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Orange Scape featuring GenCon 2014

T

The Orange Mailman

GenCon 2013 Main Event Champion
Site Supporter
The Road to Victory

Back in 2011 I had absolutely no idea what to play in the main event. This was my army build:

Sergeant Alexander Drake (ROTV)
Marcus Decimus Gallus
Theracus
Roman Legionnaires x 2
10th Regiment of Foot x 2

I had thought the combination of Marcus Decimus Gallus with the 10th had some potential because he acts like Taelord somewhat for soldiers. I didn’t do very well but in thinking about what I would run for this year’s championship (2013) I realized that I needed Raelin if was going to do a pod army well. I usually stay away from pod armies agreeing with the fellow “I’m just not that in to Raelin”. So anyway, here is my battle report for this year’s championship.

My army:

Sergeant Drake Alexander (ROTV)
Marcus Decimus Gallus
Raelin (ROTV)
10th Regiment of Foot x 2

My notes will usually include something about how Drake did because I wondered if he was worth putting in the army. I noticed Vegie (not a clown) ran something very similar in Heat of the Battle this year opting for another squad of 10th and fillers rather than Drake. It seems like you need a heavy hitter in each army, but maybe that’s not always the case.

Championship Day 1

Game 1 ~ Win

Facing Necroblade on Stygian Rift (even though I didn’t realize who he was at the time)

Raelin (ROTV)
Su-Bak-Na
Marro Dividers x 4

This was a very close game. The dividers took the Move+2 glyph and the Lucky20. They quickly moved into my pod which worked good for me. His Cell Divide power worked some with Su-Bak-Na and the glyph making a difference on a couple of rolls. Overall, the firepower of the 10th with support from Marcus and Raelin wore the majority of his army out. As Su-Bak-Na moved in, Drake moved up to try to take him out but failed. Drake acted as a target for Su-Bak-Na and he fell without taking down a single figure. The 10th finished SBN off though.

Game 2 ~ Win

Facing Megasilver on Quasatch Playground

Venoc Vipers x4
Major Q10
Venoc Warlord

Megasilver had a very good strategy. Because of how fast the Venoc Vipers are, he would position them exactly 9 spaces out moving only 2 up at a time and hope for Frenzy. This way he was getting sometimes 4 or 6 attacks, but I was only able to get in 2 because of my pod structure. There is a picture posted by Retlaw that perfectly demonstrates the strategy he was using. I made a mistake at the beginning moving 2 of my 10th outside of Raelin’s aura. He exploited this making them the first 2 to fall. We traded Vipers for 10th and after all his Vipers were gone I had only 2 10th left. He moved Q10 out to try to clean up taking out 1 of my 10th. I had a turn marker on the 10th and got one Wait Then Fire, height advantage, and Marcus bonus (I think) shot at Q10 who was adjacent to a bush. I rolled 4 skulls and Q10 rolled 0 shields. With a full strength Drake it wasn’t difficult to take out the Venoc Warlord. A lucky roll hastened the end of the battle, but it would have been interesting if Q10 had survived that.

Game 3 ~ Win

Facing a very nice guy who is apparently Greygnarl's dad on Stygian Rift.

Krug
Raelin (ROTV)
Sonya Esenwein
Swog Rider x 3
Arrow Gruts x 2

This was a very close battle winning on points. The moderator came and called it on time. The 10th did very well. He moved into my pod for the most part using Swogs for bonuses and sometimes moving outside of his Raelin aura. After the first Swog Rider fell he moved to using Krug. I worked him down as he approached and used Drake as a stopper so he couldn’t get to my 10th with multiple attacks. Drake fell but the 10th took down Krug. In the end I had only 2 of my 10th left, Marcus having 4 wound markers on him, and Raelin at full health. He had only 3 Arrow Gruts, 2 Swog Riders, Raelin, and Sonja Essenwein. 255 points to his 215. It would have been interesting to play it out since Marcus wouldn’t have been overly effective if he took out my 2 remaining 10th. Sonya wouldn’t have had hardly any figures to destroy though.

Game 4 ~ Loss

Facing Weesel99 on Embattled Fen

Major Q9
Me-Burq-Sa
Axegrinders of Burning Forge x 3

I did okay at the beginning in setting up the pod and taking out Me-Burq-Sa. But I had no answer for how he was using Q9 as a sniper from exactly 8 spaces out. I should have sent Drake out on a suicide mission or worked him around to the other side of the board creating somewhat of a triangle effect. I, however, chose to let Drake sit in the swamp so Q9 could move up just two spaces and start Queglix. I moved 10th over to the other side of the board and took out all of his dwarves but Q9 ended without a scratch.

Game 5 ~ Loss

Facing Pickle 4192 on Shiver

Braxas
Marro Stingers x 3
Marro Warriors

Set up the pod well at the beginning. Stingers moved in and were a threat at first. Throughout the game he rolled for Stinger Drain every time getting it most times toward the beginning and a dead stop toward the end well after he had the advantage. My attack rolling was not the greatest. He moved up Braxas into the pod and in 2 turns rolled successful on every single Poison Acid Breath roll. 6 of my 10th were gone as my fire power struggled to take down Braxas. Bayonet Attack helped to take down Braxas but I had lost too many 10th to compete. Drake was largely ineffective in the end game. My only hope was to take out Stingers one by one as they were scattered around the board. Drake failed 3 consecutive times to take out one Stinger with height advantage. Opponent finished with probably 4-5 Stingers and all of his Marro Warriors (this will be important later).

