Beantown Beatdown 4 Post-Tourney Thread

[RobertDD]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Battle Report
Game 5 - RichardDD

Again, what can I say? The AE came through in the championship match. They dropped first round, and I got three of them up on the bunker at Bunker Battle Map. Q9 marched up, and was gunned down under a hail of AE fire. The rats started to move up, but because the AE were elevated, they really didn't tie anyone up as is their calling. The stingers came out and, well, it was bad. Richard rolled 3 or 4 consecutive stinger blow-ups. Unfortunately he was plagued with the kind of rolling that I usually do. But this was my day apparently, because the AE wiped out the stingers. Then it was just a matter of picking off the remaining rats before coasting to victory. I think it would have been a very different game on another map. Unless, of course, Richard kept rolling like that

Who are you calling Richard?

Now you owe me two beers!

Seriously though, what a great day that was. It is so good to meet these people on here for real, and it is so much fun playing a day of 'scape. Thanks for organizing that tournament!

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Onacara

NESA website updated with over 100 pics from the Beatdown

Click Here

BUMP

Check this link out if you haven't already! Great pix of the day.

[curseyoukhan]

Originally Posted by B:T:L Matt

she was a bit distraught with the outcome. She swore to me that she would never leave Braxas home ever again.

Yeah, she's a keeper.

[Onacara]

This is one of my favorite pics and need to get the story behind it.


Caption choices.

1-You sank my battleship!!!!
2-Another Frenzy????
3-Aaron F'ing Boone!!!!!

[sjscaper]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to say what a well thought out and organized tournament you guys hold. Definately making plans for next year already. I finally caught up with ClanCambell (sorry for missing the email). We could have made a long trip shorter with the car pool. Hopefully next time.

I would do a battle report if it was worth anything (2-3). Had a great time playing this army (Sujoah, 3x spiders, Sonlen, Guilty) but was learning how to play them along the way.
NOTE TO SELF: Don't use big bug against squads.

Also wanted to say that NERV has my vote for the best ranking system I've seen to date for heroscape. The "clean" tournament rules seem to be the most fair way to play tournament games as well (i.e. no glyphs, no rule enhancements).

Looking forward to Saratoga.

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by sjscaper

Hey folks,

Just wanted to say what a well thought out and organized tournament you guys hold. Definately making plans for next year already. I finally caught up with ClanCambell (sorry for missing the email). We could have made a long trip shorter with the car pool. Hopefully next time.

I would do a battle report if it was worth anything (2-3). Had a great time playing this army (Sujoah, 3x spiders, Sonlen, Guilty) but was learning how to play them along the way.
NOTE TO SELF: Don't use big bug against squads.

Also wanted to say that NERV has my vote for the best ranking system I've seen to date for heroscape. The "clean" tournament rules seem to be the most fair way to play tournament games as well (i.e. no glyphs, no rule enhancements).

Looking forward to Saratoga.

You are coming up for the Slugfest????

[sjscaper]

Originally Posted by Onacara

You are coming up for the Slugfest????

Already planning. Should know definately by EOD Tuesday.

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by sjscaper

Already planning. Should know definately by EOD Tuesday.

Awesome!!!

[Shades fan]

Originally Posted by Onacara

This is one of my favorite pics and need to get the story behind it.


Caption choices.

1-You sank my battleship!!!!
2-Another Frenzy????
3-Aaron F'ing Boone!!!!!

4-Damn that game with Shades fan was good!!!!

And it's cool that you may be coming to the SlugFest!

[nyphot]

A big shout-out to Pilgrim for organizing the day and for all the people who helped out. I didn't realize that each of the 29 maps was unique... Amazing work, nyys!

This was my first tournament experience and also doubled the number of games that I've ever played so I supremely enjoyed myself. I was super nervous throughout so I didn't really get to meet as many people as I would have liked. I do want to thank all of my opponents for great games. In particular, some of you were exceedingly gracious when my dice were hot and yours weren't.

I was happy with the performance of "my group." Since I had pretty limited pieces to start with, I was surprised at how well our armies did. My wife logged two wins with Cyprien, Sonya, Nilfheim and Stingers x2. She ought to have done even better, but she didn't roll as well as she does against me. I have an amazing wife.

(One of her wins was recorded as "out of time" but actually should have been a total win. My friend who was watching the end of the match, watched as her opponent attacked and water cloned on the same order marker with the Marro Warriors. I didn't want to make a big stink about it, but now regret not saying anything at all since cheating's no fun for anyone. (I'll grant that her opponent was younger, so may not have understood the MW's limitation.))

