I just got in so I'll do a quick update and save the full report for later. We had 16 attendees. We played 5 rounds of Swiss. Chris Pinyan (Tundrin) went 5-0 in Swiss with a Ballista/Couatl/CWW/COO/ShGuard band. Eric Samhammer finshed 2nd at 4-1 with FBx2/IM/Trickster. Eric Zipfel finshed 3rd in Swiss at 4-1 with FGFP/Ultro/LDuergx3. And I finished 4th in Swiss at 4-1 with Storm/VCx2/CWW. I had only lost to Eric Zipfel in the very first round on the closest of margins. We were both at 195 pts and were both on VA to end in a dead tie at 205-205. But I moved too hastily thinking Eric was tapped out and I announced I had won on closest piece to the center. But Eric had a Goblin Warrior left to activate and ran to the center to be one square closer than my Graycloak Ranger to win. I could have postioned the Graycloak on the center and won instead.

In the Top 4 matches Eric Samhammer defeated Eric Zipfel and I defeated Chris. Eric S. then offered to drop because he had a 5 hour drive home and already had travel plans for Gen Con. I accepted and then gave him my prize boosters as gratitude and won the tournament by drop.

Eric S. is a really cool guy and I was glad to meet him. Thanks to Jester's Playhouse for a really fun event.

My full report will follow this week.

For the record I played the exact same band that Mark Liberman used in NC.

Storm Silverhand
Cormyrean War Wizard
Virtuous Charger x2
Graycloak Ranger
Wolf
Mialee
Bat Familiar
Jozan
Xeph

Map: Dragon Shrine

I finished at 5-1.

 

Thanks for the report chad.  And Congrats to all!Â

 

 

MY report will come in installments as I find the time...suffice to say that after going 3-3 last year, I was hoping to be 4-2 and I am thrilled to have gone 5-0 and offer my thanks to Jesters for a efficiently run tourney (wth one little controversy) as well as hot dogs and hamburgers and all participants, I never heard a raised voice and only one call for Judge throught the entire 6 rounds. Congrats to Eric, eric and Chad. Finally - thank you to Alepulp for his version of a band I had played a lot last fall.

Band selection:

Flash back to '06 qualifier, My apsect of moradin, loyal earth elemental band got obliterated by Dan McManus's (Xenozephyr) Ballista-couatl-marut band. Maybe I still had that in my subconsious.

In the fall I was running Bal-Cout-Tordek, then after Blood War used Aasimar favored soul, sacred watcher, Maug. It had trouble with dancers (or at least I did). Then I did Melf -dancers, Storm dancers. Finally in Feb MArch Storm mage with DmArk and a Flying Paladin band. Reading all the qualifiers I noticed: Lots of big bases (LBD, WWL, Virtuous chargers, Forgepriest) and lots of energy damage. So I thought about Ballista Coutal again. I dont like one sided bands, so I needed a blocker / melee threat and a decent map / init chance.

Then I read the AZ and UK reports which had the band (I attribute it to Alepulp, but if was someone elses my apologies) with the Shield Guardian and CWW. The SG lets the couatl survive longer, use extra spell and after mialee's MW attacks +11/+11 for 15 magic (against most bands that should hit pretty often) and the CWW had decent lines and short range spells. A very important slide spell to unbase the Ballista if necessary makes him (IMHO) more valuable than the 33pt War weaver (who has zilch offense)

I had 3 or 4 vassal matches with it in the 2 weeks prior to qualifier. LE mixed bag(won) Ulmoswarm (led up until the very end had ulmo at 10hp), WWL LBDx2 (beat), CG mixed bag (won). On maps dragon temple, grotto, broken demongate, kings road. With my previous Ballista experience I felt good going in.

Bad matchups: Invisible band, Ulmo swarm, quad CE speed hiters on a bad map, maybe dancers?, Storm maybe?
Vs invsible I could target my own pieces with Lightning and have a chance for no damage, vs Dancers - I figure I have to kill the Wild Elf asap. I figure I can beat LBD's and FGFP/ultro, in a 60 minute match - I think I can beat Ulmo. Solar might be tough, If I give up the CWW or SG to the slaying arrow I think I have a chance, I can dish out 50-70points per round to his 10 at range, not counting spells.

Arcane Ballista, Couatl, Shield Guardian, Cormyrean War Wizard, Cleric of ORder, Mialee Timber Wolf x 2 CR5 200/8
I thought about a bat insteead of mialee, but the SG really needs MW with all the DR out there

Qual day : Looking around the bands (I do not know who has a list) I saw  really good variety:
Ballista, Pit Fiend, Cad Collector, Storm+4 CWW, Balrog, Storm + 2VC, Invisi-frenzy, Ogre war hulk, Ultro-LE quad, Ultro-Forge, WWL-3LBD, WWL-2LBD thrall and dual Tuscori (yes I said dual Tuscori - that was Xenozephyr who had said he had a "fun" band because he would be judging at Gen con and had no need / intention of qualifying. I told him that he could at least be confident that NO ONE had practiced against that band.

