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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
    
 | | 07/01/2006 4:50 PM |
| Entrants: 23
After Round 1 22 players remain.
This isn't the best attendance for a Santa Clara Pre-release. It is actually a bit below average, but there are twice as many PR events in California for this round, so some drop is expected. The encouraging thing is that there are a lot of new players at the event and some of the 'old school' players are here.
Model pull info and stats will follow shortly.
The top 4 tables in Round two
Alessio vs. Ian B(AoT)
Mike Domezio (AoB) vs Craig (AoB)
Wayne Loredo (AoT) v Ray Snyder (AoT)
Paul Mills (AoB) vs Brian McDaniels
There were 3 Aspects of Bahamut and Tiamat pulled (more Aspects than Stirges BTW). Round two features two mirror matches AoB vs. AoB and AoT vs. AoT. I'm looking forward to watching the AoB AoT matches.
Cheers, | |
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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 6:12 PM |
| Brian defeated Paul's AoB build in round 2. Mike Domezio's AoB, Godslayer beat Craig's AoB build.
Round Three match ups (All these players are 2-0)
Ray(AoT) vs. Feathers on ToQP
IanB (AoT) vs. Brian McD on FoR
Mike D. (AoB BSGS) vs. Lysle on Teleport Temple
There are 3 Aspect builds with 1-1 records.
No Aspect on Aspect matches this round.[:0]
Some map statistics
Map Name #players fielding %players fielding
Tomb of Queen Peregrine - 9 41%
Field of Ruin 7 32%
King's Road 3 13.5%
Hellspike 2 9%
Teleport Temple 1 4.5%
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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 7:35 PM |
| Ray Snyder (3-0, AoT, Cadaver Collector) vs Mike Domezio (3-0, AOB BSGS) on ToQP
IanB vs.(3-0, AoT,WotW) Lysle (2-1, HFS BSGS)on TT
Craig (2-1,AoB, Large Green) vs. Julius Wu (2-1,HFE,HFS)on FoR
John Sugden (2-1) vs. Feathers (2-1) on HS
Brian McD (2-1) vs. Wayne Laredo (2-1) on KR
Paul Mills (2-1) vs. Darksuit (1-2) on KR
Doranur (1-2) Jim Havey (1-2) on KR
Remix (1-2) vs. Jason Cvitkovich (1-2) on ToQP
LCS (1-2) vs. John Wang (1-2) on HS
Alessio Cei vs. Ben C. on ToQP
Tommy L. vs. Elder Basilisk on ToQP
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Richard II
Commander
3663 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 7:38 PM |
| | So all three of the undefeateds at this point have an aspect. Aspects are good is the message? [:)] | |
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ahmish
Sneak
58 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 7:41 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Richard II
So all three of the undefeateds at this point have an aspect. Aspects are good is the message? [:)]
That is the word on the street.[:D]
In the first three rounds only one player not running an Aspect defeated a player with an Anspect. Someone did manage to kil AoB last round AND lose the match. Rough luck there. | |
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IanB
Commander
3112 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 10:49 PM |
| The final match was me vs. the mighty Ninjaray with both of us at 4-0. I killed all of his band but the AoT, ran away like a wimp while gathering tile points for a few turns, but he eventually forced a combat between the two Aspects of Tiamat. I won the critical last initiative and finished him off - whoever won that one almost certainly wins the game.
So, 5-0 with this band:
Aspect of Tiamat
Warden of the Wood
Yuan-ti Halfblood Sorceress
Small Black Dragon
Meepo, Dragonlord
Poison Dusk Lizardfolk
My map was Queen Peregrine, although after playing one match on Teleport Temple, I was kicking myself for not picking it as my own map - the Aspect is murderous on that map. You can swift teleport in, breathe/full attack, breathe/full attack again, and swift teleport back out with her dual activation. Ridiculous.
The MVP of my band (besides the obvious Aspect) was the Warden of the Wood. Flamestrike was nice, but it was really briar web being able to tie pieces down so that my opponent couldn't score tile points on the first round or wasn't able to split up enough to avoid getting multiple targets hit by a breath weapon that made the piece worth it.
