8/21 Pitman NJ Post-tourney Thread

[mikelizzio]

Thanks to everyone for making this tournament another great event! I had a blast!

And special thanks to Stephen and All the King's Men for hosting!

Here are the results, and everyone's armies:

1. mikelizzio 5-0
4th Mass x3
Alistair
Drake 1.0

2. son of Mad_Wookie 4-1
Axegrinders x3
Mogrimm
Migol
Isamu

3. clancampbell 3-1-1
Morsbane
Romans x2
Takeanhour Samurai Archers
Johnny Shotgun

4. Bobgrant 3-2
Romansx3
MDG
Me-Burq
Gurei Oni
Guilty

5. Mad_Wookie 3-2
10 Reg x3
MDG
Iron Golem

6. spidysox 3-2
Q10
Raelin
Krav
Rats x2
Isamu
Otonashi

7. Dragonslayer2 3-2
Krav
AE
Krug

8. Xanth 2-2-1
Charos
Greenscales x2

9. King of Blanks 2-3
Braxas
Greenscales x2
Black Wyrmling x2
Red Wyrmling x2

10. Tom 2-3
Red Wyrmling x5
Black Wyrmling x5
White Wyrmling x5

11. Johngee 2-3
Q9
Q10

12. Grunttactics 2-3
Nerak
Me-Burq
Ornak
Tornak
Bladesx3
Isamu

13. peteparkerh 2-3
Kurrok the evironmental activist
Fire x2
Water x2
Earth x1
Wind x2
Sahuagin
Raelin

14. Dragonslayer2's Dad 1-4
4th Mass x2
Drake 1.0
Thorgrim

15. Lil Miss Pete 1-4
Mimring
Red Wyrmling x2
Black Wyrmling x2
White Wyrmling x2
Greenscales x2

[mikelizzio]

Battle Report:

Round 1 vs. Lil Miss Pete:
Becca actually gave me the biggest scare of the day, when the seemingly sweet, well-mannered young lady barbecued an entire squad of 4th Mass with Mimring before I got a shot off. She told me that Mimring is her favorite figure, and I can see why: she's dangerous with that dragon on her side! I eventually sent Alistair on a suicide mission to take the dragon down, knowing that was my only chance at victory. The plan worked, and my remaining 4th Mass were able to clean up the weakened Greenscales and wyrmlings. Becca was an impressive opponent, and a pleasure to play against!


Round 2 vs Son of Mad Wookie
Young Jason fielded the same army I'd considered bringing to the tournament up until that morning: Axegrinders with Migol and Isamu. I knew the 4th Mass's range would give me the edge, but Jason played the dwarves very well, and the match would have been much closer if not for some truly terrible luck with his defense dice. Jason went on to finish 4-1, and if the dice had rolled his way in this match, he may have been undefeated in first place.

Round 3 vs King of Blanks
This may have been my funnest match of the day, as Rob and I saw the advantage swing dramatically on several occasions. Braxas was 3-for-3 on her first acid attack, crippling the only 4th Mass squad who had height on her. The minutemen had to scramble to grab more height, and fired a volley of 2- and 3-dice attacks, none of which were devasting, but managed to nick the dragon a couple times. The following turn, Braxas was 0-for-3 on acid targets, which left a squad of 4th Mass standing on height, in range, and able to take advantage of Wait Then Fire. But wait, it gets better: all four of these minutemen, who are ready to fire a full-strength barrage at the dragon, are standing on a lava field. And it's turn 3. What to do? It was one of the most interesting decisions I'd faced all day (I love when scape puts you to a truly difficult, yet significant decision). I opted to stay on the lava, and fired on the dragon, crippling but not killing her. The lava ended up killing half the squad at the end of the round. A few more shots from my remaining 4th Mass took down the injured dragon, and there were a few turns of trading minutemen for Wyrmlings before I emerged victorious from a truly exciting match.

