KC's Tourney Reports - NEW 11/12/22 Q10/Venocs/Wyrmlings!

[killercactus]

I'm gonna start putting all of my tourney reports in one thread from now on. Here's my latest in Youngstown, Ohio. The tourney was 540 points with 28 starting zone spaces. I went 4-1, taking 5th place with:

Finn - 80
Thorgrim - 80
Eldgrim - 30
Krav - 100
Theracus - 40
Knights of Weston x3 - 210

Total = 540

The army was designed to rush Finn and Theracus (the FaT Bomb) out early, to take the spotlight and try to hurt their biggest piece. While they were drawing attention, the Knights would be getting a head start. All the viking spirits go onto the Agents, who play cleanup.

Round 1 - Jeret (Q9, Raelin, Stingers x3, Venocs x2, Isamu, Otonashi on Ice Blossom)

I started with Eldgrim taking the Initiative glyph, and he brought out Raelin with the Venocs. Raelin actually kept the snakes alive for a while, and they killed a couple knights. The FaT Bomb flew into his starting zone and killed a few Stingers and put a wound on Q9. Once the Knights overtook the snakes, they killed Raelin and started advancing on the Stingers in the starting zone. The plan worked well, and the KoW had a head start. I broke through the Stingers and got to Q9. The Krav never moved.

Win, 1-0, 320 points

Round 2 - Brad (Nilfheim, Cyprien, Sonya, 10th Foot x2, Isamu on Mole Hills, Jungle Edition)

For some reason, I usually roll amazing dice against Brad. This game would be no different. Eldgrim claimed the Common Attack glyph, but the 10th Foot took care of him quickly. Then, the FaT Bomb came charging out, and starting duking it out with Nilfheim. Nilf badly wounded Finn, but Theracus got an attack from high ground and Finn's bonus - and rolled 5 skulls. Then, after Finn died, Theracus rolled 4 more skulls. Dead dragon. Then, the 10th killed Theracus and started mowing down Knights. I retreated, hoping to bait out Cyprien. He came out, and I used the Finn-Boosted Krav. I got three shots from high ground and dealt 4 wounds to Cyprien, after he failed to kill a Knight. Cyprien tried again to eat some Knights, but again failed on both his touch and attack. The Krav took him down, and cleaned up the soldiers and ninja.

Win, 2-0, 542 points total

Round 3 - Heath (Major Q9, Major Q10, Kelda, Marro Warriors, Rats x2 on Arctic Divide I think)

The FaT Bomb again did its job. They charged down to the starting zone, over the Rats, and attacked Q10. Theracus did 3 wounds to Q10 in the first round, but Kelda won initiative and healed 2 of them. However, Finn rolled three skulls and, even though Q10 had a Defense glyph, he couldn't roll a shield. From there, it was a slow process of Knights cutting through Rats and finally getting to the Marro (however again, the dice were really on my side). When Q9 came out, I sent in the boosted Krav. A bunch of attacks of 5 from height, plus an initiative switch so Kelda couldn't get in a heal, and Q9 was dead. The Krav mopped up Kelda and it was over.

Win, 3-0, 714 total points

Round 4 - greenless (Nilfheim, 10th Foot x3, Kaemon Awa, Isamu on Fire Isles)

Another great dice game for me. The FaT Bomb did great again - putting 5 wounds on Nilfheim before both Theracus and Finn were dead. The knights charged forward, and duked it out with the Brits, until most of them were gone. When Kaemon came out, I deployed the Krav, and fired from high ground with Finn's boost. Kaemon went down quickly, and the agents again cleaned up the soldiers and ninja.

Win, 4-0, 906 total points

At this point, I was the only undefeated player, but I didn't have a lot of points. My army was good, but I was basically sacrificing 150 points at the beginning of the game everytime. I knew I had to win the last round to have a shot, because there were a lot of 3-1 players with many more points than me.

