Mattser's GenCon Championship Report

[MattserTruckRally]

It took me a while to get this ready but without any real introduction here we go:

Mattser's Report
Well for GenCon this year I only decided to enter a couple of events. The GenCon Championship and the Big Ol' Monster Battle. It was still a pretty good time since I was able to try out several new games while at the Con this year.



Gencon Championship 09'

500 points
Braxas
Airborne Elite
Marro Warriors
Deathreavers x 3
490 points


Here are the reasons I picked each unit for the army:

Deathreavers - Pretty much the core of this army. Typically when playing armies that emphasize unique heroes and squads Deathreavers help fill the niche of giving you a common squad and protect your valuable figures. Many of the Tier 1 armies don't even have special attacks so Deathreavers will often scatter all over the place. These guys can be aggressive if needed.

Braxas - She is basically anti-Raelin, Jungle Tree, and Defense glyph. While 210 points can be a huge investment to stop an 80 point figure it also means that if Braxas can usually kill 2-3 common squads of figures she's done more then enough work for me. Being able to kill a powerful hero such as Cyprien, Kaemon, etc. isn't to shabby either.

Airborne Elite - The most solid unit a RatPodge can have. Deathreavers help the AE by keeping enemy units on lower spots and buy you valuable time for the drop. In addition once the AE drop they can hit so far away with their 8 range while the Deathreavers prevent your opponent from getting good shots at the low defensed AE.

Marro Warriors - If everything goes according to plan the Marro Warriors can finish the game up with ease for you. Braxas and the AE aren't designed to do all the work, just criple your opponent enough so that the Marro Warriors are unbeatable.


How the GenCon Glyphs benefit this army:

Unique Attack + 1 - Ridiculous with AE or even the Marro Warriors. I supposed getting Braxas to 6 attack is slightly nice to. This army is made for this glyph and it broke a few games for me.

Defense + 1 - Deathreavers make this glyph unfair.

Initiative + 8 - Allows you to drop the AE and tilt the odds in your favor to win that crucial initiative with them.

Healing - Built for Braxas. You can play her more aggressively when this glyph is out. Acid Breath works well here since you won't injure an enemy hero.

Move + 2 - Helps to grab with Reavers early for a quicker tie down with your rats. The AE benefit the most followed by Braxas.

Wound - The worst glyph for this army to see on the map. It's still better to grab yourself and can be a late game breaker.

Round 1 - RevDyer
4 x 4th, 2 x Sentinels
Map: Common Ground
Glyphs: Initative + 8, Move + 2

Rev won the Initiative and grabbed the Init + 8 from the get go with a Sentinel. My reavers moved out and I grabbed the Move + 2 glyph. While I remembered to use the Move + 2 with the Reavers I. forgot to use it with Braxas which may have hurt me a little. Deathreavers tied up the 4th early and Braxas gassed 2-3 squads of the Mass and 2 of the Sentinels. Once Braxas fell Rev was down a handful of Mass and four Sentinels. Luckily the Mass were still tied up so I moved in with the Marro Warriors. I believe they managed to down another Sentinel but were pushed back by the remaining

At this point I was desperately needing the AE to drop as I didn't have much time until the 4th would break free of the Reavers. They did drop for me and I was looking to take control of this matchup. They still needed to deal with the remaining 3 sentinels though since they had control of the middle of the map. My AE took several shots at them (probably about 11-15) and they just refused to die. The Sentinels even managed to take out an AE. At this point the remaining 4th Mass had broken free and mercilessly gunned down the AE who had retreated back to my start zone.
A good game overall and those Sentinels can be pretty tough to crack sometimes.

0-1


Round 2 - Can't Remember
James Murphy, Werewolves, Khosumet, Cyprien, Kaemon Awa
Map: Highways and Dieways
Glyphs: Move+2, Defense +1



After my loss to Rev I was playing against an opponent who had just recently learned the game. We had a minor dispute about if you were allowed to move through figures and started our match. Most of my early markers went on Braxas/Deathreavers as I very worried about Cyprien tearing me apart. Braxas managed to gas Cyprien pretty early and take out Kaemon as well. She followed this up with annihilating the Anubian Wolves and James Murphy finally finished her off. The AE dropped shortly afterwards though and killed off James and Khosument.

