[Jexik]

It's no secret that Nilfheim is my favorite unit to play competitively in Heroscape. After yesterday, I'm now 23-7 with Nilfheim, and 27-8 if you toss in Zelrig to get some kind of 'Dragon' record. Although spider or lonewolf wouldn't be happy with that ratio, it's better than my overall 45-19, which is around 70%.

As usual, I kicked around a bunch of ideas with Stingers, 4th Mass, and even Q9, but I eventually settled on 3x Knights of Weston, Nilfheim, Sir Gilbert, and Eldgrim. It worked out to exactly 530 and featured Nilfheim. I'm 0-7 against Knights in tourneys, so I figured I'd put all the knowledge I've acquired in my losses to use. I had also played it (minus Eldgrim) twice at GaryLASQ's game day a few weeks ago on Division, one of the maps in the pool, so I figured I might as well tap on that experience as well. I also got in two games on Marpesia's glory against K-boom playing the TTO7 army (4x Stingers, 2x Rats, Isamu, Raelin, Kaemon), and went 1-1 against him in two close games. This Friday and Thursday, I also went 2-2 against spider_poison, beating a Vydar ranged army and a 4th Mass army on Sidewinder, and losing twice to Stinger-based armies, but not by much.

I'm not saying any of this to brag, but merely to show that I had quite a bit of confidence in the army that I decided to bring, because it held its own against good players playing good ranged armies.

Game 1- 'Sportsman' on Division (Charos, Sonlen, Kaemon Awa, 1x Blade Gruts)

This was the same kid that Fomox talks about in his battle report. He was a real nice kid with a good attitude, but seemed to still be learning a bit about army construction and had a limited collection. The game itself was essentially just a lesson in how great Nilfheim is against someone who has to spread out their order markers. Ice Shards> Uniques w/o Rats/Raelin. He got me a little worried when Charos counterstruck Sir Gilbert for 4 wounds, but I eventually got that under control.

It ended way early, so I spent a good deal of time explaining to him some of the finer rules points of the game, as well as talking about the differences in facing a mostly melee or ranged army when it comes to height advantage. I also told him and his dad about the sweet deal on Raknar's Vision that I was pretty sure was going on, which is a great way to make a good army without shelling out tons of cash. He and his father seemed very appreciative of everything.

1-0

Game 2- N. on Sidewinder (Charos, Arkmer, Zetacron, 3x Zombies of Morindan, Marcu Esenwein, Isamu)

Another kid, and another lesson in how Nilfheim really dismantles most less competitive armies... or so I thought. With careful movement and maintenance of height advantage and watching his order markers, Nilfheim took out Zetacron, 6 Zombies, Arkmer, and got 5 wounds on Charos. One of the glyphs even turned out to be Common Attack, and the other was intercept orders, which I once used to take one off Zetacron right before he would have taken a turn with him.

But later on, my attack dice just turned on me. I made at least 3 attacks of 6 on Charos (my Knights had height, gilbert's bonus, and the attack glyph). Every time, they rolled 1 skull. When I rolled 5 dice, I rolled one skull. When I rolled 4 a couple times, I got 2, but he rolled three shields. Charos took out the rest of my army, but only had 1 life at the end. I feel kind of bad about the way I acted when some people asked me about the game, because I'm sure that N. was within earshot at least once. I'm not lying when I say that I have never seen anyone's dice be that bad in a game of 'scape. But as Matthias said, that's the equalizing factor in the game that prevents anything from being entirely predetermined.

1-1

There was a 45 minute break after the game, for which I was actually pretty grateful. It gave me a chance to vent. spider_poison, Rÿchean and some other guys had also lost by their second round, so we all griped together. More to come soon.

Game 3- Worseley on Marpesia's Glory (Airborne Elite, Ninjas of the Northern Wind, Zetacron, Major Q10, Isamu, 2x Deathreavers, Otonashi)

I dug the robots and ninjas, but felt bad for his selection of the AE. Apparently this map had been the main reason he elected to bring the AE to the tourney, but he didn't know that no figures are allowed to move on those pillars. Again, Nilfheim dominated, killing Otonashi, Zetacron, 4-6 rats, 2 NotNW, and one AE member.

When his AE dropped, he was hoping for a longshot I think. He placed all three of his order markers on them, but they were all within melee range of my Knights, and I won initiative, killing 3. One threw a grenade into a clump of Knights, killing one, but then Nilfheim finished off the squad (and his turns that round) and proceeded to run around the table a bit more. Isamu probably killed at least 3 KoW at the end, but I had enough in reserve, losing about 7 of them.

2-1

Game 4- Chris O. on Marpesia's Glory (3x Knights of Weston, Charos, Eldgrim, and Thorgrim)

This game was very close pretty much the whole way through, which was as one would expect with such similar armies facing off against each other. I moved Eldgrim onto the glyph on the first turn, which turned out to be Lodin. We laughed at how useless that glyph would be for both of us, but it did help break an initiative tie for me later! From there on, I activated Sir Gilbert very often, which helped me keep my force cohesive and mobile. I holed up on the rocky battlemented area and the sandy 7-hexer on my side.

On one crucial round, Chris did something that easily earned him my vote for the sportsmanship award. It was a long tourney day. I put my 1 and X on my Knights of Weston, of which I had about 8 left, and my 2 and 3 on Nilfhei- OH GOD, WHAT DID I DO?! THEY'RE ON GILBERT! He let me switch, since it was pretty obvious that was not my intent, and mostly because he was a rather nice guy. That might have been the difference in the game, as I only finished with Sir Gilbert and 4-5 Knights of Weston.

3-1

Game 5- Clarissimus on Arctic Divide (Krav Maga Agents, Major Q10, Isamu, 3x Marrden Hounds)

My Knights of Weston actually made me rather worried about all of his hounds. Knowing that no matter how many hounds engage Nilfheim, he can only take one plague wound per turn, I sent him out once I overextended Eldgrim to the glyph on my side (which turned out to be Movement +2). From there, Nilfheim again showed me why he's my favorite figure, killing 5 or 6 hounds and keeping them off the important Unique Attack glyph on Joe's side. His Flying ability paid dividends, as he soared around the map, bringing the fight wherever it needed to be. Clarissimus typically kept his X on his KMA, so I was cautiously staying near the middle and my side of the map.

On one crucial turn three, I had him fly 8 spaces back over a glacier and get one of the KMA to whiff on their defense from range. I felt if I could cripple that squad, I'd have it in the bag. Before Nilfheim went down, he also got one more KMA, and scored 3 wounds on a normal attack agaisnt Major Q10. The Knights again finished things up, although Isamu and the remaining couple hounds eventually brought me down to just 4 Knights and Sir Gilbert left. He only had 1 or 2 wounds on him.

4-1, 8th or 9th out of 42