Round 4 vs spidysox
Jason fielded an army I was genuinely afraid to face: Q10, Raelin, and rats. I was able to put a wound or two on Raelin before the rats made it into my neighborhood, but they quickly tied up every minuteman within striking distance of Raelin and Q10, who he moved into position across the ravine that divided the map. Rather than shoot through 8 rats while Q10 had his way with me from across the river, I decided to risk disengagement with my minutmen, and moved three of them away from the rats. By a stroke of pure luck, all 3 survived the passing swipes. With 3 minutemen free, and no more order markers on Jason's rats, I was free to fire across the river, first at Raelin, and then at the cyborg. It was the disengagement gamble that made the difference in this game. Had it failed, the outcome would have been very different.

Round 5 vs. Bobgrant
Bob and I have been practicing with each other for the last month in preparation of this tournament. Over the last month, my record against him is something like 6-20. Most of the losses came while playtesting the Axegrinders against his Romans and Warlords. In fact, it was Bob who suggested my 4th Mass build. So, long story short, Bob and I were effectively playing for first place after a storied month of training together and helping each other improve. It really felt a lot like when Rocky fought Apollo Creed for the second time, after they'd become friends. My 4th Mass took the bridge in the center of Rift Valley, forcing the Romans to attack one at a time. With this positional disadvantage, Bob never really got his army up to speed. Bad dice rolls didn't help his cause either, as the 4th Mass rarely fired without destroying a Roman.

This is my first tournament win, and first undefeated performance, but I feel like any one of my matches could have gone the other way. All five rounds were exciting, and I tip my hat to all my opponents.

[clancampbell]

Love how you put the "takeanhour" samurai archers! For those that are reading this that weren't there, thats a referance to my being an hour late due to some horrendous conditions on I95.

After winning my last event, I wanted to bring a fun army. With that in mind, I chose Morsbane. Then I came up with the wacky idea to let my girlfriend pick the rest of my force. She knows nothing about scape. She picked the romans because she liked their "pretty red shields".

Round 1 vs. Interstate 95
Interstate 95 defeated both me and Xanth at the same time. In all seriousness I had to miss round 1 due to being late and thus was awarded a tie.

Round 2 vs. King of Blanks
King of Blanks brought in Braxas straight away with the Greenscales in tow. I tried to use Morsbane to negate Braxas figuring that would be my only chance at winning. Morsbane failed and then proceeded to get beat up by Braxas. My archers took out a couple of greenscales but then fell to acid breath. Johnny shotgun tried to keep the greenscales at bay while the romans piled in at Braxas, but it was to no avail. The romans would find themselves systematically taken out by acid breath. The greenscales clubbed Johnny down and it was over.
0-1-1

Round 3 vs. Dragonslayers Dad.
He was packing the dreaded 4th Mass. I was worried. I figured my best bet would be to use the archers and Johnny to try and out range them and make them move. First though I sent out Morsbane to try and negate Drake. While negation failed Morsbane provided the perfect destraction. The 4th were focused on him so it allowed the archers to start taking them out. Johnny caught a few 4th unaware and they got shotgunned for it. When the smoke cleared it was Johnny standing victorious over the 4th. Meanwhile Drake had to engage the romans. While he made a good go of it, Drake was finally cut down. The remaining romans and Johnny then chased Thorgrim down to win the day.
1-1-1

Round 4 vs. Xanth
I figured I could use the archers to try and nickel and dime Charos, and maybe keep away long enough to do damage. As luck would have it, I didn't have to. Morsbane negated the big green dragon on my first order marker! I sent the romans in with abandon at that point. After a titanic struggle between the romans and the greenscales with Charos, things were still uncertain. Charos was only slightly wounded and all my romans were done. I then went back to using the archer theory. Playing keep away and shooting. Johnny shotgun got mauled by Charos in the process. In the end Charos couldn't catch my archers due to the unlevel terrian and the fact that he couldn't fly, while the archers made him a pin chusion.
2-1-1

Round 5 vs. Spidysox
I charged out with Johnny hoping to shotgun his rats out of the way. I did take a few out and even managed to put a wound on Q10. Then I switched focus and tried to use the archers to kill Raelin. Q10 killed my archers and Morsbane who failed in negating Raelin. The romans surged forward to come to grips with Q10, but with rats in the way only one could get there at a time. Q10 and the romans traded blows, while one roman skirted around and dispatched of Raelin. Without the added defense Q10 quickly fell. I then turtled the romans and forced his rats to come to me. In the end the romans were victorious.
3-1-1

I must say I was impressed. 3 wins and third overall with an army I expected very little from.

