Hi everyone, We had 6 players for the GoB Bloodwars Sealed event, myself, Zac Drake, Paul Mills, Lysle Kapp, Andrew Whycantirememberhislastname, and John Wang. Lysle and Paul both placed in the top four at the War of the Dragon Queen pre-release down in Santa Clara, and of course John and I both took first place at Bloodwar prereleases, John in Santa Clara and myself in Sacramento. Notable pulls at this smaller event included Lysle's Forgepriest, Paul's Horned Devil, Andrew's Thundertusk, and Zac's Marilith. We paired off at Random: Paul v. Lysle, John v. Andrew, and Zac v. me. I didn't catch much of the other matches except to know that Paul's HD stunned Lysle's FgFp enough times that Paul managed to pull out a victory on tile points. I also know that John beat Andrew, but I do not know any details. I played against Zac, who had managed to pull a combo I had feared in sealed since learning the set: Marilith + Doomguard. He also had a Medium Copper Dragon, a L. Water Elemental, 2 Greenspawn Sneaks, Soldier of Bytopia and an Acheron Goblin for 8 activations. I had pulled Centaur War Hulk and Air Genasi Swashbuckler as my two rares. From my experience in Sacramento, I knew the Centaur was a glass cannon, but I couldn't ignore the potential 30dmg whirlwind attack. Especially because I had a Free League Ranger for that one time initiative boost. After those three, I had to choose between activations or beefiness. I chose to finish off my band with only five minis, including a LWaterE, who can be very powerful, and the very fun Elven Warmage. We all played on the Broken Demongate, I started on the "good" side. I placed my LWE, FLR, and EW in the "front" starting area, and left my two rares to "catch up". 1st comment: Broken Demongate HATES the LWE, he can't get anywhere! Even though I thought to sneak my AirGS back around, Zac placed his Marilith in the way so I ran screaming and we ended up tangling in the middle, so the CWHulk was never in a position to Powerful Charge :-( Zac and my match pretty much boiled down to two mistakes (one each). Mine was first. I placed my two weaker minis (FLR & EW) in a perfect line for his Medium Copper to get off its 20pt Acid Breath, and both of my minis have exactly 40hp, of course :-( I proceed to fail my save w/ the EW, but luckily pass the morale! I then fail my save w/ the FLR, but again (very) luckily pass the morale. Zac then hits the EW with another 10 points from one of the Greenspawn, leaving the EW with only 10HP! The 2nd mistake was Zac's - placing his minis in ways I could cone them effectively. The EW moved forward and Fireblasted away three of his activations in the 3rd round (a GrSn, SoB, and AG). I then used my Initiative boost on the 4th round to move the EW in position to Empowered Fireblast his LWE and MCDragon (and the Marilith, which is immune...). The Centaur then removed Zac's LWE before it could get a chance to do much damage. Zac moved up his marilith within two spaces of my Warhulk and tried to take out my EW with his MCD - swing and a miss! My AGS pulled of his first hit against Zac's MCD, which was the first mini of the skirmish to fail it's morale save... and it was basing my CWHulk... swat! The last round of initiative was pretty important. I won and was able to hit the Marilith with my WarHulk, then move away, not taking enough damage to force a morale check. My EW was also able to move away to safety and survive! Zac's Marilith / Doomguard combo did spell defeat for my LWE, but all Zac had left were those two minis (and another Sneak somewhere...) and I flew my AGS to base his Doomguard. With that the skirmish was over - my glass cannons triumphant. Zac agreed he was not nearly aggressive enough with this Marilith. Hope you've all enjoyed this summary (if you read this far! :-). Cheers, -Ben |