KnightOfLight’s Battle Reports

[KnightOfLight]

I’ve wanted to create a thread for battle reports for quite a while now, and with me going to Scapecon this year, I figured now was the best time! Here is a list of all the games I played at Scapecon and eventually much more!

3 Headed Hydra:
I went to Scapecon with DiggetyDingus so we needed a teammate. Thankfully, we were approached by Mr_Chompy, who not only was happy to play with us, but also was happy to lend figures. I ran 4X blade gruts, Grimnak, Nerak, and Erevan sunshadow (sit one blade). Diggety played 4X Mezzos, Q10, and a sahugan. My recollection is fuzzy, but I believe Mr. Chompy played 3X Anubians, 1X badru, Khosumet, swarm Raelin, and 3X Dumetefs.

Round 1 vs NecroBlade on healing waters.
We played against NecroBlade, Deroche, and ViideoSayg
They won the die roll and let us ban, we banned mezzos into their heavy grut build as we felt Grimnak was too strong into mezzos. They paired me into NecroBlade, Diggety into ViideoSayg, and Chompy into deroche.

I was playing against 3X heavies, Grimnak, Nerak, and Otonashi. This game was a lesson in how to play the grut mirror. I won initiative, and while I had more squadies and moved faster, I was tentative to take the central hill as I didn’t want to expose my Grimnak to the chomp plus boosted heavy grut attack. This was definitely the wrong call, as when both players have Grimnak, but I have the inferior squad, I needed the height in order to tip the stats back in my favor. Anyways, he took the central hill and we traded fairly evenly however, one init switch meant my numbers advantage was gone. Erevan tried to make a game of it and got it down to a 3/5 Grimnak and 1 heavy, Erevan died on a disengage to try and get an OM.

Diggety managed to take out the 10th/Raelin build, but Chompy couldn’t take out the 4th.

Round 1: Team 0-1 Me 0-1

Round 2 vs Dok on origin:
This round we won the die roll and banned Q9 into Mezzos as that would probably be an auto-lose. They put my blades against Dok’s Q9/rats/tarn, the mezzos into OEAO’s Kurrok/10X fires, and the wolves into Matthias Maccabaeus’ sacred band/Parmenio/“Shotgun” Sullivan.

Origin was an excellent map for this matchup as both glyphs (attack and move) were both very helpful. I used Erevan’s fey step to grab the move glyph before Dok’s rats could get there. While Erevan died to Q9 fire by round’s end, the extra movement was crucial in developing Grimnak and blades into the center of the board. The rest of the game was blades running to Q9, and thanks to the attack glyph, the attacks of 3 and then 4 once Grimnak caught up eventually brought Q9 down. It was a close game but I pulled it out with a full life grimnak and 1/2 blades.

Diggety said he lost Q10 only dealing 1 wound to kurrok before going down, but from there the mezzos just held consistent attacks that kept the fires from getting enough burns to get through them. Chompy also pulled out the win, seems like the Raelin backed Anubiens held out really well into the band and eventually won the trading war.

Round 2: Team 1-1 Me 1-1

Round 3 vs Scared Cultist on dark fulcrum:

We won the die roll here and I can’t remember who or what else was on the other team…I think Diggety beat a rats/2X Hydra team? And I don’t recall Chompy’s game at all. I believe they banned mezzos into band and we happily set matchups from there.

Cultist had 4X sacred band, Valguard and Parmenio. Him and I slow rolled pretty hard for a while until he launched Valguard onto the shadow tile in front of the rock outcrop right outside my startzone. He picked up the kill on the blade grut, but was promptly surrounded by Nerak on shadow and 3 other blades. From there it was just Grimnak and blades winning the war of attrition against band and Parmenio. Valguard eventually broke through the grut off to one side and went on a suicide mission to kill Erevan, he succeeded but the game was over. I won with Nerak and Grimnak at full health and a handful of blades.

Like I said, I can’t remember much of the other games other than I know Diggety won his game and that means the team won that round.

Round 3: Team 2-1 Me 2-1

Round 4 vs Brean_of_Philly on origin:

This round I can remember the other team. They had Brean, Vydar_XLIII, and gbizzy. Brean had 4th/Sam Brown, Vydar had axegrinders/Darrak and gbizzy and groks/Meburqsa/Negoksa. I believe they won the die roll and made us ban, so we banned groks into blades as Grimnak couldn’t chomp them. They set me vs the 4th, Diggety vs the dwarves and Chompy vs the groks. We got to set maps and put Chompy on nightfall, Diggety on healing waters, and me on origin.

Brean’s army was 4X 4th and Samuel Brown. This one was pretty simple all told, I had to slow roll to keep Grimnak out side the wait then fire range, and Brean slowly developed around the ruin. Eventually, I charged in with the help of the move glyph and thanks to some clutch blocks from blades and a couple very successful init switches, the blades overran the minute men and sealed the deal. I won with like 3 blades and probably a 1/5 Grimnak.

I headed over to chompy’s game where the groks were steadily making gains against the wolves. Eventually, the combo of Meburqsa and Negoksa cracked the defenses and gbizzy took home the win with I think both heroes on the board and maybe 1 grok. I headed over to Diggity’s game to see if we had a shot at winning this round. Their game was extremely close but Diggity pulled out the win with like 3 mezzos and no exos left.

Round 4: Team 3-1 Me 3-1.

Our only loss was to the team that wound up winning the event, and the games were very fun. Really happy to have Mr. Chompy join us and lend me the figures I needed to play the grut army! Overall this event was a solid start to what would surely be an excellent con!



Delta Rule of 12:

This main event was really similar in points to the hydra tournament from the previous night. Diggety decided since the mezzos went so well the night previous, he was going to run them again. I probably should have done the same, but instead I decided to play Romans. I felt they would have a good shot into a delta meta as their well rounded matchups could contend with lots of different things. Unfortunately, I confused myself as I had planned on running ROTV Raelin with my Roman build but looked at my notes for the hydra event (30 points cheaper and containing swarm Raelin instead) I started submitting my army and when I had 35 extra points, I just assumed I meant to add Guilty, and it hadn’t dawned on me to just play rise Raelin instead. I think if I have good Raelin, I have a better chance into a lot of my games with good Raelin, but that’s okay, I made a mistake and needed to live with it. So my final build was 3X Romans, Marcus, Mebuqsa, swarm Raelin, and Guilty.

