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KC's Tourney Reports - NEW 8/5/2024 - Knights and Xenithrax!

Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 6:20:09 Sujoah

I agree - I think it's really Stealth Flying and Life Drain. They allow Cyprien to bounce around the board and regain the life he's lost. Plus, all it takes is one lucky D20 roll from Cyprien to kill a hero. Sujoah has to inflict a wound first.

Plus, it's true that 185 < 195, but 185 + 40 x 2 or 3 > 195.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 6:20:09 Sujoah

I agree - I think it's really Stealth Flying and Life Drain. They allow Cyprien to bounce around the board and regain the life he's lost. Plus, all it takes is one lucky D20 roll from Cyprien to kill a hero. Sujoah has to inflict a wound first.

Plus, it's true that 185 < 195, but 185 + 40 x 2 or 3 > 195.

Really if it is a discussion pertaining to Cyprien then boy have I a story for you. It was me against m brother whom you know as orcs blade. He had Cyprien + Sonya + 4 squads zombies + 2 squads Shades + isamu. I had Kato + Kaemon awesome + 4 squads Arquebus/yari + izumi's and kozuke. To make a long story short...He took no loses!!! used no but Sippy!!! and defeated my entire army!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek::passout::buttkick::blowup::jawdrop: :shock:

My I feel sheepish.:oops: :oops: :oops:
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 6:20:09 Sujoah

Really if it is a discussion pertaining to Cyprien then boy have I a story for you. It was me against m brother whom you know as orcs blade. He had Cyprien + Sonya + 4 squads zombies + 2 squads Shades + isamu. I had Kato + Kaemon awesome + 4 squads Arquebus/yari + izumi's and kozuke. To make a long story short...He took no loses!!! used no but Sippy!!! and defeated my entire army!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:a bunch of random smileys:

Wow - that's a very unlucky game for you IMO, unless he was able to get all the way back to Kato and kill him quickly. I would think 98 times out of 100 the Ashigaru would rip Cyprien to pieces with 8 attacks per turn, 4 of them being Wait then Fire. Or, 5 attacks, 4 WTF's and one attack of 6 from the Yari.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 6:20:09 Sujoah

Here's my battle report for NHSD. I knew there were a lot of strong armies that could be played at this total (the strongest of which I gave Brad to play, who won the tournament), but I wanted something easy on the Order Markers since I was running the show, and also felt like playing an under-used unit. I put up a vote here on Heroscapers, and this army won the poll:

Marro Hive - 160
Raelin - 240
Marro Stingers x2 - 360
Marro Dividers x3 - 510
Dumutef Guard - 535

The strategy here is that Raelin gives a great benefit to the Hive, which has high life and low defense, and can also be utilized by the Marro squads. My plan was to activate the Dividers with the hive, setting up a screen to stop players getting to the Hive, and also for the Stingers to shoot over. I liked being able to activate either squad depending on the situation, and also like to be able to disengage Marro, knowing that if they died, they had a good shot at returning to the board. This is especially advantageous if all of one particular squad are alive, as the rebirthing abilities don't do much when no Marro are dead. I knew I'd struggle against long-ranged figures (like, 8+), and Cyprien. I faced both of them on the day.

With the Wound glyph showing up on quite a few maps, I wanted to replace the Dumutef with Marcu. However, my Marcu hid from me yesterday morning, and I couldn't find him. I stuck with the Dumutef, and this really bit me in one game in particular.

Round 1 - Steve Malynn (Darkness1717's dad) (Q9, Raelin, Krav, Nakitas, Me-Burq-Sa) on Bring Your Boots.

I thought this map was OK for me, even though the swamp water in my starting zone made placement of the hive difficult. Steve started out by activating MBS and Raelin, while I sent out Stingers to deal with MBS. I deviated from my plan of a Divider screen, and I paid for it. I killed MBS, but Steve's agents followed soon thereafter and, along with Q9, shot the Stingers down. I rolled very poor defense dice this game, and Steve's dice were hot (which I deserved - I've played Steve multiple times in tournies past, usually with me ending up on the hot side of the dice). Even though my dice were bad, I made a game out of this. I got a timely juice of the Stingers and killed Q9 at the right moment, and had taken out one agent from each squad. However, as the Agents advanced on the Hive, I knew I had to kill them now. They were in Raelin's aura, so I went for the juice - 1. That killed my morale and my Hive. Steve mopped up after that.

Loss, 0-1, 316 points (I think he had Raelin and some Agents left).

Round 2 - DangerousGames (Nilfheim, Atlaga, Arkmer, Krav Maga, Laglor) on Invasion.

I was happy to play a game against Chris, who I just learned a couple of weeks ago was a classmate of mine in high school. This was his first tournament, and hopefully not his last. He brought an awesome custom card holder as a tourney prize, and gave me an Utgar windor sticker!

Invasion wasn't too bad for me either, though the LOS blockers had be a bit concerned about my Hive activations. I thought the road would help me get to his shooters before he could attack the Hive, and I was correct. I stuck to my plan this time, getting my Dividers out early with Raelin's protection. Chris mobilized the Krav and Laglor first, which is what I was afraid of. However, my dividers used the road well and made it to the Agents to take them down. Laglor did some work with the Auto-Loader, but was felled mostly by my juiced Stingers. The Hive worked well this game to rebirth any Stingers I lost. Nilfheim came out next, but my steroid-taking Stingers killed him very quickly before he could do much damage. Atlaga flew in and tried Witherwood on Raelin, which failed, and was shot down. Arkmer followed, and my Hive army had a win. This was a pretty good matchup for me, as the Stingers really like shooting at short-ranged heroes, and my dice made up for the last game.

Win, 1-1, 851 Points

Round 3 - Mike Acquavita (Marcus, Romans x2, 10th x2, Zelrig) on Marr Highway

Ick - Marr Highway. This map is so long that my Hive Mind activation didn't even reach halfway across the map. Knowing this, I resolved to play the game very methodically, using a slow-roll of Dividers with Raelin and, at least initially, sending one Stinger at a time out of the Hive sight to shoot a soldier, knowing I could rebirth it if it died and send it back down the road. Mike used the slow roll too, so I did just that. I set up a strong perimter with Dividers, moved Raelin a second time (now confident I could hold him away from the Hive), and sent out one Stinger at a time to kill a 10th Regiment soldier, so I could avoid WTF on my units. This worked very well - my lone Stinger would die, the Hive would rebirth it, and it would charge back down the road. My Dividers also did quite a bt of Dividing this game, which worked well to clog up the middle of the map. When Mike could see I was winning the battle for the middle of Marr Highway, he brought Zelrig is for reinforcements. I attacked him viciously with the Stingers before Zelrig threw down his disciplined nature for reckless abandon. He took some leaving engagement attacks and charged the Hive, dealing a couple of wounds. However, my Stingers were in pursuit and re-engaged him. With some strong attacks, the dragon fell. Marcus Decimus Gallus was the last surviving soldier, but he too couldn't stand up to the ferocity of the Marro. A good game nonetheless.

Win, 2-1, 1386 Points

Round 4 - hangred (Cyprien, Microcorp Agents x3, Repulsors x2) on Ice Blossom.

When I looked at Ice Blossom, I thought this would probably be the first time my Hive sight lines were really challenged. The glaciers and trees on this map make it tough to see around. He also had Cyprien, and I feared a rush at my Hive. Plus, his agents were range 7 and would always have height shooting down on the Hive.

hangred's army was well conceived, using the Repulsors to help Cyprien against Soulborgs, though they didn't do much against my Marro. I flew Raelin out to a high point that was still within 4 spaces of the Hive. hangred brought out his Agents first, and took some shots at my Dividers while I was establishing a perimeter. We traded a couple of agents for dividers (which I liked) until be flew Cyprien out. The vampire got dangerously close to my starting zone, and killed Raelin with a natural 20. I feared an onslaught on the Hive, so I activated the Stingers and juiced - 4. Crap - though I did rebirth him. Cyprien was content to attack some Marro, so I activated the Stingers and juiced again - 4. Crap - though I did rebirth him.... I eventually did get some shots on Cyprien - doing one wound. hangred feared my powerful ranged attackers and pulled Cyprien back. I breated a huge sigh of relief as my Order Markers and reproduction were safe again. He re-mobilized the agents, and I re-mobilized my Dividers. However, my Dividers lost this battle, and the Agents found ways to get elevated shots at the Hive. With 4 wounds on the Hive, and my Dividers too far away to tie down his three agents, he took his shots at the Hive......

....and had just a horrible, horrible round of dice. He managed only one wound, and my Hive survived. This huge stroke of luck allowed me to rebirth another Stinger and take down his remaining agents.

With the time limit approaching, we were very close on points. He started using Cyprien again to regain life (which hurt my score doubly thanks to partial scoring and his life regeneration). However, I was able to hit a successful divide and rebirth another Stinger, which hurt his doubly. In the end, my Stingers finally succeeded a juice and killed Cyprien, which gave me the win by 55 points. What a game.

Win, 3-1 - 1821 Points

Round 5 - ManTrainChooChoo (AE, Krav, Kaemon, Raelin, Rats x3) on Ticalla Sunrise.

Ugh. I didn't really mind the Deathreavers too much, but I did mind the AE, the high ground in range of my starting zone, and the glyphs - Unaliva and Wannok - ouch. I probably should've activated the Dividers twice early to secure Wannok, but I opted to move Raelin out. His Deathreavers took both glyphs and I never got them off - bad. I failed a Stinger Drain early on a turn which I could've attacked a Krav from melee, which gave him some strong positioning and saved his agent. I took a lot of leaving engagement attacks, but I don't regret any of them. The ones that were successful paid dividends for me with the death of a couple of Krav, but his AE parachuted in to the rescue, and rolled a 20 for initiative.

Four attacks of 5 hurts really bad.

I did kill one of them off the bat with a Stinger, and had two Dividers break engagement to try and tie them down / kill them, but they both died. After that, Ben decided to kill the hive, which he did in one round. However, it should be noted that I'd given the Hive 2 wounds from Wannok by now (as well as lost 2 Marro), and he only did 4 wounds to kill it. Had I had Marcu this game, I might've been in much better shape. That's a big "might've" though.

