Bring the Cheese Post Tourney Thread

[Dad_Scaper]

Thanks to all our attendees for coming to the second annual National Heroscape Day celebration tournament in Savage, Maryland.

This year our format was Bring the Cheese, Eat the Cheese, or "Reverse the Whip," as every other person in the universe calls it. First three rounds, dance with the 415 point date that brung ya', rounds 4 and 5, swap partners with your opponent.

Inspired by David Letterman's top 10 list, I will go in reverse order:

21. Zak 1-4 (Knights of Weston x2, Sir Denrick, Eldgrim, 4th Mass. x2) L-B-L-L-L
20. Legos of Bleakewoode 1-4 (Stingers x3, Wo Sa Ga, Marcu, Reavers x2) L-L-L-W-L
19. Hivelord #4 1-4 (Wo Sa Ga, Finn, Omnicron Snipers x2) L-W-L-L-L
18. Bill 2-3 (Spartacus, Gladiators x3) L-L-L-B-W
17. Crichton 2-3 (Krav Maga Agents, Cyprien, Sonya, Iskra, Retchets, Isamu) L-L-B-L-W
16. 10th Regiment of Death 2-3 (4th Mass. x5, Sam Brown) L-L-W-L-B
15. kldonnelly 2-3 (Izumi & Kozuke Samurai, NotNW, Nakitas, Otonashi, Isamu) L-W-L-W-L
14. MarcyMarc 2-3 (Krav Maga Agents, Laglor, Marro Warriors, Major Q10) L-W-W-L-L
13. Bassist of Doom 2-3 (Heirloom, Warforged x4) W-L-W-L-L
12. Robber 2-3 (Zetacron, Phantom Knights x5) W-L-L-L-W
11. Friend of Kid_Scaper 1 3-2 (DW 9000, DW 8000, Brunak, Marden Nagrubs) L-L-W-W-W
10. Xanth 3-2 (Shurrak, Marro Drones x4, Marro Warriors) L-W-W-L-W
9. Robber's Dad 3-2 (Marcus, 10th Reg. x4, Isamu) B-L-W-W-L
8. Clancampbell 3-2 (Cyprien, Sonya, Minions x2) W-L-L-W-W
7. Drewcula 3-2 (SBN, MBS, NGS, Marro Warriors, Nagrubs x2) W-L-W-W-L
6. Twinkie 3-2 (Sentinels x1, Q9, Atlaga, Isamu) ** W-W-L-L-W
5. Dad_Scaper 3-2 (Zogross Hardscale, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi) W-W-W-L-L
4. Akden 4-1 (Nilfheim, 10th Reg. x3) W-W-L-W-W
3. Gurei Ornery 4-1 (Q10, Sam Brown, Swogs x3, Arrow Gruts x3, Isamu) W-W-L-W-W
2. hosj 4-1 (Q9, Stingers x1, Deathreavers x1, Marro Warriors, Raelin RotV) W-W-W-W-L
1. KidScaper 5-0 (Death Chasers x3, Ogre Warhulk, Ogre Pulverizer) W-W-W-W-W

** Winner of the "Grumpiest Prize Winner Ever" award.

We had prize support again this year, for which we are thankful to Rÿchean and Wizards of the Coast. Prize support meant we got to have a real prize table, with the top six finishers all getting to select something.

Thanks again to everyone for coming. Thanks especially to my map volunteers and thanks especially especially to Clancampbell for fussing with the bits of paper between rounds while most of my games, for no reason I can tell, ran to time.

Also thanks to all the guys I played personally, you know who you are and my battle reports will identify you to the world (); it's good to see and play against old friends and to make new ones, too.

Oh, and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, XANTH!!

edit: Added wins & losses. "B" is for "Bye," counting as a win in the books but given no points for partial card scoring.

[Robber]

Loving the "Grumpiest Prize Winner" award. For any not in on the joke, Twinkie got a FotA set for 6th place and immediately sold it to Gueri_Ornery.

Battle reports soon. Also, if anyone has any comments, questions, or concerns about Arboretum or Galaxy, please tell me.

And BTW, Legos of Bleakewoode had Deathreavers x2.

[clancampbell]

As I said in the other thread, thanks to Dad Scaper for putting this on for us.

I really wanted to play Minnions, so I did. The army really wasn't all that good. I lost twice with it, and beat it with my opponents army in both of the final rounds.

Playing with Bassist's warforged in the final round was fun!

[Taeblewalker]

Congrats to Kidscaper, sounds like fun. Nice to see a C3V unit in play. Hopefully I'll make it next time.

[BassistofDoom]

Originally Posted by Robber

Loving the "Grumpiest Prize Winner" award. For any not in on the joke, Twinkie got a FotA set for 6th place and immediately sold it to Gueri_Ornery.

