Maryland Post Tourny Thread!

[clancampbell]

Another tournament in the books! It was nice to get back in saddle and run an event again. Big thanks to all who attended, all those that helped with maps, and to Core Worlds for letting us have our event there!

Results:
1. Gurei-Ornery 5-0 1780 (Kurrock, Fire elemental x9, Isamu)
2. OverEngineered 4-1 1560 (Krug, Sir Gilbert, KoW x3, Isamu)
3. Legos of Bleakwood 3-2 1715 (Zaeus, Gorilla Troopers x3)
4. Bill 3-2 1519 (Charos, Cyprien, Sonya, Deathreavers)
5. Kid Scaper 3-2 1457 (Omnicron Sniper x3, RaelinV2, Chainfighter)
6. Clancampbell 3-2 1444 (Charos, Greenscales x2, Airborne Elite)
7. kldonnelly 3-2 1435 (Braxas, Rhogar Dragonspine, Isamu, Microcorp)
8. Dad Scaper 3-2 1417 (Mok, Axegrinders x3)
9. Johngee 2-3 1110 (Jotun, Deathreavers, Volcanmech Incendiborgs)
10. Xanth 2-3 1011 (Sujoah, Spiders, Tagawa Samurai, Atlaga)
11. Cat Scaper 1-4 1235 (Srgt. DrakeV2, Eldgrim, Shieldsmiths x3)
12. Hivelord #4 1-4 1206 (Stingers x3, Torin, Raelin, Isamu)
13. Jackson 1-4 938 (Werewolf Lord, Krug, Krav, Thorgrim)
14. Jim 1-4 936 (Charos, Greenscales x2, Marro Warriors, Me-burq-sa)

Congrats to G-O on his win! As I said in the other thread, his son was 3rd, so these two are a force in the Heroscape tourny scene.

A fine turnout I think. I did enjoy the multi-format event, but wasn't exactly thrilled with playing reverse the whip twice. Oh well, it was fun anyhow!

Again big thanks to Core Worlds for hosting! See everyone next time!

[Gurei-Ornery]

@clancampbell

Thank you for not giving up on finding a place to host this tournament and allowing us to squeeze in another tourney this year. It was interesting to try 2 formats I had never played, Assassins Creed and Heat of Battle. I was very lucky with my match-ups in both Reverse the Whip rounds and in all honesty should have lost my first round match with @Dad_Scaper that was the only straight up kill everything round. Luckily he didn't think about running to the top of the fountain (Feylund Fountain by Velenne) with Mok until a little too late, so my Fire Elementals would have been defenseless. It is usually me left thinking what would have happened if I just had done ...? It was fun to finally get to play both of my kids, even though I almost lost to both. Both games came down to I need a Searing Intensity roll and got it before impending doom.

[Dad_Scaper]

Congrats, G-O.

Tactically I would have loved to have climbed up the fountain. I thought there might be a *legal* reason why I couldn't, though I wanted to research the point. I am now satisfied that I did the right thing not trying to execute a move that would have been illegal. Boring explanation in the spoiler.

Spoiler Alert!

The map Feylund Fountain has a 1x2 raised high ground of water hexes in the center of the map. It is completely surrounded by a moat of water hexes, 1 in every direction. I could not legally have moved Mok up to the top level of the fountain.

Consider the rules concerning 2 hex walkers in the water: If both hexes are in the water, they must stop. Well, the high ground on the fountain was water, surrounded by lower water. For Mok to reach the high level at some point he would have had to have both of his hexes in the water, with one on the lower hex and one on the higher. At which point he is legally required to stop, in a position where it is illegal to do so.

Two space walkers simply cannot have one hex on high water and one hex on low water.

