Heroscapers - Matthias' Gen Con 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2018 report

This was my first Gen Con experience and it was an absolute blast! A huge thanks to Grungebob, Rÿchean and everybody else involved in helping run and organize these events. I played in 6 events. Tiny Timmy, Stubobj, started the 11 hour car trip early Wednesday morning. With some last minute unforeseen circumstances fomox was unable to come. After we checked in we met up with some of the Mid-West guys (Jexik, Worldturtle, Kboom, Spider Poison, MoMo, Jormi) to play some games. I learned Cash N Guns, Bang, and Kings Gate (I think). It was a lot of fun.

The first tournament I signed up for was on Thursday morning. It was Heat of the Battle. I had done a little bit of play-testing for this but not much. I figured bonding squads, WoA, Samurai, Drones, and Dividers would be seen greatly in this event. I figured well knights make sense here and so does my good buddy Hawthorne since Blind Rage is a special attack for WoA and Samurai. After 4 squads of knights I had 80 points left and went with Thorgrim. I chose him over Finn because against WoA, more attack doesn’t matter. I only had 6 cards, but didn’t really think that would matter.

My first game was against Tiny Timmy. What the CRAP!? I just drove 11 hours with this guy. Anyway his army was -
Drones x 6 / Brunak / Oto / Marcu / Isamu on Common Ground by GameBear.
The glyphs were set Move and initiative. Move didn’t really matter much when you get to start right next to your opponent. We each took what high ground we could and then just started fighting it out. The Drones activations weren’t that great, but decent. We ere exchanging blows and Thorgrim was killed. I put his spirit on Hawthorne. Hawthorne did fairly well with his special, nothing spectacular, but good enough. I was starting to thin out his drones and then it happened. The infamous back stab of the traitorous knight. Tiny now had control of my Hawthorne with Thorgrim’s spirit to boot! Somehow I still managed to kill off the rest of his army and Hawthrone.

1-0

My next game was against Dillerbocker on Sentinel. His army was pretty interesting. It was -
4th x 6 / Eldgrim (sit a Mass).

We both placed our guys best we could on high ground engaging each other. I won initiative and that pretty much set the tone for the game. Hawthorne in 2 turns single handedly blind raged through 2 squads of 4th Mass. If you then add the 4 attacks of my knights on to that, his losses were too great too fast. There wasn’t much more he could have done. He played it well but Hawthorne truly won that game for me.

2-0

My third game was against Nwojedi on Ticalla Sunrise. He was playing another Drone army so I felt fairly comfortable. His army was - Drones x 7 / X17

We pretty much placed our units all around the wound glyph and a few up on the sand hills by the unique attack glyph. We were trading blows back and forth, nobody was really gaining on the other. I started using Hawhtorne instead of Thorgim but his blind rage must have been used up from the last game. He didn’t really do much. I took a triple disengage with him to get on equal ground to try and blind rage a huge group of drones. Neo hit with all 3 disengagement strikes, Hawthorne whiffs, and then…you guessed it stabs me in the back again. Well, at least this time he had 3 wounds and no spirit from Thorgrim. It’s not so bad that you lose a 90 point guy, but when the gain a 90 point guy too, it’s an 180 point swing. I still fought strong and actually got him Down to 1 squad of Drones (and a thrice wounded Hawthorne) against Throgrim and a squad of knights. But then somehow after a few dice rolls later, I was dead. I wish I could say what exactly it was that I did wrong, but Neo is a good player and beat me. Good game.

2-1

My fourth game was against Kboomboomboom on Sentinel. He was playing an ugly army for me -
WoA x 5 / Raelin / Kaemon
Once again we each set up on high ground trying to engage one another. I actually was able to keep a squad of knights out of engagement. This was certainly the closest game of any that I have played in a long time. Hawthrone was a beast once again. Blind Rage took out at least 3 squads of WoA on it’s own. I was able to get a few hits on Raelin early getting her down to one life. But it took me almost until the end of the game to finally finish her off. Kyle was down to Kaemon Awa. I had 2 squads of knights and Thorgrim left. It was quite a battle, between counterstrike, quick release, the knights attacking, and the wound glyph which I controlled I got Kaemon down to 1 life. I had 2 knights engaged to Kaemon and one on the wound glyph. It was my turn 3, Kyle had one more turn. I could have just left Kaemon engaged and won like a little girl with the glyph. But I don’t roll like that. So decided to attack with the first knight…counterstrike. I then attacked with the second…counterstrike! Oh Crap! Kameon ran over to get one attack of 4 on the glyph holder. If I defended than I had a 95% chance of killing Kaemon with the wound glyph. Kameon attacks…4 SKULLS! I defend…Blanks! This was the beginning of my hatred of Kaemon Awa. Great game!

2-2

My third game was against the other guy I just drove 11 hours with Stubobj. He was running an army that I had thought about running - Romans x 5 / NGS / MBS / Zetacron (sit a Roman)

We played on Sentinel…again. Once again we took height and engaged each other. I was always attacking down so I had 4 attack. Sterling didn’t have height on anybody except for Hawthorne. Sterling wins initiative and puts 3 wounds on Hawthorne. I use Hawthorne’s blind rage and nothing. My knights 4 attack (height) also seems to have had the same effect…nothing. Next turn Hawthorne dies and the carnage ensues. Somehow I thought 4 attack was better than 3, but nobody bothered to tell my dice. I just got slaughtered. The game was over in like 20 minutes. I kept taking height when I could, but it didn’t seem to matter. Whether I was attacking down or defending up, my dice didn’t seem to understand the concept of height advantage. I got destroyed.

