[Dad_Scaper]

Tournament Report: GenCon Main Event 2015

KidScaper and I went light on Heroscape tournaments this year, choosing only to compete in the Main Event. There's just so much to do at GC, and there are always things you wanted to do but couldn't squeeze in. This year we made room by eliminating Heroscape tournaments from our schedule, though I think (judging by the amount of time we spent around the 'Scaping area) in the future we'd likely add another one or two back in.

The format is 460 points, Reverse the Whip.

Our philosophy last year and this year, and probably enduring into the future, is to guess low. Like I said, this is GenCon. I don't want to enter Day 2 with a comparatively strong army and get bounced in Round 1, because I could have spent the entire Saturday morning doing something else, instead of losing it all for a single one-hour game of Scape right in the middle. So we guess low.

KidScaper, as is his wont, guessed even lower than I did. He packed: Grok Riders x2, Ne Gok Sa, Me Burq Sa, and Theracus. Yes, that's two squads of Groks, *and* 20 points light. I don't know why he does that, but the crazy thing is he was dangerously close to making Day 2 with that army. He won his first game, and made a late game blunder giving away a sure win in Round 2. If he'd been 2-0 to start, he may very well have picked up a third win to sneak into Day 2 at 3-2 with that ragtag band of Marro, and there would have been some unhappy people staring down at their Groks Saturday morning. But it was not meant to be. After going 1-1, he lost 3 straight and finished 1-4. Which, he had told himself beforehand, would be enough to make him happy with that army.

For myself, I still regretted leaving my Death Chasers at the hotel last year, and denying them the opportunity to shine on the game's biggest stage. So I brought a bad Death Chasers army. How bad? This bad:

Death Chasers x4 220/12
Ogre Warhulk 370/13
Brandis Skyhunter 460/14

The thinking being that Raelin would make the build too strong, and BS could either go as an early game assassin or as a cleanup figure, situation dependent. Not that he'd be great in either role, but that would be the plan.

I've forgotten what, precisely, some of my opponents were playing. If you see it & it's wrong, please say so.

Round 1:


DS ~ DCs x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter
@vminer ~ Major Q10, Laglor, Iron Golem, Krav Maga Agents

One of the glyphs was Move +2. With Battle Rush & that glyph, I was swarming vminer's start zone by the end of Round 1. The Warhulk, aided by the road and the glyph and bonding, came stomping over as well. It quickly turned the golem into scrap metal, and my hard-hitting melee attack made short work of vminer's clothie ranged units.

1-0

Round 2:


DS ~ DCs x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter
@dok ~ Tor-Kul-Na, Nagrubs x3, Raelin, Me-Burq-Sa, and Marcu

Dok's already written up this battle well enough, I think. Here is his account:

Originally Posted by dok

Oh, how I had waited for this moment. D_S and I are in regular contact thanks to our collaboration on the C3V customs project, but we never had a game last year. This event was my only chance to cross paths with him, but fortune smiled on me and paired us up.

I set up on the hill nearer to the healer glyph, and did some sniping with MBS while he sniped with Brandis. Brandis put a few wounds on Raelin, but MBS took him down before he could finish the job. At that point I was able to pretty much play in the aura and define the location of the battle. TKN actually rolled pretty terrible defense and took a bunch of wounds, but I burned Kelda around an initiative switch, then got a ridiculous 6-wound hit with TKN to finish the Warhulk. With the big guy down it was basically cleanup. After missing every stomp attempt for the first two games, I successfully stomped the final ‘chaser to take the game.

My army does not want to see Tor Kul Na, and particularly not on a road-heavy map with tight pathing. Even less so does it want to see Tor Kul Na backed by Raelin and a ranged attacker in MBS. So, my expectations were low before we started, and the game did not disappoint.

1-1

Round 3:

DS ~ DCs x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter
@Rÿchean ~ Marro Warriors, Tarn Vikings, Nakita Agents, Krav Maga Agents, Kaemon Awa

I feel like Rÿchean's build was very shrewd for the format, in that he has the skills to use this order marker salad of an army, but on Day 2 it might be tough for another person to use as well as he could. My army was a tough matchup on this wide-open map, though, because with Battle Rush I could fan out across the space and menace both glyphs, and with all the jungle his light-hitting ranged attacks might not even be able to take advantage of my low defense.

Rÿchean led with his Tarns at the glyphs and his Marro Warriors toward the center. I countered with DC's toward the glyphs and the Warhulk up the middle, and the big guy's defense dice were enough to keep him chugging. In the end, he got all the way into Rÿchean's start zone, and - as in Round 1 - my big melee attacks overwhelmed the ranged defender's few defense dice.

2-1

Round 4:



DS ~ DCs x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter
@vegietarian18 ~ Raelin 1.0, Taelord, 10th Reg. x2, Marro Warriors

As with my Round 2 game, my opponent has already given this game a very fair written treatment:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I was lucky to get it as close as I did. You did a good job of denying Brandis any good perches during Round 1, and (as you know) his one-shot on Raelin was a super-long shot. Though, come to think of it, he should have attacked again. Oops! Wouldn't have made a difference, I'm sure. The pathing into your start zone was super-favorable to your WTF army. I just couldn't get in, with all the molten lava.

It was a fun game. I would have done better, if only you hadn't played so well.

The narrow pathing near the start zone simply locked down my melee army. I couldn't get past the pools of molten lava to the troops beyond, and they mowed me down. Out of four games to this point, I had lost two where I was trapped in tight paths, and won two where the map was more conducive to spreading out. No coincidence, I don't think.

2-2

Round 5:



DS ~ DCs x4, Ogre Warhulk, Brandis Skyhunter
@Unseen Shadowz ~ Charos, Greenscales x2, Skahen, Otonashi

We were told the winner was going to make Day 2. But no pressure!

I got off to a nice start, getting some nice rolls early & killing some Greenscales. Unfortunately, my attack dice against Charos went ice cold. All those attacks of 4 - 5 from the Warhulk - should have put *some* wounds up against his 5 defense, but all I got to show for countless attacks was a couple of dead, counterstruck Orcs. For the second year in a row, I lost an important game to Unseenshadowz in a dice fest at the end.

Ah, well. @Xorlof recorded this game on video; if there's ever a link for it, I'll put it here.

2-3

Many, many thanks to all the guys who ran the events: @Matthias Maccabeus , @lonewolf , and all the guys who helped, like @fomox , @Retlaw , and @Xorlof . Thanks, too, to @stay_golden_PONYBOY and everyone else who helped behind the scenes, and to @Hendal , for being the unofficial ambassador of the game. And to @MegaSilver for running a C3V event, though we didn't get to it.

Thanks also to all my opponents, who were all gentlemen and a pleasure to play against.