Nebraska Skirmish III Battle Reports

[fomox]

(See the event thread for the overall results, but that gives away the ending.)

I had a very good time, with four of the closest games I've ever played making for a particularly fun experience.

--
A quick note about the Skirmish rules: 405 points if you have any ranged units, 475 if you have only melee.

Given the very good showing melee-dominant armies have had, one might think that melee with an extra 70 points should have an easy time. But when a ranged opponent can count on facing armies with no range at all, it's a different story. 10th regiment become a very tempting option in that environment, and any all melee army has to think carefully about how they would deal with that. (Rats are tempting, too, but the heavy armies from last year seemed to convince everyone not to go that route.)
--


My army:
Grimnak, Nerak, Heavy Grutsx4, Marcu - 470, 21 hexes

The decision of whether to use Marcu and the 4th squad of heavies instead of Raelin and Isamu was a very difficult one, and it was only at the last minute that I finally gave up trying to make it, and decided Marcu was more interesting than Raelin, so why not give it a try. What could possibly go wrong?


Game 1
Ellraiser - Anubian Wolvesx3, Dumutefx3, Khosumet, Hawthorne, Isamu - 475, 18 hexes
Map - Hide and Seek - (Marvel & Tundra maze)

Ell's army had so many synergies going on, I couldn't keep track of them all. (Seemed like nearly everyone was either relentless or a devourer.) The road bonus for the 3 unchompable dumutefs had me concerned, too.

This is a crowded map that makes for some serious bottle-necking. I got to the height with heavies backed by Nerak. Ellraiser generally went with OMs spread out on wolves, Hawthorne and Dumutefs. There were very few chomp opportunities, but the wolves couldn't get through the bottleneck, either. Neither of us were killing the other very fast, but eventually the heavies took out Hawthorne, the Dumutefs and wolves, and finally Khosumet.

(Win, 1-0)

Game 2
Obsidian - Grimnak, Ornak, Brunak, Marcu, Bladesx3 - 470, 18 hexes
Map - Overseer (SotM)

I had talked quite a bit with MM about the blades, and nearly brought them to TTO. I talked with Obsidian about them, too, and really liked his take with Ornak and Brunak. I tried it a few times against other melee armies (not heavies) and found it to be pretty sweet, but felt more familiar with the heavies.

I was pretty nervous about this one from the start, and honestly, the whole game was pretty nerve-wracking. Every move seemed to be of critical importance, every roll a crucial win or devastating loss. He led with an OM1 on Ornak, grabbing the move glyph with a betrayal-free marcu and carrying Ornak up with Brunak. I opted for a bit of a slow roll out of the heavies. I got established on the 7-hex sand hill near my start zone while his 8-move blades rushed across the field. By Round 3, OM1, Marcu and Brunak had done considerable damage to my heavies, and my Grimnak had a couple wounds.

I spent WAY too long trying to kill Obsidian's Marcu, but also got a couple of heavies clogging the middle and tying down Brunak. The move glyph acted as a roadblock on the side, making it difficult for reinforcement blades to come around. There was an interesting Grimnak on Grimnak battle on the sand hill on my side; I had more reinforcements to help out (and to get chomped...) and ended up winning the battle. Having the battle on my side of the board definitely helped.

I finally finished off Brunak in the middle just before the end of the game. I won on points at the end, and felt fortunate to have done so. And I didn't have to risk using Marcu, which is always nice.

(note the subtle foreshadowing)

Obsidian was great to play against. Most fun I've had being totally stressed out. It could easily have gone away.

(Win 2-0)

Game 3
Clarissmus - Cap, Kaemon, MW, Isamu - 400, 7 hexes
Map - Creeping Death (a big hill with lava).

I really, really thought about using Cap, and was pleased to see that Clarissmus had the guts to do so. I was less pleased when I realized I was going to have to fight it, but I figured: 16 heavies should be enough to get through counterstrike, right? Right...?

Sigh.

He came out with Cap, shield blazing. Heavy grut dead, heavy grut dead, two wounds on Nerak, 2 more heavy gruts dead, Nerak dead, 2 more heavies dead, and 3 wounds on Grimnak.

Zero wounds on Cap. Check that- zero ATTACKS on Cap. Mean ol' Clarissmus wasn't even giving me a chance to die from counterstrike. (maybe I did get an attack in . . . I don't remember. It all happened so fast.)

Cap is invincible. Marvel is completely broken. I am a terrible player.

Resigned to losing the game, I moved grimnak up on the high lava with Cap to take my one shot at chomp before my inevitable death.

Chomp.

Woo hoo! Cap is such a chump. Marvel just can't hang with regular scape. I am so awesome. ()

What a difference a D20 makes . . . That kind of luck will never come back to bite me!

I then had two free OMs to head to his start zone, chomp the MW, Isamu, and surround KA, who would eventually fall to repeated attacks from the heavies, right? Right . . . ?

No, he would not. I must have sacrificed 2 full squads to counterstrike, with only a few lasting long enough for Clarissmus to shoot down. He takes out Grimnak and all the heavies. He took two wounds.

Soo....it's all OM on Marcu, on a lava map. Hot Lava Death anyone?

No! Marcu flies over, gets in the first shot... 4 skulls! 2 shields! Kaemon dies!

