DS' Battle Reports ~ New 2/9/19!

[Dad_Scaper]

I was sure I was going to lose that one. I complained the entire time, if Crichton wasn't such a good sport I'm sure he would have hit me over the head with a convenient stick.

And the comparison to Raelin is apt. I didn't include the Warhulk to collect 150 points worth of scalps. I included him to stand up the pins.

[Dad_Scaper]

GenCon 2014

Lightweight: 300 points, 12 figures

I considered a less competitive build that I thought would be fun, and people would remember it: Stingers x2, Taelord. I figured it would respond well to the heroes I thought would dominate this format, though I recognized it was not particularly likely to do well overall. In the end, I went back to one of my favorite squads, the Phantom Knights. I figured their main foes - 10th Reg.; swarming melee - were both discouraged by the format, so I'd give it a shot. Expectations were, however, low. I thought KidScaper's Hydra + Stingers x3 was far more likely to succeed.

Round 1:
DS - Phantom Knights x4
Josh - Raelin, Krav, Erevan Sunshadow

Stygian Rift

Josh was a new player, he said his first game had only been the day before, but he played well. It's just that, unfortunately for him, my army matched up very well against him. I seized the high ground easily enough with my mobility, and could, from there, send down units as needed to reinforce the PKs I had flying around his start zone, killing his stuff. This was to become a theme. . .

1-0

Round 2:
DS - PK's x4 @happyjosiah - Krug, Stingers x3

Ticalla Sunrise

It turned out that KidScaper was not the only player to bring Stingers x3 + (120 point hero). I wasn't too worried about HJ's Stingers, but I thought my low attack might not be enough to bring down Krug before he'd done a *lot* of damage.

I lost quite a few Phantom Knights early in the game, when their 4 defense dice, sometimes 5 with jungle or height, failed. Eventually, the dice balanced out and the Stingers went down. Eventually I caught Krug from height and killed him on an OM flip between rounds.

It was great to meet Happy Josiah, an old timer around these parts, but of course it was good to meet everyone.

2-0

Round 3:
DS - PK's x4 @Junior - 4th Mass. x3, Sam Brown

Stygian Rift

My notes from this game are as follows: "Junior played well. Terrible matchup for him." Which is the truth. With my high defense, and a map allowing me to dominate the center, and his opening position forcing him to move, conceding WTF, or stay still, and concede any valuable real estate, it was not a good situation for him.

3-0

DS - PK's x4
Bob - Krav, Kaemon Awa, Rats x2

Vestige

The rats made me nervous. With their high defense and Scatter and 4 attacks/OM, I was worried that I might not be able to take them down. Plus there was a Unique Attack +1 glyph in play, which I had to deny Kaemon Awa and the Krav.

Bob, @Cleon 's dad, won initiative in Round 1 and fanned out with the rats, one of which headed to the Unique Attack glyph. He grabbed it on OM 2, but I landed 2 PK's next to it on the following OM, walling it off from the rest of the map. I killed the rat and secured the glyph from other rats scattering onto it, until much later in the game.

The first round was rats; the second was the Krav. I managed to get rid of them by the end of Round 2, and I got lucky with a few attack rolls and managed to kill off a few rats, too. In Round 3 Kaemon Awa emerged, but he rolled poorly on defense and I was spared Counterstrike death even on my bad attacks. Bob conceded once KA was out; his few remaining Deathreavers were badly outnumbered by my remaining Phantom Knights.

4-0

Championship Round:
DS - Phantom Knights x4
@UnseenShadowz - Phantom Knights x3, Heirloom

Vestige

There were virtually no attacks from height for almost the entire game. It was just 3 vs. 4, over and over, for most of the game. Luckily, before the first time I ever brought the PK's to a tournament, when they were new (2009?), I thought everyone would be bringing them. So I put little pink stickers on their bases.

