Utah Monthlies 2017

[The Dewk]

Another one in the books! Thanks to everyone who came out and played (especially the Idahoans; what a journey!), you all are a great bunch. I didn't do so hot, but had a great time. I may do a battle report, just because I had so much fun with The Varja ! And it was our biggest turnout yet! Let's keep that going

The details for April's monthly have been hammered out, and are as follows:

[The Dewk]

UTAH MONTHLY April 2017

Location: Fongo Bongo Games (1751 W 12600 S, Riverton)

When: April 29th, 11 AM

Cost: $5 (100% of entries will go to prize support! And donating prizes is always quite welcome as well, of course.)

Format: Had a lot of ideas thrown our way. Some people wanted standard size armies, normal format. Some people wanted some unique formats. In the end we decided on this - yes, it'd be nice to get back to basics, yet we like our "wonky" formats. So we came up with a way to please all parties - themes! You get an extra 50 points to build with if your army follows a credible theme. All human army, all Aquilla army, all medium sized figure army, all hero army, etc. Be creative, but be aware of when you're reaching too hard ("all my units have two arms" army won't cut it) or are too boring ("all my units come from classic Heroscape" won't cut it). Of course, if you don't want to bother with a theme at all, and just want to throw an army together, go for it. You'll only be missing out on 10% extra points anyway


- 500 point armies BUT an extra 50 points allowed if you have a "theme" to your army
- 24 figure limit (we don't discriminate against Marrden Hounds)
- At least one 50+ point unique required
- SoV & C3V allowed, official Marvel allowed.
- Glyphs: Initiative+8, Defense +1, D20 +1, Move +2, Common +1, Unique +1
- Four 50 minute rounds
- If you show up, and no one else is mirroring the same theme as you, you'll be entered into a raffle for a cool prize.

RESULTS
1st,4-0 @BiggaBullfrog - Japanese x2 Ashigaru Harquebus, x3 Ashigaru Yari, Kato Katsuro, Kozuke Samurai, and Isamu as a cheerleader
2nd, 3-1 @The Dewk - Cybernetic x3 Havech Eradicators, x2 Deathreavers, Vulcanmech Incendiborgs
3rd, 3-1 @Sir Heroscape - Utgar I didn't get the full build, but I know Skeletons of Annellintia led by Iskra was no joke!
4th, 3-1 @Leaf_It - Vipers Venoc Warlord, x3 Venoc Vipers, x3 Armoc Vipers, Elite Onyx Vipers
5th, 2-2 Lady Heroscape - Einar x4 10th Regiment, Marcus, Kaemon Awa, Guilty
6th, 2-2 @DaDude - Scaley x2 Fen Hydra, x4 Venoc Vipers, Venoc Warlord, White Wyrmling
7th, 2-2 @Starling_ - Vydar Nakita Agents, Krav Maga Agents, Major Q10, Blastatrons
8th, 1-3 @Saints_Wrath Omnicrons Omegacron and his cronies (really glad I didn't get paired up here)
9th, 1-3 @podunksarmy Queen's Guard Not 100% on this one, but Sudema, x6 Drow Chainfighter, x? Crypt Guardian
10th, 0-x DeathStryker Elementals He had to leave after one round, which is a shame, but he was rocking all of the little elementals with Kurrok
11th, 0-x Heber Wild had to leave in the middle of round one, which is a bummer because I really wanted to see what his build could do. x3 Dreadgul Raiders, Jotun, Valguard, Guilty McCreech



Maps

Thy Kindness Freezes by @Dignan (normal snow and ice)


A Stone's Throw by @Darkmage7a


The Borogoves by @Typhon2222


Vulcan by @mad_wookiee


Savage Corridor by @Nomad


Jotun's Gap by @Dignan


Fossil by @Rÿchean


Swamp Helix by @dok



This same post is on the very front page of the thread, for convenience sake.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Seems like a cool format. I was just thinking it would be cool to go back to basics, and this does a nice job of doing that with a simple twist. Great idea, Dewk! I've got a couple ideas already, like:

Raelin
Q9
Kaemon
Rats x4
Isamu
550 pts/20 figs
Theme: "I want my opponent to cry"

Really though, I think this will be a fun format with tons of cool themes. And I really enjoy that you're throwing in the theme raffle prizes. Thanks for your hard work, The Dewk!!

[The Dewk]

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

Seems like a cool format. I was just thinking it would be cool to go back to basics, and this does a nice job of doing that with a simple twist. Great idea, Dewk! I've got a couple ideas already, like:

Raelin
Q9
Kaemon
Rats x4
Isamu
550 pts/20 figs
Theme: "I want my opponent to cry"

Really though, I think this will be a fun format with tons of cool themes. And I really enjoy that you're throwing in the theme raffle prizes. Thanks for your hard work, The Dewk!!

