Beantown Beatdown III Post Tourney Thread

[Pilgrim]

Just wanted to get the post-tourney thread started. Will post later myself. Let the banter begin . . . . .

And yes, I brought Zombies X 8, and Marcu

Group shot with labels:

[S.Gecko]

Phenomenal tourney! A huge kudos out to Pilgrim and OPrime for putting on a great event. My son and I all had a great time and are looking forward to the next one.

Seriously fun.

[GeneralBeaner]

I was able to come! But alas, my parents, at the last second, put me on babysitting duty, while they went out to a friend's house.

By the way, are there any pics going to be posted anywhere? I'd love to see them.

[Oprime]

quick notice

I ended up with a large purple 20 sider and a small aqua/green one with yellow numbers + 5 hs white dice in my stuff...pm me if they are yours.

I believe I know whos they may be as they were in a drawer of terrain where a match was being played, so just lemme know and ill bring em next time

[Oprime]

A few people were camera wielding so pics forthcoming.

And Asmiles I believe will be posting the final ranks.

Congrats to Bobbo , the new ruler of beatown beatdown!

[Uprising]

Great Tourney guys. It was my first and I had a blast. I'm down for another one anytime.

EDIT:

I'll try and remember as much as I could.

My Army consisted of 4x Anubian Wolves, Khosumet, Marcu, Iskra and the Rechets. My plan was just for a straight forward fast assault. Everyone on my team had a movement of at least 6 so I thought it would work out pretty good.

I went 2-2 so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

Game 1 loss was against Ian - Nilfheim, SOTM Drake, Kaemon Awa, Dumutef.

Nilfheim and Kaemon rocked my army. I managed to take out Drake and Nilfheim, but lost every guy on my team.

Game 2 win was against Oprime - Kiova, Imperium x2, Isamu, Kaemon Awa

The dice gods were with me this game as I was able to Poison Sting Kiova in the the beginning of the game and dropped the survival rate of his Imperium by quite a bit. After that it was a hack-fest back and forth until his troops were gone. It was a pleasure playing Oprime.

Game 3 win was against Tbone(Tchop?) - Raelin, Minions, Omnicron Snipers, Kozuke Samurai, Ninjas of the North Wind.

This was a really fun game. We kept going back and forth but I think my numbers just over came his. His Snipers and Samurai killed quite a bit of my army until I was able to finish him off.

Game 4 loss was against Gaara I think - Q9, Krug, Raelin, Kelda, Arrow Gruts.

This was the worst defeat I've ever experienced in a game of Heroscape since I bought it in 05'. The map was this insane map with a high cliff on each side and water in the middle. You had to cross the water to get to the other side unless you had flyers. I had 5 fliers, none of them really strong enough to take out Q9, but I had to try it anyway. Gaara placed his Q9 and Raelin/Kelda combo perfectly in the opening rounds. I was able to summon the Rechets and together with Iskra and Marcu they flew from their cover and surrounded Q9. He was rolling with a 9 D due to Realin but I managed to wound him twice I think. Kelda healed him back to his starting quota and Big Daddy started his massacre. I managed to kill of Kelda but by that time it was too late. After Q9 took out the Vampire posse, he place himself on high ground right above the ravine and smoked about 10 Wolves. For pity's sake Gaara marched Krug and the Arrow Gruts down and took out the last 2 Wolves and Khosumet. I killed Kelda and two Arrow Gruts which were pretty much pity kills. That map was made by Satan. Either way I got smoked.

[ramsfan80]

My Beatown Beatdown Battle Report (4-1)

My army consisted of:

Nilfheim
3x 4th Mass
Morsbane


MATCHUP 1

Opponent's Army- Braxas, Charos, 2x Rats

It seemed pretty obvious that my opponent's plan would be to tie up my ranged units with the rats, send in Braxas to take out my squads, and then send in Charos for cleanup against any one Braxas couldn't poison.

He lead off the game advancing his rats which was exactly as I expected and I lead off by advancing my 4th Mass and getting them some elevation. With his rats close to in place he began to advance Braxas. I had placed my 3rd turn marker on Morsbane in an attempt to neutralize the dreaded black dragon. With a move of 5 and a range of 6, Morsbane can threaten significant portion of the battlefield. After he had taken his movement I was able to get sight on Braxas and rolled for his Rod of Negation.....19! This negation in ROund 1 basically handed me the game. With Braxas negated he now had no ranged units and I systematically took out Braxas who now only had 1 attack and the rats. Once they were gone I met Charos towards the middle of the map and he was obviously no match for 2+ squads of 4th Mass and Nilfheim. The game was basically over after Round 1, this game Morsbane pretty much handed me the win.

