Beantown Beatdown 4 Post-Tourney Thread

[rec_thug]

It was great getting to meet several of you that to this point I’ve only ever “seen” behind a screen name and avatar. Better still was getting to see several of you that I’d gotten to meet for the first time at UConn’s Rise of the Husky tournament back in March.

First, I’d like to thank NESA and Onacara (esp. for pointing out to me that I’d won…I’d only heard the previous number while picking up from the previous round’s match) for the great door prize, Aquilla's Alliance. I support several players at my house with my collection, it will come to great use.

Second, Eckels, it was too bad we didn’t get to cross paths again (well until saying goodbyes at the end)… my army still wants vengeance upon you… I'm still looking into making it down to Long Island.

Onacara, you can rest easier now….I’m planning to retire my valorous army for the time being (though I’ve learned to play it much faster now, and only had one game that didn’t finish fast enough this time)

August, (Arp12 I think, please confirm…I really only tend to remember one name per person), it was nice meeting you. And I’m glad some of the terrain I packed in my car “just incase” (per Nyys’s suggestion/request) was able to be put to good use. You took exceptional care of it and were great at being proactive about getting it back to me literally as soon as it was no longer needed. I’ll look forward to running into you often as we each hit more tournaments.

B:T:L Matt, it was nice meeting you as well. Remember that we should work on meeting up some time…and every other week there’s a game to be had at my place. PM me some time.

Okay, so my shot at a first battle report. I’m going to shoot to keep it short, as it’s getting late an entire day later.

My army,
KoW x2
Led by Sir Gilbert and Alistair MacDirk (to add a little punch where needed)
And backed with MA 4th as the artillery.

Round 1: verses Kosta on “Death Platform” - LOSS

The map name says it all. It was a ‘death platform’. Kosta knew what he wanted, what he needed to do and did it. Honestly, the battle was practically over in the first 5-10 minutes, I was just determined to take as many points down kicking and screaming with me as I went.

He got his Krav Maga Agents up to the top most platform impossibly fast. And I fought an impossibly slow battle trying to oust them from their superb position. Every knight I tried to get to the top most level was picked off…as were most every minuteman I tried to get hidden on the middle level, under the shadow of the top level. Much to his surprise (I think) though I was able to overwhelm Nilfheim in short order when he was moved into the fray to try and oust what forces I’d been able to get out of site of the agents. I also began to pick points of Charos before he jumped into engagement and sealed my fate.

Round 2: verses Tina on “Highways & Dieways” - WIN

The was an extreme reversal of my first round. And unfortunately for Tina, she got to bear the full brunt of and on fire valorous army. My dice went extremely hot, rolling lots of whatever I needed…all the way down to a couple rounds of 4-5 Jandar symbols when rolling for Sir Gilbert’s squad movement ability. And unfortunately, her dice were just the opposite. Add to that this was one of the maps I’d actually been able to see before, and thought about how I’d have to play it... As happy as I was the my army bounced back so well from a very disappointing first round…it just sucked to have someone go down so hard at the same time.

Round 3: verses Chris/TheGuru on “Frozen Spires” - WIN

No offence to any of my other opponents, but this was easily my favorite match up of the day. Not because I’d heard of Chris/Guru for so long or anything of that nature, because I hadn’t I’ve only just started playing a little over 6ish months ago now, and have had little to no online presence. No it was just a great match up and Chris was an exceptionally congenial person to chat with as we played. He took non-competitive to the extreme, gracious with every kill AND every loss (that I can only hope to emulate as I learn/grow within this game). Really just there to have fun and play, like many of us strive for…but start to loose when it’s “on the line” across a tournament board.

Add to all that, he was playing with units I knew well (KoW x3, Raylin, Deadeye, and Sir Dupuis). Well, except for Sir Dupuis, but I’ve been starting to work out solid thoughts on how to use and deploy him. So I felt I knew just what I had to do against his army…and I knew how to do it with mine.

