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SYB
Warrior
328 Posts
    
 | | 04/29/2007 12:08 PM |
| Uggggh
That about describes my day yesterday. I went 3-3 and it definitely felt like one of the longest days of my life. I probably could have played a little better, but the dice killed me even more than good play or bad play.
Warband: Dragon Totem Hero, LBD x3, Xeph x3
Round 1: vs. Dan (Storm, CWW x4, Bat, fodder; King's Road)
 I lost map initiative (this was going to prove to be a theme for the day, losing every single map initiative the entire day) and played on the first of six entirely different maps. I did win side initiative and placed on the "woodsier" side. The only really interesting thing of round 1 was two xephs (mine and his) sitting in the central victory area. Those two guys basically swung and missed each other for most of the game (while collecting victory points each round). Round 2 involved a LOT of lines. Lightning bolts and breath weapons went flying with saves being about as expected (I made most or all of the 5+ saves for lightning and he went about 50/50 on breath weapons). I got my first edge when I hit an out of command CWW with a breath weapon and sent him running. After that, I pushed full force with melee violence. The DTH's commander effect kicked in a few times giving me full attacks. After Storm bit it (he was down to one CWW and I still had two dragons and my commander left), he gave up.
1-0
Round 2: vs. Sirohk (Ultroforge; King's Keep)
 Honestly, I am sick and tired of playing Sirohk. Don't get me wrong, he is a great guy and a great player, but every single tournament we are in, we get paired up, usually knocking one of us out of the finals. It didn't help that he was playing the worst matchup I could get. He won map (sigh) and my chances of winning really started to fall. I denied him first round victory points by swarming his victory area with Xephs. Then I played keep away while trying to take out his DHoD. Setting up some rather exotic lines (first time I've ever used a 2/5 rise over run), I managed to fry the DHoD (and some fodder), but he managed to Enfeeble and Exhaust one of my dragons (thereafter referred to as Mr. Worthless). Miraculously, his bat made a save against one of the lines. Down on points and time running out, I made a gambit for his Ultroloth. Unfortunately, the gambit failed and I resigned when my last worthwhile dragon routed.
1-1
Round 3: vs. [Forgot his name] (Storm, Virtuous Charger x2, VNC, Bat, Standardbearer, Wolf x2; Fane of Lolth)
 Fane of Lolth?! Talk about unexpected maps. I hadn't looked at this map in over a year and my opponent had been practicing on it. I knew this was going to be rough. As a side note, this was my 3rd guy from NY in a row. Somehow, despite playing in PA, I played the Syracuse crowd. I won side and let him set up first. I set up opposite corner from him. Neither one of us got first round VPs and I kept my dragon horde over 12 away from his VCs. He moved Storm far back and relied on the Standardbearer to do the work. This is where I got my first edge. Even though he nailed my DTH hard with the VNC (Human Foe and Bladebearer), I sent a breath weapon through his VNC into the Standardbearer (killing it and leaving Storm out of position). He continued to work on my DTH over that round and the next (85 damage in two rounds), but, in doing so, left a VC adjacent to my DTH and with a dragon 2 squares away from it on the other side. Two steps plus commander effect equaled badly battered VC. He killed my DTH in round 4, but I killed his VC and routed another one (Storm just took too long to get into position). He routed a dragon and beat the stuffing out of another dragon, but I managed to kill the VNC in round 5. I was down to one full dragon and one dragon at 20 health plus two Xephs. He had Storm and a bat. We had each gotten VPs every round but round 1. At the beginning of round 6 he made a crucial mistake. Instead of moving Storm 6 spaces, basing my injured dragon and attacking him once, he used Storm's archery and then moved to within one space of the dragon. I exhibited cowardice and ran like a scared little girl (Storm's line was already used up and my other dragon at full health was bodyguarding the nearly dead dragon). After that, I just waited out rounds until I broke 200.
2-1
Round 4: vs. [Eventual 2nd place guy] (Vlaakith, LBD, Thrall, Small Black Dragon, Cursed Spirit, fodder; Dragon Graveyard)
 Another round, yet another completely different map. I set up to avoid a first round disintegrate on any of my big guys and then took first initiative to move my Xephs into blocking for fireballs. We both earned first round VPs. Second round he double moved his Thrall and swift attacked a Xeph (for 20 hps) and then based another Xeph. He also sent a line of acid through my DTH. I rolled a 1 on the save (taking 20 damage). This proved to be the beginning of my dice hatred for the day. I had a dragon 2 squares away from his dragon, so I took the obvious move and proceeded to rout his dragon (he would eventually rally). He returned the favor by disintegrating my dragon (rolled a 2 on that save). The dragon made morale. I pushed forward agressively, dropping a line of Vlaakith (full damage) and sent my two uninjured dragons to flank Big V. When time came for their full round attack, they proceeded to have a large volley of misses (one dragon rolled 3, 3, 6). Over a total of 9 attacks (across multiple rounds), I hit twice. Even worse, the cursed spirit and an orc went hog wild on my DTH, hitting with basically every attack (his immunity to flanking did help once though). Eventually he got knocked down to half and rolled morale at +14. Another 1. Off the board. My slight chance of winning disappeared when my opponent proceeded to crit on one of my dragons with both the Thrall and his dragon.