Record (1-0)

Matchup 2

Opponents's Army- (Q9, X17, 2x Gladitrons, 1x Blastatrons)

My initial plan this game was to go after the Blastatrons. Having only 1 squad of them if I could take them out or kill mst of them early it would greatly limit the usefulness of the Gladitrons. Other than that Q9 was the obvious target since he is always a huge threat


The game began by my opponent beginning to move forward his blastatrons and I began to move my 4th Mass into position. With my 3rd order marker I advanced towards Q9 and attempted to negate him but rolled a 5 and the round ended. The next round I placed my 1st 2 order markers on Morsbane and my 3rd on Niflheim. With my 1st turn that round I attempted for his Rod of Negation.... 17! Q9 was now negated, yes he still had his 8 range/4 attack/7 defense but without his multiple attacks his drops from insane to merely very good. Soon after that Morsbane died but it did not matter to me since he had accomplished his task. Nilfheim managed to kill 1 or 2 blastatrons which greatly reduced their threat but then was killed in 2 or 3 attacks by Major X17. Down to only 1 attack, Q9 was overwhelmed by the 4th Mass as opposed to blowing away the opposition like usual. This left my opponent with only a few random squad figures and X17, 2 figures that were little threat to the 4th Mass who soon killed the remaining figures.

Record (2-0)

MATCHUP 3


Opponent's Army-(Q9, Raelin, Kelda, Krug, 1x Arrow Gruts)

My plan in this game was to target Raelin and Kelda and to then take down Q9.

The match began with me positioning my 4th Mass while my opponent began to advance his army. I moved out my Morsbane and targeted his Q9. My 1st roll missed and I proceded to take 4 wounds from Q9 when he retaliated (My Morsbane was attacked by 3 attacks of 3 and did not manage a single shield on any of the attacks). The next round I used his Rod of Negatin again.......14 - so close yet so far. On the following turn another lack of shields meant it was a short battle for Morsbane. I then flew in my Nilfeim do dish out some damage with his 6 attack dice. 1st turn I rolled my 6 dice attack....2 skulls. 2nd turn I rolled my 6 dice attack....2 skulls. 3rd turn I roll for my 6 dice attack.....2 skulls. The lack of skulls and being unable to win any initiatives (lost 7 in a row) meant death for the White Dragon. Overall Nilfheim was only able to take out Kelda and 1 arrow grut, almost all of his attacks unfortunately produced hardly any skulls. After Nilfheim went down I was able to kill another Swog, get 7 wounds on Krug, and hit Raelin a little, but poor dice rolls and Q9s multi attacks let him take out my remaining 4th Mass.

Record (2-1)

MATCHUP 4

*My 3rd Consecutive Battle vs an Opponent with Q9

Opponent's Army- (Q9, Laglor, Krav, Ninjas of North Wind)

My plan in this game was to take out Q9, then Laglor, then mop up the remaining figures.

This was probably the single craziest game of Heroscape that I have played. His 1st turn he advanced Laglor while I advanced my 4th Mass. On his next 2 turns he took out his Krav and boosted by Laglor he was able to hit units of mine that were only 5 spots out of my starting zone. A bad omen was set when the 1st time he attacked me his Krav wiped out 3 4th Mass in a single turn. My next round I advanced Mosbane to neutralize his Q9. 2 consecutive rounds I attempted, and 2 rouns in a row I failed. The next turn he was killed. The next round I was able to kill 1 Krav with my 4th Mass and then began to fly Nilfheim into the action. He took 2 wounds approaching but then was able to get adjacent to 2 Krav and Laglor-a perfect scenario for Nilfheim's special attack. Nilfheim attacks the 1st Krav..1 skull which was blocked. Nilfheim attacks the 2nd Krav....1 skull which was blocked. Nilfheim attakcs Laglor....1 skull which was blocked. The next turn the 2 adjacent Krav attacked Nilfheim, each gave him 2 wound and he was dead without killing or damaging a single figue and putting me at a 355-33 disadvantage (33 points for the 1 killed Krav). With no option left I advanced my 4th Mass. The next round 1 4th Mass killed a Krav and the other 3 attacked Q9, 2 got blocked but my 3rd roled 4 skulls vs Q9s 1 shield, knocking him down to 1 life and swinging the balance of the game. The next round another 4th Mass member rolled 4 skulls to which Q9 rolled 2 shields, thereby killing him. Laglor responded by killing 1 or 2 4th Mass but was cut down by the 4th Mass Wait and Fire. My 4th Mass then marched towards his Ninjas and quickly wiped out 2 while only losing 1 figure. This left me with 4 4th Mass vs 1 Ninja at which point his ninja made 4 consecutive vanish rolls and killed off 3 4th Mass leaving it as a 1 vs 1. My final surviving 4th Mass member engaged the ninja and rolled 3 skulls, the nija finally failed his roll and managed only 2 shields, therby ending the game.



