First off I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Codeman and Jormi for running the show. I had a great time as usual. Also another huge THANK YOU to War Gamers Head Quarters. They did an awesome job with the prize support.
Me and twotongues had been practicing armies for about the last month and a half. Usually when I start to practice for a tourney Ill go through about 10 different armies sometimes never settling on anything until a few days before. One of the armies I tried was Phantom Knights. I dont remember what I paired with it at first but the bonding melee armies were giving me fits. So I talked to Fomox a bit to find out how the PK's worked for him at GenCon. He liked them but something needed to help them out. I started txting Ken to see what he would suggest and his response was 10th. Well duh! Why didnt I think of that? The 10th were the perfect guys to support the PKs. With the Knights move I was pretty much assured to get the glyphs before anyone else, and there were some sweet glyphs (Common attack. Attack, Move, Summon), and the 10th do awesome against melee. The Qbros were still giving me a hard time. So while at the hotel I kept going over other possibilities. Two other armies I had debated on were Cyprien, Sonya, Marro Warrios, 4x PK or 4x PK, 2x Hydra. Neither of those really solved my Q problem and I felt it made the army worse against the Melee groups. So I took:
3x Phantom Knights
3x 10th Regiment
Realin
Isamu
Game 1
Tristan
Unknown map (hodge podge of 5 jungle trees 1 bush and alot of water in the center)
Nilf, AE, 2x Stingers, Krav, Isamu, Otonashi
I was worried about Nilf going into this but nothing else bothered me too much as long as I didnt loose all my Knights to Nilf. The mistake I made in this game that almost lost it for me was I sent PK out first. My thoughts were to grab the height so the AE didnt have any good spots. Well Nilf came out and by the end of the round he taken out a squad of Knights I believe. With NIlf so close now I started moving my 10th up. NIlf was sitting in water so I got 4 shots of 3 on him. This put 2-3 wounds making sure he wouldnt want to disengage from Realin and 2 other Knights. I think Nilfs next turn put a wound on Realin and maybe killed the Knights but I was able to get 4 shots of 4 with my tenth the next turn to put Nilf in his grave. The next round the AE dropped. I still had plenty of PKs in position but then he got the Initiative. I believe he was able to take Realin out Im not sure though. My PKs started doing their thing but before I knew it I was short on PKS and he still had 2 Krav an AE and some stingers. My 10th had to make a charge to one side so that even if his Krav killed figures Id still have more to replace. It was a close battle and I was concerned leaving the two unique squads in tact because that was 210 points for him. Once I took out the remaining AE I felt better and by this time the Krav had no where to run to.
1-0
Great game Tristan. Last year was a close battle too. If you hadn't dropped Nilf in the water for the Glyphs (Brandar) you probably wouldve done some serious damage to my army. I was happy to have finally won a tournament game against the AE though.
Game 2
Perplexingcj
Slash and Burn
3x 10th, 3x Dividers, Q10
Oh boy, one of the dreaded Q bros. I was happy Realin wasnt backing him up though. I sent PKs out first to see what the Glyphs were. One side was a fake the other side was Common attack. My army is just sick with either of the Attack glyphs. My 3rd was still PK so I reinforced around the Glyph. My opponent had moved Q10 and some 10th. Round 2 I moved Realin over to give my Knights 6 defense or 9 if he shot with his 10th. I then flew some PKs in to try and put some wounds on Q10. By the end of the round Q10 was dead and I was low on PKS but they were on the Glyph and blocking his movement up the middle. From here my 10th did their job. With the Attack glyph and Realin support it was a tough battle for my opponents 10th. He had moved a few dividers up but they weren't getting divides. I think towards the end of the game he got 2 divides. He had also tried to sneak a few 10th around to get at my 10th that didnt have Realin support. I felt that once Q10 was down my army had a huge advantage over his. Realin and attack is just way too good for my army.
2-0
I think the battle wouldve been much different had it not been the attack glyph. Taking Q10 out was a must for my army. My opponent played smart though and it was still a pretty close match in the end.
Game 3
Unknown map (Mostly flat with a hill in the middle and one to the outside of each start zone.)
Temprit
Q9, Krav, 2x Micro, Otonashi, Guilty
Ugh Q9! Well this map was pretty stretched out and even though Q bypassed the PKs Insubstantial I still felt itd be best to go all PKs. He moves his Q9 up on order marker 1 but leaves him sitting next to height. My PKs grab glyphs which end up being another Brandar and another ATTACK! My PKs make a beeline to Q9 and put a wound on him in the first round. Next round my opponent loads up OMs on Q9 to try and deal with the ghost issue. I got initiative though and put another wound on him and got more PKs up in range to engage. I think he took out the one PK on him but then 2 more came and finished the robot then finished the Krav. At the end of round 2 he had 2 sets of Mirco left with his filler and had only killed 1 PK. I decided to go after his Micro that were sitting on low ground since he had all the high ground covered with his other Micros. Micros never once hit their stealth armor. He tried taking shots at my glyph guy. 4 on 7 isnt horrible but he wasnt getting much for skulls either. So eventually he marched down the hill to engage. 2 on 4 really aint much better either. By the end of the game he had killed only 2 Phantom Knights.