Round 1 vs Taelord Dees on origin:
Taelord had Heavies X3, Grimnak, Nerak, and Marcu I think?
This was a pretty rough matchup, as Grimnak is just so good into Romans. I tried to pod up on the 3 2 height hexes right outside the startzone as he had no range and I could use Meburqsa’s range to my advantage. Unfortunately, Meburqsa wasn’t enough in this matchup and he eventually broke through the Roman’s and took the win. I think I lost pretty handily as Guilty managed to bring it down to full health grimnak 2 heavies and I think Marcu in the startzone.

Round 1: 0-1

Round 2 vs Majora’s Incarnation on April 9th:
Majora had 3X capuans, Spartacus, Crixus, and a sahugan.
In addition to this being a pretty good matchup for me, I hit a huge crippling gaze into 3/3 skulls on Crixus super early meaning he fell far faster than expected. Romans cut through the capuans and Crixus and while he did manage to take out Marcus, I won with 4/5 Romans, full life Raelin, and full life Mebuqsa ending the game with a 5/5 skull roll from Mebuqsa (3+height+attack glyph) to finish off the Sahuagan.

Round 2: 1-1

Round 3 vs vegetarian18 on ascension:
Vegie had 2X blasts, 2X glads, Q10, Isamu.
This was a super fun game. Vegie got a big init switch round 2 which let him catch and kill Mebuqsa, and from there I was feeling pretty far behind. The next round he wound up using OM 3 to retreat playing around my init switch which definitely helped me stay in the game but was also the right call on his part as I did get the init switch and used it to retake my side of the central hill. As we continued trading I actually was getting closer and closer to killing all the glads/blasts. I had one Roman that survived like 8 attacks from blasts which was crazy. Once Q10 came out though, I was in trouble, I used Raelin’s whirlwind assault to take out 3 blasts and then tried to play for an init switch to get extra attacks on Q10, I engaged him with Marcus hoping he would survive while I bring my 3 remaining Romans over. I lost the init switch and Marcus fell to the wrist rocket, I was able to get 2 attacks of 3v6 into Q10 which I think delt a wound and then Q10 killed a Roman, the last 2 Romans bravely engaged the soulborg and dealt 2 more wounds bring the major to 3/4, but he then cleared the Romans and Raelin within the next 2 turns. It was now Guilty vs 3/4 Q10, 1 blast, and Isamu. I won initiative and took my 2 2v6s hoping for a miracle, but the major’s defense held and he took out Guilty the next turn.

Round 3: 1-2

Round 4 vs Trivia Knight on Hydra:
Triviaknight had 3X rats, Kaemon, Krav, and 1X Mezzos.
He opened rats, rats, Krav and the rats became a thorn in my side for the whole game. I figured I’d never cut through them all, if I ignored them, so I started attacking them. Some of this felt like a good idea but every time I missed an attack, it felt like two steps back. Meburqsa was pivotal in this game as he counters every single unit Trivia Knight had. Rats can’t scatter, mezzos can use exos, Krav can’t stealth dodge, and kaemon can’t counter strike. All dependent on the paralyzing stare. Meburqsa hit a lot of very helpful stares including both mezzos and the final blow one Kaemon. I had to use an init switch to catch the agents and used the road to help with my development. The mid game was very interesting as he still had about ~7 rats, 1 Krav, and Kaemon, thankfully, the Roman’s began to cut through the remaining rats with good consistency and one final init switch thanks to dagmar sealed the deal, with Meburqsa taking height on Kaemon and finishing him off.

Round 4: 2-2

Round 5 was supposed to start after lunch, and I was already ineligible for top cut, so I dropped out in order to play in the age of annihilation event. Turns out I didn’t need to do that, so I spent an hour spectating games! Overall I think just simply not having good Raelin hurt my Roman army a lot. Not sure if I win either of my two loses, but I do think I stand a better shot, especially against the glad/blasts.




Age of Rebirth:
This was the first side event I got to play in and I was super excited. Funnily enough, I had playtested quite a bit for this event but changed my army to axegrinders (an army I hadn’t playtested) as I felt they were a really good meta call. I played 4X axegrinders, Dorim, Darrak, and Marcu (sit one). I waffled on whether I should go Syvarris or Darrak and Marcu for the last 100 points of the build. Ultimately I decided a second bonding option and Marcu was better than the range Syvarris offered. Not sure if it was the right call but I’m fairly certain I was the only one who made that decision because in addition to being 20 points short, it also meant I had to sit a figure.

Round 1 vs Taelord Dees on ascension:
A rematch already! Having lost to Taelord early that day, I was excited to see Nillfheim sitting across the table. His army was Nilfheim, ROTV Raelin, 2X greenscales, Zetacron, and Kita the spring runner. I sat Marcu here as I’d rather have one more dwarf to throw at nilf. Ascension was an interesting map and Taelord found a really nice perch for nilf on the right side of the map which made things difficult, however the disengage glyph on this map allowed me to slip a few dwarves around his screen to hit nilf for some early wounds. Dorim didn’t do much this game, but I fell in love with his chain axe. Eventually, the numbers of the dwarves took out nilf and headed straight for zetacron. It came down to a squad of dwarves vs Raelin and a greenscale, Raelin put up a good fight, but the dwarves took the win without any casualties.

Round 1: 1-0

Round 2 vs Earl_of_Sandwich on dark fulcrum:
Earl was running the same core as I was but with the Syvarris piece. I sat Marcu again as in the mirror I wanted the same number of dwarves, especially since he was going to get attacks with syv as I developed. Dark Fulcrum was a good map for me in this matchup as it made Syvarris’ early snipes less likely to go through. Eventually, I ran Dorim up on height to attack down on dwarves in Earl’s startzone and began to see just how good charge is. 5 move dwarves on top of bonding is really good. My Dorim was killed very quickly, but I had much better board position than Earl. The early OMs on Syvarris kinda backfired as I swarmed the middle of the map claiming a large portion of height and shadow. Earl’s Dorim proved far tougher than mine, but I was killing a lot more dwarves than he did. Eventually his hero fell making my 5 attacks to his 4 eventually win out and I won with about 6 dwarves and Darrak alive.

