My Full Gencon Report - Top 8 in the Championship and 2 Wins

[killercactus]

Wow - my first Gen Con was fabulous! It was awesome to meet a lot of the scapers, and I played more Heroscape than I ever imagined I could in 4 days. I had some games I'll never forget playing, and a couple games I wish I could forget...

I'm doing this all from memory, so I'll do the best that I can to give descriptions of the games I remember. Special thanks before I begin:

Gamjuven and Happyjosiah - for hanging out in our room, whipping me in HP and being an all around good time!

The Columbus Crew - for talking Heroscape all weekend with me and giving me three of my toughest matches of the Con.

Rÿchean - for calling me a "beast", lending me the idea for my carrying case, and being happy to have me on his fantasy team.

Grungebob, theGuru and all of the volunteers - for running the tourney's very well and providing everyone with a great time!

Whoever played me in the first round of the Draft Event - for not getting extremely angry and being a good sport. As you will read, he really deserved a win.

Now - the report. I wasn't in any tourneys on Thursday as I knew we'd be late for the two 10 AM's and I wanted a day to get settled in. However, I jumped into a Damnation Alley tournament and ran this:

Nilfheim - 185
10th Foot x3 - 225
Deathreavers - 40

Total = 450

Rev ran a very similar army (had Zelrig instead of Nilf) in the Alley before and made the finals, so I liked my chances. I don't really remember my matches, but one of them was against southwest ninja (I think) and the finals were against my friend Tony, who was staying in my room. He had a Stinger army and was the only person to make me use the 10th Foot in the tourney. In the other two games, Nilf cleaned house while my rats held glyphs. I won all three games, the tourney and a Wave 8. A good start, 3-0 for the Con so far.

Friday - Day 1 of the Championship. I playtested a 4th Mass variant and a version of the above army with the AE, but settled on this army that I thought could handle just about anything:

Nilfheim - 185
Major Q10 - 150
Zetacron - 60
Deathreavers x3 - 120

I almost switched out Nilf for Q9 and Isamu, but I wanted Nilf's flying and higher attack to give myself a little more flexibility and some punch against heroes. Also, with Nilf's and Q10 special attacks being able to take care of squads, I felt Zetacron was a better choice than Marro Warriors + Isamu. After playing it I have no regrets with either decision.

Round 1 - Fezzikthedoor (Q9, Laglor, Skahen, Krav, Isamu) on Feylund Fountain I think.

It was awesome to meet a fellow Unit Strategy Reviewer, though i haven't been as active in that forum as I'd like. Fezzik was a great guy and I was happy to start off with someone from Heroscapers. He built his army around Skahen and it certainly had some range. Fortunately for me, my reavers secured the glyphs (one being unique attack) and did a lot of damage to his Krav and one of the small heroes with bites from height. My Zetacron claimed the high ground on my side and started firing on Q9 with 4 dice. He engaged Zeta with Laglor but failed to wound him. That allowed me to disengage and take out Q9. Nilfheim did the rest. 1-0

Round 2 - playa1 (Braxas, Shades x2, Dund) on Ticalla Sunrise

I was very surprised to see this army and, quite frankly, had no idea how to approach it. I decided that my rats weren't much good this round except to grab glyphs and try to distract Braxas from attacking my heroes normally. So, I used them to surround Nilfheim almost entirely to prevent a Soul Devour, and later did the same for Q10. Braxas melted some rats, Dund managed to Cripple Q10 when I had a couple markers on him and the Shades had two unsuccessful changes at Devouring one of my heroes, but my multiple attacks and placement of my reavers pulled me through. A tougher match than many would've expected. 2-0

Round 3 - scaper_dude (Kaemon Awa, Raelin, Deathreavers x2, Stingers x4) on Highways and Dieways - Swamp Edition

I'll be honest, I didn't want to sit across from scaper_dude. He has a good reputation here, and it's well deserved. However, on a map with a ton of chokepoints and 20 reavers on the boad, this game was going to be excrutiating. I think our first round seemed to go on forever, most of it consisting of strategic reaver placement. Thankfully for me, I was packing a lot of special attacks and scaper_dude was leading with the Stingers. That allowed me to do the scattering, reclaim the glyphs and gain the edge. The game went to time, but I had a very strong hold on the game at that point. I hate when games go to time, as I'm a firm believer in "anything can happen", but with all of our rats on this map and the quality of scaper_dude's play, it was inevitable. A great match and a tough win for me. 3-0