Record (3-1)

I ended with a 3-1 record in the official tournament. I had 3 complete wins but finished only 9th on points because in my 1 loss I scored poorly.


MATCHUP 5 - REMATCH

*4th Consecutive Battle vs a Q9 (1 large reason why I did not want to play him)

After the tournament, I rechallenged the only person that had defeated me
(They ended up in 2nd Place), confident that this time things would go differently.

The battle began with him advancing with Q9 while I positioned my 4th Mass. After moving out my minutemen I advanced with Morsbane. At the end of Round 1 Morsbane rolled for the Rod of Negation....5 I then put the first 2 order markers for round 2 on Morsbane so he could go after the Metal Giant. On my 1st turn I roll for the Rod of Negation.....20!! My opponent expressed dismay at Q9 being negated, when I pointed out to him that actually his full heal Q9 had just been destroyed. With Q9 being dead the rest of his army was in trouble. I then proceeded to kill his 3 arrow gruts, Raelin, and Kelda with Nilfheim. This left basically his Krug with a handful of wounds vs my entire army minus a couple 4th Mass and Morsbane. The prizes soon began being handed out and he conceeded with the outcome clearly decided.

Record (4-1)

Army Performance/Analysis

Morsbane-A+

He was a last minute addition to my army and he was amazing. Morsbane was clearly my star performer and likely won me 3 out of my 5 battles by himself ( Negating Braxas, Auto Killing Q9, Negating a different Q9) . Most tournament armies have expensive heroes and even with only 2 Rod attempts he has almost a 50% success rate-3 attempts makes it almost a 60% success rate- which is amazing for often a game changing affect.

4th Mass- B+

They did very well. In Match 1 they basically took down CHaros and and crippled Braxas. In Match 2 they took down Q9 and X17. In match 3 they were nothing special although they did put 7 wounds on Krug, wounded Raelin, and killed 3 arrow gruts. In Match 4 they basically killed the entire other team. In Match 5 they stood around while Morsbance and Nilfheim cleaned up

Nilfheim-D

Poor rolls all day ruined Nilfheim. In match 1 he put a few wounds on Braxas/Charos but quickly died. In Match 2 he took out 2 Blastatrons which was highly useful and tied up Q9 for a few rounds but that was it. X17 clobbered him and again he quickly died. In match 3 he couldn't roll more than 2 skulls and barely killed Kelda and an Arrow Grut. In Match 4 he did not kill or wound a single figure, due primarily to constant rolls of 1 skull. In Match 5 he mopped up after Morsbane handed me the game

[mrbistro]

Originally Posted by Oprime

quick notice

I ended up with a large purple 20 sider and a small aqua/green one with yellow numbers + 5 hs white dice in my stuff...pm me if they are yours.

I believe I know whos they may be as they were in a drawer of terrain where a match was being played, so just lemme know and ill bring em next time

Those would be the property of TehFattestNinja, or rather they belong to his brother, but TehFattestNinja lost them.

Speaking of TehFattestNinja, let us never forget his contributions to the world of dubious tournament maps. My armies have a list of those who have wronged them, and entry number 284,041 is: Remember the hole.

Prime and Pilgrim: That was the most fun I've had yet. I can't believe how smoothly that ran, and the addition of the gi-normous projection screen was brilliant.

ASmiles: Your hard work really paid off today. Thank you.