2-3 (25th)
This was a little disheartening for me. I had 2 pretty close losses. It was the knights of Maccabeus in a mostly melee format and I got rocked. I was thinking to myself that I suck! I was hoping it wasn’t a sign of things to come.

Ever since the Nebraska Skirmish II, last November where Fomox and I placed 1st and 2nd with Heavies x 4 / Grimnak / Raelin / Nerak, we (fomox and I) knew that we we’re playing them in the main event for Gen Con if we ever had the chance to go. We were both planning on going this year. After many discussions, research, and play-testing we finally decided on Heavies x 4 / Raelin / Grimnak / Marcu. I wanted to give them a practice run in a tourney before the main event. The next tourney I was scheduled for was Smack Down. I decided to take a variation of the orc army I wanted for the main event. My army for Smack Down was Heavies x 4 / Grimnak / Nerak.

My first game was against Clarissimus on Highways and Dieways. His army was -
Krav / Kaemon / Eldgrim / Dividers x 4

I started forming my game plan. I wanted Grimnak to cross the river and jump onto the road so I positioned to where he could. I knew the dividers wouldn’t be too tough with Chompy around. I moved Nerak up first and a bunch of orcs. Clarissimus moved up Eldgrim and grabbed the glyph I believe. I don’t remember the both glyphs but I think they were defense and I know one was initiative. I went to ford Chompy across the river and noticed I misplaced him. He couldn’t do it from where he was. So I screwed that up, but I even counted it before hand. I was pretty tired, but that’s no excuse. Dividers started moving up. Grimnak finally moved up to the road but couldn’t get to the 2 hex hill I wanted him too. I put a heavy on the initiative glyph. Joe’s Divider came up and smacked Grimnak for 3 skulls. I rolled 5 defense (Nerak) and whiffed. Crap, I better win initiative, so Grimnak can chomp this guy and throw some heavies in the way so more dividers don’t come up. We roll initiative and tie (I had the glyph). We roll again and I lose. The lone divider next to Grimnak takes height and rolls 3 skulls again. Grimnak rolls 5 defense (Nerak) again and whiffs yet again! CRAP!! After that it was Nerak and my heavies just trying to make the most of it. I was actually staging a pretty good comeback but then Kaemon Awa happened again. Quick releasing and counterstriking every orc I had. Man, I was really hating that guy! I had a few heavies left afterwards to take out his Krav. But alas, I was only able to take out one. This game still ended up being darn close after Grimnak did 120 points of absolutely nothing!

0-1 (After this point Spider was razzing me a bit. He said I thought you were good. I was 2-4 at Gen Con so far.) Not a good start, hopefully things were ready to change.

My next game was against Tiny Timmy. He was going to run the same army as me for Smack Down but we didn’t want it to be too obvious what we were running for the main event. He instead chose to take a fun army. His army was - VW / Armocs x 2 / VV x 5. We played on Ticalla Sunrise.

Once again neither one of us was really excited to play against each other, since we live like 10 minutes away from each other. Tiny was counting his moves for his venocs and holy smokes those guys are like Jimmy John’s…Freaky Fast! For some stupid reason I sent Nerak up a bit towards the wound glyph and tied to surround him with heavies. It was working until he frenzied and killed the orcs surrounding him and Nerak himself. I kept killing his Vipers, but he kept sending more up and would get a frenzy here and there. If this kept up he would definitely win the battle of attrition. Eventually it came down to the Warlord and Armocs against Grimnak and 2 squads of heavies. I took high ground with Chompy and tried to surround him with a wall of heavies. My rolls weren’t very stellar and things were starting to get out of hand. Then it happened Grimnak pulled through with a 16 CHOMP on a full life Mittens. After that Grimnak and the rest of the heavies cleaned up the armocs. Man, that one was close as well.

1-1

My next game was against one of the heorScape greats Rÿchean. We we’re playing oh his map Fossil. His army was Q10 / Stingers x 2 / rats x 2 / Krav.

This was the exact army I wanted to try out my orcs against. I don’t remember what the glyphs were. Ry threw some rats in my way but with Chomp and disengage they barely slowed me down. He sent some stingers to height behind the rats but they fell quickly to the power of swarming orcs. Ry eventually holes up in the corner with Q10 and a rat keeping me off of his last 2 agents. Eventually I punched through and ate a few agents. Ry is a great player, but my army was tailor made to beat something like his. He’s a cool guy and I always enjoy my chances of playing with him.

2-1

My fourth game was against Arcus on Highways and Dieways. He was also playing an army that I thought was a good test for my orcs. His army was - Q10 / Krav / Raelin / Rats x 3.

Arcus lead out with his rats. This time I made sure to put Grimnak in the right spot so that he could cross the river in one move. After I started chomping and disengaging Arcus pulled his forces back and used the rats as a screen on the road. He was giving up height advantage but I think it was by far his best option. He kept wrist rocketing killing an occasional orc, but with Nerak, height, and sometimes Grimnak they were pretty stout. Eventually Grimnak crossed the river into his start zone and started chomping agents. Q10 finally fell and so did Raelin and the rest of his rats. Arcus played it well, but this army was designed to beat an army like his.

3-1

My last game was against manofwar on Ticalla Sunrise. He had a ranged galore army of -
Krav / AE / Stingers x 4.

He sent his Stingers straight for the sand hills side and was taking some shots on my advancing horde. I made sure to hug as many trees as possible and keep Nerak close. I also sent an orc over towards the wound glyph. His AE dropped the next round. He positioned them in such a way that he better win initiative. He dropped 3 on the sand hills and one by the wound glyph. I won initiative and killed all his AE in one turn. Grimnak chomped, the heavies attacked. All his OM were on them, so I finished up the Stingers that were on height and then headed straight for his start zone. A few turns later it was over. He managed to put 4 wounds on Grimnak, 2 on Nerak, and kill 3 heavies. Him losing 3 turns was a huge deal! If he would have won the initiative who knows what would have happened.