So I got into Day 2 to based on my Strength of Schedule which I really don’t understand. It’s probably because I won my first 3 and lost my last 2 as opposed to someone else who lost their first 2 and won their last 3. Not a stellar start but it got me in.
 
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Re: Gen Con 2013

Championship Day 2

The army listed is my army because it is Reverse the Whip.

Game 1 ~ Win

Facing Unseen Shadowz on Quasatch Playground

Mogrimm Forgehammer
Krav Maga Agents
Axegrinders of Burning Forge x 3

This was a good game, but I feel he overextended the 10th in the beginning, although I'm not sure what else he could do. I was using the range of 7 on the Krav to pick off the 10th since the pod formation wouldn’t allow him to respond with Wait Then Fire. His response was to send out 3 of the 10th deep into Dwarf territory. I lost one Krav but then switched to turn markers on Dwarves. I claimed a Move+2 glyph which allowed a movement of 8 if I bypassed a turn on Dwarven Strategic Bonding. I took down the 10th that he had sent out then I spent a couple of turns setting up Dwarves just outside of the range of the pod. He sent out Drake to counter Mogrimm who was approaching. Drake went down quick. Dwarves closed in from too many sides at once for 10th to be effective. I had Dwarves next to Raelin (who he set up exactly 4 spaces behind the lead 10th), next to the remaining 10th, and next to Marcus so there were too many threats for him to deal with at once.

Game 2 ~ Win

Facing Pickle 4192 on Burial Marsh

This was an exciting game. He did not use Marcus at all for the pod but left him back in the water. He moved up Raelin and the 10th outranged the Stingers at first. I responded somewhat with Stingers (Stinger Drain was successful toward the beginning) and had moved up Braxas and he responded with only 2 of the 10th being within the range of 4 (Poison Acid Breath) and engaged her with Drake. In order to get the maximum from Poison Acid Breath, I broke engagement but didn’t take a wound. I felt that Raelin was a better target because if she fell, the pod was finished. Poison Acid Breath worked on Raelin and 1 other 10th. I got 2 more turns with Braxas both times taking an unsuccessful shot at Drake and 2 of the 10th, 1 being a hit and the other failing each time. So that’s only 3 of the 10th that fell to Poison Acid Breath but also taking down Raelin. Because Stingers had worked down the 10th as well, he now had 1 lone 10th, Marcus at full health, and Drake at full health. I had a full set of Marro Warriors still in the start zone and about 5 Stingers. He moved up Marcus and with Stingers I took out the remaining 10th and Marcus in the middle of the board. Then I began moving Stingers up toward the side of the board where I would have height advantage once we engaged. He began putting turn markers on Drake and I responded by moving Marro Warriors out of the start zone. I engaged Drake with all of the Marro Warriors inflicting probably 3 wounds on Drake before he took them down one by one. Since I had 2 squads of Stingers up on the side and he only had Drake, I was ahead by 10 points, meaning he has to come to me, which he did. I was not rolling for Stinger Drain on the move-only turns and even on a couple of the attack turns toward the end. I forget who got the first strike in, but eventually multiple attacks worked Drake down, but not before he took out 3 Stingers. So I won with 2 Stingers. Take a look back at how many figures he had left when we faced each other the day before with opposite armies.

This put me in to the semi-finals.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Game 3, Semi-finals ~ Win

Facing Dok on Shiver

Fen Hydra x 1
Raelin (ROTV)
Marcu Esenwein
Black Wyrmling x 3
Red Wyrmling x 3
Deathreavers x 1

I really struggled with strategy on this game. I felt like I was way out of my league. But there was just enough genius in Dok’s build to overcome my own army. If you don’t know the map, you should check it out because the battle was intense. I wasn’t sure which way Dok would go with the pod, so I split up Wyrmlings in my start zone. Dok played the pod flawlessly in my opinion moving Marcus up and 10th up to height. I moved Raelin up on my right side, and then started bringing Wyrmlings up just far enough to be able to reach the 10th but stay within Raelin’s aura. The Black Wyrmling’s Fledgling Acid Breath allowed me to bypass the defense of Raelin’s aura. Then Red Wyrmlings allowed me to negate the defense of her aura. At one point, Dok used Wait Then Fire on 1 Black Wyrmling rolling something like 3-3-3-2. My defense was something like 3-3-3-5. I could tell he was quite frustrated at that point because he knew the Black Wyrmlings were killing him.

