The B.I.V.'s Big, Bad, Bloody Battles 10/16 Utah NHSD!

[The B.I.V.]

Utah NHSD 2016, Wasatch Warfare!

Goblin Town Throwdown!

Utah NHSD 2014!

Utah NHSD 2013!

10/15/11 Utah NHSD!

10/9/10 Utah NHSD!
Here I am a mere hour after my 2nd National Heroscape Day tournament. I'm proud to say that I went 4-1 and beat all DnD comers (technically; see battle 4)! 'Course, I was very nearly beaten by a (pre?) teen girl (which really shouldn't matter in our current, modern, enlightened society (but which I find kind of amusing nonetheless)). I figured I should give a recap before I forget it all.

My Army: This year our point total was 450 points, which makes quite a difference from 500+! The first army I considered taking was:
Nakitas 120
Gorillinators x2 300
Rats x3 420
Otonashi 430
Marcu 450
I really wanted to fit Raelin in here but just couldn't make it work without affecting the core of Nakitas/Gorillinators. I finally decided that my main abilities, Tough and Smoke Powder would be completely useless against Q9/10 (who I fought at last year's tournament) and Phantom Knights would also rip me a new one...so I then considered:
Kato 200
Ashigaru gunners x2 320
Ashigaru Spearmen x3 440
Isamu 450
This one has the encircle attack to take down high defense heroes (like Q9) but would they make it to him to use it? Probably not...I briefly considered Gladiatrons/Blastatrons (but didn't want people to hate me) so I finally settled on:
Ornak 100
Cyprien 250
Krug 370
Blade Gruts x2 450
This is a great build that I used earlier this year at 500 points (with the addition of Sonya). It's a ton of fun to play, has great synergies and also has very few weaknesses. Cyp can fly virtually anywhere on the map, taking glyphs, assassinating pesky support figures like Raelin or Ranged threats like the Krav. He can also bypass high defenses with chilling touch except for Q9, but that's where Krug comes in. He makes B-line for the big, tough heroes and engages them so they can't use their special attacks without dealing with him first(which makes him mad and ups his wicked double attack). OMs on the orcs move Ornak so that he's always in range of the two heroes and can use his dispatch power with OM1. But enough talk let's see how it held up!

The Battles: My first battle was one with split starting zones which had the potential to really screw my army. Fortunately, it was unfavorable to my opponent's too!


Deadmaxx fielded:
Kurrok
One of each elemental
Iron Golem
Krav
Cyprien, Krug, Ornak and a BlaDE gRUT started one side within range of Kurrok, the Iron Golem and the Air and Earth elementals, while I placed my remaining blade gruts the other side on the board ready to engage the Krav and the Water and Fire elementals.
Deadmaxx won initiative and charged the Iron Golem at Krug, laying 3 wounds on him. Angry Krug then got height on the Golem and killed it with two well-placed wounded smashes after Cyprien flew to the only glyph on the board (attack+1) (actually, now looking at the map from this angle, I realize there was another glyph but I never saw it from my side of the board). They then teamed up and finished off Kurrock and his two elemental buddies.
Meanwhile my Blade Gruts survived an opening fusillade from the Krav and answered by killing 2 of the 3, crippling the squad! From there, they ripped up the remaining Krav and the Fire and Water elementals. When the dust settled I'd only lost a single squad of blade gruts.

BATTLE 2 was against a kid named Daryl who fielded this odd hodge podge:
Iron Golem
Rhogar
Migol
and 1 of each Wyrmling
The map was a DnD map with lots of lava a narrow pass on each side and one through the middle. On one of the side passes was the Initiative glyph and on the other side, the Glyph of Kelda (healing).




I sent Krug into the middle and Cyprien went most of the way to the initiative glyph before he had to abort to help Krug. I foolishly allowed the Iron Golem to get height on me and he had hurt Krug pretty badly. Krug and Cyprien finished the Iron Golem only to have Rhogar take its place. I had also foolishly moved Krug 1 space too far away from the Glyph of Kelda so that it would take me two turns to get there! Krug narrowly escaped one final attack from the black and blue Wyrmlings and limped to the glyph with one life remaining (and killed a red wyrmling for good measure)! Cyprien killed Rhogar but got smoked by the wyrmlings. Krug actually sat out the rest of the battle while the orcs and Ornak mopped up the wyrmlings and Migol..Cyprien was my only casualty.