Uprising: Great to finally meet you, and I look forward to you visiting in October. You have no choice in this matter.

theGuru: Thanks for the lift. Don't forget your brother's shoes in the front seat of your car.

TehFattestNinja: Best - uniform - ever.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by mrbistro

Prime and Pilgrim: ...the addition of the gi-normous projection screen was brilliant.

Originally Posted by mrbistro

TehFattestNinja: Best - uniform - ever.

I'm sure that explanations shall be forthcoming...

Jim

[mrbistro]

Originally Posted by Jim

Our host site had an enormous projection screen. ASmiles had a fantastic spreadsheet up on it which had player armies, match-ups and scores. Genius.

Originally Posted by Jim

I'm sure that explanations shall be forthcoming...

TehFattestNinja repainted his army to be Ruskies. He complemented the force with a hilarious home-made costume. I hope you'll be able to see it in the group shot.

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by mrbistro

TehFattestNinja repainted his army to be Ruskies. He complemented the force with a hilarious home-made costume. I hope you'll be able to see it in the group shot.

Personally, my favorite part of the costume was the spoon on the hat.

Yeah, it's pretty much one of those "You have to see it to believe it kind of things".

Anyways, I had a great time, and I was amazed how smoothly the thing ran. The huge projector with the scores was a great addition, and I think it couldn't have taken more than 20 minutes between each round, which is pretty darn sweet.

Oh, and special shout-out to Mosby who, because we had an odd number of kids and adults, came of age right there in front of us all and joined the adult tourney. And outscored many thrice his age (and above).

I brought:
Roman Legionaires x3
Ne-Gok-Sa
Me-Burq-Sa
Marcus Decimus Gallus
Airborne Elite
Enchanted dice of skulls rolling
Cursed D20 of initiative losing and Airborne Elite not dropping
500 points (The enchanted dice were free!)

Ok, battle reports. Pretty much, the Romans pig piled on everything they could reach and ate them.

Actually, there was more to them than that, but it's late and I had to drive a lot, so I'm a little tired. Essentially, though, the Romans pig piled on everything and ate them.

~Bobbo, who still hasn't faced a Q9 in a tourney, and suspects that has something to do with his win

********************************************************
EDIT - OK, here goes!

Ok, on the way home, I drank entirely too much caffine. This had the positive effect of getting me home alive, but the highly negitive effect of keeping me awake, and causing me to type at 600 words per minute, only half of which is legible. So I guess I'm doing the write ups now.

My Game Plan:
I really enjoy playing Romans. They bonded with the three Warlords in my army (Me-Burq-Sa, Ne-Gok-Sa and Marcus) and Marcus gives soldiers (the Romans and the Airborne) a much needed extra space to movement. Also, any soldiers adjacent to Marcus roll an extra attack die, which makes the airborne Elite sick(er) if you can get it set up right.

My basic plan every game was pretty simple. Get Marcus to a safe spot close to where I was engaging the enemy (preferably with height), and mid to late game drop the Airborne Elite in to stand next to Marcus (for the extra attack die) and start clearing the board. In order to accomplish this task, I gave the Airborne strict instrutions not to drop immediately. I was possibly a little forceful with these instructions, because they often failed to make an appearance at all. The Romans were primarily to shield Marcus and swarm the enemy, and they got 90% of my order markers throughout the entire tourney. Me-Burq-Sa always advanced up the opposite flank as Marcus, drawing the enemy (and often dying horribly in the process). Ne-Gok-Sa was a meat shield, who ran at the biggest, most expensive hero my opponent fielded and scared the begezus out of him, even though he never scored a single shackle the entire tourney.

The other benefit to my army was that every guy in it was dirt cheap. Each Roman killed netted my opponent 12.5 points. Even the heroes weren't really worth anything, with all of them worth 20 or under per wound. The Airborne Elite were the most expensive at 33 apiece, but when they dropped they were mostly in a position where nothing could hit them, so that wasn't a big deal.

I had no big attackers, since every member of the army has an attack of 3. What I lacked in large numbers I made up for in throwing lots of dice, since there were rounds with the Romans and bonding that I was attacking 5 times with 3 dice apiece. Plus, the Airborne Elite almost always shot 4 times at 4 dice. Enough of that will take down any defense, no matter how high and with how much life.

