'Skills Scape (Thunder in the Catskills!)

[Taeblewalker]

Since Dennys and his son could not make previous NY area tournaments, Kathy I hosted a mini tourney at my house. We played three rounds with two maps (Surface Tension and a lava/ice map I called Lake District, having borrowed the name from a map that I believe someone put on HQ).

Kathy came in first, then Dennys, then me, then Dennys' son.

Kathy's army: Zelrig, Tagawa Samurai Archers, Kaemon Awa, Airborne Elite and Theracus.

Zach's (Dennys) army: Tagawa Samurai, Kaemon Awa, 2x Ashigaru Yari, Tagawa Samurai Archers, Hatamoto Taro.

My army: Zetacron, Raelin (80 pts), Major Q10, Khosumet, 2x Anubian Wolves.

John's army: 2x Blastatrons, 2x Gladiatrons, Major Q9, 2 Dumutefs, Otonashi.

Here are pictures from the battle. Note that the jungle map looks like Iwo Jima with all the Ashigaru and Airborne Elite.


This is me! John is in the background.



Here's Kathy, the tournament winner!



Zach! (Dennys)



Lake District



Iwo Jima



Iwo Jima after one grenade!

[Shades fan]

Sweet. Wish it could have been bigger, but I can't wait to meet Denny's, i was beginning to think he was a ghost, seeing as he has signed up for at least 4-5 Tournaments I was suppose to be at, then he vanished!

[Dennys]

I want to say Taeblewalker was a fine host for our mini-tourney. This being my first out of house game session, versus an extremely experienced player (I swear Taeblewalker keeps the cards around just for the pretty pictures, he has every point & power memorized). After getting settled in, my series of battles went somewhat like this:

Game 1 vs Taeblewalker
We played on Lake district, Me starting on ice, Taeblewalker on grass.
Round 1 initiative was his (which he wouldn't see again until endgame).
He moved up Raelin and Zetachron to the high snow peak, intenting to pummle me as I advanced. Q10 moved up the rock end. I pulled up Kaemon Awesome and the Tagawas across the lava to assault Zetacron. I knew Raelin had to die, and the Samurai picked up their first kill marker on her. This made Zetacron easier to handle. Between them and Kaemon Awa, we eventually whittled Zeta down as zeta and Q10 poured inaccurate fiere into them at every oppurtunity (I survived by rolling verry hot in thie game, the dice were almost totally with me). When Zeta finally dropped, With Q10 crossing the lava field, Kamon fell, but the samurai with height sent him to oblivion. I then sent the Samurai into the backfield to clean up some wolves. Taeblewalker had no luck unleashing fury, getting almost all +1's. A samurai fell on one side, with 2 wolves dying as well. Khosumet sent the other sqwad around to flank me. At this point it looked like pointy sticks and teeth to the death. The Yari poured forth ont he wolves, and although most died, few enough were lucky seeing Hamtaro's flag waving, and just enough survived to continue to team up on the wolves and put thm down. Khosumet died watching his boys howl in pain. I owe this victory to the dice...Initiative almost every turn, and some timely max skulls rolls.

Game 2 vs Kathy.
Looking back, maybe Tarawa or Saipan would have been a better term. All my Samurai and Yari are in the start zone and Kathy gets the Drop with AE turn 1. She tacticaly set up on high ground/defensive areas, with only 1 in grenade range... but it did count. 5 Yari never left the start zone. Kaemon and the remaining Yari hunted them down, with archer support, but not before Kathy could bring up Zelrig and fry 2 more Yari. At this point, the Tagawa swords came running up through the swamps (Wakizashi..HA!) and managed to make it to Zelrigs perch and pummeled him senseless, not before he took Kaemon to near death and munched on a samurai. Kathy brought up her Kaemon and archers, while I brought my archers into the fray, and the endgame became a long range sniper duel. I had the higher ground and, with more good dice rolls, her samurai and Kaemon succumed to arrows. Zelrig flew up and became Roc Steaks. Another series of lucky dice rolls with me having more initiative put this in as a win.

Game 3 - Dennysjr
I am going to lock up Q9 whenever John plays me from now on. Like trucking a queen arount the board in chess, he tricks Q9 around on me and I can never hit that thing... the dice failed me here. We played on lakes again, me in the grass. I must have been over confident. He advanced glads & blasts, my samurai charged in (Wakizashi.. HA!) and started lopping off limbs when Q9 turns the corner and pummels them to death. Cmon, 6 Defense (height) and ZERO shields! Not once but twice!. I manage a couple of wounds but it's not enough. Kaemon comes up and long range duels, hitting a few more times, but again, not enough and his bullet riddled body joins the pile. So the yari and archers come pouring out and many don't make it close, dying in twisted heaps. Even surrounding him with pointy sticks, they don't find a chink in that armor. My archers manage to make their last hit.. #6 before dying. Finally Hamtaro charges in and gets to hit Q with his flag, before being sent to his ancestors.

Want to thank Taeblewalker and Kathy for being great hosts and I can't wait for September in Albany.

[Onacara]

Sorry me and the boys couldnt make it out for this one...we will see you in Albany Denny.