There were NO - Dancers, Ulmo, Marut, Large Silver, Solar (good - that was 2 matches I didnt want).

Match 1
Kevin, Field of Ruin, Pit Fiend, Mezzo x 2, Kobold Warrior.
With all of the expected >8 activation warbands I was surprised to see a 4 act band. But with 4 AOE attacks, I guess he expected to clear out fodder quickly.
He won map, I dont remember who won side. Round 1 he took out a wolf with fireball (I had split my band) 1 mezzo put a cloudkill on a couple pieces, but I brought up the AB and couatl to shoot him once. I buffed Couatl with save+3 , MW on SG. I got VP with other wolf (10-5)
Round 2 he gets kobold on VA, we exchange another pair of shots one each mezzo, last cloukill - i made most of my saves. Mezzo makes MC, 20-15
Round 3 he advanced pit fiend, I put 2 ballista shots on him (SG stored a snakes swiftness), then Phalanxed frost, sonic orb and (final insult - mialee magic missile for the kill) I ran my center wolf too far VA, mezzos advanced and attacked SG. 135-25
Round 4 I took out one mezzo , then lightning bolted the kobold. 195-25 and he conceded.

I have only been playing for 14 months, so I consider myself new, but the theme from my first 4 opponents was "wow that ballista can hurt!"

(next to me I saw that Eric had to play Dan - at least they woudl have lots to talk about during their 5 hour ride home)

Match 2
John - Illuminated One
We had been trying to get on vassal for 3weeks but never were on at the same time. I was prety sure he was running a LBD band - and that was it.
WWL, LBDx3, Orc Warrior x 2, Timber Wolf Hyena Hellspike

I lost map (again) - I knew Hellspike would be bad, but I could cover two VA's ad I had good resistance.
I took the bottom right.
Round 1 he advaced intot he smoke at the bottom, getting ready to pounce. I sent one wolf to my lower VA, the other to stand in front of the hellspike VA. His orcs would have to take an aoo to get there in round 2, he sent both wolfs to one space away form the upper wolf. I buffed he SG (MW) and Coutal (resist)10-0 and tried to spread out to limit the effect of the imminent lines
Round 2 I wanted to get the dragons in sight while i still had some good attacks, that meant activation control, so I used the ballista to lightning sphere the wolf/hyena, they both passed the save but failed MC's. Knowing he would probably not survive lines, I used the other resist on the more important CWW.
John spent a while positioning, but finally chose a line that got everyone but the SG (good line!) Mialee dead, CWW saves for 0, coatl 0, CoO fails for dead. He is also now basing the CWW. An orc attacked and missed my wolf. So I used snakes on the balista added a bolt, shot the dragon ad he failed his ooc MC, flew away. I thought about running the wolf to the top to avoid the WWL going fearless, but I figured it would not be so bad keeping the WWL away from me for one round - it would also make any LBD that came at me ooc for MC's which proved to be important.
So the CWW lined up the SG for a lightning bolt, next to the couatl and hit both black dragons. I think they both saved. WWL goes and kills the wolf.  Another dragon came up, a little fuzzy but i kelled one this round, so now one is dead, one is routing. 59-39
Third round he rallles a LBD, but I rout another one, kill another one He routs the CWW and he fails MC 104-69
Round 4, The WWL comes back and gets a face full of bolts for his trouble, he and the last LBD go down - match. And 2-0

LBD's can be kept in the smoke and target each other with acid lines, that woudl havee let them get some damage on me without being targeted by the ballista. Then he could have flown all three and the WWL in in wo acts tot ry and base my casters. I did keep the ballista protected from being based in the beginning, but once mialee and the Coo were gone, there was always one 2x2 place open.  

 Round 3 - me - "Hey I win my map" John "I have never played on grotto" me drool drool......
Anoher low act band:
Ultroloth, Large Green Dragon, Duergar Champ, Zak Rak, Kobold Miner, Sahuagin Ranger
(I had heard / seen John Zink miss repeated spell resistance checks against this band. I knew 2 things 1 - dont cast spells at the Ultro or Zak, 2 dont swing / shoot at the DC - given a choice of course)