4-1 (4th)

Now at this time Spider was playing Clarissimus for first place. Clarissimus was my only loss, so I was rooting for him, that way I could get 3rd. Cleon’s dad’s only loss was to Spider, so he was rooting for him to win so that he could get 3rd. Spider ended up winning and I got 4th.

We ended up hanging out with the Mid-West guys again. Jexik showed me how to play RFtG.

So I talked with Stubob and Tiny a bit about the orc army. I thought it was pretty solid, even with the loss to Clarissimus, I thought it had a chance for the main event. I called a talked to fomox a bit as well just reaffirming the game plan.

The next morning was the main event, and as I mentioned earlier Grimnak and heavy gruts was the way I was going. I settled on Raelin instead of Nerak because of higher durability and she can be a good bait if needed. I threw in Marcu for wound glyph insurance.

I was hoping for an easier first game, just to make sure things were going to work they were supposed to but no instead I have to play against Jexik in the first match on Just Passing Through. Not only did I have to play against one of the great players, I also had to play on the map that I liked the least (Sorry Dignan). The good news is that Jexik was playing an army that my army was designed to beat. His army was -
Q10 / MW / Krav / Raelin / Rats x 3

The glyphs were move and initiative if I remember correctly. He claimed the move glyph and basically concentrated his whole army on that side of the board. He had his MW all the way on the other side. I was slowly moving up my orcs and reinforcing them with Raelin. Eventually I claimed the move glyph and started chomping rats out of my way. Orcs started engaging the Major. He had height and Raelin most of the time, but I had an orc or two next to Grimnak getting the extra attack dice whenever I could. Eventually Grimnak chomped his way to the other side of the River and started snacking on Krav agents. Q10 finally fell and a few of my orcs snuck around to kill off his MW. Raelin was actually one tough cookie that game. It took quite a few attacks to get her to fall. Jexik played it well, but this army was purposefully designed to beat the one he was running.

1-0

My next game was against a guy not on the boards. He took 2nd in CTF though. We played on Fossil. His army was - Cyprien / Sonya / Nilf / Stingers x 2. I’ve never been a big fan of Nilf or the vampire so I really liked my chances this game. The only problem was there was a healing glyph on the board.

Nilf charged in ice shards flying. I surrounded him with heavies and attacked, and attacked, and attacked!!! I couldn’t punch through! He was rolling defense like crazy. He was smoking my heavies too when he was attacking. Finally I took him down after I lost Raelin and 2 squads of heavies. The Vamp moved up. I got 4 wounds on him pretty quick so he ran over to the healing glyph. Next turn Grimnak walks up to him….16! Chomped! It was beautiful. He lost a few OM so Grimnak and the heavies invaded his start zone and took out the stingers and Sonya.

2-0

My third match was against another guy that’s no on the boards, but he did make day 2. His army was -
10th x 2 / Romans x 3 / NGS / MDG / Isamu. We were playing on Sidewinder which was probably the biggest and slowest map in the pool.

I don’t remember the glyphs too much, I don’t think they were that exciting. We both headed over to the cliff by my start zone. I could see what his strategy was, build a wall of Romans and get the 10th next to Marcus and fire away. He used NGS as a perfect blocker in a choke point by the Large glacier in the middle. By the time we started attacking somebody said 15 minutes. WHAT!?!? We just started. I could see that I wasn’t going to get through NGS, I tried a few chomps but nothing so I disengaged with Grimnak and started going the other way. NGS followed and engaged Grimnak again. Man, he was annoying! He was trying to roll a 20 before I got a 16+. I was able to take out 3 Romans and 1 Redcoat, while I lost a squad of orcs. Time was getting close, maybe 5 minutes. I noticed that I could get some height on Marcus so I did that with my heavies. They were pounding on each Marcus while NGS and Grimnak we’re having a D20 match. He rolled a 16 for Mindshackle. My next turn I rolled a 20 for chomp. After that Grimnak was able to eat another Roman and we had 5 wound son Marcus when time was called. It was a pretty close game. I won on points, but I think this could have still gone either way. He still had a lot of guys left.

3-0

My 4th game was against Madmuppet. Karl’s one of the KC regular’s so we’ve played a few times. We played on Slash and Burn. His army was - Braxas / Rats x 2 / Raelin / Stingers x 2.

The glyphs were defense which is pretty useless against Braxas and healing which is really good for Braxas. Karl played this map very, very well. He positioned his rats on little one hex cliffs, where no double space figure could get around them to chomp them. His Braxas was on fire! He missed his first 2 rolls with her, so he switched out his 20 sider. It was over after that. He Didn’t miss again until it was against Marcu at the very end. He did manage to put one wound on Raelin with a rat, but other than that Braxas killed my entire army. Grimnak was chomping rats and stingers in his start zone while my heavies were trying to kill the dragon. Grimnak was a stud, killing almost his entire start zone (except for Raelin). I burned the heal glyph with my one wound Raelin so that he couldn’t get to it because I finally put about 6 wounds on her. But by doing so I sacrificed attacks on the dragon. I’m not so sure that was my best move at the moment. I think I should have just tried to finish her off. Anyway, then he pulled back to his start zone and started boxing with Grimnak. Poor Chompy never had a chance. My orcs had to cross the river to get to her because the rats were blocking their path so well. Braxas was just smoking them before they even got a chance to get to her. Marcu killed a few figs at then end, but not nearly enough. Well played Karl!

