jgsugden
Commander
4320 Posts
    
Walnut Creek, CA
 | | 04/04/2006 1:53 PM |
| We had a small tournament at Endgame in Oakland on Monday night, April 3. We only had 4 players, but it was a fun evening.
Tourney announcement: http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17960
The end results:
1. John Sugden (jgsugden)(3-0) 4 X Chrall, Human Blackguard, 2 X Timber Wolf, Warrior Skeleton [Drow Outpost]
2. Louis Sacha (LCS) (2-1) CoDA, Slayer of Domiel, Justice Archon, Sacred Watcher, Dwarf Artificer, Eberk, Adventurer, Aramil, Warforged Scout [Dragon Shrine]
3. Andy Flores (?) (1-2) Dark Naga, Night Hag, Duergar Champion X3, Kobold Miner X3 (192 points) [Drow Outpost]
4. Tom Proudfoot (proudft) (0-3) Inspired Lieutenant, Duergar Champion, Duergar Warrior X2, Helmed Horro, War Troll [Broken Demongate]
My warband: 4 X Chrall, Human Blackguard, 2 X Timber Wolf, Warrior Skeleton [Drow Outpost]
I am not going south for the California Open, but I wanted to give some people here a chance to play against a band I thought those guys down south might be running, but that we had not been seeing up here. A little oggling of tournament reports turned up this band/map combo. At first blush, my impulse was to write it off as being difficult to get all the Chraals in the action. However, on second view, it provided a wealth of locations where the HBG could be protectd by a single Chraal and a skeleton, and the Chraal ability to breath through the other Chraals and the skeleton gave it some real interesting quirks. After a little study, I think this is a definite contender.
I rolled well all night. I only failed one conceal check all night, despite facing a lot of conceal. I was consistently rolling high when it really mattered.
Brief match summaries for my matches:
Match 1: Andy Flores - Dark Naga, Night Hag, Duergar Champion X3, Kobold Miner X3 (192 points) [Drow Outpost]
My first match was against Andy Flores. Andy forgot that tonight was a tournament, so his band was a bit experimental. I think he wanted to see what the Night Hag could do. Although I generally don't like the piece, the immunity to cold and DR make it a nasty !@$%@# for a dedicated Chraal band. 5 damage per hit? Ugh.
We played on Drow Outpost. Andy started at the Outpost end. He split up his troops, sending two Duergar Champs along the far side of the chasm while the remainder of his (nonminer) forces marched up the center. My Chraals also split up into two groups - two towards the bridge, and two towards the DCs coming along my side of the chasm to make sure they couldn't get to my commander.
I was able to keep my commander away from his troops, capture key figures with my breath weapons, and use some voodoo to keep his dice rolling low, and my dice rolling high.
Andy didn't get a chance to make great use of the Night Hag. She ended her invisibility by magic missiling a timber wolf that was moving into the outpost victory area, even though I already had two chraals in the central victory area. Still, it was his only piece left at the end of the match.
I played decently, but it was really the dice that game me the help in this game.
Match 2: Louis Sacha (LCS) - CoDA, Slayer of Domiel, Justice Archon, Sacred Watcher, Dwarf Artificer, Eberk, Adventurer, Aramil, Warforged Scout [Dragon Shrine]
Louis has been developing this band for quite a while. It is a stronger band than people realize. The entire warband (except for Aramil) ends up with ACs in the 20s - making it hard to get in your licks. And, Louis is the only one playing it ... which makes it a dangerous right field addition to any tournament unless you've fortunate enough to play Louis.
We played on Dragon Shrine. Fortunately for me, I won set-up initiative and was able to secure the cold shrine. Otherwise, this may have been a painful match for me.
My first lesson is that I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate warforged scouts. There is a minute text ability on their card that says jgsugden bane players named jgsugden can not think when considering how to deal with this piece. Whenever I play against this piece, I make a critical mistake that prevents me from dealing with it appropriately. In this case, I moved a Chraal so that it had a place it could go in his victory area without me getting 2 attacks on it with my Chraal in turn 2, even though there was a better place.
Aramil was of limited use. He got off one RoE, but was coned to death before he had a chance to fling a second one.
The rest of the main battle took place in the Magic Circle joint victory area by the exit. I spread my chralls out enough to create a gap for him to double move his justice archon and sacred watcher to flank my HBG, but far enough away that it'd be hard to get his CoDA or Slayer into the mix. He went in for the kill, and the match was on. If the dice had been even, I think I would have had a slight advantage, but I rolled very well and was able to minimize the effectiveness of the CodA and JA. I finished off the CoDA right before it healed the Justice Archon, and then finished off the JA before the HBG had to make a morale check.
From there, it was just clean-up duty. Even his Slayer failed a morale check, so all I had to do was move out of the way and let it route off the board to get the victory.
Louis has a great band, but I think it is 1 hitter shy of being a top contender.
Match 3: Tom Proudfoot (proudft) - Inspired Lieutenant, Duergar Champion, Duergar Warrior X2, Helmed Horro, War Troll [Broken Demongate]
Tom is a friend of mine that is just getting into the game. He is a great game player, and will soon be one of the better players in the area if he sticks with it.
His biggest problem: Lack of minis. He only has a sprinkling of older minis, and doesn't have any truly powerhouse figures before Angelfire. This limits his options quite a bit. Of course, he can borrow mine whenever he wants, so he should be able to run pretty much anything he wants if he really wants to run something he doesn't own.
His band was built with solid pieces. However, my Chraal speed was too much for his band. I was able to breath to kill off his duergar warriors, dropping his activations from 6 to 4. This allowed me to move my chraals after him in each round that I wished to do so, allowing me to pile them on enemies.
He sent his HH to try to assassinate my HBG. I tried to force him into positions where he'd have to attack the HBG with cover, and in which he'd only get 1 attack. The cover prevented AoOs when the HBG moved away from the HH, and I was able to pile on the attacks with the 2 Chraals I had guarding the HBG. I took him down before the HBG had to make a morale check.
The dice liked me in this game as well. I was able to route the Inspring Lieutenant and Duergar Champion off the board, and I was able to take the lieutenant down to 1/2 hit points with 2 breath weapons before she had a chance to heal up with her psionics. I was able to hit the War Troll consistently with Chraals (that needed 14s to hit). I think with a Rakshasa or Dark Naga as the commander, he'd have been better off. However, he didn't really make any mistakes. It was just really nice rolling from my dice, and some inequity in the warband strength.
I had a fun night. Elliott Chin showed up a little bit too late to join the tournament. If we'd added him in rd 2, then we'd have had 5 players. He still got a chance to play when John Wang showed up.
Next week: A 500 point epic tournament. I'm really looking forward to getting the big guys out to play ... | |
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