin in to be wasted by Q10. The other glyph was the negation glyph which negated my Krav. I hoped to intervene with my Stingers before Q10 could finish off Raelin but Roller wins initiative again and kills Raelin. I send my Stingers in to take care of Q10 but I didn't realize that he was within range of his Raelin's aura and so I believe they did 1 damage.. On the counter attack I find that my Stingers have lost their ability to roll shields. The rest of the round I set up my Stingers to attack my opponents Raelin the next round. Unfortunately I lose initiative again and Q10 gets a turn and I whiff on two more defense rolls. I do get some attacks in and reduce Raelin down to 1 life. The next round I again try to position my Stingers so that I can attack Raelin with an initiative win. I have three Stingers left at this point, one of which is engaged to Q10. I finally win initiative and so I hope to knock out Raelin. I risk disengage and a skull is rolled and I lose a Stinger. I then roll for Stinger Drain... and lose another Stinger and another turn. On my opponent's turn, I finally start to roll defense and my last Stinger survives Q10's Wrist Rocket attack. I risk disengage with my final Stinger and another skull is rolled. All I have left now is 3 negated Krav Maga and a few Deathreavers and all I have killed is one Samurai and so I concede the match. I have never lost a game so badly before.

So the end result was that I placed fourth, made a few friends, and had a lot of fun. Though next year I will be looking forward to rematches against Vydar and Ant Q9 so be prepared.

[Bloody the Marro Stinger]

Great battles! Gee, the Stingers won spider_poison the championship in TreeTown, and got you in fourth place. They were on fire on National Heroscape day! I wish I could have been there!

[NecroBlade]

You remembered my army and our match a bit wrong, but thanks for the battle report!

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

You remembered my army and our match a bit wrong, but thanks for the battle report!

What was the differences? I admit the battle against you runs in my mind with my battle against Blue Dane since your armies were so similar.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

What was the differences? I admit the battle against you runs in my mind with my battle against Blue Dane since your armies were so similar.

Yeah, too many Stingers in a row. I was running:

150 Major Q-10
120 Kaemon Awa
120 Marro Stingers x2
030 Eldgrim the Viking Champion
020 Marcu Esenwein

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

Yeah, too many Stingers in a row. I was running:

150 Major Q-10
120 Kaemon Awa
120 Marro Stingers x2
030 Eldgrim the Viking Champion
020 Marcu Esenwein

Ah, that's right. I distinctly remember you having Kaemon Awa(he started behind the ruins) but for some reason I can't remember having defeated him. Must be because it would inconceivable that Kaemon Awa would ever be defeated.

I'll update everything soon.

[Jexik]

Nice report! Winning 5 games in a row is no easy task, especially against so many armies using the same figures as you.

Sounds kinda like the dice and glyphs bit you in the last couple games.

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by Jexik

Nice report! Winning 5 games in a row is no easy task, especially against so many armies using the same figures as you.

Sounds kinda like the dice and glyphs bit you in the last couple games.

Perhaps but I had my fair share of good luck too. Knocking out NecroBlade's Q10 in one turn was incredible and getting the negation glyph against Ant Q9 was a miracle.

Also, the report is updated. I stole Vydar's format and included a few more details that I remembered and my basic strategy.

[Star Wolf]

Ah, that's right. I distinctly remember you having Kaemon Awa(he started behind the ruins) but for some reason I can't remember having defeated him. Must be because it would inconceivable that Kaemon Awa would ever be defeated.

Oh yeah, well I defeated kaemon awa by first summoning him then teaming up on him with my krav magas before he even got a chance to attack.This was in my battle against torog at the tournament. SUMMINING ROCKS!!! except for when ant Q9 summoned and then killed my sgt. drake before I even had a chance to attack.

[Roller]

The Glyphs really did decide alot of matches in this tourney, as I thought they would. They also dictated my opening strategy of 2 markers on my samurai every match.

Hopefully next year we learn our lesson and don't make them so important.

(that means no instant ones, i.e. curse, summoning, negation, ect.)

[Vydar]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

Format is shamelessly copied from Vydar's report.

Wow! You practically didn't even change a word on first section! At least I got some credit for it.

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

Though next year I will be looking forward to rematches against Vydar and Ant Q9 so be prepared.

Sorry, to say I most likely will be out of Florida by that point. :P If you want to come hunt me down at some other tournament in another state, I'd welcome the rematch...but, please, let's use a different map. I didn't like that one.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

Knocking out NecroBlade's Q10 in one turn was incredible

Sadly, that was my Q10's story all day.

My favorite play with the summoning glyph was grabbing himsati's Kaemon Awa...to find out his next order marker was on Kaemon!

But I will say this about the glyphs: I. Told. You. So. :P