3-1

So at this point I knew I had to win my next game for sure to make it to day 2. And of course as fate would have it, Tiny Timmy was in the same situation playing an almost identical army. I felt bad because he’s kind of like my protégé. I know what he’s going to do, before he does it. Anyway we played on Sidewinder, which was probably a little better map for him than me. His army was -
Heavies x 4 / Grimnak / Nerak / MW.

I forget what the glyphs were initiative and not sure on the other. Whatever it was we were both going after it. It was on the cliff by his start zone. I was slow rolling my army that way and Tiny was attacking with his first wave. I with stood the wave and took out his Grimnak, Nerak, and a squad or 2 of heavies with losing about the same number of heavies and a few wounds on Grimnak. I started advancing slowly and Tiny wisely started using his MW as I approached. I moved Raelin up and Grimnak up in 2 separate moves. On Tiny’s next turn he managed to kill a 3 life Grimnak (with Raelin and height) and put 4 wounds on Raelin. CRAP!! Man this is now a going to be really tough. Raelin was holding strong long enough for me to get my orcs up and thin out Tiny’s. It came down to 5 of my heavies vs. 2 of his and 2 MW. I won initiative and managed to finish off one of each, and then clean up after wards. It came down pretty close at the end. The worst part about it was that I knocked Tiny Timmy to 17th for day 2. He just missed the cut by one spot.

4-1 (7th seed for day 2)
So we looked at the standings for day 2. I had to play a tron army, which really sucked. To make things worse it was a tron army being played by Spider Poison. CRAP! I called fomox to talk a few things over with about what to do on day 2. I knew Spider was adding Kaemon Awa since he purposefully went 50 points short on day 1.

The Lightweight tourney was next. I’ve always liked the blade gruts but they’re just so darn cheap you need a small point total for them to strive. I thought Lightweight was perfect. Plus I was trying to shake things up a bit in the meta-game / power rankings. I thought this could be another chance to do it. My army was Blades x 4 / Grimnak / Nerak / Isamu.

My first game was against Chaoschild on Fossil. Chaoschild is actually the one who traded my all the exclusives last year, so it was cool to finally meet him. He was running a fun army. His army was -
TBR / MW / Dividers x 3 / Isamu

I’ve only played TBR once or twice so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I did know that my goal was to surround him as best as I could to not allow him to teleport figures in. The problem was that with 2 attack and the occasional 3 with being next to Grimnak wasn’t doing squat to his 4 (sometimes 5 w/ height) defense. But Chompy came through for me again….16! After that chompy and co cleaned up the marro. I don’t thenk Chaoschild made one Divider roll the whole game. But at the end I encountered a huge problem. A little red ninja that goes by the name Isamu. I just realized that with 2 attack, he could probably block an attack or 2. Anyway a dead Grimnak, and a dead squad of blades later, I was finally able to take him down. For a while I thought it was going to end up being Isamu vs. Isamu. Good game Chaoschild. If I didn’t get that chomp on TBR I think you may have beat me pretty bad.

1-0

My second game was against manofwar. We played on Fossil again I believe. I looked across at his army and thought to myself, this isn’t good. His army was -
Cyprien / Sonya / Iskra / Rechets / Marcu / Oto / Isamu
I had no counter for Cyprien. With 2 defense blade gruts, this guy was going to have a field day! Man! He put his first 2 OM on Cyp and his third on Iskra. He won initiative. I made sure to keep my blades around Grimnak. The last thing I wanted was for him to kill Chompy. He was really my only chance of getting Cyp. He moved in with Cyp on his next OM and whiffed a chilling touch roll and may have gotten one blade. I knew his next OM where on Iskra so I thought this is my chance to surround Cyp and do my best. Grimnak whiffed on chomp, but my 2 attack blade gruts somehow managed to put 3 wounds on him. Iskra did summon the rechets and they killed a few blades. On turn 3 I missed chomp again but once again somehow my 2 attack blades killed off Cyprien. After that it was just me cleaning up the rechets and Iskra. Isamu actually died on the first attack. If he would have rolled at least decent with Cyprien I think I was toast. He may have rolled 2 shields total for him.

2-0

My third game was against Kildawabit on Sidewinder. His army definitely looked fun. He was running -
VW / Krav / VVx3. This was actually a pretty good map for him. He was able to reach the glyph on the cliff by his side in one move, which happened to be unique attack. His Krav then had 4 base attack….yikes! The other glyph was move. He could almost make it there in turn, but not quite. I won initiative and sent Nerak and some blades towards the move glyph. Kildawabit took the unique attack glyph with his vipers. I was able to take the move glyph on my next turn with Nerak so my blades now had 8 move. I was able to tie up 2 of the agents and actually kill one if I remember correctly. Soon Grimnak was on his way with more 8 move blades. The Blades are one of the only squads that are cheaper than the vipers per figure so I was able to win that little battle of attrition. The warlord put up decent fight but fell in the end. I thought I was in trouble with the Krav having the unique attack glyph, but 8 move orcs sure helped!

3-0

My fourth game was against Tom. I’ve read quite a few battle reports or tournament reports with Tom usually being in the top 5 or so. I knew that he was a good player. We played on Ticalla Sunrise. His army was - Singers x 4 / Rats x 2 / Marcu.

The unique attack was fairly useless to either of us and the wound glyph was a tad useless to me since he had Marcu. I thing we still kind of congregated around the wound glyph though. He was using his rats as a screen, but with chomp and disengage it didn’t work very well. His rolls were pretty subpar the whole game. My 2 attack blade gruts were killing 3 defense stingers more often than not. Chompy was chomping, Blade gruts were tying things up so that there weren’t any attacks of height on Grimnak. Once again Chomp + disengage worked well.