Round 5 - Josh (Braxas, 10th Foot x3, Raelin, Dumutef on Fire Lake)

I sent out the FaT Bomb to try and hurt Braxas. They managed only two wounds, as my dice were starting to even out from the great rolling I had the first four games. He started with Raelin and the 10th, and I realized too late that Raelin should've been a bigger priority for me. My knights were getting mowed down, Thorgrim was gassed by Braxas, so I brought out the Agents. My first one whiffed from height, and the other two only managed 3 wounds on a Raelin-protected Braxas before they were also gassed. I managed 5 wounds on Braxas and 2 dead Brits. Had I used the FaT Bomb to try and get rid of Raelin, I might have been able to kill Braxas quicker. But, the map was tough for me, and my dice really let me down this game. I can't whine though, because they were amazing earlier.

Loss, 4-1, 1073 points for a 5th Place Finish.

the first place finisher (Josh) had over 1600 total points. My low point total cost me at least 3 places, but I wanted to get a dice tower today, and I succeeded there. Thanks to everyone for coming down and making my first tournament a great success! And congrats to Josh on the win!

[roostertail9000]

Great Battle Report, sounded like a bunch of fun. I like the FaT Bomb! Clever!

[BMadison95]

2nd place! W00T...

Army:
Marro Stingers x6 - 360
Major Q9 - 180

On the fence for Alliance tournament later this month.

[mccombju]

Great battle report! Love the army, and I'm glad to hear it performed well.

[killercactus]

I've decided to change the use of this thread to document my use of under-used units in tournaments, along with reporting my tourney battle results. Here are links to my previous tourney results with some of the more maligned units:

Runa
Sudema
Aubrien Archers
Venoc Vipers
Theracus

This tournament was in Alliance, OH, put on by KCU Master 2007. He ran an excellent tournament, and it was a ton of fun! The rules were Unique cards only, no Marvel at 550 points. The next unit in my queue of under-used units to get into tourney play was Sonlen, and this was the perfect setting for him. I went with an army I call Generals Unite:

Major Q9
Raelin
Kaemon Awa
Sonlen
Isamu

Possibly the best hero from each of the original 5 generals (although Krug has an argument for Utgar, but I couldn't fit him), and an army that really plays to Sonlen's strengths. My plan was to use him as a cleanup figure, but the games didn't quite go that way. My first round:

Round 1 - KCU Master 2007 (Taelord, Raelin, Syvarris, Krav, Guilty, Zetacron) on Hot Heights

Mad props to KCU for playing a Taelord army, and also for doing so well with it (he finished 4-1, taking 2nd place ). KCU started out playing Syvarris and Zetacron, and I mobilized Q9 and Raelin. Q9 took 3 quick wounds from a Taelord-beefed Zetablast, and Raelin was killed by the arrogant elf. I retreated Q9 to force Syvarris to come out of the two auras, so that KCU had to spend turns moving his cheerleaders. Q9 killed Zetacron, but with Q9 nearly dead, I gave Sonlen a couple turns in case he went down. Sonlen healed a wound from Q9, finished off Syvarris after he ate a couple Queglix rounds, Dragon Swooped a Krav and killed another one with his normal attack in a couple of turns. Nice. Sonlen eventually went down, but Q9 had new life (literally) and took out the last agent and Guilty, and cleaned up the two Kyrie. Sonlen really came up big for me here, getting Q9 a life back and taking down two Krav at a critical time.