Thanks again to Mike for hosting! I had fun.

[Dad_Scaper]

Clan, are you saying Morsbane worked exactly one time, and it was against Xanth?

Cruel, cruel Morsbane.

Congrats on the tourney win, Mike. Keeping the streak alive! Clearly it's time for me to be a TD.

[mikelizzio]

clancampbell rolls 2 less defense dice against traffic.

Daddy, I've been told on several occasions that it is forbidden to win your own tournament. I believe it was cited as the "Tom rule." But hey, since no one else seems to be following the rule, I figured, hey...

[King of Blanks]

It was an awesome day of gaming and a great deal of fun in each and every match. Big thanks to Mike for arranging everything and Stephen of "All The Kings Men" for hosting the event.

I wish my memory were better so I could recap with colorful description each of my battles, but suffice to say, they were all tense and fraught with tough decisions. My personal highlight was being indoctrinated into the ever-growing brotherhood of players who've succumbed to the juggernaut known as "Xanth". It was a good game played by a good opponent. Many thanks to the other respected opponents of the day; Clan, Mike, and Bob.

I'm looking forward to the next event and mixing it up once again with this great group of guys (and gal). Until then, 'Scape on!!!

[clancampbell]

Originally Posted by DaddyScaper

Clan, are you saying Morsbane worked exactly one time, and it was against Xanth?

Cruel, cruel Morsbane.

Yeah I got at least 2 shots with it every game, the only time it worked was against Xanth. Even with it working in that game it was still a very close match. Xanth and I are now 1-1 in tourny games against each other.

Now I can cross Morsbane off the list of units never used at a tourny. Not sure whats next.............mmm....where did I put my Deathwalker.........

[DragonSlayer2]

Well, I must say that the entire event was alot of fun, but I cant remeber who I played and when. Mike, if you kept the papers with who I played I can give an acccount. But with what I remeber...

Round 1 v Johngee
He had the Q0 Q10 combo, which I was usure of to begin with. I dropped AE in on the first round I believe, only to have them all killed by the two robots that round. They did there job however and allowed krug to close the distance and engage Q9 and Q10. Once engaged they only made krug angry.....so krug smashed both the robots and was happy there after.

Round 2 v ??BobGrant??
Great game, he played the romans....and he did a good job with them too. He ran me-burq-sa over to my krav and started to stair them all down....which he did. Then my AE dropped on the second or third round. I bombed his romans and took out about 4. THe fighting continued until it was krug, two AE v two romans. Trying to engage one of the AE with the rom he threw him into a hole that the roman couldnt clime out of. He did however kill that ae. So it was one roman v krug with 7 lives and 1 AE. WE played a gmae of chess, trying to kill the other guy without losing ours......after two rounds of this play I finally got krug engaged and killed the roman.

round 3 v .......I am out of time right now, I will finish my battle report later.

[spidysox]

Thanks Mikelizzio for a great tourny and grats on your victory, it was well earned.

My Army:
Q10
Raelin
Krav
Rats x 2
Isamu
Otonashi

The Krav never saw the battlefield for me as I never saw the opportunity to replace the rats with them.

My reports

Round 1 Vs. Tom on Warden

Playing Tom is always a good time and this game was no exception. He was fielding an army made up entirely of the new wyrmlings. I moved Rae out immediately onto a shadow tile to gain the extra defense as well as see much of the center of the board. My rats moved in to try and tie up the wyrmlings but were for the most part unsuccessful. The wyrmlings have a lot of special attacks and almost completely negated the rats ability to clog the board. So I moved the major in to try and widdle away the enemy. Raelin went down pretty quickly, but the Major began to break through the wyrmlings ranks. By the time he went down, Tom was left with just 2 of the white wyrmlings. This is where he made a tactical mistake. In an effort to get to my rats to start cutting into them, he placed both of the wyrmlings adjacent to one another. He was unsuccessful in killing the rats and on my next order marker I was able to lock down both of them with 4 rats. While he tried in vain to dispose of them, one of his wyrmlings was killed by a rat and the last was killed by Isamu. A good close match as any with Tom is likely to be. He is a top notch player in our area and any win against him is always to be considered a good one.