Round 2: 2-0

Round 3 vs NecroBlade on healing waters:
Here we go, necroblade beat me the very first game I played at scapecon so I was happy to get to play him again so soon. Necro was playing what I assumed was going to be the dominant core; death chasers. He had deathchasers X5, Adelbern, Pulverizer, and Isamu. I sat an axegrinder for this game as wannok was on the map, and in and end game where death chasers are spread out, the low defense of the chasers would give Marcu good healing. Adelbern is the main reason I chose dwarves, he is an absolute monster, 8 lives, with chomp, and 5 attack is seriously good, especially when bonding with death chasers. Dorim really shined this game, his chainaxe continued to impress, effectively 5 attack is really good into death chasers as I could (relatively) safely go for attacks up at death chasers, then buff my dwarves’ movement making it easier to take their place. I had a huge init switch where I used Dorim plus 4 dwarf attacks to take out NecroBlade’s 5 remaining death chasers, taking order markers and giving me a prime opportunity to surround Adelbern. These attacks were pretty lucky, as I hit 2 3v3s up at death chaser, 1 4v3 down, and one 3v2 over. I then surrounded Adelbern with 3 dwarves and Darrak taking him out after 2 turns of concentrated fire. The Pulverizer didn’t fare much better and I wound up winning with ~7 dwarves, Darrak, and Marcu at full health.

Round 3: 3-0

Round 4 vs OEAO on origin:
OEAO had 3X phantom knights, Ordo Borealis, Concan, and ROTV Raelin. I sat Marcu again as wannok wasn’t on the board and I wanted the extra dwarf to combat the phantoms. Another large unit from aoa makes an appearance, the Ordo are super cool units, and their synergy with Concan is sweet. Unfortunately for OEAO, the was an excellent matchup for the dwarves as his main fighting force is large and bonding melee will almost always win into phantoms. The crazy thing was when I had Dorim attacking while I held valda. Bonding and having 7 move dwarfs is disgustingly good. The PKs didn’t last long against the dwarves and eventually I broke through his screen. I misplayed the end a bit as I split attacks between Raelin and Concan, when I should have focused on Raelin. The Ordo had a hard time fighting back as the dwarves’ boosted stats made it easier to block the Ordo’s attacks and then the ones that did fall were quickly replaced thanks to 8 move dwarves. I finished it out with about ~6 dwarves and Darrak.

Round 4: 4-0

There could have been a round 5 for this event but since we had 3 3-0s and the start of round 4 one of them had to be paired down to a 2-1. The 2-1 won that game leaving me the only 4-0 and the winner! I came to scapecon aiming to win some dice and I did it! Super pleased with this run as Dorim was way better than I’d expected, and the dice are super cool. The shield symbols are the lions on the knights of Weston’s shields and the skulls are the dragon on Sir Hawthorne’s shield. Perfect for me, as the knights are my favorite squad in the game! The AoA event was a blast and it was cool to see them on the board. Very excited to see more of these designs on the board in the future!




Delta 4 X 350:
I actually had to miss the first round of this event as the aoa finals were the same time as the first round of this event. My 4 armies were:
3X axegrinders, Darrak, Isamu
3X 4th, Eldigrim
3X Romans, Marcus, Guilty
4X spiders, Wyvern, Estivara, Marcu (sit one)

I missed round 1, so it just didn’t count towards my final score. (surprised it wasn’t a loss) I couldn’t win this event and so just wanted to play some games!

Round 2 vs JandArvey on ascension:
I had Roman’s for this game and he had Kozuki Samurai, Izumi Samurai, Kaemon, and Ninjas of the Northern Wind. I wasn’t super confident in this matchup, but once the Izumi went down to Marcus boosted Roman attacks, everything else just rolled from there. Kaemon came a little too close to try and quick release my Roman pod but was quickly surrounded by my remaining Romans and the Marcus boosted attacks took him out quickly. The Kozuki and Ninjas tried to make a game of it, but I just had too many squadies left.

Round 2: 1-0

Round 3 vs johnnyfrisbee on dark fulcrum:
Johnny had 3X axegrinders, and Migol, and I had my 4th. This was just a matter of me abusing the 3 hex perch right next to my startzone. Wait then fire on that hill is good. The dwarves just couldn’t stand up to it and when I had an init switch that took out ~6 dwarves between the two turns, Johnny conceded.

Round 3: 2-0

Round 4 vs S1R_ART0R1US on hydra:
Artorius had 2X dwarves, Darrak, 2X black wyrmlings, 2X red wyrmlings, and Isamu I think? I had my spider army. I had a lot more numbers here but Wyvern isn’t great into dwarves. we traded fairly well and the spiders came out on top taking out the dwarves. The wyrmlings came in next and did a great job clearing out the rest of the spiders and the Wyvern. It came down to Marcu and 2/4 Estivara vs 1 black and 1 red. I sent Estivara over to wannok to try and seal the deal, but a black hit a 16 on acid breath killing her. Marcu cleaned up the rest easily enough however, and I won with a 2/6 Marcu left.

Round 4: 3-0

This time I was the one who was responsible for not letting there be a fifth round, as I couldn’t win the event in the first place and defeated one of the 3 3-0s.

I was super pleased with the second day of scapecon as I got dice, and went on a 8 game win streak! Scapecon is going really well!




Reverse the whip:

For reverse the whip, I changed my army last minute as I got spooked seeing people playtest the night prior. Originally, I was going to play 2X dwarves, Darrak, 2X black wyrmlings, 2X red wyrmlings, 1X blue wyrmling, and Kozuki Samurai. I discussed with Dysole about changing the blue to a white and the Kozuki to Raelin in order to make the whole thing much stronger. When I saw a full glads/blast army in a playtesting game I got scared and changed to 3X dwarves, Darrak, Nakitas, and Marcu. Not sure this is actually stronger than the previous build but it felt like it at the time.