Almost as an afterthought to this game, my Dividers were full-fledged rabbits. I rolled Cell Divide like an absolute champion, but it still didn't matter. ManTrain probably killed 20 Dividers this game, along with the rest of my army to even his record against me at 2-2. Oh well - at least I didn't have to play weesel99.

Loss, 3-2, 2207 Points.

I finished in 8th Place at the top of the 3-2's with my high point total. I thought that was very respectable for the Hive, considering the competition at this tourney. Congrats to Brad again for going 5-0 in a very tough field.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW Runa - again.

NE Ohio's latest tournament was in Alliance, OH, put on by KCU Master 2007. The rules were a 700 point pool, with the point total for each round either 450, 500 or 550 based on a combat die roll. Marvel characters 220 points and under are allowed. I was originally going to play:

Protectors x2 - 220
Airborne Elite - 330
Deathreavers x3 - 450
Marro Warriors - 500
Krav - 600
Atlaga - 690
Isamu - 700

Then I decided I wanted to try a Marvel figure in a tourney. So, I settled on:

Captain America - 220
Airborne Elite - 330
Deathreaves x3 - 450
Marro Warriors - 500
Krav - 600
X17 / Deathstalkers (anti-Cyprien) - 700

Then, at the last minute I realized that I lent phantazm21zero all of my Deathreavers at the last tourney and didn't have them back. So, at 10:45 this morning, I needed a new army. I couldn't decide between:

Runa - 120
Minions x2 - 340
Airborne Elite - 450
Marro Warriors - 500
Krav - 600
Atlaga - 690
Isamu - 700

and

Quasatch Hunters x2 - 200
Marro Stingers x5 - 500
Airborne Elite - 610
Raelin - 690
Isamu - 700

I rolled a D20 at the tournament, and it picked the Runa army for me.

Round 1 - 500 Points - John on Can't See the Jungle (Dwarves x3, Braxas, Marro Warriors). (I played Runa, Minions x2, Airborne Elite, Marro Warriors)

Braxas - excellent. I thought about swapping out the AE or a squad of Minons for Atlaga/Isamu to get a Witherwood shot at Braxas. In the end, I stuck with my original plan above. I hit the AE drop in the first round, and won initiative, which I knew I needed to do. I dealt a few wounds to Braxas, and she flew at my Minions. She was only able to melt one, and missed Runa. The AE fired off another volley and killed the dragon - wow. After that, they fell back and shot down the approaching Dwarves, and also helped the Minions ice off the Marro. As an aside, Runa killed a dwarf with Mitonsoul. A great dice game for me, and a rather lopsided victory.

Win, 1-0, 500 points.

Round 2 - 450 points - southwest ninja on Road in the Hills (Grimnak, Nerak, Heavy Gruts x4). (I played Runa, Minions x2, AE).

I knew I needed to get rid of Grimnak quickly, and I got another first round AE drop with initiative. However, my guns proved inneffective here, including a 3-skull roll that Grimnak blocked completely. As he advanced onto the bridge in the middle of the map, I got through 4 wounds at the loss of 2 AE. I sent out Runa to tie up Grimnak on the bridge so he couldn't get to the AE and Minions. However, Runa couldn't finish the job, and the gruts that got into my starting zone killed the Minions at an alarming rate. I had them at the front of the starting zone next to the high ground - dumb. That's what happens when you don't play for a month. The orcs finished off the AE and Minions. I never even killed Grimnak. I got 70 points for a squad of Orcs.

Loss, 1-1, 570 Points.

Round 3 - 550 Points - Fedex Worker on Hot Heights (Q10, Raelin, Krav, Nakitas, Crixus, Otonashi). (I played Runa, Minions x2, AE, Krav)

I liked my chances at the outset here, but this would turn into a very close game. Crixus came charging down the map first, but the Krav shot him down before he made it close. The AE dropped in the second round, but we both just positioned our units - him hugging Raelin and me securing the high ground on my turret.

He eventually decided to run the Krav out of Raelin's aura, and I took some shots from range. I snuck one through to take out an Agent, and he bum-rushed in to take out one of mine. The Minions made short work of that one, and I snuck another ranged shot through on the last. He then advanced Q10, Raelin and the Nakitas slowly, keeping everyone together and under the protection of Raelin's Aura and Smoke Powder. The AE were shot down by his agents. My Krav killed one Nakita, but everything else was smoked out. I sent out Runa with his expensive units clustered, but didn't get any Mitonsouls. I did however kill a Nakita Agent with her normal attack and put a wound on Raelin. Q10 claimed the lava high ground in the middle of the map, but my Minions surrounded him and forced him to remain there through the end of the round. The Minions eventually hacked through Raelin and, along with some lava help, took Q10 down, but not until I had only 3 Minions left. I caught up to the last Nakita with a Minion, but Engagement Strike killed it. However, an initiative switch allowed me to catch her again, and this time she went down. The 2 Minions surrounded Otonashi and, after a couple of swings, brought her down. Great game!

Win, 2-1, 1120 Points.

Round 4 - 450 Points - Radaulfr Shieldcrusher on Sidewinder (Q9, Venom, Stingers x2). (I played Runa, Minions x2, AE).

I got another first round AE drop, but decided to try and kill Q9. Mistake. My first 4 shots did nothing to him, and Venom killed one AE. In hindsight, that was a really poor decision on my part. Runa + Minions are built for killing heroes. I had a chance to kill 3-4 Stingers with a volley of AE fire, but didn't do it. Then I tried to grenade the clustered Stingers in his starting zone to make up for my mistake, and only killed 2. Venom offed another AE. I moved up some Minions, and Q9 finished off the soldiers. I really should've just focused by gunfire on the Stingers from the AE, knowing that Minions could take the heroes. Didn't I write the strategy guide on Runa?

Anyway, I got a couple wounds through on Venom at the cost of 2 Minions. Then I played some bait n switch games by hiding behind ruins and bringing Runa up. I was able to engage Q9 while still getting Venom in range of Mitonsoul, but didn't get either of them. However, Runa's normal attack put 2 wounds on Q9, and her presence baited him to move his heroes in range of my Minions. The 4 remaining Minions killed Venom and Q9 as one Minion died. If I'd just killed the Stingers with my AE in the first round, this game would be over. Instead, my 3 Minions advanced on his Stingers, and one was shot down while I hacked 2 Stingers up. So, 2 Minions against 2 Stingers. Bob wins initative and kills a Minions with a 3-skull roll. I whiff my attack and the final Minion goes down. Another great game - I really wish I'd have killed more Stingers at the beginning of the game with the AE.

Loss - 2-2, 1510 Points

Round 5 - 500 Points - Michael on Inner Courtyard (Minions x2, Stingers x2, Deathreavers x3). (I played Runa, Minions x2, AE, Marro Warriors).

Michael was 3-1, having a nice showing so far. My high SoS got me paired up for this round. I started the game hoping I could beat the Rats to the Attack glyph 8 spaces away from us. He won initiative and moved out Minions instead. I did the same, but I was sure that he had his #2 on the Minions to take the glyph, so I flew away from it and opted for positioning. His #2 was on the Stingers however, which angered me. On his #3, he took the glyph with a Minion, but a Marro Warrior killed him on my #3. He also took the Move glyph with a Minion.

My AE failed the drop again, and I took the Attack glyph with Runa. However, the Stingers made short work of her. At least this allowed me to get some kills on Stingers and Minions. Michael was playing his Mininos and Stingers early, leaving his Rats in the starting zone, which really played to my advantage. My Marro Warriors did a lot of Stinger killing, and my Minions killed his a bit faster, so soon it was my 5 Minions and 2 Marro against his Rats. My AE were still chilling in the plane, because I'd forgotten to roll for them for the last few rounds! Again, that's what happens when you don't play for a month (and you've had them drop in the first or second round every game). However, his Deathreavers had a tough task ahead of them. He bit a Minion standing on the Attack glyph and took it from me, allowing him to attack with 2 dice. He killed 2 Minions with Deathreavers before I finished him off with 3 Minions and 2 Marro left. It was at this point he reminded me that I'd forgotten about the AE. Man did I feel like an idiot... oh well, at least I was a lucky idiot.

Win, 3-2 - 2010 Points, 6th Place out of 22.

I thought that performance was pretty good for a Runa army, especially considering I played so poorly. I made some really bad plays leaving my Minions next to high ground in the starting zone in Round 2, firing useless attacks into Q9 when I could've been shooting at Stingers in Round 4, and just straight-up forgetting about the AE in Round 5. The only unit in my army I felt I played well through the whole tournament was Runa. I used her in situations where I was getting big bang for my buck with her Helm (even though I didn't hit any heroes with it), used her to get around Engagement Strike vs. Nakitas, tie down Grimnak so that he couldn't reach the Minions, and baited out Q9 and Venom so my Minions could reach them and draw first blood. Even still, my 2 losses were both at the 450 point level, which was an army that I felt didn't have quite enough support for Runa and co. Also, my 500 point version went 2-0, which makes it 6-0 in tournament play and 12-0 overall. KCU Master ran a great show - thanks for having me!
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW Runa - again.

Thanks and no problem Killercactus. The map you don't have a name for is Road in the Hills and is another one of mine.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW Runa - again.

I'm telling you guys - the next tournament I play in I'm coming to win. I've had enough of this 3-2 - 6thish place crap. It's time to break out Q9/Raelin, or the two disgusting armies that I've never played before - Trons or Mass.

I still can't believe I lost our game, Bob. And to think - I'd have had a shot to go 4-1 with Runa at a 22 person tourney.

~killercactus, who notes that the above is probably all bullcrap, because when the next tournament is set at 550 points, he'll bring Elf Wizards + Raelin. Who is holding the next tourney anyways? I'd love to get one in before the new year, because then I'm pretty much out of commission until April.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW Runa - again.

I'm telling you guys - the next tournament I play in I'm coming to win. I've had enough of this 3-2 - 6thish place crap. It's time to break out Q9/Raelin, or the two disgusting armies that I've never played before - Trons or Mass.

I still can't believe I lost our game, Bob. And to think - I'd have had a shot to go 4-1 with Runa at a 22 person tourney.

~killercactus, who notes that the above is probably all bullcrap, because when the next tournament is set at 550 points, he'll bring Elf Wizards + Raelin. Who is holding the next tourney anyways? I'd love to get one in before the new year, because then I'm pretty much out of commission until April.

