SoCal Slaughter NHSD Battle Reports

[boom]

Hey SoCal, list your battle reports here. Tell us your army, who you faced and what army they used, and how well you did .

I played the tourny with:

4 x Marro Stingers
Nilfheim
RotV Raelin
Dumuteff Guard
Isamu

GAME 1 vs. Corey (0-0) on Flash Fire

Corey's Army:

Agent Skahen
Krav Maga Agents
Alastair McDirk
3x Knights of Weston (I believe that's it?)

Corey is a fairly new player, but he did all the little stuff right by denying me height in melee and postioning his army well. Fortunately, I did well with my "stinger drain" rolls and was sometimes on height raining down 5 attack per stinger. His agents were tough to take down, but the stingers thinned it enough that Nilf was able to mop up quickly. Win!

GAME 2 vs Redhorseman (1-0) on Arctic Divide

Red's Army:

DW9000
Zettian Guards
The Warden
Deathreavers
Cyprien Esenwein
Sonya Esenwein

I knew Redhorseman had chilling touched another Nilf in his first round win and loathed seeing that best run-rampant through my army, taking wounds but getting them back from my tightly-packed stingers. Luckily, he brought out DW9000 and the guards first. A lucky hit on DW cost Red some order markers, so I was able to freely fire on the guards without much repercussion. I kept most of my advance stingers under Raelin's aura, definitely helping them in the long run. I lost a few, but was able to finally take out the guards, rats and the Warden. Nilf did most of the damage to the rats and guards. Cyprien entered the fray, took a few wounds, but like I feared, he bulked back up on the soft stingers away from Raelin. And, sure enough, he chilling touched Nilf with a 19 .

The sheer number of my stingers finally put him away, but it was touch and go for a while there. A good showing by Red, who is new to the group. Win!

GAME 3 vs. hivelord's pop (2-0) on Embattled Fen

hivelord's pop's army:

Syvarris
Kelda
Major Q10
Charos

The battle of the dragons! hp brought Syvarris running on the road and zapped a couple of stingers before I could position Raelin. As luck had it, I was able to deal Syv a couple of wounds and noticed all the order markers on him. I ran a stinger or two down the road and started plinking Q10 who was still in the starting zone. Some rough die rolls prevented hp's Syv from really tearing up 2 stingers per turn and when he finally got some orders on the Major, he was down to 1 wound. Kelda couldn't help and the Major was terminated. A slightly wounded Charos came flying up the road. A couple of stingers were lost to counterstrike, but some lucky drains and Nilf's ice-shard special eventually brought the big guy down.

hivelord's pop was undefeated coming into this round and is an EXCELLENT sport. He makes you hate yourself for beating him, but it had to be done . Great game, D. Win!

GAME 4 vs. Detrimentalman (3-0) on Embattled Fen

D-Man's army:

Marcus
Raelin
Airborne Elite
Roman Legion x2
10th Reg x2

D-Man is an excellent player, and I knew I'd have to really watch my p's and q's in this game. He got the AE to drop on the first round; not a great start for me. Fortunately, there is no obvious height in Embattle Fen to really dominate my starting zone, so I was saved from a grenade party to start the game. Things started off well for me, as Nilf was able to finish off the AE, 4 romans and 3 10th Reg before he was finally brought down. I had lost some stingers, but also put some wounds on Marcus. D-Man had a strong position, with the middle of the road clogged w/ 10th reg around Raeling. I had a nice opportunity to put some hurt on him with 3 stingers, but rolled a 4 for the drain. Well, down the drain it went from there. A "stand and fire" round blew those three away and D-Man's strong center position dominated the rest of the way. I never got Raelin in a good position to support an attack, so my happy beginning had a sad ending. Well deserved win for Detrimentalman. Loss!