Here it is another way: 12345 ~ - - _ - - The two space walker is on 1 and 2. The spot marked 3, the low ground, is water, and 4 and 5 are high water. The walker dips one foot down to 2 and then, for his second move, lifts it up to 3. Both spaces are in water so he must stop, but he cannot, because his base is on two different levels. You would intuitively think he might get to finish his move and land on 4-5-, the high ground. That's illegal, and here's why: If the terrain instead looked like - - _ _ _ and 3, 4, and 5 are again water, the walker would have to stop on space 4. It is only because 4 and 5 are raised that your brain wants to tell you he gets to finish his move. The walker does not get such a bonus merely because he's climbing; instead, it's just illegal.

Thanks for running the event, Clan! Post tourney report coming along, sooner or later.

[Gurei-Ornery]

I didn't think of that, good catch @Dad_Scaper . That pedestal looked so enticing though. I had the opportunity to use it in the last round against my Fire Elementals, but didn't because it felt cheap, especially against my son.

[OverEngineered]

Fun tournament! My only defeat was playing against my own army at the hands of the great and powerful @Gurei-Ornery in round 2. You're welcome G-O! ...Seriously, congrats

HUGE thanks to @clancampbell for organizing this event! You rock!

[Dad_Scaper]

For once I don't have my own tourney sheet, so I'll have to do this from memory:

The format was Master of Formats. The first round was straight kill 'em all, the second was Reverse the Whip, then Assassin's Creed, followed by Heat of Battle and then a repeat of one of the earlier rounds, determined with the roll of a die.

The point total was 445 with a cap of 3 squads. My plan was to bring the deadly Assassin Tul Bak Ra, along with 3 squads of Dividers and Su Bak Na. Then I was going through our stuff and realized that Mok + Dwarves x3 was an excellent fit at this point total, so that's what I did.

Round 1:



DS ~ Mok, Axegrinders x3 @Gurei-Ornery ~ Kurrock, Fire Elementals x9, Isamu

This was a tough, tough matchup. My army was nearly all melee. On the other hand, I couldn't have asked for a better map. The pathing was very tight and I could limit, at least through the middle, my exposure to Searing Intensity.

I would *really* have liked to have loaded up Mok with gunners and climbed to the middle of the fountain, but my gut was telling me that there wasn't a legal way to do it, and I confirmed as much to my own satisfaction after the tournament. Two space walkers cannot climb waterfalls, it's that simple.

The story of this matchup was the FE's 4 defense holding up against Mok's ranged attack. He was able to melee them, most of the time, but Kurrock was sending them 3 at a time, and they were just too tough to get knocked out with the 3 attack dice Mok was rolling against them; at many key moments they were on the rise, flanking my starting position, and rolling a 5th defense die, too.

Eventually Mok went down to about a zillion hits on Searing Intensity, and the dwarves followed soon enough after.

0-1

Round 2:



Well, not really dignan's Treeline. It started that way, but... It had started as a normal map, and then @Johngee expanded it to accommodate 4 players, and then before bringing it to us he had piled some stuff on two opposite corners so it looked like a massive two player map instead of a four player map. You never know what you're going to get, when Johngee brings maps to a tournament. God love him.

Anyway. Reverse the whip. Hence:

DS ~ Sujoah, Spiders, Tagawa Samurai, Atlaga @Xanth ~ Mok, Axegrinders x3

Speaking of the habits of Maryland-area 'Scapers, I genuinely do not remember the last time Xanth showed up at a tournament without Atlaga. He has an amazing track record with the Bolt. So, here is the question: Was I, using Atlaga, going to get revenge for all of the rest of us, who have been repeatedly bolted by Xanth's freakish luck on the d20? Or was I going to prove the old adage (that @tom made up not so long ago) that you can never beat someone younger than you on dice rolls alone?

I led with Atlaga. It was an enormous map, as I said, and Atlaga had a lot of room to dance around and try to get a favorable position for a shot at Mok. Xanth fanned out the dwarves to try to deny Atlaga a good landing spot, but he took height and simply shot at them until the opportunity presented itself.

I picked up my slightly oversized tortoise-shell finish red & blue 20 sider from GenCon 2013, and rolled it on the giant wargaming table where we were set up . . . it clattered to a stop . . .