1-0, 310 victory points (Q9, Kaemon, Isamu left)

Round 2 - Brownsfan82 (Krug, Ninjas, Kozuke, Syvarris, Kaemon) on Lake of Fire

Ben's a good player, so I knew this round would be tough. I sent out Q9 and Raelin first, and he took a couple of potshots with Syvarris. Q9 shot down the elf from long range, and Queglixed Kaemon Awa to death, while being sure to keep out of range of the Kozuke charge. Raelin died valiantly, but her purpose had been served. Q9 had just picked off a couple Samurai and a Ninja from a safe distance away when Krug started lumbering down the battlefield. There are a lot of elevation changes on this map, and I figured that Krug had no chance to catch me before I killed him. My guns proved ineffective, however, and Krug (plenty angry) had almost caught up to me by my starting zone, and I had to make a choice. I could retreat Q9 so that Krug couldn't catch him, but that would leave Sonlen and Kaemon as sitting ducks in my start zone. I decided, with only ninja and a samurai left after Krug that Q9 was the better pick, so I retreated, and Krug carved Kaemon and Sonlen in half in one order marker each. Q9 felled the beast, shot the last Kozuke from 8 spaces out, then Queglixed the last two Ninja before they could reach. There was a tense moment when Krug would be able to make it to Q9 next turn, but the Queglix took him down just in time. A great game.

2-0, 190 victory points (Q9, Isamu left) for a total of 500 points

Round 3 - Sarah (Nilfheim, Raelin, Krav, Cyprien, Eldgrim) on Jungle Swamp Road

Sarah, (southwest ninja's girl) was 2-0, having a good showing so far. She began by charging the Krav out to get some shots, and flanking with Cyprien. Again, I mobilized Q9 and Raelin, taking shots of 1 at the Agents. I eventually killed one agent, and Nilfheim had begun to fly in, while Cyprien was headed for my starting zone. However, he decided to stop and one-shot Raelin with a natural 20. I pinged him a couple times for that, and then he took off after Kaemon Awa. Sarah rolled a 19 (thankfully Sonya was out at ladies night with Runa and Kee-Mo-Shi) and gave Kaemon 3 wounds. Cyprien attacked, and Kaemon back-handed him for a wound. Q9 ignored the advancing dragon and fell back to kill Cyprien. The robot switched gears again, killed the second Krav agent and scored a few wounds on Nilfheim before going down to the dragon's bite. Kaemon felled Nilf, but was killed by the last Agent. This left Sonlen and Isamu against one Krav, Raelin and Eldgrim. I was nervous, but knew that this is what Sonlen was here for. After some back and forth, I hit Dragon Swoop on the Raelin + Jungle protected Agent, but I just couldn't wound Raelin. However, she landed in range of Isamu, and the deadly ninja threw 4 skulls, finallly killing Raelin. Then, Eldgrim came, and it took me THREE ROUNDS to kill him. I could hit Swoop to save my life, and he blocked everything I threw at him, thanks to some jungle. He killed Isamu, and apparently that's what gets Sonlen going. He finally died, but not without making his viking brethren proud.

3-0, 160 victory points (only Sonlen left - go cleanup!), Total Points = 660

Round 4 - greenless (Q10, Raelin, Krav, Kaemon, Theracus, Marro Warriors) on Mebu.... some new map that just got nominated for BoV. It has 4 castle columns in the middle and some jungle trees.

Last month, I was 3-0 when I faced greenless and barely took him down. This wouldn't be much different. His opening to the game was really cool, using Theracus to carry Kaemon Awa, then following with Raelin, who then rode Theracus to engage Q9. I engaged his Kaemon with my Raelin, and used Q9 to kill his Raelin. His agents killed my Raelin next, then Q9 offed Theracus and wounded Kaemon Awa. The agents and Kaemon landed a hit or two on Q9, and Sonlen came running to his aid. The elf healed a wound, offed Kaemon, and again Swooped an agent and killed another with his normal attack in a couple turns. Q9 had one life left at one point, but Sonlen healed him back to 3 health over time. Q10 came in, and I got a couple of wounds through with Sonlen and the Queglix Gun. Eventually, Q10 took the long way around and went after Kaemon in my starting zone, wounding him twice before taking some really fast arrows to the face. The Marro came out last and managed to kill Kaemon, but Q9 and Sonlen were just too much.

