Austin, MN tournament Battle Reports

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Thanks to Jormi and George's Pizza for a great time and location. It was great to be able to bring 5 of us from Nebraska up to the tournament, too. It was also a lot of fun seeing a lot of familiar faces: Codeman, Jormi, Spider Poison , SuperGeek, Jexik, tchop, and Clarissimus. It was also great to meet some of Team Nowhere and others. My wife had just given me some custon dice for my birthday a few weeks ago. I was eager to give them a whirl too. We nicknamed them my Jesus dice.
On to my battle report. 470 was a tough army for me to work any range in. I playtested quite a few armies and was deciding among 3:
1. AE, Knights x 2, Gilbert, Alastair - This army was pretty good if the AE dropped in a timely fashion, but 2 squads of knights was just not quite enough.
2. Alastair, Knights x 3, Cyprien - This army had a lot of potential if Cyprien was hot, otherwise range would own the 4 move knights.
3. Alastair, Gilbert, Eldgrim, Isamu, Knights x 3 - I love this army but it didn't have any range. I took it anyway. Range is for little girls anyway.

My first battle was against Codeman on Searing Pass. This is the first time I had ever played Codeman. He's a great guy and a great part of the heroScape community. I knew that Mimring was going to be a headache on this map so my priority was to take him out.
Codeman's army
Mimring - 150
Krug - 270
Arrow Gruts x 3 - 390
Swogs x 3 - 465

I sent Isamu at first vanishing quite a few times and taking height in Mimring and causing 2 wounds of damage. Eldgrim proceeded to over extend and take height on the dragon, too. I roll...3 out of 3 skulls. Codeman rolls...he whiffs Mimring is dead. My little dwarf and 10 point ninja have made a name for themselves - Dragon Slayers!! Into about round 2 we noticed that Codeman had forgot to put Krug on the board. Eldgrim countinued taking out a few arrow gruts before Gilbert and the rest of the party joined in. At the end, Codeman had Krug, 1 swog, and 1 arrow grut and put all his order markers on the arrow grut. I took out the arrow grut and just cleaned up from there. I lost 1 squad of knights, Isamu, and Eldgrim.

1-0

My next battle was against one of the guys from Team Nowhere. He was running a Hive/Stinger army. We were playing on Desolate Pools. He had just beaten Clarissimus, so I knew that he was a solid player. Clarissimus wished me luck and it began. His army was:
Hive - 160
Stingers x 5 - 460
Isamu - 470

We both sent out our Isamu's first to uncover the glyphs. Lodin for me and Common attack for him. That wasn't good so I sent everybody after the glyph. Stingers with +1 attack is dangerous. Eldgrim killed Isamu and a knight took the glyph. There was some fighting back and forth for the glyph but the knights finally claimed it. I activated Gilbert to try and get the knights to the hive as quick as possible. It was my priority target. With the help of Gilbert and the common attack glyph the knights were able to overpower the stingers. I took the hive out in 3 attacks with Gilbert enhanced knights. I then cleaned up the rest of the stingers. The 5 range really hurt the stingers because I could close the gap in 1 activation. He was also unlucky with the D20, only rebirthing 2 stingers the whole game. I lost Eldgrim and 2 squads of knights.

2-0

4 of us that rode up from Nebraska were 2-0 at this point, so of course we faced each other. I played Ryan and d-man played Tiny Timmy.
Ryan's army scared me when we were talking about it on the way up here. The only chance that I had was to play on Marr Highway which we did.
Ryan's army:
4th Mass x 5 - 350
Drake - 460