Marcu reassures me: "See? I'm on your side. I saved you from your own incompetence. I'm your friend. You can count on me..."

Clarissmus was a very fun opponent, except when he kept hexing my attack dice. Obviously, this really could have gone the other way. I was happy to see him do so well in the tournament with such a fun army.

(Win, 3-0)

Game 4
Tiny Timmy - MDG, Parmenio, Raelin, SBx4 - 470, 19 hexes
Map - Bloody Hills (RotV - a big plateau with two hills & ruins)

We meet again, Tiny Timmy. Soon I will have my revenge. My loyal Marcu will show your feeble greeks the power of the dark side.

We both headed for the two high hills near the middle, positioning our support units just right and bringing up our squads. No attacks for the first two rounds, just two massing armies waiting for the inevitable bloodfest.

This one went back and forth the whole time. Too crowded to get many chomps, it was mostly greek on grut action. I focused mostly on the SB, but had a couple of shots on MDG, too. MDG fell, but as I risked more chomp shots on the SB, he killed Grimnak. Now I'm down on points with an uphill battle.

"Don't worry. I have your back. I'll never betray you..."

Finally, some spots open up on his hill, and I get some heavies in around Parmenio and Raelin, but it looks bad. I have a good turn, he has a good turn. Nerak grabs a couple SB in the start zone, and it's down to three heavies and Nerak, and Parmenio, Raelin, and 3 greeks. He's got the high ground. I have to risk it and rush in. Nerak kills a SB. The heavies kill another and put some wounds on Raelin. He kills another heavy. I kill Raelin and the last SB. It's Parmenio vs Nerak and 2 heavies! A heavy dies, another, and then Nerak... "2 minutes!"
Parmenio sits on the high ground, bloodied, but triumphant...

...and within 7 hexes of Marcu. He flies in and kills Parmenio from low ground.

"I am your last, best hope. All shall tremble and fear!! Together we shall rule the universe as player and uh, figure with his skin turned inside out!"

Nice to finally get a win against Tiny Timmy. Even if it was mostly luck. Okay, a lot of luck.

(Win 4-0)

Game 5
Jexik - Grimnak, Nerak, Raelin, Heavy Grutsx3, Isamu - 470, 18 hexes
Map - Creeping Death (Lava. Why did it have to be Lava?)

I was wondering which of these armies was better, and here I'd get a chance to find out. First time playing Jexik, though we've been to many of the same tournaments before.

Every choice on this map is bad. I can't decide if that is terrible or brilliant, or both. We both reluctantly trudged up the hill. Jexik did some major damage early on. He claimed it was the dice, but I was probably doing something wrong but was too slow to figure it out. He took a smart Grimnak-from-Grimnak disengagement and was getting a lot of chomping done and killed Nerak with Grimnak from height. Nicely done, but it did move him out of Raelin's aura. I disengaged Grimnak, too, and came around the lava tile to get a chomp and an attack from height on his Grimnak. Then the boosted attacks from heavies finished him off. I had a 3 wound Grimnak (1 from disengage, 2 from lava maybe?) on the high lava, with his Nerak coming up to join the fight with his few remaining heavies. I had 3 heavies left, and we went back and forth on the high ground. He sent Nerak to Marcu in my start zone, leaving my Grimnak and my last heavy on the hill. He had Nerak (wounded), Raelin, and Isamu left.

Raelin decided to stay on the lava to kill Grimnak, which she did. 90 points to 90 points, but my grut wouldn't last long. Time to turn to my loyal ally, Marcu the Destroyer. I flew to the hill. Raelin flew out of range. I crept forward, she stayed out of range. I knew I could eventually corner her, and with 4 attack, I had to like my chances. And then, in my moment of triumph...

(Who doesn't see this coming?)

HOT LAVA DEATH!!!

"Ha ha ha ha ha . . . "

(Loss 4-1, and I'll never trust again...)

Great game to cap a great day of playing. Thanks again to everyone involved. Just wait till next year!

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Congrats to Jexik!!
I want to thank everybody for coming out to play. We had SD, MO, IL, NE, and IA represented at the tourney. It was great to see everybody again. I also want to thank Tiny Timmy, Wisp, Clarissimus, and Christopher for helping me set up the night before. Also almost everybody helped tear down and that was real cool. Coliseum was a great host and WGHQ and HM were great sponsors.
As I was thinking and discussing armies with fomox (as always) I just never really liked anything except for Hawhtorne / Knights x 4 / Gilbert. But I told myself after HotB at Gen Con and Hawthorne turning on me twice, I was done with him. Fomox and I both talked about Jexik’s winning army (Heavies x 3 / Grimnak / Nerak / Raelin / Isamu), and the heavy army that fomox brought (Heavies x 4 / Grimnak / Nerak / Marcu). I just wasn’t excited about either of them. (Maybe playing heavies all the time does that to you). I already knew they were good and wanted to try something else. I thought about SB x 4 / Parmenio / Marcus / Raelin, but Tiny Timmy really liked that army so he ran it. I tried quite a few Blade Grut builds, but 2 attack (and defense!!) just sucked. I tried it with Ornak and Orc Battle Cry, I tried it with Raelin, I tried all different types of builds and no matter what I tired they would win about ½ the matched I play-tested in. I eventually added Krug to give it some hitting power, but still I felt something was missing. I decided that I would sit the tourney out because I was running it unless we had uneven numbers. My army was going to be Blades x 4 / Grimnak / Nerak / Krug / Marcu if I needed to play. The idea was that the Blades would tie up everything with their speed and Grimnak and Krug would systematically walk through and kill everything while they blades would do a little damage here and there. So yes, my plan was for 240 points (Grimnak and Krug) to kill all of my opponent’s army. And yes I was up to late the night before when I conceived this plan.
We got started about 10 minutes late (thanks stubobj and crazyangel ). We had even numbers so we were in good shape until one of Ellraiser’s buddy came in a few minutes late. So I jumped in with my amazing army to play against him. He was a n00b for the most part. His army was –
Spartacus / Crixus / Capuans x 2 / Isamu / Eldgrim. We played on Creeping Death by Supergeek.

