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GelatinousChicken
Skirmisher
21 Posts
    
 | | 06/25/2006 11:59 AM |
| This turned out to be a very memorable trip for me and the Central Cal crew of two others. It was such a roller coaster ride, but Stumanchu, Tom, and I had an absolute wonderful time! The car trip was a whole memory in itself :). Thanks to everyone running the event, I hope to come out again sometime.
As for the tournament, I came out in the end 5-2 for the day and took 7th. I was incredibly proud for this place being that this was my first real constructed tournament. Stu and I had played an Angelfire prelease awhile back, but that's it really. The field consisted of 36 players I believe, and mostly everyone was having a good time--though the competition was intense. I played a LE quad mix of Chraal,HBG,Zak,DCx2,miner,Warrior Skeleton,and the wonderful Gravehound on Field of Ruin.
Note: I tried to take notes of actions,moves,etc., but I was pretty overwelmed by the speed of the tournament environment which led me to my biggest mistake of the tourney, which I'll mention later.
My first round pairings was with Mike (Loyce8869) who ran three FB,Devis, wolf, xephs (Brady Bunch?). After round one, Mike had the girls blocking the center VA which was a really good move, he took an early lead on points and I started to feel the Jaws of life tightening. I ended up stuning one FB with my Gravehound which I believe was pivotal to my win. It didn't help Mike that he missed several conceal/ac rolls. My Chraal ended up routing, but I ended up just winning on the war of attrition as I focused on FB at a time with all of my beaters until they were gone. I think I had only 20 VP, but was still able to win.
1-0
My next match was against Jacob Padilla running a CE beater band: Eye,Orc champ,MDPx2, Trog thug, tiefling captain, wardrummer, and an orc raider. He won map init so we played on the tomb of Queen Parag. I moved in cautiosly along the bottom while he moved enough distance along the top to be within striking distance next round. Next round I won init and dropped my Chraal in to breath on the Eye,thug, and tiefling. I forgot to mention that his MDPs at this point where surrounding my HBG. It ended up being the chraal pulling the Arnold Swartzenagger (butchered that!)commando and somehow surviving for like 2-3 rounds, Jacob had one caotic evil dice. The rest of my band pulled back and focused on eliminating both MDPs. In the end I hit those lower acs, but he was having a lot of trouble htting me in return.
2-0
At this point I'm feeling pretty good. I am undefeated in a tourny of this caliber! My Next match was against Carl Baughman who had a similar band to mine: HBG,Zakx4,goblins,etc. This was the only match where I felt I made a bad tactical decision. I won map and set up on my favorite side B. Carl was a great guy and made some really cool manuvers. I move all my guys to the center as he moves his Zaks at top,middle, and bottom of the ship husk. Next round comes my mistake, I sent my Zak through a hole to base his Blackguard. At first it seemed like a good idea, but I really could have used him later in the center. Carl moved his two Zaks at the bottom in to the center to attack my HBG and at this point one of my DC was commited to the central Zak, and I had sent the Chraal north so I was in big trouble. He ended up wining inits and my HBG went nine feet under and it just went downhill from there.
2-1
Had a break, my buddy Stu was right there with me at 2-1 and we were both excited. My match after the break was against Jeff Wilder and his quad Helmed Horrors. As soon as I saw his band I was thinking "how am I going to get through over 400 hitpoints and still survive!?" I was especially afraid of HH because it was the one band I didn't get to test against. He won map which was Hellspike. Tactically I knew my best bet was to seperate one or two HHs from the rest and concentrate all of my firepower on it. Having a Chraal here really helped as well which auto damaged two with its breath and three with a deathburst. Second round Jeff had two HHs at the bottom, one at the top, and one sorta near the center and I decided to throw it all at the bottom two while my miner slid by to collect points less than six squares away. I also had my gravehound harassing his DDM which forced the attention of one HH up top. I ended up methodically taking down one HH at a time, and I started to lose beaters: the Chraal, then the Zak, eventually the HBG, but despite the odds, I still ended up winning it with only my two DCs left. Jeff had some tough breaks with ones and made a mistake of not activating a HH with only 10hp left, but I was still very proud of this win being so close, which raised my morale big time.