Round 4 - MattserTruckRally (Drake 2.0, 4th Mass x5) on Ticalla Sunrise

Here was an army I knew would be around. I thought that I had a good shot with my reavers able to tie up 4th Mass and two of my heroes could out-range them. He led out with Drake, and I tied him up with rats while getting the glyphs. Drake killed one rat at a time, but that allowed me to advance them all. I picked up the common attack glyph, and used my reavers to do a lot of damage, killing a couple full squads of 4th Mass and wounding Drake. I led out with Q10 behind, using the pistol to outrange the Mass and staying away from Wait then Fire as much as I could. Mattser still made it very tough for me (as I expected he would, even though the dice were on my side), but I pulled out the victory using Rats and Q10 to do most of the damage. Another great game. 4-0

Round 5 - Hendal (Stingers x7, Raelin, Marcu) on Ticalla Sunrise

OK, I'm sick of Ticalla Sunrise by now. Anyway, I felt my Rats had a good chance of holding the Stingers at bay while I shot at them. I was wrong. Hendal rolled AMAZING dice, and mine were just awful. He killed rats so quickly that I couldn't get any position, and my heroes were soon to follow. He played very aggressively and was just relentless - the way you're supposed to play. A complete thrashing. 4-1

Knowing Hendal was 5-0, and I had played all good players, I knew I had a chance for a high ranking in day 2. Mattser and scaper_dude won out, making my strength of schedule amazing. I went into day 2 ranked #4 behind the three 5-0 armies and was 7-1 so far for the Con.

At this point, I'll mention my only disappoinment of the whole weekend, Battle Above Cursed Lands. My army was:

Runa - 120
Minions x3 - 330

Round 1 - A dude named David (Braxas, Raelin 2.0, Minions, Isamu)

Ugh. Braxas doesn't bode well for my army. However, he missed a couple of early acid rolls, and I claimed the Initiative glyph with a Minion. With Braxas and Raelin close, I sent Runa in to get some Mitonsoul rolls and a couple of attacks. She got a few wounds on Raelin but missed Mitonsoul 4 times, but best of all she diverted Braxas' attention and made her spit that way instead of at Minions. Braxas finally hit a 19, killing her, but not before I had my Minions in position to gain 3 attacks on high ground next round, and I had the Initiative glyph. I won initiative and killed Braxas and Raelin since he lost all of his turns. The game was down to my 5 Minions vs. his 3 and Isamu (Isamu had not yet been killed by the Cursed Land). Isamu ended up killing a Minion, and then my Minions decided to stop rolling shields. He blocked my attacks, I whiffed at his and was bumped out of the only tournament I played Runa in. At least it wasn't her fault. 0-1, out. 7-2 going into Saturday.

Saturday - Day 2 of the Championship

Top 16 - ManTrainChooChoo (Q9, Raelin, Krav, AE, Marro Warriors) on Jungle Swamp Road

The last time I played ManTrain, I beat his Knights of Weston army in Canton at NHSD. I knew he was looking for revenge, and he had a big stage on which to get it. I brought out Rats and Zetacron first, hoping to get a shot at Raelin, but he kept both Raelin and Q9 back. The AE dropped the next round and killed Zetacron and some Rats, and wounded Nilfheim - bad for me. Q9 and Raelin ascended the high ground on one side, and he also brought the Krav up as a diversion. I tied down the Krav with Reavers and attached a couple to Q9, but his Queglix gun was outstanding - I never blocked it with a Deathreaver (maybe one, I can't remember). Without Rats to tie him down while I shoot, I sent Nilfheim in and got one or two wounds on him, completely ignoring Raelin. However, Nilf was dispatched, and I was looking bleak. I sent three more reavers at Q9, hoping to keep him away from attacking Q10, but one round of Queglix killed all three of them again. So, we had a slugfest brewing - his Q9 on high ground with Raelin, and my Q10 with the Unique Attack glyph and a jungle tree. I was shooting 5 dice at 10, and he was shooting 5 dice at 6. Somehow, I won. Those two wounds Nilf inflicted earlier helped me out, and ManTrain's early dice luck had turned on him. With Q9 gone, I used the Reavers and Q10's pistol to kill the remaining Krav and Marro Warriors and eventually Raelin. Q10 remained the nemesis of ManTrain, and I lucked out a come-from-way-behind win. A fantastic game. 5-1

