Iowa Rocks (TTO)

[Jexik]

About 3 weeks ago, I was driving my friend "K" home from Iowa thinking about the upcoming tournament that we'd be going to in Forest City. Neither of us had been to one, but we liked the idea of a 530 point tournament and spent most of our 3 hour car ride talking about prospective armies.

Then it hit me.

The perfect way to fill 24 hexes and 530 points.

I liked the idea of getting 6 sets of 4th. Massachusetts, but it took 24 hexes but only 420 points. What could I get for 110 points that doesn't take up any hexes?

AE.


I could go on and on about the testing that K and I did, but that wouldn't change the fact that as soon as I thought it up, we were dead set on making it happen. I borrowed 6 sets of Mass from various friends and brothers of friends, and K and I also bought 4 more. I only had 2 sets 3 weeks ago!

I'll talk about it at length in other threads I'm sure, but here it goes...

Battle Reports-TTO III. (60 Strong!)

1st Round: Ted (final record: 4-2, his only other loss was to the guy I played next)

Ted was a cool guy from some weird place in Minnesota where they don't play with glyphs but they do have awesome imaginations. I chuckled a little bit when I first saw his army, but I was quickly chastened. He went with Nakitas, 2 Gorrilanators, 2 Marrden Hounds and Me-Burq-Sa. He hadn't played much, and was a little iffy on the rules, but he certainly was a good player, and a fun guy. He likes Heroscape because it's "like Chess meets D&D."

We played on Annihilation Alley, which is a fun and furious map. Early on I was just getting rocked. He got the Thorian! Glyph, and proceeded to gun down some mans. Then I threw grenades at some Nakitas and 'nators, but only managed to kill 1 'nator with the 'nades.

He made a few mistakes where he moved off glyphs, and in one clutch turn 3 I took both the Thorian and Dagmar glyph. I started to fight back, and it was a great fight- Tough was way more useful than I ever expected it to be. I don't know how many times I rolled one skull, only to say 'Tough' and have to just go on to my next attack.

He won his first Master Set at the end of the day, which was pretty awesome for him.

The final score was me winning 140 to 0. I think I had 5 or 6 Mass left, just barely killing his last squad members as time was being called. I had a huge adrenaline rush and was rolling dice like crazy in the last minute. I take very fast turns when I'm on the verge of a win.

His army was surprisingly fast and cohesive, and I probably would have lost had he not moved off of the glyphs. Don't understimate nakitas and gorillas!

One neat trick I picked up while fighting Nakitas is to always shoot at them if given the chance. If they fail their smoke powder roll, you might kill them; if they succeed it, shoot something else in range.

2nd Round- Gibberish
4x Mass, 2x Knights, Gilbert

Gibberish is an awesome player. I played him on Annihilation Alley. We talked about valiant armies and our thoughts about why we went with what we did, and then got to business.

He used the Knights as decoys, charging up the road in the middle.

I took the bait.

My AE dropped in round 3 million.

I won initiative every round except the time the AE dropped.

He killed them, and then killed my 6x Mass with his 4x.

He ended with Gilbert with 5 lives left and 7 Mass.

I felt like an idiot, and gained a lot of respect for good play and map control. Glyphs were forgettable- Wound and unique attack I think.

Cumulative record and Point differential- 1-1 (-105)

3rd Round - Zyggy, the awesome little kid

Rae Lynn, New Drake, Agent Carr, Sir Denrick 'Samurai Archer Guys'

After I got my butt kicked, I was then put into easier schedule mode. I played against a kid who was no more than 9. He seemed to know his scape better than a lot of older guys on this site though. He knew that Swamp Water doesn't add height for example. Apparently he can read. Props to his parents. He also remembered to use Agent Carr's ranged attack, and almost took out my squad of AE.

This was the only game that I really felt bad for fielding an army with 28 squad figures. Against this hodgepodge of Unique Heroes, letting him win would take at least four hours unless I grenaded my own starting zone. I did use grenades against Drake, just to see if it'd work. I killed one Mass with it and caused no wounds to Drake!