3-1
My next matchup was against John (?can't remeber last name-sorry!)who was playing four JA, Coutal, wolf,CoY,SB. This was a bad match-up for him and I was rolling really well while he missed quite a few. Again my gravehound came out and stunned a JA--I love that little dog. I had won map init and had tried to prevent VP for John by taking out his wolf. Probably my favorite manuver of the match was when I put the chraal all the way through the ship husk in a position where he had to decide: do I ignore the chraal and move to the center or send JAs at him. He ended up sending all the JAs into the center husk where the party began. I sent the chraal to the back next round despite the Coutal being right there in melee reach and breathed on the CoY and SB killing the CoY and wounding the SB. As for the center, I just came out ahead in the number of attacks hit since my bonuses were higher and it didn't help John that my guys had the same damage output as the JAs. Mine also had higher ACs and conceal which definitely saved me. John was a great guy and I liked his band but I just didn't have a titan for him to mutilate.
4-1
When I saw the next band I was facing, I wasn't suprised. Elliot Chin was running the Archmage--the band I feared. I had played Aravis the night before the qualifier against his AM band and thankfully I did learn one thing from that. Throw everything at him- at all costs. It really pained me when Elliot won map init and we played Kings Road. No aoos!!! I felt a huge weight on my shoulders, but I gave it my best shot anyway. Elliot made a good move and MS'd my blackguard round one! I knew then I had to just surround him if possible. This skirmish was almost comical in a way. Think: weird Brittish comedy where an insector is chasing the thief going through all the doors in an entire house. That's how I felt :). I chased the Archmage to the top right, he moved to bottom left, I actually get a base with my Zak in the bottom right, but then I make the worst mistake of the tournament. I win init, I attacked the AM with the Zak--TS,--first of all I didn't declare it to be his second attack, then what do I do, I moved on to my second activation forgetting my second attack!!!! Oh man, I was embarassed! I think I felt caught off guard because I had played my first two rounds slowly, and I tried to speed up my play to be fair to Elliot, but I totally missed it. So the AM moved to the bottom left and it was pretty much over because my HBG died thus the Chraal died, and I was still chasing him with my DC in the end. Props to Elliot, that band is awesome, and that was one wild goose chase!
4-2
My last match of the day was agianst Darsen Chen and his Slayer of Domiels x4 with Village priest, arcanix guard x2, wolf. I won map and I basically went through my normal routine of movement to the center. The funniest part of this match was the dog fight in the top right va between TW and gravehound. The gravehound kept stunning the TW and it would have routed, but kept getting stunned and still scored victory points for Darsen. In the center I was able to block advancement from the left side and I kept hitting his Slayers. I think I only missed a conceal once. Darsen dice unfortunately ran out of gas and I ended up just beating the slayers. Although their ability to gain double VP was a scary thought, he did take one DC for 66 points. My friend Stu had played against Darsen and this same situation came up on a much larger scale which I'll let one of them describe or perhaps I could another time...