Round 1 vs The Orange Mailman on origin:
Mailman had 2X deathstalkers, 2X mezzos, and 2X tagawa samurai archers. This was definitely a winnable matchup, if I would have played the Nakitas better. The dwarves did great into the deathstalkers, but couldn’t hold their own once the tagawa got hot shields and the mezzos posed a huge threat in end game. I think if I move Nakitas up a couple rounds earlier and leverage the smoke powder, I probably do much better into the tagawa samurai and give me a better shot at taking out the mezzos. But I left them in my startzone and they got sniped by tagawa. It came down to Marcu vs 1 squad of mezzos with all the markers and 1 tagawa. Marcu tried to make a game of it, but the mezzos easily cleaned house.

Round 1: 0-1

Round 2 vs Gingerkid16 on dark fulcrum:
This was the first reverse round and I was handed 3X death knights, Venoc Warlord, Zetacron, Guilty, and 1X aubrien archers. The death knights did better into the dwarves than I thought, and I was able to get the drop on the Nakitas with the warlord as they climbed one of the hills, but my 5v3 didn’t go through, and he took 5 wounds on the crack back. From there it was just aubriens trying to frenzy. I hit quite a few frenzies, but the smoke powder was hot and they couldn’t quite pull it out.

Round 2: 0-2

I was feeling pretty bad at this point and considered dropping, but I regretted not playing the last round of the previous day’s main event so I stuck with it and played the next 3 rounds hoping I could turn things around.

Round 3 vs Chill on nightfall:
We were back to playing our own armies this round, and he had 3X river tribe, 2X horned skull brutes, Zetacron, Theracus, and Brave Arrow.

At this point I had both lost because I didn’t play Nakitas correctly and lost because Nakitas were played correctly against me. So for this matchup, I decided to put turn 1 on the Nakitas and then surround them with dwarves so the river tribe would have a harder time getting kills. We both spent round 1 mostly developing, I staged dwarves around the Nakitas and he developed Theracus and Brave Arrow turn one and then the river tribe towards the attack glyph. Eventually, we clashed near the attack glyph, and the dwarves traded well into the river tribe and brutes. Once the river tribe went down, the Nakitas easily cleaned up the rest from the newly acquired height.

Round 3: 1-2

Round 4 vs Crystalman on august 2nd:
Another reverse round, this time my opponent handed me 3X anubians, 2X wolves of badru, and Khosumet.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about this matchup, but the map had lodin which for scapecon was +2 to d20 rolls which bodes well for the wolves. This game was full of high variance. Crystal slow rolled dwarves and I developed both squads of wolves toward the lodin side of the map. Turn 3 of round 1 I hit a 19 for the anubians which was only the beginning. After I grabbed lodin I hit 2 other 20s, and at least 2 other 16s for the anubians which kept me ahead of the dwarves. Then once the dwarves had been mostly cleared out, I threw a pounce up at a 1/4 Darrak to get some wounds on him and somehow the 5v3 dealt 3 wounds (3/5 into 0/3) killing Darrak. From there the Nakitas podded up on the 3 hex outside their startzone but 1 pounce later their line was broken and the anubians cleaned up from there.

Round 4: 2-2

Round 5 vs Master Roshi on ascension:
Roshi had 2X phantom knights, 2X wolves of badru, 2X chainfighters, and Kozuki Samurai.
This game wasn’t so much my good luck, as it was Roshi’s bad luck. He spilt OM’s between phantoms and wolves while I went straight dwarves. I got lots of kills on the PKs and the wolves blanked their first 2 pounce attempts. The dwarves handled the squadies quickly and once the Kozuki came in, I was prepared to swap to Nakitas, but his first 2 attacks on the same dwarf (a 5v3, and a 6v3) didn’t go through. So I kept riding dwarves until the end of the game. Not the closest one, but happy to end 3-2 instead of what could have easily been a 1-4 or worse event.

Round 5: 3-2




VC Quad Pod:
Since I didn’t make top cut in reverse the whip I was happy to play the quad pod event. I didn’t get many opportunities to play VC figures at scapecon so I was happy to play a couple of my favorites here.
My pods were:
2X axegrinders and Beorn Boltcutter

Avernus and Zetacron

Boreos, Mebuqsa, and a blue wyrmling

Talingul and 2X Romans

The thought process with these pods was to create good counters within them while being able to play Boreos and Avernus. Not sure how well I did that as these were thrown together the day prior.

Round 1 vs DiggetyDingus on hydra:
Diggety had:
2X amberhive protectors and Mellifera

Kalagrith and Marcu

Greyspears and Arktos

B-11 and Deltacron

I won the die roll and grabbed my dwarf pod as I liked a lot of the pairings it had and it was one with the most figures. Diggety took the bees and the Romans. I grabbed Avernus/Zetacron to round things out.

Honestly I think he out drafted me here, but Avernus can be really effective into massed commons and dwarves are solid. As expected, he opened bees and I played it super slow, trying to not let him get first strike. Seeing as he had the numbers I needed to come out in this conflict without trading bees for dwarves evenly. I upgraded Zeta with Beorn while I waited. Eventually he moved Mellifera into a prime position and then screened with a few bees. I took the opportunity. I grabbed dagmar with one dwarf and took 3 3v3s into bees. Thankfully all three went through. I then won initiative and surrounded Mellifera with dwarves. It took all four attacks, but down went the queen bee and that was pretty much game. Not taking a single casualty was huge there, plus it burned his whole round of OMs. The bees tried to get a few kills but the dwarves held up and eventually the Romans started rolling forward. From there, I split OMs between Zetacron, Avernus, and dwarves. The dwarves tied up the Romans and I took 1 turn with Avernus to get him on road. The romans chewed through a couple dwarves but not having a bonding option meant the dwarves were winning that trade war. Finally I moved Zetacron onto one of the level 3 hills and launched an attack at Talingul. Thanks to beorn the 4 die attack went 4/4 killing Talingul and wrapping up the game.

Round 1: 1-0

Round 2 vs caps on April 9th:
Caps had:
2X shieldsmiths and marro warriors

Greyspears and quickblades

Swiftfangs, Darkclaws, and Isamu

2X Nhah scrih and Arkmer

Caps won the die roll and let me choose first, I was torn but felt the shieldsmiths/marro was the best into the rest of the field. He took the two vaark pods and I countered with the axe grinders.

