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Kevizoid
Sergeant
373 Posts
    
Southern California
 | | 06/26/2006 11:33 PM |
| First off I'd like to thank Game Kastle for running such a fantastic event and Derry and Doranur for judging.
I started up with Tried and his son Darrien leaving my house at noon for the 5 (soon to become 7-8) hour drive up to the qualifier, passing the time talking mainly about minis. We played a couple practice games that night for tommorow then went to bed at about 10.
We weren't sure if registration was at 10 or 11 so we just showed up at 10:30, turned out it was at 11 so we had time to chat with all the locals, it was very nice meeting people I played on Vassal on chatted with.
Derry happend to have a new updated DCI rankings page where I found out that after my last tourny I had managed to move up to 23 (I figured I'd be in the 30s so I wanted to at least not lose any points coming to this qualifier if I didn't qualify). This was a relief to me because it means I had to completely suck at this tournament to not qualify...Now on to the matches!
As most on Vassal would know I'd been running marut pretty exclusively for the past month, after having my (Phranks) Cleric of Order version just miss out of the high places at my last 3 tournaments decided to go with my other choice of...
Marut, Couatl, Sacred Watcher x3, Standardbearer, Cleric of Yondalla, Timber Wolf, played on Drow Outpost.
I liked this version more than the Aramil and Mialee version as I had a commander rating of 3 and a dedicated tile grabber and all I really gave up was a magic missle or two and ray of enfeeblement.
Now out of 36 players there were 4 other Southern California players, so I couldn't possibly be paired against one in the 1st round...right?!?
1st match vs Dwayne Stupack (Tried)
Tried was running his usual 10 activation Rikka Archmage band.
For the first time in about 8 games vs archmages I managed to not play on Kings Road and got my Outpost (You all know how hard it is to beat Archmage on Kings Road).
I got outpost side (after learning from getting creamed by Dagnis Arcane Howitezer band that ranged abilities like outpost side).
We spent the first round advancing our pieces up, I kept the Sacred Watchers in front to take any first round ranged attacks, and I got my timber wolf on tiles.
2nd round I double moved a Sacred Watcher to base the Archmage and moved another one to base two graycloaks. He had his Archmage move away and he sworded both of my close sacred watchers, but I hit on the aoo for 10 damage. I then moved in my 3rd sacred watcher into position to strike next round. He then GMA to get Rikka in position and move his Graycloaks out of range. This ended up being a major mistake as it gave me access to his Inspiring Marshall. I double moved my marut up and SS it who hit the Marshall for 30 which routed off.
3rd round I moved my marut back into position and Tried had to settle for a magic missle on the couatl because he was 1 square away from banishing the couatl. He passed both incorporeal checks on the sworded watchers and they took 15.
4th round I won initiative (very big) and double moved my marut across the pit from the archmage, the couatl SS the marut and he smacked it for 30 causing a morale check, the Archmage routed and Tried said to see if it ended now and rallied it...he failed and routed off...lucky game for me.
1-0
Good I got my SoCal opponent out of the way early now I won't have to knock them out in a key round. What could go wrong?
2nd match vs Paul Grasshoff (Flux Capacitor)
Paul ran swarm with a Sword Archon on mushroom cavern
I won map initiative and it basically became a slug fest on the center vp area...my couatl almost died twice but i managed to win iniative and heal him before he could die. I killed 2 Sacred Watcher during the match with the marut and another with my sacred watchers. I managed to get 3 swings on the Sword Archon which killed it, going first in most all of the ounds kept me alive to win. After the Sword Archon went down he conceeded as he had 3 Sacred Watchers left to my 30 hp marut, couatl, and 3 Sacred Watchers.
2-0
3rd match I played John Wang (?)
He was running War Troll, Zakya Rakshasa, Rakshasa, Darkmoon Monk, and 2 Large Duergars.
Interesting note: John beat 2 archmage bands in the previous 2 rounds.