GAME 5 vs Corey again (3-1) on Ember Canyon

As I had said before, Corey is a newer player. Well, he apparently became a seasoned veteran after 3 games because he started by handing me my head . Blast away at his Agents; 1 shield always rolled. Dance around w/ Nilf on his side of the map, killing stuff here and there? Yup, he nailed him pretty quick too. It was coming down to my Raelin, Isamu and 2 stingers vs. his remaining 2 agents, Skahen and 2 knights. Isamu earned a bonus as he knocked of the knights before croaking himself. One stinger got Skahen from height, before his surving agent shot him down. Just a few minutes to go, and 1 stinger left on the canyon walls staring down an agent on the road. Success, a failed Stealth Dodge roll. Win!

Corey, sheesh, that dude raised my blood pressure. He saved the agents at least a dozen times and played his army on a difficult map w/ surprising agression. That squeaker turned out to be a big win, as it got me second place in the tourney when the final tally was made. Win!

Final results: 4-1 and a second place finish with a 14 strength of schedule.

A huge pleasure meeting and playing against all the folks, old and new.

[Roland]

I was running my Marro swarm, which had been thought up 30 minutes before leaving, luckily I love me the Marro!

Su Bak Na
4x Drones
3x Stingers

My first match was against SlikkRikk on Ticalla Sunrise. IIRC he was running.
Nilf
Cyprien
Sonia
Marro Warriors
Isamu
He rushed out with his warriors who were quickly dispatched by my Stingers, but Nilf had snuck around the back and was firing away at my 'cannon fodder' as it was called. A few lucky shots at a very suprised Cyprien led to his demise, and Sonias wounds before he got a chance for activation. Nilf did his damage, rendering much of my army dead, but Su Bak Na flew out and dispatched the dragon. I had a wounded SBN and 2 drones left to take out Isamu and Sonia, the drones ran in and were taken out easily by the ninja, but it was too little to late for the modge podge army.
A very fun, very close win!
(1-0)

Game two was against Hivelord on Flash Fire who had
Q9
Krav
TKN
Nagrubs x 1

The krav rushed my starting zone and quickly took out more than half my force, I was not rolling well against them at all and abandoned the cause to try and achieve more point loss for him. Q9 was taken out quickly, before any damage could really be done, but TKN took out the remnants of my army. It was a quick, horrid loss for me.

(1-1)

Game 3 was against Xotli on Road Rampage who had
Skahen
Nakitas
Laglor
and 2 or 3x G'nators

Skahen and Laglor ran to the bridge to be stopped by a pair of stingers before ascending the final step, after a few turns of trading shots both Skahen and Laglor had fallen with minimal casualties to the stingers. The G'Nators and Nakits followed up next, much to the same strategy, after all the stingers fell the drones came out, and were not doing as well as there ranged brethren, SBN made the final appearance to wipe the rest of the Vydarian army.

Xotli was not rolling well at all, and my dice were hot, the matchup was very one sided.

(2-1)

Next match was against Peter, a newer player with some quirks in his matchups. We were on Embattled Fen.
Q9
Nakitas
Krav
Imperium
I believe was his army.

Q9 wiped the floor with me. 'nuff said. Though I did manage to take out most the imperium, Krav and Nakitas, and wound Q9 3 times it was not enough.
(2-2)

My final round was against Hextr1p, once again on Road rampage.
3x10th
1xrats
Raelin
Nilf

Once again I stormed the bridge with my stingers to create a blockade, Raelin fell quickly and my attention turned to the rats and 10th, the stingers did a lot of damage before falling to Nilfheim.
(3-2)

Overall I did well enough to grab Imax's dice tower thanks to everyone ahead of me having other priorities, which made the entire day worth it!

Edit: Looking back, I rolled for drain almost evry time and only lot 5 stingers the entire day, thanks to Su Bak Na who saved them on a few rolls of 4!

[boom]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Roland again.

Alright, good to hear about some other battles. Sounds like your first game was the tightest.

[Roland]

Actually boom, they were all really close, I ended up with over 400 VP on both losses, and I believe my opponents got the same.

[SlikkRikk]

Good reads guys! My turn.

I ran with:

Nilfheim
Cyprien
Krav
Marro Warriors
Sonya
Isamu

I used this army at the tune-up to NHSD a month ago and enjoyed playing with it. With the variety of armies and maps I was sure to face I wanted to find an army that would be capable of handling anything. In doing that, I might have been foolish not to have any bonding but what the heck, it's fun to play and unpredictable to say the least!