He led with Eldgrim and Isamu while I led with Grimnak and Blades. I ignored Isamu and Eldgrim for the most part while Grimnak went to town on his start zone. A few minutes later all he had left was Spartacus. Grimank had killed everything except including chomping Crixus. Then Spartacus got upset and went to town. He killed off Grimnak, Nerak, and 2 squads of blade gruts basically by himself. I had to send in Krug to kill him. I knew that after this game where a Blade grut had only killed one Capuan that I was in deep trouble.

1-0

My next game was against my arch-nemesis and (friend), Spider Poison. I always look forward to my games against Spider. He’s always a great player and a cool guy (don’t tell him I said that though). He played his tron army –
Glads x 3 / Blasts x 2 / Marcu / Oto / Isamu on Hide N Seek by Gamebear. One thing that fomox and I noticed that Grimnak was tough to maneuver on Hide N seek because of all the choke points.
The game started out pretty well I was keeping Grimnak back and using my blades to tie up Spider’s glads. Nerak was backing them up. His Blasts took height and were getting shots of 2-3 on my 3-4 defense blade gruts and they were just dying. Grimnak was chomping where he could, but my blades backed by grimank and / or height just couldn’t punch through his 4 defense Glads. I think the Blades killed 2 Glads total. Grimnak chomped as much as he could but there was just too many. I kept them off of him as long as I could, but the blades were just falling too fast. Krug got swarmed at the end and fell in one turn of attacks. I killed 2 squads of Glads before I was done. Good game Spider! We’re now 3-3 against each other. I knew things were going down hill fast. My blades were fast, but they just couldn’t kill anything.

1-1

My next game was against one of my teens, Nathan. We played on bloody Hills by Stubobj. His army was –
Minions x 2 / Taelord / Izumi / Oto
Now this was a good army for Grimnak to chomp. And that’s just what he did. Minions backed by Taelord was overkill against 2 defense blade gruts. Grimnak had a buffet and killed everything. The Blades actually helped put a few wounds on Taelord this game.

2-1

My next game was against twotongues on Overseer by Gamebear. Towtongues is fairly new to the tourney scene but is quickly making a name for himself. He played my favorite units in all of heroScape -
10th x 3 / Raelin / Krav.
I knew this game was over the minute I sat down. There was height right outside of his start zone, so he didn’t even have to move Raelin. He took the height and just waited. I was up on points because he was running range, so I could have forced him to me, but I felt that was kind of ghetto, so I just charged. Grimnak took out a squad of 10th and a Krav agent before he fell. The blades did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! They just died like little girls! Krug killed off 2 more squads of 10th, but it was too little too late. 10th > 4th

2-2

My last game was against another fun opponent bobofdeath. Usually when bobofdeath and I go at it, I have knights and he has TKN and company. This time he had Dwarves x 3 / Migol / Krug / Eldgrim. We played on Bloody Hills.

I thought I had a chance as long as I could keep the dwarves off of Grimnak, which I was able to do most of the game. The problem once again was the Blades only killed 2 dwarves the entire game. Grimnak chomped the rest. My Krug killed his Migol while taking a few wounds. I had Grimnak / Krug w/ 4 wounds and Marcu against his Krug. Our Krug’s faced off and mine lost but his had 6 wounds on him. He finished off my Grimnak and my Marcu flew in and put one more wound on him. It was end of round and if I won initiative I kill off his Krug. I won initiative. Now 4 attack should beat 3 defense right? SO I thought I had the game, but wait a minute why is Marcu only 20 points? Oh yeah it’s the eternal hatred thing. Let me roll for that….17!! Crap! Krug then finished off Marcu and his 1 defense the next turn! Good game! I always enjoy the close ones!!

2-3

By far one of my worst finishes. But I always enjoy the games against Spider and that last one was awfully close and fun (not that I didn’t enjoy the others too).

So I had Blades x 4 = 160 points over 5 games = 800 points. They killed in total 1 Capuan, 2 Glads, and 2 dwarves = about 100 points worth of units. Hmm, I’m thinking that didn’t work out quite like I planned.

It was cool to see Cap America played by Clarissimus do well. Congrats again to Jexik!I also want to thank Stubobj and Ellraiser for taking care of prize support. Also it was good to see 3 new faces to the tourney scene, sinerG (who had to play Spider), Micah (who had to play Spider), and Dave. Thanks again everybody who came and helped out!!