This game went fairly quickly.
He took outpost side and I moved my wolf and Sacred Watcher. He rolled a 1 with the wartroll using a ranged attack on the wolf.
2nd round I pinned his Wartroll with my 3 sacred watchers, 1 of whom saved the chill touch check while out of command
I won a key init on the beginning of the 3rd round which let me swings twice with the Marut on his Zakya which caused it to route right off the board after getting off only 1 chill touch and no true strike. The Wartroll ended up spending the entire match whiffing Incorporeal checks while I killed his large duergars with my Marut, next round he whiffed some more and I smacked his Wartroll twice with my marut.
4th Round I finished off his wartroll and it was game
I ended the game with a win he managing to hit 1 Sacred Watcher once and killing a wolf. Otherwise I sustained no damage, saving an out of command chill touch and 3 slides into the pit with my sacred watchers.
3-0
At this point there were 4 undefeateds at 3-0 and we still had 4 rounds to go.
4th match played vs Jeff Asbury (sorry dont remember board name)
He was running GAS with aramil on Kings Road
We rolled Map init and he wins......fabulous...one of my least favorite matchups on one of my least favorite maps.
1st round he positioned 3 monks in the center VP area and his YM and other monk in the middle forest area. I moved up my pieces trying to keep my standardbearer and couatl behind the marut and sacred watchers and having my wolf get tiles. 2nd round I sent a Sacred watcher to go clear out his fodder and to be in position to smack aramil next round. After all his monks activate I have my marut inflict wounds on 3 of his monks and aramil (aramil being my main target and if i fail to route I do a key 5 damage so if I nerfed they still go down in 2 swings) Aramil saved the check but one monk failed and took 10.
3rd round I win init and move the marut up to swing on a monk in forest....1...damn misses...I move the couatl up and SS for a 2nd swing....3...another miss. He moves a monk down to the Standard bearer and uses an US to kill him right off. He sends a monk and uses an US within 6 of the YM to do 20 to the marut. I then killed aramil and his last piece of fodder with 2 sacred watchers. He brings in 2 more monks to lay down 40 damage of US on the marut, (bah 15 left ><).
4th round I very luckily win iniative and smack the YM with a SS takes 30 and makes his MC, and I move the couatl 8 to the right, I finish him off with the marut.
He moves in the monk that killed the SB to flank the marut and takes a swing...misses. Now a flanking monk takes 2 swings...miss...miss(Yay!). Next phase I bring in the sacred watchers to start swinging basing monks as I will probably need them to win. With 2 monks he needs to hit the marut twice with +11, +11, +9, +9 to win. He activates the first monk and swings twice...miss...MISS! (wooot!), he activates his last monk, im feeling confident that he can whiff a 14 or better with a swing...WHAM! 20, BAM!! 18!, ouchies...Marut goes down.
5th round I win init and orb a monk and move away into forest. He moves a monk 10 and stunning swings my couatl in the forest...miss. He moves a monk to grab tile points.
Basically i managed to hit 2/3 swings with flanking sacred watchers and a monk routed. I take an aoo from a monk to go completely into forest. Stunning attack misses (double Yay!) Next Round I orbed the 50 hp monk for 15 and had my sacred watchers make 1/3 attacks. He has 2 hp left on it. Next round I win init. and take 2 more swings on the monk with flanks...miss..miss. He swings on my Sacred watcher...next I swing with my last sacred watcher at +10, 16!!, puts him at 15 and i orb him. At the end of the round I win as I we finished our 8th round and I had gotten tile points for every single round so I didnt need to kill 2 of the monks.
4-0
5th Match vs Scott Schneider (Rational Monkey)
great...a SoCaler that I reaaally dont want to play (i hate when we eliminate each other) and a badmatchup for me at that.
I'll keep this short and cut to juicy parts as I now realize this is geting very long.