Eventually, he took out all but 2 Red Wyrmlings and I had taken out all (or all except 1) of the 10th. He moved turn markers to Marcus, Raelin, and Drake. I moved turn markers to Deathreavers, Raelin, and Hydra. I spent quite a few turns positioning the Deathreavers because Dok was not attacking them except one time with Drake. Drake at one point moved down to scoop up a Treasure Glyph which turned out to be the Heroic Rune which was perfect for him. Moving Deathreavers was turn intensive for me but extremely helpful to maintain board position. Attacking with them didn’t do much damage, maybe a little. Marcus moved down to the road and the Deathreavers created a screen. My 2 remaining Red Wyrmlings moved up to height advantage and attacked normally. I moved the 1st up, attacked, then he defended. I forgot to move the 2nd one up, but rolled my attack dice getting 4 skulls thinking I was ready to attack. He and others pointed out to me that I hadn’t moved the Wyrmling up yet. I moved the Red Wyrmling up and asked Dok if he wanted me to re-roll the dice. I specifically said that it would be no problem for me to re-roll. He thought and then said that, yeah, he did want me to re-roll. So I re-rolled and…. 4 skulls. The Hydra moved up 1 space away from Marcus on the road on the middle of the board with Deathreavers separating them, and the Hydra finished off Marcus with Reach. I believe Marcus had taken out my Raelin and somewhere he had taken out those last 2 Red Wyrmlings so I think at this point it was my Hydra, 3 Deathreavers, and Marcu back in my start zone. He had a full health Raelin and Drake with 3 wounds on him. 2 of those were from disengagements and 1 hit from something else.

At this point, it turned into something of a dance-off between the Hydra and Drake. He pulled Drake back up into Raelin’s aura. He needed the first strike on the Hydra to knock off at least a couple of heads and hope to survive the remaining lesser number of attacks, if not killing the Hydra straight out. I needed the first strike hoping to take out the potential of a 7 or 8 attack. We positioned ourselves around the 3 hex glacier with him in the back but still within Raelin’s aura. I was on the road on the opposite side of the glacier. We danced around hoping for initiative with me having a movement advantage because he had to take a step up to get to me but I didn’t have to do that to get to him. Plus I still had the Deathreaver screen in there working to my advantage. I remember counting points and he was 10 points ahead of me. So I’m pretty sure he had 190 and I had 180. We ended the round on exact opposite sides of the glacier. At the beginning of the next round, I could get to him if I won initiative, but he couldn’t get to me on the 1st turn. I won initiative and moved the Hydra around. I attacked the first 2 times but he blocked rolling 5 defense being in Raelin’s aura. The third attack took Drake down and Dok resigned with a full health Raelin, but he had placed all of his order markers on Drake, so that made sense. It was an intense battle and I look forward to reading Dok’s version of it.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Yeah, our game was interesting. Of course I always hope for Frenzies, but I don't expect them. (Well, maybe at least a few over a course of a few rounds.) But I play like I don't expect any.

Drake did have one wound on him from a dual height assault of Vipers, though. If not for an initi switch they could have finished him off. I think that was my big mistake that game to send it two Vipers to take him on. Another round of near squad of Vipers, and my Q10 actually living, would have changed things.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Game 4, The Finale ~ Win

Facing Matthias Maccabeus on Dry Season

Estivara
Wyvern x 2
Fyorlag Spiders x 4

After winning against Dok, I started laughing like a maniac. My apologies go out to anyone who felt like they were in the presence of a lunatic. Matthias came up to me and said he had a Dragon Dice tournament at 2:00p.m. and if we started our game right then, he would miss that. He asked if we could reschedule for 8:00p.m. immediately following General Wars. I said that I had to take a minute to process what had just happened. After thinking about it, I realized that my two friends that I had come to GenCon with had events that lasted until 10p.m., so I would be sitting around from 8-10 with nothing to do. After I told Matthias that would be fine, he thanked me graciously. Raider30 chimed in that it would be a neat thing because many people would want to gather around to witness the final match up. Perhaps this could become a tradition because I think it worked out great.

Matthias had set up in the corner which I will say was on my right. He had Raelin exactly 5 spaces from the edge so that every single figure would be covered by her aura. Marcus was on the back space probably one space in from the right so 4 of the 10th were available at any one point for Wait Then Fire and a Marcus Bonus. I knew what I wanted to do to beat my own army, but I had a real hard time setting up for it. So I’m going to outline my mistakes as they happened.

Mistake #1- Claiming the Move+2 glyph too early. The Move+2 glyph was on the right side exactly 6 spaces from the lead 10th. While I was able to begin moving the two remaining spiders up quick, it was easy pickings for Matthias to knock off that spider. I should have waited for the end of a round after I had completely moved into position hoping for an initiative switch. This way, I would have 9 movement with a Wyvern and better chances of using Talon Grab to ruin the pod.

Mistake #2- Moving a Wyvern behind the ruin without having a clear plan to execute the Talon Grab. I moved the Wyvern up just behind the ruin and at first it was out of sight. But all Matthias had to do was swing 2 of the 10th out slightly so they had line of sight on the wing tip and start taking shots. On the next turn he had Wait Then Fire to boost those 2 attacks. The wing shots put 3 wounds on the Wyvern forcing me to use the Healing Glyph at that point instead of saving it for later.