Both of us spent a good 15-20 minutes just moving all our units up. We both knew that once we started attacking we couldn't waste time waiting for our reinforcements to arrive. I uncovered the initiative glyph so decided to attack on turn 3 since I lost initiative, that way I could have 2 turns in a row before Ryan could retaliate. Gilbert was a defensive mastermind this game. Ryan must have literally attacked him 2 dozen times only causing 4 wounds of damage. I was rolling really good defense the whole game. Ryan rolled pretty crappy the whole game. I think he maybe defended 2 or 3 attacks the whole game. It was still a pretty close game. It came down to Gilbert with 4 wounds, 2 knights and Alastair against 2 Minute Men and Drake. Drake steps up and attacks...1 skull. The knight defends it. Gilbert attacks...3 skulls. Drake whiffs. A knight attacks Drake...2 skulls. Drake whiffs again. All Ryan's order markers were on Drake so I cleaned up the 4th Mass after that. It was a very close fought game and with Ryan's crappy rolling and my better than average defense rolling this game fell into my lap. Ryan's a great sport and a great player.

3-0

I had the 2nd highest point total and of course Spider Poison had the highest so I had to play that cheater again. Nah, Spider's actually a pretty cool guy. He also had a pretty good counter to my army. We played on Swamp Treasure. His army was:
Glads x 3 - 240
Blasts x 2 - 360
Raelin - 440
Marcu - 460
Isamu - 470

He sent Raelin up to the high ground, not payin attention to my order markers. I was able to get high ground on her with Isamu, but only managed to put 1 wound on her. Then it was cyberclaw time. He had control of the high ground so I sent my little dwarf after the glyphs with some knights as back up. Eldgrim managed to kill a few glads and engage some blasts but the 6 defense glads were to tough for 3 attack knights to take out. I had a slights chance when I had the common attack glyph and Gilbert adjacent to a few knights and a knight or 2 with height but alas my Jesus dice didn't come through. Spider played a good game. I think I only managed to take out 6 glads.

3-1

My last battle was against Gibberish from Team Nowhere. He was also running some 4th Mass with some knights. That was a pretty popular army. I knew that I would have to play on Marr highway again if I chance to win, which we did. His army was:
4th Mass x 3 - 210
Knights x 2 - 350
Gilbert - 455

This was similar to my game against Ryan. We spent quite a while establishing and fortifying our armies after I sent in Isamu to do some damage. Gibberish uncovered the wound glyph. After that I made it a priority to have that at the end of every turn 3, which I was able to. The wound glyph really helped me this game. It was kind of behind a ruin so Gibberish couldn't attack it without coming down from high ground. He placed his 4th Mass on a hill with his knights guarding the front. I backed up and regrouped. Gibberish didn't want to come down from the hill (I don't blame him) so he fortified his troops. I bum rushed on end of turn 3 hoping to win initiative and did. I was able to take out a few knights and send Gilbert up to a farther away hill and engage 2 4th Mass, while my knights got some lucky rolls against his other 4th Mass. My Gilbert fell but not before Alastair had come up to the battle. I had Alastair and 3 knights against Gilbert with 3 health, 2 knights and 2 minute men. I overextended with Alastair and killed his Gilbert. His 4th Mass attacked Alastair with wait then fire and height but only caused 1 wound. Alastair then killed a 4th Mass as did a knight. His next order marker was on the 4th Mass so Alastair then attacked the last 2 knights and it was over. Another close game.

4-1 (4th place)

I was impressed with how well I did without any range. I really thought that I would be lucky to go home with a 3-2 record. I was also impressed with how well the 5 of us from Nebraska did. I think we took 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 10th place. I think my MVP was Eldgrim. He was quit impressive with his overextends and the extra move he gave Alastiar was crucial in a few games. I had a great time and can't wait for the next one.

Map Review
Desolate Pools by Jormi Boced - The only thing that I didn't like about the map is that Nilf and Mimring can attack the enemy's starting zones from height in 1 move, other than that it's a pretty good map.
Swamp Treasure by Codeman - Not bad for a Swamp map. I liked the high ground and the 2 glyphs that were hidden by the hives.
Marr Highway by Velenne - I'm not sure how this map made the BOV. I really didn't like this map much, but that's just my opinion. It definitely helped my knight move, but it had to many sniping places.
Searing Pass by Hasbro - I love lava maps and this is no exception. I am a little disappointed that it only uses 1 molten lava tile.