Hahaha I think I'm going to bring my Omegacron + Repulsors army as a backup, just in case you aren't kidding

[UtahScott]

So. Looks like these Utah monthlies are always the last Saturday of the month? I've been too busy so far this year (including April, sorry), but I'd like to come for May (host, even, if y'all are okay with that, haven't done it for four-and-a-half years). The April date is International Tabletop Day, BTW.

International Tabletop Day

[The Dewk]

Originally Posted by UtahScott

So. Looks like these Utah monthlies are always the last Saturday of the month? I've been too busy so far this year (including April, sorry), but I'd like to come for May (host, even, if y'all are okay with that, haven't done it for four-and-a-half years). The April date is International Tabletop Day, BTW.

International Tabletop Day

Yep, that's what we've been aiming for - the last Saturday of each month. Please join us whenever you can! And as for hosting May's event, that's all right with me!

Heh, and I guess we planned our April Monthly appropriately. What better way to celebrate a tabletop game day than with Heroscape?

[BiggaBullfrog]

We'd love to have you host, @UtahScott !! It will be great to have you on the scene again! I keep telling these new Utah guys about the old times and how you were the host-in-chief back in the day!

[BiggaBullfrog]

My battle report is a bit late this time, but better late than never right?

Bigga’s Battle Report: May Monthly - Tag Teams

Preparing for a team format was super fun. In the couple games that I was able to playtest beforehand I realized pretty quickly that armies with a strong defense really shined. The first army I was thinking of playing was:

M-43 Resistance Fighters x3
Jarek Guy
Otonashi
305 Points/11 Figures

I love playing the Mariedians, but this army just wasn’t able to hold its own. When playing against two other players, if your figures can’t take much punishment then they won’t last very long. And though I play for fun more than to be outright competitive, I did want to play a stronger army so that my teammates wouldn’t think that being my partner meant they would automatically lose. So I thought of a couple other armies, my favorites including:

Warforged Soldiers x3
Zettian Guards

Warforged Soldiers x2
Major Q10

Heavy Gruts x2
Grimnak
Nerak

If you can’t tell, I really enjoy playing the Warforged. They’re my favorite unit in the game. I also really enjoy Heavy Gruts. They’re my second favorite squad. But I have already played Warforged and Heavies in tournaments before (Warforged twice), and I wanted to try something different. I also wanted a versatile army — While melee armies are my favorite, I wanted to be able to complement whatever army I was paired with. So I ended up looking to a very versatile army that can mix its function efficiently:

BiggaBullfrog’s Army
Mohican River Tribe x3
Brave Arrow
Me-Burq-Sa
310 Points/11 Figures

Mohicans can play the range game or the melee game, meaning that I could take either position depending on what army I was teamed up with. I also would have enough figures with good enough defensive abilities that I would be able to hang in throughout the game. And, you know, MBS is always solid cleanup.

Game 1

Spoiler Alert!

TEAMMATE
Loaner Army
Minions of Utgar x2
Atlaga

VS
Michael
Siege
Thorgrim
Finn
Eldgrim

AND
Loaner Army
Laglor
Microcorp Agents x2

While I was preparing for this event, I was thinking it would be really cool to play a loaner army, and I got to in my first game! I also thought it would be cool to play against a loaner army, and that also happened this first game! I further thought that it would be fun if I played on a split start zone map where the opposing teams decided to start in the same start zone together, and that’s what Michael decided to do in this game.

With his figures all in one start zone and both of my armies split between two, we were ready to start. The game itself was simple enough - My armies advanced slowly as I opted to engage the enemy figures at the same time rather than string my figures out. This did mean that Michael got plenty of shots off on my figures. He also slowed down one flank of my army by sending out viking heroes one at a time to fight my advancing figures and, when the viking died, put its spirit on Siege. While the vikings took out some of my figures, they were easy enough to kill, but Siege was looking scary. And the Microcorp were getting some good shots in, taking out more of my units. Once my figures were in place to engage, however, I was able to swing things on the Microcorp front. I engaged most of them with Minions and started swinging.

Michael had opted to hide most of his Microcorp in the water next to his start zone, meaning they were in super defensive mode, so taking them out was a slow process. But it ended up being a sure one. Meanwhile, a group of my Mohicans were taking out the last of the vikings (I don’t remember which order he sent them out), and Siege was coming into play. Siege was super scary — he ran into the middle of a group of my Mohicans, went Crag of Steel, and started swinging with 4 attack dice at all of them thanks to Finn’s Spirit. Unfortunately for Michael, Siege didn’t have much will to live. A couple of turns swinging at Siege, even in his Crag of Steel, saw some lucky blanks in the Warforged’s defense and the Juggernaut fell. From there, it was just cleaning up the remaining Microcorp and Laglor to secure the win, which was easy enough when I was getting two turns for his one.