3-0
Phantom Knights are absolutely sick against vydar. The attack glyph helped speed up Q9s death but he also made the mistake of leaving him next to height. I think I still wouldve been able to deal with Q9 with out the attack glyph because of this mistake. I do feel bad though when games are this much of a blow out. I only moved 7 Pks in all and only lost 2.
Game 4
Hoju(?)
Hot Heights
Torkulna, 3x Grubs, Keamon, Eldgrim
When we sat down we knew what the outcome was going to be. I really wish we had gotten a different map because this was just completely unfair for Hoju. He did the best he could and I dont think he couldve done anything different. He lead with eldgrim and revealed the Attack glyph. I moved Realin out to support the center where Id pod up my 10th. He then sent out Marro Warriors and tried getting shots on Realin. My 10th had moved up and was able to engage. I kept as many as I could inside Realin's Aura. I got Eldgrim off the glyph which forced Hoju to send a warrior down there. Eventually the warriors were gone and Keamon came up. Keamon has always been a stud in the games Ive played and watched. This time though when facing down a bunch of 10th with height and Realin he just couldnt do much. The game was pretty much over after Keamon went down. I already had most of my 10th up on height just waiting for Hivelord to come to me. There was a couple turns where I didnt have any shots but I didnt want to move either. I kind of felt like a jerk just sitting there so I started to move out PKs to finish off the Grubs and Isamu.
4-0
Hoju maybe next time we can get a rematch on a map thats more in your favor. You played it the best you could and you were awesome sport the whole time.
Game 5
Landbased AE
Unknown map from my first game
Grimnak, Marcu, Tornak, 4xHeavies
I felt pretty decent about the matchup. He was all melee so he had to come to me. Grimnak scared me a bit though. I didnt want to start off with my 10th because I wanted to see which side he was going to commit to. Well he sent Tornak to one side and Grimnak to the other. So I started setting my 10th up on the side with Tornak. Things were going basically according to plan. My 10th took out Tornak and a few orcs. I tried slowing things down on Grimnaks side but eventually he started getting closer. On one crucial turn I wanted to move my Realin to reinforce my 10th sitting up on the hill. Well LandbasedAE got init and just started tearing through my 10th. I finally got my chance to move Realin but it really wasnt worth going where I had planned. So I grabbed height on Grimnak hoping to finish him off. I think he was at 4 wounds at this point. Well Realin missed and Grimnak ate her for lunch. I had less than a squad of 10th to work with. Somehow I took Grimnak out but now Im left with maybe 2 squads of PKs 1 10th and Ismau while hes got a few Heavies left in his start. He played it smart and positioned his Orcs so I couldnt get height on him. I tried sending a few after Marcu but they didnt do much. Eventually it came down to Marcu in the start zone versus 1 PK and ISamu. SO I moved my PK back to my start zone to protect the 70 points and force him to have to deal with a few Eternal Hatred. During this time Marcu turned 2-3 times taking a while to get up to my figures be eventually was able to take out my PK. Then the little red ninja everyone loves to hate did his thing. Marcu was sitting with 3 wounds when Isamu started to attack. He vanished a few times and was finally able to finish off the vampire.
5-0
That last 10 minutes of our game was the most intense Ive played. Had Marcu not turned a couple times or Isamu failed vanish it wouldve turned out differently. After thinking about the game I never shouldve moved Realin when I did. I had plenty of 10th on height to take WTF shots. You played very well and it was great enjoyment to meet you. We need to make time to play INvasion or LNoE sometime.
Game 6
Ben Ross (PCServbot)
Unknown map (Snow, Lava, Trees, Road)
2x PK, Grimnak, Nerak, 3x Heavies
This map was HUGE! My plan against Ben's army was to try and take out as many PKs as I could with my PKs since he only had 2 squads I felt I had an advantage there. I revealed a Brandar glyph while he got move. PKs with 8 is just plain ridiculous. I tried to get him off the move but it just wasnt working. I think I was was able to take out a couple but then then next round he was in my startzone. This actually played out in my favor since I had Realin and the Redcoats could just bayonett charge. Ben had slowly been moving Orcs up. Even with the move glyph all the heavy snow in the center was really slowing him down. I took Nerak out pretty much no problem since I had a hill next to my start zone I could WTF with height. Grimnak made his way up but really didnt get to do alot. Ben still had almost all his Orcs though and made one heck of an effort to whittle me down. By the end it was one squad of Heavies vs Realin Isamu.
6-0
This was my second tourney game against Ben and his a good guy to play against. He plays smart and is fun to talk to. Thanks for the game Ben. Maybe next year you can get revenge on me
I was really happy with the army I took. Im glad I didnt change the 10th out because Im sure I wouldve lost against those Orcs if I didnt have the 10th. I honestly feel like the PK need to be ranked at least an A-. They are great at grabbing and holding glyphs. They are absolutely sick against normal range. Give them any decent glyph and they are a serious power house.
Thanks again to Jormi, Codeman, WGHQ, and everyone that showed up to play some Heroscape. Thanks to Chris Dupuis(it was Chris right) for sending us the unrevealed Molten Claw to see in person.
I apologize for those names I forgot or if I got anything wrong in my report. Its hard to remember 6 games