[Heroscape Elffy]

So your dice were the opposite of mine. I rolled horribly yesterday. I ended 2-3 with the bye. Oh well. At least you did good. And yes, range is for little girls who are afraid to get up close. I also had no range.

[Jexik]

Nice job Matthias! You beat Gibberish on the map that he beat me on. Those Knights can be pretty brutal there!

Yeah, my Arrow Gruts died like little girls.

Seriously, Wait Then Fire!?

Or... every time Jandar kills a kitten, Krug gets angry.


I had been talking to spider for a couple weeks off and on, and basically narrowed my army down to two armies. He liked both of them as well.

3x Gladiatrons 240
2x Blastatrons 360
Raelin 440
Marcu 460
Isamu 470

or

Krug 120
Raelin 200
4x Swog 300
4x Arrow Gruts 460
Isamu 470

In the end, we both decided that the 'trons were probably a little stronger, but I'd been practicing with the Orcs for a week or two on a bunch of different maps, and I really enjoyed playing them. I figured they'd do great with the glyph pool, which had both Astrid and Crevcor, but no Valda. That way, my fast little disengaging army would be tough to beat. I felt good about my chances against Q9 and Krav, and pretty much any army with more than one hero, thanks to Krug and Swogs.

As I tested it a bit more, I actually substituted one squad of Arrow Gruts and Isamu for 2 more Swogs, because I found myself losing them quickly. I was still right at 24 hexes. I filled all the hexes, but I still only had 17 figures. I decided that the only army that I'd have a lot of difficulty against would be a Valiant 4th Mass army, but against anything else, I liked my chances. Because most of the Valiant armies I came up with ended with weird amounts of points left, I didn't worry about that possibility too much.

Sounds great, right?

Final army: "Kitten Hug": Krug, Raelin, 3x Arrow Gruts, 6x Swog Rider

Round 1
Opponent: Phloid (winner of the last MN tourney, and 3rd place at this one)
Army: 2x Knights of Weston, Sir Gilbert, 3x 4th Mass (455 points, 21 hexes)
Map: Swamp Treasure, by Codeman.

We were playing on Swamp Treasure, which is an interesting 2 SotM map by Codeman. It has split starting zones for both players, with 4 hexes for each player near two glyphs sitting between some Hives to the South, with a North high ground to fight over on the top of the map for the bulk of your armies. I put one Swog and 2 Gruts down by the glyphs, and everything else in the north, and Phloid put 4 4th Mass to the south.

I won initiative and placed my Raelin on the highest part of the hill on my side of the map. Then Phloid moved some 4th Mass toward the glyphs, but didn't reach them. Then I had a Swog run down and kill that 4th Mass guy near the glyph, discovering a Dagmar. We both moved up the hills and I also found a Summoning glyph, which I used to pull Gilbert down away from the bulk of his figures, I also moved away from the initiative glyph, which Phloid eventually took, but continued to roll higher than me naturally for the remainder of the game.

The game went back and forth for a long while. I would generally not overcommit my Swogs, always keeping them and the Gruts within Raelin's Aura, and I'd always take a 3 die shot with height and swog support, usually at 4th mass to thin their ranks. It was slow going offensively for me, and for Phloid as well. Raelin was rolling defense like a champ, and so were the 5 D arrow Gruts and 6 D swogs (thanks to height, etc...)

He would periodically take 1 or 2 turns with his Knights in a round, and eventually Sir Gilbert managed to make his long journey back to where the action is. Sir Gilbert led the charge against my Raelin position, and I started moving Krug up to meet them, but it was too late. Raelin and the Swog and Arrow Gruts up there fell, and then Krug started dispensing some beatdowns. With some good defense rolls, he stuck around for awhile, and eventually managed to kill Sir Gilbert and a 2 or 3 Knights. My remaing 3-4 Arrow Gruts were firing from lower ground, but often with 2-3 Swogs supporting them. The 5 defense of the Knights was still tough to crack even with 3 or 4 attack dice, and they were only killing one about once every other turn- eventually, all the Knights were removed from my hill, and I actually managed to take it back.