I deployed evenly across the start zone and showed movement in all directions off the go (or at least tried to show as such, he can only say if it read that way or no). It was a bit of a bait to see which way he was going to advance and bring the hit (KoW move so slow), so I could move my MA 4th in to counter. I sent a sacrificial knight or two wide to bog down any advancement along his left flank, and maybe get a shot at Deadeye. It worked well enough to be able to get several knights on the high ground in the center backed by Sir Gilbert to counter and jump Raylin. Then with the MA 4th in place behind them I preceded to gun down many knights and Sir Dupuis as they attempted to challenge the hill.

The rout was on. Or so I thought. I pushed the remaining knights back to the ice spires that they came through, but they broke back through my line gaining an advantage. Time ended before the ultimate resolution. This was my only timed out game, but it was a good match none the less. Thought the battle had just tipped in his favor for the moment, I have no doubt that I would have eventually won out as well. I still had reserve MA 4th on the other side of the glaciers that had yet to be able to enter the battle.

I hope none of that sounded too full of myself or what not. It was just a really great match. KoW vs. KoW got way confusing really quick, but we each quickly marked our own knights (me with wound markers, he with a black sharpie on the base) and just slugged it out. I esp. enjoyed the random good natured banter we had over the dice rolls, a random rules clarification/confirmation I had from my gaming group, and the earnest congratulatory “nice one/shot” etc. when managing to pick someone off. The whole match just rang of fun, while remaining a good test of strategy.

THANKS AGAIN
(and yes, I’m sure eventually I’ll get to PMing you with questions as they come up again…thanks)

Round 4: verses “T” (Tbone) on “Foxtrot” - WIN

This was a match up that could have gone either way. I was a little surprised by his aggressive use of Mimring off the start, moving him all the way out to get a shot on one of my knights, which quickly lead to my knights jumping him, and the MA 4th getting 4 shots at attack four. Ultimately leading to Mimring’s quick demise.

He countered with a squad of Microcorp Agents, with height, that proceeded to pick off just about everything that could get near his end of the board. It was surprising just how many things got gunned down by his agents and their slightly superior range. I was tempted to withdraw back to my end of the board, feeling that I still have the points advantage, but it would be close by that point (Mimring is only 150 after all). Instead I made the decision to press on. I spread out my troops so he couldn’t get a shot on all of them, and just ran for it. His Sentinels got in the way, but I brought Alistair up to help with them. By that point I’d fought my way to equal height with his agents and their guns were not much use. And things went down hill quick for him from there. I boxed it his remaining forces, making sure to get multiple knights on Iskra (so if she tried to flee each of them would get multiple swings on her) and systematically wiped them out one after another. Turning what had started to seem like what would be a frustratingly futile loss into a solid victory.

Round 5: verses Nyphot on “Road Rampage” – LOSS

Let me just start by saying that Jonathan was a fine opponent and gracious winner…but this game can be described as nothing but a slaughter. Simply put it was because I couldn’t roll anything for anything (as the pendulum swings both ways….it was like vengeance for round 2 against Tina). “5 dice, block one skull”….nah, “okay the guy next to him”…nah, Okay we’ll try attacking, 4 dice…no skulls, 4 dice….no skulls, 4 dice…one skull (3 shield block it), and just to add insult to injury I had more rounds than I can count where Gilbert rolled 0 Jandar symbols (though they popped up all the time when attacking/defending). Really the only reason I did half as well as I did was that I was able to reap vengeance upon the AE (that dropped on the first turn and blew up a squad’s worth of guys with ONE skull on ONE grenade) and then avenge Braxis’s slaying of Sir Guilbert by jumping him with what knights I still had remaining (thankfully he ended up only having the dumby marker left on him at that point).

Again, he was a great opponent…my dice just abandoned me. I’ll give you a better fight next time!


Oh well, so much for keeping this short.

Again, it was a good time. My friend (Cards) and I had a great time. And I for one am looking forward to coming back next year.