He makes a major mistake in the beginning by placing the scout where the marut can charge him so he goes first after winning init and runs away. We advance and I keep my SW out in front...
Next round I base balista with a SW and base his CoO with a SW
marut advances.
I hit Cleric of Order and lose a Sacred watcher to a lightning ball.
I move in 12. He wins init and swings on my marut hits for 70, I swing on kord once for 30 and orb the Cleric of order for the kill (I messed up placement so I couldnt SS the marut)...now here is where i make a MAJOR mistake...I forget about mialee....oh crap...she magic missles the marut but thankfully fails SR.
Next we have the key init...he is now commander ratingless. He rolls an 8! YES!! I roll.....3....DIEINAFIREYOUSTUPIDDICE!!.
He gets 2 swings on marut and finishes him off and bases the couatl which is a big mistake as he can run and just win at the end of next round. My couatl swings for 10 and he passes poison...my 2 SW move in for the flank and 1 misses. I know im pretty much screwed now...we are on our last round (as we both played very slowly) and Kord has 40 HP and all I have is 2 SW, the couatl, SB, and my cleric....im screwed.
I win init thankfully...couatl swings for 10 damage and passes the poison save. 1 of my SW hits him for 10 damage...his turn he kills the couatl (unecessary which maybe cost him the game as well), and SS his kord on my unactivated SW but missed incorporeal. I swing with the SW and hit for 10 damage...next i move my SB up for and.....HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I GET A 20!! my lowly Standard bearer in a david and goliath struggle crits kord killing him for the win!...(cleric bashes mialee with a stick for a bonus 6 points).
5-0 Now I'm the only undefeated with 2 rounds left to go...even if i lose the next 2 and dont get in on tiebreaks I didnt butcher my rating so I get in anyways.
6th match vs Glyn (Elder Basilisk)
He's running triple justicators and the CoDA
1st round I win map init (only init I will win till the 8th round).
I use legions undeniable gravity and 2 of his justicators fail the save.
Fastforward!! I kill 1 justicator and he crits my couatl at 45 hp which fails his MC and dies on the other justicators aoo.
Hes got a justicator with 60 hp left..If I hit him and he morale checks, I will win. If I hit him and he saves, I need to win init (after CoDA is killed, so i have +3 on him) and kill it....my marut charges him after they have activated...1!! NOOOOOO!!!.Now I have to win Init and cause him to route...which I do...now here comes the big judge ruling of the day.
I move my marut out. Now I move the Cleric of Yondalla in to prevent him killing my 15 hp Marut, but Im notsure if this is the right move. I move him there and start to count up the points to see if i want to do this...then suddenly Gly says..ok the justicator charges and starts to move him...OH1 crap! whats going on!?.
Apparently he thought i was done with my move and started moving...I said i wasnt done and he called Derry over to make a ruling (Doranur was watching when this happened as he didnt really know what to make of the situation either). There was about 15 minutes of arguing and talking and the final head judge ruled (not know who was involed or warbands) that because by the floor rules, BBecause I had NOT declared that I was NOT FINISHED yet, that the move had to stand and that he would charge....ah crap...he charges and I will win if he rolls a 3 or below..he gets a 6 and wins the game...
Lesson Learned I am now using tokens to do moves.
5-1 I get paired down with a 4-2 player so that means If I win a 4-2 will get in, and If i lose 2 4-2 players get in (one of which could be me as I had great tiebreaks).
7th match vs Stu (???)
Hes running Kord, Brass Sam, Crow Shaman, Goliath barb.
I win map init and he moves kord like 18 squares to cover the entire bridge first move...I move into position..
2nd round he whiffs on sacred watcher incorp checks and I hit for 60 and he makes morale...I win init and finish kord...He finishes off 2 sacred watchers with the goliath alone (rerolls FTW!), but he cant make up for the kord loss and cant finish my marut before i kill his goliath and sam.
6-1 (yay!)