4-0

My last game for the championship was against another guy that I’ve read many battle and tournament reports of him being in the top 3 usually, Dignan. He was playing an army similar to Tom. His army was -
Stingers x 3 / Rats x 4.

We played on Ticalla Sunrise. The game started out similar as it did with Tom except Dignan had a lot more rats to deal with than Tom did. He placed them very, very well. He mad sure that his stingers had height in the middle swamp 7 hexer and it was surrounded by rats. This was going to be tough even with chomp and disengage. There was no where to disengage to. I congregated around the wound glyph. This time it could help a little bit wading through all those rats. At first I started attacking rats because I couldn’t really go around them. 2 attack was doing squat, so I abandoned that idea. In the mean time Dignan is attacking Grimnak with 2 attacks of 4 (height) and one attack of 3. I had Nerak close to Grimnak, but Dignan’s rolls were worse than Tom’s. If he got 2 skulls it was a miracle. Grimnak was actually defending well and continued to chomp through the rat screen. Finally he made a little hole for the 6 move blades to get through. In the mean time I had been sending a few blades the long way around over by the sand hills. Eventually between the hole Grimnak made and the blades I sent the long way around, I was able to engage and attack some stingers. I wasn’t killing many with 2 attack, but he only had nine of them. So when I did kill one it was a big deal. Eventually I won the battle of attrition with 16 blades to his 9 stingers. Grimnak once again was amazing with Chomp. He opened up just big enough holes for the blades to get in with.

5-0 (1st)

That night we got in some LNoE and Dominion Intrigue with Spider Poison, Eternal Thanos, Kboom, Wdgrant, and SW Ninja, before we headed back to the hotel. I called and talked to fomox a bit about what to do against Spider’s trons in the morning. Originally the plan was to add a squad of heavies if the skull was rolled. But Nerak + Swog seemed to be better against the trons. Nerak for obvious reasons, plus the glads can’t lock him down. The swog because he has disengage and the glads can’t lock him down, plus he actually got +1 defense from Nerak. I talked to spider that night and told him my best chance to beat him was on Invasion. We both knew that the match-up was in his favor, especially if he was adding Kaemon Awa. He had already been a huge pain so far at Gen Con.

The next morning we were all ready to play and there was no sign of Spider. I did tell Kboom that I would make it worth his while if he accidentally locked Spider in the bathroom. For a slight second I thought maybe he took me up on the offer, but then Spider showed up about 5 seconds before we were going to start. They announced the maps and we did end up on Invasion (thanks Ry, I’ll pay you next time I see you). We did the glyphs and the defense glyph was closest to my side. I forget what the other was. Oh and Spider’s army was - Blasts x 2 / Glads x 3 / Raelin / Isamu / Kaemon.

We both headed for the defense glyph. I flew Raelin up next to a jungle bush that was w/in w spaces of the glyph. He sent his Raelin over the battlements w/in 4 spaces of the glyph as well. He was going to have the high ground for the most part. I knew that so I tried to get as much defense as possible. I moved Nerak up next to the jungle bush right by the castle walk, while I flooded that side with heavies. Since Nerak was double spaces I was actually able to get one more hex aura-wise out of him. Spider claimed the glyph and took a few 2 vs. 4 attacks on Raelin (I had the bush) but Raelin held strong. Grimnak was ready to get his chomp on. I just had to make sure that I kept any glads away from Raelin. I always made sure to have a heavy block off the little choke point between the hive and Raelin. Grimnak eventually chomped the guy on the glyph and I replaced it with a heavy. Now all of a sudden I had Heavies with base 3 defense + Raelin + Nerak + defense glyph + a few were next to Grimnak + a few were next to a jungle bush + a few times they had height. I had anywhere between 7-9 defense almost every time Spider attacked me. Grimnak even had 4 base + Raelin + defense glyph + Nerak. He could only get one tron adjacent to Grimnak at a time and I would just chomp him on the next turn. Spider was only maybe getting one kill a turn, while I was getting at least one kill with chomp and usually 1 more with heavies often attacking 4 (next to Grimnak) against either 5 defense blasts (Raelin and height) or 6 defense glads (melee defense + Raelin). He had me locked down, but I had him pretty tied up as well. I think the most attack dice he was able to roll was 4. I made it so that he couldn’t really surround any one heavy with more than 2 trons. Spider kept trying to bait me to bring Grimnak out by leaving a tron where I could chomp him just out of my Raelin’s aura. I didn’t fall for it until I could get my heavies across the swamp water area and lock down his side of the castle walk. Eventually Grimnak moved in and finished them off. In the meantime Spider sent 2 blasts to go fire at my start zone. My heavies jumped all over them. Then it was….Kaemon time! Holy Crap! This guy was making a freaking huge comeback. He killed more than the trons did, seriously! Between his quick release and counterstrike, he killed all but one heavy (the one on the glyph). I was starting to get nervous. I was up on points (Grimnak + Nerak + Raelin + 1 heavy), but I hadn’t even wounded this guy yet.. I told Grimnak that it was up to him. He was chomping and mising but he had 6 defense with Nerak and the glyph, so he was withstanding quick release. Finally I threw the D20 and….16! Kaemon was no more. We stopped there since there was only like 3 minutes left in the game. Spider still had Isamu left, but that was it. Man, that was one heck of a game. I BEAT SPIDER POISON….again! Spider’s a really cool guy and I always enjoy playing against him.

1-0

The coolest thing that not only did fomox and I come up with the heavy orc army, Mantrainchoochoo did as well. He just beat NWOjedi, so I was to face Mantrain and his gruts of awesomeness. Mantrain is to the gruts like Matthias is to the knights. We had the exact same armies except he added another squad of heavies instead of Nerak + Swog.