I pulled a mountain troll as my other huge, and slaughterstone eviscerator as my other regular rare. Sadly neither would fit with the AoT. | |
Anson on WotC boards | |
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Venport
Sergeant
739 Posts
| | 07/01/2006 11:54 PM |
| | i think it says that you can only teleport once per round and it talks about creatures with dual actvations... i don't have the rule book in front of me but i could be wrong... (i'll have to check it) | |
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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jgsugden
Commander
4320 Posts
Walnut Creek, CA
| | 07/02/2006 12:27 AM |
| I went 4-1, and was the only one in the top 7 that did not have an Aspect. Of course, I managed to avoid all the Aspect warbands (in fact, I managed to avoid playing against any huge rares...) - which was nice as I did not have any myself.
My band:
Blue Barney (BB)
Huge Fiendish Spider
Cadavor Collector (CC)
Redspawn Fireblecher
Cleric of Sydreth
Diseased Dire Rat
Hunting Hyena
Kobold Zombie
I passed on using a Displacer Beast Packlord (which is too vulnerable versus the breaths of the aspects I did not face), bonded summoner and some mediocre uncommons, but I managed to fit in all of the better pieces I pulled.
I choose the Hellspike map, as I didn't have great ranged stuff, and I wanted to force the aspects into melee if possible (if I played them, which I did not). I played on it 2 of 3 games despite never facing a better commander rating.
With three significant hitter options, I was in pretty goods shape... as long as I could avoid Tiamat and Bahamut. Which I did.
The bad news for my foes: I came into the day with the worst Bay Area limited ranking out there. I was in the mid 1500s... I had some horrible draws in my last few limited tourneys. I beat two very good players today, which may have cost them close to 16 points each...
It was a fun day, but I have to admit that WotDQ doesn't work well in 500 point limited. You just can't match the power of the Aspects with other pieces... even Blue Barney can get soloed by Tiamat before Barney gets a chance to attack. I'll be amazed if Tiamat or Bahamut don't end up winning 80% of the prereleases.
Rd 1 (of 5):
I played against Darksuit's HFE and Spider band on Hellspike. He topped off the band with a bonded summoner, magma hurler and golden protector. The fire protection that my blue barney obtained from the belcher left his HFE hitting for next to nothing. I was able to pretty much ignore it and wipe out the other threats. It was a bad match-up for him.
Rd 2:
I played against a Slaughterstone Eviscerator and Spider on Hellspike. I focused on the Slaughterstone first... and was glad I did. That thing was hard to hit. If he had a map where he could get cover against some of my hitters, I don't think I could have taken it down. I did manage to get it with a quadruple team, but it was not easy.
Rd 3:
My loss was in a pretty close to mirror match on Teleport Temple. I chalk up my loss here to lack of skill on the TT map. My foe was far better on it, baiting me into coming to him while he lurked on teleporters. I need to practice on this map. However, I did almost pull it out in the end... but I needed him to miss one of three attacks to gain the advantage back, and that just wasn't going to happen with those attack bonuses and ACs.
Rd 4:
I played against Elliott (Feathers), a friend of mine from Endgame in Oakland. He is a great limited player with an incredible ranking, so it was a bit bittersweet to beat him in this match. He ran a Mountain Troll, Spider and Yuan-ti Sorcerer for the main threats. His Mountain Troll hit once in the match - against Blue Barney, who made the stun save. From there, the CC and BB put the smack down on him and killed him in two rounds. 8 hits from those guys is 220 damage... enough to kill the troll after 1 round of healing. From there, my spider managed to beat his spider up enough to guarantee the win... My draw was just better than his for this tourney.
Rd 5:
I played against synecdoche (see below), who had very good tactical pieces: The Spider and Worm. His big problem: No source of magic weapon. This meant he'd need to gang tackle a big beater to take them down, as all 3 of mine had DR 5 or DR 10. I tried to prevent that with positioning. It worked to an extent, although I made two significant mistakes trhat cost me two attacks with my spider and forced me to give up the cleric | |
Champion of Meepo _*_ Myztek on the Wizards Boards. _*_ (2206 DDM on 03/06/06)
Please note: The use of the  indicates an attempt at humor ... often a bad attempt.
BAD EBAY SELLERS LIST (CLICK HERE): AVOID AT ALL COSTS
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kgradert13
Sergeant
909 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 1:25 AM |
| 1 teleport per round, even if you have dual activation.
