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Temysry
Sergeant
512 Posts
    
 | | 11/14/2006 7:50 AM |
| The Gelatinous Dudes hosted their first sealed event on Sunday November 12th. There were a total of 24 registered players and we had only 3 people as no-shows. Among those in attendance were people who commuted from the valley and a group all the way from Moncton (talk about dedication – had to get up when? 5am??). The format was 5 swiss rounds, prizes for the top 4 as well as a 1 booster door prize and 1 booster for the best sportsman (which is voted on my all players). We started the first round promptly (ahem) at 11am, taking a short ½ hour break for lunch and ended at 4:30pm. Everything went off without a hitch and a good time was had by all.
My pulls:
Fire Giant Forgepriest
Air Genasi Swashbuckler
Half-Orc Spy
Karsite Fighter
Earth Elemental Gargoyle
Elf Warmage
Celestial Giant Stag Beetle
Mezzoloth
Acheron Goblin
Doomguard
Hero of Valhalla
Harmonium Guard
2x Hammerer
2x Kobold Monk
My band:
Harmonium Guard
Fire Giant Forgepriest
Air Genasi Swashbuckler
Elf Warmage
2x Kobold Monk
Map: Mushroom Cavern
Having played the Fire Giant in an earlier sealed event, I knew what a beast he was going to be. I was also extremely happy to see a warmage in the band since she could dish out some serious pain if I could keep her safe early on. After that, it was pretty easy to fill out the band with the only commander I drew, a secondary beater and tile grabbers. I would have liked a greenspawn sneak since I had an extra point to spend but had no such luck. I opted to use mushroom cavern as my map for a couple reasons: First, it is a map many people don’t use often and I would have a slight advantage due to my familiarity for it. Second, I needed a chokepoint where my giant with reach could strike at enemies while protecting my fragile spell caster and commander. Third, I didn’t want big lines of sight for fireballs or other spells/abilities to hit me as I approached. So – this left me with the choice of King’s Road or Mushroom Cavern. I opted away from the forest at the last minute because I knew there were going to be some nasty fliers out there (pit fiend, dragon knight, horned devil, anything with Storm) and I didn’t want to have to slog through it all with my giant since he was already slow enough. The extra cover for my mage and giant didn’t outweigh this hindrance.
Round 1: vs Alahan
(Free League Ranger, Dragon Knight, Orc Wizard, Dwarf Sniper, Hammerer)
I won map and side initiative so we play on Mushroom Cavern and I set up on the left side. I was a little worried that the Dragon Knight would start picking off my support unit and fly around enough to avoid getting hit by my relatively slow Giant. Luckily, on the first round, he overextended the Dragon Knight to a point just below the central wall. I won initiative on the second round and opted to go first, pinning it between the Fire Giant and the Genasi – hitting with both attacks. Rather than fly away taking the AOO, he opted to stay and fight – swinging at the Giant. He missed both attacks on the second and third rounds. Even though he passed morale, by the end of the third round it was dead thanks to never missing an attack with either beater. All the while, my warmage was using shocking grasp and blast of flame to good effect – taking out the sniper and orc wizard.
Round 2: vs Scott B.
(Harmonium, Lord of Blades, Dragonmarked, Warmage, Phoera)
This time, I lost map but won side and opted to set up on the left hand side of the Dungeon of Blood. First round, I advance most of my troops into the large centre area, staying towards the bottom of the room. He started his units in the smaller start area and opts to advance most of them through the hallways across the top of the map. He cast the bane weapon augmentation on the Dragonmarked (vs. giants) and cast the energy protection (fire) on the Lord of Blades. His Phoera flew to the victory area within reach. I won initiative second round and charged the Phoera with my Genasi, hitting and routing it to a point a couple spaces from his exit. He moved his Harmonium Guard towards the centre pit for LOS and tried to rally the Phoera but failed. With the guard now on the front line, I pounced on the opportunity to double move my giant to base him. Third round, I routed the Harmonium Guard but my air genasi took a blast of flame from his warmage. I advanced my warmage to return the favour. Due to his slow speed (and an intervening kobold monk, the LoB had nothing useful to charge and couldn’t get a productive attack off and instead just moved towards the middle room while staying somewhat away from my giant. Fourth round, I shocking grasp his mage to death and advance my giant to start beating on his LoB. The Genasi was now free to move into a flanking position as well. Since his Dragonmarked was with the warmage, he couldn’t get back to help out his commander in time. Once the LoB went down, the game was conceded.
Round 3: vs. Grubbis
(Harmonium, Forgepriest, Large Water Elemental, Copper Dragon, 2x Acheron Goblin, Greenspawn)
At this point in the tournament there were 5 undefeated players – three of which were sporting the Forgepriest so I figured I’d have to face one of them.
I lost both map and side initiative and ended up playing from the cave side of Drow Outpost. First round we both got tile points thanks to my kobold monk and his greenspawn on the bridge. He overextended his copper dragon across the pit to a point where it was out of command. I won initiative in the second round, moved my giant to within reach and gave it a good whack, causing a morale save at +7 which he made. He then proceeded to fly the dragon into a position where it could breathe on my Harmonium Guard and warmage. They both failed the save and my warmage proceeded to fail morale as well and routed off the board. Things were not looking good. His forces began moving across the bridge, but after missing my kobold monk with 3 consecutive attacks by goblins and his commander, he was forced to waste an activation to kill it using his giant. Thankfully, due to the very constricted space, he had a hard time getting all his pieces to get to my giant at once. After a couple lucky rolls on my part and a couple unlucky ones on his part, I managed to take out his giant. For the record, it took no missed and a one crit from my giant and a total of 5 misses between his LWE and Firegiant. When I won initiative on the following round, he conceded once I killed a goblin and cleaved into the LWE, routing it.