So I ended up in 7th place which I was very proud of and heck, I even got three boosters out of it! the rares fyi were: Hill Giant Chieften, Shuluth, and a Sand Giant. Guy had made a ruling for my match with Carl, but Stu and I realized much later on the drive home that we should have got Guy's autograph on our rulebook! :) We won't forget next year! I had a blast and so did the whole Central Cal crew as we talked about the tournament almost the whole way home about 3 hours away in Fresno. Two of us placed in the top ten so everyone lookout, Central Cal is on the prowl now! :)
PS-Before I left, I bought an Archmage from Game Castle, feel free to insert the poetic justice here: lol
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Check out my blog: www.miniaday.com | |
| Hero of Skirmish
doubtofbuddha
Commander
3371 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 12:16 PM |
| | GelatinousChicken, your sig is too long. Please cut it down to 2-3 lines. | |
I am not gone. | |
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GelatinousChicken
Skirmisher
21 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 12:20 PM |
| | Something interesting I wanted to point out as well was the variety of warbands at the Qualifier. I had read a lot about the meta and had created my band accordingly: Zak for SW, Chraal for HH, etc. The crazy part was, I didn't even face one single Marut/Coutal build. I was shocked. There were 16 LG bands out there, but right there in second was CG! Now had I went 6-1, I may have faced a Marut/Coutal band, but still, I was expecting like at least two games to be against it. I did face one Coutal, but it was in John's JA band. So I realized that rogue bands have a good chance as well depending on your experience! In fact I was shocked at how many frienzied bands there were yesterday. I played my LE quad many times, my record with it now is 19-5 and I feel that's how I placed in the top ten by just practicing all different types of strategy. As for now, I've decided to put this warband on hiatus and start doing some experimentation with other warbands. Don't give up CG! :) | |
Check out my blog: www.miniaday.com | |
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GelatinousChicken
Skirmisher
21 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 12:22 PM |
| | Sorry Doubt | |
Check out my blog: www.miniaday.com | |
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elder_basilisk
Sergeant
410 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 1:06 PM |
| My triple justicators definitely agree :)
Congrats on the 7th place finish
quote:
[i]Don't give up CG! :)
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Venport
Sergeant
739 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 1:46 PM |
| This was my First Qaulifier as well... and Forgive me because i will forget most of the names.
My warband:
Zakyax4, HBG, Dire rat, Goblin Skrumishx2: Drungeon of blood... Now i came up with this warband at 3:30 in the morning on thursday night (needed to be up at 6:30). But i liked it better than my Marut SWx3 Coult, that i had been playing.
So Mike (loyce8869) and i get to the tournament sign up and Derry asked us to help in add up all the warbands. We do so and go run off to swear at each other for seeing stuff we were not ready to see... and almost no titan builds (witch i was ready for).
Anyway:
Round 1: I can rember his name but it was a HGB, BGB, Bugbear Champ (the cmdr), and some other filler... I got my map and wone most the the initatives (as i should with a cmd 6 vs 2). He was able to base my black guard on rnd 1 but i was able in rnd 2 to have 3 zaks on his hill giant 1 flaking the blood ghost so the black gaurd could takehim out... after than things just went down hill for him. I was able to kill the blood ghost however his hill giant made it;s moral check... but after several rounds of me smacking it it just went down...
1-0
Round 2:
I played a tripal Justicator band: this was not good for me... i could not hit is ac (becasue it was up to 24 with the Coda) and i think i set myslef up in some bads spots... It came to one point where i marked 15 more dmg on the Zak that it had but that did not make much of a difference in the game. I think i took down 1 Justicotr...
1-1
Round 3:
Quad on Quad: this was my game vs GelatinousChicken who took his map Feild of ruin. I make sure to spread my zaks out to make sure i was not all in the breth weapon of the charrl and in hopes that i could get to his black guard (i just hate killing charrls i would much rather take out the comder). He sent his figst up the middle and got a Zak to base my black guard. at this point i moved a Skurmisher for the flank taking an AoO from the zak... that attack used his true stike after than i move one of my zaks for the flank and was able to take out his zak with my black guard and 1 zak... also at that point i Drop a full round of Dmg on the balck guard (i think it was 3 out for 4 hit). at that point it was a clean up game with the durgars...
Him exposing the black guard was key to my win if he had not done that or had a map that the black guard could hid in it would have been a much closer game...
2-1
Ok i could have this in the wrong order but i think i lost to Feathers next... (if not it was the slayer build i'll talk about later). Eliet is a good player and it was an Archmage match up witch i know i have a shot at if i get my map. Also to his advantage he had 2 Xen-champs in the build witch are much more affective vs my Zaks than Gray cloaks. He wone his map and i felt like calling it right there. I set up. and placed my black guard in bad spot in rnd 1 taking 40 acid dmg from the Archmage right away (this was my bigest mistake of the day) After than it was a mess the archmage never took dmg... witch is not how you win an archmage match.