4-0, 340 victory points (Q9 and Sonlen left, although I probably should've had 350, because I think Isamu was alive too) for a total of 1000 points.

Just like last month, I was the only 4-0 going into the final round, and needed a win to assure the title. I had to go through....

Round 5 - Raudaulfr Shieldcrusher (Q10, Krug, Kaemon Awa, Marro Warriors, Drake) on Feylund Fountain

Bob and I have been to a lot of the same tournaments, but had yet to sit down across Valhalla from each other. I used Q9 and Raelin early, killing a Marro Warrior from across the map and claiming the right turret. Bob brought the Marro out first, and managed to push a wound through on Q9 despite Raelin's aura and height advantage before going down. Kaemon and Q10 followed - just running right at Raelin and Q9 and Raelin was killed. Sonlen joined the fray once Raelin died, and he scored a Swoop wound and some regular shots on Q10 to kill him, and his Kaemon was Queglixed to death. With just Krug and Drake left, Sonlen had 5 wounds, Q9 one and Raelin was dead. Krug began the charge, and I attacked him viciously before he got to me. When he got close enough, I sent Sonlen out to distract him while Q9 retreated. The elf was killed, but Krug was getting wounded more and more. He finally caught up to where he could engage Q9 in the next move, no matter what I did. I took even ground and had a great round with the Queglix Gun, killing Krug before he got those two deathstrokes. Drake came in, and Q9 shot him for 3 wounds. He made it to Kaemon Awa, swung and missed, and we placed markers for the next round. I put my 1 on Kaemon, and 2-3 on Q9. That was extremely retarded, since Drake was wounded and engaged with Kaemon - I should've put them all on Q9. I lost initiative, and Drake rolled 5 skulls at Kaemon, cutting him cleanly in two. I lost my turn 1, and Drake engaged Q9. He threw 4 skulls, but Q9's armor held true and made up for my Order Marker mistake, blocking them all. The Queglix finished off Drake, but not before that extremely tense moment. Of course, I still had Isamu throwing 5 dice that could've won me the game, but I'm glad it didn't come to that.

5-0, 190 victory points (Q9, Isamu left) for a total of 1190 points and a tourney victory!!

I felt very good about this tourney. I beat the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th place finishers on route to the win, and didn't make many mistakes except for that last game. I had thought Sonlen would be my cleanup piece, so that he could get all the OM's, have a lot of chances at Heal and Swoop, and be able to focus the Heal on himself, but he proved invaluable as a mid-game unit - getting Q9 back on his feet when he was down and still packing nearly the punch that Q9 does. I had thought Kaemon Awa would be my midgame figure, but when I went to actually place the markers on him, I realized that Sonlen did nearly the same thing (Swoop and an attack of 4-5 instead of two attacks of 4), plus I had the chance to heal Q9, so he just made more sense. Sonlen did really well against heroes and unique squads, but I think he'd have a little more trouble against multiple commons. Still, Raelin + Q9 + Sonlen was extremely potent - it kept everyone close so that Sonlen could use Heal most of the time, and gave me some flexibility with OM's between the robot and the elf. I loved the way the army played, and suggest Q9 and Raelin whenever you try to play Sonlen (although, Q9 and Raelin work well with just about anyone...).

Again, thanks to KCU for hosting a great tourney!

[Simpsons Scaper]

Nice Reports!

[killercactus]

I'm back again for another tourney report, trying out a unit that doesn't see a lot of competitive play - the Wolves of Badru. I'd been thinking quite a bit lately that these guys are underrated, and could perform very well if played correctly. So, I created an army featuring them for the Lorain, OH tourney, which was 550 points, 24 hexes with a 200 point sideboard. I came up with:

Wolves of Badru x4 - 320
Raelin - 400
Krav Maga Agents - 500
Marro Warriors - 550
Krug - 670
Warriors of Ashra - 720
Eldgrim - 750

The bold was what I was supposed to play when I could. The plan was to use the Krav (under Raelin's aura) to draw in my opponent, then Pounce on them. I loved that the army had minimum 6 move, a strong special attack and defensive protection. I didn't like that it would have a lot of trouble with tanking units (Q9, Sentinels, Minions, Charos, etc). I thought Krug would be a nice answer to these guys, and Eldgrim could give him the +1 movement he needed to catch Q9. The WoA were just a filler I threw in just in case I came up against a Krug, or maybe Charos or something. I never used them.