Round 1 - Roland

Round 1 was detailed above in a nice summary by Roland. Really enjoyed playing the Marro army which is probably one of my Top 5 favorites to play. Nilfheim had a shot to take out Su-Bak-Na and the final Stinger in the last frame but chose to go the safe route and destroy the final Stinger. That turned out to be his demise as SBN came in with the 7 dice. No problem going down to this guy -- I think I have developed a mancrush on Roland and his awesomeness. When those Stingers roll well they roll WELL!

Record: 0-1

Round 2 - Oogie

I've been looking forward to playing Oog in a tournament setting and this was it! IIRC he was running:

Q9
Nilf
Deathreavers x2
Kelda
... and something I totally forget

We were on Swamp Thing and boy did it take us forever to reach each other. We each kinda held our main guns back while we tried to traverse across the board into a good situation. He took out the Krav pretty quickly as I recall with some nice rolls but the Marro Warriors had height and managed to hold off the fray long enough to lure Nilf out of hiding. Oog moved Nilf down to the main battlezone and was immediately surrounded. That was Cyprien's chance to swoop in and deal the damage on the dragon that ended in his demise.

Q9 made quick work of the Marro Warriors and at this point my Nilf was ready to emerge from the shadows and try to take down the fearsome robot. Earlier in the battle the Krav had wounded Q9 but Kelda had always managed to "stick the key in" and recharge his batteries. Nilf couldn't reach him for the 6 attack so he ducked around a tree and blew some ice at Q9. What followed was my moment of the tournament as the following exchange occured:

Nilfheim's Ice Shard Blast -
Q9's defense roll w/ height -

When Oog and I picked our jaws up off the map it was pretty much over. Was a really fun and memorable game! So far NHSD was living up to its reputation.

Record: 1-1

Round 3 - Robbdaman

It was a pleasure to meet this guy and see his repaints. Holy cow those things are even more impressive in person! Amazing work.

Robb's army was:

Zelrig and his MAJESTIC fires!
Zetacron
Stingers of multiple amounts
Eldgrim

It was my first time playing on Embattled Fen and I didn't know what to expect. Knowing I was facing Zelrig and his Emperor ways I spread my guys out and led with the Marro Warriors on the long road and Krav on the opposite side. The Warriors tried to get a few wounds on Zelrig but I quickly learned that was kind of pointless. With markers stacked on Zelrig I tried to lure him closer to Cyprien and luckily Robb bit.

What followed was the most shocking succession of rolls I've ever had in a game of HS. Cyprien swooped in with a 20 to take out Zelrig and then proceeded to take out and feed on several Stingers as well. I overextended him a bit, but by the time the vamp bit the dust he had taken out most of Robb's team.

And, as I told you then, Robb, that would be the extent of my luck for the day! Used it all up!

Record: 2-1

Round 4 - Jared

Jared had a Highland Fury army going that I was scared of because I love running Highland Fury myself!

MacDirk x2
Alastair
Finn
Q9

This one started out real slow as Jared ran Finn and Q9 out first while I countered with Krav and Marro. I think there must have been four straight rounds that consisted of Krav and Q9 shooting at each other to no avail. Nilfheim had to show his ugly face to get the job done, finally. What I neglected to realize was that he still had his main force in the starting zone.

If I had played this again I would have moved Nilf up there and sprayed ice all over the MacDirk's and won. Instead, I chose to zoom up to Alastair with Cyprien and, probably still overconfident from his results in the previous game, used Chilling Touch. Well, that was the beginning of the end! Cyprien was taken out rather quickly by the swarm of boosted MacDirks, and I paid the price! A good game to a very good player.

Record: 2-2

Round 5 - Hivelord

Hivelord and I were both 2-2 going into the final round. I knew that with a few different decisions here and there down the line I could have been 4-0 or 0-4. That shows the talent that was playing today!