Map Reflections –

Hide N Seek by Gamebear – I really like this map. I thought the road, choke points, and LOS blockers were all very well done especially with using the Marvel terrain as the base set. My biggest complaint is that it’s not very friendly to double spaced figures.

Creeping Death by Supergeek – I always enjoy lava maps. Especially ones that use the lava terrain as the high ground. I would have like to seen more hot lava though on this map. And I’m not a big fan of using water in the start zone.

Bloody Hills by Stubobj – This is one of those maps where you wish you could use 2 small ruins pieces instead of one each. I think that would open up the middle enough if you did that.

Overseer by Gamebear – I love how this map only uses SotM, but I also hate that because there are very few hiding places for melee and they are almost always engaging up.

[Melwing17]

Really enjoyable battle reports, thanks for the read

[Jexik]

Thanks Tiny Timmy and MM for handling all of the scoring and everything, and Coliseum Games for giving us the space!

I’ve never been all that into the thematic elements of Heroscape. I’m an intuitive numbers guy. However, if there were any theme that I am into, it’d be the orcs. In the Warcraft games, they were always my favorite race, and even my name Jexik was used once for my leader’s name in a browser-based cooperative game I played in high school.

When I do play less competitive games, I almost always play Arrow Gruts or Heavy Gruts at least once whenever I go to a game day. They’re a lot of fun for me to play. So I’ve got lots of experience with them, but after I got torched once playing the Arrow Gruts in a tourney, I felt that they might not have what it takes any more. After Mantrain and MM played the Heavy Gruts with Raelin and went deep in the main event at GenCon this summer, I decided that maybe I underestimated them, at least with Raelin’s support. With Wave 10 coming out, I finally had a legit Nerak, and the Nebraska Skirmish rule gave a point bonus to melee-only armies.

The stars aligned for me to finally play Heavies in a tournament, something I hadn’t done in over 100 games played in tourneys, even though I use them all the time at home!

3x Heavy Gruts 210
Nerak 260
Raelin 340
Grimnak 460
Isamu 470

The main thing that this army would have to worry about in a normal tournament is pretty straightforward: 4th mass/10th, and maybe ‘trons. With ranged being gimped in this format, the Heavy Gruts seem like the odds -on favorite to me. I also felt that Raelin would be super good against other melee armies, because she allows me to essentially just turtle the crap out of them until they either attack into my auras or let me get the first strike.

Game 1- Hawkins - 3x Minions of Utgar, 3x Deathreavers, Marcu Esenwein on stubob's map

Hawkins has the same first name as me. I tried to make small talk about how I went by that nickname until I was in 5th grade and changed schools, but I think I failed miserably.

He said that he is borrowing the cards from a friend, and doesn’t play a whole lot. He read my cards and got a little frustrated. He knew that my army was going to be a rough matchup for him, and it was. Heavy Gruts slide by rats, and Grimnak eats everything. He eventually brought down Grimnak and a squad or so of Gruts, but it was too late.

Good game, Jamie.

1-0

Game 2- stubobj- 3x Nagrubs, Tor Kul Na, 3x Marro Dividers, Isamu on Overseer

I had played against Sterling once before, at GenCon. My minutemen triumphed over his marro in the Capture the Flag game there. He’s a cool guy, and regularly shows up with his wife in tournaments. They both placed top 5 or so at the TTO in October- they’re both pretty solid players.

TKN charged forward, taking out a squad of heavies and Grimnak. I tried to set my guys up, and get them on high ground as much as possible while that happened. Before I took TKN down, I flew Raelin into the center of the map even though there were a few Nagrubs over there.

Once I punched through TKN and the Nagrubs, I huddled up and then broke for the Dividers. I did my best to deny their ability to divide by taking up all of the adjacent same level spaces that I could. The couple times that he did roll over 17, he had no where to spawn... but I also killed a bunch of singletons with rolls of 14’s on his divides. As I got down to around 5-6 or so Heavy Gruts, I got much more aggressive with my ‘cheerleaders’ even tossing an OM on Raelin to provide a distraction deep in his territory and keep the aura rolling. It worked, and I eventually got rid of the dividers, just as he killed Raelin and maybe even Nerak. I forget exactly.

2-0

Game 3- bobofdeath - 3x Axegrinders of Burning Forge, Migol Ironwill, Krug, Eldgrim on Road Rampage

This was a really interesting matchup for me. On the one hand, I knew that Grimnak would be very important- he can eat dwarves all day. Yet he’d be really weak against Krug, and even the Dwarves pose a huge threat to him if I let him get engaged very much without chomping first.

So I did my best to protect Grimnak, using him mostly for his attack/defense auras (together with Raelin and Nerak) to try to hold the line on the Bridge. I put Raelin right next to the tree, on highest ground on that grass space near the wall. Nerak was on the low ground, looking up at the action. Keeping the action near my end of the bridge also meant that BoD would have to spread out his guys more to get into the fray- keeping him down to just 2-3 attacks per turn was a big part of my plan, much like the other melee face-offs.

Migol was just a straight up beast. He killed Raelin pretty quickly. I also sent up Nerak for some dumb reason, maybe just to hold them off of Grimnak for a spell.... but Migol killed Nerak in one hit. But I just kept holding on, chomping when it made sense, attacking the Axegrinders with Grimnak empowered Gruts.