Turns out I didn't get to play my main army very much. Anyway, onto the tourney:

Round 1 - KCU Master 2007 (4th Mass x4, Charos, Sentinels x2, Eldgrim) on Mole Hills - Jungle Edition.

Ick. This army has Sentinels and Charos, and the map is a killer for me - a bunch of freaking hills with Jungle trees next to them. The perfect places for Mass to camp out. I swapped out the Krav and Marro in favor of Krug and Eldgrim, since I knew I had next to no shot against Sentinels and Charos. That was a huge mistake. He didn't play Charos, and I should've swapped out Wolves x2, because I really needed the Krav.

This game went about as you would expect it. Aside from a cool opening where my Eldgrim wounded his, and then a wolf pounced him to take the defense glyph, I got destroyed. I was trying to pounce 4th Mass that had 4-5 defense thanks to height, jungle trees and eventually the glyph, and I lost 5 wolves that way. Krug might have killed two Sentinels, that was about it.

Loss, 0-1, 285ish Losing Points.

Round 2 - Chris (4th Mass x5, Drake II, Nilfheim, Eldgrim, Isamu) on Hot Heights.

Great - more Mass. However, they didn't have their tanks with them, so I was more optimistic. Also, I knew I would not forget to take the Krav in this game. This would be the only game I used the bold army above. Chris went the non-Valiant route, with Nilf, Drake, Eldgrim, Isamu and Mass x2. I think he didn't like the idea of me pouncing all over the Mass, but his army suited me just fine.

I claimed the lava turret closest to me with Raelin and the Krav. My first Krav whiffed with 6 defense dice and was killed. That was annoying, but then Chris stepped on the Revive glyph, and I threw a 19! Alright, Tommy Lee is back! Well, then he whiffed again with 5 defense - so much for that. In the meantime though, the Krav (with a little help from two pouncing wolves) had killed all the Mass and Nilfheim from their perch. I think Chris didn't quite give my Krav enough credit here - he could've flown over with Nilf and bit them at some points, but chose to stay back and Ice Shard them, while killing a wolf or two. Drake came in, and killed Will Smith with his pistol - again whiffing on 6 defense. Agent Scully shot down the charging Isamu and, as Drake claimed the defense glyph in the water, decided to charge him and take one high ground shot. She inflicted a wound, and was sliced in half. I brought in the Wolves next, surrounding Drake with a few attacks from height and a couple from even ground, getting him down to 1 life, when my last wolf pounced on him. Eldgrim sat waiting in the start zone, and actually killed a wolf before he too was pounced. It was a good win for me, but Chris was inexperienced. Had he put more Mass in his army, I may have had a tougher time.

Win, 1-1, 285ish Losing Points

Round 3 - KCU Master 2007's little brother (Minions x5, Zelrig) on Turret Rocks

Wow, another matchup I didn't want to see. He went with Zelrig and Minons x3, when he saw all my wolves. Knowing that my Agents might be able to do some damage from atop the turret while he was trying to bomb my starting zone with Zelrig, I swapped out 2 squads of my common Wolves and loaded up with Uniques.

Before this begins, I'll make the following notes: this kid never whiffed with his attack dice. Not one time, even though he threw 2 dice very often with the Minions. Also, he blocked 3 and 4 skulls regularly. On top of that, I lost every single initiative roll, except the first one, which I wanted to lose.