Hivelord had:

Q9
Tor-Kul-Na
Krav
Nagrubs
Isamu

We were playing Ticalla Sunrise. Hivelord was VERY aggressive right from the start with the Krav and I had no idea it was coming. It worked very well too as he managed to take out some of the Krav, Cyprien, and a few hits on my Dragon. Then he swooped in out of nowhere with Isamu and dealt some damage. Props to Hivelord for showing me how good Isamu can be.

By the time I got rid of Isamu and the Krav I was ready to be taken out. But watch out! Nilfheim had carried me most of the day and he was starting to do the same now. Swooping in on Q9 he took him out relatively quick. All of a sudden Nilfheim had the opportunity to bring himself and the Marro Warriors onto Tor-Kul-Na in Hivelord's start zone. Again, it came down to a few dice rolls and a wrong decision or two but, in the end, Hivelord prevailed with a wounded TKN.

Record: 2-3

Every guy I faced and pretty much every person there was a blast to hang out with. I wish I could have stayed longer into the day but parent duties called. It was just great getting out there and I'm looking forward to another one the next chance I can get!

MANY THANKS again to Boom and Oog for setting this thing up. Many thanks to GB and Truth for the prize support. Everything worked flawlessly and I had a great time!

[Detrimentalman]

Okay here it goes; I sat down and built about 6 armies over a month ago. I quickly dropped a lot of the fun ones and ultimately set about trying to tweak an army that could take out a Q9/blastatron army. My main fear in this tournament was that there would be quite a few Q9s and I wanted a way to take him out and still be flexible to other kinds of assaults.

Marcus (movement and attack buff (soldiers) with bonding)
Me-Burq-Sa (quick rush on key fig. like DED or krav, bonding)
Roman Legion (melee buffer, bonding, 6 defense when positioned right)
2x 10th (combo melee and range, soldier)
AE (surprise element, soldier)
Raelin (support low defense)

The way this army works is that I had the AE (in theory) to take out a figure like Q9. Meanwhile, I have some slight melee buffer that bonds with both marcus and MBS. Marcus gives movement to all the soldiers so my 10th have a little more mobility and he also gives +1 attack. Which means that with height, marcus, and stand/fire my 10th fires 4 shots of 5 at 6 range (backup Q9 killer). Raelin helps with all of the units relatively low defense, the key is keeping her in good position.

Next time I really need to remember writing down armies...here is my battle report as close as I can recall.

ROUND 1
Sylvarustheruler @ lava map
Q9
Sonlen
Krav
Raelin
Two 10pt ninjas

I dropped my AE on the first try and proceeded to take out raelin and major Q9 within the first round (pretty sure both went down, maybe finished of in second). Regardless it was the AE on height that did it. The two ninjas died trying to make it down the canyon. When he brought the krav up they were outranged most of the time and the buff from raelin (moved her up to cover the hill first turn) prevented me losing troops. After a frustrating two turns with the AE with no result, I rolled the legionnaires along with subakna down the road to meet them. Subakna got off one stare and it was quickly down to one krav and sonlen. The 10th rushed down the road to meet the resistance with bayonets ready and finished off the army.

ROUND 2
Alise @ lava map again
I can’t remember exactly, but basically all melee ninja/samurai army.

I dropped the AE on the second try. With the canyon in the middle it was basically just one long shooting gallery and only a few samurai made it through the gauntlet only to meet 10th with height, wait and fire, raelin and marcus buffs so they went down fast. I actually lost more figures to lava rolls then anything. She just couldn’t reach me with melee. I have to say it might have been rougher on a more flat map; she pulled a few tricks with order markers that surprised me.

ROUND 3
Hex @ I dunno (Roads with trees mixed all over)
3x 10th
Nilf
Raelin
Rats
(maybe a ninja, cant remember)

A 10th paradise with 5 sets on the board. I dropped the AE first and went first for a quick raelin kill and wounding Nilf. I proceeded to finish Nilf off by the second round. From there it was a match between 10th with raelin and usually height. I used the legion as a screen with subakna taking shots (marcus got no play) and I think I got two stares off. Basically, by getting a drop on Hex’s raelin and Nilf I think I really shook up Hex’s strategy. After Nilf went down my buffed troops vs his non-buffed ones really made a difference. I think Hex was a little too cautious with wait and fire, sometimes doing so with only 2 shots. As a general rule I think it is more important to move at that point, because what happened was he allowed me time to get my troops in a formation to where I could run under raelins aura and then wait and fire next turn with 3-4 shots. If I hadn't got that lucky drop then nilf probably would have been more devastating...as he was in the next battle.