2-2:
Next i think was the wartrol match. Witch was a game of how fast can i take down a wartroll.. I placed 3 zaks on him hitting him whenever i could... the other took to hittin his rakashas... and his Zak. I was able to Make both of his Large Durag and his Zak run. and when he tryed to rally this (sealing Tryranical) they died. I was able to take out the wartroll and i should have been game but we keept playing util the points add up to 200.
3-2:
Next was the Slayer of Domel band. This was not a good match for me... I was able to take out 1 slayer before before it could take anything out. but the other 2 were able to kill 2 zaks.. with that and his VP it was game.
3-3:
Last rnd was agianst john Shugden (jgshugden) this was a bad match for him. He had the JAx4, Coy, Coutal the problem is that he only had a +10 to hit or so vs my Ac 22 and i had a +14 (or better) vs his ac 19 the math just dose not add up... Also Doom worked (witch is always a happy thing)
4-3:
The day was good for me i did well... could have done better but No Major worries.... | |
Sacramento DDM http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16854
New world Project http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20745
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Lord Namalk
Skirmisher
33 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 9:36 PM |
| | Venort you did rely well considering the tough environment and it being your first Qual. Us SacTown guys put up a good fight, but I just don't think we are ready to take on SoCal or BayArea just yet. Congratualtions to all, the turnout was incredable. Also I would also like to thank Derry and Eric for there awsome judging and handling of the tournament. [:)] | |
DM | |
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Venport
Sergeant
739 Posts
| | 06/25/2006 9:57 PM |
| | I don;t agree... i think 80% for the people there were ither at the same play level or Very close... I know that i did well i feel great about the day... Everyone played well and i'm looking forward to some time to let my brain relax after the Q season. | |
Sacramento DDM http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16854
New world Project http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20745
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Lord Namalk
Skirmisher
33 Posts
| | 06/26/2006 1:11 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Venport
I don;t agree... i think 80% for the people there were ither at the same play level or Very close... I know that i did well i feel great about the day... Everyone played well and i'm looking forward to some time to let my brain relax after the Q season.
I'm sure you will dissagree, though I'm not sure that any of us even cracked the top 10. Actually statically speaking, 25% finished ahead of our top finisher. Be pround Venport you did fairly well with your 4-3 record and with that you placed in the top 30th percentile. [)] | |
DM | |
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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
| | 06/26/2006 1:42 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Lord Namalk
Also I would also like to thank Derry and Eric for there awsome judging and handling of the tournament. [:)]
Eric and Mike did excellent jobs as floor judges. I only had to address one appeal the entire day, so I think that speaks very highly of their ability as judges. It earned them dinner (or a very early breakfast depending on you perspective [:)]) after the event. | |
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Stumanchu
Sneak
68 Posts
Cen-Cal
| | 06/27/2006 9:10 PM |
| Just wanted to thank the guys at Game Castle for holding a fantastic event. I'll admit I have been intimidated to play in a tourney, but all the players and judges there proved my feelings were unwarranted.
I'm pretty blurry on the details of the day, but many lessons were learned, the first being don't layup Kord for a Marked Target (ouch!). All my opponents were top notch, and I hope they felt the same. Looking forward to the next tourney, with my eyes on the next Cal Open. Hopefully we can put CenCal on the map.......... | |
Hey, let's get some tacos. | |
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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
| | 06/27/2006 10:07 PM |
| | IIRC The next Cal Open will be in October. The event will be at Game Kastle. Details to follow... | |
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Lord Namalk
Skirmisher
33 Posts
| | 06/27/2006 11:55 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by ahmish
IIRC The next Cal Open will be in October. The event will be at Game Kastle. Details to follow...
I look forward to going to that one.[:D] | |
DM | |
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