NHSD '10 Report

MegaSilver hosted this year's Louisville tournament today at Pet Shop comics. I had a blast with a fun army I put together at the last minute. The rules were 510 points, up to one Marvel figure. I'm at a sort of handicap with those rules, because it's really hard for me to play something that DOESN'T include Iron Man.

I went with the following, with almost no playtesting:

240 Iron Man
150 Major Q10 (standing in for War Machine)
120 Deathreavers x3

Round 1: My opponent, Shawn, had actually come with a couple friends intending to watch, but was talked into playing since we otherwise had an odd number of players. He played

220 Captain America
170 Sgt. Drake Alexander (SotM)
110 Airborne Elite

What a start to the tournament: iron-themed army vs soldier-themed army!

The Airborne dropped in the first round, but I was able to quickly engage them with Rats and even kill one. Cap and Drake came up from the rear. Cap, Drake, and Airborne all took turns attacking Rats, some of which died, some of which scattered. Then Iron Man took high ground. He rained repulsor blasts down on Cap, eventually killing him while he was tied up with Rats despite throwing his shield around. Next fell the Airborne. Then finally Drake, who, after picking up Heroic Rune, one of the two treasure glyphs on the map, scored 3 wounds on Iron Man in a single attack!

After the game, I gave my opponent some tips on how to use the AE better and optimize Cap's Shield Throw.

Result: Win, Record 1-0

Round 2: I faced another Sean, this one playing

220 Captain America
100 Kozuke Samurai
100 Krav Maga Agents
080 Raelin (RotV)
010 Isamu

I don't like facing Cap with Iron Man because I usually do pretty poorly against him. Today proved to be different, though. It turned out this map had a very good perch for Iron Man, with both guaranteed height vs melee and jungle bonus vs range. I took out Raelin in just a couple turns, while Cap and the Krav were barely able to ding Iron Man's armor. Then I made a fighting retreat to whittle down and eventually finish Cap (who had picked up a treasure only to find it was Disengage...) as well. Krav met their end next, including one death-by-Rat. Then the Rats were able to block the Kozuke and Iron Man finished them off as well. Isamu missed a Vanish only to roll a shield for the single skull I rolled, but the next attack had more than one skull so a failed Vanish there meant the end of the game.

Result: Win, Record 2-0

Round 3: This time my opponent was Eric, and he played the standard dwarf army.

210 Axegrinders x3
120 Mogrimm Forgehammer
110 Migol Ironwill
060 Darrak Ambershard
010 Isamu (to make 510)

This was another good map for my army. Rats were able to quickly reach the high ground, blocking off access on both sides. Iron Man then sat in the middle blasting anything and everything that approached. After a couple rounds, I was running out of Rats, but then Iron Man finished Migol and moved on to the approaching column of dwarves. A 5-skull attack took out Darrak after a missed HiD roll. Isamu eventually Walked around the side to get a shot at Iron Man, but he too fell.

Result: Win, Record 3-0

At this point we took a brief lunch break. I was feeling good about my games so far, but was still surprised to be doing so well with an army I picked as much for fun as competitiveness (yes, I was running Rats, but I only had two offensive threats, which proved to be a problem in my last two games).

Round 4: vs Ben, the other 3-0 player.

240 Marro Stingers x4
150 Cyprien Esenwein
100 Iron Golem
020 Marcu Esenwein

Uh oh. I knew this was going to be trouble. Cyprien was obviously an issue for Iron Man, but Q10 could handle him. Stingers packed enough punch to get through them both, though, and knock down Rats at a decent rate. At the start of the game, I wanted to make sure Iron Man got to do some damage before the inevitable Touch, and the map did provide me with a spot where I could get two attacks of 5 on Cyprien. Ben won Initiative and moved some Stingers. Iron Man took his shots...and rolled one skull both times. Then, to add insult to injury, Cyprien flew up and rolled a 20. So much for this game. Q10 rolled damn well on both offense and defense vs the Stingers for a couple turns. But then he died and I had no chance. Rats took out a couple more Stingers but this one wasn't even close.

Result: Loss, Record 3-1

Round 5: The match-up generator paired me with Eric again, but we switched with another pairing to make sure everyone faced new opponents on new maps. I played Marcus.

320 Silver Surfer
120 Deathreavers x3
070 Phantom Knights

This...this was an awful game. Not because of chronic bad rolling or because it was an utter loss like the previous game, but because of all the Rats. I left my Rats at home since his whole team disengaged, but he brought out his. Iron Man and Q10 took out a bunch, but because of all the lava I had to make poor placements or risk free wounds on my 4-Life heroes. Iron Man chipped away at Surfer's Life one wound at a time (getting up to 3), but eventually both my heroes fell to his blasts. I still had a shot, though, since I outnumbered him 2-to-1 with Rats at this point: there was a wound glyph on the map. ALL of my Rats made a break for it a blocked it off. End of first round, dead enemy Rat. End of second round, dead enemy Rat. End of third round, Marcus was out of Rats and was forced to put the fourth hit on Surfer. However, at that point I was also almost out of Rats, and they didn't survive the next round.

Result: Loss, Record 3-2, 4th place (with partial scoring, only 12 points ahead of MegaSilver himself!)

Overall I had a great time as usual and am honestly pleased with going 3-2 with that army. I would have liked to do better, of course, but I can't complain about taking home a pack of Monks & Guards (Wave 3!!!). Thanks to all my opponents and again to MegaSilver!