1-0 and happy about it.

Round 2 Vs. Madwookie on Rift Valley

Wow, another good player to be matched up with. MW brought along the 10th and an Iron Golem. I have to admit, the Golem scared me to death! I found a nice spot for Raelin to see well enough while still being protected. He brought the 10th out first and was able to get a couple of shots on Raelin before I could lock them down with rats. While the rats held them in place, Q10 came out to fire away. I placed him on the highest point in Realins aura which was on the lava rock. Q took out several of the 10th while only taking one wound from standing on the lava. He tried to get the Golem into the action, but was effectively blocked by the rats (including just a single rat who was locking down 3 10th and blocking the golem from advancing). With the golem unable to really move, Q10 took aim on him. I rolled 2 hits and felt that they would be easily blocked by the big guys 6 defense dice. MW however whiffed and had to take the two wounds, my next attack however rolled 4 hits, which were all blocked! Finally I was able to take the golem out with Q and once I did, it was just walking around the board and doing cleanup on the 10th. Q had 3 hits on him at the end, but survived the entire match.

2-0 and feeling pretty good.

Round 3 Vs. Dragonslayer2 on Blackroot

I had never had the opportunity to play DS2 and found the match to be a very fun one. He had the AE, Krug and the Krav. The AE failed to drop on the first round so he lead with Krav. After Raelin went to a prime location, I moved the rats into place to lock up the Krav as well as to easily reach any high ground to lock up the AE. The AE dropped the next round but I won the initiative roll. The rats easily locked up all 4 of the AE and even managed to kill one of them, with them locked up they were forced to attack my rats and only managed to kill one of them. Q10 took care of 2 more of the AE leaving only one. DS2 had smartly put his final order marker on Krug and moved him up. I knew that I had to deal with him eventually and began attacking him with Q. While he continued to try and punch his way through to Raelin, Q continued to shoot away. He eventually wore down my rat screen and engaged both Q and Rae. He focused his now very angry Krug on Q and managed 3 wounds on him. Q double attacked him and finally took him down. I believe if he would have survived that moment, he could have easily won the match. The Krav came in and finished off Q, but Raelin flew all across the board and dispatched the Krav. A very fun and very exciting match.

3-0 and really pleased.

Round 4 Vs. Mikelizzio on Fissure.

Mike and I were the last two remaining undefeated players going into this round so this was a big moment. I was actually fairly confident of this one as he fielded the Mass and Alastair. With no special attacks, I figured the rats would shine. I got Raelin to where she would have height against any of his attacks, then moved the rats into play. The mass were able to get a couple of wounds on Rae before they were engaged by rats. The rats were even able to take out a mass or two. At this point Mike took a big risk. He had 4 mass all in range of Raelin, 3 of whom were engaged with rats. He decided to disengage all 3 of them to try and get some shots on Rae. I was unsuccessful on all 3 leaving engagement strikes! If I could have killed a couple of them at this time, the game may have been very different, however because of his success, he was able to kill Rae Rae. Now Q still had a chance and he fired away from across the ravine. However, the dice were clearly against me during this game and it took me 16 attack dice to kill only 1 mass. The 4th overwhelmed Q after that and without Rae's aura, he was a sitting duck. It was cleanup after that for Mike and he got rid of me pretty quickly. I managed to only kill 5 of his Mass and Alastair just stood there with his big sword wondering when he could play too. It was a tough loss, but well earned and well played by Mike the eventual champion.

3-1 and dissapointed.