Game 1 Bobbo vs. Dave
My first game was against Dave, who may be a member here, although I don't really know. He brought:
Mimring
Braxas
Raelin
Deadeye Dan

The map was a large flatish one, with a single spaced river flowing through the center.

The Romans pressed the center, with Me-Burq-Sa going up the flank. Dave moved Raelin in the center, and flew Mimring and Braxas to meet them. Mimring fried a few Romans (he always could hit at least two, since they have to be bunched for the shield wall bonus) and on Braxas' first attempt, acid breathed Ne-Gok-Sa. Great way to start a tourney.

The Airborne dropped at the correct time, and I was able to position 2 on the high ground away from the dragons (with range on Raelin) and two hugging Marcus for the extra attack die without height. I alternated moving the Romans and the Airborne Elite. The Romans threatened the dragon's legs (puny humans!) and opened everyone up to the Elites rifles. Braxas was outside Raelin's aura and fell first to sword, spear and bullet, unable to earn back her points because of the dirt cheap troops she was forced to eat. Raelin fell second, and Mimring soon after.

Deadeye Dan attempted to assassinate Me-burq-Sa twice and failed (although one attempt was a 17 or 1 and was gunned down by the marro cowboy. Victory, with about half the Romans and Ne-Gok-Sa dead.

Learning points:
The Airborne Elite are deadly, because with Marcus they don't need height to throw 4 dice at range 8.
The drop at the right time is key. The Airborne Elite can sweep the board if everything that can shoot at them is already tied up.
I need to remember when I activate the Romans and move the Warlord, go back and move the Romans afterwards! I forgot twice this game. It wasn't a huge deal, but I probably could have engaged Braxas or even Mimring a little earlier if I'd remembered. Dave was a great sport and let me move my Romans even after he took his turn te second time I forgot, provided I let him try the Sharpshooter with Dan again. Unfortunately (for him), the second shot was a miss too.

Dave probably should have kept Braxas a space closer to Raelin to benefit from her aura, and should have made hitting the Airborne elite a priority (I left the two with height lined up for a Mimring fireline by accident early on before I saw it , but other than that he played a great game. There just weren't any large priority targets for his big dragons to hit, neutralizing their effectiveness somewhat.

MVP: Arborne Elite. Their timely arrival meant less crispy and melty Romans.
MWP (most worthless player): Ne-Gok-Sa, for biting it early.

1-0 500 points

Game 2 Bobbo vs. ASmiles
ASmiles brought:
Roborats
Minions x3
Deathwalker 8K

The map was a shorter one, with roads and water in the center, and two hills, one of which was covered in ruins and trees. The other was competely open.

ASmiles sent out his rats first, which clogged the center and the two sides. A set of Romans pushed the far hill, but ran into the Rats and sat there for fear of attacking them and causing more scatters. Luckily, Romans are almost as cheap as Rats, so I didn't have too many points sitting there worthless. After the rats, Adam sent DW8K up the center, and fired on Me-Burq-Sa. He was my only Range (My Elite didn't drop yet), and was the only threat to DW 8K's dominance of the field (due largely to the Rat screen). Adam then hit the first piece of really bad luck. DW8K scored a single wound, and Me-Burq-Sa answered brilliantly with a three skull roll that snuck through DW8Ks defenses.

All ASmiles markers went on the Minions, and the Romans ran to high ground to repel them. I decided that the chances of a Roman living through a Minion shot are pretty slim even with the Shield wall, so I spaced the Romans out to keep the minions from flying over them into Marcus in the back. The first set of Minions landed on the top of the hill and the Romans charged. Then ASmiles ran into his second set of bad luck. Two Romans rolled 3 skulls each and two Minions fell. Once that happened, he couldn't bring the force of all his Minions to bear. The one surviving Minion attacked and two more started to come up, but by the time the two could join the fight the first was dead. Instead of the Minions arriving all at once, they trickled in and were overwhelmed with Romans. The Minions killed 2 times out of 3 attacks, and the Romans about 1 kill in 5, but I was rolling a lot more times than he was. Eventally all the Minions fell, with 2/3 the Romans dead.