We've been thinking of trying to host one in Columbus sometime in the Feb-May time period. If we can find a shop that'll let us host one I'll be sure to start up a topic for it.

Possible themes that we are thinking of:
Teams
Discounted Units: (10% off Bs, 20% off Cs, 30% off Ds, 40% off Fs)
Bring x Points, Play y points
Standard 450-600 point format
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW - Ullar armies!

This Saturday, May 8th, I played in the first ever Amazing Army Auction. You can read about the rules of it here. There were 56 armies in the pool, and we had money to use to bid on 2 of them. We also were allowed to bring 3 Mercenaries (one 50 Pointer, one 100 Pointer and one 150 Pointer) that we could hire to each army with our extra money. My Mercs that I brought were:

Marro Warriors - 50
Syvarris - 100
Q10 - 150

I liked Syvarris as a Merc over the Krav because there were a lot of melee armies in the field, and I wanted a 1-hex hero in case I bought an army already at 24 hexes.

There was a glyph on each map in the first 2 Rounds that could get you extra money. After the auctions, here's what I ended up with:

Played in Rounds 1&2:

Acolarh - 110
Aubrien Archers x2 - 250
Warriors of Ashra x3 - 400
hired Syvarris as a Merc - 500

Round 1 - Brad (Cyprien, Sonya, Phantom Knights x3 on Embattled Fen)

If you've read my other battle reports, you probably know what's coming. As always, my dice were insane against Brad. At one point, I rolled 2 out of 3 skulls 9 straight times against Cyprien with my high-ground AA's (in one OM - 2 Frenzies) and killed his full-life vampire. The rest of the game was just mathematics - my WoA against his Phantom Knights. I rolled great for Frenzy, and Acolarh even saved a few elves, which was particularly frustrating for Brad when I saved a WoA after I whiffed my defense. I grabbed the $$ glyph and got $25. My mercenary that I spent $100 on didn't do anything.

Win, 1-0, 415 Points, MVP = Warriors of Ashra

Round 2 - phantazm21zero (Omnicron Repulsors x3, Omnicron Snipers x2, Zetacron on Spring Thaw [by Retlaw])

Craig had just finished dismantling a Tron army - exactly what the Omnicrons were made for. A little tougher assignment for him here. I sent out the WoA to try and get the money glyph, but 4 of them were shot down without really doing anything. I decided then to switch to the AA's and take height. That worked well - I sent one back to get the Attack +1 glyph and, with the help of a few Frenzies and a couple Acolarh saves, the Aubriens killed the rest of his units by targetting the Snipers first and leaving the Repulsors for last. Since I had the high ground, Acolarh's protection, and the chance for Frenzy, they wer able to do that pretty easily. I was 2-0, but really mad that I spent $100 to hire Syvarris and never used him. However, that would turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as you'll see.

Win, 2-0, 795 Total Points, MVP = Aubrien Archers

The second auction happened here, and I came out with:

Venoc Warlord - 120
Venoc Vipers x4 - 280
EOV - 380
hired Syvarris as a Merc - 480

More Frenzy goodness! I was rolling well with it, so why fight it, right? Plus, I love playing Vipers. Also, Frenzy is a great power in this kind of environment, where you might have to beat armies that have a lot more points than yours does. It's such a powerful ability that, if it goes off well, the Vipers can kill way more Points than they're worth. I needed that for....

Round 3 - hangred (Kozuke, NotNW, Moriko, Kumiko, Cyprien, Krav on Fissure)

Since I spent the $100 to hire Syvarris in the first two rounds, I only had $100 left for the last 3, and hired Syvarris again instead of Q10, who would've cost me $150. To start this game, I gave Syvarris all my turns in the first round, and jumped onto the ledge to try and shoot his Cyprien in the starting zone. I killed Cyprien on my 2nd OM, and killed a NotNW as he moved out the Krav and failed to kill the high-ground Elf. He lost a turn, and I killed a Krav and a Kozuke with Syvarris. I'm glad I had Syvarris here and not Q10 - I don't think Q10 could've done that in the first round, and it made all the difference. Once Cyprien was dead, my strategy was to kill one or two members of each Unique squad to weaken them, and let the Vipers swarm, knowing he couldn't kill many at once as long as I didn't surround his heroes. After Syvarris did his amazing business, that's exactly what happened. Syvarris weakened each squad and I put the Vipers to work. I also held the Valda glyph most of the game which made my movement sickening, and I just went completely nuts with Vipers. The Venocs surgically picked apart the rest of his units one at a time, Frenzying here and there. hangred whiffed his defense a lot - especially on Cyprien at the beginning of the game. Absolute craziness for me to win this game with a 170 Point handicap.

Win, 3-0, 1445 Total Points, MVP = Syvarris

Round 4 - Raudulfr Shieldcrusher (Nakitas, Gorillinators x2, Carr, Krav, Isamu on Ticalla Outpost)

I wasn't too excited about seeing some Vydar ranged units across from me that included Tough Gorillinators and Engagement Striking Nakitas. I started out with Syvarris and got a couple of Gorillas and maybe a Krav before he went down. I really wanted to get a couple of Nakita Agents too, but that didn't happen. Shieldcrusher had his Nakitas just out of Syvarris' threat range on the first turn he could shoot at stuff, and before I knew it the Gorillas were on top of him. This is the only game where I would've rather had Q10 then Syvarris - his Special Attacks would've been really helpful. Anyway, after Syvarris snuffed it I split markers between the Venocs and EOV, since I figured the Onyx Vipers' Evasive defense should help out against all of his range. I got a couple more Gorillas, one Nakita, and all of the Krav, but it took a few Frenzies and some heavy losses both by fire and Engagement Strike. Bob was able to get his Gorillas and last Nakita up into the towers, and still had a full-life Carr and Isamu against my Mittens and 3 Venocs. It looked bleak for me, but those last couple Venocs finished off the Nakitas and put a wound on Carr. Then, Mittens went to work. The Gorillas came down after him, and he pounced on them, killing them both without taking any wounds. I praise Bob's courage for coming off of his perch to get me, but he made a tactical error by leaving a Gorilla on the space adjacent to the hex the ladder was over, allowing Mittens to get height advantage while killing the Gorillas - a height advantage he would keep for the rest of the game. Carr came charging in, but the Warlord was higher on the ladder and was rolling sick defense. I blocked 3 skulls from Carr twice with 4 dice, and killed Carr after taking 2 wounds. He then chased down Isamu and killed him on the first attack. I really thought I was done when I was facing the Nakita and Gorillas in the turrets, but I underestimated Mittens' fury. If Mittens and Carr duel on level ground, it's a much closer fight for sure, with Carr at 3 life and 6/4, and Mittens with 6 life at 4/3 instead of 5/4.

Win, 4-0, 1955 Total Points, MVP = Venoc Warlord

Round 5 - Brownsfan82 (Spartacus, Capuan Gladiators x3 on Embattled Fen)

When I sat down against Ben in the finals, I felt pretty good. On this long map, I knew that my army was heavily favored over his. I knew that the Capuans had a long way to go to get to me, and that Syvarris would be in good position to get lots of shots on them before they made it. If he could take quite a few of them down, the Vipers' sheer numbers should be enough. I loaded him with OM's and used his crazy range to kill 8 Capuans by himself, after Brownsfan whiffed his defense many, many times. Again, Syvarris did what I don't think Q10 could've, thanks to that huge range and double attack. The Vipers finished off the last Capuan and, even though Spartacus got Syvarris, my Vipers tore through the gladiator, giving him his last wound with the Wannok glyph. With his terrible dice in the early game and my superior range, Ben didn't have much of a shot. That might have been the shortest tourney final I've ever seen - sorry about that, Ben.

Win, 5-0, 2365 Total Points, MVP = Syvarris, and a tourney win!

It was really fun to use these premade armies and have a lot of units in the field that usually don't see play. My dice were crazy all day, getting Frenzy after Frenzy and making all the attacks when I needed them. Go Ullar!

Thanks to everyone that helped me out running the tourney, and Shieldcrusher for making the awesome custom dice bowl that I took as a prize!
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

I've waited far too long to post this, but here's my all access report from GenCon 2010.

A little background for those that haven't followed my exploits - I wasn't supposed to go to GenCon this year. My son - born on August 4th - was scheduled to have his birthday party on GenCon weekend. However, thanks to some bartering with my wife, I was able to use 2 days of GenCon as a birthday / father's day present.

My brother and I arrived in Indy at 11:50 PM on Thursday night and met phantazm21zero, his girl and Mechabeast. Arriving Thursday night meant that I didn't get in on the General Wars and Smackdown fun. lonewolf and ManTrainChooChoo (the winners of those events) can thank my wife and son for me not being there to whoop up on them. :p Instead, my first game of the con came at 12:30 AM on Friday. phantazm, Mecha and I played an excellent game of Munchkin Booty (ARRRRRRR!!!) I ended up as a Spanish Pirate with a Brig for a ship and 4 years of Ick on my feet, but couldn't beat phantazm to Level 10. I also played a bit of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 which is always enjoyable.

I woke up Friday morning and starting getting into Main Event mode. I was originally going to play this army:

Major Q10 - 150
Marro Stingers x6 - 510

I anticipated seeing a lot of Q9 and Deathreavers, and I liked how this army matched up against them. With the wound glyph in play, however, and being scared a bit of the 4th Mass, I was going to switch to this:

Major Q9 - 180
Marcu - 200
Marro Stingers x5 - 500

However, since I didn't make General Wars, I didn't get to play my Vipers in a tournament already. phantazm and a lot of other people on the site were egging me on to play them, and I knew I'd have a blast doing it one way or another. I didn't really like the metagame for Vipers, but peer pressure won out and I settled on playing:

Major Q9 - 180
Raelin - 260
Venoc Vipers x6 - 500, 21 hexes

I did like that most of the maps were small, which meant that Vipers could normally engage the enemy in the middle of the map from the starting zone with one Order Marker if they were in the front. The high variance of the Vipers really needs a consistent army partner, hence Q9/Raelin. I said going into the tournament that Frenzy would win me one game outright, and Q9 would win me one game outright, so I had to win 2 out of the other 3 with skill to make Day 2.