Yep, and he is quite pleased with himself for doing so. Congrats to hosj by the way for getting 2nd place at his first tournament.

I definitely had a lot of fun here and although I only went 2-3, the Warforged are a ton of fun to play with and I had some close games, including one in the first round against FoKS 1 during which we had turn after turn go by with no casualties due to my Warforged Resolve and his DW defense.

[hosj]

thanks for putting this on dad scaper

[akden]

I also wanted to say thanks to Dad_scaper for a great tournament. Being very new to Heroscape, I had no idea how much fun tournaments can be (especially if you win a few matches). This was my second, so now I'm definitely hooked. My son and I were also much happier with our performances. We look forward to the next one, and I'll try to bring more friends.

I also really liked the format, and there were lots of memorable moments for me. My first real chance to play against Q9, and I watched him shred my poor 10th reg. In the very next game, I used him to do the same thing to those unlucky redcoats. During the last match, I had a great time with Su-Bak-Na swapping blows with Nilfheim in the middle of the map. Overall, it was a great time. Were it not for some lucky dice rolls, I would be much lower down in the standings.

Again, thanks for the great tourney, and we can't wait to come back.

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by hosj

thanks for putting this on dad scaper

Thank you, hosj.

I hope you and Marky_mark, our other first time attendee, had a great time. It was a real pleasure to play against you and congratulations to you on your excellent performance in your first ever tournament.

I hope you will consider writing a battle report, as some of our other attendees (and I) will do, to preserve here in digital black and white some of the stories from the day.

[hosj]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I hope you will consider writing a battle report, as some of our other attendees (and I) will do, to preserve here in digital black and white some of the stories from the day.

I'm not sure I remember the battles much, but I could try.

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by hosj

I'm not sure I remember the battles much, but I could try.

You don't have to. Some us will post normal-length, short battle reports. I enjoy those very much though I never find myself capable of writing that way. Most of us won't post anything at all (cowards ).

I, however, do not hesitate to post a novella:

Tournament Report
Bring the Cheese, Eat the Cheese
NHSD 10/1/11
Savage, Maryland

The format was 415 points, Reverse the Whip. Keep your army for rounds 1-3; use your opponent's for rounds 4 and 5.

From the beginning I was planning on some Horned Skull Brutes / Goblin Cutters build, because there's synergy there but it's not easy to tease it out into effective tactics on the board. But then I saw C3V was releasing its first wave of figures (Zogross Hardscale, Zaeus, and Capt. John Varan) just in time for me to use them at my own event, and I couldn't resist the temptation.

Zogross 120
Greenscales x3 300
Krav Maga Agents 400
Otonashi 410

I was concerned I might be overshooting the mark a bit with the KMA, but I did *not* want a repeat of my disastrous outing in May, where early losses kept me from every being competitive in the event. So I risked it.

The good news? My army went 5-0.

Round 1:
D_S (Zogross, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi)
Bill (Spartacus, Gladiators x3)

Robber's Arboretum (with glyphs)

I had playtested with Bill's army and thought it was a good one for this format. It has a single point of failure - Spartacus - but it's not one easily exploited, with all those mobile gladiators running around.

I knew my army was no match for his when it came to fanning out & grabbing the glyphs, so I opened with the Krav on a mission to kill Spartacus. I sent one of the Agents over to protect the Defense glyph, which eventually Bill took, and I conceded the Initiative glyph.

The Krav did some damage but not as much as I'd hoped before they were tracked down & neutralized by the gladiators. Zogross, surrounded by boosted Greenscales, took the fight straight to defense-glyph-boosted Spartacus and a few gladiators near the Initative glyph.

Not for the first time, Zogross really frustrated an opponent with Tribal Protection, preventing Sparty from attacking him when Sparty was also adjacent to a Greenscale.

Eventually Zogross and a few Greenscales wore down Spartacus, who made a brave last stand. The remaining scattered Gladiators fell one after the other.

This was a tough game, though. In retrospect perhaps I should have left Spartacus alone and tried to secure the Defense glyph. Or not. I had a strategy, I pursued it, it worked. So I suppose I did ok.

1-0

Round 2:
D_S (Zogross, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi)
Drewcula (SBN, MBS, NGS, Marro Warriors, Nagrubs x2)

The map has been tweaked some. This is not precisely what we played on. Maybe I'll upload the new one soon.

It is always great to see Drewcula, the first guy I ever played at a 'Scape event, and trophy-maker-extraordinaire.

I think he probably did a better job of building an army for this event than I did, in that I think my army ended up being just too strong for this format.

