Maryland Massive Multiplayer Massive Madness - Feb 9th

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

I'd love to see Pics, armies brought and battle reports. I bet games were epic! I wonder if there was much turtling? With the point of what you kill format you could technically be the first one eliminated in a game but win on points.

The format has several charms that make it my favorite. One of which is, as you guessed, that turtling is for losers. You have to rush out and kill stuff.

I'll do some battle reports. What the heck, it's been ages.

I came up with a few armies that I thought would min/max the format, but I ultimately settled on one that (I thought) would be fun but not necessarily a winner. Wolves of Badru x3 + Mimring. The idea is that the Wolves don't give points when they self-destruct on their SA. On the other hand - and this is why they are not so great - they are worth 26 points each, which is a *lot* in this format, and they only 3 per squad with a measly 3 defense. Mimring would give me a sniper to couple with them.

As I was preparing the armies for myself and my friends, I realized that the Werewolf Lord, though he's melee and would mean my whole army was basically melee, would give me a bonding option instead. So that's what I did.

I don't remember everyone's army down to every detail. I'm doing my best!

1. Echidna's Garden


Clockwise from the 2:00 position:
DS ~ Wolves x3, Werewolf Lord
kldonnelly ~ Krug, Monks, Warforged x1, Krav Maga
Ken ~ Nilfheim, Raelin, Airborne Elite
Jacob ~ Arrow Gruts x2, Swog Rider, Krug, Mimring

I opened in both directions, sending the WWL and one or two wolves toward kldonnelly and her high-value squaddies. My other wolves rolled north, toward Jacob's Beast army.

Kldonnelly responded with the KMA and then Krug, who kept hounding the WWL, as it ate two of her three Krav Maga Agents. I didn't even try to hit Krug, who kept hitting on engagement strikes, wearing me down.

Ken put Nilfheim on height toward the center, and used Ice Shards to pick off pieces of the other two armies while mine was still (for the most part) a little far away. The Airborne, unfortunately, did not drop until Round 3.

Jacob focused his attention on me, rather than try to engage the big white dragon. We went back and forth a bit. His Arrow Gruts were not very lucky with their precious few dice, and I wore him out with my wolves.

Eventually Krug wore out the Werewolf Lord, and I had no more presence in the south. But it didn't matter, because kldonnelly's army was pretty much wiped, except for Krug, who wandered around the map trying to hit things. I used wolves to try to pick off high value targets, like the AE after they finally dropped.

I ultimately won with the most points taken, though my army may have been the thinnest on the map by the time the game was called on time.

A word about Echinda's Garden: As I already wrote to AYP in his thread, I think this is the best 4-player free-for-all (as opposed to team) map on the boards right now.


2. Castle Forge



Clockwise from the 2:00 position:
DS ~ Wolves of Badru x3, Werewolf Lord
akden ~ Arrow Gruts x3, Krug, Mimring
Josh ~ Braxas, Greenscales x3
Stephen ~ Arrow Gruts x2, Krug, Vulcanmech Incendiborgs

Round 1 had featured 4 4-player maps, and G-O placed the winner of each one here. Unsurprisingly, the main weakness of my army - the low defense and high value of its squaddies - was badly exposed.

Akden opened with Mimring taking the high ground between us and putting a fireline through my start zone. I'd mitigated the potential for damage as best I could, but he still killed two or three wolves just like that, before my first OM. Josh rolled Braxas south, toward akden, and Stephen came after me. Unfortunately, he successfully picked off a couple of my wolves as they tried to get to Mimring, and the Werewolf Lord was taking too long to get anywhere helpful.

The game ended up being quite exciting, with an unwounded Krug putting 4 wounds on Braxas and ultimately killing her. Akden ran away with the point total. I somehow managed to eke out a third place finish on this 4-player map, despite being eliminated quite early, and that 1 point ended up making a huge difference in the final standings.

Also, perhaps the highlight of my whole tournament came during this game, when I got to use a lycanthropy marker to take a turn with Stephen's Krug. I'd never pulled that off before! He killed two of his allied Arrow Gruts, if you were curious.

3. Fight in the Shade



Clockwise from the 4:00 position:
DS ~ Wolves of Badru x3, Werewolf Lord
Famous Seamus ~ Krug (again), Cyprien, Sonya, Otonashi, Isamu
Juliana ~ Moltenclaw, Phantom Knights x3

Juliana took the high ground near the 12:00 position with Phantom Knights and Moltenclaw. Because she was staying so far away from me, it was hard for me to get at her. Mostly I focused on Famous Seamus, who split his forces against both of us. I opened up aggressively after Cyprien, using the Pounce ability even when I knew it would fail just to start to wear him out.

Juliana played very cautiously. Ultimately, I wore out Cyprien, and Krug killed the Werewolf Lord. Moltenclaw finished off Krug and a wolf or two with his special attack, as wolves eliminated Seamus's remaining lower-value heroes. Juliana still had a *lot* of muscle left on the board, so I ended the game by having wolves just keep pouncing on her units until the wolves were gone.

I edged out Seamus for the win on the board, with Juliana a distant third despite the fact that she had an unwounded Moltenclaw and many of her PK's remaining at the game's end.

The scoring on 4 player maps is 4/2/1/0, and on 3 player maps it's 4/2/0. I finished with 9 of a possible 12 points, good enough for third place.

Thanks to G-O for running it, and thanks to all those who brought maps, and also thanks to all those who showed up, because it was a fun time.