My basic plan was to lead with Q9/Raelin, getting Q9 to the best spot on the map for him and position Raelin somewhere behind him to force the opponent to come in closer to hit her. Hopefully, this would allow the Vipers to engage from the starting zone (I always put them in the front and Q9/Raelin a row or 2 behind). Engaging from the starting zone is huge, because that means you can quickly replace them when they fall and not lose activations. If I couldn't engage and I had a turn on them, I would move them out from the back and try to keep them out of threat range, or at least force my opponent to come off of advantageous ground to kill them. Once I felt comfortable that I could engage with 3 Vipers, I'd start giving them turns since they're a better activation that Q9 if I know I can get 3 attacks + Frenzy.

Enough basic strategy - onto the report:

Round 1 - Dave Kaelin (Microcorp Agents x3, Phantom Knights x3) on Fulcrum

Although I hadn't playtested my army at all before GenCon, this army wasn't one I was expecting to face. I decided I was pretty comfortable against it since he can only attack 3 times per OM, which is nice for Vipers, and he doesn't have any really big attacks to threaten Q9. I sent Q9 up to the high ground on the left side and was able to keep him by Raelin with a jungle tree. The Agents got to high ground faster because I spent a turn on Raelin, and got a couple big attacks on Q9 to score 2 wounds early. That scared me. What scared me even more is that they hit their first 3 Stealth Armor rolls.

Once I got Q9 up to height, Dave brought his Phantom Knights out knowing that Q9 wasn't afraid of the Agents anymore. He swarmed my Soulborg but Q9 held strong for a while and retaliated. Once he got enough of them to the middle of the map with his Agents, I sent in the Vipers. My first turn, I engaged 3 figures and got 2 Frenzies, which was awesome. The bad part about it though was that I didn't kill a single figure in those 3 turns thanks to Stealth Armor and good defense rolling by Dave. WTF. What sucked even more is that soon after, Dave's remaining Phantom Knights killed Q9. Crap.

Things weren't looking good. He had a handful of Agents and Knights left against about 13 Vipers (he had been picking Vipers off here and there). I thought I was in trouble.

Then, the Frenzied attacks of the Vipers came down to bear.

There were many Viper casualties, but throughout the rest of the game I got 5 successful Frenzy rolls and my extra turns and speed were too much for Dave. I killed the last Phantom Knight with 2 Venoc Vipers remaining. As I had predicted, Frenzy won me a game.

1-0

Round 2 - Worseley (Marro Stingers x7, Raelin) on Invasion

Even though the Stingers can only make 3 attacks per turn, I knew this would be tough as Q9 doesn't like the Stingers at all. You know what else he doesn't like? When the Stingers roll 7 out of 8 Stinger Drains successfully.

I used all the cunning and manipulation I had in me to get him to leave Raelin's aura with Marro Stingers by flanking with Vipers from time to time and playing very conservatively with Q9, and killed the ones that did. I was actually in pretty good shape even after Raelin's death, but I made a huge tactical error by moving Q9 down to low ground, not realizing that he had a Stinger or 2 that could get height on me that turn, and also deny me from reclaiming my perch.

That caused Q9's death, and my D20 was cold for Frenzy after the last hot game. Without those extra turns, my remaining Vipers were no match for his 3-defense Stingers. He won the game with 6 or 7 Stingers left. I think if Q9 could've just killed 3 or 4 more I'd have had a chance to pull it out with the Vipers, but that play blunder really cost me.

1-1

At this point, I started proclaiming that my losing streak had begun and figured I was done for the tournament.

Round 3 - Ryan (Airborne Elite, Drake SotM, Marro Warriors, Finn, Syvarris) on Jotun's Gap...?

I can't remember what map this game was played on, but I think it was Jotun's Gap as there was a ruin on the high ground and low ground in the middle. I know that I liked the map because it allowed me to hide Raelin behind the high ground ruin and she could still see Q9 around the side or possibly over the top.

His AE didn't drop, and it became apparent that his plan was to charge the starting zone with Finn, hoping to sacrifice him and put his spirit onto one of his uniques. I wasn't a really big fan of that, so I ignored him. He actually engaged Q9, but I took a passing swipe and made for the height, hiding Raelin behind the ruin. I was content to let Finn hack at Vipers while I shot at the other units in his starting zone. I threw a normal shot from height at Syvarris and killed him in one attack (4 skulls vs. 0 shields). Then I went to work on the Marro, killing 3 of them quickly with Queglix Gun. He failed a Water Clone try and I killed the last one. While he skipped a turn or 2 I shot Finn a couple of times and waited for Drake to advance.

His AE failed the Drop again and he charged with Drake. My Queglix put 3 or 4 wounds on him before he engaged me (from low ground), and his sword helplessly clanged off of Q9's armor. The Queglix Gun finished Drake quickly and also cleaned up Finn. The AE never dropped and I might have activated the Vipers once. Again as predicted, Q9 won me a game by himself.

2-1

At this point, I laughed with Mechabeast and phantazm21zero and said that if I win the next 2 games with Vipers, I'd sprint back to the hotel room and flail my hands in the air. Mechabeast added that I had to make fire engine noises.

Round 4 - Hendal (Major Q9, Deathreavers x2, Marro Stingers x4, Isamu) on Fossil.... or is it?

I didn't really like this matchup at all. I don't even remember if that army is correct, but I saw Q9 and got pretty scared. Hendal was taunting me, knowing he smoked me at GenCon 2008. I sat down and got ready to take my beating and then heard:

"Everyone get up - they have to re-pair everyone."

I literally jumped up and screamed "WOO-HOO!"

Real Round 4 - Tom Cafaro (Zelrig, Greenscales x2, Stingers x2, Deathreavers x2) on Midnight Lagoon

I was a bit unsure about this matchup, but definitely happier about it than Hendal's army. I put an early OM on the Vipers knowing that Zelrig was probably charging and I wanted to spread them out and engage him, but Zelrig still did plenty of damage by wiping out chunks of Vipers. I knew then that Q9 was my ticket to winning this match. The Rats were pretty much a non-factor as Q9 took the ones that moved out down fairly easily. When the Stingers came out, I made sure to kill them when I could and not allow them any big shots on Q9.

I picked my targets cautiously, and got a Viper activation or 2 on Zelrig. I didn't get any Frenzies, but I scored 2 wounds over time on the Dragon and killed some Greenscales. Tom was playing pretty slowly, and I soon realized that I had only 10 minutes left in the round and was down on points because so many Vipers were dead. To make matters worse, a Stinger went all Wanted on me and curved a shot around a ruin to hit and kill my Raelin (Tom insisted that he could see Raelin - I didn't think so but allowed the shot). At this point, I had Q9 and 2 Vipers (220 Points) left against Zelrig (2 wounds), 5 Deathreavers, 4 Stingers and 5 Greenscales (all 505 Points) - bad. I kicked my play into overdrive and started flying Q9 all around the map. I knew I had to get Zelrig, and I got a couple Stingers and two Greenscales on the way to net me 120 Points. Something engaged my Q9 (I can't remember if it was a rat or a Greenscale) a bit after I heard "5 minutes remaining", and I took the disengagement wound to go after Zelrig on my #3 OM. As I was moving Q9, I heard "this is the last Order Marker". He still had his #3 left also.

Well, I thought, this is it. I played pretty well, but I'm going to be 2-2 and out of the Top 16. At least I had fun. Then I started rolling Queglix Gun:

:skull::skull::skull:
:shield: :shield: :noshield: :noshield:

1 wound - Zelrig still has 3 life. Ehh, it was worth a shot, right? My second shot:

:skull::skull::skull:
:noshield: :noshield: :noshield: :noshield:

:shock:

I couldn't believe what I just saw. Zelrig fell in a blaze of majestic Queglix Gun fire. For good measure, I shot at a Greenscale:

:skull::skull::skull:

Why not, right? Tom's #3 was on the Deathreavers - I think he thought we would get another round in and he could tie Q9 down. The rats couldn't inflict any wounds, and time ran out. I won on points 220 - 200 thanks to some insane luck and skillful fast play at the end of the game. Tom played a great match - unbelievable finish.

3-1

At this point, I couldn't believe I had a shot to sneak into Day 2 now, and was thinking about making fire engine noises. Those hopes were all but dashed when I saw my next pairing...

Round 5 - MattserTruckRally (Q9, Gilbert, Raelin, Knights x2) on Fulcrum

Crap - one of the best players in the world, and he has Q9 to slaughter my Vipers. I again setup for my impending doom until:

"We have to re-pair everyone again - sorry about that."

:shock: Unbelievable. I got out of playing Mattser and Hendal and 2 Q9's thanks to bad pairings. I found my real opponent wouldn't be much easier...

Real Round 5 - Clarrissimus (Zelrig, Greenscales x2, Cyprien, Sonya) on Warden

I was again much happier with this matchup than Q9, and I saw him wince at my Q9 across the map. Again, I knew Q9 would need to be my MVP against the squad-killing Zelrig and the Soulborg-hating vampire. Also, the healer glyph was on the map in a single-hex water hole, which meant Q9 and Zelrig couldn't get it, but Cypien could - bad.

I led out with the Vipers a bit trying to avoid the Zel-blasts and knowing that he really didn't have any range. Zelrig still got quite a few snakes, though I did get a Greenscale or 2 and pushed a wound or 2 through on big Red. Eventually Zelrig claimed the wound glyph on height and I flew Raelin onto the ramparts there while Q9 moved onto the road and shot up. He wounded Raelin once and I put a wound glyph wound onto her - part 1 of my plan was working.

In the next round I moved Q9 up a bit more to within 4 spaces of the healer glyph and shot again for no wounds on Zelrig, but I got a Greenscale in the front. He fired back to no avail and engaged Q9 with a Greenscale. I then flew Raelin to the Healer glyph and burned it, knowing that Q9 was still in her aura and now Cyprien couldn't have it later. Part 2 of my plan had worked.

He attacked again to no avail on Q9 and sent a Greenscale to start attacking Raelin. Thankfully, he didn't anticipate my next move and didn't put a Greenscale on the front part of the high bridge, which would've blocked my access. On my #3, I ran Q9 right up the road, taking a leaving engagement wound and engaging Zelrig on even ground. Raelin could still see Q9's shoulder pad through gap in the top of the ruin. Part 3 of my plan worked.