Eventually, I got him down to 3 ABF’s between rounds. As usual, he placed all of his OM’s on them. After his first turn with them, I disengaged my Grimnak, and moved my Heavies in the right manner to kill off the remainder of his dwarves, losing him at least one turn- that was pretty much the momentum shift I needed to win this close game. Krug got pretty angry eventually, killing Grimnak and a few more Gruts, but at the end of the game, I had 4-5 gruts and Isamu left, winning a close one.

3-0

Game 4- Kaboomboomboom- 3x 10th Regiment of Foot, Major Q9 - Hide and Seek

Kyle and I have been friends since I was in 5th grade. We rode the bus to school together every morning. We’ve been playing games competitively against each other for over a decade. Back in 1995, we started playing Magic, but dropped it about two years later. At little bit of Warhammer, and dozens of video games, etc. We’ve always been pretty evenly matched in just about all of these games, and I think we’ve both become better as a result of that mutual competition over the years. He doesn’t post much around here, but he was definitely a great help for me when it was time to test a new BoV map or army for a tournament.

We’ve gone to a ton of tournaments together- I chose the TTO originally because he was going to college in Iowa City when it happened, and spider_poison happened to live there at that time too. The three of us still hang out before and after pretty much every mutual tournament since, including the last two GenCons.

On to the game. I was really worried about Kyle’s army... on just about any map but this. It’s way too small to be an even matchup when range has a point deficit. Some really poor attack rolling early on (I think he had 1 skull on his first ~15 dice) made it even worse. With all of the high ground being in the center (and within my auras) there wasn’t a good place for him to set up a shooty pod. I pretty much just bowled right through and killed everything. Wannok made it happen even faster, as his Q9 wasn’t rolling very well either on defense.

4-0

Game 5- fomox- 4x Heavy Gruts, Marcu, Nerak, Grimnak on that lava map

Both Heavy Grut armies in the finals. Maybe we were on to something? Heavy Gruts won last year too... maybe we should give ranged figures a boost at the next skirmish?


Mike is right. This map is just full of bad choices, especially for melee. I put my Raelin and Nerak near the edge of the map, where they wouldn’t really get hit by height-advantaged melee attacks, and then cautiously swarmed everything I had within their auras. I was going to wait him out. Either he’d try to get the first hit into my high defense, he’d sit on lava and burn, or he’d move close enough to let me get the first hit.

He took the center hill with his Grimnak, with Nerak boosting his defense from afar. Then I charged forward to try to hit him first, chomping a guy, and hitting his guys as best as I could.

I’m not sure if was solid attack rolling, a timely initiative, or just his guys being spread out, but I soon cleared out just about everything he had in the middle of the map except Grimnak. He moved some more guys up, putting them halfway up the hill on the other side of the map. I felt that I was ahead, so it was okay to push a little, so I charged Grimnak forward, chomping some of the guys on their way, and hurting Nerak. Then I disengaged some of my Gruts from the center, running down to get some 4v4’s on his guys with height advantage attacks, leaving one Grut back to tie down Grimnak. Suddenly I felt pretty good about my chances. The grut situation was now about equal, with most of his on low ground in his starting zone, and mine in Rae-nerak’s aura.

Then he killed Grimnak, but that was okay because he was now lower on Gruts than I was. We traded a few Gruts, then I charged my Nerak forward eventually, trying to finish off his last Heavy Grut when he had another turn on them. I rolled 3 shields. Grimmy took some lava damage, and now had 3 wounds on him. My Nerak had also taken two damage at this point.

Next round, he stopped putting any OM’s on the Gruts, but finished mine off. I went all out with Raelin who hadn’t been attacked yet. Between Raelin’s feeble attacks, and more Lava damage, Grimnak died. Marcu finished off Nerak. It was down to Raelin + Isamu v. Marcu and 1 Heavy Grut. Technically, we were equal on points. Neither of us wanted to let the other guy hit first in a melee battle between Raelin and Marcu, so we flew around avoiding each other. I figured that I’d win once he rolled a 17 or higher. Which he did, with a 19. Then Raelin killed the last Heavy grut to seal the deal.

Good game!

5-0 Won a 50 dollar WGHQ gift certificate... which kind of makes up for the gas?

This was the first, and quite possibly the last time I’ll bring the Heavies to a tournament. Might as well end on a good note with them.

[dok]

Sounds like "cell divide denial" may be a significant issue, at least against melee. Did Trample denial also come into play in that game? TKN+Grubsx3+Raelin+Thorgrim was one thought I had for this event, along with TKN+Grubsx3+SBN or TKN+Grubsx4+WSG or TKN+Grubsx4+Raelin+Tarns or TKN+Grubsx3+Raelin+Tarns+Eldgrim.

Another idea that occurred to me was Zombiesx6 + Raelin + Marcu + Isamu. That didn't work out for Cobracao, though (sans Isamu, but he rarely matters). Zombiesx4 + Raelin + Cyprien could have been effective, too - Cyprien serves as your Raelin/Gilbert assasin, then you tackle the weakened opponent with your Raelin-backed zombies. Cyprien acts as a decent proxy for a ranged attack. This one's dead in the water against spider's 'trons, though.