BATTLE 3 was against an older kid named Landon (which rhymes with Brandon). This was another odd hodge podge consisting of:
Zombies x4
DW 7,000
Q10
Isamu
Drow Chainfighter
Guilty McCreech
The map had a road winding from one start zone, through the middle to the other start zone. The glyphs were initiative and Unique Attack +1. There was also a fortress-type thing in one corner with a treasure glyph in it.



Landon led out with his Zombies and took the initiative glyph on the 2nd or 3rd turn. I moved Cyprien onto the Unique attack glyph on the 1st turn which allowed Krug to start munching Zombies but then Cyprien joined him. The Zombies fell surprisingly quickly and only one of them ever made it near any of my orcs (and he failed his attempt at killing the orc to bring back a Zombie).
DW7000 ran out and detonated between Cyprien and a Zombie but failed to destroy anything but himself. Cyprien made a couple of attempts at the treasure glyph, niether of which were successful (resulting in no wounds and one wound, repectively) (I learned after the game that it was a defense +1 glyph).

BATTLE 4 is kind of a sore spot (still) but, stuff happens...we played on this odd creation:


My opponent, Andrew, fielded:
Green scales x2
Braxas
Raelin
Theracus
I really wasn't afraid of this build because I had Cyprien to assassinate Raelin and once she was out of the way, He and Krug could nail Braxas and that'd be all she wrote!
On my first move I flew Cyprien from the orange start zone to the base of the High part of the map, onto a treasure glyph. He deftly avoided the trap and scored an attack+1 glyph! So now I had a 4/4 Cyprien. This was gonna be sweet (or so I thought). On Andrew's first move he flew Braxas out and rolled a 19, insta killing Cyprien with poison acid breath. Game over. Yeah, really...not much to tell after that. I decided to go all out with my orcs before they all died but failed to make a dent. To add insult to injury Braxas got another amazing roll against Krug at the very end of the game but the outcome was decided long before that. Now, while Greenscales are DnD figs, I like to think that it was really Braxas that beat me (I think you'll agree). It helps me sleep better at night anyway...

My FINAL BATTLE was against the afore-mentioned girl, Cecily. I'm not sure why 3 of my 5 battles were against kids, or why there were so many kids playing in the adult bracket this year, but for whatever reason, I was the designated crusher of dreams...
Her army didn't exactly inspire awe and fear in me:
Q10
Krug
Kelda
Izumi Samurai
Rats x1
I mean, Q10 and Krug are decent, but they'd be getting single activations as opposed to my double (1st turn) activations with Ornak.
The map was fairly large:

I was on the blue start zone and had most of my gruts on the far left side to go for the defense glyph. Cyprien, Krug and Ornak started on the other side with a couple of Gruts. I flew Cyprien to a summoning glyph 1st turn (sound familiar?) and summoned Kelda. Krug moved into the middle of the board but before he could engage Q10, Cecily blocked the thin passage with a rat and pulled back the Major, firing wrist rockets at Krug. Krug killed the rat but I failed to close the gap quickly enough, opting to spend a couple of turns getting my orcs into position (they took the defense glyph by the way). Q10 downed Krug (who had only taken the affore-mentioned rat).
I seriously thought I was losing at this point. Cyprien had downed Kelda and kept the enemy Krug occupied (who came to help Kelda) but now I only had Cyprien, Ornak and a handful of Gruts against a fresh Krug and Q10 (who my orcs had engaged). Q10 was situated so that I could only engage with 2 orcs at a time but their relentless attacks were slowly wearing him down, and I sent Cyprien over to help which drew Q10's fire away from the orcs. Ornak landed the deathblow on Q10 but I lost Cyprien in the process. Now I was sure I was gonna die. I had a Fresh Krug, 2 Izumi Samurai and a rat left to kill. Fortunately, Krug was on the other side of the board still and all of her order markers had been on Q10 so I had two extra turns to wipe out the samurai (which seemed suicidal for my wimpy little orcs, but I needed the points). I rolled stellarly, however, and downed both of them with no casualties! It was only at this point that I realized that I could win on points alone (as I still had a full squad of orcs and Ornak (140 points) to her Krug and Rat (160 points)). So I chased down the rat, killed it and won by a mere 20 points before time ran out! Whew!