Clarrissimus was forced to attack Q9's 9 defense with just Zelrig and 2 Greenscales as he couldn't engage anymore. He also was attacking down on Raelin with a 3rd Greenscale. However, Q9 was firing steady bullets into Zelrig and brought him down just after Eric flew Cyprien over to kill Raelin. It should be noted that Raelin survived a long time until the vampire ended her life. Q9 mopped up some Greenscales and claimed the Wound glyph while Cyprien flew towards my starting zone at the remaining Vipers. With my turns on Q9, I decided to attack Greenscales even eventually Sonya by coming down off of the bridge because I knew Cyprien could just eat snakes to get any wounds back.

Well, Cyprien flew into my starting zone and killed some snakes, but then something happened he didn't expect - the snakes had a turn. My 3 remaining Vipers all engaged Cyprien and did 3 wounds - and I hit Frenzy. The first 2 did 2 more wounds and my last Viper, with victory in my grasp, failed to wound Cyprien. BAH!!!! The vamp snacked on my 3 snakes and left my starting zone with 2 wounds. I wounded Sonya once and was going to forget about her and focus on the daddy, but then I realized that with her alive, I was behind in Points. I sent her back to her coffin and prepared for the 1v1 with Cyprien. Usually this would be great for me, but Warden has a Wound glyph on the high-middle of the map, and that spot isn't friendly for double-hexers to climb up to. Cyprien landed on it and Q9 took a wound after I shot Cyprien for one or two more.

I thought I'd positioned Q9 in such a way that on my next turn, I could get up to the even ground and, if he won initiative, he couldn't attack me from height. I won initiative and tried to move up, only to find out that I miscounted. So, I moved Q9 next to the high ground and conceded that I needed to let him have that one high shot to get him off of the glyph and get me onto even ground. However, it never came to that as some strong Queglix rolling and some poor Cyprien defense sealed it for me. This really was a fantastic game - probably my most fun game of the Con.

4-1, 13th seed for Day 2.

I couldn't believe at all that I made it to Day 2. I needed some great matchups and some luck on my side to do it, but I somehow squeezed in there. I was absolved from sprinting back to the hotel and making fire engine noises due to the heavy traffic on our way back.

I saw that I was playing EternalThanos86 in the Top 16 round - another Zelrig/Greenscales army. Since I'd just beaten 2 of them, I felt pretty good. I didn't really know what to add to help me in that matchup, so I opted for Venoc Warlord and Marcu for glyph grabbing / denying / wound glyph protection. I thought some extra speed would help getting to Zelrig and Raelin quickly, and I knew I planned on leading with Vipers since he had no range other than Zelrig. Well, onto the match:

Top 16 - EternalThanos86 (Zelrig, Raelin, Greenscales x4 + Fen Hydra and Isamu) on Jotun's Gap

The first thing I have to say is that Eric is a class act to play scape with. We both had a blast playing this game, and I think it could've went either way.

He brought big Z out and blew a hole in my vipers. I planned for that though and, with Zelrig out of Raelin's aura, I got 2 Vipers engaged to him. I knew I had a shot to get some wounds in here and, with a timely Frenzy, could cripple him early. I failed the attacks and the Frenzy, and Zelrig disengaged and blew up more Vipers - bad. I did score 2 wounds on the passing swipes, though, but had I got any wounds earlier he may have been less likely to disengage.

He eventually did get Raelin up and I got some snakes around for a wound or 2. I even snuck a Viper into his starting zone, leashed his Hydra, and scored a wound on it! There were a couple times that I got Frenzies in key moments and killed some Greenscales and wounded Raelin some more, but he eventually surrounded her with Greenscales, all the while shooting things with Zelrig. I tried to bait him off of his perch by moving my Raelin up and Q9 out and taking the defense glyph with Marcu, but he didn't fall for it until I killed his Raelin.

After killing Marcu, he finally engaged my Raelin, and I had a surprise OM on the Vipers to finish Zelrig when he did it. Unfortunately, his Greenscales were positioned well and I could only get 2 attacks. A timely Frenzy got 3 engaged and I did a wound or 2, but it wasn't before all my Vipers were dead (I should note that it took him 4 attacks to finally kill my Viper that leashed his Hydra). This was my first mistake - I should've used Q9 to kill Zelrig and saved a few Vipers for the Hydra. I had to take two passing swipe wounds to kill Zelrig with Q9, and I cleaned up his Greenscales as the Hydra finally killed the annoying Viper engaged to it and started its advance. My second mistake was not taking a high-ground normal attack at this point and going for Queglix, which scored no wounds

This was my third mistake - I placed 2 OM's on the Venoc Warlord to ensure that I could engage the Hydra before it caught Q9. Had I lost initiative, this might have been a great move. But I won, and I moved Mittens into the Hydra's way. That was really all I needed to do, and I wished my other 2 OM's were on Q9. He put 5 wounds on Mittens, and the Warlord's attack disappointed me. He then broke engagement (I failed the passing swipe - it hurt that he was 2/2 on swipes against Q9 and I missed the Hydra, but I guess I did go 2/2 on Zelrig) and caught up to Q9. The 2 brutes battled back and forth for a while, but I was again going with Queglix instead of the normal attack (I think the math tells me that this is right, but I wasn't sure anyway), and I couldn't get another head off. The Hydra finally did finish me and cleaned up the Venoc Warlord.

Had I saved a couple of Vipers to tie up the Hydra and block the road I'd have been in better shape, and I should've taken that 5v6 when I had the chance. But, it was an outstanding game and I congratulated Eric on his stellar play and win. I still think I played a good tournament and I had a blast playing in it and making my second Top 16 in as many tries.

FRENZY!!!!!!

(Rest of GenCon report to come.....)
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

Nice read! I'm loving the GenCon BR love!
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

Great report.

I'm pretty sure Hendal played Raelin and no Isamu or Deathreavers - at least, that's what I heard he was playing. I tested against that army a lot, and at least a few people played it, but I never played against it.

I don't remember who my first pairing was with in round 4, but given that I got Rÿchean's no-special attack build after the re-pairing, I think we can rule out any conspiracy theories. (Rÿchean certainly didn't like his chances.) I got Matthias Maccabeus both times in round 5, which is no surprise given that there were only 5 of us undefeated at that point.

ET86 is a super classy opponent - there's no way I would have handled our general wars game (where the dice just completely betrayed him) as well as he did.

On the Q-gun question, 3v6 x3 is much, much better than 4v6. It's better than 5v6, too, for that matter, although it's pretty close and it's usually worth taking a 5v6 in stead of a Q-gun turn if it allows you to position Q9 in a better spot. The value of Q9's normal attack lies in the extra range moreso than the extra attack.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

I wasn't really concerned about positioning yet when attacking the hydra as I was already in good position and could still back up. I thought the math was on my side, but with a Hydra I might have wanted to just get one wound through to knock off a head. Ahh well.

The Clue report is coming - I was up until almost 12 typing thy one last night.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

Grats on making day 2 with Vipers, man. Sorry I didn't make the Clue game. I was at the airport picking up my friend Andrew who flew in from DC.

Maybe next year Miss Scarlet will bring home the trophy.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

I'm back with the rest of my GenCon report.

So - where was I? OH YEAH - I just finished talking about Vipers and their craziness. However, in my haste to finish my Main Event story, I skipped over all of Friday evening.

After Round 1 of the Main Event was over, I was signed up for Treasure Quest. However, knowing that I had to play Day 2 tomorrow and Heat of Battle in the afternoon, I wasn't sure if I'd have time to go to the dealer hall at all, so I dropped Treasure Quest. Congratulations to Arrow Grut, the winner. Again - you're welcome. Had I known you were there, I could've been taking turns before you.

So, instead of getting my Treasure Questing on, I went to the dealer hall and just walked around. I purchased a brand new D20 for Day 2, which did just OK for me (and not good enough to win with - blast!). I also picked up a few new D10s to use for Munchkin.

Over the rest of the evening, I played quite a few other games. Wings of War was a fun one. You get this fighter plane card and just put it on the table with other players' planes. You then play cards that shows where your plane moves, and the others do the same. If you end up within range of another plane, you get to shoot at it. I shot phantazm and Kara down in cold blood, but then Mechabeast blew me out of the sky like Jek Porkins FTW.

"I've got a problem, here."

I also played a couple of 3-way games of Magic with phantazm and Mechabeast that were straight up broken. I dominated one game and Mecha dominated the other. We also played a Settlers of Catan-like game in the Rio Grande Games Room. You had to collect Fish, Wood, Stone and Gold in order to build Cities and Fortresses in certain territories without getting killed by the natives. I remember that I won the game by being the first to build 3 complete settlements, but I can't remember what the game was called. It was very fun though.

But then the real Main Event was coming up at 9:30 - Clue: Master Detective Edition. I might have been more excited to play Clue at GenCon than Heroscape - it's my favorite non-scape boardgame and I never get to play it, let alone with 10 people. I actually cut my board down with a box cutter to be able to fit it in my backpack I was so excited.

I set the game up and 9:30 came and went. I got really worried that no one was going to show up and I was going to go to bed disappointed. Shortly after 9:30, Clarrissimus got there and we reminisced about our Scape game a bit earlier that day. However, he soon got a phone call that told him he had to leave now for the hotel or not make it back tonight. So, we were back down to 4.

Eventually though, dok, jdtenor and his friend did show up to play. Jexik and his friend said he couldn't make it due to some unfortunate airport exploits, but we both know that he was back in the hotel room furiously playtesting Nilfheim + Greenscales some more and figuring out how far he was going to move the Vipers up in the Power Rankings after my performance. So, we sat down for a 7-person game of Master Clue - still the biggest Clue game I've ever played. We had:

killercactus - Colonel Mustard
phantazm21zero - Sergeant Grey
Kara - Mrs. Peacock
dok - Mr. Green
Mechabeast - Miss Scarlet
jdtenor - Professor Plum
jd's friend - Madame Rose

jdtenor won the right to go first, which also meant he would be the only player holding only 3 cards. Everyone else had 4. My 4 cards were:

Miss Scarlet
Mrs. Peacock
Poison
Drawing Room

I planned on trying to guess Scarlet and the Poison often in the early game to get some other players thinking that those cards were the answer, and I did that. A lot of players began guessing Sgt. Gray, which was making phantazm jump all over the board and he was annoyed. However, enough people guessed him that I was able to deduce fairly early that Gray was the murderer, while a lot of the board was still guessing at Scarlet or Peacock since I kept throwing them out there.