Then I tried to kill the rats. Have you ever tried to kill the rats with only melee rolling 3 dice? It's near impossible, and the rats killed 3 romans without minimal losses. I hid a Roman in the back of my starting area for bonding purposes, and the Heroes started attacking, although they didn't do much better. Only the timely arrival of the Airborne Elite on the last round of the game stopped the one remaining rat from squeaking out a draw. Apparently, if the Airborne Elite aren't on the table at the end of the game, they count as kills for the opponent, which seems strange to me, but whatever.

Learning Points:
You can overcome any amount of defense with 3 attack dice if you roll enough times.
Minions do the most damage when they can hit you all at once, but if the waves can be broken up, they are managable.
Killing Rats with three attack melee units is near impossible.
Twice again this game I bonded to the Warlord and forgot to go back and move the Romans! This time it actually could have mattered, since there was a Minion that needed to be smacked when I forgot. Gah!

ASmiles played a great game. If DW8K had killed Me-Burq-Sa instead of the freak counter attack, he would have had run of the board, forcing the Romans to hike up the hills and then jump into the water to attack him. Even if they had managed, they would have been in no position to counter the Minion charge. It was a game altering play where the dice just fell my way. The only thing he could have done differently was to have the second wave of Minions approach all at the same time instead of piecemeal, but that would have meant losing the attack of the Minion that was next to my Romans. He probably made the right decision.

MVP: Me-Burq-Sa for the excellent DW8K takedown. Romans, who accounted for all 9 Minions, losing most of their number.
MWP: Romans, for after their brilliant handling of the Minions, lost three of their number while killing 1 rat.

2-0 1000 points

Game 3 Bobbo vs. theGuru
theGuru brought:
Nilfheim
Raelin
Sonlen (who I had never seen before)
Shiori (also, never seen before)
Cheap ninja guy

Game 3 was on tehfattestninja's map, which everyone except for him hates with a passion. Imagine a map 8 spaces wide and 20 spaces long. At each end is a hill, that leads up to a wall. The middle of the board is no man's land, and is funneled into a hill that is three spaces wide with a little perch higher than anywhere else on the board, perfect for, lets say, a large dragon. Now imagine that you are playing a fairly slow all melee army that is expected to jump your own wall, run through the bottleneck, and over your opponents wall to get at him. Oh, and there is going to be a large, ice breathing dragon perched in the center of the board, buffed by height and Raelin.

Great...

The game started poorly for me. Me-Burq-Sa laughed as the slow piddly Romans started slogging through the snow and jumping the low wall. He quickly darted around the wall and took up position next to a glacier, protecting him from the ranged fire from the oppoents side. Perfect, except he was nicely in the LOS of the large dragon that made the center of the board his home. First attack of the game, and my only ranged is gone.

Now I have a 7 defense (+2 for Raelin, +1 for height) 6 life Nilfheim blocking the only way to get at Raelin, or anyone else for that matter. Ne-Gok-Sa takes responsibility for charging the hill apon himself. He will shackle the beast and send it back on it's former allies! He jumps the wall, and engages the dragon! And fails every shackle attempt. His Roman buddies join him and surround the beast. How do a bunch of 3 attack Romans and their 3 attack Warlord take down a 7 def 6 life dragon?

Roll a ton of dice.

Seriously, I rolled my 3 attack dice probably close to 30 times. TheGuru was worried about the shackle and so he spent a couple of rounds using his main attack on Ne-Gok-Sa, who just soaked up the damage. After 2 complete rounds (with me rolling 3-5 attacks of 3 dice each activation) the dragon fell. Go Romans! Sometime during this dice fest, the Airborne dropped behind his lines and started firing, although they didn't get Raelin or any of the others until after Nilfheim was down. Once Nilfheim fell, the extremely wounded Ne-Gok-Sa led the charge over the far wall that eventually swept the reminants from the field. Sweet victory!

Learning points:
Again, you can overcome any amount of defense with 3 attack dice if you roll enough times. Sometimes it may take 30 rolls, but you get it eventually.
The threat of a shackle is often more useful than the shackle itself.
Ne-Gok-Sa soaks damage like it's nobody's buisness.

I think TheGuru felt sorry for me. I was clearly at a disadvantage because of the board set up, and after the first couple failed attacks on Nilfheim, I dispaired of even scoring a single point. As a result, I think Theguru made some less than optimal decisions to give me a fighting chance. He admitted that he focused too much on Ne-Gok-Sa, which never got the shackle off but who soaked up 3 or 4 hits from Nilfheim only slightly worse for wear. He probably should have killed the airborne that landed behind his lines for some easy points, but other than that he played great. He had a string of awful luck with Sonlen. Dragon heal! Fail. Dragon swoop! Fail. 4 attack dice! Blocked. Repeat.