RESULTS:So I ended up with another 4-1 record (same as last year), only I placed 5th or 6th or something because of my weak strength of schedule. But a great tournament as always, and I look forward to next year!

2/13/10 Valentine's Throwdown!
Map: The West Barbican (From FotAK)
Defender: Me
2x 4th Mass
2x Sentinels
Spider-Man
Tarn Vikings
Attackers: My two newb buddies (complete HS virgins)
Braxas
Agent Carr

Sonya Eisenwein
Su Bak Na
Runa

I almost went with KoW over the Sentinels because I felt the Sentinels’ Shields of Valor + height would be a little too frustrating for the newbies and I wanted them to have a good time. But then I figured The KoW’s sheer numbers would also make it difficult so I settled on the Sentinels. Turns out they weren’t much of a factor at all…

My friends went over which figures they should choose and which strategies for attacking the castle for, like, an hour. I finally said, “Hey, guys, let’s do this!” They set up all their figures around the small ruin next to the Glyph of Valda (Move +2), except for Agent Carr which started on the road.

First turn Sonya took the Glyph and I took a single potshot with a single 4th Mass. that bounced harmlessly off of Sonya’s funky red armor. Braxas then flew to the base of the castle and promptly killed an entire squad of Sentinels with her breath. SuBak Na flew to the door (he didn’t have quite enough movement to make the top of the castle) and whacked it for a single wound. Two of my three remaining Sentinels flew down and engaged Braxas, while the Third who was way over on the other side of the castle wall flew out towards the front of the castle. Braxas then flew to the top of the castle and started trying to kill 2 4th Mass and Spiderman. She only got 1, which would be the case until her death, much to my relief. In fact, my militiaman next to the Flag (that survived her initial assault) survived, like, 2 or 3 more poison acid breathes after that one!

I should note, here, that, I had enough troops up top that I could have easily prevented Braxas and Su Bak Na from landing up there by spacing them out, but again, in the interest of having a good time, I forbore. Thus, Braxas and Su Bak Na had both landed up there by the end of the first turn. By the time I killed them both I had around five 4th Mass, a fresh Spiderman and my Tarns, who were guarding the door down below. I may have even had a Sentinel left (but big whoop).

Next, Runa caught my Tarns by surprise, flew over the wall next to my door keeper (a Tarn) and killed him! I didn’t have any order markers on my Tarns and so Carr and Sonya easily made it to the now open door and invited themselves in.

Sonya and Runa made it to the top with a single life each, while Carr Ghost-Walked through the inactive Tarns and started climbing the ladder. I quickly dispatched Sonya, since I didn’t want her healing back up to full, but Runa lasted waaayy too long. Spiderman rolled a single skull (out of his 4 attack dice), like, 3 times in row. When she finally died, she had taken most of the 4th Mass (with a combination of attacks and Mitonsoul Aura) and given Agent Carr time to get into the action. About this time, I just Used Spidey as a roadblock to keep Carr from taking the flag down. This allowed my two remaining Tarns to Berserker Charge their way to the top in 2 turns (just in time for one of them to land the killing blow on Runa)! They died pretty quickly after that, though and it was down to Carr vs. Spiderman. Spiderman eventually dided and Carr was the lone survivor with 1 life! The End.

Lesson learned: I will not go easy on the newbs again!

10/09/09 Utah NHSD!
This was my first HS tournament ever, and it was a blast! The Mohicans have intrigued me since they were first released so I’d been testing out various army builds in my last two games (consisting of moheeks/BA and Spiders/Sujoah) so I was getting fairly comfortable with them. For this tournament which was 520 points, I decided to drop the Spiders and Sujoah (who, quite frankly, suck) for the Dwarfs and Migol:
Brave Arrow 50
Mohicans x3 210
Axegrinders x2 140
Migol 110
Total: 510
I went lighter on the Dwarfs because the Mohicans are much more versatile (they have range and the same stats as the Dwarfs (3/3) in melee) and the Dwarfs would only really come into play against a small part of most armies (the large and huge figures). Yes, I could have added Isamu or Otonashi but that would have ruined my Aquilla theme and would have made me much less of a harda$$ so I decided against it.