With some good attack rolls, I pushed all of his 4th Mass off the hill, and played aggressively with my remaining Swog Riders. Thanks to Sir Gilbert's earlier Jandar's Dispatch rolls, a bunch of 4th mass were now in Wait then Fire range, and I lost the last battlefield position that I had up there. I feebly attempted to put one Swog Rider and 2 Arrow Gruts on the high spot on my side again, but they fell too.

At the end, Phloid had 5 4th Mass, and either 2 or 3 Knights left. It felt a bit closer than the final score suggested... to me at least.

Result: Loss, -210 PD
Cumulative: 1 (0-1, -210)

Well, on the plus side, with a first round loss, I should face a much worse opponent, with a more favorable army composition for me in the second round. Right?

Round 2
Opponent: gibberish 47, (3rd place at the TTO III, and 3-2 on the day)
Army: 2x Knights of Weston, Sir Gilbert, 3x 4th Mass (455 points, 21 hexes)
Map: Marr Highway

Great. Gibberish was the best person that I had played at the Tree Town Open, and he played essentially the same army this time, only he had one more squad of 4th Mass there. Apparently he had a really bad luck game of dice against Tiny Timmy's Cyprien. I knew how he'd play the army. He'd lead with the Knights, use Gilbert to keep funneling people up and onto the road. Then he'd throw the Knights in my face and not actually attack with them all that much while the 4th Mass killed me. And on Marr Highway, I'd have nowhere to run.

We both advanced our forces slowly, and together. I was the first one to get a glyph, and it was a pit trap. My swog was stuck, and even though he was protected by Raelin's aura, he fell quickly to some muskets. Gibberish then took his glyph, which turned out to be Astrid. The 3-long ruin was also on that side, which meant that I only had one route to get to the Astrid glyph, and that required getting Wait then Fired at from height.

This game actually ended up being kind of close thanks to some bad defense rolls on gib's part. My wily little gruts kept picking off Knights and Mass. Eventually he made it to Raelin, and put three wounds on her. Only one Knight was adjacent though, and I actually had my next turn on her. I risked the two passing swipes to try to surprise him, get him off the attack glyph, and buy myself some time. It worked, but she got shot the next turn, and the turn after that he got the glyph back, still protected pretty well.

I sent Krug up, and the Knights actually got 4 wounds on him on the first turn they attacked him... and with only two Gilbert-boosted ones at that. Krug and the Arrow Gruts finished off those knights, as well as Sir Gilbert, and I made a last few efforts to kill the 4th mass around his glyph. He then advanced a little closer to all of my guys just near the big tree on my side, and finished off my remaining swogs and gruts.

Again, Gibberish had 2-3 Knights, and 5 4th Mass left.

Result: Loss, -210 PD
Cumulative: 2, (0-2, -420PD)

Round 3
Player: Kyle, a relatively new guy who I don't think is on HSers.com
Army: Major Q10, Nakita Agents, Laglor, 1x Gorillinators (470 points, 9 hexes)
Map: Desolate Pools by Jormi

This map is kind of like Forsaken Waters, except it is more symmetric and the big hill in the middle is actually the same height as the two hills on the side. I was actually somewhat worried about Kyle's army because I didn't like the idea of unboosted gruts facing off against Gorillas, so I focused on wounding them first. I also put raelin on the big central hill and started moving some gruts and swogs up there.

His Nakitas were placed pretty well for smoke powder to protect everything else though, so I charged the one next to Laglor and Q10 with a swog, killing it after a couple attacks. He was focusing on Raelin because she was protecting all the Swogs and gruts on the main hill. She fell just around the time that Krug got there. He beat them down pretty handily, killing first the Nakita, then Q10, then Laglor.

I lost one arrow grut figure, one swog, and Raelin. Krug did the vast majority of the killing.