Much of the first round was posturing, he developed all 4 vaark squads and I used the time to move the shieldsmiths into good blocking positions on both sides and then turn 3 on the axegrinders to threaten an init switch. I didn’t get the init switch but having 8 figures with 6/1/4/4 stats into your opponent’s entire army is good. The jungle helped keep the shieldsmiths alive against the greyspear’s pings. Much of this game was good stats are good, we traded very evenly but the axegrinders put in lots of work taking out all but 1 quickblade, 1 Darkclaw, and 3 greyspears. With Beorn sitting on the attack glyph in the middle of the map, the shieldsmiths were able to get kills even while they were moving. I think I pulled out the win with 1 axe grinder, 2 shieldsmiths, and the marro warriors sitting in the startzone. A very fun game!

Round 2: 2-0

Round 3 vs Man_At_Arms on ascension:
Man at arms had:
2X Gnids and Syvarris

2X blade gruts, Nerak, and Hrognak

2X 53rd sharpshooters and sentinels of grax

3X Beakface sneaks, 2X Beakface rouges, and 1X Clawfoot

He won the die roll and took the dwarves. I wasn’t sure what was best, but thought the numbers of gnids and blades would give me a good advantage, so I took that and he responded with the sharpshooters/grax. Round 1 I split OMs between gnids and blades, with 1 on gnids and 2/3 on blades, he went all in on sharpshooters. The sharpshooters took some early shots on Nerak once I developed him up to the snow/ice, but his defense was solid all game which was a life saver. The blades caught the 2 developed sharpshooters thanks to Hrognak’s movement bonus and traded very well into the dwarves. Nerak blocked 2 sharpshooter attacks from even ground, 2 sharpshooter attacks from low ground and 2 dwarf attacks from even ground. An absolute champ. Eventually the blades ground through the dwarves thanks to them having height+nerak. I was able to catch 1 sentinel sleeping in the startzone with gnids and picked up the kill. The second sentinel ran towards the blade pod and missed the reconstruction which was good for me as I was able to surround him with Nerak and blades so that he couldn’t reconstruct next turn. The sentinel killed nerak but was surrounded again by Hrognak and the blades and cut down. From there the gnids surrounded Beorn in the startzone and took him out in 3 attacks thanks to 2 clings.

Round 3: 3-0

Here again I was fortunate as the pair down won their game making me the only 3-0 after 3 rounds. Another win! This time I took the order markers, but selfishly I should have taken dice again haha.




Heat of battle assassin’s creed:
This was a really strange format for me as I had played these two game modes before, but not together. I played 4X Romans, Marcus, Valguard, Meburqsa, and an air elemental. Meburqsa was a risk, but I wanted to see how it would go.

Round 1 vs Mr_Chompy on ascension:
Chompy had 4X blade gruts, Grimnak, Tornak, and Ornak. He choose Meburqsa, and I choose Tornak as our targets. In hindsight, I should have chosen Grimnak.

When we started placing, I knew I wanted dagmar on my side, so when he made me place first, I started surrounding it. He placed most of his figures in the middle, and I played towards the left. The best part about my army was the air elemental. The board control is really nice in heat of battle, but better yet, it’s essentially one turn of placement stalling. The air elemental was really nice as it locked down the path around the ruin so that Mr Chompy either had to go out of his way to get around or go through the Roman wall. He also placed Grimnak in a rather exposed position, so that when I won the first initiative, I was able to surround Grimnak and start dealing wounds. It took 3 turns, but letting Grimnak only chomp 2 Romans was huge. From there Mr Chompy kept hoping for an init switch, racing blades around the shield wall to try and catch Meburqsa on an extra turn, but because I had dagmar it never came. Eventually I ground through enough blades to where Tornak had to come out and he eventually fell.

Round 1: 1-0

Round 2 vs loki619 on origin:
This was a very strange game. He had a mass of stingers, Thorgrim, Concan, and Crixus. I choose Thorgrim and he choose Meburqsa. His placement was quite clever as he took both side hills with stingers, giving me the middle of the board, which I felt good about, until I realized there wasn’t a safe hex in the middle for Meburqsa to go on. Unfortunately, Loki forgot Thorgrim was my target or something and placed him on the board a lot earlier than he should have and he was quickly surrounded by Romans. From there it was just a game of seeing who went down first, and the Roman’s took out Thorgrim in 2 turns.

Round 2: 2-0

Round 3 vs caps on dark fulcrum:
Caps had 3X hydras, 2X stingers. This tournament was clearly where everyone’s fatigue started to come out. We’ve been playing a lot of games and this one was late at night. I should have placed before caps, but I let him place first. He placed stingers on one of the hills, with a clear spot for the hydra I had targeted behind them. I then grabbed the other hill and then he mistakenly placed a hydra on the hill, but not my target where he planned. This let me slip my air elemental into the water next to where he wanted to go throwing his plan out of wack. The rest of the placements were us grabbing our respective hills. He had chosen Valguard as his target so I put him on the single hex 4 height on my hill. I focused on whittling down the stingers and that went pretty well. The big swing was when caps took 2 turns repositioning hydras in order to get his initial placement that he wanted. This paired with an initiative switch gave me 3 turns of uncontested attacks. One small turn was when I had 4 attacks on one hydra. 3 skulls….3 shields….3 skulls…..3 shields…..3 skulls….3 shields….3 skulls….1 shield and a dead hydra. Probably the craziest single turn in the whole of scapecon for me. He then had to overextend the second hydra to kill Meburqsa, which worked, but let me surround that hydra and take it out as well. The last hydra had a valiant last stand grinding through most all of the Romans. I finally finished off the hydra with Valguard’s first assault.

Round 3: 3-0

Round 4 vs Infected_Sloth on august 2nd:
Infected sloth had 4X chasers, Meburqsa, Raelin, Ogre Pulverizer, and 1X deathrevers.
He choose Meburqsa and I choose the Pulverizer.
This one I made mistakes. I won the die roll, and placed first, and definitely should have made him place first. I also didn’t use my first placement with my whole board placement in mind. I grabbed the 2 hex 3 height in the center of the board with Romans and made a wall towards the 3 hex 2 height. He placed his rats around the lava in the middle of the board towards the right, so I responded with the air elemental in the middle of the 7 hex lava on the right side. This was what felt like a good placement at the time, as it took away all that height and blocked the path to the disengage glyph. From there we both took sides, and as I said before, I should have thought long term with that first placement, I tried to make it so he couldn’t battle rush to get next to Meburqsa, but was only able to make it so 1 chaser could get engaged without disengaging. Unfortunately, that was enough, as he won initiative, got 1 wound with his Meburqsa onto mine 1/4 into 0/3 and then a 2/4 into 0/3 from the chaser. A single OM game, but that’s what I get for making mistakes.