My first battle was against my buddy WJScaper, who along with UtahScott and me, provided all of the maps for the tournament. He played:

Snipers x2 200
Repulsors x2 80
Taelord 180
Zetacron. 60
Total: 520
The map was Can't See The Jungle. I was fairly confident that I could win by sheer numbers and that proved to be the case. I lead with the Mohicans hoping their anti-range abilities would keep them alive until they could get into melee range. They survived remarkably well. The road really made it easy to bring up reinforcements as I needed them. I usually attacked with 2 Mohicans and brought up an additional one from the rear per order marker, only attacking with 3 if a good opportunity presented itself. After taking out the initial wave of 1 squad each of Repulsors and Snipers, I controlled the middle of the board, with one Mohican shooting from height and two on the ground within melee range of anything I needed to kill. “Dub-J” had planted Taelord on his side on the very end of the road, which allowed me to rush a couple of Mohicans into melee with him and take him down with 3 very lucky rolls. Zetacron failed to score a hit and was also taken down in melee with the moheeks. From there, it was just cleanup duty. We ended up calling the game when he got down to a single Repulsor. It was fairly one-sided due to some amazing rolls on my part as well as the afore-mentioned numerical advantage. Each Sniper he lost took a big chunk out of his army, while I was able to lose a squaddie here and there without losing much effectiveness. I think his army would have fared much better against a hero-heavy army.
RECORD: 1-0

Next up I faced, what I dubbed, “The Red Army”run by a Mr. Bangerter who claimed that this was his first time playing ‘scape but he was packing Minions which scared the poo out of me. His army consisted of:

Zelrig 185
Minions x2 220
Krav Maga100
Isamu 10
Total: 525
This battle took place on Badru Valley. I started by rushing Brave Arrow to the center glyph (Attack +1). Amazingly, I was able to hold it for the rest of the game (eventually replacing Brave Arrow with a Mohican). He led with his Krav, 2 of which fell unexpectedly easily to ranged fire from my Mohicans. I was hoping to avoid melee and pick off the Minions from range, but that became impossible if I expected to hold onto the glyph (which I failed to add in to my rolls for the first couple of turns). Mr. Bangerter excecuted a nice sneak attack with Zelrig on my Dwarfs, killing 4 of them, and later, 2 or 3 more. He also denied me height with all of his flyers, so things were looking pretty grim for me. Things turned around, though on a turn in which I was able to kill 3 or 4 Minions with my Mohicans! Then, while he was bringing in reinforcements, I was able to take back the high ground denying him any good landing spots. Migol and my last 2 Dwarfs were able to exact bloody vengeance on Zelrig and with height I fought off the rest of the Minions and Isamu (who whiffed his disappear and died without doing a damn thing).
RECORD: 2-0

After avoiding death at the hands of the Minions, I was feeling pretty confident. My next opponent was UC K King on Embattled Fen. When he pulled out Q9 and Q10, I knew I was in for a good battle but at the same time, I had done well against a similar Vydar-ranged army a few weeks prior and I was eager to unleash my Dwarfs against the big guys. His army (other than Q9 & 10) was a little weird:

Q9 180
Q10 150
Microcorp x1 100
Gorillinators x1 90
Total: 520

I personally would never take one squad of anything (let alone Gorillinators), but hey, that’s just me. I moved Brave Arrow towards the Glyph of Wannok in the middle of the board but he had 2 OMs on his Microcorp so they beat me to it. I started 2 of my Dwarfs on the road, so I moved them a whopping 9 spaces and moved a couple of their brothers onto the road. With his third OM he moved Q10 and took a couple of pot-shots at Brave Arrow (which missed). Finally I moved some Mohicans onto height on my side and shot at the Microcorp. Migol took the wound (from Wannok) at the end of the round. Mr. King had placed Q9 , conveniently at the end of the road on his side so my Dwarfs were able to take the road right to his feet. I started bonding at this point, since my Dwarfs could bond and move 7 on the road! I got two Dwarfs adjacent to Q9 and started hammering away! Brave Arrow moved forward and engaged two Microcorp, killing the one on the glyph. My Mohicans finished the other one that was adjacent to BA. Since he only had a single squad of Microcorp and I had reduced it by 2/3 strength they were effectively out of the battle at that point. Q9 tried to shoot my Dwarfs without much success. He moved Q10 onto the road on the other side of the map and tried to fire down at Brave Arrow to no avail. I moved up more Mohicans and Q10 took a wound from the glyph (which was the only way I could seem to wound him in this game).

Next turn, I engaged Q10 with 2 Mohicans but failed to wound him. He killed them both. My last two OMs were on the Dwarfs who killed Q9! Q10 was slowly getting wounded by the glyph and he was unable to get BA off of it. I finished off the Gorillinators and his last Microcorp before time was up. Q10 had a single life left.
RECORD: 3-0

Wow! Here was I was in my first tournament and I was undefeated! I was feeling pretty good about myself but then I faced the mighty Ortimus with his army of:

Atlaga 90
Protectors x3 330
Raelin 1.0 80
Marcu 20
Total: 520

Now, I’d used these guys a few weeks before and found them to be nothing less than completely death-crazy killing machines! I knew I was in for a rough fight. In addition, we were playing on Sidewinder, which also added to my difficulties (as you’ll see). My only hope was to grab one of the two Glyphs of Ranvieg and ground his army! Unfortunately, I was unable to do so…
I started by sending Brave Arrow into the river in an attempt to go up the other side and grab the glyph on his side. But I was waiting for the Mohicans to engage something and then War-cry him into action. That never came to pass. With the river cutting through the center of the board, my moheeks were forced to settle for ranged-shots, something his army was a lot better suited to. My Dwarfs made a run for the glyph on my side, along with Migol but they got cut down to a single dwarf in no time! Migol only had 2 wounds and was two spaces away from the glyph when I whiffed a defense roll and he took 3 hits, killing him! At that point I had no one near either glyph and I just had to kill as many points-worth of Kyrie flesh as I could. I finally finished off his final squad member of the Protectors but Brave Arrow was alone against Raelin, Atlaga and Marcu, at that point. He survived Atlaga’s Bolt of the Witherwood, but then time was up, so I had to settle for the 330 points of Protectors that I had killed…
RECORD: 3-1

My final match of the day was against UC B Lords on Hot Heights and I was really scratching my head at this crazy army build:

Q9 180
Braxas 210
Deadeye Dan 60
4th Mass x1 70
Total: 520

Really?! 4th Mass x1?!! Okay, whatever. We played on Hot Heights and with the closest glyph exactly 7 spaces from my start zone, I was able to grab it on my first turn with BA’s Tracking ability! It was the Glyph of Thorian (woo-hoo)! He had his order markers on Q-9 and groaned when I turned over the glyph. We both momentarily forgot that it only prohibits normal ranged attacks, not special attacks so he moved Q9 into melee. Braxas also swooped in and only melted a single figure with her breath (out of 3 tries)! I had two Mohicans, a Dwarf and Brave Arrow on them and after a complete whiff from Braxas’ breath, I managed to take ‘em both out! With a single squad of the 4th and Deadeye Dan left, and most of my army still intact, it was just a matter of time. Deadeye held me at bay for awhile until I amassed Migol and 4 Dwarfs behind the ruin on his side. His 4th Mass was just around the corner on the hill outside his start zone. I charged my Dwarfs out and Decimated the Mass and then ran over and finished Deadeye Dan! Admittedly, Mr. Lords suffered through some horrible dice-rolling enroute to my most one-sided win of the day…
FINAL RECORD:4-1



4/10/09 This was a 1v1 on a map I threw together:

It's fairly balanced but not symmetrical.



His start zone. My boy took Red Hulk, Carnage and Sir Hawthorne for 670 points.


My start zone. I took Godzilla, Win Chiu Woo, Sujoah and a squad of Spiders for 665.


I led with the Spiders and Sujoah. He responded by leaping Red Hulk next to Sujoah and landing a wound or 2.