Eventually I figured out a rough plan in my head as how to use Talon Grab to pull Raelin out of the pod, but it involved a gutsy move. I had positioned all of my spiders just out of his reach and Estivara was waiting to climb up where she would be able to boost the spiders as I walked straight into the pod. I moved a Wyvern up just out of range making sure to count spaces to that Raelin could be grabbed and have a place to land with her. My next turn I moved Estivara up to height within the range of the 10th (I think at this point is when I attacked Drake with Venom Ray inflicting 3 wounds) and almost forgot to roll for Cloud of Darkness. Matthias had all of his turn markers placed on the 10th and was just waiting for me to come to him. I said, oh yeah, Cloud of Darkness, and threw the 20 up in the air. When it came down a natural 20, I knew that the plan was going to work. So now Estivara was up in position to boost the spiders when they came in on the next turn, but she wouldn’t be a target then because spiders and the Wyvern would be dismantling the pod. On my next turn, I moved the Wyvern up grabbing Raelin pulling her back. Then I said, and I am rolling 4 skulls. The dice came up 4 skulls. Venomous Sting put 4 wounds on Raelin. Spiders moved up and finished her off. Someone commented that was not a good thing. Matthias said that was okay because she was going away anyway. That made me think of how he set up. He knew that I would try to Talon Grab to take apart the pod. He had set up Raelin in the more vulnerable position rather than Marcus. So he would rather lose the defense +2 bonus for his whole army than lose an attack +1 bonus for his soldiers. That’s interesting.

The following battle was basically trading spiders for soldiers with me having more numbers at first but Matthias having more attacks per turn. Some of my spiders took two turns to get into the pod. My first Wyvern went down quick. The second moved into the pod Talon Grabbing a soldier away from Marcus so he would have less bonus on his next turn. I rolled 3 times for Web Entanglement never once getting a successful roll. All of his turn markers were on the 10th and I wondered about this and then realized he was doing that to make it more difficult to guess which order marker to remove in case Web Entanglement had worked. An X fake out could backfire. Eventually all of this wore down to me with Estivara and Matthias with Marcus, 1 of the 10th, and Drake with 3 wounds because at some point I had attacked him with Venom Ray Special Attack and he rolled 0 shields me with nothing on the D20.

Mistake #3- Not rolling for Cloud of Darkness at the end of the round. I believe the way the power works would apply even after the round is over until you reveal an order marker to take a turn. He took a shot with the remaining 10th using Wait Then Fire putting 2 wounds on Estivara. All of my order markers were on Estivara while his were now on Marcus. He moved Marcus up as I used Venom Ray to attack as he advanced. The final 10th was killed and Marcus came up all the while I was putting one or two wounds on him at a time. Only after Marcus had inflicted one more wound on Estivara (meaning she is now one hit point from dying) and had 5 wound markers on him did I roll successfully on the D20 for an additional hit which killed him. Initiative fell to me and another shot at Drake with Venom Ray killed him. So I finished with Estivara with only 1 life left on her.

This was such a crazy battle. It took forever for the actual battle to be set up and take place. But once it did, it was very exciting and quite engaging. I’m glad I faced Matthias for the final. He was so laid back it took the edge off the battle. However, he had gone 5-0 with the spiders, is a very well rounded Heroscape player, and I’m just the new kid in town. What a thriller though.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

I want to say at the close here that I think it’s awesome that hardly anyone won two different tournaments. There is such a well rounded group of Heroscape players. All of us have different strengths and weaknesses, just like any army build. But what a fun time I had. It was an absolute blast to be able to even play against you all. And even more so, to compete and then win the championship. I made a lot of mistakes as I noted. I also am definitely not as good of a player in many respects as quite a few. However, I did win the championship so I feel like I should at least be allowed to play with the big boys now. One thing is certain though. Next year’s championship is wide open if I can come in and win.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

The Orange Mailman said:
Megasilver- did you see that pic?
Click to expand...

Yep. I'm in the Pacific Breach T-Shirt and The Orange Mailman is well, orange. :lol:

img_0937_original.jpg
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

In Game 3 of Day 1 you played my dad, not Orcs.

Reading your battle reports is interesting, I saw you thinking a lot during the actual games, and it's cool to see what you were thinking.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

The Orange Mailman said:
I noticed Filthy the Clown ran something very similar in Heat of the Battle this year opting for another squad of 10th and fillers rather than Drake.
Click to expand...
Me? Use 10th? Pfft. :) Besides, I did not play in HoB, so you might have me confused with another clown.

Great reports, BTW!
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

My dad and I both played that army in Heat of the Battle, so it was probably one of us you are confusing Filthy with.

Fantastic reports. Congrats on a very well-earned win. I only got to watch bits of one your games (the championship) but you made the best moves so many times. That was a very tough matchup to win.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

In Game 3 of Day 1 you played my dad, not Orcs.

Reading your battle reports is interesting, I saw you thinking a lot during the actual games, and it's cool to see what you were thinking.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll get that fixed. I think I played Orc's dad in General Wars. And then I met Dad Scaper over the weekend too.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Me? Use 10th? Pfft. Besides, I did not play in HoB, so you might have me confused with another clown.
Click to expand...

Whoa! Sorry about that. I read through Vegie's report and then read through your report and got mixed up. In my defense, there were a lot of clowns at GenCon this year. I'll fix that in the post.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Yes, you played my dad in General Wars.
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

I wanted to post one other battle report because something happened that was so funny (ironic type funny). I played Cleon in Heat of the Battle. This was my first experience with HOB and I didn’t know what to expect. I ran Shades (yeah, definitely didn’t know what to expect). This was my army:

Shades x 2
Hydra x 2
Isamu

Cleon had:

Hydra x 1
James Murphy
Marro Drones x 5 (he had to drop 1 I think)

So the Shades didn’t pull their weight all day long. That’s why I’m the only one that ran them at all during GenCon 2013 (that I know of anyway). That’s also why I went 0-4 for HOB. The Hydras did pretty good, but the Shades didn’t. I did manage to Soul Devour a couple of figures, but still, not worth it.