Predictably, he brought Zelrig first, while I moved Raelin and the Krav towards the turret. Zelrig did his thing, killing a couple of my scattered Wolves and one Marro Warrior, then bit a Krav before he went down. The Krav then started shooting at Minions from height, killing lots of them, but the process was excrutiatingly slow. I swear this kid's dice cup was holy. He blocked 3 skulls 4 times in a row, and even blocked 4 once. Even with that, since he was content to kill my Marro Warriors before I could clone them back, I was able to shoot down all but 4 Minions before he finally flew up and killed the Krav and Raelin. After taking two wounds, Krug killed a Minion, leaving one squad of Minions vs. my 6-life Krug, one squad of Wolves and Eldgrim. He only had 2 Minions in range of Krug, so I piled on my Order Markers. I figured, even if I lose initiative, Krug will be plenty mad and should be able to finish those two Minions off.

I was wrong.

He won initiative (of course) and flew up to Krug. He rolled both skulls both times. I blocked one of the wounds, but the other 7 wounds killed Krug. Those two Minions then had 4 free turns (since I of course lost initiative again, then put my 1 on my last wolf) to cut up the rest of my army. I couldn't believe I lost this game (in fact, I still can't).

Loss, 1-2, 690ish losing points

Round 4 - Darkness1717's dad (Drake II, Anubian Wolves, Q10, Kaemon Awa, Isamu, 4th Mass and something else) on Flash Fire

I sat down here against a Unique-podge, which again isn't very Pounce-conducive. I went with my same Wolves x2 variant. I led out with Eldgrim to grab the Move glyph and then the Krav, while Steve was splitting up markers. With the extra speed, my Krav got to the top very quickly and shot down Q10 and Kaemon Awa before they could do much damage. Drake went to the other side of the map and claimed the Defense glyph, while my Krav shot two Anubians down. Isamu came over and killed my Raelin and one agent, while doing a waltz back and forth around a ruin. I sent the Marro Warriors over to deal with him, and the Wolves to deal with Drake. My wolf killed his last wolf and went to work on Drake. I pushed a few wounds through and ended Drake with a Pounce. I didn't have to move Krug - my heightened Krav really cleaned up for me in this one.

Win, 2-2, 690ish Losing Points

Round 5, KCU's Little Brother again (Zelrig, Minions x5) on Fire Isles.

I wasn't sure why I had to play this kid again, and I really, really didn't want to, especially on a little tiny map like Fire Isles. I played the same army that I played in Rounds 3 and 4. I lost the first two initiatives and therefore couldn't make the glyphs, which were BOTH DEFENSE +1. Great, that's what I need. A bunch of defense +2 Minions. Oh, and did I mention that I took 6 shots from high ground with the Krav at one of the Minions that claimed that glyph before he made it there? 6 FREAKING SHOTS!!! AT ONE MINION!!!

Since I couldn't kill the Minions, I started trying to kill Zelrig. A bunch of attacks of 4 didn't even touch him, so I mobilized Krug. A couple of swings of 4 at Zelrig did nothing. Zelrig then bit Krug - 4 skulls. No shields for me, so now Krug can swing with 8 dice - cool! Two attacks of 8 at Zelrig - 1 wound. 1 stinking wound. I threw 5 skulls on the second attack - 4 shields. When I was attacking Minions, there were MULTIPLE times this kid rolled 6 shields. And again, he never whiffed on attack dice. No exaggerations - he did not whiff one time (maybe once, but no more). I killed two Minions and pushed 4 wounds through on Zelrig before my entire army was dead. I figure between Krug and the Krav, I threw 50-60 attack dice at Zelrig (I know Krug threw 30 by himself). One wound. I bet this kid didn't throw 60 attack dice the entire game, and killed my whole army. I was laughing the entire time we played this game - it just kept getting more ridiculous. He was rolling 4's for initiative and winning, blocking 3-4 skull attacks without flinching, surviving on lava and obliterating everything with his attacks. So, in a nutshell, not only did I have to play this kid twice, against an army that's a terrible matchup for mine, with two Defense Glyphs on the map that I couldn't reach first, his dice just decided they weren't going to fail at all. I guess that's what I get.