The move glyph was over by his side and I forget what was by my side. Either way we both went for the move glyph. I flew Raelin up towards it and he flew Marcu over to it. He then had 7 move heavies and was harassing Raelin pretty quickly. I got my Nerak and Grimnak up but my Raelin fell pretty fast. He Hadn’t moved his yet, so his heavies only had 3 base defense at the time. Our Heavies + Grimnaks collided. He got his Grimnak on low gorund. I won initiative and surrounded his Grimnak with 4 heavies and killed him. He started moving his gruts in the water to come across on the next turn. I disengaged my Grimnak to block his advance and keep them at bay. I forget when his Raelin fell, but Nerak and my last squad of heavies finished off his Marcu. I think they key was when I won initiative and was able to kill his Grimnak so quickly. Otherwise it could have gone either way. Good game Mantrain, it was a pleasure meeting you!

2-0

My next game was against Mantrain’s brother, MattsterTruckRally. The good news was he had rats + unique which is usually a good sign for heavies. The bad news is that he had Braxas (which mad Muppet decimated me with) and he plays against heavies all the time with his brother. His army was -
Rats x 3 / Braxas / MW / AE / Raelin. We played on Fossil.

The glyphs were move by him and wound by me. I knew Raelin wouldn’t be much helps so I just left her in my start zone. Braxas jumped up on the little sand 7 hexer w/ Raelin 4 spaces behind her. Mattster send the rats in to slow me down just enough. The move glyph was the key. If I could keep the move glyph, then I could swarm. He was able to knock somebody off of it every time. His rolls were pretty hot. He only missed a few times with acid breath. I sent Grimnak in to try and chomp Raelin, but he had used up all his 16s already. I was hitting him with the wound glyph but he had 12 rats that really didn’t do much. Braxas with 5 defense was just tough to crack. His AE dropped. I was in good shape if I could win initiative. But I didn’t. He was able to put some wound son Grimnak and kill my other orcs that were w/in striking distance. I took a triple disengage with Grimnak to get to his AE. It paid off and I chomped one and regular attacked the other. He was in Raelin’s aura and blocked it. My heavies were able to engage one other AE and kill him off as well. The last 2 AE got the last 2 wounds on Grimnak though before they fell. I managed to kill off 2 MW before my heavies fell. I had one on the wound glyph and Mattster was starting to run out of rats. Braxas had 7 wounds. He had his 2 MW and a full health Raelin. I had a full health Marcu and Raelin and one heavy on the wound glyph. This is still a game I thought to myself. Marcu flew in and killed Braxas. The next turn was huge. Marcu turned so Mattster flew him away. On his turned he then water cloned his MW back to full strength. Marcu couldn’t kill them fast enough and was taking wounds. I brought Raelin up but by them the MW had moved up and so had Mattster’s Raelin. It was too little too late for me. He finished off Marcu and my heavy on the glyph. Raelin tried to make a stand but there were just too many MW left. I conceded the game when I all I had left was one swog and he still had I think all his MW and a Raelin may have had a wound, I don’t remember. Great game Mattster! It was a pleasure playing you.

2-1
Apparently the 2 losers of the semi-finals play for 3rd and 4th place. So I was playing Madmuppet again. I told them that I wanted any map but Slash and Burn. We ended up on Fire Isles. I thought I had a decent chance on Fire Isles, but I had just lost twice to Braxas and Karl was one of them. He upgraded his army with MW + Eldgrim.

Once again I just left Raelin in my start zone. She really didn’t do much against acid breath. The glyphs were initiative by me and unique attack by him. I actually used Nerak to grab the glyph while Karl sent Eldgrim flying after my start zone. Braxas was already scary enough w/o extra move so I just ignored him. Karl had totally forgotten about disengage. Next thing I knew I was in his start zone chomping rats. His Raelin was in front of the ruins while all his stingers and MW were behind it. I sent my heavies in behind the wall and used Grimnak to Chomp whatever he could. I was guessing Karl’s OM pretty well too. I think the one time he got use the MW there was only 2 left. When he tried to use his stingers the one turn he rolled a 4 for stinger drain. I just had Braxas and Raelin to deal with after that. Raelin fell pretty easily and Braxas followed soon after. Karl called it game. I had a much better map this time and I think Karl would have played his OM a little differently if had had remembered the whole disengage thing. Good game as always Karl!

3-1 (3rd)
So I ended up taking third.

I took a small breather before General Wars started. I wanted a fun but competitive army so I went with the Dwarves. These guys are a lot of fun. My army was - Dwarves x 5 / Migol / Spiders x 1.

My first game was against some kid on Common Ground. He knew the rules pretty well and was a pretty good player. His army was -
Hive / Stingers x 3 / MW / Drudge x 2

Normally I wouldn’t think too much of it but, Common Ground is a fairly big map and he was rolling well for rebirth. Eventually I go some Dwarves next to the hive and took it out. Migol didn’t do much but soak up wounds while my dwarves hacked through Marro.

1-0

My second game was against Worldsenemy on Sentinel. He wasn’t really familiar with the dwarves so I explained what they did. It was kind of unfair after you saw his army -
Braxas / Laglor / Q9
There wasn’t much he could do. Q9 I think killed one dwarf before he fell. Braxas put up quite a fight. I finally got a dwarf on the unique attack as Migol was inching closer. He tried acid breathing Migol every time and missed but then would roll a 17+ on his next two rolls. Braxas actually did pretty well she killed off over 2 squads of dwarves. Laglor just got surrounded and fell. The game was pretty lopsided, but the dwarves rock against Large / huge figures.