Now at the final rounds Darrien and I managed to qualify as did a great local player Feathers. Now we figured that either Scott Schneider (our only other SoCal player who had not qualified) or the triple justicator player Glyn (elder basilisk)
the final four ended up being me finishing out the day in 1st (which blows as that position is cursed and means my dice will fail me and I'll lose), Darrien or Feathers in 2nd/3rd, and Scott scraping in by 1-2% points.
8th match
Vs Scott again
By this time...we had both been in a car for 8 hours the day before, and had been playing all day after waking up early. so we were both incredibly tired....he made like 5/6 incorp checks right of the bat (including mialee magic missle which let a balista shot kill that sacred watcher)....then I made an incredibly stupid move...I miscounted the squares to the balista and my marut took 70 balista damage right in the face....oh crap.
At this point I developed a new strategy....run like a little girl. My marut actually routed....yes routed...i ran him like the little girl he is away from kord.
(this whole game i was getting tiles and he had not so it was very close) We had been playing slow the entire match...so much so Derry was sitting near us with a cattle prod trying to get us to go faster.
Ultimately it came down to this..in order to win he needed to hit my Sacred watcher once with 2 balista shots to win (8 or better than an 11 or better). And he had to kill my wolf in 2 kord swings without me managing to stun him. I won init and bit kord with a stunning attack but i missed (If I stun him I win..haha isnt that funny)He whiffed his first swing on my wolf (that was really unexpected) but he made his 2nd swing...and my Sacred watcher went down due to a big balista bolt in the face. I lost the game by 4 points (moving the wolf away meant I wouldnt get tile points so I couldnt stay up by 1 as I would then lose by 9).
It was a great tournament all in all and for me it couldnt' have turned out any better. The three SoCal players who came who hadnt qualified made it into the top 4 (We will be sending 8 to GenCon).
It was great meeting everyone there and I really had a blast. My only regret is that I couldnt smash Darrien with my Marut in the top 4...but oh well..Scott won (Congratulations btw, have fun with that Golden Axe arcade game you got for free)..and I qualified...never felt better.
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SoCal Colluder | |
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Daezarkian
Sneak
110 Posts
| | 06/26/2006 11:53 PM |
| Nice report -- congrats on Qualifying!
Daezarkian
Demonic Accountant | |
Daezarkian
Demonic Accountant | |
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CSchroder
Sergeant
413 Posts
| | 06/27/2006 8:14 AM |
| | Great job Kev! Your perseverance paid off and I'll see you at GenCon, my friend![:)] | |
Charles AKA The Beardless One, Proud Member of Team Amish | |
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memphisto
Warrior
213 Posts
| | 06/27/2006 11:17 AM |
| | What an awesome report - humerous as well. Congrats again on qualifying. Sounds like it was a tough day. | |
Completed trades: arbados
Completed 23 trades on Hordelings www.hordelings.com - http://www.hordelings.com/directory/profile.php?user_id=429 | |
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Feathers
Underboss
1140 Posts
| | 06/27/2006 8:08 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Kevizoid
Oh yeah, and I broke 1800 DCI rating after my first match
Congrats. BTW, Kev, how did you find that out? I went to www.thedci.com and it hasn't been updated yet. | |
Champion of Neogi
Completed Trades/Transactions: sttmxn, Krush, jgsugden, Ayrychx2, Venport, Tysac
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Kevizoid
Sergeant
373 Posts
Southern California
| | 06/27/2006 8:29 PM |
| | Well....I was at 1798 before the tournament...so I figure I went up at least 2 points ;P | |
SoCal Colluder | |
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Lord_Raven
Sergeant
391 Posts
| | 06/28/2006 12:07 AM |
| Nice finish Kev!! Glad to see you again at GenCon...
I also agree with you - certain Bad Dice should die a Fiery Death!! | |
Winter Fantasy, Wardrums Pre-release Champion
**Proud Member of Team Amish!** | |
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