My friend rumbled using Q9, Q10, Marro Warriors and Tagawa Samurai. I felt a little bad giving him the weakest team of our three... The Samurai were the weak link in that team, but I wanted to give him a "hero killer" and they were the best unit I had left in my roster (not that I consider myself a master army builder, by any means). He'd only played one game before the tournament so I'm impressed with how well he did... though he only recorded one win, most of his losses were extremely tight... and as you read, he put Pilgrim (the winner) within one life of recording a loss.

I used Krav, Braxas, Raelin (ROTV) and Airborne Elite. I rolled exceptionally well in 3 of 5 games... and won 3 of 5. Although skill certainly has its place in this game, I feel certain that luck contributes pretty highly!

This is my first time writing a battle report and my memory is slightly hazy, so my apologies for any mistakes!

#1 vs. sjscaper (Sujoah, lots of Spiders, Sonlen, Guilty) on Highways and Dieways

I think he knew he was in for a tough fight, looking at all my classic highly Power Ranked units. I was worried, though, having read all the comments on Sujoah. This was my first battle against bonding units too. Yikes! Fortunately (for me), I had incredible rolls.

I set out my Krav and Raelin "on height." He sent Sujoah all the way into my face, using bonding. Sujoah is incredibly fast, and the spiders just jet along the roads. To my advantage though, because of the map, it was basically impossible for him to even attempt to Entangle me. My Raelin also fortunately was able to outlast his Poison Stinger.

I was surprised at how difficult it was to take a shot with the Krav on that map. Despite how big Sujoah is, there are just so many darn trees. But I was able to get a big five skull roll with Braxas against Sujoah and then a four skull roll with the Krav against Sonlen. Sonlen also failed every Dragon Heal/Swoop so yeah... my rolls were hot and sjscaper was more than gracious. Guilty was finished in the 3rd or 4th round when the AE dropped and lobbed two grenades over the ruins.

We scored that game incorrectly because we didn't realize we were supposed to give points for wounds on heroes so my apologies for that... his score should have been higher than what was recorded for that game!

1-0

#2 vs. nyys (Zelrig, Wo-Sa-Ga, Stingers(x2), Nagrubs(x2) on a map with two hills in the middle, connected by a road

My lack of ability to purchase commons paid off as Zelrig's Majestic Fire was not nearly as scary as it could have been. I parked my Krav on the hill and nyys sent Zelrig into my start zone. We battled back and forth a little bit but I was able to take Zelrig out (I'm pretty sure I lost Raelin in the process).

Then the AE dropped and tossed some grenades into his Stingers and Nagrubs and killed off a bunch. Wo-Sa-Ga slithered out using bonding to throw some big dice against my troops. I was supremely proud of myself when I realized (the 2nd time around) that I could easily take out his Nagrub and prevent him from using his 3rd order marker. Like I said, I'm not used to bonding!

I think the Krav took out Wo-Sa-Ga which just left Braxas against a bunch of Stingers. And, overall, my rolls in this match were good.

I didn't realize until the end of the game that I was playing nyys (since he uses his real name in person). I think I might have been even more nervous, having seen his name on these boards so consistently.

2-0

#3 vs. RobertDD (Q9, Stingers, Rats) on a jungle map

I dropped AE first round and won initiative... but I slightly misplaced one of my AE and only took out 3 Stingers. Good, but not great. He brought in Q9. I couldn't touch him with my Krav so I engaged with Braxas. After a long fight, Braxas finally triumphed, but had a bunch of wounds on her (I was rolling pretty poorly this game). The Stingers finished her off this time and then easily handled my Krav who were engaged by Rats.

RobertDD mentioned to me after the fact that I ought to have just used Braxas to melt all the Stingers at the beginning and I could have decimated his army. I felt quite foolish after he told me that, but I did appreciate the tip for the future.

2-1

#4 vs. Bengi (Groks, NGS, MBS, Tarn, Marro Warriors) on a jungle map with one main road on height

I honestly don't know how I ought to have played this match. Groks were too big to melt, too fast to stay away from, and too many (and too much bonding) for me to handle.

Bengi started by moving his Tarn up to the road. They Berserked a few times, but the Krav cut them down. Then he pulled out the Groks with bonding and it was pretty much over. Without height, the Krav couldn't roll enough skulls to take them out. And since they were engaged, they couldn't use their special to defend. Raelin was also poorly placed and contributed very little. Ah, the pain of inexperience.

In the end, Bengi wasn't able to record the total win because my last AE (whom he repeatedly tried to Mindshackle, just because it was fun) rolled amazing defense dice against his Groks. His Marro Warriors never moved.