ROUND 4
Boom @ fen
3x Stingers
Raelin
Nilf
Red ninja
Dumteff

I have to say this was the game that gave me the biggest run for my money. I really had to come back from the grave and just managed to do so. I dropped the AE immediately, but on embattled fen there was no great place to but them. I tried to get a good run on nilf, but boom made some good saves. Before I knew it he was up on me taking out troops right and left. The first major turn in the game took place when I moved the legion with Marcus as a buff up on nilf and set up the 10th to fill in the gap. Boom did not remember the extra move when counting and my 10th regiment went in two waves to charge him down with bayonets and marcus buffing them. Finally he went down, but I was left with only 5 10th, raelin, subakna, and a wounded Marcus against his mass of stingers with raelin.
Fortunately boom was a little rash and did not reposition raelin. Instead the stingers rushed forward into a meat grinder as I shot them with often height, marcus, and stand and fire. The second major turn was a stinger fail that could have been game changing with buffed shots on raelin. The key to this win was patience and using my auras effectively.

ROUND 5
Peter @Fen
Q9
Krav
Nakita
Einar birds

So this was probably the most aggravating and satisfying game of the day. Peter's army was going to be ridiculously hard to beat considering the match up. I dropped my AE first try placed them up front in position, praying for a chance at Q9. Well I win initiative WOOHOO and lookdown DOH, I set the markers wrong. All three were on the 10th. I asked Peter to recognize the error and give me a break, to even reroll initiative and I felt it was pretty obvious that nobody would place the AE like that and just leave them there. However, peter said no and that set the tone for our game. I can’t fault him it was a perfectly legal call and probably won him the game, but it made things very tense.
Forced to use the 10th I tried to position myself as best as possible as Q9 quickly ate my AE up. Luckily peter placed 1 marker on each card which meant that it wasn’t the complete disaster it could have been. I was able to move my 10th up with bayonets and took out two of the nakita and put a wound or two on Q9. I did not however remind peter of any leaving engagements or a few possible nakita strikes because I felt the gloves had to come off. I threw in my legion to delay Q9 as I scrambled to try and get my 10th into position. The rest of the game was full of fruitless attacks at Q9 and krav, but I managed to bring the game down to Marcus vs a nakita and krav. Unfortunately for me, the dice rolls came down poorly with many whiffs on my part. I don't know how I pulled this off, but I do know that it involved mistakes and some tricky engagements to save me from Q9's Quigley. Peter took the win, but I didn't feel like I lost considering the handicap of losing the AE like I did and the army I was fighting.


CONCLUSION
I was right about most armies using one large figure like Q9 or Nilf (fought 2 of each) backed up by range squads. My AE performed almost perfectly, I usually drop them within 3 rounds and this time they all came in 1st or 2nd. The first two maps were largely in my favor with the AE, but at least with sylvaris there were tactical choices like when to use the legion and 10th that made a difference. The last three I did not really like for my army, especially fen. I think my army’s synergy played a large role in being successful. By planning ahead of time my heroes were constantly making the 10th stronger then their point value which I think is really devastating 4 shots of 6 range is already strong, but fully buffed (6move, up to 5attack, up to 5melee) is insane. It does no good to put raelin in your army if you are not able to keep your units within range of her and having bonding meant moving marcus into position was not a waste order marker (with the option of running subakna out for any openings)

[boom]

Great write-up, D-Man. You hit the nail on the head with our game; I really blew my slim chances by failing to get Raelin in there to help. I felt like I couldn't waste an order marker on her to move her up and needed to get my stingers to you. In hindsight, one order marker to move her up 4 to 6 hexes might have made a world of difference, and maybe even tempted you to shoot at her, leaving me a couple stingers when I needed them . Ah, what are you gonna do. It was a good game.