1-0

Game 2

Spoiler Alert!

TEAMMATE
@Sir Heroscape
Ashi-Dhulu
Mezzodemon Warmongers x4

VS
@DewNoHarm
Eltahale
Marro Stingers x2
Drow Chainfighters x2

AND
Adam
SpiderMan
Krav Maga Agents
Tarn Viking Warriors

Throughout the past several months I’ve had the opportunity to sit across the table from Sir Heroscape and meet him upon the field of epic battle a few times, so it was super to be able to have a chance to play with him as a teammate this time. I’ve also been able to play against DewNoHarm before at the last tournament I attended, and I was excited to play against him again as he’s a fun opponent. And if I remember correctly, this was Adam’s first tournament, and playing with newer players is always fun as well. This was going to be a good game.

Sir Heroscape and I decided to have my figures play more of the melee role, covering his Mezzodemons, so I started rolling out my Mohicans while he sent out a pair of Mezzos with Ashi-Dhulu following close behind. Meanwhile, Adam led with his Vikings as a screen for his Krav on our left flank and DewNoHarm led with Eltahale backed with Stingers on our right.

I started focusing on the Vikings and Krav on the left flank, focusing on those Uniques while Sir H’s Mezzos and Worm went against the common Stingers. I started working on hacking at Vikings and was able to bring up Brave Arrow who snagged an Attack +1 Treasure Glyph on the way. Most of our fighting focused around the Glyph on that side of the map (turns out the Initiative Glyph is really good in 4 player games). I whittled away a Viking or two and was also able to get a Krav.

Meanwhile on the other side of the map Sir H's Mezzos met Dew's Stingers. This was obviously in favor of the demons, so Eltahale came out to play instead, picking up a Whetstone of Venom. And here is where Dew made a huge move - instead of taking on the advance Mezzos, he had Eltahale Thunder Step to Ashli-Dhulu who was lurking just behind the lines. He used the Whetstone and swung with 6 dice, getting 2 skulls. Okay, 5 defense can get at least 1 shield, right?

Nope. Zero shields meant a dead Ashli-Dhulu.

Fortunately, I had moved up a couple of Mohicans in that area at the beginning of the game, and they were in prime position to run in and engage Eltahale before she escaped back to play with the Mezzos. So engage her they did and my first couple attacks dealt her 3 wounds, I think. The round ended soon after and at the beginning of the next round I went before Dew, and had a crazy string of luck. Or rather, Dew had a crazy string of bad luck. First I swung at Eltahale. She blanked, and that was the end of her. I then shot at two Stingers in range. Both had height and one also had jungle cover. Both blanked. Dew rolled 13 defense that turn and didn't get a single shield.

That was probably the most game changing sequence of the game. From there the Mezzos worked on the Stingers while I returned to cleaning up Vikings and Krav. It was by no means a cakewalk, as Dew and Adam played a strong game throughout, but the lack of a special attack to clean out Mezzos and the continuous roll of my Mohicans against crippled Unique Squads and dwindling Stingers were just too much. The game ended up going to time with them only having Spidey and a Chainfighter remaining against the Mezzos (only one died), a few Mohicans with Brave Arrow, and Me-Burq-Sa.

2-0

Game 3

Spoiler Alert!

TEAMMATE
@DewNoHarm
Eltahale
Marro Stingers x2
Drow Chainfighter x2

VS
@Leaf_It
Iskra Essenwein
Rechets of Bogdan
Mindflayer Mastermind
Drow Chainfighter x4

AND
@DeathStryker
Fyorlag Spiders x2
Wyvern x2
Red Wyrmling x1

Fun fact: this was the first time that I not only played against the Spiders and Wyvern, but more so the first time I saw them in person (and they look sweet). That alone made me super excited for this game, even if there were plenty of opportunities on this map for Chainfighters and Wyvern to lava dunk Dew's and my figures.

The other reason I was excited for this game was that I got to team up with DewNoHarm, who I had just played against. He's a great player and it was sweet to team up with a former opponent.

At the beginning of the game, Dew and I decided to focus on the Wyverns first, as they were the biggest threat to lava dunking our figures, namely Eltahale. So we opened with Stingers and Mohicans hunting the predators, killing some spiders on the way. Leaf also pulled out the Mindflayer and tried to target Brave Arrow, but he didn't get the roll for Enslave before poor Squidward bit the dust. We soon had a Wyvern and the Spiders gone as well, and when time was called we had won the points game.

3-0

Game 4

Spoiler Alert!