MVP: Ne-Gok-Sa, for soaking a ton of damage that otherwise would have been killing Romans.
MWP: Me-Burq-Sa, for being a smarmy know-it-all. He got what was coming to him.

3-0 1500 points

Game 4 Bobbo vs. Ian

Ian brought:
Nilfheim
Kaemon Awa
Drake V2
Dumutef Guard

The board was on a large flat map with a ton of one space rivers crossing all over it. This was a real pain to chase Drake down on. Especially this new Drake that can shoot.

Is Ian a member of this board? I dunno.
Ian had a rather unique approach that I never really thoguht of, but the fact that he was undefeated when we played speaks to it's effectiveness. He deployed all the way in the back of his start zone, and placed all his markers on Nilfheim. Nilfheim would fly up and do as much damage as possible before dying. Then all the markers would go on Kaemon Awa, who would do the same thing. Once Kaemon was dead, Drake got all the markers. Once Drake was dead, I'm assuming the Dumutef guard would come out, but I was lucky and with the two remaining activations I had after killing Drake, I sucker punched him in the start zone.

It was actually a rather fun game. Ian is a great opponent who rolls a ton of skulls, even on defense! Normally that would be great, but I had a ton of dirt cheap Romans who don't mind throwing their lives away for the greater good. Nilfheim flew up near my start zone and Ne-Gok-Sa did his damage soaking thing while the Romans swarmed the dragon and chopped him to pieces. Kaemon Awa came next, but Me-Burq-Sa actaully did something and scored two paralyzations in a row for the kill, with no chance of defense.

Then came the new Drake. I had no special ranged attacks (unless you count the Elite's grenades), so I had to chase him all over the board. And this new Drake can shoot! Gah! I spread the Romans out all over the place, in every nook and cranny I could find while Drake happily took pot shots at whoever he pleased. Finally, on my activation 3, one Roman neared Drake and I won the next initiative. The lone Roman charged in and failed to score any wounds. Drake retaliated by chopping him in half (6 skulls on 7 dice), but the Roman's vallaint efforts game two of his buddies time to sneak up and poke Drake in the back of the legs. Drake killed one, but two more piled on, and Drake disappeared beneath a pile of flashing blades and stabbing spears. Whew. I suckerpunched the Dumutef, who was watching all this from the start zone for the win.

Learning points:
The new Drake is sick. What a great cleanup figure! The Improved Cyber Arm thing is awesome, and the 6 move (7 with Marcus!) gets him all over the place. Take out the ranged specials and he would have a run of the board, unless his opponent has a horde of guys to chase him down.
I'll never underestimate the power of a big nasty with 3 order markers on it every round again. After a round or two, it was clear why Ian was undefeated. All the guys were ranged, and ran around like crazy.

Iam played well, although he made the mistake of staying to fight it out with Ne-Gok-Sa when he made it into base contact. It isn't Ne-Gok-Sa you have to worry about. It's the horde of Romans behind him! If Nilfheim disengaged Ne-Gok-Sa and tried to stay out of movement range, the game would have lasted forever, but I don't think I would have had enough guys left to catch Drake. Great game though. We had so much fun, we played a pickup game again afterwards.

MVP: Romans. Totally swarmed Nilf, then Drake.
MWP: Airborne Elite. Spent the entire championship game admiring the view from their plane, or whatever they have. Because they never dropped, Ian scored 110 points for them.
4-0 2000 points

Ok, that's that. All my opponents were excellent players, and every game could have gone either way. The good news is that I can hardly see my keyboard or screen anymore, so I guess the caffine is wearing off and it's time to go to bed! Sorry if I made any mistakes during this retelling. My memory isn't great under the best of circumstances, and these are hardly the best. See y'all next time!

[Doustin]

Cant wait to see the pics of this, wish I coulda been there. Sounds like was a great time.

Now that this tourneys over Id like to usurp this thread for a second to put another cheap plug for my Roll Skulls or Die tourney, as seen in my sig.

Ok you may now continue making me sad I couldnt make it.