Marvel/Heroscape Mixed Tourney #2

[Elginb]

I did another home-run tourney with 28 600-point teams composed of all the varied 'scape units duking it out over 5 rounds.

THE FINALS

The last two teams to do battle were as follows:

Silver Surfer, Sentinels, KoW, 4th Mass, and Eldgrim
Vs.
Grimnak, Minions, Microcorps AgentsX2, Heavy GrutsX2, and a Swog Rider

They were playing on a map of my own devising, which consisted of a winding river through a mostly flat map (nothing higher than 6 levels). There were several ruins placed about that spanned several of the water ways (in theory, this provided units crossing water some cover).

As usual, the Silver Surfer was dispatched to take out Grimnak's heavy hitters, which included Grimnak himself, the Minions and as many Microcorps Agents as possible. He zoomed over to the enemy camp before they could even get out the door and started zapping. Now, the key to taking out the Surfer is limiting his options for running away, and to this end the Minions were sent out. This gave the Surfer pause because he knew the Minions had clobbered Thanos something good in an earlier round, so he decided to play cagey.

The Minions actually managed to back the Surfer into a corner while the Microcorps Agents crossed the big river to take the small bit of high ground in the middle of the map. The mound in the middle was far enough away from other high ground that the Surfer had a hard time using his hit and run tactics effectively against them. He was either shooting from low ground against their 4 defense, or shooting from high ground against their 5 defense in the water. Instead, the Surfer decided to stare down the Minions while keeping his distance from the Microcorps. He managed to take them out, but not without taking wounds. Then Grimnak started advancing with his Heavy Orcs to try and take the same corner of the board. The Orcs were too numerous for the Silver Surfer to fight them in their neighborhood, so he decided to retreat across some water and behind one of the ruins. It was time to bring out some of his reinforcements.

The Sentinels were sent out to try and engage the Microcorps Agents, but they proved too slow. Instead, the Agents managed to sneak over to the Surfer's hiding place and get several shots from height against him. Luckily, the Surfer's defense held strong and he never really suffered serious wounds. Since the Agents were desperate to take advantage of the Surfer's low ground vulnerability, they left themselves exposed to the onslaught of the 4th Mass and had to retreat with heavy losses.

Meanwhile, Grimnak had made slow progress across the creeks and rivers with his Heavy Orcs, a force almost fully intact. With the Microcorps Agents severely wounded, the Surfer had renewed confidence and quickly took out Grimnak. Unphased, the Orcs crossed the river adjacent to the Silver Surfer's home camp and started attacking the 4th Mass-- they met little resistance. Eldgrim and his Knights advanced on the Orcs and fought them valiantly and ultimately fell... but not before leaving the Orc horde scattered and fragile.

The Surfer was now in a position to pick off the stragglers, but decided to throw his allies a bone, allowing the Sentinels to hunt down the final Orcs. The one exception was the speedy and evasive Swog Rider, who managed to gain high ground in the middle of the board. With one, merciful Cosmic Blast, the Sufer finished the game and hoisted his hand toward the heavens in victory.

TOURNAMENT CHAMPION: The Silver Surfer and his Valiant Victors!

I want to post a little on the road to the finals and some of the great battles that occured up to that point, but I'll have to come back later to do so...