1-1


Round 3 - bobj
Map: TicallaSunrise
Glyphs: Unique Attack+1, Wound
Raelin, 4 x 10th, Kaemon Awa

For some reason this match was a blur to me even though it ended up being super close.

Braxas didn't perform very admirably here though she did make a few kills. The AE eventually dropped and managed to take out most of his 10th foot and Raelin to boot. This was mainly due to the fact that I had the Unique attack glyph. Eventually with me down to a couple Reavers and the 3 AE he moved out Kaemon. I took one early shot at him and he ended up taking a wound. The next round I took 2 more shots at him and the first one totally whiffed with one skull. If Kaemon survived this next attack bobj was looking to be in good shape to finish me off. My next remaining AE hit hard though rolling 5 skulls! Bobj couldn't believe it and Kaemon didn't roll enough defense. A good game that was very close until the very end.

2-1


Round 4 - Can't Remember
Sonlen, Major Q10, Me-Burq-Sa, Kaemon
Fire Isles
Glyphs: Unique Attack +1, Initiative +8

This was a pretty brutal match. My Deathreavers moved out early and I snagged the Unique Attack Glyph. He took a couple of attacks at my Reavers and then the AE dropped. With the Unique Attack Glyph they quickly took out all of his heroes within minutes.

3-1



Round 5 - SuperflyTNT
4 x 10th, 1 x Raelin, 1 x Marcus, Isamu
Map: Common Ground
Glyphs: Initiative +8, Move +2



I've gotten to play Superfly before and he is a pretty cool opponent to play against. I was facing off against the dreaded 10th Foot again. The AE managed to drop turn one so I went ahead and stuck two order markers on them. They were hidden from LoS but I lost the initiative and 10th foot were able to snipe at one of them quite easily with their improved movement.

Well two out of three of the remaining AE attempted to grenade lob the start zone and that failed miserably with Raelin in mix while the other one hung out in the back. At this point he killed 2 of the other AE and my remaining one managed to get one more shot off before I started moving the Reavers. He moved out Raelin to the middle of the map and the Reavers started to clog the battlefield.

At this point Braxas needed to do a lot for me and she did. She ended up gassing Raelin and killed off about 8-9 of the 10th foot before she fell to gunfire. Down to Deathreavers and Marro Warriors I didn't hate my chances since I still had about 5-6 of the Reavers left. The Reavers well exceeded my expectations though and killed off about 3-4 of the 10th by themselves!

It was pretty late into the match at this point so I sped up my play. SuperFly pointed out to me though that I was still up in points since I had an AE still for a total of 200 points (Deathreavers x 1, AE, Marro Warriors) to his 195 points (Isamu, Marcus, 2-3 10th). Even knowing this I quickly ran my Marro Warriors after the remaining forces. They finished off the 10th, Marcus, and Isamu in short order.

After the match it was noted that I had a poor start with the AE and it really killed my position. When Braxas killed off Raelin though I didn't think much about it however it killed off his end game. Had Raelin survived the remaining 10th would've been a much more formidable threat.

4-1



Well at this point I was 4-1 and managed to make one heck of a comeback to make it to Day 2. Clarrismus asked me what army I was playing and learned he was playing 4 x 4th + Braxas. It would be an interesting game as we both had Braxas. I was more worried about dealing with a potential 5 x 4th Mass since those guys are pretty good against Braxas. I knew I'd be adding Raelin into the mix regardless off an enemy Braxas. The reasoning was simple. It would be Braxas vs. Braxas and Raelin would give mine an extra 2 defense in the battle and a huge edge. Raelin could also serve to distract Braxas from attacking my own.


GenCon Championship Day 2



Round 1
Clarrismus
5 x 4th, 1 x Braxas
Map: Common Ground - 3rd time!
Glyphs: Init + 8, Move + 2


Clarrissmus started out by moving Braxas while I pushed Raelin out a little and followed up with Braxas. The Dragons clashed and mine hit hard for 5 skulls! He took 4 wounds right off the bat. His Braxas spent his time gassing my start zone killing off three of the Marro Warriors.