In our battle, Cleon very systematically placed all his Drones first toward the edge of the board by a glyph. He left room for 1 two space figure where he placed his Hydra all the way against the edge with Drones completely surrounding the Hydra. This meant absolutely no chance for Soul Devour against his Hydra early in the game. I moved adjacent to James Murphy with 2 Shades and on the following round I rolled a 19 for Soul Devour. Cleon was dominating with the Drones pretty much getting a couple of solid rolls for Hive Swarm. I had 1 Hydra with 1 life left that was surrounded by 6 Drones.

The following round I activated James Murphy. The Hydra surrounded by 6 Drones stood out to me. I thought, “I could explosion attack my own Hydra. The Hydra’s defense of 6 will help it to withstand the attack while the weaker Drones with only 3 defense will be consumed. I could take the upper hand here by killing 6 Drones at once. And even if I end up killing the Hydra, no big deal, it’s only got 1 life left.”

So I move James Murphy up and explosion attack my Hydra rolling 1 skull. The Hydra rolls 0 shields. Then Cleon rolls 1 shield for every single Marro Drone except for the very last. So I killed my own Hydra to kill 1 Drone. Cleon said he felt bad but I was laughing. Have you every had one of “those games”????
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

I was laughing too; it was a pretty funny moment. Totally the right move for you to make, but sometimes the right move doesn't work out.
The Orange Mailman said:
Have you every had one of “those games”????
Click to expand...
Yeah, one time I had two full turns of Marcus-boosted wait-then-fire and I couldn't kill a wyrmling! I'll understand if you don't believe me. ;)
 
Re: Gen Con 2013

Yeah, one time I had two full turns of Marcus-boosted wait-then-fire and I couldn't kill a wyrmling! I'll understand if you don't believe me.
Click to expand...

You know how you have your Lucky Raelin? Bring that Black Wyrmling next year cuz I think that's my lucky figure.

Yeah, or had your Q10 one-shotted by a 10th on height.
Click to expand...

That was weird. I kept thinking, no, Q-10 has to has more life than that. You insisted on taking him off and playing by the rules though.
 
Re: Gen Con 2014

I had a great time at GenCon 2014. On Thursday I was 7-2 but overall I ended up at 14-9. I think that’s fair considering I ran a few armies that I didn’t expect would do that well.

Heroes Only. When I saw the 650 point limit, I just had to sign up for this. I haven’t liked the point totals going down each year, so this really clicked with me. Here is my army and it isn’t hard to spot my theme.

Taelord
Raelin (ROTV)
Fen Hydra
Migol Ironwill
Syvarris
Zetacron

Everyone thinks Taelord is overpriced so I wanted a chance to make him shine. I tried to include anything that would give extra bonuses for having an extra attack die. For instance, Syvarris gets 2 attacks of 4 at range of 9. Hydra gets 4 attacks of 5. Then deadly strike for the other two heroes making an equivalent of 6 attack, one with range of 8, and all of that without height advantage. I was surprised to see a few others run Taelord in this tournament as well.

Round 1 on Stygian Rift against
Major Q-9
Morsbane
Atlaga the Kyrie Warrior
Kaemon Awa
Raelin (ROTV)
Me-Burq-Sa
Marcu Esenwein
Isamu

LOSS

I felt bad that this one ended on points. Usually it’s not a big deal and it was in the other person’s favor toward the end, but it still could have gone either way. I finished with Hydra and Taelord both at full strength. He finished with Kaemon Awa, Marcu, Isamu, Raelin, (I think most were at full strength) but Q-9 had 3 hits on him.

We basically traded shots back and forth. He moved most of his heroes up out of Raelin’s aura. Then I would respond fire mainly with Syvarris and Zetacron. With their heightened attacks his heroes would go down quick. I moved Migol up out of the pod to counter Kaemon Awa coming up. Migol fell quick. I had taken out Atlaga, Me-Burq-Sa, Morsbane, and was working on Q-9. He moved Q-9 up and started targeting Raelin (which was smart) so she fell. Syvarris got a couple of really good attack rolls, but Q-9 rolled good defense. I had Syvarris up on height so I was rolling 2 attacks of 5 on Q-9 each time. I thought for certain he was going to drop but he didn’t. They interrupted the round and said to finish our order marker, so he took his last shot at Syvarris rolling very well thereby killing Syvarris and then the game ended. I believe I had my next order marker on Hydra and I would have been able to REACH Q-9 and be within Taelord’s aura and I don’t think Q-9 was in Raelin’s aura.