Round 5 vs. Clancampbell on Jotun's Gap

Clan is always fun to play and we have had some good matchups in the past. His army was a hodgepodge that was put together by his girlfriend. He had Morsbane, Roman soldiers, Samurai Archers and Johnny Shotgun Sullivan. I again flew Raelin to a prime location for her to see much of the center of the board. Then the rats ran out to engage as many people as they could. He led with Johnny shotgun and fired an explosive shot into my start zone and killed a couple of rats, isamu and put a wound on Q10. I locked him up with rats and kept him out of the game for the most part after that. He fired a few shots with his archers on Rae and managed a couple of wounds on her before the Q was able to dispatch of them. He attempted to negate Raelin but was unsuccessful and Q dealt with him as well. This is where the Romans came into play. I moved Q down into the gap to get the extra defense of the shadow tile and this proved to be a mistake. He took to the high ground with a couple of his romans and killed Rae with one of them. Without Rae's aura, Q was unable to survive for long against the romans onslaught. It came down to 3 romans vs. 5 rats and Otonashi. At this point he decided to turtle his romans to keep their shield wall bonus and force me to come to him. I could have done the same and won the game on points, but that is not how I roll. So I sent the rats in and attempted to kill him, but their one attack is just too low and could not get through. I also brought oto into the fray, but she was killed quickly. A fun, smartly played game by Clan. Impressive win with a hodgepodge mix of units.

3-2 and really dissapointed now.

Finishing 3-2 after starting out so strong was a big dissapointment, but the players who beat me deserved to as they both performed very well and outplayed me.

Thanks again to Mikelizzio for a great and fun event. I look forward to playing with you all again in Sept. at Tom's event.

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by King of Blanks

...I wish my memory were better so I could recap with colorful description each of my battles, ...

LOL - in addition to the "Beaten by the Xanth" club, welcome also to the "CRS" (cna't remember stuff) club. I learned to bring a pad and pen with me and jot down a few notes after each game for that very reason. By the time I drive home and get on the computer to record my battles the entire day has become a blurr.

[Johngee]

I'm just moving my previously posted report over to this POST-Tourney Thread...

Mike ~

Thanks again for hosting another *GREAT* event, it was worth making the 90 mile trip for and good to see everyone again. I don't know if you are planning to start a separate POST Tourney thread, so I'll just post here while everything is still fresh in my mind...

My army was small and thought it would be efficient, it consisted of only two Vydar figures, Major Q-9 at 180 points and Major Q-10 at 150 points = total 2 @ 330 with at least one (both) being a unique hero of at least 100 points. However, they did not perform for me as well as I had hoped. These is my Battle Reports:

GAME #1 -- Me vs. DragonSlayer2 on Map C. He had Krug, Airborne Elite, and Krav Maga Agents. The AE dropped in at the very beginning, but then DS2 failed to get initiative, so I could move my two soulborg giants out of the start zone to engage them at longe range up to 8 spaces. One by one I killed three of them with Q-9 and Q-10, then the fourth took a wound and died for remaining on the lava. DS2 brought Krug forward and got the height advantage on Q-9 and took him out after several double attacks and a final defensive whiff on my part. Q-10 had moved across the map and became locked in engagement with Krug and although I had put five wounds on him his attacks just kept getting stronger. At this time the Krav came forward and took pot shots at Q-10's rear. the first two bounced off, but the third attack of three dice each time inflicted the final wound. Game over... 1x LOSS with 185 points to my credit.

GAME #2 -- Me vs. Becca on Map G (Jotun's Gap). Her army consisted of the dragon Mimring, 2x Greenscale Warrior squads for bonding, and 2x White Wyrmrings. My plan was to send Q-9 to the right flank and Q-10 to the left and attempt to dominate the massive high ground areas on both sides of the map. Fortunately I won initiative and advanced Q-9 to what I thought would be a good position, but he was exposed to Mim's firelines. My seven defense dice plus one for height paid off and he only received one wound, but after being attacked four times I move him to a sheltered position behind the small ruins wall. Instead of moving up the high ground on the left, I moved Q-10 up the left side of the center valley and took advantage of a shadow tile. Although I probably should have concentrated on destroying Mim, I was able to kill one greenscale almost every turn and laugh at their feable three attacks against my 7+1 and 5+1 defenses. Q-9's Quiglix Gun special attack was awesome with three skulls appearing often against the lizardmen and again when I turn my attention to the dragon who whiffed in it's last gasp for dragon breath. The two wyrmrings did not last long after that, so I scored a WIN with 330 points (1 & 1 @ 515).