Anyway, as anyone with a single gray hair knows, you cannot beat a person younger than yourself in a competition to roll the highest dice. I would have liked to see US make a mistake or do something foolish, but he is a sensible person and declined to do so. KidScaper explained to me afterward ways in which I could have approached the endgame differently, and who knows, maybe I could have been smarter. But the difference was not Heirloom, who didn't do much besides absorb occasional attacks; it was pretty much the dice.

4-1
Second Place

I got a nifty Agent Skahen, though. Awesome!

More to come later.

[MegaSilver]

For Lightweight, I counted around 10-12 Stinger builds, each one with a different hero backing them. (Zetacron was twice.) It was crazy.

[Dad_Scaper]

Yeah, I was really surprised at the metagame. I was not, however, surprised that the two PK builds met in the championship.

[Dad_Scaper]

Thursday had been a very long day, and after 4 rounds of Lightweight followed by the championship game, concluding at almost 9, I was too worn out to take notes for the C3V event.

Thanks again, @MegaSilver , for running it. We had a great time, and I surprised myself by coming in second. I guess it doesn't hurt when your only loss is in Round 2, but to the tourney winner, and you get a freebie with a first round bye. Congrats again, @vegietarian18 !

[MegaSilver]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Thursday had been a very long day, and after 4 rounds of Lightweight followed by the championship game, concluding at almost 9, I was too worn out to take notes for the C3V event.

Thanks again, @MegaSilver , for running it. We had a great time, and I surprised myself by coming in second. I guess it doesn't hurt when your only loss is in Round 2, but to the tourney winner, and you get a freebie with a first round bye. Congrats again, @vegietarian18 !

You're welcome!

Also, I think that since @killercactus dropped at 2-1, it helped boost you up somehow.

[Dad_Scaper]

I take 'em where I can get 'em, slick.

[happyjosiah]

Great to meet and play you! Had a great time!

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by happyjosiah

Great to meet and play you! Had a great time!

Likewise, HJ.

On to the Main Event.

As some of you know, I was prepared to play my beloved Deathchasers at GenCon. They had performed well at my warm up event, winning in my hands and losing in others', and I borrowed the 5th squad so I wouldn't have to proxy them. I was ready! And KidScaper was ready with his Atlaga, Protectors x3. Over my advice, he was going to fly 35 points light. "It's Reverse the Whip," he explained to me.

Anyway. The best laid plans of mice and men, as the saying goes, are for naught when you leave your armies at your airport hotel. The kid was despondent, but I knew my Heroscaper peeps well enough to hope that someone had an extra army or two in his pile of stuff, and we had several fine volunteers. Ultimately @El Diabolo stepped up and volunteered armies for both of us: A Beast build for me; Axegrinders for the Kid.

KidScaper's is a story for another day: How a despondent youth, abandoned in his hour of need by a negligent father, managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps and, using only borrowed dwarves, made Day 2 of the Main Event of GenCon, and returned home to Baltimore a conquering hero.

No, this is not the story of KidScaper the Conqueror and his rise from the ashes. This is the story of Dad_Scaper, who would not fare so well as his offspring, and deservedly so.

El Diabolo's Beast build was an interesting one, and I didn't really get it until Round 2. Unfortunately, I had to play in Round 1.

Round 1:

D_S: Arrow Gruts x2, Mimring, Swog Riders x4, Krug
@Deroche : Arrow Gruts x3, Raelin RotV, Krug, Swogs x3

Stygian Rift

I managed to take out Raelin with Mimring, and I should have (I suspect) won after that. Unfortunately, I stretched myself very thin with my small handful of Arrow Gruts - only two squads! - and between having to hold back to mind them, and overextending with them throughout, I blundered my way to a loss. No doubt, this was an odd build with almost one Swog per Grut, and I would have to be careful if I was going to advance.

It was an *excellent* build for the format, by the way. If I had prepared with it, I'd like to think I would have done well, and forced my opponents to make hard decisions on Day 2. Alas, it was not to be.

I feel very fortunate to be involved in a hobby where every new person is excellent, both a sportsman and a gentleman, and Deroche was no exception.