[stubobj]

Thanks to all who showed up. If it wasnt for you guys we couldnt make this happen!

When I first started testing for this tourney I was dead set on using range. My go to army was Mass x5 Eldgrim KG. After a few plays of that I decided to give some other armies a try just for fun. I ened up running Tor-Kul-Na a few times and was really liking how he played. I eventually decided I was going to take the big brute but I needed some good support. Initially I was testing with Realin. But her aura was keeping TKN from moving around like he wanted. So I switched up to new Realin. Her extended aura was nice but I didnt feel like the extra defense die was worth the 120 points. After talking to Ken and sending a quick message to Zealot I settled on taking Dividers.

Saturday morning I thought I had everything ready to go so we could be at The Coliseum by 1030, 11 at the latest. Lets just say things didnt go as planned and we didnt get there until 1130. We still needed to drop our daughter off at Ken's. He quickly gave me directions. ON the way there we nearly got in a serious accident because some moron wasnt paying attention while switching lanes. No, I was not the moron! On top of that I mustve not heard Ken's directions right because it took us nearly 40 minutes to find his place after driving all over the neighborhood. Finally we get to The Coliseum around 1230. Ken informs me and my wife we'd be playing each other. This was expected but Im still not happy about it. Mainly because she had Knights which is one of TKN's worst match ups due to Cowards Reward.

My Army:
Tor-Kul-Na -220
Grubs x3 - 310
Dividers x3 - 460
Isamu - 470

Game 1:

Map: Lava - I dont understand why we are playing lava. We had a choice of about 5 different maps not being used. But my wife chose this one just because we sat our stuff there.
Opponent: CrazyAngel
Army: Knights x4, Hawthorne, Gilbert

We both realize we have to play faster than usual with less than 30min left for round 1. I start off moving Dividers. I was wanting to preserve my 220 for later in the game after dividers did enough damage. My wife moves out her knights. Shes clearly not fully into the game because she pushes Gilbert a little too far and doesnt have many Knights close enough to dispatch. At the end of round 1 she has Gilbert close to my start zone with 3 knights on Lava. I also have 3 dividers on lava. Sam ends up losing all 3 while I lose nothing. Round 2 I move TKN up and make short work of Gilbert. Now shes forced to rely on the traitor. It doesnt matter since TKN is better postion to get the first attack in. The backstabber goes down with very little damage done. With a pitiful move of 4 her knights just cant reach anyone and TKN tramples through them with out a problem.

Win 1-0

Sam did not play as smart as she normally would. She was way too worried about time and it showed. I have a fun time playing her at home but it seems that in a tournament setting we just cant get a good game. She only killed 2 Grubs but I lost a total of 3 Dividers due to lava. This was not her best game at all!

Game 2:

Map: Overseer
Opponent: Jexik
Army: Heavies x3 Realin, Nerak, Grimnak, Isamu

I wasnt looking forward to this match since I know the power of the Gruts. But I did feel decent knowing TKN can bypass both defensive auras. I load up on Grubs and send out TKN. I figure the move glyph would be important to hold. Jexik didnt even bother going for it. He set up a nice little pod on the sand hill in front of his start zone. I wasnt entirely sure what to do. I knew he would just turtle until I was close enough for him to get some good attacks in. If I tried the same he would be at an advantage due to the height difference in the middle. TKN wouldnt be able to use Trample stomp as effectively as Id like. So I charged him in. I got a few Stomps in but eventually was cornered so I couldnt do much with out taking at least 2 disengagement strikes. It was clear to me Jexik had played against TKn a few times. He made attacks on grubs when he could and kept them from getting close to TKN. Since he had moved Realin up my grubs decided to attack her to little effect. TKN was able to kill off Grimnak but he was surrounded by gruts and eventually fell. My dividers did what they could but Jexik did a great job at keep them from replicating. I was able to finally kill Realin off but it was too late.

Loss 1-1

Jexik is a very smart player which makes it very enjoyable and difficult to play against him. Im now 0-2 against him.

Game 3:

Map: Creeping Death (Lava)
Opponent: Obsidian
Army: Brunak, Ornak, Grimnak, Marcu, Blades x3

Obsidian starts of with OM1 on Ornak using him to fly marcu to the initative glyph and then Brunak carries Oranak up. I go with TKN and his grubs and slowly move up trying to keep my grubs off lava. Round 2 I notice Obsidian has most of his markers on Brunak. So I assume he plans on trying to kill off as many grubs as possible. I decide to intercept this plan and engage Bruank with TKN. He is able to kill off 2 grubs with his special but goes down to TKN pretty easily. As I assumed the rest of his OMs were on Brunak which gives me a free turn to pick on Grimnak. In one swing the TRex goes down. Grubs pick on Marcu and along with some lava damage he dies. Next round Ornak goes down in one mighty swing as well. The gruts 2 defense is like having no defense at all. Grubs are able to pick on them while TKN Stomps a few.

Win 2-1

Im sure the game wouldve been a little different had his Heroes not fallen to TKN but he is a good Hero killer as well as good squad killer. As has been mentioned by Matthias 2 defense does not hold up well. Grubs had an easy time killing his blades.

