So, here's a quick summary of my games at the innagural Colorado NHSD event, the
Rocky Mountain Rumble.
The format was 520 point, 24 hex, marvel allowed armies. Of the 11 maps in play, 8 used standard rules, and 3 used Heat of Battle rules. Due to the rolling rumble format, you could end up on a HoB map at any time. However, as fate would have it I did not play any HoB games. (If I had known that would happen, I might have brought a different army!)
Anyway, I played:
20 Marcu Esenwein
80 Raelin RotV
180 Major Q9
240 Zombies x4
520, 16 hexes
My basic plan was to use Raelin-backed Q9 to bring the opponent in, and then just roll with zombies as long as I could. Zombies act both as a screen for Raelin/Q9 and as an agressor. Once you start feeding OMs to the zombies, though, it's really hard to stop, because every attack is a chance to bring back dead zombies.
I figured roughly the same strategy would work on HoB maps, if it came to it. Marcu was an extra card for HoB, a glyph-grabber, and wound glyph insurance.
Game 1
Opponent: Seth A (Raelin, Charos, Cyprien, Kelda)
Map: Can't See the Jungle (Unique attack and Lucky 20-sider)
The glyphs were great for him and bad for me, however, he wasn't happy to see Q9. He opened by putting Cyprien on the Unique attack glyph; I put Marcu on the 20-sider glyph, simply to deny it from him. Things quickly settled into a dice-fest as Q9 dispatched Raelin, Cyprien, and put 6 wounds on Charos before going down. Kelda hit a 20 to bring Charos back to full health, though, and Charos killed my Raelin not too much later. However, this was really too little too late, as the zombies onslaughted Charos to death, and finished off Kelda shortly after that.
1-0
Game 2
Opponent: Eric (10thx2, ratsx2, Iskra, Rechets, Crixus, Morsbane)
Map: Mayan Ruins (wound glyph)
The game opened up with some redcoat and rat movement from Eric, claiming the wound glyph. (Eric held the wound glyph nearly the entire game, but all he got out of it was a heavily wounded Marcu.)
Q9 got to work killing redcoats like it was his job. I was starting to think he was going to dominate the game nearly singlehandedly, but Morsbane's 17 put the kibosh on that idea. Q9 used his remaining OMs in that round to kill Morsbane using attacks of 5 from height, before he could negate Raelin, too.
At this point, I put the rest of the OMs for the game on zombies, and just let them go to work. At one point I was down 4 zombies or so, but I took out the redcoats and got some back. Iskra and the Rechets proved tough and nearly finished the Raelin job the Redcoats had started (despite me only allowing one to get adjacent) but I eventually finished them, and started working through rats.
Eric still had Crixus and 5 or 6 rats, and a sliver of a chance to win, but rather than waste a ton of time finishing the game, he resigned so we could get to some more games. Eric's a solid player and ended up only losing one other game all day.
2-0
Game 3
Opponent: Elginb (Mittens, Venocsx3, MRTx2, Aubriensx2)
Map: Forsaken Swamp (wind and initiative)
The glyphs were pretty irrelevant here. Elginb said right at the outset that he had been really afraid of playing zombies with his army, and for good reason. Still, he put up a good fight, and this was definitely my closest game of the day.
Things started with some exchanges between Q9 and the MRTs/AAs. Q9 and the zombies took out about 2 of each, but I had no dead zombies at that stage so I couldn't get revives. I was staying in Raelin's range pretty well, and I think Dave recognized he wasn't going to be able to out-snipe Q9, so he got busy with the Venocs.
Things started slow in the frenzy department, but a timely initiative switch combined with a couple frenzy rolls made things really interesting really quickly. Elgin managed to outflank my entire position, kill Raelin, and put two wounds on Q9. The zombies quickly stepped in and eliminated all the nearby vipers, but with no Raelin and a weakened Q9 I was now forced to play the slow-moving horde while Elginb's remaining range gnawed away at my army.
At one point I had lost half my zombies, and I was nearing that tipping point where the horde stops being effective. However, a key initiative switch allowed me to close on the Aubriens and effectively squelch the threat. With only vipers remaining and a healthy host of zombies knocking on the door, Dave conceded the match. It ended up being his only loss of the day, which doesn't surprise me at all. That army has crazy speed and is really dangerous, and he played it well.
3-0
Game 4
Opponent: Bubbles (Capuans x2, Spartacus, Crixus, Retiarius)
Map: Common Ground
With only 6 squaddies to play with, I sort of felt like I had to screw up to give Bubbles a chance in this one. However, I actually did just that, leaving a hole in my zombie screen that allowed Retiarius to get at Raelin and kill her. That at least allowed the gladiators a pucher's chance.
Still, it was just a matter of time before the zombies turned Retiarus and all the Capuans. I actually won initiative early on despite giving up 11 points (glyph plus Capuan bonus), which didn't help the gladiator cause. Spartacus only managed one kill before onslaught took him down. Crixus spent the entire game on "initiative island" - in the end I bottled him up with zombies and let Q9 finish the job.
4-0, first place.
It was a lot of fun getting out and playing new players in a competitive setting. I can't wait for the next chance. So far, my record remains unblemished against players who haven't finished second at the Gencon championship.