2-0

My next game was against one of the coolest guys in the Mid-West, Jormi Boced. Jormi and Codeman put on some awesome events. If you ever have a chance you should try and make it to one of them. Jormi is also a board game nut! He has almost every board game you can think of. Oddly enough this was my first time playing against him. We played on Fossil. His army was -
Knights x 3 / Gilbert / Nilf

Jormi and I joked around at the beginning. I asked him what the knights did and who Sir Gilbert was. The glyphs were healing and wound. Jormi sent Nilf up first to the middle of the road and I sprinted my Dwarves towards him. I even snuck Migol around the other side. I could only get one dwarf adjacent on even ground. The rest had to jump in the water. Even with Migol attacking Nilf lasted quite a while. He finally fell by then Migol had been surrounded and my Dwarves were in the water so the knights took high ground on them. They finished of Migol killed some dwarves and took the wound glyph. My spiders were my wound glyph insurance. It was now a battle of a bunch of Dwarves w/o their hero and the knights and Gilbert. It went back and forth quite a bit. I finally got Gilbert down to 4 health, but then Jormi double disengaged and ran to the healing glyph. I only got one wound on him, so he was fully healed once again. Time was getting close. I had a squad of dwarves left and Jormi had 2 knights and Gilbert. H I was on the wound glyph and Jormi put a wound on Gilbert. I put 2 more wounds on Gilbert with 2 of my Dwarves then the knights killed them off. Time was called and I had to finish my last OM. I got my last 2 dwarves next to Gilbert. The first one scored a wound. The second had to kill him to tie. I rolled 2 skulls. Jormi…whiffs! Tie game. Unfortunately for both Jormi and I (even though we both asked like twice) they counted it a loss for both of us. Which is just lame. If we had known that we could have at least rolled a D20 so somebody could get the win.

2-0-1

My fourth game was against Tablewalker on Slash and Burn. He was playing a knight variant. His army was - Knights x 3 / Finn / Concan / Tarn / Raelin. This could be tough if he was able to get his knights out in front of Raelin. The glyphs were unique attack by him and defense by me. He put his first 2 OM on his Tarn and with a few berzerker rolls had both glyph and 2 Vikings attacking down on Migol with 5 attack each. I got the one off the defense glyph and claimed it, but then Raelin moved up 2 reinforce the Vikings. They had 6-7 defense because of height and 5 attack…sheesh! More importantly though was that he sent Raelin up before his knights. I knew I had to seal her off so that the knights couldn’t get through until I killed her. I finally got the Vikings off of Migol and killed off Raelin. Finn and the knights were leading a charge up hill, but I had it pretty well reinforced with the dwarves with height and the glyph. I was able to keep them at bay. Tablewalker then sent some knights towards the dwarf on the defense glyph, followed by Concan right after I killed Finn and his Spirit went on him. Concan then controlled a choke point and was funneling knights up. Time was getting close and Table walker had Concan and 2 squads of knights left. I had 2 squads of dwarves and my amazing spiders. I killed off a squad of knights (I had high ground on most of them and also finished off the last Viking still on the unique attack glyph. Concan swooped in to try and challenge the dwarf on the glyph. He did, but I just kept replacing him with another one. 6 move rocks! Eventually Concan fell and time was called I had 6 dwarves and a squad of spiders left. table walker had a squad of knights left.

3-0-1

My last game was against Buddy Lee on Sentinel. He was running an Ullar army which sounded easy, until he pulled out the WoA…his army was -
Protectors x 2 / WoA x 3 / Theracus / Atlaga

The protectors fell pretty fast. I kept Migol in my start zone and just bum rushed them with my dwarves. Theracus flew Atlaga up to try and get a Witherwood shot on Migol. I moved Migol and engaged with Dwarves and he fell pretty quickly followed by Theracus (who is large). I just had to clean-up the WoA. Thank goodness for the wound glyph! I’m not sure I would have won this w/o the wound glyph. His defensive agility was kicking my butt. Eventually though he whiffed enough times. It was pretty darn close though.

4-0-1 (4th place overall and Champion for Aquilla)

Man I was tired after this. I talked with Stubob and Tiny Timmy, and we just decided to head back to the hotel and stop at White Castle for dinner. We didn’t hook up with the Mid-West guys this time. We did play Quicksand and a few games of Dominions when we got back though. We were packing up our things and all agreed that if we lost early (since it was single elimination) we would just go check out the dealer hall and head home early. So I picked a totally fun army + Krug. My army was - Jotun (when else or you going to be able to actually have a decent chance with him / WSG because coil crush is cool and she evens out Jotun’s 5 / Krug because he can kill whatever Jotun can’t / Marcu because I had 20 points left.

My first game was on Ticalla Sunrise against Minimoose38. His army was -
Nilf / Raelin / Thorgrim / MBS / X17

He was trying to set up a defensive pod of sorts with Raelin, Thorgrim, and the X17. Jotun didn’t care. He just smashed through everything. He killed Nilf in 2 hits, Raelin in one, Thorgrim in 2, MBS in 1, and X17 by throwing him. It was ridiculous. But with 8 attack dice there can be a lot of skulls!

1-0

My next game was against Retlaw on Ticalla Sunrise. It was cool meeting Retlaw. I’ve played on quite a few of his maps, so it was nice to be able to put a face with his avatar. His army was -
Krug / Q10 / Brunak / Kameon

Brunak carried Kaemon up and Jotun headed towards them. Kameon took high ground and was pounding Jotun. Jotun went after Brunak but only inflicted one wound. Kaemon was still pounding Jotun, so the giant disengaged and picked up Kaemon and threw him to low ground and smashed him with 9 attack dice. Jotun then finished off Brunak. Q10 stepped up and killed the giant. WSG moved and then died (she was pretty lame except for the last game). Krug met the challenge of Q10 and sent him to the scrap heap. It was now my partially wounded Krug vs. his one wound Krug (wound glyph). I let him come to me first, since I had Marcu and was up on points. He put a few more wounds on me, 5 total I think. I attacked and put 3 more on him. I attacked again and got 4 skulls. If his Krug could roll 1 shield I’d be toast. But he whiffed his defense roll and his Krug died. I did have my next Marker on Marcu, and hopefully he could have finished him off, but this was pretty darn close. Good game Retlaw!