Top 8 - fallensoldier (Stingers x6, Krug, Arrow Gruts) on Fire Isles

Another Stinger horde. Hopefully this time my rats would block something. They did, and they did it well. I scattered everywhere, engaging and also killing Stingers. I ignored the glyphs as they didn't really help either of us. Santino got frustrated and started disengaging Stingers - I think the first 4 he disengaged survived and he managed to wound Q10 3 times. He even left a couple on lava, and none were killed. I brought out Nilf to avenge Q10 (who was not yet dead), and claimed high ground against tied up Stingers. However, I made a critical mistake of one space with a rat, which allowed him to get three Stingers through my wall. He got some shots at Nilf and caused some wounds, which I should've been able to prevent. Not only that, my next 4 rolls for Ice Shard Breath produced a total of one skull. Nilf was soon down to one wound, and he brought out Krug to engage him. I switched back to Q10 and started killing Stingers again. However, Santino was a VERY methodical player, and his turns took a lot of time. Between that and my reavers, we were approaching the time limit. Once Nilf died, I was down 50 points. He had 4 Stingers remaining, and I took a shot at one of them with 5 dice from Q10. I missed. Game over. Santino played well, and seemed to get every possible break at the right times. I wished him good luck and stayed to watch the finals. 5-2, out of the tourney.

Santino lost to lone_wolf, and southwest ninja lost to spider_poison. I felt that I would've had a good chance against either of those armies. I had already beaten lonewolf's army once earlier, and thought that my reavers could hold off the trons long enough for Nilf to fly over at Blasts, or Q10 to shoot over them. However, it was not to be and spider_poison did an excellent job winning the tourney. Congratulations to him! Then, I went onto my next tourney.

Classic Draft. The crew running the events had some trouble with the pairings and registrations for this one, but once it got going I found myself about to draft an army for Little Ramparts. I ended up with:

Krav Maga Agents
Airborne Elite
Mimring
and 90 points left.

against

Raelin
Drake
Tarn Viking Warriors
Izumi Samurai
Marro Warriors
Finn

At this point, I was about to draft Thorgrim to help my agents. But then I said (aloud to my opponent) "You know, I came to GenCon to have fun. I've already done well in the Championship - if I lose, I lose. I'm gonna try to Mindshackle someone" and drafted Ne-Gok-Sa last. After a failed AE drop, I brought out the Krav to get height and some early damage. However, the Tarn had other ideas. A couple of Berserker Charges later, my Krav were running for their lives. They took out a viking or two, but were all killed. I failed the AE drop again for the next 2 rounds, and Mimring was cut down by Drake, trying to avenge the Krav. With 2 markers left on Drake, he spent one to get within range of Ne-Gok-Sa in my starting zone. I expected Mimring to die, and had my 3 on Ne-Gok-Sa. I walked right up to Drake and rolled Mindshackle.... 20. Holy freaking crap. That ended the round, and the AE dropped the next round. With no threats to them on the ramparts or by my starting zone, they all had height on the rest of his army and just cleaned house. When the dust settled, three of my AE were dead and he marched his last Izumi over to my zone, and his traitorous Drake cut him in half. I apologized profusely for the game, but he was an excellent sport about it. Easily my most memorable game. 1-0

Round 2 on Little Ramparts

After that game, this one I just can't remember much about. I think it was on Little Ramparts again, and I know I picked the Krav first and had Thorgrim. I marched Thorgrim out early and engaged some people. He didn't want to kill him and let the Krav have his spirit, so he tried disengaging some Samurai and Tarn, but they all died. Thorgrim was killed very late, and the Krav mopped up. 2-0

Round 3 vs. Fareed on Turret Rocks

Fareed was a friend of the Columbus Crew, and they cautioned him against letting his opponent draft Raelin and the Krav. However, the high ground on this map was too tempting for him, and he drafted the AE. I nabbed the Krav and Raelin and filled out this army:

Krav
Raelin
Mimring
Finn
Marro Warriors

against

AE
Drake
Izumi
Zettian Guads
Agent Carr

He charged out the Izumi first, and Finn met them. Next round came the AE, but his grenades failed him, and Mimring and the Krav made short work of them. Mimring then claimed the turret, breathing fire at Drake. I kept most of my markers on Mimring, using his double-base to prevent Drake from reaching the top with his Grapple Arm and breathing fire. Eventually Drake was killed, and the Finn-powered Krav finished the rest. I won my heat, but didn't have the point differential that Kahrma did (he didn't lose anything) so I took a couple of terrain sets home but no trophy. 3-0, winner of the heat after a ridiculous first match.