2-2

#5 vs. rec_thug (Gilbert, Alastair, 4th, KoW) on Road Rampage (I think)

I misplayed this slightly, but rolled a few huge rolls... and rec_thug rolled terribly.

My Airborne dropped first round and did some amazing damage against his troops (because he couldn't roll shields). One AE stupidly walked into engagement with a KoW because he didn't realize that his grenade was a Special Attack. It didn't matter, though, because that one whiffed.

Then his Knights started marching slowly down the map because Gilbert was not giving them much movement. I "misplayed" by moving Braxas out of range of Raelin, but a lucky 17 took out Gilbert (that was the huge game turner). He concentrated fire from Knights and Alastair and took out Braxas but that gave me enough time to put the Krav back on the hill next to Raelin. They were able to pretty handily take out the rest of the troops since my rolls were average to good and all of his rolls were terrible.

3-2

Wow, this ended up being longer than I'd expected. Hope this is useful/interesting to someone! And, again, thanks to all involved!

[nyys]

Originally Posted by Shades fan

4-Damn that game with Shades fan was good!!!!

All of the above and it's also my reaction whenever a game of scape comes to a close. This game is like a great book, you never want it to end.

I'm on a mini-vacation right now so I'll be back in a couple of days with some responses and challenges to hand out.

[rec_thug]

It was great getting to meet several of you that to this point I’ve only ever “seen” behind a screen name and avatar. Better still was getting to see several of you that I’d gotten to meet for the first time at UConn’s Rise of the Husky tournament back in March.

First, I’d like to thank NESA and Onacara (esp. for pointing out to me that I’d won…I’d only heard the previous number while picking up from the previous round’s match) for the great door prize, Aquilla's Alliance. I support several players at my house with my collection, it will come to great use.

Second, Eckels, it was too bad we didn’t get to cross paths again (well until saying goodbyes at the end)… my army still wants vengeance upon you… I'm still looking into making it down to Long Island.

Onacara, you can rest easier now….I’m planning to retire my valorous army for the time being (though I’ve learned to play it much faster now, and only had one game that didn’t finish fast enough this time)

August, (Arp12 I think, please confirm…I really only tend to remember one name per person), it was nice meeting you. And I’m glad some of the terrain I packed in my car “just incase” (per Nyys’s suggestion/request) was able to be put to good use. You took exceptional care of it and were great at being proactive about getting it back to me literally as soon as it was no longer needed. I’ll look forward to running into you often as we each hit more tournaments.

B:T:L Matt, it was nice meeting you as well. Remember that we should work on meeting up some time…and every other week there’s a game to be had at my place. PM me some time.

Okay, so my shot at a first battle report. I’m going to shoot to keep it short, as it’s getting late an entire day later.

My army,
KoW x2
Led by Sir Gilbert and Alistair MacDirk (to add a little punch where needed)
And backed with MA 4th as the artillery.

Round 1: verses Kosta on “Death Platform” - LOSS

The map name says it all. It was a ‘death platform’. Kosta knew what he wanted, what he needed to do and did it. Honestly, the battle was practically over in the first 5-10 minutes, I was just determined to take as many points down kicking and screaming with me as I went.

He got his Krav Maga Agents up to the top most platform impossibly fast. And I fought an impossibly slow battle trying to oust them from their superb position. Every knight I tried to get to the top most level was picked off…as were most every minuteman I tried to get hidden on the middle level, under the shadow of the top level. Much to his surprise (I think) though I was able to overwhelm Nilfheim in short order when he was moved into the fray to try and oust what forces I’d been able to get out of site of the agents. I also began to pick points of Charos before he jumped into engagement and sealed my fate.

Round 2: verses Tina on “Highways & Dieways” - WIN

The was an extreme reversal of my first round. And unfortunately for Tina, she got to bear the full brunt of and on fire valorous army. My dice went extremely hot, rolling lots of whatever I needed…all the way down to a couple rounds of 4-5 Jandar symbols when rolling for Sir Gilbert’s squad movement ability. And unfortunately, her dice were just the opposite. Add to that this was one of the maps I’d actually been able to see before, and thought about how I’d have to play it... As happy as I was the my army bounced back so well from a very disappointing first round…it just sucked to have someone go down so hard at the same time.