On the next round my AE ended up dropping. I got a grenade lob off in his start zone and killed about 5 Mass. Afterwards the AE were mercilessly destroyed. This worked out for me however as my Braxas was able to bash on his while the 4th concentrated on the AE. Eventually my Braxas did end up killing his off and I still had full life on mine.

The remaining Reavers came out to intercept the 4th and once the dust settled I had about 6 reavers and 1 Marro Warrior against his remaining squad of Mass. My lone Marro Warrior successfully cloned himself and then the following turn on regular ground rolled a 15 and a 16 to reclone the whole squad. At that point it was all she wrote as the Marro Warriors picked off the engaged 4th Mass. It was a good match and I consider myself a bit luckier then him. My Raelin held up remarkably well on defense and the Braxas vs. Braxas match worked out in my favor.


Round 2
Kyle
6 x Stingers, Cyprien, Marro Warriors, Isamu
Map: Fire Isles
Glyphs: Defense+1, Move+2


This was a pretty lopsided match. My reavers moved out early and snagged the Defense + 1 glyph. The reavers kept his Stingers locked up in his starting area while Braxas and Cyprien tangoed. The dragon queen ended up hitting a 20 though against Cyp and but him in a bind. Things went from bad to worse for him once the AE dropped and started picking off helpless Marro Stingers. One of the AE did die do to staying on a lava field longer then he should of but Reavers + AE + Raelin were to much for the Stingers.



Round 3
Matthias
4 x Heavy Gruts, Grimnak, Nerak, Swog Rider, Marcu
Map: Fossil
Glyphs: Move +2, Wound

A matchup I was most definately dreading. Braxas and the AE had a lot of work to do in this matchup. The deathreavers would be all but useless since the Heavies had disengage. They are mere roadbumps for Grimnak and barely slow him down.

I started with one turn on the Deathreavers and placed 4 of them on road spots. Raelin moved on OM 2 and actually just moved 6 spaces down in my start zone. Matthias was after the Move+2 glyph in an attempt to swarm me and I knew that if he kept it I'd be in trouble. Braxas moved in and positioned herself on the sand hex and gassed away the Grut on the Move +2 glyph.

Heavy Gruts would continue to move towards the Move + 2 glyph and Braxas continued to gas them off of it. She never missed once while targeting gruts on the Move + 2 glyph. In the meantime Grimnak became seperated from the Heavy Gruts due to Braxas gassing them and went after Raelin in my start zone. He whiffed on the Chomp and the following turn the AE dropped and put him in a predicament.

Once again luck was on my side and the AE took shots at some Gruts and scored a couple of wounds on Grimnak. Mathias disengaged with 3 guys to come after two of the AE and managed to chomp one. A Grut also hanging out in my start zone killed off another one. Then the match decider came. With my 2 remaining AE the level AE shot at Grimnak and scored a wound on him. I had a decision with the remaining one and decided to try to end Grimnaks life. My AE hit him for 2 skulls and Grimnak only came up with one shield.

With Grimnak out of the picture the Gruts wouldn't be able to get huge attacks against Braxas and she still had 5 life and Raelin to back her up. The remaining Gruts tried to stand up against Braxas but all they could do was inflict 4 wounds and were all wiped out.

Marcu came in through the back though and threatened to make it a game. Marcu started his reign of terror by chomping down on Braxas and eliminating her. The Marro Warriors fired back at Nerak and Marcu. The vampire ended up leaving my start zone a couple of times though to give me a little bit of time. Marcu managed to kill off a couple of them but died to the Warrior fire.

Down to just Raelin and a Swog the Kyrie attempted to try to finish off the Marro Warriors. I intercepted with my Raelin and cloned back my Marro Warriors. With the Marro Warriors back to full strength they managed to shoot down Raelin and Mathias conceded with just a lone Swog Rider left.


It was a pretty intense match and Mathias told me afterwards that he knew what I was doing once I moved Raelin and positioned Braxas to stop the Move+2 glyph. At that point he had felt committed. Luck also came up on my side with a key initiative with the AE to put the hurting on Grimnak.