The weapon took some more time to figure out. At one point, I had jdtenor marked down for having the Knife, but then dok guessed the Knife and jdtenor said he couldn't prove him wrong. I checked my notes and realized I screwed up and had to waste a turn guessing the Knife on my next roll to verify who had it. I went into the Drawing Room and guessed Peacock/Knife to make sure that someone had to show me the Knife.

Eventually I narrowed the weapon down to the Rope or the Candlestick, so on my next turn I guessed Peacock/Candlestick in a room that I knew dok had, who was on my right and who I knew did not have the Candlestick. That guaranteed that someone would either show me the Candlestick or it would get all the way around to dok meaning that the Candlestick was the murder weapon. JD's friend showed me the Candlestick, so I knew the Rope was the weapon.

At that point, I had it narrowed down to 5 rooms. A lot of people were guessing Gray/Rope, so I figured that most people were at least closing in on the answer as well. I starting guessing Peacock/Poison in a last ditch effort to throw people off-track again, or sometimes I would guess one of dok's cards if I knew he didn't have the room I was in, which had the same effect. Then, I walked into the Gazebo and guessed Peacock/Poison/Gazebo, and no one could prove me wrong. I slammed my hand down on the table and declared that I would make an accusation, in which I accused Sgt. Gray of strangling Mr. Body with the Rope in the Gazebo. That was the end of the wretched Sgt. Gray's reign of terror.

So yeah - dok might be 42-3 in Heroscape, but he's 0-1 with a loss to me in Clue: Master Detective Edition. 8)

After Clue, which was super fun for all, Mecha, Kara, phantazm and I played a few more games which included Alibi (a Clue-like card game that was really fun).

Saturday morning I slept in a bit more than I did the day before as I knew Mecha and phantazm didn't have anything scheduled for Saturday morning and wanted to sleep. I got down to the Scape room around 9:30 and geared up for my Day 2 match that you've already heard about. After losing, I scored a Castle Set and the 2 new Summoner Wars Faction decks as a Top 16 prize, which was freaking awesome except that I kept leaving my castle set unattended laying around. Thankfully, no one stole it.

Another trip to the dealer hall led me to demo an Out-of-the-Box game called Pirate vs. Pirate. As a matter of fact, my wife wants to play it right now so I'm going to play it with her now and finish posting my Heat of the Battle report later.

.....

Sorry about the delay. Wifeycactus has taken a liking to Pirate vs. Pirate, and I jump on any opportunity to play a game with her since she doesn't like to play very often. Incidentally, this is the first time she's defeated me in 4 games. I was just about to get my treasure back to the boat when her mutinous scurvy dogs stabbed my proud sailors in the back.

Anywho, after playing a game of Red Dragon Inn (which I won by making Kara spend all of her money so the Innkeeper kicked her out, and getting Mecha and phantazm hammered) and some Zombie Dice (BRAAAAAAINS), I got ready for the Heat of Battle tournament. I had thought that 10th Regiment would be pretty darn solid in the new format, and was originally going to play this:

10th Regiment x3 - 225
Air Elemental x5 - 375
Isamu - 385
Otonashi - 395, 19 hexes, 10 cards

I liked the number of cards which would mean I could get some 10th by themselves behind an Air screen. I liked the idea of being able to start Air Elementals anywhere on the map to inhibit movement. However, I only had 3 Air Elementals with me and didn't want to borrow 2 more, so I decided to change to:

Stingers x5 - 300
Air Elemental x3 -390
Isamu - 400, 19 hexes, 9 cards

Same strategy as the above. However, I then realized that I left my Stingers in the hotel room. However, I did have my 4th Mass with me and an Eldgrim. I decided to play them, and I started asking people around if they had a Kyntela Gwyn on them to fill my last 20 Points of Valiancy. no, david, no very graciously went back to his hotel room to retrieve one for me, and my army was set at:

4th Mass x5 - 350
Eldgrim - 380
Kyntela - 400, 22 hexes, 7 cards

I didn't have as many cards as the other armies, but this was actually a good thing as I found I'd want to place the 4th first anyway to try and deny my opponent as much of the high ground as possible. With the new format, HoB is now much more about claiming the high ground and best positions for yourself instead of trying to out-card your opponent and get someone unengaged somewhere. For this reason, I think 4-figure squads are best suited for HoB since they can take up the most space when placed.

Round 1 - lonewolf (Grimnak, Heavy Gruts x4) on Fissure

I'd never had the pleasure of playing the mighty lonewolf, so I was looking forward to this game (especially since I really didn't have any expectations for this tournament). He rolled a 7, which beat my 6 and allowed him to place first. I hadn't playtested at all for this, and actually had never played an HoB game in my life (old or new method), but I realized very quickly that him getting to place first and steal basically all of the highest ground with one squad of Gruts was bad for me. The rest of the placement phase became me doing my best to deny him the other high ground, and take all of the little snowy perches that meant he would have to attack up to my guys since he was melee, and I could shoot at his. We ended up with lots of his guys on the snowy hills on either side, and my guys taking up nearly all of the rest of the relative high ground and snow. Grimnak started off behind one of the glaciers on a lower level. I tried to use Eldgrim and Kyntela as blockers, but it didn't work too well.

lonewolf also won initiative. He proceeded to Chomp one of my guys and kill another one or two with his Gruts. However, on my first OM, Wait then Fire for 4 shots from high ground on Grimnak drops the mighty Orc in one turn. lonewolf though that spelled doom for his army right off the bat, even commenting "Well, I'm not winning this tournament." It was now 15 Gruts with no champion and no Chomp against 17 or 18 Mass, Kyntela and Eldgrim, and most of my units would have high ground when he attacked me and I would hardly ever need to move. Sounds like a dream situation for the Mass, right?

Wrong.

lonewolf's dice turned around very abruptly. Before I knew it, he had blocked 2 skulls with 3 dice 6 times in a row (yeah, I counted). I was attacking with WTF and height and missing, and he was attacking up on my guys and scoring. It what seemed like no time at all, he had amassed a nice, big lead, and wound up winning the game with 7 or 8 Gruts still standing. It was like the 4th Mass had a party after they killed Grimnak so fast and all got hammered and passed out, allowing the Gruts to just axe them down. Ahh well - guess I'm the one not winning this tournament.

0-1

Round 2 - James Sullivan (Raelin, Tagawa Samurai, Kaemon Awa, Me-Burq-Sa, Guilty McCreech) on Rift Valley

After that game, which taught me a lot about HoB play even though I lost, I see that I had to play on the map where all the high ground is covered in lava. Crap.

I won the placement roll and spread out a squad of mass to secure most of the high ground lava from him placing guys there. He spread out his Samurai to try and engage me, and put Kaemon, Raelin, MBS and Guilty mostly to one side of the map (with everyone but MBS on low ground thanks to my 4th taking up all the room), with Guilty next to a glyph. I took as much non-lava height (mostly road) that I could, and put my 2 heroes in strategic road choke points.

Once the game began, I quickly WTF'ed Raelin the heck outta there and also got one of the Tagawa with a WTF+Height shot. His Tagawa picked up the experience markers quickly, but he got one of them tied down to Eldgrim and I engaged the other one on lava. The lava failed to kill it but I eventually shot them both down. After the Tagawa threat was over I turned my WTF efforts onto Kaemon Awa and did 3 wounds pretty quickly. He had Guilty take the Defense glyph and got Kaemon up to high ground and killed a couple Mass, but I killed Guilty and then Kaemon in one OM a bit later. MBS was just a big ol' WTF target and the battle was over with at least half of my Mass still standing.

1-1

Round 3 - Tristan (Krug, Tagawa Samurai, Warriors of Ashra x3, Isamu) on Just Passing Through

I felt pretty comfortable playing against this army. I knew by now that my 4-man squads were a huge asset in taking as much high ground as possible, and he could only attack 3 times max per OM. Since I had range, the WoA and Samurai didn't scare me, and Krug's big attack didn't mean much since I didn't have any heroes (that mattered). I won the placement roll again and took lots of the high ground, most of it to one side. He did get the high ground on the other side, but since he was melee I knew I could force the battle over to my side. I also controlled the bridge in the middle and the few one-hex perches on the map.

The Warriors of Ashra, once the MVP's of HoB, stunk it up pretty bad. They weren't ready to combat my range, and 7 or 8 of them were dead after the first round with minimum 4th Mass casualties. The Tagawa started getting some turns and, even though they got their experience markers, WTF + height was just too much. Isamu took 3 shots to bring down, and then Krug had to try to make his way to my side of the map and a slew of 4th on height. I think he got one attack on my stronghold before WTF+height brought him down. Again I probably had around half of my Mass left.

2-1

Round 4 - SuperflyTNT (Kaemon Awa, Tagawa Samurai, Warriors of Ashra x3, Isamu) on Jotun's Gap

This was pretty much the same army I just finished playing against. I'd rather see Krug than Kaemon, but I knew my strategy would stay pretty much the same. I again placed first and focused on controlling all of one side of the map's high ground, knowing he had to come to me. He set up Kaemon on the other side but his WoA and Samurai on my side for the most part. I used Eldgrim and Kyntela to try and block access to my hill by using the shadow spaces on the road in the middle of the map. I ended up with a few guys on his side of the high ground but I had pretty much total control of the other side, which I knew would be a tough nut to crack.

Pete was a blast to talk to and play against, as many of you may know from reading his posts here. Anyway, he started with his Ashra and Samurai, but again the WTF, height and range were just too much for them. As soon as I saw him put OM's on the Tagawa, I attacked them viciously and killed 2 of them before they ever got a turn. His Ashra did pretty much wipe out my soldiers on his side of the map, but they sustained losses. Eventually, I'd lost probably 6 or 7 Mass and it was down to Kaemon and Isamu. Isamu died in one shot and Kaemon came into the battle after healing the 2 wounds my soldiers on his side put on him by grabbing the Glyph of Kelda that was on his side.

Kaemon put and end to Eldgrim on his way over, which meant Kyntela got a movement boost (YAY!!!). His Quickly Released arrows found their marks on quite a few Mass, and he tried to hide in the shadows behind an outcrop. However, I had so many soldiers on that hill that I could still get some good WTF+Height shots off on him and eventually the musket barrage was too much for the Last Samurai. Good game, Pete - I hope to cross your path again in Dayton someday when I finally make it up there for a tourney.