I lost one squad, largely due to overzealous playing and my own grenade. I didn't want to blank him, and tried to keep up some positive conversation.

+460 (2-1 Cumulative. and +355 PD now)

4th Round - CODEMAN!

4x Arrow Gruts, 4x Swog Rider, Krug, and Mimring

I was one of only 6 people who got to play with Dale. I had a blast. Anyone who thought that he picked the maps and point values to his own benefit has clearly never played as Krug on Hot Heights. He's always gonna play Orcs. He even painted them to make them look awesome, and he's really pretty good with them. I don't think he ever made an attack with fewer than 2 dice, and he would never overcommit to a glyph or piece of terrain. I dropped my Airborne Elite early, and they eventually helped bring down Mimring, but after that they really just served to screw up the valiant army bonus.

We fought over and over again over the Valda and Jalgard glyphs on the map, but neither of us ever held on for long. It went back and forth until the very end until I killed his last arrow grut. In his haste, he had put all of his markers on them because he was so used to it. My Mass ran up and ended his final swog for my 3rd victory. +70 PD (3-1/+425 cumulative)

I really appreciate everything Codeman did to make the TTO happen again, and I was glad that I got a chance to play him. Also, Disengage is pretty powerful.

5th Round- Nathan, cousin of Zyg

All the Esenweins, Rechets, Isamu, Krav Maga Agents, MBS, Marro Warriors

This army had a lot of different cards. I had played this map 3 times the night before (Snow). I got the Thorian glyph. Cyprien scared me, but failed to do much to the mass. The AE owned for once. It felt a lot closer than it was, because those vamps are so scary. I lost just two squads of the 4th. His luck was also pretty bad for most of the game. I don't think I saw a single chilling touch hurt anyone, and it took at least 2-3 tries for him to summon the Rechets. I think his whole family hates me now.

(4-1) (+815- Back up there!)

6th Round- Slade

My last game was against Slade, on Hot Heights. He had Q9 and a ton of orcs. I got the Brandar (decoy) glyph early on. Crevcor was on his side of the map- it was in such a precarious spot that I was never able to even think about holding it, but I did prevent him from doing so either. This was the first time I'd seen Crevcor or Astrid all day: either one of them would make my army really, really scary. Krug and Q9 beat me down. I'd kind of like to forget this game. He had Q9, Isamu, and 2 Swogs left at the end.
Some kid fell too. He almost hit his head.

-240 (4-2, +575 cumulative.)

All in all, I should have listened to my own order marker advice, instead of trying to be cute and bend the rules. It worked a lot better for K though, as you'll soon see. Even though I placed 11th, I still walked away with a nice new FotA set. I saw some SotM there, but I figured I'd let someone else take them.

Also, I think I was the only person to beat Joe's stingers all weekend.

[Jormi_Boced]

Originally Posted by Jexik

Also, I think I was the only person to beat Joe's stingers all weekend.

That was a very good report!

It was too bad you didn't get a chance to beat Joe's Stingers on Saturday though, then I maybe could have played someone else in the last round for once

[Clarissimus]

I didn't have any trouble with his stingers . . . . it was his deathreavers that did me in

[Jexik]

Originally Posted by Clarissimus

I didn't have any trouble with his stingers . . . . it was his deathreavers that did me in

My dice were hot on Friday night when I played him. I nailed three rats in one turn once, when I had moved the Mass and didn't even have any glyphs or anything. I don't remember the point differential, but I do remember that Isamu actually posed the biggest threat to my army

[Codeman]

Ok I get the title now.... I thought you were calling Iowans Rocks

Seriously, thanks for making the long trip, and representing Illinois. It sounds from your testimonial that is was worth the trip, and I am happy to hear that. I'm glad we got a chance to meet up a play during the day.

Again thanks for your kind words and making the trip up to see what the TTO was all about.