2-2
Round 5: vs. [I'm bad with name] (Storm, CWW x2, VC, Gnome Trickster, Bat, fodder; Tomb of Queen Peregrine)
 I was facing a Pgh resident (finally!). But, the map really threw me for a loop. I can say, for a fact, I have only ever played on this map once before in my entire life. Round 1 was boring positioning. Since I wasn't two concerned by the lightning bolts, I avoided the VC more than the CWWs. This set me up very well in round two. He had placed his CWWs out of line of sight of Storm AND beyond six squares away. I moved one dragon to set up the line and moved the another dragon to breath on both CWWs. Naturally, my opponent made both saves. He returned the favor with Storm's line and then shot a lightning bolt through the two of them. I needed 5+ to save. I rolled a 2 and a 4. Gah! The VC slaughtered a dragon, but he set up a wonderful line through Storm, both CWWs and the VC. I took it. All four units made their save. Beyond that, it was a lot of messy close quarters fighting. I missed way more than my fair share of attacks and the last dragon failed his morale save (naturally). I called it at that point.
2-3
Round 6: vs [Some local kid] (Lion of Talisd, Storm Archer, Large Brass Dragon, Wand Expert, Elf Warrior, Deepshadow Elf; Broken Demongate)
 I hate this map. Not that it matters. In truth, this match was no challenge whatsoever. My opponent started by blurring the Dragon and the Deepshadow Elf (weird) and putting Cat's Grace on the Dragon and the Storm Archer. I just moved in. On round 3 I got to drop an acid line through his dragon, Wand Expert and Deepshadow Elf. All three failed their save. In the same round, I full attacked the Storm Archer (I had based it the previous round) with another dragon. My first two rolls were crits. He dropped a fire line through my dragon and hit it with a flame strike (dragon made both saves). Next round, both the Lion and the Dragon were put down by full attacks from my dragons (the Brass actually fled, not that it matters). In the end, I had taken 25 damage on a dragon and has lost a single Xeph. The match wasn't even close. I talked to the kid about army design after that and explained where he was making a few mistakes. We got along pretty well and he appreciated the help. So, I didn't feel quite as bad about the match after that.
3-3
 I had initiative 3. Over the course of the day, I faced initiative 3 twice, initiative 4 three times and initiative 5 once. On average, I had about a 45% chance of winning any given map initiative. I am dumbfounded at having lost every single one.
 Beyond that, the competition was strong (23 attendees) with a good deal of strong players in the mix. Now I just need to figure out how to win a few more games.
-SYB | |
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Sirohk
Commander
3800 Posts
USA
| | 04/29/2007 12:50 PM |
| Great report SYB.  Yup, we always seem to get paired against eachother lately.  Ours was a very good game (and your strategy almost worked) and you had a very good warband that IMO should have done better.Â
Thanks much for a great game.Â
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Sirohk, the Bard of Heartstone
Knight of the Rahshasa's
And Crusader of the Zakya, Ak'chazar, Naztharune, and Naityan Rakshasa's | |
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SYB
Warrior
328 Posts
| | 04/29/2007 6:32 PM |
| As an interesting side note, there was a total of one LG band at our qualifier. It was a modified SWarm band that used a Aasimar (or maybe a Lantern Bearer, I forget) to light up the concealed. It played on Ratfang Sewers and went 3-0 (amazingly beating a dual Beholder Lich band) until it ran into a spat of bad luck and then went 0-3 for the last half of the tourney.
-SYB | |
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YRM_DM
Sergeant
905 Posts
| | 04/30/2007 6:58 AM |
| I was going to go to that event, but some things came up. Part of me didn't want to go (though I still would have) because I couldn't imagine the 30 people packed into PoTA last year fitting into MNGG.
Even 23 people sounds like a relatively tight fit for that store, though Ron is a very nice guy and runs a good event. | |
Completed good trades with Demagogue, PigSnot, DoB, and Alepulp.
I know you can hear MY thoughts... Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow... | |
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Custom Title
WakeXX
Warlord
10131 Posts
Edinboro PA
| | 04/30/2007 11:00 PM |
| | I would have liked to have made it down as well, alas work got in the way yet again. Hope you guys had fun. | | | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
7146 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 05/01/2007 12:36 PM |
| Sounds like a tough tournament. Kudos for helping the kid later on. It's more things like this that help the community.
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Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
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Fundin Strongarm
Sneak
58 Posts
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
| | 05/01/2007 2:31 PM |
| | There were actually 2 LG warbands, though the second one faired poorly. It was Maugx2, Kolyarut, Sacred Watcherx4. | |
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SYB
Warrior
328 Posts
| | 05/01/2007 3:47 PM |
| Really? Wow! There were a couple different guys tracking the various warbands and none of them noticed that. Nice catch!
-SYB | |
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Donald
Skirmisher
30 Posts
| | 05/02/2007 12:39 PM |
| Round five was me. I was amazed at the saves I made and you missed! The previous round I missed so many easy saves and hit rolls I guess I was due. I didn't understand why you didn't use a Xeph for the Dragon's target instead of the other Dragon, especially with all my line effects. Storm making everyone fearless in the middle of the cluster fight helped a good bit too.
Ron (store owner) arranged the tables so you could get two matches to a table and as a back up borrowed the empty store next door and set up tables in it. There weren't any real space issues and everything went very smooth. Ron takes tournaments very seriously and does put a lot of effort into making them go smoothly.
I was glad I only faced one local and got to play a bunch of "Foriegners". Playing different people always teaches you something new. There a tournament May 31st if anybody wants to come back up.
Don
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