Round 4: 3-1

I believe there was a 5th round, but it was like 11 at this point so I went to bed.




VCheese:
I decided that I had to play my favorite army at scapecon for at least one event. And Vcheese fit it fairly well. I played 5X knights, and Gilbert sit one knight. Based on the last online vcheese event, I was confident we would see a lot of Q9, Quahon, and micros. I liked the knights into everything here, so I was excited to play knights. Delta really nerfs knights (as it should) so I was glad to play them at full strength.

Round 1 vs gbizzy on healing waters:
Gbizzy had 5X death chasers, Nerak, Mebuqsa, and Kuthnak. This matchup was interesting, Kuthnak is usually really good into bonding melee, but knights might be the exception, Gilbert gives me high mobility to play around boiled blood, and their sturdy base 4 defense means even 5v4s aren’t guaranteed to go through. I slow rolled hard the first round, barely developing outside my startzone and denied any boiled bloods on more than 1 knight. Gbizzy eventually ran Mebuqsa up onto the center hill with 2 death chaser to try and get some kills. Here I used Gilbert as bait trying to get Meburqsa to stay put, and also to tempt a boiled blood. He would get 1 4v4 with Meburqsa into Gilbert and a boiled blood to hit 2 knights and Gilbert, however it would be a 5v4 on Gilbert, and 2 5v5s onto knights with height. I liked this play as if I rolled 2 for dispatch on the next turn, I would catch Mebuqsa with knights, giving me a huge advantage if I take out my opponent’s only range. I was okay using Gilbert as a bargaining chip, as I felt confident he wouldn’t take more than 4 wounds, maybe it was too risky, I haven’t sat down and done the math yet. The play worked great. Meburqsa missed the stare and his 2/4 was blocked 2/4. The chaser came flying in, dealt 2 wounds to Gilbert and killed only one knight. (The block was a ridiculous 5/5 skulls into 5/5 shields. In the same vein, I think the other knight died 2/5 into 1/5.) regardless, I was able to hit the dispatch I needed the next turn and began dealing wounds to Mebuqsa. Mebuqsa held out pretty well but eventually went down to the concentrated fire. Here, we had both been playing slow and had about 20 mins left if I recall. We were trading very evenly which meant if the game went to time, I would lose on points because chasers cost less than knights. I had to make a push, but I also didn’t want to rush in recklessly, so I decided I was simply going to play as fast as I could. From there the knights just rolled, I kept up a very quick pace and eventually the knights broke through the deathchasers and took out the two heroes. A fun game, I think I won with ~6 knights and a 2/6 Gilbert.

Round 1: 1-0

Round 2 vs Brean_of_Philly on origin:
Brean had Quahon, 5X spiders, marro warriors, and Isamu (sit one spider). A bit of an unorthodox build here as usually Raelin is super important in this army, but more spiders is always good.
We both slowrolled, but once the spiders got the move glyph, this sped up immensely. Brean moved Quahon onto one of the center hills and took a lighting breath into 2 knights and Gilbert. I think it was a 1/4 so everyone blocked which looked great for me. I took the opportunity to surround Quahon with Gilbert and 4 knights, one was on even ground while the rest were on low ground. I dealt a quick 3 wounds and was feeling confident in this position. Brean did a great job tying up my startzone knights with spiders, but Quahon was really cold on offense. What Quahon traded for offense she got in defense. It took about 8 attacks to deal one more wound and I was getting worried. Quahon finally hit a good lightning breath clearing out the rest of the knights, and I was unsure how to recover from there. I had Gilbert engaged with a 4/7 Quahon and the rest of my knights were busy grinding through spiders. I got a huge initiative, Gilbert rolled 3/3 and Quahon finally blanked 0/4. Down goes the dragon. From there the spiders and marro warriors tried to make a game of it, but giving me a whole round to catch up to the Marros was enough. It came down to Isamu vs 2/6 gilbert, and a squad of knights. Isamu tried to make a game of it, but time was called and the knights came out on top.

Round 2: 2-0

Round 3 vs ViideoSayg on august 2nd:
This was probably the most intense game I played all weekend. Sayg had the other Quahon build I was expecting. Quahon, 3X spiders, Raelin, marro warriors, and Isamu. This is the build I expected most. Thankfully this map had the disengage glyph which made it easier to get around the spiders, or so I thought. Sayg played an excellent game mitigating a lot of the potential for disengage to make a difference. He set up his screen of spiders before switching to Marros while I slow rolled. Eventually. I used dispatch to catch and kill 1 marro, and then continued to slow roll, playing around an OM 3 on spiders. I was glad that I did because his 3rd was indeed on spiders, and he opted to stay put. We spent much of this game trying to get init switches we wanted. Eventually I breached the right side of the spiders and got a few knights though thanks to disengage and dealt 2 wounds to Quahon. Quahon cleared the knights and rebuilt the wall. From there I took the offensive to the left side. I got a big init switch and managed to get 3 more wounds on Quahon throughout the next couple of OMs. Nearing the end of the game Quahon hit a huge 4/4 on lightning breath clearing out my knights and leaving Gilbert trapped behind enemy lines. Unable to get to Quahon, I staged an offensive towards his Raelin and eventually broke through, got the kill and put myself back in the game. We were nearing time, I had 3 knights and 3/6 Gilbert, he had 4/7 Quahon, 2 spiders, 1 marro warrior and Isamu. We started the last round, and both made some questionable decisions as we were playing very fast. Sayg went for a lightning breath to try and get an OM, he got the kill on the knight, but Gilbert was able to take height and rolled 3/4 into 0/3 killing big blue. A huge swing. Isamu tried to take out Gilbert, but couldn’t quite get there. Time was called and I think I had something like 4/6 Gilbert and 1 knight, he had 1 spider, Isamu, and 1 marro. If I recall I won 50 something points to 30 something points. My memory is a little shaky at the end, but it was an intense game. Super fun, super challenging.