Teleport Temple was still the map of choice for all 5 AoT bands at our pre-release. | |
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kgradert13
Sergeant
909 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 1:26 AM |
| Double post!
Warning! Sql errors abound! Eject! | |
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Lord Namalk
Skirmisher
33 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 1:36 AM |
| | We actually had a great turn out here in Sac. About 26 showed. At first, the talk was about Aspect of Bahamut or Tiamat. Both being very dominant. But as I suspected Draclich was very underated and thus our two finalist both had them in the final match. Ironically there the only ones that had them. If the Dracolich hits with his first attack on the tiamat or bahamut, the paralysis being DC23 can cause big problems for both AofT and AofB. Congrats to Jake for winning the tournament. Adventures was very generous for the winner providing 4 boosters to the winner. ΖD] | |
DM | |
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kgradert13
Sergeant
909 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 2:39 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Lord Namalk
But as I suspected Draclich was very underated and thus our two finalist both had them in the final match. Ironically there the only ones that had them. If the Dracolich hits with his first attack on the tiamat or bahamut, the paralysis being DC23 can cause big problems for both AofT and AofB.
All dragons are immune to paraylsis. Both Aspects are dragons, so they have nothing to worry about with the Dracolich, and in fact chew up and spit him out
[:)] | |
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Krush
Commander
3781 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 2:51 AM |
| Can we keep this thread on the Game Kastle tournament? [:P]
I am kicking myself for not going, even though Feathers and Jgsugden said that I should go. I am not in the league you guys are...any of you.
But sounds like a good time by all...
For me, I spent the day with the misses and one of the kids, and saw Superman Returns! Sequels (at least one!) to follow for sure.
Congrats to the winners and to all that played. | |
Gehenna | |
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IanB
Commander
3112 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 4:14 AM |
| | Oh man, now I feel really bad about playing that wrong. [V] At least it was only for one round instead of the whole tournament, I guess. | |
Anson on WotC boards | |
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synecdoche
Warrior
252 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 4:36 AM |
| I went 2-3, facing 3 aspects. My huge pulls were Purple worm and Huge Fiendish Spider, I ended up playing both, but frankly not a good band against the field (the lack of magic weapon especially hurt).
Actually, I'm a little dissapointed in WOTC because the sealed format was so good in Underdark, and almost as good in Wardrums. Seems like Sealed in WOTDQ is not going to be popular. I hope its a one-time blip representing the difficulty of getting things right in the huge packs, and we can get back to the underdark balance again.
-Synecdoche.
PS Hope the above doesn't sound like sour grapes. Its always good to see you guys. And congrats to Ian again. | |
Champion of the Green Hag | |
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doranur
Warrior
180 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 4:37 AM |
| | congrats to the winners, and those tougher than me who stuck it out. with my huges being the promo and huge fire and a purple worm, my rares meepo and the dragonborn fighter, and my only commander the demonic gnoll, i probably should have dropped before the first round. still good times even if i repeatedly got my butt handed to me. I managed to come in 2nd in the second tourney so not too bad a day although still a few points down heh. | |
-Doranur
join the revolution! down with round/turn fascism! viva la resistance! | |
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Darksuit
Skirmisher
44 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 1:42 PM |
| I pulled;
Magma Hurler
Golden Protector
HFS
HFE
Bonded Summoner
Wererat Rouge
Small Copper Dragon
Greenspawn razorfiend
Aasimir Fighter
War Ape
CoL
Kobold Zombie
White Spawn Hordeling
Dread Warrior
Witch Knife
I played MH,GP,HFS,HFE, WRR, Bonded, GSRF and the witchknife.
I think this really was the best band i was going to get out of what I had.
My first match against jgsugden (who by the way is only 3 points behind me at the moment in Limited standings =) ) went prety much like he said. It was a really bad match up. We played on Hellspike his map, there wasn't a whole lot I could do against his pieces. I did manage to kill his commander for what it was worth. Not a great game. In retrospect I should of focused all my attention on the fire belecher first and taken it down, so i could at least do some damage to Barney.
0-1
My second Match I don't remember who it was against, but it was another Blue Barney Band. We played on QPT. This match also was not a great match up. With no magic damage in my warband and a lot of DR out there, it really hurt.