Finals
Hendal
Stingers x 7, Raelin, Zettian Guards, yes Zettian Guards
Map: Ticalla Sunrise
Glyphs: Wound, Unique Attack+1


The match started with me moving towards Unique Attack + 1 and Hendal split up his forces to go towards the Wound glyph. Once the Wound glyph was secured for him the Stingers rushed towards the area with the Unique Attack glyph to do some damage to Raelin. When he rolled for the Wound glyph he suceeded and I tossed away a Marro Warrior. This ended up being a huge mistake as I started moving them the next round!

The Marro Warriors/Deathreaver combo kept Stingers from pressing up the hill to take me off of the Unique Attack glyph. The AE dropped shortly afterward and the Stingers were hard pressed at that point to get anywhere near the Unique Attack glyph. The AE with their 8 range were even able to take shots at Raelin in his start zone.

Hendal was starting to sense he was in trouble and the Stingers began juicing. He failed one of the attempts with the Stingers but successfully knocked off two of the AE on repeated attempts. With both of my Unique Squads down to half of their numbers and still about 9-10 Stingers left I moved out Braxas. She had the mission of trying to wrest control of the Wound glyph from him. She failed miserably and whiffed on both die rolls attempting to kill Stingers. Hendal retaliated and had no problem juicing and killing off Braxas before she even got started.

Luckily at this point I still had tons of Deathreavers left and started aggressively moving them to give my AE and MWs breathing room. The rats killed off the Stingers near the Wound glyph and managed to secure it for themselves. In addition they preoccupied the Marro Stingers that were threatening to finish off the AE and Marro Warriors for good. They got about 5-6 kills in and from there the AE were able to finish things off.


Result: Champion!


All right at any rate I think my luck ends here.


Bonus Game: Versus Craig Van Ness
Kato
Ashigaru Harqs
Ashigaru Spearmen
Raelin
Marcu
Map: Ticalla Sunrise
Glyphs: Wound, Unique Attack+1

Well I decided to represent Heavies for my matchup against Craig. I could've added Raelin but I wanted to go for a more swarmed based Heavy Grut Army. If ManTrain would've brought Nerak I would've played him to but at any rate:

The Heavies advanced a bit slowly towards the wound glyph. Craig seemed to have his eye on that glyph so we figured that area would be the common fighting ground. Grimnak got some great early kills and I managed to wipe out most of the early spearmen and about 4 of the Harqs. Things were looking up for me and I had even managed to severely wound Raelin and gave her 4 wounds.

Then the crowd of spectators walked away. Who was to blame them though really it looked like that Craig would once again be crushed by more forces. Then a funny thing happened. The remaining Harqs just started killing everyone. They gunned down Grimnak and they wiped out the Heavy Gruts. I even managed to get three more Heavies into the area and they were wiped out in one turn. I managed to get a few more kills off on Spearmen and Harqs but was down to Marcu. Marcu held up pretty well. He ate Raelin, and killed the remaining Ashigaru. Of course by now Kato as in the fray and he put the beatdown on Marcu and even hit 4 skulls on an attack. It brought my record to 1-1 against him in what was an enjoyable match.


Overall an awesome experience and was surprised by the results. I wasn't expecting to win I just picked the army that I was comfortable with and would have fun with. Thanks again to Rÿchean, and everyone else who made the GenCon experience awesome this year.

[lonewolf]

Originally Posted by MattserTruckRally

Result: Champion!

All right at any rate I think my luck ends here.

Great battle report.

I really feel like you need a little luck at this point to win the championship. Don't get me wrong, you must have serious skills to make it to the second day, but it just takes a couple bad breaks or matchups or maps to make everything go really bad for someone. The relative skill level of all the players now seems higher than ever before making matchups, maps, and out and out die rolls a bigger factor.

I really feel like I was lucky to make the second day last year. On the other hand, if I hadn't got a bad matchup against Clarissmus on the first round, maybe I go 5-0 and breeze in to the second day. If I don't have the common attack glyph parked in front of me in my match against Hendal, maybe I lose that match.

It sounds like if a couple situations had gone a little differently on the first day, you might not have made the second day, but you persevered.

One thing is for sure and that is that the best players are consistently seen making the second day of the championship and doing well.
This is not luck!

Congratulations on your victory!

[killercactus]

Great report, Mattser! I wish I could've been there to see it. Your army selecting skills never fail to impress me - I love making armies and sometimes don't consider half of what you do.