3-1

Round 5 - scaper_dude (Grimnak, Heavy Gruts x4) on Jotun's Gap

Like father, like son, eh? Some strangy symmetry here to my tournament facing lonewolf in the first round and his son in the last round. However, this time I was a much more experienced HoB player and I'd just won a game against all-melee on this map, so I knew what to do. I knew that this game would be no picnic, having played scaper_dude once before in a hard fought match that went to time after we mostly just moved our Deathreavers around a lot. I assured him that this game would be played much faster, and also that his dad already decimated me once today with that army. I won the placement roll and again proceeded to take most of the high ground on one side. He deployed Gruts to both sides - some to take the rest of the height and some to contest my hill. I put a few Mass over to his side for good measure, and again put Eldgrim and Kyntela on the road shadow spaces. Grimnak started on his side on the low ground, and we both knew that the first initiative roll would mean a lot, since I would either get 4 WTF+height shots on Grimnak (I made sure I had enough guys over there to do that since I got to place a squad of Mass last) or he would get to Chomp a guy off of height and basically overwhelm that side of the board.

He won. Those darn Jeter's and their luck. :D

Grimank Chomped a guy off of height and his Gruts started to swarm. I still got some good shots on Grimnak and did a few wounds. Soon though his Orcs had pretty much sealed off my soldiers on that side of the map and I had to settle for WTF'ing Orcs on my side while Grimnak Chomped dudes over there or just stood looking mean and giving Orcs a boost. However, once most of my guys on his side were dead, Brandon moved Grimnak near the edge of the hill to prepare for a run over to my side of the map, which probably had 8 or 9 Mass strongly securing the hill. I don't think he realized until it was too late that one of my soldiers on the other side could reach Grimnak from there, and he ended the mightly Orc's life.

That was a turning point in the match, as my remaining Mass on height really didn't have to move ever again, and just WTF'ed the crap out of some Orcs. He did get me down to about 5 Mass though with 2 Orcs left, and he started channelling his dad by blocking 2 skulls with 3 dice multiple times. In the end though I won with 4 Mass remaining. It was a little closer than I'd have thought it would be after seeing Grimnak fall and the carnage that followed, but those are my favorite types of games - the ones that come down to the very end. So, I got my revenge on the Jeter family, but I really had to fight for it. Great game, Brandon!

4-1 for a 4th Place finish and a set of Wave D1 as a prize.

That was my last bit of gaming at GenCon for 2010. I shook hands with many a Scaper and wished them good gaming as I left, starting down a 5 1/2 hour drive back to Youngstown. I had a blast though, and came out of GenCon with some free Scape stuff, 2 new Summoner Wars decks and a cool new board game that even my wife likes. GenCon 2010 = Great Success!!! Thanks to everyone that helped put on the show and everyone that played against me and talked to me - I had an absolute blast with all of you!
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

That's 46-3, pal. Don't be shorting me like that.

It took me until a couple rounds around the table to figure out exactly how I should be taking notes, and I had two or three errors that I had to back out, which took me out of the game for a bit too long. Still, it's a fun game and more challenging and skill-based than it gets credit for.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 8/12/10 - GenCon 2010

Columbus, OH NHSD - 10/16/10

Here's my 2010 NHSD Report. I had a blast with everyone, as usual, and we had over 40 players this year, which is awesome! weesel99 and the rest of the Columbus Crew did an excellent job setting up and running the event - props and major thanks to them!

First thing - I've gotta say that I love our tournament scene. All of the players are willing to try new units and not just play cheese everywhere, which makes for an all-around good time. I only saw 2-3 Q9 armies, only one of those had Raelin, and none of them had Rats. As a matter of fact, there were only 2 squads of Deathreavers in the entire tournament, and they weren't even in the same army, though that could have something to do with the Treasure Glyphs instead of Power Glyphs. Go Ohio Scapers!

I decided a while ago that I wanted to try the Goblin Cutters at this year's event. It's a bit weird, but I have a lot of fun playing them even though I hate playing Deathreavers, even though I'm moving them all the time. I guess its because I'm only doing it when they die, so I don't feel like such a cheeseball? Anywho, since there were treasure glyphs in this event, I'd originally planned also to play Cyprien since he uses a lot of them well and gets them quickly. I then really needed a special attack / Q9 counter, and for 100 Points the Iron Golem fit the bill. So, I was at:

Cyprien - 150
Sonya - 195
Iron Golem - 295
Cutters x4 - 495, 20 hexes

Then, after a playtest game or two, I felt like I needed a bit more hero-killing power, and I'd like to have more cutters. I switched up my support units and found a way to do that with:

Nilfheim - 185
Zetacron - 245
Cutters x5 - 495, 24 hexes

After playing a few games with that (a couple against Cyprien where I just got owned hard after he killed Nilf and Zetacron without too much trouble, and then just ate Goblins to regenerate), I felt like I needed a bit more punch against the Scurry-bypassing heroes. I knew if I couldn't beat Cyprien I'd have no chance against Q9. I finally settled on this version, which did well in my playtesting (though I didn't try it against Q9 - probably a mistake):

Fen Hydra x2 - 240
Goblin Cutters x5 - 490, 24 hexes

A full-on D&D army, good against both heroes and squads, full of units I've never used at tourneys - let's do it!

Round 1 - Nirek (Q9, Marro Drones x6, Isamu) on The Dying Oasis

Well, I was going to get a test of how well this army can handle Q9 right off the bat. Turns out it wasn't much of a test.

I started by moving a Hydra up onto the high ground in the middle, which was sure to be where Q9 would be headed. Nirek took a turn with Q9 and rolled a normal attack: :skull::skull::skull::skull:. My one shield meant my Hydra was already down 3 heads. I moved it closer and Q9 used Queglix: :skull::skull::skull:. OK - let's try the next Hydra. Q9's first normal attack: :skull::skull::skull::skull:. Down 3 wounds again. I think I got one attack on him after that which was blocked, and his next turn killed that Hydra.

So - battle summary so far: 4 or 5 Q9 turns = 2 dead Hydras.

Knowing slaughter was inevitable now, I started streaming in Goblins. I put them next to jungle, hoping I could survive Queglix and get a mob attack for my only chance to take down Q9. Nirek was rolling the 2,2,2,2,1 against them, and the first 7 times I rolled 2 defense against 1 skull, I whiffed. That's 14 defense dice with no shields, folks. He could've killed Deathwalker 7000 from range - twice. He could've killed DW9K with Raelin's aura and a Ring of Protection with an even ground, non-boosted Arrow Grut.

So, long story short, all 20 Goblins were mowed down without inflicting a single wound. I got mob attack once later, but it failed. I think I had 4 turns the whole game where I got to attack his figures.

Loss, 0-1, 0 Points, and a very disheartened killercactus

Round 2 - Jacob Hite (Brunak, Raelin, Su-bak-Na, Krav, Guilty) on Quasatch Playground

Jacob has a hodgepodge army, but I was pretty scared of what Brunak could do to Goblins. Turns out that didn't really matter either.

In a complete reversal of the previous game, my Hydras just went to work. The first one took 3 pretty quick wounds from the Krav, but was able to take them all down. Jacob then brought out Brunak carrying Raelin, and I tied Brunak down with my wounded Hydra while I started moving the other one up. Brunak could not kill my 1-life Hydra by the time my other one took the high ground in the center of the map, killed Raelin in one OM, and Brunak in the next 2. I got a free turn on SBN before he could react, which mostly killed him. SBN did get one wound through on my other Hydra before going down and Guilty followed.

Win, 1-1, 870 Points (points format was Points = what you killed + what you have left)

Round 3 - southwest ninja (Major Q10, 10th x4, Deathreavers x1) on Fire Isles

After my thrashing against Q9, Q10 had me pretty worried. However, this time I was a bit better prepared, and the map was short and flat, which I knew would help my Hydras. I started one on each side, planning to use one as sort of a decoy, bait Q10 to the other side with Goblins and then blitz with the second one. It pretty much worked.

I moved the backside Hydra up, and then spent a few OMs on Goblins, mostly on the other side. He tied down my Hydra with a couple Rats, but then Q10 poked his head out to Machine Pistol some goblins. I used some self-admittedly clever Goblin placement to force Q10 to move to one side of the start zone by the ledge on the side I wanted him in order to shoot some Goblins, and I had my #3 on my other Hydra. On my last turn, I moved my Hydra out of the start zone and starting down that side, able to reach Q10 if I won initiative with high ground. He had to try to get Q10 into the game since I'd disengaged my other Hydra pretty successfully (1 wound from 2 Rats) on the other side and was threatening his 10th over there - he thought I'd just chill there tied down. Oh , and I forgot to mention that on my #2 before I moved my Hydra, a lucky Goblin claimed that high ground adjacent to Q10 and scored 2 wounds!

ninja noticed what I'd done, and we both knew this initiative was big. I won it, and moved within Reach of Q10 on height. I had to engage a Rat to do it, but I killed it on the first attack and there were no more to Scatter adjacent. 3 attacks of 5 finished off Q10.

The 10th eventually surrounded both Hydras and poked them into oblivion, but they'd sustained more losses than my Goblins had. There were some tense moments throughout the rest of the battle that were made up for by some nice Goblin turns, and one stalwart Goblin blocking one skull 3 (!) times while keeping 3 10th leashed to the starting zone. Looking back on it though, it was really mostly a methodical Goblin attrition battle, since ninja still pretty much killed his 1 per turn. I was usually able to mob 1 per turn, sometimes kill another 1 or 2, so my Goblins eventually came out on top.

Win, 2-1, 1400ish Points

Round 4 - Odin Osgard (10th x2, Stingers x2, Iron Golem x2, Dumutef) on Arctic Divide

When I looked at Odin's army, I thought that I should be in great shape with Scurry. When I looked at the map, and realized that I've played this map with it's heavy snow a few times, I knew I was in deep trouble. My Hydras were basically just screwed on this map, and his range gave him a huge advantage.

I figured I'd try to turn the tables my way with a Hydra assault on his start zone, knowing I'd have to go completely around the outside of the map and take some elevated attacks from 10th or Stingers to do it. I didn't think board control was a huge issue here since he'd be moving so slow on the map and would have to crowd to one side to take on my Hydra. I took 3 wounds before I got there, and only got a Stinger before going down - bad.

