UTAH 2007 NHS Day -- POST-GAME THREAD (some pics Page 2)

[UtahScott]

2006 NHSD 10/27 attendance: 3
2007 NHSD 10/20
- projected attendance: 16
- actual attendance: 17 (plus organizer=18)
- If it was a free-for-all, and we had more boards, we would have had several more players.

First of all, many thanks are in order!

To Hasbro and the HeroScape design crew, for making such a fun game.

To the prize support triple-threat of Grungebob--we have no idea, Hasbro, and especially Sandra of HouseMouse Games!
AND everyone else who was able to bring some sort of prize.

To SLC's Game Night Games, the most educational and customer-friendly game store in the valley (best for gamer newbies, I mean), for hosting the event.

To everyone who helped with setup: Alex, krai, wjscaper and Rik (and anyone else I forgot). Not to mention everyone breaking down boards!

To everyone who came & played, and for putting up with my less-than-adequate tournament explanations.

Alas, several couldn't show up, due to conflicts (including ortimus).
Plan now for 2008!

Edit: Additional thanks to Agent Minivann for bringing his camera. I hope most of the shots are usable.

December EDIT: Finally added tourney rankings.
The three B1 notes are byes.
There still needs to be a final playoff between betterthanslayer & Blords Jr.
Losing points may not be equal across the board -- some used fractional scoring with squads, some did not.

-# - Name - S. of Schedule - Points
- 3-0
01 - Blords Jr. - - - - - - 5 0
02 - betterthanslayer 4 0

- 2-1
03 - wjscaper - - - 6 0
04 - "Onslaught" - 5 490
05 - Korman Jr. "J" 5 260
06 - Minivann Jr.- - 5 145 B1
07 - quixote Jr.- - - 3 393
08 - Blords - - - - - 3 250
09 - Korman - - - - 3 135

- 1-2
10 - Tony- - - - - - - - 6 446
11 - Alex - - - - - - - - 5 550
12 - Agent Minivann 5 375
13 - Korman Jr. "L"- - 5 175
14 - "Onslaught Jr." - 4 430 B2
15 - Rik - - - - - - - - - 4 ? - Score sheet lost B3
16 - quixotequest - -3 445

- 0-3
17 Krai - - - - - - - - - 5 830

[ortimus]

I expect a full review. Hopefully it was a success.

[UtahScott]

Introductory flavor text

It was a dark and stormy night.

The cloud cover was heavy in early evening, unnaturally dark and thick, blotting out the sky before any star was seen. Then came the rain, and the darkness turned to blackness; solid sheets of water that refused to reveal any view beyond the next thirty yards. And it was cold. Whatever layers of skins or clothing the group had were insufficient to fend it off, and their bones had been aching from it for hours.

Sgt. Drake Alexander trudged ahead of the small band, and the worry in his mind beat in time with every step. Jandar had welcomed them back from their successful foray into the southern jungles, and their new alliance with the area's Moon Tribes promised additional manpower in the intensifying struggle with Utgar. Of course, he had sent them on another mission, to the western deserts this time, after a scout that hadn't returned in weeks. Thormun joined him a few minutes before departure, offering a quick pull from his flask, which Drake was only too happy to accept. But the damnable Kyrie had mixed wellspring waters in with the spirits, and Drake had seen things every night since their departure.

They had descended in the morning to a harsh valley via a sparsely-vegetated canyon from the mountains to the east. A great lake of saltwater to the northwest opened to view at the canyon's mouth, and the desert floor was blotched with a few scraggly trees. He was heading for a small group of buildings that lay southwest, trying to ignore the strange greenish color of the sky here. Something was coming. No, a lot of very nasty Somethings were coming, and they needed shelter.

The clouds came in fast from the west as they progressed, and Drake steered the group the last few miles via lightning flash. They wandered between low buildings of brick and adobe. All were abandoned; some had been ransacked, and the doors hung on loose hinges or had been completely torn off.

As he rounded a corner into a cul-de-sac, the Sergeant didn't mind the scout's lifeless corpse lying in the middle of the court. He had seen many bodies during this long war, and he knew they'd come all this way to get the same shadowy intelligence as their predecessor. It was the storefront behind the body that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

He had seen this place in his nightmare.

More to come later....




DON'T POST UNTIL MINIVANN GETS A COUPLE PICS UP -- THANKS!!

[quixotequest]

Do we remember what the winning teams were from our 3-for-3 grand winners?

I would have liked to not see the $50 HMG prize and one SotM set go to the same person, and therefore see one more of the big prizes get shared around, but I really can't complain. With several newbs and being cramped into a small area for that many boards, and some not having come ready to do battle, I think it turned out to be great fun. Thanks for all you did Scott!

[betterthanslayer]

Originally Posted by quixotequest

I would have liked to not see the $50 HMG prize and one SotM set go to the same person, and therefore see one more of the big prizes get shared around, but I really can't complain.

