Back with a Gen Con report!
I only played in one event at Gen Con, as I had to split time between Heroscape, Lorcana and Ashes Reborn, while also getting in work meetings and a couple other events. Needless to say I had a busy show, but both of my sons and I got into the Thursday 500 point, 18 figure event.
I put together 3 armies for the event. Two of them were:
Mezzodemons x6 - 390
Airborne Elite - 110
And
Cyprien - 150
Sonya - 45
Phantom Knights x3 - 210
Krav - 100
Those were the armies I gave my sons Ben and Luke, respectively, to play. Unfortunately for me, I signed up for this back in May and haven’t been following the forums or Renegade discord since then, and consequently was unaware of the point adjustments. That meant I built for myself:
Sir Gilbert - 160
Knights x3 - 210
Nilfheim - 240
That’s just a little over 500 points
. As I heard about the adjustments right before the event, I had to scramble. I didn’t have any extra figures and couldn’t find something quickly to borrow. Thankfully, Renegade was able to lend me some new master set units, and I spotted Xenethrax (she’s hard to miss). So I instead adjusted to this, no longer expecting to do very well:
Sir Gilbert - 160
Knights x2 - 140
Xenethrax - 200
I’d never seen the dragon before, so I figured this would be an experience. I didn’t take notes and am writing this a few days later, so I don’t have the maps or names of my opponents. I know that my first and third games were on the same map, which had some 7-hex high ground stacks on each side near the middle and glyphs by, but not in, water on each side. In both games, the glyphs were Initiative and Healer. My round 2 game was on a similar map with some of the new ruins, and 3-hex high ground zones in the middle on each side.
Round 1 vs Sentinels x2, Raelin RotV, Atlaga and Izumi Samurai
I believe his name was Nathan (?), and he was a pretty new player. What I do remember was that his dice rolls were horrible, and mine were quite good. Atlaga missed his Bolt on big X, and I was squeezing Knight attacks and ends of Earth Shaker chains on Sentinels, through Raelins aura, and hitting. The Izumi were saved for cleanup and I believe big X eventually fell, but the dice again favored me and the Knights cleaned up.
Win, 1-0
Round 2 vs Tor-Kul-Na, Nagrubs x3, Stingers x3, Isamu.
We realized before we started that he was over the 18-figure limit, so he played short a grub and a stinger I think. Early on, this didn’t look good for me as TKN advanced and Stingers were rolling well, except for an early stinger drain missing that really helped me. The MVP here though was big X. I put her on one of the 3-hex high ground areas, taking up 2 spots and putting vines in the 3rd. This effectively isolated her on high ground. And then because of where her tail was positioned, TKN couldn’t fit into those spaces, which allowed me to put Knights there without fear of them getting squished. This severely limited the mobility of his units as that was a key middle ground position, and X got quite a bit of points before she went down, including TKN and a good amount of Stingers. Once the Knights and Gilbert were done cleaning Stingers up, it was Isamu vs a wounded Gilbert and 2 Knights, which was still scary. Fortunately an early Vanish roll was missed and the knights won the day.
Win, 2-0
At this point, my youngest son Luke won a painted master set in a drawing, which was freaking awesome. Made his day, so huge thanks to the Renegade team for doing that! I was also very surprised at my results so far.
Round 3 vs Venoc Warlord, Venoc Vipers x2, Mohicans x3, Brave Arrow, Theracus
I love this opposing army. Venocs are some of my favorite units, and the Scout archetype is just so fun.
I was overwhelmed early by the sheer speed of the Mohicans and Vipers, and had to fight from low ground early. However, my knights cleared out a 2-hex wide space on one of the 7-hexers, and I had my next OM on big X to claim it.
Then my opponent reveals his next OM on Theracus, who hadn’t taken any turns at all yet. From the start zone, the noble steed claimed my perch and brought Brave Arrow with him. Yikes.
This started to apply a lot of pressure. I claimed the other perch with X, but was limited to weak attacks from over there while the Knights were engaged on the other side. Again though, dice favored me I think. The Vioers did get 2 frenzies and did some damage, but it could’ve been much worse. The Knights 4 defense held up very well, and Sir Gilbert was drawing a lot of fire from the Mohicans and surviving it. Eventually the Mohicans, Brave Arrow and Theracus fell after the initial viper swarm, and Mittens was left against a few knights and wounded Gilbert, along I think with a wounded X who had chosen to go to the Healer glyph to heal up just as Mittens was planning on advancing. X did go down to the mittens of doom, but did some damage first and left cleanup duty to the knights, who again managed to clean up. Very close one here - great match!
Win, 3-0!!
It was only a three round event, so I couldn’t really have asked for much more, especially considering we’d won a master set. I’m not sure if Xenethrax felt worth the 200 points or not, but it was hard to tell how much work the vines were doing. In my game where there was a 3-hex perch, it was clear they were awesome, and I think I was able to strategically use them well in other places, too. She definitely plays a good game of keep away, and Gilbert seemed to justify his 160 as well, which I initially thought was an absolute ton.
My oldest also went 2-1 with the Mezzos, losing a tough one to a special attacking army, so we all had an awesome event. Shout-outs to the Renegade team for providing both a fun time and a way for me to actually play the event after I didn’t have a legal army. I’m hoping to get some more scape going in the coming months!