Round 3: 3-0

Round 4 vs 96ztrain on dark fulcrum:
I was really happy to see this matchup on this map for round 4. If I win this game I make top cut and don’t have to worry about round 5 as much. He had Krav, Laglor, and 3X microcorp troopers. While he could shoot me round 1 turn 1 with Laglor boosted Krav, the map helped mitigate that….somewhat. He killed about a squad of knights before I caught one of his Krav, but I had also gotten much better board control, taking most of the center of the board. He was rolling really hot with the Krav, but the knights had a huge numbers advantage, and were able to get better quality attacks. Eventually, the Krav disappeared behind his micro screen and he swapped over to the micros, but at that point I had essentially swarmed outside his startzone and started picking off micros fairly quickly. What started as a rough game quickly swung back in my direction as I cleared out the micros and then the Krav and then Laglor. I won with ~8 knights and 1/6 Gilbert I think.

Round 4: 4-0

Round 5 vs Diggety Dingus on nightfall:
I was super happy to have won the last game as it meant I made top cut, and it made it even better that round 5 was against my friend that came to scapecon with me, we were both 4-0 so this game didn’t matter all to much. I had convinced him the night before that microcorp troopers were a good call for this event, and he did very well with them. He was running 4X micros, Raelin, marro warriors, and Isamu (sit one micro). This game was hilarious, my luck was put entirely into dispatch. I think I rolled better for dispatch in this one game than every other game combined. Turn 2 I hit a 6 symbol dispatch (the most I have ever personally rolled) and over the course of the game hit at least 2 5 symbols, and 3 4 symbols. The bad news was my attack and defense were atrocious. I failed a ton of attacks of 3v4. I was trying to take the asphalt hill outside his startzone, so I could stage an assault on Raelin, but just couldn’t do so. Diggety won quite handedly probably having ~5 micros, the Marros, Isamu, and I think Raelin with some wounds too. Glad I got my bad luck here!

Round 5: 4-1

Finally made top cut which was awesome! And better yet, I got a bye to semis which meant I had qualified for worlds! I never expected to get there, but was very happy to do so!

Round 6: Bye so 5-1 but technically 4-1.

Round 7 vs johnnyfrisbee on hydra:
Johnny was playing another version of the Quahon build: Quahon, Raelin, and 3X greenscales. Going into this game I felt confident, as 9 greenscales vs 19 knight should be easy to grind through. Johnny played exceptionally well and the defense of the greenscales was superb. We played an extremely fast game. (finishing in just over 20 minutes I think) He podded up around the left side towards wannok, and I slowrolled to keep continuous attacks at the greenies. I had a really hard time cracking the defense and the 6 attacks a turn was getting through my knights faster than I liked. I think I got him down to 6/7 Quahon, and 2 greenscales, but 2 knights, that lost initiative couldn’t quite seal the deal. We talked about it after the game and if I would have played more for holding wannok than trying to break through the wall, I might have stood a better chance, but I think I just underestimated the 6 defense greenscales. Johnny went on to win the event too, so while greenscales was a surprise, they fit the point total really well, and I imagine we will be seeing more from this build in the future.

Final record: 5-2 (4-2)




Kill your swill:

I was super excited for this event, but I also definitely made armies that were too strong.
Here were my armies:
Acolarh, Emmiroon, 2X Earth elementals, 2X Fire elementals, Arkmer, Tarn, and Kyntela

Runa, 2X venoc vipers, 2X tagawa samurai archers, and Sudema

Hive, 2X drudge, Kelda, 2X repulsers, and Eldigrim

Ana, 2X deepwyrm drow, Pelloth, Iskra, Retchets, and Otonashi

I think tagawa and rechets are just way too strong, giving my opponent drudge is dangerous, and the elf army has some seriously solid pieces. Not my best for the format but definitely fun.

Round 1 vs Dysole on nightfall:
This was a fun one as it was a drow mirror matchup. Dysole handed me Pelloth, 2X drow chainfighter, Brave Arrow, 2X venoc vipers, Sudema and 2X Sahuagans. I put OM 1 on Brave Arrow, 2 on the chainfighters, and 3 on vipers. Dysole went all in on the drow. I got a chain grab into a kill on a drow on my first try which was nice, and 2 more kills with vipers the following turn. Drow continued to advance I took out the rest with vipers and sudema. I had about 2 vipers going into the rest of Dysole’s army, so was feeling pretty good. I won init and hit a frenzy but all 3 attacks were blocked by Iskra. Iskra hit the summon the next turn, into a sting on Brave Arrow, taking away my OM 3. The retchets got another sting on Sudema who only had one life left and from there they cleaned house pretty good.

Round 1: 0-1

Round 2 vs Man_At_Arms on origin:
Here again I felt the sting of building armies that were too strong, he got my tagawa/viper army, and he handed me 2X dzu teh, Major X17, 2X drudge, and Deathwalker 7000. I think I had a chance here, but I played the opening really poorly. I split too many order markers and paid the price for it. Tagawa are good. X17 got pinged for early wounds, and Deathwalker 7000 blanked on his second defense roll. I just played really poorly. The dzu tried to make a game of it, but 3 defense falls quickly.

Round 2: 0-2

Round 3 vs Samuelfrost4 on hydra:
This game was amazing, and thankfully it was streamed. Although I’m not sure if it was on fithe’s or emery’s. I handed Samuel my hive army, and he handed my a trash can full of terrain and Dumetef guards. 42 in fact. The rest of the army was 2X vipers and Marcu.
Not one to back down from a challenge, I frantically started placing terrain and got the whole thing set up. This matchup was hilarious, as dumetefs on road into an entire army of 2 attack are pretty good. I chewed through the drudge and the repulsers and then began the staring match. The hive was in the back of the startzone with Kelda directly behind it. We spent probably 4 straight rounds of essentially nothing happening. Eventually, the hive managed to kill my lone Dumetef and I decided to slow roll dumetefs until I had 3 within striking range. I rushed them in one at a time and body blocked the hive so it couldn’t respawn any drudge. Kelda came out for “Honor and Glory!” She didn’t last long, and the dumetefs eventually took out the hive, along with the lone drudge he had spawned in Kelda’s place. A hilarious game!