Loss, 2-3, 900ish Losing Points, 11 place out of 16 (blah - though I did get a set of Mass and Wolves, which I needed).

This was easily my worst tournament ever, but it was probably also my worst army. It didn't help that I had some bad matchups (including the same bad matchup twice), and some really bad breaks. However, it made me think that Wolves of Badru shouldn't be the core of the army - they should be used in moderation as kind of assassination units. Much like the Roman Archers. Raudaulfr Shieldcrusher and southwest ninja still put on a great tourney and I had a blast. Maybe in May Runa can come back out and get me some wins.

[nyys]

This is what you get for cheating on Runa... she must have put a hex on you before you left the house.

[Darkness1717]

Ha, I wanted to play KCU's little bro. so bad. He was probobly going to go all Minnions and I would've massacred them w/ Braxis. If you think KCU's little bro is good at rolling $50 I'm better. I have got to tell you a story of how lucky I got w/ Cyprians chilling touch once. Ha, you only got good pounces on my dad and on Chris.

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by nyys

This is what you get for cheating on Runa... she must have put a hex on you before you left the house.

She may have, but she knows she's the maligned figure for me. I'm playing her in the next tournament I can play, so we'll see what happens.

Originally Posted by Darkness1717

Ha, I wanted to play KCU's little bro. so bad. He was probobly going to go all Minnions and I would've massacred them w/ Braxis. If you think KCU's little bro is good at rolling $50 I'm better. I have got to tell you a story of how lucky I got w/ Cyprians chilling touch once. Ha, you only got good pounces on my dad and on Chris.

I actually had a lot of good Pounces in my first game against KCU. I was probably 8/13 on Pounce, but that's still pretty bad when I'm rolling 5 attack dice against 4 defense. I was probably pouncing too much, but I knew from the beginning when I didn't take the Krav I was screwed.

I'll probably play Runa in May, a secret much-maligned unit in June (if KCU runs his slugfest tourney) and then a good army in July/August in Canton if I get to go. We'll see if I can make them better than this performance.

[Darkness1717]

Originally Posted by killercactus

She may have, but she knows she's the maligned figure for me. I'm playing her in the next tournament I can play, so we'll see what happens.

I actually had a lot of good Pounces in my first game against KCU. I was probably 8/13 on Pounce, but that's still pretty bad when I'm rolling 5 attack dice against 4 defense. I was probably pouncing too much, but I knew from the beginning when I didn't take the Krav I was screwed.

I'll probably play Runa in May, a secret much-maligned unit in June (if KCU runs his slugfest tourney) and then a good army in July/August in Canton if I get to go. We'll see if I can make them better than this performance.

Well good job w/ those extra 8 pounces. Just so you know, my dad isn't really a good player. But he came up w/ a really good army for the tourney in Dayton.

[killercactus]

I put on a tournament this weekend in Warren, OH. The specifics were 530 points, all from one general. I really wanted to play Runa, but I also wanted to have a good showing and couldn't make anything work with just Utgar. I'd never played Cyprien in a tourney, and he fit the points with Stingers and Rats, so I settled on:

Cyprien
Stingers x5
Rats x2

It fit perfectly in the hexes, and I thought it stood a chance. Of course, I knew I'd really struggle against Mass, and there was likely to be a lot of that. Also, really no under-used units in here, but I didn't want to use another thread. Plus, Cyprien isn't used without Sonya very often... anyway, onto the report:

Round 1 - Jacob (Drake II, Nilfheim, Knights x2, Eldgrim) on Embattled Fen

This round went my way with pretty much everything. He led with the Knights and hit a wall of Rats. The Stingers shot them down behind the wall as my Rats clogged the road. The Stingers made it to Nilfheim in the startin zone before Jacob really got to mobilize him. Drake was shot down as well and I was 1-0.