Game 4:

Map: Road Rampage
Opponent: Clarrisamus
Army: Captain America, Marro Warriors, Keamon Awa

Joe leads with his Marro Warriors while I lead with Dividers. Not much happens first round. I think Joe was able to get a few shots and maybe killed a couple dividers/grubs. Round 2 he loads up again on Warriors. He wiffs on most of his attacks which gives me a chance to kill 3 warriors, which I do. Joe has little choice but to try and clone a fallen warrior back but fails at his attempt. Joe was nice enough to let me move my order markers from TKN over to the grubs. Beginning of round 3 Joe asks me if I really want my markers on TKN. DOH! Thanks Joe! He moves up Keamon while I move some dividers in. I get one enganged and decided to chance counter strike. Not very smart of me. The lone divider dies and give Keamon a chance to move up. I reveal my order marker and realize yet again i had placed them on TKN. I dont even ask Joe for a chance to move them This was my bone head mistake and he gave me plenty of warnings. With no grubs around for healing and some pitiful rolls on defense TKN goes down without much of a fight. Now its just an up hill battle for me. I could either get 3 attacks of 2 with my grubs or 3 attacks of 3 with my dividers. Either way Counterstike was going to be a pain to deal with. A lot of whiffed attacks equals a lot of dead figures. Joe wins this hands down.

Loss 2-2

Im sure the game wouldve been way different had I not been a bone head. The dice weren't on my side either. I believe at least half my army died to counterstrike. Another loss puts me 0-2 against Clarrisamus.

Game 5:

Map: Hide and Seek
Opponent: Christopher
Army: 10th x4 MDG

Ive played many practice games on this map against the 10th. I knew Trample stomp would be difficult but I liked my chances. I lead with dividers. I didnt want him getting too many early shots on TKN. Christopher easily kills off most of the dividers I sent out and is able to get a couple shots on grubs since they were my turn 3. Next round TKN is able to kill off a few 10th but he still takes fire from a few others. With only 1 wound on TKN I feel pretty good about my chances since most of his men were in the start zone. TKN decides to chump out on me though and whiffs on most of his defense rolls. He dies before I get a chance to heal. The rest of the game was pretty easy for Christopher. Isamu did put up a fight at the end vanishing at least 6 times before finally going down.

Loss 2-3

Overall I really like TKN and his grubs. I like him against both squads and heroes. It does suck to get some Deathwalker rolls with him though. When he goes down thats most of your army. I would love to run him again though with some range support. Maybe next time I'll remember where to put my order markers.

Map Notes

Overseer: I really dont like this map much. The side with the glyph is just a big choke point. Unless your army really needs the glyph there is little reason to go that way. Most ranged units are able to pod up on the sand hill right outside the start zone. In all my games I never once saw any one use the height opposite the Glyph. Why go that way when height is right outside the start zone. Also as Matthias mentioned there is little to no places for melee to hide.

Hide and Seek: I love this map. Even though clogs up fast there are lots of line of sight blockers. The middle saw most of the play but the outsides did come into use a few times. Games are usually pretty quick due to the small footprint and road.

Creeping Death: There is just no safe place on this map and I like that. I would prefer if there was more options to the outside but overall its fun to play. Expect to lose something to lava!

Road Rampage: The bridge was the focal point of all the games Ive played and seen played. I think this has to do with the tournament format more than the map. Range really doesnt have a chance to set up on the hills since they were behind on points. Melee could easily stay out of range while using the road to close the gap. Range had to be aggressive on this map!

Bloody Hills: Im rather happy with this map even though Im a bit biased towards it. I was worried about the middle getting clogged up pretty easily. I think I may make a few tweaks to it in the future. As Ken mentioned it would play out a bit better with 2 small ruins. Most of my games saw little use of the outside hills too. Its a decent map for just RotV.

[stubobj]

Originally Posted by dok

Sounds like "cell divide denial" may be a significant issue, at least against melee. Did Trample denial also come into play in that game? TKN+Grubsx3+Raelin+Thorgrim was one thought I had for this event, along with TKN+Grubsx3+SBN or TKN+Grubsx4+WSG or TKN+Grubsx4+Raelin+Tarns or TKN+Grubsx3+Raelin+Tarns+Eldgrim.

Another idea that occurred to me was Zombiesx6 + Raelin + Marcu + Isamu. That didn't work out for Cobracao, though (sans Isamu, but he rarely matters). Zombiesx4 + Raelin + Cyprien could have been effective, too - Cyprien serves as your Raelin/Gilbert assasin, then you tackle the weakened opponent with your Raelin-backed zombies. Cyprien acts as a decent proxy for a ranged attack. This one's dead in the water against spider's 'trons, though.

Yes Trample denial came into play. Jexik played very smart and knew what to do against TKN. I had thought about and played pretty much all those armies you listed. I just wasnt liking the idea of being leashed to Realin. I also tried out eldgrim a couple times but never saw an opportunity to use him instead of Grubs. If it wasnt so easy to deny cell divide I think the Dividers wouldve done much better. Getting surrounded by melee is tough on them.

[Jexik]

Originally Posted by stubobj

It was clear to me Jexik had played against TKn a few times.