I think people often times underestimate the Deathreavers as an offensive force. They have enough movement to claim high ground, and attacks of 2v2 or 2v3 can be effective. If the Common Attack +1 glyph is in play (like it was for me last year), they become very strong.

Again, major props for your army selection! You picked an army that could play well in the metagame, and had a plan for your tough matchup, which you executed. That's why good players always win lost of games.

[Hendal]

Great Report, Ok hear is how I saw our match, I was doing well and then you moved Raelin to high ground - your AE hadn´t dropped and I was looking good. At one point I thought I remembered you saying ¨(you got this one if you stay the course ) or something like that? But then AE dropped right by raelin on height. IF you had not moved Raelin that turn - I felt I had it, if you had not gotten the AE to drop I felt I had it, then it was all down to the Int. roll because I had stingers ready to swarm up the hill and mess you up, but you won Int. and my stingers where gone ( gunned down ) and I knew I was basically down for. I thought it was an awesome match and was glad that it was an All Ohio Finals.

After the game I thought I really should have said use a different board since the one we played on has set glyphs that favored you, but hey at that point I was just happy to be in the finals and it is all about the luck and my had to run out at some point. And hey I am learning, so next year I really hope to do better!

The DW where very tough for me to counter, they also killed way more stingers then I thought they would, great army I say.

It was a good game still, and you are such a great sportmans. For the Record I had the Wound glyph early and forgot to use it a few times and the next round after we had moved you still let me roll for it and killed off some of your rats, now that was above and beyond since I forgot, again thanks for that so I didn´t feel like a total smuck.

Go Ohio!

[lonewolf]

Originally Posted by Hendal

And hey I am learning, so next year I really hope to do better!

I sure hope not....you are already one of the best....if you get better then we are in for it.

[MattserTruckRally]

Originally Posted by Hendal

Great Report, Ok hear is how I saw our match, I was doing well and then you moved Raelin to high ground - your AE hadn´t dropped and I was looking good. At one point I thought I remembered you saying ¨(you got this one if you stay the course ) or something like that? But then AE dropped right by raelin on height. IF you had not moved Raelin that turn - I felt I had it, if you had not gotten the AE to drop I felt I had it, then it was all down to the Int. roll because I had stingers ready to swarm up the hill and mess you up, but you won Int. and my stingers where gone ( gunned down ) and I knew I was basically down for. I thought it was an awesome match and was glad that it was an All Ohio Finals.

After the game I thought I really should have said use a different board since the one we played on has set glyphs that favored you, but hey at that point I was just happy to be in the finals and it is all about the luck and my had to run out at some point. And hey I am learning, so next year I really hope to do better!

The DW where very tough for me to counter, they also killed way more stingers then I thought they would, great army I say.

It was a good game still, and you are such a great sportmans. For the Record I had the Wound glyph early and forgot to use it a few times and the next round after we had moved you still let me roll for it and killed off some of your rats, now that was above and beyond since I forgot, again thanks for that so I didn´t feel like a total smuck.

Go Ohio!

I agree with that about the AE as well. With only 2 Marro Warriors to protect Raelin they did drop at a crucial point of the game. Once the AE dropped there never a good chance after that point to attack her which really hurt you the rest of the game.

Still a good match and I would've loved to have played it on a different map to see what the outcome would've been!



P.S. Ohio Domination for GenCon this year! SWninja winning Heat of Battle, Wookie winning Dragon Wars, and 2 Ohioians, well one Cubohian and Ohian getting that top 2 spots at the Con! Oh yeah and Hendal also won the Capture the Flag!

[dok]

Originally Posted by MattserTruckRally

P.S. Ohio Domination for GenCon this year! SWninja winning Heat of Battle, Wookie winning Dragon Wars, and 2 Ohioians, well one Cubohian and Ohian getting that top 2 spots at the Con!

Don't you mean "Ticohian"?

Thanks for adding your perspective, Hendal, and congratulations on another deep run at the championship.

[Jexik]

Grats again man, and nice report!

It's really interesting to hear how you go about some of the tougher matchups and mirror matches. The fact that you tend to win those says a lot about your skill, I think. K-boom was very impressed last year. (Although he still hates 'lil ramparts).

It's also cool that a textbook rat podge did well.