[Detrimentalman]

Yeah, that fear of moving her too far forward or wasting a turn order is always really big with raelin. Sometimes there never seems to be any time to move her forward. I always think a first order marker is good in the start, but once other classes are in range I would say a third works well because you have her moved forward and potentially win innitiative and get to move the units up under her defense for support.

[BIGJIM]

Alright! Alright! Like most of you my time of gaming was fun and sorry I did not get to play everyone but fun times in all. I will give a quick account of what happen for my memories of the blow by blow battle is at bit fuzzy...
I ran...
Q10
Raelin [ROTV]
Brunak
Stinger x 3
Isamu
Otunashi

1st Opponent was Peter and had never had the opportunity to battle him before so didn't know what to expect. He came out hard and fast my stinger failed measurable on the roll for stinger drain and he petty much wipe me out. I don't remember what he ran ,mind is fuzzy.



2nd Opponent I believe was Syvarris the Ruler and the one thing I do remember with is army was how close Q9 and Raelins was, almost inseparable. Those two took the high ground and would not move. My satisfaction was advancing Isamu and giving Syvarris fits with the D20 saves that Isamu was able to make, he became a thorn in Syvarris side but luck could hold on for so long and the victory was his.


3rd was Xotli and as with Syvarris it was close. Again Isamu was giving Xotli fits with his save and able to do damage to Laglor. I thought for one fleeting moment I might pull it off but even with the 2 wound remaining on Laglor but low and behold my saving throw fail me and now i am down 0-3.


4th was with Xotli son SSX. Now this young person when all said and done will be one fine Heroscaper. We complaintment each other during our game.If I miss something he would tell me and I in turn helped him.
For a little person his knowledge of each character put me to the test. Unfortunately my only win came against him and it was not easy. Along with Q10 his hoard of Zombie became a pain. To my luck and unfortunately for SSX my stinger drain with height came to life and dealt death on the playing field. My Q10 and Brunak just kicked back and victory finally came to me at the cost against a great player, thanks for the game SSX.


5th and final game of the day and my luck of the draw was Syvarris the ruler. You think knowing what he would be running would help but nooooooo...! Brunak and Q10 couldn't make their saves to save their lives and his Q9 just ripped my 2 ninja apart. Now like in my last game the Stinger drain came to life and started ripping into Q9 but with Raelin in Q9 back pocket his made his save every time. change targets to Raelin but noooooo Q9 rip into my Stinger and as always I blanked on my save. Victory to Syvarris.

No matter how ,who or what I really enjoyed this NHSD and really look forward to our next meeting.

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Detrimentalman

CONCLUSION
I was right about most armies using one large figure like Q9 or Nilf (fought 2 of each) backed up by range squads. My AE performed almost perfectly, I usually drop them within 3 rounds and this time they all came in 1st or 2nd. The first two maps were largely in my favor with the AE, but at least with sylvaris there were tactical choices like when to use the legion and 10th that made a difference. The last three I did not really like for my army, especially fen. I think my army’s synergy played a large role in being successful. By planning ahead of time my heroes were constantly making the 10th stronger then their point value which I think is really devastating 4 shots of 6 range is already strong, but fully buffed (6move, up to 5attack, up to 5melee) is insane. It does no good to put raelin in your army if you are not able to keep your units within range of her and having bonding meant moving marcus into position was not a waste order marker (with the option of running subakna out for any openings)

It's amazing how much damage the AE can do if they win initiative, no matter when in the game they drop. 4 attacks of 4 right off the bat can mess up anyone's strategy at any time.

Major props for your finish here - I love your army. At 500 points, I used to be a big fan of playing Marcus, AE, Romans x2, MBS, 4th Mass x2. Your army is basically the same, but with the much better 10th and more defense - freakin awesome.

I also love your inclusion of just one squad of Romans. People frown on just one common squad, but having that squad in there basically allowed you to put an Order Marker on Marcus and MBS at the same time, and deciding which one to move. Fantastic - +rep.

[Detrimentalman]

Thanks Cactus, I would probably agree with most about the common squads except for cases of bonding which change things imo.

[jkqcc]

Whoops went on the wrong thread