I flew Sujoah to his start zone, avoiding disengagement blow from the Hulk, and landed a poison sting on Sir Hawthorne. Then...


...I surrounded Hulk with my spiders. They failed to land webs or hits on the red giant. Then Carnage captured a glyph hat turned out to be range +4, useless to both of our non-ranged armies (after the game I realized he couldn't quite reach the glyph in 1 move, like he did, but no biggy).


With my 3rd order marker, I moved WCU within leaping distance of the other glyph and his Hawthorne took a useless swipe at Sujoah. All
three of my spiders became crispy critters on the lava crust, Carnage took a wound, and Hulk didn't.


I gained initiative and took the glyph which, after turning it over, was Erland, the summon glyph!



I summoned Sir Hawthorne onto lava crust hoping to smack him up and possibly give him some lava damage. But Woo wiffed and then I realized that I actually could have summoned him into the molten lava space next to me!


Carnage came over and put an end to Woo's antics. Sujoah then came over and Stung Carnage to death!


Sir Hawthorne took the high ground against Sujoah, wacked him once, then got initiative and finished him off.


Now it was my fresh Godzilla against a fresh Red Hulk and a one-wound Hawthorne. This would be a good test of Hulk and Godzilla's relative strengths.


He won initiative and leaped Hulk to Godzilla's feet. We commenced a beat-fest. On Godzilla's 3rd order marker, I hoped to finish his last 3 life but no such luck. I took him to 1 life and then took 5 wounds from his "Heat of Battle" power. Ouch! He was at 1 life and I was at 3. We each needed initiative, badly. I won initiative and finished him!


I wasn't able to get into melee with my next order marker so I had to settle for an Atomic Fireline that did a wound or 2 to Hawthorne.


Hawthorne then took the high ground (if you can call it that) and made a last-ditch attempt to kill Godzilla.


He failed to slay the beast and Godzilla got to land the final blow! And did a happy dance...

Lessons learned: Initially the outcome looked pretty even, but then I realized that I'd completely forgotten to use Godzilla's Stomp and Rampage powers! With that in mind, I'm upping his point cost to 350.

Brandon

[Poseidon's trident]

Can I have your Godzilla?

[nyys]

Does Zilla count as SuperHuge?

[The B.I.V.]

Originally Posted by Poseidon's trident

Can I have your Godzilla?

Hmmm...let me think...

No, Nyss, He's not super huge. I just gave him really good stats. I did make a Troll that's almost as big as Godzilla with a power called Gigantic: When Troll attacks or defends against small or medium figures, he may reroll all attack dice that do not show skulls and all defense dice that do not show shields once. I haven't posted him yet. Soon, though...

Brandon

[Poseidon's trident]

Originally Posted by The B.I.V.

Hmmm...let me think...

No, Nyss, He's not super huge. I just gave him really good stats. I did make a Troll that's almost as big as Godzilla with a power called Gigantic: When Troll attacks or defends against small or medium figures, he may reroll all attack dice that do not show skulls and all defense dice that do not show shields once. I haven't posted him yet. Soon, though...

Brandon

If I can't have Godzilla, that Troll thing sounds cool...

[The B.I.V.]

Originally Posted by Poseidon's trident

If I can't have Godzilla, that Troll thing sounds cool...

Funny you should mention that. He's one of the prizes in my upcoming custom contest. Get designing now and you just might win... you can also catch a glimpse of him in the background in the first pic in this post.

Brandon

[Poseidon's trident]

Is it sculpt and stats because I have this really funny guy I made but I don't have stats yet? Also when is it? P.S i made my own Godzilla.

[The B.I.V.]

Sculpt and stats, but feel free to rip off the stats if it suits your fig! Contest should be around beginning of May...

Brandon

[The B.I.V.]

Added Utah NHSD recap to front page! Holy poo!!!

Brandon

[The B.I.V.]

Added Valentine's Throwdown, yo!

Brandon

[The B.I.V.]

Bumped for 2010 NHSD update!

Brandon

[killercactus]

You didn't let Braxas use PAB on your Huge Krug, did you? I assumed you meant a great attack roll....

Very nice report!