Haha, I think I can complain a little. I donated a flag bearer to the prize table, went 3 and 0 and got to leave with a Zombie booster, which I wish I would have just left when I got home. I doubt I will ever play Zombies, but I was just in so much shock at how the prizes were disbursed that I wanted to leave with something in hand.

This is the one thing that actually really bothered me. If the day was meant to be a prize sharing among those in the "kids tourney" fine, but to ask people without kids to come and donate to the prize table, just to, after it was all over, find out you were just subsidizing someone else's son's Heroscaping, kind of lame. I would have rather just had everyone come and bring themselves and play some 'scape outside of an organized tournament situation.

end rant

On a lighter note, I thought the sportsmanship and play was amazing. I had a blast during every game and met some really cool people. We should have a large get together again, maybe this time just casual play. Thanks to everyone that helped put it on, Scott put a lot of work into it and for a first time tournament hoster (is that a word) it went relatively well.

[quixotequest]

Originally Posted by betterthanslayer

Haha, I think I can complain a little. I donated a flag bearer to the prize table, went 3 and 0 and got to leave with a Zombie booster, which I wish I would have just left when I got home. I doubt I will ever play Zombies, but I was just in so much shock at how the prizes were disbursed that I wanted to leave with something in hand.

This is the one thing that actually really bothered me. If the day was meant to be a prize sharing among those in the "kids tourney" fine, but to ask people without kids to come and donate to the prize table, just to, after it was all over, find out you were just subsidizing someone else's son's Heroscaping, kind of lame. I would have rather just had everyone come and bring themselves and play some 'scape outside of an organized tournament situation.

end rant

On a lighter note, I thought the sportsmanship and play was amazing. I had a blast during every game and met some really cool people. We should have a large get together again, maybe this time just casual play. Thanks to everyone that helped put it on, Scott put a lot of work into it and for a first time tournament hoster (is that a word) it went relatively well.

It's not like I will complain at all. My 2-and-1 winning son won the Woo and it really made his day. His month even. Your situation was particularly that to which I was referring: I would've liked to see you take the HMG certificate home. I remember Scott asking me to bring a prize to at least make sure all the kids could go home with something. So I brought a Templar booster with that potential end use in mind--and my stats book that I thought adult gamers might also enjoy.

Still, prize distribution seemed a little less-than-planned-with-forethought. I think it behooves us all to communicate more clearly and make sure that next time one person isn't bearing the whole brunt of organizing, hosting and administering. I realized after all of us were crowded in there just how much work Scott had undertaken.

I agree the sportsmanship was wonderful, and the experience fun. I deliberately don't want to pooh-pooh Scott's great effort at all. Next time we should be able to improve what weaknesses we had in order to make the event even better and prize distribution more equitable.

+++

On an aside, will you remind us what your winning team was composed of? You ought to post that to Rev Dyer's winning teams thread. And if you can remember what Colton's (?) winning team was.

I hope you'll try out the zombies for fun some time. My son made them the 4-squad shock troops of an Undead army of his once and they are brutal fun. And if that doesn't persuade ya, keep the Zombies sealed and bring that next year as a white elephant, booby prize and trophy of ignominy

It was nice to meet'ya betterthanslayer.

[betterthanslayer]

I was actually eyeing the Master Woo over even the gift card and was going to offer a trade if I got the HMG card, haha, but it's all good. Like I said, I am happy the kids got to share the loot and all that. My only problem was that the day was presented as something completely different, a competitive tournament with prize support. Then it got a little bizarre as the HMG card was presented, a good compromise was being made between Colton, his dad (they thought I should have it as well, as Colton already had one of the SOTM Master Set) and myself and Scott railroaded right over it. Maybe he was not aware of the situation, who knows. Like you said, he did have a lot going on. Anyways, I am done talking about that and it has left my mind forever. Now I have to focus on how to beat everyone's "Anti-Captain America" armies that will soon be coming to our gaming group <insert evil laughter>

Here was my list:

Captain America
Syvarris
Old Raelin
Agent Carr

Captain America pretty much made it for me, he had 1460 out of 1500 total kill points, but the others provided good support and took some heat off of Cap (get Syvarris a height advantage and people seem to want him dead, haha).

[quixotequest]

Originally Posted by betterthanslayer

Here was my list:

Captain America
Syvarris
Old Raelin
Agent Carr

Captain America pretty much made it for me, he had 1460 out of 1500 total kill points, but the others provided good support and took some heat off of Cap (get Syvarris a height advantage and people seem to want him dead, haha).

Well if you had offered the HMG gift cert for a Woo trade my son probably would've given that a serious thought!