0-1

D_S: Arrow Gruts x2, Mimring, Swog Riders x4, Krug
@Rosencrantz : Hive, Drones x4, Stingers x1

Highways and Dieways

I *loved* Rosencrantz' choice for an army! The Hive! The length of the map, and the cluttered sightlines from his start zone, probably gave me an edge here. Plus I could prop up Super-Gruts backed by multiple Swogs on high ground in the trees, and there was nothing he could really do about it, barring a super-lucky swarm of drones. But he didn't get the back-to-back 9 drone move I think he'd have needed, and in the end I wore him down.

1-1

D_S: Arrow Gruts x2, Mimring, Swog Riders x4, Krug
@vegietarian18 's dad: Marro Warriors, Nilfheim, Raelin, Syvarris, Otonashi

Highways and Dieways

Highways and Dieways again! I slow-rolled my army to the high ground on my end of the board while positioning Mimring forward as well. I maneuvered for a few *great* Fireline attacks, but lousy attack rolls meant that Raelin, Syvarris, and Nilfheim were never really challenged. Once Mimring went down, and the heavy hitters were all podded around Raelin, there really wasn't anything I could do.

1-2

I'll wrap up the rest tomorrow.

[Dad_Scaper]

Round 3:

D_S: Arrow Gruts x2, Mimring, Swog Riders x4, Krug
@Dwarvenwarrior123 : Sir Gilbert, Knights x2, Major Q9

Highways and Dieways

Yes, you read that correctly. Third round in a row on Highways and Dieways.

This was a close match and an exciting one. For the most part, I held my own against DW's advancing knights. He carefully avoided lining up for a Fireline attack, but I managed to prop up Super Gruts and use my beasts to protect against his knights as they approached, a few at a time. I thought I'd be ok with an Arrow Grut parked on the healing glyph and a very badly wounded Gilbert hiding near the back, when I sent my lightly wounded Krug against his Q9. That's supposed to be a winner, right? On even ground? Doesn't Krug kill Q9 every time?

Well, make that ([every time] - 1). The dice did not smile upon me. My dreams of bringing home the Big Prize now officially rested upon the narrow shoulders of KidScaper.

2-2

Round 5:

D_S: Arrow Gruts x2, Mimring, Swog Riders x4, Krug
Donald: Ice Troll Berserker, Krug, 3xArrow Gruts, 2xSwog, Nerak

Highways and Dieways

No, I kid you not. This was the fourth consecutive match on Highways and Dieways. It would have been a Beast mirror match, too, but for one thing: Donald, who seemed a very decent fellow, decided to drop. It wasn't technically a drop, but he was done. Frankly, hopelessly out of contention, I didn't mind introducing myself, shaking his hand, taking his concession / bye, and wishing him a good GenCon.

2-3

Ah, well. I take great comfort in doing well in the two smaller events on Thursday.

Many, many thanks to @Matthias Maccabeus , @lonewolf , @Retlaw , and everyone on the team that ran the events. Including the onsite volunteers such as @Jim and @NecroBlade , including the unofficial event run by @MegaSilver . Also, many thanks to the guys behind the scenes who made this happen, such as @stay_golden_PONYBOY , @CupidsArt and @cbs42 and some others whose names come to mind but I can never remember what's public and what's not. You know who you are. Thanks to everyone who loaned us stuff or offered to loan us stuff, including @Xorlof , @dok , @Gurei-Ornery , @Deroche , and of course especially @El Diabolo .

Thank you also to @Rÿchean , whose expert navigation of GenCons past made it possible for this generation of organizers to receive a legacy in such fine shape. And congratulations, winner!

Many thanks to all my opponents and a salute to all, whatever our result, for your good spirit and your positive energy. What a great hobby!

[MegaSilver]

Thanks D_S! It was great to meet you again as well.

I think for your last post, you mean 3-2 instead of 2-3.

[Dad_Scaper]

Sweet! I'm a winner!