Round 3: verses Chris/TheGuru on “Frozen Spires” - WIN

No offence to any of my other opponents, but this was easily my favorite match up of the day. Not because I’d heard of Chris/Guru for so long or anything of that nature, because I hadn’t I’ve only just started playing a little over 6ish months ago now, and have had little to no online presence. No it was just a great match up and Chris was an exceptionally congenial person to chat with as we played. He took non-competitive to the extreme, gracious with every kill AND every loss (that I can only hope to emulate as I learn/grow within this game). Really just there to have fun and play, like many of us strive for…but start to loose when it’s “on the line” across a tournament board.

Add to all that, he was playing with units I knew well (KoW x3, Raylin, Deadeye, and Sir Dupuis). Well, except for Sir Dupuis, but I’ve been starting to work out solid thoughts on how to use and deploy him. So I felt I knew just what I had to do against his army…and I knew how to do it with mine.

I deployed evenly across the start zone and showed movement in all directions off the go (or at least tried to show as such, he can only say if it read that way or no). It was a bit of a bait to see which way he was going to advance and bring the hit (KoW move so slow), so I could move my MA 4th in to counter. I sent a sacrificial knight or two wide to bog down any advancement along his left flank, and maybe get a shot at Deadeye. It worked well enough to be able to get several knights on the high ground in the center backed by Sir Gilbert to counter and jump Raylin. Then with the MA 4th in place behind them I preceded to gun down many knights and Sir Dupuis as they attempted to challenge the hill.

The rout was on. Or so I thought. I pushed the remaining knights back to the ice spires that they came through, but they broke back through my line gaining an advantage. Time ended before the ultimate resolution. This was my only timed out game, but it was a good match none the less. Thought the battle had just tipped in his favor for the moment, I have no doubt that I would have eventually won out as well. I still had reserve MA 4th on the other side of the glaciers that had yet to be able to enter the battle.

I hope none of that sounded too full of myself or what not. It was just a really great match. KoW vs. KoW got way confusing really quick, but we each quickly marked our own knights (me with wound markers, he with a black sharpie on the base) and just slugged it out. I esp. enjoyed the random good natured banter we had over the dice rolls, a random rules clarification/confirmation I had from my gaming group, and the earnest congratulatory “nice one/shot” etc. when managing to pick someone off. The whole match just rang of fun, while remaining a good test of strategy.

THANKS AGAIN
(and yes, I’m sure eventually I’ll get to PMing you with questions as they come up again…thanks)

Round 4: verses “T” (Tbone) on “Foxtrot” - WIN

This was a match up that could have gone either way. I was a little surprised by his aggressive use of Mimring off the start, moving him all the way out to get a shot on one of my knights, which quickly lead to my knights jumping him, and the MA 4th getting 4 shots at attack four. Ultimately leading to Mimring’s quick demise.

He countered with a squad of Microcorp Agents, with height, that proceeded to pick off just about everything that could get near his end of the board. It was surprising just how many things got gunned down by his agents and their slightly superior range. I was tempted to withdraw back to my end of the board, feeling that I still have the points advantage, but it would be close by that point (Mimring is only 150 after all). Instead I made the decision to press on. I spread out my troops so he couldn’t get a shot on all of them, and just ran for it. His Sentinels got in the way, but I brought Alistair up to help with them. By that point I’d fought my way to equal height with his agents and their guns were not much use. And things went down hill quick for him from there. I boxed it his remaining forces, making sure to get multiple knights on Iskra (so if she tried to flee each of them would get multiple swings on her) and systematically wiped them out one after another. Turning what had started to seem like what would be a frustratingly futile loss into a solid victory.

Round 5: verses Nyphot on “Road Rampage” – LOSS

Let me just start by saying that Jonathan was a fine opponent and gracious winner…but this game can be described as nothing but a slaughter. Simply put it was because I couldn’t roll anything for anything (as the pendulum swings both ways….it was like vengeance for round 2 against Tina). “5 dice, block one skull”….nah, “okay the guy next to him”…nah, Okay we’ll try attacking, 4 dice…no skulls, 4 dice….no skulls, 4 dice…one skull (3 shield block it), and just to add insult to injury I had more rounds than I can count where Gilbert rolled 0 Jandar symbols (though they popped up all the time when attacking/defending). Really the only reason I did half as well as I did was that I was able to reap vengeance upon the AE (that dropped on the first turn and blew up a squad’s worth of guys with ONE skull on ONE grenade) and then avenge Braxis’s slaying of Sir Guilbert by jumping him with what knights I still had remaining (thankfully he ended up only having the dumby marker left on him at that point).

Again, he was a great opponent…my dice just abandoned me. I’ll give you a better fight next time!


Oh well, so much for keeping this short.

Again, it was a good time. My friend (Cards) and I had a great time. And I for one am looking forward to coming back next year.