Round 2 on Ticalla Sunrise against
Werewolf Lord x 3
Major Q-10
Raelin (ROTV)

WIN

The guy I played against was real nice and he said this was his fun army. I moved the pod up slowly and he moved his heroes up slowly as well. I moved Syvarris up onto height within Taelord’s aura and he was the star this game. The Zetacron went up to the Glyph of Wannok and held there for a couple of turns before Werewolf Lords took him out. His Q-10 came up the middle so I sent the Hydra out to counter that. Two wounds on the Hydra early made him ineffective. But Q-10 did go down so now I had range and he didn’t. His Werewolf Lords were over by the Glyph of Wannok while Syvarris was on the other side of the board dominating with 2 attacks of 5 with a range of 9. I think he got one Lycanthropy marker out and rolled unsuccessfully for Moon Frenzy once or twice. He kept his Raelin back but Syvarris worked through the high defense whittling down the Werewolf Lords one at a time.

Round 3 on Song of the Walrus against
Fen Hydra x 2
Kaemon Awa
Raelin (ROTV)
Morsbane
Zetacron
Marcu Esenwein
Isamu

WIN

My opponent started off on a bad foot. He had turn marker number 1 on Marcu and rolled too high. I moved him over and attacked Raelin putting 1 wound on her. That may not seem like much, but later in the game I was able to take her out just barely so if that hadn’t happened she would have stayed alive longer. Plus that was a forfeited turn which is rough at the start. I was able to put a couple of wounds on each Hydra with my ranged units before they got close to me making them less effective. Since he moved his Hydras up, I used my Hydra a lot more this game. 4 attacks of 5 with 8 defense was the key. Syvarris helped a bit in getting those initial wounds on his Hydras before they came up, but my Hydra was the star. But it was really due to Taelord’s aura. After one of his Hydra fell I switched to Syvarris momentarily with 2 attacks of 5 (since I had moved everyone up to height except Migol) with range of 9 shooting down into his start zone. When he moved Morsbane up, I thought it was telling that he unsuccessfully tried negating Taelord, yes Taelord! Take that, Taelord bashers!

Round 4 on Common Ground against
Cyprien Esenwein
Sonya Esenwein
Sir Hawthorne
Krug
Nilfheim
Zetacron

WIN

This game was so crazy. Each hero (except Krug) was pretty much destroyed on one turn. His heroes are some of the more powerful in Heroscape, but I think my pod idea is what prevailed. Each hero of his was operating on their own (except Cyprien with Eternal Strength). We decided to place on the outside at the beginning. I put Migol out there since he hadn’t done anything for me the whole tournament while Mr. Wookie put Cyprien out there. Cyprien rolled a 20 against Migol on the first turn. Then Cyprien flew straight into my pod and was taken out by my Hydra on one turn. Syvarris took out his Zetacron on one turn. He moved up Nilfheim who was taken out by my Zetacron on one turn. Nilfheim may have had one wound on him due to Syvarris, but my Zetacron rolled 3 skulls dropping a 185 point character like that. Krug came up and by the time he got to me he was plenty mad. I moved Syvarris up to height and between him and the Zetacron they finished off Krug and Sonya.

All in all, this was a pretty balanced army. Syvarris and Zetacron can start out with high attacks range of 8 and 9. Then when the battle gets close, the Hydra can shine. I wished the point limit was 10 points more because I would have put in another Hydra instead of Migol. Maybe I just didn’t use him right, but he didn’t do a whole lot.
 
Re: Gen Con 2014

I had a great run to try to win the 4 x 4. I was pretty excited to be 3-0 and see that if Hendal lost, I would be the champ right then and there. But if he won we would have to face off. And one of my best armies was saved for last. For those who don’t know, Hendal and I faced off and he won. My inexperience at Pick Your Poison was what did it, I believe. I was perusing his armies and I thought I picked the right poison. But like Vizzini, I chose wrong.

These were my 4 armies originally.

Microcorps x 4 (I was originally thinking of doing Quasatch x 4, Granite Guardians x 4, and Deathstalkers x 4 to round this out. I’m glad I didn’t.)

Tor-Kul-Na
Nagrubs x 2
Stingers x 2 (Note: by playing both of the above armies, I was sort of getting a warm up for my championship army without playing my championship army.)

Mezzodemons x 4
4th Massachusetts Line x 2 (I don’t like playing the same thing everyone else is running. I like to try unique builds. I knew this one had weaknesses, but it also had strengths. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. If I encountered something like Braxas, I could temporarily fall back on the 4th, eliminate the threat, and then switch back to Mezzodemons. Exactly 16 figures with two good squads, but usually not paired up together. But the highest natural attack is 3.)

Sentinels x 2
Raelin (ROTV)
Krav Maga Agents (The more I thought about this army, the more I grew uncomfortable with it. This is not an “A” build. For the 4 x 4, you want your 4 best armies, and this wasn’t it.)

So I finally settled on this in place of the above.

Greenscales x 3
Braxas
Isamu (I’m not a big fan of fillers like Isamu. But this is a good solid army. Going up against a bunch of redcoats or bluecoats, Braxas could get toasted, but then again, it could be good.)

Round 1 against Dok on Vestige.

My army:

Greenscales x 3
Braxas
Isamu

Facing off against:

Singers x 5
Raelin (ROTV)
Marcu Esenwein

WIN

Dok had to sit a figure and after looking at the line up, he chose to sit Marcu. I noticed in his write up that Marcu can be useful if Wannok is in play. Hendal had said the same thing to me in between matches. That’s the first I heard of that, but it makes sense. I tend not to play with glyphs except when GenCon is approaching. I was surprised by how often Wannok was used this year. I think it’s too powerful to be in play as much as it is. If you are going to include Wannok, you might as well include Astrid, Jalgard, Thorian, and Ivor.