GAME #3 -- Me vs. Mad_Wookiee on map F (Feylund's Fountain). Scott was using one of the new creatures from Wave D2 which I had only read about, the Metal Golem, supported by 3x 10th Regiment of Foot squads. Naturally I intented to move Q-9 qnd Q-10 in tandem to the high ground on the right, but failing to win initiative allowed the Golem to aggressively advance quickly in two turns across more than half of the short map. Although Q-10 put one wound on him at a considerable distance his next turn put him into an advantageous position and he rolled five skulls on seven attack dice and my five defense dice only produced one shield. Ouch! Q-10 was cleaved in two in the first round and I was forced to rethink my strategy and adapt to this new situation. Q-9 then retreated across my own start zone which was level so that I could shoot the beast from as much range as possible. It's automatic two shields against Special Attacks thwarted the use of my Quiglix Gun. As I attempted to get a height advantage on the left side of the map, the two giants became engaged, inflicted wounds on each other, danced around for better positions, but Q-9 prevailed and the Golem became a pile of junk. Unfortunately, with only one life remaining, being on the high ground only meant that Q-9 was exposed to the onslaught of the twelve redcoats, who immediately sprang into action. Eventually I whiffed and Q-9 collapsed. It was a very FAST game and another LOSS for me with only 100 points added to my score ( 1 & 2 @ 615).

GAME #4 -- Me vs. PeterParkerH on Map H . His army was one that I was thinking about trying and was glad to see it in action. It consisted of the Kurrock the Elementalist (nick-named: The Enviromentalist or Treehugger), Kyrie Warrior Raelin for extra defensive protection, 2x Fire Elements and 2x Water Elements. Again there were large high ground areas on both the left and right, but this map had a wider valley with scattered swamp tiles, swamp water and plain water. Again my plan was to get to the high ground and dominate the battlefield with ranged attacks with bonuses. I knew at the beginning that if I destroy and elements. the elementalist could just regenerate them, therefore, he was immediately my primary target and I hoped I would not have to chase him. To my suprise Pete advanced Kurrock forward to the safety of the small ruins wall on my far left with Raelin along side of him. This allowed me an entire round to advance Q-9 to the high ground on the left, but he did not have a Line-Of-Sight to either K. or R. But I also had Q-10 rush straight up the middle and winning initiative in the second round enabled me to begin shooting at Raelin who was now within range. I knew that if I could take out Raelin first, then Kurrock would be easier to kill next. Feeling desperate Pete attacked Q-10 with Raelin and becoming engaged prevented him from shooting at the Elementalist long enough for the fire and water to move forward. Raelin took wounds and then sacrificially died, but before Q-10 could re-focus his attacks of Kurrock, he had to deal with the elements that were now in contact with his ankles. He took a searing heat wound, then a leaving engagement wound and then another searing heat wound and finally a Gungan water bomb splashed in his face. I think I suprised Pete by having Q-9 jump off the high ground to come around the ruins and get close enough to blast the E. guy, who seemed to be cornered with only one life left. Again the fire and water combination fried and soaked his electonic circuits and he died valiantly. My third LOSS with only 176 points (1 & 3 @ 791) .

GAME #5 -- Officially I drew a BYE which counted for a WIN so my final score was: 2x W & 3x L with 791 total points... BUT actually I played Arcus just for fun and got creamed. His army was 2x Fen Hydras and 1x squad of Phantom Knights. It was intimidating to watch his Hydras advanced on the roads, one on the left and one on the right, and then the KP's flew out and landed on shadows, thus dominating the center of the board also. Q-9 and Q-10 took long range shots a the four headed things with no effect - their six defensive dice were hot. First Q-10 was eliminated and soon after that Q-9 was surrounded by both Hydras and the little piece of high ground he stood on could not save him from multiple attacks of 4 x 4's.

After the winners were announced and prises were given, I got to play Xanth twice and lost both time to his army of Charos and 2x Greenscales. Both times I was able to eliminate most of the lizardmen (5 of 6), and avoided getting any counter-strike wounds, but could not do enough damage to weardown the dragon's nine lives, So, over all, my day ended with 1 Win and 6 Losses, but it was a lot of FUN anyway.

[BobGrant]

This was a really fun event.

I did finally get my first win against Tom though!!. (okay so I beat up a bunch of baby dragons)

This was also the scene of my most epic mistake ever so far to date. See my avatar pic for my 4 movement having roman.
That happened very late in the game and the game may have ended different if I hadn't done that.