Round 4: vs. Infurnace
(Storm, Fire Giant Forgepriest, Hammerer, Hero of Valhalla, Acheron Goblin)
Now there are 3 undefeated players in the tournament – 2 with firegiants and the other with a pit fiend/bodyguard combo. This is the one band I was most scared of facing while I was doing a little recon and I knew it was going to be 50/50 that I was going to play him this round. A flying, dolorous blow firegiant coupled with confusion spells, healing and silverfire made me quite nervous.
I won my map and side so I set up on the left side of Mushroom Cavern. Thankfully, I was able to pin down his giant between my giant and the genasi early on near the victory areas at the top of the map. After a couple of unlucky rolls on his part, my giant still had some breathing room before a morale check. My warmage had cast ring of blades on the first round and at the end of the third round, moved up to base his giant to unleash an empowered shocking grasp, dropping him to 40 hp. I was lucky enough to win initiative in the following round. The genasi hit with his first attack (using his second on something else nearby) dropping the giant to 30, and my warmage followed up with another shocking grasp to drop the giant (and moving away so that my giant didn’t take the damage from the ring of blades). After that, it was mostly mopping up since I still had both of my hitters left and a warmage with another blast of flame to use.
Round 5 vs. Senajeibot
(Harmonium Guard, Gnome Trickster, Marilith, Bluespawn, Hero of Valhalla, Gargoyle)
Most of my games during the tournament were fairly short, so I had the opportunity to wander around and watch some of the other games going on. I lingered for a while over the game between the undefeated pit fiend and a 3-1 Marilith band. I was hoping the Pit Fiend would win so that the finals would be between two undefeated players but it just wasn’t going to be the case. As it turns out, I still played the winner of that match and had to face the invisible marilith.
This was one of the most back and forth tense matches I’ve ever played. With an entirely invisible warband (and no blindsight in my warband) it was going to be tough match. I won map but lost side and started on the right side of Mushroom Cavern. He advanced his bluespawn to the chokepoint near the top of the map with the marilith close behind. My fire giant also moves to the front line, basing the bluespawn. I win initiative in the second round and although it pained me to do so, I opted to let him go first. The bluespawn let out his lightning bolt which caught both my warmage and firegiant (poor placement on my part). The warmage failed the save and morale but fortunately didn’t make it to the exit. His marilith then moved up and unleashed a full attack on the firegiant, dealing a total of 80 damage which caused a morale save that I fail. Again, the giant can’t make it off the board, but I’m now in dire straights. Luckily, he can’t quite get to my commander and I manage to rally both on the next round (sigh of relief here). I use the warmage as a blocker with her empowered ring of blades to base the marilith since most of my other spells were useless against it. This forces the marilith to take an additional 20 damage (bringing her to 75) and to waste valuable attacks to take her out. I do the same thing the following round with my commander which again eats up his attacks but he still knocks the giant down to 10 with a crit while I’m able to get a full attack off on the marilith for 40 damage, bringing her to 15. In the meantime, I only have a one kobold monk left in the lower victory area and his commander has been routing for the past couple rounds. His commander finally rallies and I realize that with nothing left on the board, who ever wins initiative on the next round is going to win. In a final desperate attempt to give myself an advantage, the kobold leaves the victory area and tries a stunning attack on the harmonium guard. Of course, that would have taken a miracle and it fails. Luckily, on the last round, he rolled a 5+3=8 for initiative, so it’s really come down to a coin flip. I need 9 or better to seal the deal and I get a 16. Fire Giant swings, marilith goes down, and my tile points push me over 200 for the victory.
Sadly, this pushed Senajeibot to 3-2 and out of the prizes but it was do or die, since a loss may have pushed me out of the prizes as well due to tiebreakers. The final standings/prizes had me at 5-0 (5 boosters), Infurnace, Bonelock and Zak X all at 4-1 (3 -1 – 1 boosters respectively) and everyone else at 3-2 and below. It was nice to see that there were no players that went 0-5 during the tourney and that there were no drops either. I think it’s a sign that everyone was having a good time. I’m very happy with the tournament, not only because of doing well, but because of the effort the organizers put into it – making everything run smoothly and efficiently. On top of everything else, Sunnray won the best sportsman award (1 booster) which he gave to Korvax for driving everyone down who came from Moncton. Just goes to show you that the prize was well deserved – a real gentleman.
I hope the GDs can continue to offer top notch tournaments in the future.
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A Proud Gelatinous Dude
www.gelatinousdudes.com
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bonelock
Underboss
1268 Posts
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Gohu
Sneak
80 Posts
| | 11/16/2006 10:26 AM |
| Thx for taking the time to write this reports !! it nice to have some feedback.
Since i cannot go to tournament that often, long distance travelling, (i know i'm not the only one) so it good to know information from «real» game !! 
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«I didn't came to play, i came to win» - Kamahl, Pit Fighter | |
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