Win, 1-0

Round 2 - Drea (Braxas, Krav, Microcorp x2, Otonashi) on Swamp Thing

Drea had just finished melting the entire Elf Wizard army with Braxas, by rolling a bunch of 18's. Yay. She flew Braxas straight in and rolled 18-17-17 to kill 3 Rats. She also gassed a bunch of Stingers and Cyprien before I finally killed Braxas. I had maybe 3 squads of Stingers left and a Rat or 2 against the Agents. However, her Krav really let her down as 2 of them whiffed against shots from Stingers. I held the defense glyph most of the game, and my Stingers came through for me, killing all of the Agents as well. I still hadn't taken a turn with Cyprien in the tournament, but I was 2-0.

Win, 2-0

Round 3 - southwest ninja (Tor-Kul-Na, Nagrubs x2, Stingers x4, Isamu) on Feylund Fountain

This was the funnest match of the day for me. TJ started out with his Stingers, who met my Rats. I took both glyphs, which were Common Attack and Defense. TJ mobilized TKN and the grubs to keep my rats from Scattering. I put 4 wounds on hiim right away, but he ate some grubs to get back 3 life. He then stepped on the rat holding the Attack glyph to make his Stingers stronger. I threw Cyprien at him, but I missed Chilling Touch and my attack, and he was killed without doing anything. Knowing he'd be content to hold that glyph for a while, I turned my attention to his remaining Stingers. They had extra attack, and I had extra defense. I knew I was probably on the short end of that stick, but I had more Stingers. I retreated to bolster my ranks and try to deny TJ the high ground. He didn't take the bait, but it allowed me to get around to the other side of the map, which suited me a little better. I was able to find the high ground more often than him, and my defense dice held pretty well. Once there were only a couple of his Stingers left, I sent in my rats to tie them up, and got rid of them. I had a couple of squads left against TKN. I threw some rats at him and shot, but he killed all but 2 Stingers and a couple rats. Isamu gave me a scare, but my Stingers took care of him and the remaining Nagrub. A great game.

Win, 3-0

Round 4 - Plantazm21zero (Drake II, Raelin, Mass x4) on Jungle Swamp Road

I don't like this map with Reavers, and I really didn't like it against Mass. Craig setup on the plateau nearest to him, with Raelin by a tree. I played my Rats a bit too fast, but I knew I had to come to him eventually. I should've waited back... that's about all there is for me to say about this game. I fed him Stingers and Rats, and he shot them. It didn't help that I didn't roll a single siheld out of my first 32 defense dice, most of which were 5-6 die rolls. I tried Cyprien to assassinate Raelin - he might've killed one Mass soldier before he was offed. I tried some bait and switch tactics to get him to leave Raelin, which worked some to get me some points, but I was pretty much killed. Craig won the tourney - so props to him.

Loss, 3-1 - 270 points

Round 5 - the whisper (Brownsfan's little brother) Kaemon, 10th x5 on Ticalla Sunrise

Those were a lot of British guys to kill.... My rats took the defense and initiative glyphs, and he sent in Kaemon Awa. I traded some of my rats and a Stinger or two for Kaemon. He started sending in 10th, but their two defense just wasn't holding up against my Stingers attack and extra defense. I did my best to get high ground and trees, and the Stingers held up. Jeret charged in the 10th valiantly with their bayonets, but the Stingers weren't dying. I never had to move Cyprien, which meant he killed one figure the entire day.

Win - 4-1, 3rd place.

Craig took down KCU Master in a Jandar vs. Jandar matchup to claim the title, and Rob beat me out on points. I like the way the Stingers played with Rats, but Cyprien wasn't the right fit. Q10 would've been much better, if he wasn't Vydar.