I played against Clarissimus using him once at a tournament in Illinois* in the summer of '08, so that really got me thinking about how to deal with Trample stomp. Even though he has been out for awhile, it seems like TKN still has a pretty high "what does that guy do again?" factor for a lot of people, which can definitely play to your favor as a TKN player. When you usually play and practice with just the "A" units, you run the risk of getting blindsided by an army like this one, like Lonewolf did in GenCon of 2008.

I lost to Vipers, Mohicans, Aubrien Archers, and Heavy Gruts at GenCon 2009, in part I think, because I underestimated them and didn't test much against them.

So, it seems like all I need to do to win a tournament is face TKN in the second round.

[Bobofdeath's Dad]

Thanks all for a great tournament. The 3 hour drive wasn't too bad from KC.

I tested 3 or 4 different armies. Had it narrowed down to two so I brought both of them to the tourney. I told my sons that which ever army I chose I would regret it at some point.

I finally decided on Knights x 4, Gilbert, Raelin, and Isamu. Only regretted it against Captain America.

Round 1 Bobofdeath Krug, Migol, Axegrinders x 3, Kimoko on Overseer

We knew that with 4 of us out of 28 in the tourney it was inevitable that two of my family would get paired up against each other. Of course it has to be my oldest son, in the first round, whom I was 0-3 against in past tourney play.

I headed for the move + 2 glyph and got it controlled early. I fanned out my knights with Raelin close behind, unreachable by the Axegrinders unless they engaged my knights. Sliced and diced Eldgrim, Migol and a bunch of Axegrinders. The dice were not being to kind to my son. he was down to Krug and I had 9 or 10 knights left to finish him off.

I WON!! Beating my son for the first time in tourney play was the highlight of the tourney. At this point I would have been happy to pack up and head home. Wooo Whoooo!

1-0

Round 2 Micah P. Axegrinders x 4, Migol, Kimoko on Road Rampage

I was excited to see this army after beating almost the same army in the first round. Then I heard the dreaded words, " I am a beginner, this is my first tourney" Last time I heard that in a tourney I got thrashed.

I took the bridge with my knights and positioned Raelin close behind. Unfortunately I could only kill a couple of Axegrinders, while losing two squads of knights and Raelin on the bridge. micah tried to help me a couple of times by putting an order marker on Kimoko a couple of times. If he would have kept using the Axegrinders he would have won much quicker.

1-1

Round 3 Sinerg Knights x 3, Finn, Thorgrim, Eldgrin, Marcu, Tarns on Hide and Seek

We both brought out our knights and met in the middle. I used Gilbert for my champion bonding and he used Finn, Thorgrin, and Eldgrin. As I killed them off he put there bonus auras on the Tarns. I made the mistake on this map of not keeping gilbert within clear sight of my knights in the start zone so I could not take advantage of Jandar's Dispatch a couple of times. We battled pretty close till Sinerg lost all his heroes and was down to the Tarns and 3 or 4 knights. I think I still had Raelin, Gilbert and two squads of knights left. I got some lucky rolls against two of the Tarns and the game was pretty much over.

2-1

Round 4 Hawkins Rats x 3, Minions x 3, Marcu on Creeping Death

Uggghhh! I hate playing against Rats and Minions. This was a battle for height advantage on top of a volcano. I started my knights around to the right. He started with his Rats. I think he later regretted not leading with his Minions. I got Gilbert over the top of the hill and he brought in his Minions. I left Gilbert on the edge of the lava. To get height his Minions would have to land on the lava, so he attacked Gilbert from the lower side. Gilbert killed 5 Minions before the match was over. I would probably still be killing and chasing Rats if it wasn't for the 3 or 4 he lost to lava damage.

I think this was the first victory over a Rat army I have ever had in a tourney.

3-1

Round 4 Clarissimus Capt America, Kaemon, Marro Warriors, Isamu on Overseer.

I had seen this army earlier in the day and was hoping I would never have to line up against it. Well I had to. Lets just say that 6 def with counter strike against knights is suicide. I managed to kill Kaemon and the Marro Warriors, but that was it. I did get ONE wound on Capt America. His only loss was a Grimnack chomp of Capt America.

I hate Marvel!

3-2

[fomox]

Nice use of lava to make things difficult for the minions, Bobofdeath's Dad. I don't think I'd have ever come up with that. That map makes me really uncomfortable, but games on it seems to have been pretty interesting. I think it's a nice design on Supergeek's part.

---

Did anyone end up with any extra dice? I'm missing 3 of my GenCon2009 dice. (It's entirely possible they are in my house somewhere, but I thought I'd ask.)

[Jexik]

Originally Posted by fomox

Did anyone end up with any extra dice? I'm missing 3 of my GenCon2009 dice. (It's entirely possible they are in my house somewhere, but I thought I'd ask.)

Good thing you did! I'm not sure how it happened, but I've got 15. Seems like I'd be the one to take them, since we were both using them and I was your last opponent. How should we handle it?

(You could always just come to the Shake up tomorrow... )

[fomox]

Originally Posted by Jexik

Good thing you did! I'm not sure how it happened, but I've got 15. Seems like I'd be the one to take them, since we were both using them and I was your last opponent. How should we handle it?

(You could always just come to the Shake up tomorrow... )

I wish I could!

I'll just get them from you next time we're at the same tournament. (Unless MM is headed up there, then you could hand them off to him.)

Mine are the three that always roll skulls on offense, and always roll shields on defense.