El Diabolo's Monthly Tourney -- April Heat of Battle

Army:
Migol Ironwill
Mogrimm Forgehammer
Axegrinders x4

After reading on how powerful 4 man squads would be in a Heat of Battle Format, I couldn't but help use the Dwarves. I was also expecting a lot of large units in this format that would like to hack through the squads; such as Grimnak and the Hydra, and the Dwarves could deal with them.

When I got to the tourney, I noticed that two people, Sean/Shawn (enkindu) and Gordon (Deroche) had two armies I was afraid to face, a heavy counterstriking army and the Firestorm, respectively. Needless to say you can expect that I faced them. Anyway, here is how my match ups went:

Game 1 vs. Nate (Tribunal Power) on Jotun's Gap
Army:
Grimnak
Nerak
Blade Gruts x1
Omnicron Snipers x2
Krav Magna Agents

At the beginning, Nate had a little army trouble; he thought the KMA were common squaddies and had two of them. We figured out the problem, and he had his KMA represent his Snipers and the Snipers represent his KMA.

I initially placed my Dwarves on the high places so he couldn't snipe; in fact they were forced to the lowest part of the map. He placed his Orcs as close as possible to my Dwarves so he could Chomp them. But he made the mistake of placing them where I could get height advantage if I went first. My Heroes started next to the treasure glyphs, as all the maps had two of them.

I gained inititative, and rushed my Dwarves to his Orcs; Nerak fell first to a height-induced Axegrinder with and . His Grimnak and Gruts fell shortly after, with a couple Chomped Dwarves.

My Dwarves rushed the Snipers and KMA, and slowly brought them down with a couple of Mogrimm's Strikes. In the end, I only lost a squad and a half of Axegrinders.

Win/Loss: 1-0

Game 2 vs Sawyer on If You Can't Take the Heat...
Army:
Zombies x2
Shaolin Monks x1
Sentinels x1
Hounds x1
Airborne Elite

In my opinion, Sawyer's biggest mistake was not sticking to one or two types of squads, and he placed all of his starting units on the lava. I would eventually lock most of his units on the lava, which would later hurt him.

I placed all my dwarves to circumvect his units, so I could hold them down on the lava. But I made the mistake of bunching up two squads of Axegrinders at each end of the map for an AE drop; and as luck would have it he dropped first round and won initiative and destroyed half a squad on each side.

On my turn, I would eventually pick off most of the AE, and take out the Hounds (one would fall the Lava field damage). Facing the Zombies was troublesome; one squad of Axegrinders would succumb to Zombification.

Eventually OM management would bring him down, as I destroyed partially of each squad. Sawyer is a good player; if he had a better built army, he could have beat me. With the army he had, he took out half my points.

Win/Loss: 2-0

Game 3 vs Sean/Shawn (enkindu) on Midnight Lagoon
Army:
Arkmer
Raelin 1.0
Isamu
Ashra x3
Tagawa Samurai
Kozuke Samurai

Here was the one of the two armies I was afraid to face. With all the counterstriking abilities, I was afraid to lose a lot of Dwarves. And during the placements, I made the grave mistake of not claiming the shadow tiles; I was more worried about him claiming the height around the Dwarves.

Eventually he had most of his Samurai and Raelin on the shadow tiles, and his Elves on the low areas near the shadows. My Dwarves claimed the height, glyphs, and two Axegrinders has access to first strike on Raelin.

And with that, they rushed Raelin, and the first rolled and Raelin rolled . I preceded to destroy her later in the first round with more whiffs on her part, which helped me greatly. Until the Samurai started attacking.

By then it was a battle of attrition; one that I knew would be difficult, especially when Mogrimm kept rolling 12 and 13 for Commander's Strike. (Except for the one time when NecroBlade and me both were ready to roll at the same time; we rolled at the same time and got 20! )

I eventually destroyed all the Samurai, but the darn Ashra kept rolling exactly one almost all the time. As I thought, it would be a tough match, and it was one I lost.

Win/Loss: 2-1

Game 4 vs. Nathan on Welcome to the Swamp
Army:
Marro Hive
Raelin
Stingers x2
Drones x3

I truly believed this would battle would be a piece of cake. I scattered my Dwarves first turn to limit his Hive placement, it would later turn out he managed to get all Marro placed under it's aura.

But I had a whole squad ready to swarm his Hive -- which he didn't notice until too late. I got 4 wounds on the Hive first turn. But, he proceded to wipe out the Axegrinders with Drones the next turn. It would be a while longer before I'd get to the Hive again...

My Dwarves had the worst trouble trying to get his Marro downed; they would roll on-the-nose for defense, even after Raelin's early demise. They would then procede to hack down Dwarves, but not before Mogrimm barely survived a disengagement rush to finish off the Hive before he fell.

The games eventually came down to a single Stinger and Mogil with 1 life left and the Scarab of Invulnerablility on his card.

Migol rushed the hapless Stinger, and I thought it would be game over... The Stinger attacked, Migol , and it was up the the Scarab to save me. I had to explain the Nathan how the power worked, after reading the card. I said, "If I roll a 16 or higher, Migol gets to ignore the wounds he just recieved for this attack only." I proceeded to roll, and the result was:

16!

I cheered, as did NecroBlade and Deroche that were watching the game as well (unbeknowest to me). I then I took out the Stinger, and won the most closest game I've had in a tournament.

Thanks for one of the best games I've had in a while, Nathan! You are an extremely good player; I admit that only luck helped me win this game. And it was only by 22 points.

Win/Loss: 3-1

Game 5 vs. Gordon on Midnight Lagoon
Army:
Kurrok the Elementalist
Raelin 1.0
Air Elemental x1
Fire Elemental x8

Of course, I had to face the second army I was afraid to face. The biggest problem was the SI; the FE could roll up to 3 times a turn, and if I couldn't get to Kurrok I would be cooked in this game.

I made the better placement choice this time and took the shadow tiles. I scattered my Dwarves all over place to deny Kurrok's good placement (and lower chances of massive SI's ).

Deroche was forced to place Kurrok close to some of my Dwarve so he could control his FE's, but the AE would prevent me from ever meeting Kurrok.

Throughout the game, it was a constant back and forth between the FE's and Dwarves; and the Dwarves were losing. Though Deroche said this was one of the worst series of SI rolls this game, he was still eating through my army.

The best my Dwarves could do in this game was able to nearly kill his Raelin, but the FE's kept following my guys, which hurt them really bad. I really didn't stand a chance here, and Deroche deserved his win against me, and winning the tourney. Congrats, Deroche!

Win/Loss: 3-2

I had a fun time at this tournament. I now know that when I head up to GenCon, I'm going to need someone to repel those FE's, have the range to hit Kurrok, and a Special Attack to deal with those Samurai and Ashra. I can only think of one guy that fits those requirements, and he is....

Moltenclaw!

Now I have an army for GenCon Heat of Battle...