Round 3: 1-2

Round 4 vs Chris Perkins on ascension:
Chris got my elf army and handed me 2X obsidian guards, 5X dumetefs, and Sudema. This game was interesting, I led obsidians which did very well into the elementals, and I used the disengage glyph to sneak around to get Kyntela. Eventually the elves took them out, and then the tarn came out. I tried to bring up dumatefs to contest them. Chris hit 3 charges in one turn which allowed him to run over to my obsidian on the disengage glyph, as well as get good attacks at my dumatefs. He had 2 other turns of 2 charges and my dumatefs just couldn’t compete with the fire power.

Round 4: 1-3

Clearly not my best event, but lots of fun armies and tons of good laughs.




World championship:
I hadn’t expected to make worlds, so my preparation was done all Sunday morning. The draft pools were excellent and very fun.

Round 1 vs Dok on ascension:
We had the utgar draft pool, and I had decided that Mimring was easily the best first pick. Dok won the die roll and took Mimring. I responded with 2X dwarves. He took Krug and Ornak. I took Darrak and Ogre Warhulk. He then grabs Nerak and Mebuqsa. I take Isamu and Moltenclaw. He takes 2X arrow gruts. I finished with Iskra and Marcu. He takes a final squad of arrow gruts to round out the draft. I think Dok outdrafted me here, I should have taken Krug away from him, and the Warhulk should have been Frost Giant.

This was an excellent game in my opinion. He went Ornak/arrows/arrows I went dwarves/Moltenclaw/Moltenclaw with the X on dwarves. He won initiative, and used red flag of fury to develop Krug and Mimring. I took turn one to develop 6 move dwarves. His turn 2, he brought up arrows with Mimring trying to snipe one of my forward dwarves but 4 defense is good and I blocked a big 3 skull roll with the dwarf. Turn 2 I moved Moltenclaw, sniping an arrow grut with the fire line. Turn 3 Dok guessed my OM was on dwarves and took a more defensive turn moving Mimring behind the ruin and using arrow gruts to screen. I had a big turn with Moltenclaw, I flew over toward his startzone, and hit a 2/4 fire line that dealt 1 wound to Nerak and killed 2 arrow gruts. Unfortunately. I lost the next initiative. Dok used Ornak to engage Moltenclaw with both Mebuqsa and Nerak dealing 2 wounds I think. Moltenclaw responded by hitting Meburqsa with 2 wounds. Mimring and arrow gruts then began pinging dwarves picking up a couple kills here and there, I was able to slip a couple dwarves through and dealt 3 wounds to mimring over the next couple rounds. Then it happened. I had developed 2 dwarves, Darrak, and a 4/6 Moltenclaw. Dok had 3/5 mimring, 1/3 nerak engaged with Moltenclaw, and ~2 arrow gruts, with an unwounded Krug next to the glacier on his startzone side. I ended the round by moving my two dwarves, one to dagmar, and the other towards Mimring. Dok goes Ornak/arrows/arrows/arrows I go dwarves/Moltenclaw/Darrak/dwarves. If I win this initiative I can get an attack up at Nerak, and an even ground attack on Mimring with dwarves. We roll….Dok hits a 15, I hit a 7…tie thanks to dagmar. Okay still in this. Then Dok rolls a 20 and I don’t remember what I rolled, but it was less than 12. Big fumble, as Ornak uses Nerak to deal the final two wounds to Moltenclaw, and Mimring retreats to safety. My dwarf order marker develops Darrak, and I think my dwarf retreats. From there it was just clean up for Dok. I kept hoping for initiative switches trying to catch Mimring with Darrak, Iskra, and the warhulk, but don’t get any of them. Dok won with 3/5 Mimring, full life Ornak, 2 arrow gruts, and 1/8 Krug. I’d like to think if I get that dagmar initiative I have a good shot at winning, but I’m not sure how I beat Krug honestly. My only win condition is time I think but hard to say. I’m really happy with how I played it. Definitely messed up the draft, but the game itself went really well.

Final: 0-1


Overall, I’d say scapecon was a huge success and an absolute blast! It was super fun meeting everyone and playing so many memorable games! Definitely going to try and make it back next year!

Final record: 27-12 (28-12 if you count byes)
21-6 before Saturday!

[Matthias Maccabeus]

It was great to meet you. You played the knights fantastically and fast. It was impressive to watch. Maybe next year we can get a game in.

[gbizzy]

Great reports Knight, I learned a lot from our VCheese game and how not to play Kuthnak vs Knights haha. I haven't done the math on that MBS/Boil but I had a pretty good idea soon after making that move that it wasn't ideal, looking forward to a rematch in the future!

@Matthias Maccabeus agreed @KnightOfLight completely threw me off with how fast he played Knights, that would be a mirror match for the ages.

[KnightOfLight]

Originally Posted by Matthias Maccabeus

It was great to meet you. You played the knights fantastically and fast. It was impressive to watch. Maybe next year we can get a game in.

Thank you!! I really appreciate that! And yes, next time we should definitely get a game in!! Would be an excellent learning opportunity, as well as a ton of fun!

[KnightOfLight]

Originally Posted by gbizzy

Great reports Knight, I learned a lot from our VCheese game and how not to play Kuthnak vs Knights haha. I haven't done the math on that MBS/Boil but I had a pretty good idea soon after making that move that it wasn't ideal, looking forward to a rematch in the future!

@Matthias Maccabeus agreed @KnightOfLight completely threw me off with how fast he played Knights, that would be a mirror match for the ages.

Thanks! It was great meeting you! Kuthnak is a very interesting figure, I really enjoy the decisions he forces for both playing with and against him. I also haven’t sat down and done the math, but I will try to soon!

[Chris Perkins]

Also enjoyed meeting you (finally) in-person after many online games.

Perhaps next year we can get a game in with an average power-ranking higher than C+

[KnightOfLight]

Originally Posted by Chris Perkins

Also enjoyed meeting you (finally) in-person after many online games.

Perhaps next year we can get a game in with an average power-ranking higher than C+

Haha definitely! Glad we could meet in person as well! Congrats again on the big win!!