TEAMMATE
@Leaf_It
Iskra Essenwein
Rechets of Bogdan
Mindflayer Mastermind x1
Drow Chainfighter x4

VS
@Scaperedude
Teeth of the Makwa x3
Brave Arrow
Me-Burq-Sa

AND
Mark
Braxas
Krav Maga Agents

Scaperedude must have a secret video feed of my game room or something, cause this is the second time he’s copied my army with a mild variation. It was fun though - right before the final round’s matches were announced, we were talking about how cool it would be if we were a team. But wouldn’t you know, we were the only two who had gone 3-0 which meant we weren’t allowed to cooperate…

I honestly was surprised to be playing the championship game. I had been hoping to do well for my teammates’ sakes, but didn’t think I’d make it to the top myself. While getting ready for the game I got into the mindset of “Now that I’ve made it here, we’re going all in for the win.” In retrospect, not a great idea. I always play worse when I’m not trying primarily to have fun.

It was a scary matchup. A wall of Makwas supporting the super Krav and Braxas was a team that I didn’t feel prepared to take on. We had some tricks up our sleeves, but I felt that unless things really aligned for us, we would get steamrolled.

So the game started and Scapredude rushed out Brave Arrow with his Makwas slowly rolling forward behind him, while Mark had both Braxas and Krav advancing. I naturally started bringing up the Mohicans and started taking pot shots while Leaf started to position his Mindflayer and a Chainfighter. There were some early exchanges of figures as my Mohicans fell to Krav fire, but I got lucky and took one of the agents out. Then Leaf got a Chain Grab on another agent and and it joined its friend in the afterlife. But the Makwa were everywhere and making their steady advance, spears flying.

So here’s where I made my biggest mistake. At the beginning of a new round, I pressured Leaf into putting his first two Order Markers on the Mindflayer, thinking that getting super lucky with it was the only way we were going to be able to hold off Braxas, who would otherwise melt all my figures and the Makwa would simply out value Leaf’s heroes. Well, that’s all fine and dandy, until the Makwa kill the Mindflayer on the first turn of the round. So that’s two turns we were down. Then Braxas took a turn and melted two Mohicans and Brave Arrow with her Acid Breath. At that point, board advantage and Order Marker advantage was too far out of reach for us to have any hope, really. We tried to put up a fight, but the momentum crushed us. Scaperedude and Mark continued to cut off our OMs the next round as well when they rushed in and killed the last Chainfighter and Iskra before they had a chance to move (meaning the Rechets were never even rolled for). Mohicans were useless against Braxas’ breath and MBS could only shoot for so long before he fell to the spears of the Makwa.

It was a great learning game. Even though I was getting decimated, it was incredible to watch Scaperedude and Mark’s coordination as they played together. I definitely made mistakes, and they played a flawless game together, focusing on the right units for Order Marker advantage, backing each other up, and keeping their strategy super tight. It made me want to play against them more to try to hone my skills, and I was more than happy to lose to them while learning what I did.

3-1

I really enjoyed this team format! It was new, allowed for different strategies, and was a totally unique experience that I haven’t had before playing ‘Scape! It was also cool to see what the meta favored (like the Minions/Atlaga army I kept hearing terror tales about). I totally think we should keep it as a semi-regular event. We do need to do some fine-tuning for it (such as issues that The Dewk had with playing with a teammate only once, or True only playing with a teammate twice and playing on just two of the maps), but I think it’s a format we should definitely put the effort into!

Thanks everyone for the games and the great time, and I’m looking forward to meeting you on the field of battle come April 29th! (Or whenever we next meet if it’s before or after that)

(Speaking of the 29th, as always @The Dewk , let me know if there is anything I can do to help! I'm pretty sure I'll be throwing in some prize support too)

[The Dewk]

I'm glad I have posted my battle reports before you in the past, @BiggaBullfrog , as yours are always so fun, hilarious, and intriguing, it makes mine look pretty mediocre!
Mohicans were a stellar choice - versatile and powerful. Congrats on placing so well with them!

I agree that we need to revisit this format; it was super fun, and I got to interact with more different players (and unit types!) than I normally would. Let's get together and tweak it sometime in the near future

[Sir Heroscape]

How general are you going with the theme? If I want my theme to be all units from one general does that work? Or can a theme be, they ALL synergies together?

[The Dewk]

Simply use your good judgement and discretion. As posted in the event details above:

"All human army, all Aquilla army, all medium sized figure army, all hero army, etc. Be creative, but be aware of when you're reaching too hard ("all my units have two arms" army won't cut it) or are too boring ("all my units come from classic Heroscape" won't cut it)."

Does this mean you're thinking about joining us again this month, @Sir Heroscape ?

[TREX]

@TIM0THY , this is where you want to be for Utah games. Everyone, welcome TIM0THY the guy from Ogden that wants to join the ranks.