0-2
My Thrid match was against A guy playing Griffon Rider and Sorc on Dragon.We palyed on my Map QPT. I was able to Get off the first round Evil Blast from the Golden Protector. After that I was able to dismantle this band fairly quickly keeping the Witch Blade within 6 of the Sorc for a large portion of the game.
1-2
Fourth Match against Paul Mills. Paul was playing an AoB. We played on KR. Again not a great match up for me. Paul was doing pretty good. I did make one mistake that hurt me a bit. Which was in the placement of my BFS. Had he been a few more squares over, the HFE would still have been within six but not within the cone of the AoB. As it was the AoB used his cone of cold on the HFE and BFS. I did the check on the HFE first. Who at that point is immune to cold, next the BFS failed his check and died taking the Magma Hurler with it. After that it was a slugfest trying to kill off the A0B. If I could down it the rest of the Warbadn was easy pickings. I was able to get the AoB down to around 50 or Less HP before my warband was put out of its misery.
1-3
At this point I droped for the Second Tournament.
Second Tournament. (200 PT two boosters)
We did a sealed WotDQ and Underdark
My Pull here was ok.
I ran;
Slayer of D.
Dolgaunt Monk
Doom Fist Monk
Small Black D.
Whitespawn Hordeling
Yuan-Ti Sorc.
Drow Arcane Guard
Gold Dwarf Soldier
No Real Hitter here just a lot of small hitters.
we went 3 rounds, My map was Mithril Mines.
First ROund verus Gylnn Dewey.
Glyn played AoK, LGD, GSRF, Gwen(comm 0) we played on his map Hellspike Prison. Glyn was able to get a number of pieces with the Acid breath, I was able to Route both Kord and GSRF, however niether made it off the board. I was also not able to kill or Route Gwen before rally check to bring them both back. At that point it was a tough match and a no go.
Second Round BYE
1-1
Third Round Verus Darsen Chen
Darsen was running Warden of the Wood, Mounted Halfling, Roper, and filler. We played on his map Keep of Fallen Kings. This is a great map for the Roper with only 2 start areas its 50/50 first round tile points. First round Darsen was able to get off his Flamestrike from the WotW against my whole warband. This took out a couple pieces right off the bat, and put us at equal for activation control. I slowly but surely made my way across the map and used my slayer to take out his WotW and then beat through everything but the roper and then tile grab for the remaining points.
2-1
I tied for 2nd with Eric Cleaver. We drafted 2 packs of WotDQ, I pulled a Purple Worm, War Ape and TwigBlight.
Since I really only wanted the Purple Worm from this set, I was happy in the end. | |
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elder_basilisk
Sergeant
410 Posts
| | 07/02/2006 8:24 PM |
| The first tournament was horrid. I played 2x huge fiendish spider, warden of the woods, cleric of Syreth, spellscale sorcerer, cleric of laogzed, doomfist monk, witchknife and went 1-3 (would have been 0-4 if my 4th round opponent had gotten even marginal use out of his pieces).
After the fourth round, other people were willing to drop and start a second tourney--which mercifully enabled my misery to end. Rather than trying pure WotDQ again, we went with a 200 point sealed with one underdark and one WotDQ booster. I had great pulls except for the lack of a commander. In the end, I ended up running: Aspect of Kord, large green dragon, greenspawn razorfiend, guenhwyvar (commander 0--the image of Guen meowing and Kord saying "what's that Kitty, come back to the fight? I don't think so" is highly amusing. You can see why she's commander 0).
Thinking that I needed an open map in order to get my three large based hitters into the fray all at once, I had a few choices for maps: Hellspike, Tomb of Queen Peregrine, King's Road, Fane of Lolth, etc. Knowing that there were a lot of possible line of sight are effect attackers (warden of the wood, death slaad, half-fiend ogre, golden protector, etc), I decided to kick tomb of queen peregrine out of consideration (my first tourney experience demonstrated to me that, unless I was perfect in my positioning, I would most likely be eating that first turn template. I hate King's Road (and it's not really a good choice for the speed 6 large base razorfiend either), so Hellspike it was.