2-0

My third game was against Mr. Migraine on Ticalla Sunrise (I was starting to see a pattern). His army was - Soneln / Charos / Kaemon / Isamu. I told him I was thinking about taking that army except Krug instead of Kaemon. I said the plan is to lock down with Charos and heal, swoop, and attack with Soneln while the other guy is beating down on Charos, right? He kind of looked at me like, well there goes that plan. He was a pretty cool kid with a D20 that only rolled under a 17 once.

He sent Charos up, but I went around him with Jotun straight for Sonlen. He played Sonlen very well, and baiting me so that he would have height advantage. With 8 attack dice I didn’t care too much. His D20 was awesome though. After about the 4th roll of 17+ I asked him where he got it. Apparently a lot of people asked him that. He said I could use it, but I declined. Even though for 4 straight rolls Jotun rolled an 8 for throw. Eventually I smashed Sonlen and put some serious hurt on Charos. Krug came up and finished off Charos. Kaemon was tough. He took the sand hills with him and was firing down. I used WSG as bait (and it worked) and of course she died but I was able to engage Kaemon with Krug (who already had 5 wounds from Charos) and smash the samurai. Isamu disappeared a few times but eventually fell.

3-0

My next game was against Mecha Frog’s kid on Common Ground. I asked if he was the one that fell the mighty Lonewolf and he said no, that was his younger brother….I was actually a little uneasy about this match-up. His army was - Spartacus / Crixus / Retarius / Kaemon. Crixus’ one shield defense pretty much nerfs Jotun’s huge attack. I had decided that I was just going to go straight for Spartacus. He sent Crixus to meet the giant in battle. I tried to throw him but that 8 popped up again. So I just attacked….7 skulls! What a waste with one shield defense. He rolls defense….whiff! Ouch! He lost 2 OM. Next turn I move up and hit Retarius for 6 skulls. He didn’t make it either. Spartacus at least took 2 attacks to kill and managed to put a few on the giant. I had a thrice wounded giant plus everything else and he had Kaemon on that little sandbar island. He said he wasn’t going to move. His dad reminded him that I was up by 380 points and that he had to move. Needless to say Kaemon is one tough cookie. He killed Jotun and took Krug down to half his life before he fell.

4-0

I was 4-0 at this point and getting ready to play in the championship. Stubob and Tiny were a little angry with me because I was supposed to lose so we could go check out the dealer hall and go home early. My last opponent is a scaper that is loved by one and all, Bunjee! She was a lot of fun to play against. Her army was - Cyprein / Sonya / Ornak / Marcu / Johnny / Krug

We played on Just Passing Through. She sent Cyprien in early. I figured Jotun would just smash him. But I must have used up all my good rolls on the gladiators the game before because after 3 attacks of 8 he was still around and managed to put 5 wounds on Jotun with is chilling touches and regular attacks. Jotun’s defense and attack dice must have finally worn out. They’ve been doing so well thus far. Eventually Jotun did kill the vampire but then Johnny finished him off. Bunjee sent Krug up to guard Johhny while I sent my Krug towards her start zone and WSG over towards Johnny. Johnny disengaged from WSG and was pounding on my Krug. He was hiding on the bridge behind Bunjee’s Krug. I couldn’t get to him with WSG anymore so I parked her on the defense glyph. Bunjee’s Marcu was on the unique attack glyph. Her Krug marched over to my Krug and had height + the unique attack glyph. Her Krug had a few wounds from WSG. She also had height and the attack glyph. Somehow my Krug managed to fend her Krug off and kill him. She was getting pretty poor rolls. Then my Krug finished off Ornak and Johnny before Marcu killed him. Marcu had full health. I still had my Marcu, but I’m never a fan of Marcu vs. Marcu, it can go eother way with eternal hatred thrown in. WSG moved up and actually did something. She put 3 wounds on Marcu. Of course I rolled an 8 for coil crush. Marcu attacked back but Bunjee’s dice still didn’t like her and all she managed was one wound on WSG. WSG attacked again killing off the vampire. I rolled for coil crush again just to see…another 8. Anyway, Bunjee played it very well. In the end it just came down to the dice.

5-0 (1st)

I was ready to hit the road at that point. I actually never made it to the dealer hall. I had to wait to get back to Omaha to see what was 100 yards from where I was, go figure….

My overall Gen Con record was 28-6-1 (which isn’t too bad considering I started out 2-4) with 0 girly ranged units. I wanted to shake up the Meta-game and rankings a bit and show that melee does rock when played correctly!
The prizes were amazing! I ended up with 3 sets of steam roller dice (Take that Hendal and Swninja! ;)), 2 dice boxes but Bunjee wanted one so I traded if for a Master Set, 3 trophies (Unique Hero, Lightweight, Main Event), 3 plaques (Lightweight, Unique Hero, General Wars), 4 road sets, 1 castle set, 4 Master Sets (I traded a SotM to Stubob for HeroQuest!!, and 8 waves.

I had a great time at Gen Con. Most of the guys I met were awesome. Thanks again to Ry, Grunge and everybody else that was running things. It was fun hanging with the Mid-West crew too! See all you guys at Tree Town! HerorScapers Rock!

P.S. Range is for Girls!