My last tourney was the Unique Hero on Sunday morning. At this point, I was 11-3 for the Con and happy with my performances. I hoped to end on a good note. For the 44 player field, I chose this army at the last second:

Q9 - 180
Raelin - 80
Laglor - 110
Agent Skahen - 120
Isamu - 10

I thought I would see a lot of melee heavy hitters that can kill heroes, so I opted to out-range them.

Round 1 - A cousin/nephew of lonewolf and scaper_dude on Feylund Fountain (Q9, Raelin, Kaemon Awa, Isamu, Zetacron maybe?)

This match I don't remember a lot about, except that I claimed the high ground with Q9 and was shooting from really far away. He was trying to Queglix my Q9, who had 10 dice while I was shooting normally for 5 dice at his. My Q9 and his high ground won out, and also took care of Kaemon Awa. Skahen cleaned up Isamu, but I can't remember anything else. 1-0

Round 2 - ManTrainChooChoo (My army -Isamu + Otonashi) on Turret Rocks

ManTrain and I laughed between rounds about playing the same army, then we played against each other. After his defeat yesterday, I know he REALLY wanted his revenge now. Our armies were only 10 points different, but the real differences in them showed immediately. Isamu was a last resort for me, but ManTrain opened up with Skahen and was able to get some wounds on Raelin, moving Otonashi towards the glyph at the same time with Cover Fire. I spent my first round getting Q9 onto the Turret. Both of our Raelins were quickly dead. We then recalled the scenario from the day before, where his Q9 on height lost to my Q10. A similar this happened here, as his Q9 killed my higher Q9. If that wasn't bad enough, Skahen and Laglor whiffed a combined 4 defense rolls in a row and were easily killed. I was completely rolled in a mirror match, and ManTrain got his revenge. Next time, I'll bring Q10. 1-1

Round 3, theGuru on Little Ramparts (Nilfheim, Raelin, Me-Burq-Sa, SuJoah)

I was happy to play theGuru - he was a great opponent. He started by advancing Raelin, who was shot by Q9 from my starting zone. She was wounded and had to go and get the Healer glyph, leaving his advancing Nilfheim open to attacks. Q9 positioned himself on low ground, but there were no spaces around him that Nilf could stand on, thanks to the battlements. So, Nilf was stuck with the Ice Shard attack into my Raelin-protected force. He lost Nilf, and flew in SuJoah. The fly killed Raelin, but was then killed by Q9 and Skahen. Agent Skahen offed Raelin and took the high ground. Me-Burq-Sa avenged his fallen comrades by Paralyzing Skahen and throwing 4 skulls, but Q9 took care of him. A great game nonetheless. 2-1

Round 4 - A dude I can't remember (Su-Bak-Na and.... I got nothin) on Little Ramparts

I was starting to get sick of Little Ramparts too, but the only thing I remember about this game is that Q9 was shooting from the starting zone for most of the game, and even hit Su-Bak-Na before my opponent used his first order marker. My ridiculous range won me this game. 3-1

At this point I was one of the two highest ranked 3-1's, but with two 4-0's (ManTrain was one of them) I knew I was playing for 3rd. I sat down against the other highest ranked 3-1:

Round 5 - an 8 year old named Owen (Charos, Drake 2.0, Kaemon Awa) on Jungle Swamp Road.

This kid had been playing some serious scape, beating both MattserTruckRally and lonewolf to get to this point!!!!! Before and during the game, I was seriously impressed with how well this little dude played. He marched Drake straight down the road through some Queglix fire and killed Skahen in one shot. Drake fell to the Queglix, and Kaemon started down the road. Kaemon wounded Raelin but also fell to the Queglix, then came Charos. Charos killed Raelin and wounded Q9, but had taken heavy damage due to a couple of whiffed defense rolls. I was splitting markers between Q9 and Laglor to ensure I didn't lose turns, and I eventually killed Charos. But man, could that little dude play! If I have a son, I hope he's half that good a gamer by the time he's 8. 4-1

ManTrain had to face a Q10 / Raelin army in the finals and again failed to beat his nemesis. lonewolf also finished 4-1 and edged me in strength of schedule, so I took home 4th place and a Thaelik Tundra set.

Overall, I was very happy with my army selection and my play throughout the whole Con. I finished with a record of 15-4 and played some very fun matches against some very good players. Thanks to everyone that helped out my gaming experience at GenCon - it was an absolute blast!