Anyway. My plan was, throughout the first three rounds, to neutralize the opponent's range with the KMA, and I set about doing that here. Drewcula led with the Marro Warriors and MBS and I responded with the Krav, who wiped out the Marro Warriors and put a wound or two on MBS.

I shifted to the Greenscale Assault Troops while MBS was still riding around trying to knock off the last Krav, and using them I secured Wannok and attacked Drewcula's start zone.

Su Bak Na could not get a clean shot on Zogross because I had a Greenscale engaged to him (her?) most of the time. Ne Gok Sa tried to Mind Shackle Zogross and heck if Drewcula didn't give me a heart attack when he rolled an 18, but with SBN still alive he was still on short. NGS went down and the match ended soon after.

It's interesting: a weaker army would have helped me later, but reading what I've written here I don't know if I would have eScaped Drewcula with a W if I'd played anything weaker. That dude is good.

Round 3:
D_S (Zogross, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi)
Twinkie (Sentinels x1, Q9, Atlaga, Isamu)


Again, I led with the Krav. I figured it would either be Q9 or Atlaga first and hopefully they'd be able to assassinate either before damage was done.

The Krav put a couple wounds on the Major, who Twinkie sent out to the high ground on one side, and one of them also surprised Twinkie with a couple wounds on Atlaga when she found herself out of position against the Unpleasant Robot.

Eventually Q9 wore them out with 2-2-2-2-1 and in came The Lizards. There was plenty of cover for the approaching Zogross and Greenscales and plenty of road, and with their Move 6 he didn't have many shots at them from range. Tribal Protection frustrated another opponent and Q9 ended up going down to two successful whacks with Opportunity Strike.

Lizards swarmed Twinkie's start zone, doing a fair amount of damage while Twinkie's OMs sat on a dead Q9, and this one was over soon after.

3-0

Round 4 (Reversed Whip!):
D_S (Q9, Stingers x1, Deathreavers x1, Marro Warriors, Raelin RotV)
hosj (Zogross, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi)


This was a fun game. I opened with Raelin, intending to use a Raelin-protected Q9 from the high ground on one side of the map to wreck hosj's squaddies while the one squad of Deathreavers slowed down traffic just a little bit on the other side of the map.

hosj opened up with his Krav on a collision course with Q9. My plan started to come unglued when the Krav would not die. I plinked them 2-2-2-2-1; I ran up to them and shot at them point blank. It didn't matter. They. Would. Not. Die. My attack rolls were fine, not great, but fine. hsoj's defense dice were on *fire*, though, and I could not break through.

Meanwhile his lizard army swept through my start zone and caught up to Q9 and, though I did put a few wounds on Zogross during his approach, I could not hold off the scaly enemy and Q9 went down bravely, but alone.

Hsoj played very well with an unfamiliar army and I hope he will be able to join us again in the future.

3-1

Round 4 (Reversed Whip!):
D_S (Q10, Sam Brown, Swogs x3, Arrow Gruts x3, Isamu)
Gurei-Ornery (Zogross, Greenscales x3, KMA, Otonashi)


I suppose this kind of thing is always hard to measure, but I think G-O's build may have been the best for the format.

I know Kid_Scaper won the event, but his army was ridiculously strong, and I am super impressed he managed to beat it twice, in rounds 4 and 5. G-O's army struck the balance perfectly: I thought he had the weakest army to get into the top five.

My plan was to use the Arrow Gruts and the Swog Riders to use the road and run up and hit the KMA by engaging them first, if possible.

Like in round 4, though, I just couldn't kill those damned agents. I shouldn't have brought them. I might have done better with a single squad of Microcorps, or Syvarris or something. Very frustrating.

Anyway. Zogross didn't have much to do, by the time the KMA were dead (mostly dead? don't rememeber.). He and a couple scaled brothers-in-arms cleaned Q10's clock after I failed to put a wound on the Lizard King with both barrels of Wrist Rockets, and the match was called on time.

3-2

I note with interest that my losses were to the players who finished in 2d and 3d at the event, and I beat the players who finished 6th and 7th. So I am not unhappy with my result.

Thanks again to all attendees, and in particular to my opponents described here, all of whom were gentlemen and the kind of relaxed compeititors I look forward to seeing at Heroscape events.

[clancampbell]

I'd be interested to see where people got their wins. As you said DS, your 3 wins all came while you were playing your army, but you were unable to beat your own creation.

I only won 1 game with my own army, and defeated it twice. Xanth won twice with his build, and beat it once. Allthough his round 4 match up with Kid Scaper was oh so close.

[Dad_Scaper]

Mine was the only one that followed so precise a pattern. KidScapers friend was close, though, going llwww. I'll edit that into the op later.