:drumroll:

19!!! Vindication for old people everywhere!

Xanth made a brave game of it afterward, chewing through Sujoah and the spiders, before Atlaga finished off the last dwarf. The Tagawa never moved, though in retrospect it would have been fun to load them up with markers, if I could have.

1-1

Round 3:



Assassin's Creed

DS ~ Mok, Axegrinders x3 @kldonnelly ~ Braxas, Rhogar Dragonspine, Isamu, Microcorps

In Clancampbell's version of AC, each player selects his own "general" who will be the target. Kldonnelly selected Braxas; I selected (guess) Mok.

The Microcorps were a good choice for AC, and were well-suited to this map. They would have plenty of opportunities to fire down from height as I slogged across the rough terrain with my dwarves. Still, my dwarves - sans hero - were running at 6 spaces per move, and slowly overwhelmed the Microcorps position. Once the sharpshooters were down, I managed to keep a steady supply of 2-3 in kldonnelly's start zone, replacing them as they were gassed. The acid breath wasn't working too well, and I'd been hoping when I brought this army that I'd find a large or huge hero in AC, so it all worked out pretty well for me.

2-1

p.s. Xanth's Atlaga bolted his opponent's general, in his game.

Round 4:


No, not really. But we were playing on the other map Johngee had brought, which was a similar modified 4 player mammoth.

Heat of Battle:

DS ~ Mok, Axegrinders x3
Jim ~ Charos, Greenscales x2, Marro Warriors, Me Burq Sa

I got to place first, which made a huge difference because there were two 2x1 high ground spots. By dropping one squad of dwarves just so, I made sure that I'd be able to put Mok on one of those. Jim, with all his range, fanned out across the giant map. I kept things more centralized with two dwarves close enough to MBS that they could hassle him immediately.

We went back and forth the first couple of rounds, with Charos and the Greenscales wiping out the dwarves near one of the 1x2 high ground spots. Mok came over, though, and hit Charos - high ground and all - hard enough a few times that the big dragon went down. The cannoneers also took out nearby Greenscales. We did have one dramatic moment, when I rolled 4 skulls on attack and Charos, with height, responded with 6 (!) shields. Those were the only two wounds Mok took in the entire battle; the rest of it was running around trying to chase down Marro Warriors.

Jim's dice were not very good when he needed them to be. For instance, he successfully rolled for Paralyzing Stare against a dwarf, and then he whiffed on the attack. It was the story of Jim's day, as KidScaper told me later.

3-1

Round 5:



Reverse the Whip again! I was paired against my old buddy Bill.

DS ~ Cyprien, Sonya, Charos, Deathreavers x1
Bill ~ Mok, Axegrinders x3

This was not a happy matchup. Cyprien matched up favorably against both Mok and against the Axegrinders, but Charos did not like either one, and Cyprien would not last long.

I rolled out with Cyprien first, hoping to get some big hits with Chilling Touch.

Unfortunately, Cyprine's d20 was ice cold. I believe I rolled 5 or so times against Mok, and put no more than one wound on him. It was awful. I was ready to start throwing my tortoise-shell blue and red d20 from GenCon into the next zip code.

Still, with careful positioning, Cyprien took out a few dwarves and put a couple wounds on Mok with his normal attack (IIRC). Then he went down. Charos managed to finish him off and take out a couple dwarves.

Deathreaver time! I knew that they would give the dwarves fits in a way that Charos had not. And they did, fighting five or six dwarves almost to a draw. The last rat finally went down, leaving one dwarf mano y mano with a heartbroken Sonya. I won initiative but there was nowhere for the cornered Sonya to hide from a dwarf moving six spaces, so she flew up to him, conceding height, and tried to kill him. One skull, one shield: blocked. He attacked from height: two skulls, one shield. Dead.

Ah, well. It was a close one.

3-2

Thanks for running the event, @clancampbell !!