I was a bit skeptical seeing 5 squads of Stingers with Raelin. Sure, Braxas would down them bypassing the high defense, but the Greenscales would have a tough time working through 5 defense. In the meantime, Braxas would have a huge target on her and be the first casualty leaving me with some pretty weak Lizards. Dok moved Raelin over, but Greenscales were up very quick. Was it quicker than he expected? Now he has the majority of his Stingers in the start zone with Raelin off to the side. Braxas was up while Greenscales were positioned by bushes for cover. I took an unsuccessful shot at Raelin with Poison Acid Breath but couldn’t do much else on that turn. He used Stingers which attacked exactly 5 spaces out which was smart. He rolled a good attack to start but I rolled 4 shields for defense on one roll. He commented, “I see you still roll the same.”

Now it was time for Braxas to earn her keep or go home. She had to get closer. So I moved in and started rolling fairly well for Poison Acid Breath. But he has a LOT of Stingers. Greenscales didn’t do too much. Dok rolls for Stinger Drain and gets it. Now Braxas has 5 wounds. If he gets another round like that, Braxas is done and most likely he will win the game.

So what would you do? Knowing that it will only take 3 wounds to take down Braxas, would you roll for Stinger Drain? What ensued was a downward spiral where Dok felt more and more pressured like he HAD to roll for Stinger Drain. He rolled a 4 and ended his turn. However, he wisely had moved one Stinger up to engage Braxas to pin her down from moving to a better location. I stayed there with Braxas, moved Greenscales, and continued the assault. He moved another Stinger up to pin Braxas down to replace the one I killed. He rolled another 4 and ended his turn. Braxas had height on almost all of those attacks. So without the drain it was 3 attack versus 4 defense. With the drain it was 4 attack versus 4 defense which is much better. So I can see the point that in order to have the mathematical advantage, Stinger Drain is worth the risk. But for 3 out of 5 times Dok rolled for Stinger Drain, he rolled a 4 or less. That essentially is what lost him the game.

He did get it once after rolling those 2 fours, and downed Braxas, but the damage was done. I had too many Greenscales because all of his firepower had been concentrated on Braxas. Even with the weaker attack of 2, they prevailed and won the game. Since almost none of the Stingers were in Raelin’s aura, he was only rolling 3 defense.

Round 2 versus Capsocrates on Ticalla Sunrise.

My army:

Mezzodemons x 4
4th Massachusetts Line x 2

Facing off against:

Nilfheim
Microcorps x 2
Isamu

WIN

This battle took place as both of us advanced on the Wannok side. (That is the glyph that swings the game, you know.) He moved up Nilfheim as I moved up Mezzodemons. This was not a good match up for me at first. A couple of Mezzodemons went down from Ice Shard Breath so I pulled them back and moved up the 4th. He had a couple of turn markers on Microcorps which were trying to gain height position in back. The 4th were able to put 4 wounds on Nilfheim before slowly being picked off by Microcorps with height. I lost all but two of my 4th, but they had left their mark on Nilfheim. He had Wannok at this point so I took out one of my 4th leaving me only one. Now it was time to move Mezzodemons back out and hope for the best. They moved within range of Nilfheim and took him down. I hadn’t used any exoskeleton markers up to this point, so now I was in good shape. Their Poison Cloud allowed for good rolls against Microcorps. Even though Microcorps had better range, they couldn’t kill them since I just started burning exoskeleton markers. I moved up 3 Mezzodemons, 2 for attacking and one to claim Wannok. I think I had 3-4 exoskeleton markers left and 2 Mezzodemons back in my start zone. Not sure how well Stealth Armor did for him but Isamu was downed on the first attack.

Round 3 versus Necroblade on Song of the Walrus.

My army:

Microcorps x 4

Facing off against:

4th Massachusetts Line x 4
Sergeant Alexander Drake (ROTV)

WIN

I was skeptical about this match up as well. The 4th are a great unit and having to face 4 squads of them, it seemed like it would not go well for me, not to mention that Necroblade is a great player. The majority of the action was on the Wannok side (insert my rant about Wannok being too powerful again). After he claimed Wannok, I was set to take one of my Microcorps off the board when he pointed out that I could roll for Stealth Armor. Now that’s courtesy. In the championship I would have the chance to roll for Stealth Armor against Cyprien’s Chilling Touch and against Leaving Engagement Strikes. In this instance, I rolled high enough to keep that Microcorps on the board.

Both sides played really well. I whiffed toward the beginning having a round where I didn’t take one unit out. But there were a couple of key points when Stealth Armor worked for a particular Agent that was in a key position. I tried to keep Microcorps exactly 7 spaces out to try to keep him from having a Wait Then Fire opportunity. I tried to use height as often as I could, but over on Wannok side he had Soldiers on the shelf above the glyph while I was down below. Some of my attacks were uphill and I ended up claiming Wannok toward the end. He whiffed in the middle on a certain round not taking out any of my units. Little by little I was seeing soldiers fall until he began putting order markers on Drake which allowed me to take out the remaining 4th. The game was called on time. I had credit for 3 cards worth of Agents and he had Drake. Considering I had Wannok and had him engaged with 3 other Agents I’m pretty sure I would have won.