Oooh. Now I'm really cursing myself that I didn't run my Cap team. For some reason I expected we'd be in adults and kids mixed games, and thought my Cap team might be too specialized and hard-hitting if going up against the kids. (And I was a little worried about getting a few of the maps that were possible, like the first I had--the 'highways and dieways' map, which crimped the style of my Red Skull a bit.)

I was going to run Cap, 2x Omnicrons with old Raelin. I would've loved to take 'em up against you and see how they fared.

I'm surprised your Syvarris didn't have more kill points. That means my Q10 wasn't the highest killer in the tourney.

[betterthanslayer]

Yeah, I didn't end up turning in my individual points sheet after the tourney. Who knows how the army would do again, I was on the luckiest rolling streak I have ever had in my life. You should come next time we have a game day, we alternate months between Utah County and Salt Lake County (usually at Hastur Hobbies in SLC and Agent Minivann's place in Springville). I think November is supposed to be in Springville, but I think we might try playing at a new game store in Provo, if that works out. No date set yet.

[Agent Minivann]

I had a great time. I met some nice guys that I look forward to seeing at our monthly gatherings. I haven't seen the new store in Provo yet, but I think that's where we'll be for November. It is a little closer (sure it's only about 6 miles), and it is a lot more convenient (right off the freeway).

My army didn't work out as well as I had hoped, but I knew that was a serious possibility. The negation glyph hitting Cyprien on the first round of a game didn't help my case much (I vote the negation glyph out of the glyph pool next time). I used Cyprien, Sonya, Eldgrim, Thorgrim, Finn, Warden 816 and a Dumutef Guard. Game 1 was against an army that countered it well. Game 2 it ran with ruthless efficiency. Game 3 negated and scrambling for a plan B.

I'll get the pictures up as soon as I can. There are only a couple that are more than just figures on maps. I never got a chance to take a pic of the prize table or a group shot.

[betterthanslayer]

Semi-off topic but completely related. Why don't we do a sort of white elephant gift / tournament thing in December where entry fee is a custom figure/card and then everyone gets to pick one at the end in decending order of how you rank in the standings or something like that. I am sure we would see a mix of cool and hilarious. Could be fun.

Anyone interested?

[UtahScott]

@ betterthanslayer & quixotequest --

mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

I post part of a fun introductory story, only to come back later & find Cory's mad at me. Not to worry, I can take it.

betterthanslayer wrote:

Then it got a little bizarre as the HMG card was presented, a good compromise was being made between Colton, his dad (they thought I should have it as well, as Colton already had one of the SOTM Master Set) and myself and Scott railroaded right over it. Maybe he was not aware of the situation, who knows. Like you said, he did have a lot going on. Anyways, I am done talking about that and it has left my mind forever.

Well, I'm not done talking about it.
Cory, I was aware that you and the Lords were discussing how the final prize should be awarded, but I couldn't overhear your conversation from the other end of the room. Plus, I was working from three hours of sleep, I was later than intended in the morning to GNG for final setup--and irritated at myself because of it--and I was running on adrenaline; I ate nothing for ten hours straight Saturday. I probably wasn't thinking all that clearly by the end of the day. Bryan, since you two, and the Lords, think Cory should have been awarded the HouseMouse prize (and I do, too, upon reflection), let's make it official:


With our attendance, we needed four rounds to determine a 4-0 winner.
We only played three, so Cory and Colton are tied for first.
You two still need to do the championship face-off, same armies. Winner gets Sandra's goodie, second place gets the other, or whatever Cory & Colton's family think is best--I'm just trying to be facilitator. What about that?

Why not do it on November's game day? (Whenever that is.)
Besides, the HouseMouse certificate still hasn't arrived yet; I won't award what I haven't received. It seems ours got lost in the mail--I'm going to contact Sandra, as it didn't arrive by today, though the rest of the first place trophy did--and we'll get all this straightened out.

Cory, if you still feel gypped, I recently some Wave 1 and Wave 6 boosters, thanks to the Smith's Marketplace sale. They have been opened, but unused. I'll give you any common booster, you want, no charge. In fact, any booster from all seven waves, you want it, you got it (barely used, if at all). I wanted everyone to have a good time, and leave with a smile on their face, and it seems I need to make amends.

betterthanslayer wrote:

Haha, I think I can complain a little. I donated a flag bearer to the prize table, went 3 and 0 and got to leave with a Zombie booster, which I wish I would have just left when I got home. I doubt I will ever play Zombies, but I was just in so much shock at how the prizes were disbursed that I wanted to leave with something in hand.

This is the one thing that actually really bothered me. If the day was meant to be a prize sharing among those in the "kids tourney" fine, but to ask people without kids to come and donate to the prize table, just to, after it was all over, find out you were just subsidizing someone else's son's Heroscaping, kind of lame. I would have rather just had everyone come and bring themselves and play some 'scape outside of an organized tournament situation.

I'll get to prize distribution, as well.