After that, I just decided to put this one on the Goblins, since they had superior mobility over his army, and Scurry was in my favor. I started sending them into the snow and a couple around the outside to Scale up somewhere else. His 10th and Stingers stayed mobilized, and shot away, killing one Goblin a turn and allowing me to keep moving up. Mob Attack was pretty much forgotten for me this game - I just tried to take advantage of my mobility as much as possible and try to get as many attacks on his ranged guys as I could. It turns out that the dice gods thought I was due for some good luck after my thrashing in the first game, and this game definitely proved that more small attacks against average defense > few bigger attacks against bad defense. I only allowed him one kill per turn and my attacks of 2-3 were going through probably a bit more often than they should.

I was able to get the 10th and Stingers down to one member each, and Mob and kill one of the Iron Golems when they called that the time limit was approaching. I apologized for the slow game, but knew it was all but inevitable with all this heavy snow and my Scurrying during his turns. I had a 1-wound Hydra and some Goblins left against his full Golem, Stinger, 10th and Dumutef. I focused on the Dumutef, as I wanted his 25 Points, and killed him in one lucky 3v4 attack. I also got the Stinger before time was called. I had my 3-life Hydra and 4 Goblins (140 Points) against his full Iron Golem and 1 10th (118 Points) and snagged a win. Again I apologized for the cheap win, and pointed out that with full card scoring, Odin wins by 5 Points. However, I realized after the fact that had I known the scoring was full card, I'd have went after the 10th soldier instead of the Stinger, and since it has the same defense I think I kill it instead and still come out on top by a couple points (170 - 160). Either way, it was an excellent but excruciating game with all that snow and Scurrying. Great game, Odin! Sorry again for the time limit game and somewhat crappy outcome.

W, 3-1, 2000ish Points

Round 5 - jschild (Airborne Elite, Stingers x3, Hydra, Raelin) on When Paths Cross

Airborne Elite - ick. I knew that if they dropped in the first round and grabbed initiative, my game was pretty much over. Luckily that didn't happen, so I can actually give a report.

This was probably the most exciting game of the day for me. The AE stayed in the plane playing cards, so I had some time to spread out my Goblins. Once the threat of Grenades was all but averted, I felt like I stood a good chance with my Goblin attrition tactics if I could get rid of that Hydra.

Well, it turns out that my dice really weren't with me this game. I got a couple AE with Goblins, but they and the Stingers still got some elevated shots at Hydras, wounding them both pretty early. There was a turn later where I could get at Raelin and the Hydra with my 3-life Hydra, but then it took 2 wounds right before, and I had to settle for one attack of 5 on Raelin, which was admittedly successful, doing 3 wounds. However, my Hydras fizzled soon after without doing much - one of them even tried to grab a Treasure Glyph, got caught in the trap, and took a wound from a 3-die attack - bad.

I've got to finish this report later - I hope you're on the edge of your seats!

EDIT: and we're back with more action!

With his Raelin and Hydra still alive after my Hydras were gone, I knew I was in for an uphill battle, even with his squads weakened. Thankfully, Raelin was sitting next to some high ground, and my Goblins got to her. I tried to mob the Hydra, but was unsuccessful that turn. The rest of the game I used Scurry as best I could to get Goblins in position to try some Mob Attacks on his Hydra, but it was tough to do.

Eventually I was able to spread my Goblins out and clean up all of his squaddies except 2 Stingers, and he still had his Hydra. The round ended with me having 5-6 Goblins left - with 1 engaged to a Stinger 6 spaces away from his Hydra, and 2 others within moving range of it, and it was next to a ledge that would give me 2 high ground attacks. I knew that he'd probably be putting OM's on his Hydra and, if I could win initiative and successfully disengage from the Stinger, I could Mob the Hydra, which would probably give me enough free turns to Mob a Stinger and make it a few Goblins vs. 1 Stinger, which is good odds for me.

I lost the initiative, so I never got to see if that Goblin would make it.

However, as my Goblins were killed, I actually managed to maneuver the Hydra into a position where I could get a high ground attack and still Mob it, which netted me 2 wounds. However, he soon killed all of my Goblins but one - who I threw on high ground again, and the round ended.

After we placed OMs, I saw 3 OMs on the Hydra. I knew that I still had a shot to win initiative, kill the Hydra, and then use the free turns to get the Stingers and pull this out. I won this initiative, but my attack failed and my last Goblin fell.

The dice seemed very much against me this game. I feel like a couple of rolls here or there could've turned it, but jschild played a great game - thanks for my most exciting game of the tourney!

L, 3-2, 2400ish Points.

Round 6 - weesel99 (Darrak, Dwarves x3, Iron Golem, Fen Hydra) on A Heated Engagement

Ahh the weesel - who I'm 0-2 against lifetime with both losses coming on NHSD, and both being rather lopsided. Excellent.

However, his army was actually pretty good for me. No special attacks and, I knew that if I could kill Darrak, I could limit my Goblin losses easily with Scurry. The Hydra and Golem had big defense, but I didn't think it was anything Mob Attack or Hydras couldn't handle.

Without fear of a Special Attacker or a big defense hero to worry about, I played Goblins exclusively until the endgame. He led with Dwarves, and my superior mobility allowed me the high ground most of the time. With the way the terrain was setup to limit movement, I was able to get Mob Attacks while still getting multiple attacks after the Mobbed figure was dead. Darrak went down after a couple of good Mob turns and, even though the Hydra came out to play, I was able to Mob it also with a couple high ground attacks and take it down.

Once Darrak and the Hydra were gone, I played the Goblin attrition game to take down the dwarves while sustaining calculated losses. By the time his dwarves were gone, I had 3-4 Goblins left and both Hydras against the Iron Golem. I got a Mob or 2 on it, but was unable to wound it as it killed each of my remaining Goblins. I had my #3 on a Hydra, who then got a head start onto the map.

The next round, my Hydra jumped up onto the lava, which is really the only way double-spacers can move through this map (the terrain is VERY unfriendly to non-flying double hexers). Fortunately for me though, weesel99 had the same problem, and I had Reach. weesel tried to find a place where I couldn't get to him, but it was tough to do and I eventually got a high ground turn with a full Hydra against the Golem, which led to the Golem's demise. A good game nonetheless, but I was happy to avoid a 3rd straight NHSD drumming from the weesel.

W, 4-2, 3140ish Points, 14th place out of 40-some.

If you take out the Nirek game, this is kind of a 4-1 showing for the Goblins, but that matchup against Q9 is just brutal. They really need to take him down before they get into the game, or its game over. Thanks again to all of my opponents (except Nirek - blah :wink:) for great games and to weesel99 and the Columbus guys for a great NHSD tourney!
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

Good stuff, kc. I think the cutters are a very competitive build, and not really dependent on the arrival of the HSBs. Although as you say the Q9 matchup is pretty nasty. You were unlucky to lose the Hydras so fast in that game, though.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

Nice use of the Goblin Cutters, KC.

I, myself, used a very similar build in the Texas in Hexes NHSD event yesterday, as well.

I agree that I was mostly interested in playing something new, something fresh, something fun, and something I had never played before.

I settled on:

Goblin Cutters x 4
Fen Hydras x 2
Raelin (RotV)
-----------------
520 points

Now, to the caveats.

I have never played Q9, or the Krav, or the AE, or the 4th Mass, or Stingers, or even Kaemon, in a tournament. I had never played Raelin, either, until yesterday.

Anyway, the main purpose of Raelin was to protect the Hydras until I needed to move them out, and that was always late mid- to late game, after most of the Cutters had died. I was surprised at how competitive the little buggers can be, and managed to ride them to a 4-1 record, and a 7th place finish out of 43 people.

And the best part? They are so ding-dang fun to play. :p

Kudos, on a nice outing and a great battle report.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

Fun army - glad you played Goblins. They proved decent against ranged squads (Stingers, 10th, AE, Krav) which I was unsure about since you played an all melee army (besides Hydras' reach). I remember asking how you did the first game and you said no kills or even woulds I kind of wrote you off for the rest of the tourney, but I am glad you came back.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

The Goblins doing well confirms the Theoryscaping for all those that Predicted an A for them the day they were released. They do require some matchup luck though since their bad matchups are brutal.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

Fun army - glad you played Goblins. They proved decent against ranged squads (Stingers, 10th, AE, Krav) which I was unsure about since you played an all melee army (besides Hydras' reach). I remember asking how you did the first game and you said no kills or even woulds I kind of wrote you off for the rest of the tourney, but I am glad you came back.

One of the reasons I played them is that Ohioans seem to have an affinity for the big 3 ranged commons (Stingers, Mass, 10th), and I knew the Goblins would do really well against those 3 squads.

The thing about the Nirek match is that even if I do make it to Q9 with one of the Hydras and kill him, the Drones are still tough if they roll the D20 well, as they can engage lots of Goblins at once. I still stand by what I did that game though - I truly feel that there was absolutely nothing else I could've done to give myself a better chance to win, except MAYBE running out with some Goblins first to try and bait Q9 somewhere (as I did to Q10 in the sw ninja matchup), though I think the map would've made that difficult.
 
Re: KC's Underrated Unit Tourneys- NEW 10/17/10- NHSD Goblin

Fun army - glad you played Goblins. They proved decent against ranged squads (Stingers, 10th, AE, Krav) which I was unsure about since you played an all melee army (besides Hydras' reach). I remember asking how you did the first game and you said no kills or even woulds I kind of wrote you off for the rest of the tourney, but I am glad you came back.

One of the reasons I played them is that Ohioans seem to have an affinity for the big 3 ranged commons (Stingers, Mass, 10th), and I knew the Goblins would do really well against those 3 squads.

The thing about the Nirek match is that even if I do make it to Q9 with one of the Hydras and kill him, the Drones are still tough if they roll the D20 well, as they can engage lots of Goblins at once. I still stand by what I did that game though - I truly feel that there was absolutely nothing else I could've done to give myself a better chance to win, except MAYBE running out with some Goblins first to try and bait Q9 somewhere (as I did to Q10 in the sw ninja matchup), though I think the map would've made that difficult.

I can proudly say I was truly caught off guard at how effective they were. I thought the match would be far easier than it turned out to be and I have a newfound respect for the little guys.
 
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