Round 4 versus ALIAS14 on Common Ground.

My army:

Tor-Kul-Na
Nagrubs x 2
Stingers x 2

Facing off against:

Major Q-9
Krav Maga Agents
Deathreavers x 3

My opponent was super nice. I had seen him before at previous GenCons but this was my first match up against him. I’m not quite sure what to say about this match up except perhaps what Andrew said at the close. He pointed at my army and said, “That’s a perfect counter for the army that I have.” He must have played well to be only one of 3 people to be 3-0 at this point. He and I were facing off and Hendal was facing someone that was 2-1. So IF Hendal lost and I won, I would be the winner right there. However, Hendal ended up winning (as you know) and we faced off. Anyway, back to this.

At first, I was using a combo of Stingers and Nagrubs for turn markers. He was sending out Deathreavers and also was bringing up the Krav. The idea behind his build is to tie up movement with Deathreavers so that ranged units are inaccessible. Common Ground has two raised portions one either side with a one hex passage through the middle. He perched a Deathreaver on one side 3 levels up and had two more blocking the way on the main level. Q-9 was now starting to come forward and at this point I had switched turn markers to all Nagrubs. Tor-Kul-Na successfully TrampleStomped the two Deathreavers on the main level and risked a leaving engagement from the one on height. I don’t think he took a wound from that. Since Nagrubs are only 3 height, they were able to follow TKN up the middle with no engagement from the DR on height. Next thing you know, I’m working my way up to Q-9 and Deathreavers can’t stop me. Q-9 whipped out Queglix but he really didn’t roll that good. I think I remember him saying, “I’m going to have to do more than kill one Nagrub per turn.” TKN put one wound at a time on him until he fell. Next TKN worked his way over to the Krav and either TrampleStomped or successfully attacked them. He conceded when all he had left were Deathreavers while I still had TKN, some Nagrubs, and maybe 5 Stingers.

Round 5 versus Hendal on Fossil.

Here is where my inexperience at GenCon and other tournaments came through. Hendal and I had to face off and it was Pick Your Poison, which I didn’t even know what that meant. Megasilver was there to explain. Good thing too because I don’t think the game manager knew and Matthias wasn’t around. I had to look through his 4 army builds and pick one while he was doing the same for my 4 army builds.

I don’t even remember what all his builds were, but I had remembered that he told me he had run the exact same army of Braxas, Greenscales x 3, Isamu. So when I began looking at his 4 army builds, I remembered my near loss against Dok. If I could get Braxas to fall right away, the Greenscales would follow with whatever I had since I had range in every army. So perhaps I didn’t look through his builds very thoroughly because I knew that army had a weakness.

He immediately knew what army of mine he wanted to face. Microcorps x 4 has some advantages, turn marker management for one, but if you can’t get height, it’s going to be rough, real rough. Fossil doesn’t have a whole lot of height. So he picked Microcorps at the same time I was picking Braxas. So when I picked my poison, I literally picked my Poison Acid Breath. While Stealth Armor works against a lot of things, it doesn’t work against that. So it was a bad match up for me, but hey, I picked it.

My army:

Microcorps x 4

Facing off against:

Braxas
Greenscales x 3
Isamu

As far as the playing, I believe I made one mistake at the beginning. I forfeited at least one attack (from height at that) because I was trying to stop Braxas from moving in closer by positioning my Agents in such a way as to prevent it. I miscalculated, Braxas moved in anyway, so all my maneuvering and not attacking was for nothing. Braxas stayed on height and systematically began downing my Agents. I couldn’t get height so I was only rolling two attack dice. It was a very short game.

But it was really fun to lose to Hendal. He’s such a fun guy (or fun-gi). He was dancing all around happy that he got some dice. I, however, was keen on taking an Agent Skahen which I didn’t have. I have been using a Nakita Agent proxy with a printed card, but now I have the real deal.

So hopefully I’m a little more experienced about tournament play after this GenCon. I enjoy playing 4 x 4 because I don’t like to play with the same units over and over again. Plus you get to play against a wide range of units because people are running 4 different builds. I really didn’t think I’d do that well, but winning against 4 great players like Dok, Cap, Necroblade, and Andrew, and using a couple of odd builds was a real treat.
 
Here is where my inexperience at GenCon and other tournaments came through. Hendal and I had to face off and it was Pick Your Poison, which I didn’t even know what that meant. Megasilver was there to explain.
Click to expand...

I don't remember saying that to you. :lol:
 
It was you all the way. You were in the middle of something else, though, as me and Hendal were trying to figure out what to do for Pick Your Poison. You and someone else were both saying the same thing so then we went up to the game manager and asked if we had to face off, and if we did, could we get started now even though the other games weren't finished. He said we did have to face off. So then I asked, "What is Pick Your Poison?" He said, "Pick Your Poison? What's that?" I said, "That what I'm asking you. That's what it says it will be for the final on the website. So what is it?" He just kind of looked confused, and then you spoke up and explained it again. After you explained it he said, "Yeah, we'll go with that." I said, "It sounds like you're guessing." That wasn't nice though. I shouldn't have given him a hard time like that.
 
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