Round 1: against Dave True. I tried to keep my figures spread out and in the smoke in order to avoid a round 2 empowered burning hands from his drow arcane guard (at least without him sacrificing something in order to target nearest friendly). As it turned out, it didn't matter. I won initiative on turn 2 and had a nearly perfect cone on the majority of his warband. Following that up with Kord started the match on the right foot. A couple stuns on the razorfiend and routes from both kord and the razorfiend (both of who later rallied) put the match in doubt for a little bit, but after I eliminated the Slayer of Domiel, it was over.
Round 2: against Darsen. I lost map init and ended up on the ruined keep map. I started out by sending Kord around the bottom of the map to come up on his commander and backfield and the green dragon flying across the top with the same goal. (I decided that duking it out with the roper in the victory area and watching him flame strike, weaken, shoot, and briar web my minis was a bad idea--I could win by eliminating his pieces even without garnering assault points. The plan worked--more or less. A briar web slowed Kord down in the second round, but in the third, I routed his commander and followed up with the green dragon. My mistake was not basing the mounted halfling with Kord because the halfling proceeded to shoot kord twice and route him. The rope then critted Guen and routed her. Guen rallied, Kord didn't, his warden of the woods didn't, the razorfiend critted and routed the roper. After that, the green dragon and Guen mopped up the halfling and the remaining figures (though we observed that the Roper was going to take forever to route off the board moving at speed 2 through difficult terrain).
Round 3 against Doranur: This looked like a rough matchup. He had a mercenary sergeant (non-0 commander), duergar champion, ogre skirmisher, tordek, dwarf champion, a half-fiend ogre, and a hunting hyena--quad hitters with at commander and a tile grabber. The first round was positioning. He left all of his figures in the smoke except for one corner of the skirmisher. It turned out to be an important corner. In round 2, he won initiative and made me go first. No complaints here. I moved up and hit the ogre with an aggressive kord then breathed with the green dragon on his entire band. I double moved the razorfiend around the back of his band to get it into the action. Then his actual activations started... and he missed every single attack. The next round, I killed the ogres and put the hurt on Tordek. By the end of the fourth round, I had killed everything but his duergar champion (who had routed and then rallied). When I disengaged and flew my green dragon down to the sacred circle victory area, he conceeded. | |
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NinjaRay
Warrior
268 Posts
| | 07/03/2006 4:43 PM |
| Gratz to Ian, he played it smart and leveraged his tech to defeat my beef.
I'd like to call Shenanigans on WotC though, one thing I've noticed after playing in a few Prereleases is that Wackyness abounds as far as Rares are concerned. At the WotDQ Prerelease the number of rares huges pulled was very high and the Aspects seemed to out number the other Huge rares by a large margin. We had 3 of each aspect and 1 of each other rare. I'd say that this could be a truily random result, but at the Dragoneye prerelease, one of the volinteers got a Case of Product (a Prerelease case) and I watched him pull 3 or 4 Large Reds (sorry I can't remember the exact ammount). I'be seen similar paterns at other Prereleases too. So now I'm thinking WotC stacks the prerelease cases with the chase rares to gernerate interest and showcase the beefy figures. Morale of the Story, go to more Preleases! [:D] | |
Beatdown Happens.... | |
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TianZi
Skirmisher
25 Posts
| | 07/07/2006 6:14 PM |
| I'm Mike Domezio. I eked out a 2nd place finish even though I lost to the third place guy. I played vs 2 Tiamats, beat one, lost to the other.
I had what many considered to be the best pull. A AoBahamut and the Blue Godslayer guy. After 3 rounds I was barely challenged so had to agree.
4th round I saw my first Tiamat and she had a CC and another midlevel beater with her. I lost this one. In the loss, on ToQP map, I made two key errors with AoB. He opened up a charging lane, close to his start/exit area and I did not take it. I tried to get my BB inthere 1st... but his big base was clogged by the other 2 midlevel hitters. BB never swung on AoT. Eventually, it came down to Aspect v Aspect and I made another made move. I routed him with my first attack, but did not follow to base. She only moves F4 and was nowhere near the exit. But... was I based, she would have failed the 2nd Morale Save as well.
Moral to others before their prerelease... use Bahamut to base Tiamat ASAP. Preferably as close to her exit as possible. AoTiamat is a lower level and lower CR, so the Aura of Fear really works.
But I cheesed my way into 2nd and got some good prizes and had a blast. | |
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