Result: Win, +365
Cumulative: 5 (1-2), -55 PD

Round 4
Player: Supergeek
Army: 2x Knights of Weston, Sir Gilbert, 3x 4th Mass (455 points, 21 hexes)
Map: Searing Pass by Hasbro

A bit annoyed that I was playing this army again, I decided to relax and eat a ton of delicious gyros and feta cheese pizza. Yum. Go Minnesota.

If there was a good map for me to face this army, this was it. I moved Raelin to height, and sent a Swog and my first three Arrow Gruts up there. They rocked the house for quite a long time. Losing maybe one or two of their number, and a wound or two on Raelin, but killing about 7 4th Mass and 2 Knights. All the height, Raelin's aura, and Swog bonuses made them quite effective. I was going to win!

But I got aggressive and careless. On the third turn of the third round, there was no place that I could get really good attacks on them and stay in Raelin's aura without standing on lava, so I moved forward, and left the Aura without realizing it. I failed all of my attack that turn too. Then supergeek's Knights charged up the hill and killed all of the Gruts and Swogs that were there, and all of my stuff was way back in my starting zone. I really should have moved more up sooner.

Then he swarmed and killed Raelin. I started losing my gruts now that they didn't have the same defense. I was down to 3 Swogs, one Arrow Grut, and a fully healed Krug against a handful of Knights and Mass and Gilbert. It was treacherous terrain for Krug, but I had to move him up.

Krug eventually finished off Gilbert and a couple more Knights, but died to some WtF's from height. Then it was 2 Swogs, 1 Arrow Grut, and about 3 each of Mass and Knights. With some timely defense rolls and nasty paws of doom, I managed to get it really close, but still lost. About a dozen people were watching as it ended.

Supergeek had 1 Knight and 1 4th Mass guy left at the end of the game. I had been splitting them up to make his order marker decisions harder, and give me the opportunity to make him lose at least one turn the next round. I let this one get away from me, but he did just the right thing at the right time to turn it around.

Result: Loss, -140 PD
Cumulative: 6, (1-3, -195PD)

Round 5
Player: I forgot his name. Sorry man!
Army: Deathwalker 9000, Syvarris, Raelin, Major Q10 (470, 5 hexes)
Map: Swamp Treasure

Ranged heroes and Raelin. I felt pretty good about it, but underestimated Syvarris' deadliness with Raelin when he's on height, as well as DW9K's explosion attack. On one blast, he took out 3 Gruts, one swog, and the last 2 wounds on Raelin. It was brutal. He didn't even go for the glyphs, which turned out pretty well for him, because they were both Brandar (dud).

Then Krug decided to set things straight. He finished off the pansy elf, who already had 2 wounds worth of grut's arrows filthying his platinum-blond locks. He then jumped down and cut Raelin in half in two brutal swings, while the Major gave him a few ROCKET ATTACKS TO THE FACE.

On two attacks, Krug then got 3 wounds on Major Q10, and then got hit again, with only two very angry wounds left on himself. My opponent had one order marker on Major Q10, and one on Deathwalker. Knowing that I could survive one passing swipe, and that DW9K might just eliminate my remaining forces with explosions, I ran towards him. The swipe failed. But so did my two attacks of 8 against 10 (thanks to height.) I rolled 4 skulls to his 4 shields on the first attack, and only one skull to his one shield on the second attack! (I had 7 shields on that one, no blanks.)

My last Arrow grut took one crazy shot down at Q10, rolling 2 skulls, and finishing him off. His 3rd turn was on Q10, so he forfeit his turn.

He rolled a 13 for initiative, and I a 14. Krug then killed DW9K. I dodged a bullet there. The point differential really didn't tell the story on this one, with just 4 Swogs, 3 Arrow Gruts, and Krug left standing.

Result: Win, +260
Cumulative: 9, (2-3, +55)

And I didn't even win the bet that spider_poison and I had about who could get the biggest attack of the day. I never rolled more than 8 dice for one of Krug's attacks, and he managed to get 9 with Blastatrons at one point!