John won side init, i explained the terrain and nuances of the map - he had no idea and I know the good pointsof both sides. He eventually took the dead side and I set up on the water side. Miner set up in the shared VA.
I set up mostly near the lake, mialee and SG at the bottom.
Round 1 - magic missile miner to keep him form VP's. I move up my wolf to upper VA. He winds up advancing all pieces othe lower dead forest area, I buffed. 10-0
Round 2 I buff, move ballista to the woods over the main rocks with a view of the valley, he moves all his pieces o the upper woods (really struggling with a strategy) But he moved his dragon over to my side - more drooling...20-0
Round three
With LOS i put two shos into the dragon and kill it - whew, that was a big nut. He advanced, I LB his Ranger in the shared VA it passes MC. He scorches wolf #1 and it fails MC, so I move th4 next one up. 81-15
Round 4
And LB kills the ranger, I rout the Zak with a big bolt. Ultro scorches and routs the other wolf. 96-30
Round 5 I rout the ultro, then also pass SP with a phalanxed cold bolt to put him at 5hp. Mialee is in the VA. The ultro has 5hp and needs to rally. time is called at 106-30,
Another round and the score would have been at least 188-30 with two bolts and a ray to kill the loth and more VP for me. Win 3-0 so with only 5 rounds I knew i had passed last year's results - and had agood shot at qualifying. If I went 3-2 I would at least have good tiebreakers.

He admitted he ook too long to get going. I think he shoudl have come in leading with the DC in some woods, ecent AC and conceal would have made my ballistae have a tougher time,  He did try dark suggestion on the SG, bt it passed. I was thinking he would enfeeble or exhause the ballista - that would have been annoying.

Here something weird happended. Poit values were messed up. Eric and I knew we were the only 3-0's and expected to play. When pairings were announced we both had a 2-1 opponent. I didnt argue, I was in no hurry to face invisifrenzy. just thought it odd. Turns out the points were wrong, so the top 4 later received warnings for not checking our points. Ultmiately I dont think it mattered based on who made the top 4 and that most matches were not that close.

Sometimes there are rolls that even though the final outcome migt have been the same, really decide a match, following had the first one of three for me.

Round 4 John Marilith, Red Samurai x 2 Gnoll x 2 Orc War Drummer  (another shot acts band.) Hailstorm Tower.
his is a band that really should have been on hellspike IMHO. IIRC, John siad his friend wanted to sue that map, so he was using hailstorm instead. IT did prove good vs ragned attacks, but teh terrain kept the marilith back a bit.
He took left i took right. I lost my score sheet, but it was pretty simple.
Round 1 we both advance, i get wolf to VA on top, can tget LOS to anything, buff SG since mari has DR. 10-0
Round 2 Red Sam misses my wolf hits in return but no stun. I did not want the CWW to go into the towe unprotected so i stayed outsdie. positioned the other wolf at the bottom behind a wall so i can get to lower VA when upper wolf dies. Ballista is opintedinto the right hand opening of the tower ready to blast/ He changes tacts adn moves the marilith around the botom, she is half into the lower tower, 20-10
R3 - I win init and send the AB full move to get los on the marilith - se's 105 hp so I figure 3 hits kills so no extra bolt. Couatl snakes on AB and hits. Mari comes up and bases both AB and Couatl, maybe she hit i dont remember. My upper wolf dies, one sam swings at the SG. CWW LB's a gnoll and one Sam. Other wolf goes inot VA 33-25
R6 - I win init again, I take aoo's on AB and the couatl. I fgure I will get her closer to death so I call that I am adding cold bol, then I roll a 20! thats 25+25+10+10 = 70 (I thought she had 75 hp left, so when John said she;s dead I was pleasantly surprised. I had positioned so that she could not base the AB, so I had the sG ready to use snakes to kill her next round, but the 20 was sweet.
From there it was mopping up the red sam's. They did take out the SG, but phalanxed cold and fire rays etcput them both down quickly  4-0 and I have qualified!

Now I know I have to face invisifrenzy.
I had been playing next to eric all day and seen how he had approached and killed other teams - critting a FGFP on the way. No real surprise in strategy, but he pulled off the best move I had seen all day. And I got another pair of good rolls. Also saw the bloodiest single round I have ever played in.

Round 5. We congratulate each other on qualifying.
Eric Inspiring MArshall, Frenzied Berzerker x 2, Gnome trickster, wild elf warrior, mialee, devis, bat, medium astral construct.. Ratfang
I win map - that was important  - slow him down and funnel him and his non flying band.
I took the dead side, se up on top, he set up on top as well.
Round 1 - i dont remember init, but he went invisible, i buffed, he put the mac at the top VA and advanced a bunch of his pieces. I had just enough reach to bring up Coutal, CWW and SG, then put a phalanxed LB into MAC and IM. O VP for him. I put a wolf in center VA. Curiously to me, he sent the other FB around the bottom. 20-0
Round 2 - he wins init (phooey, I could have moved up agains and gotten mialee, devis, IM and FB with another bolt for a huge advantage. Instead he GMA's the FB to base the SG, CWW and Couatl, pulls IM back. FB swings at couatl and hits once i think, SG hits and the (my second big roll crits - CWW hits for another 10 and mialee MM to get her to 5 hp. I still worry about deathstrike, so Couatl heals and flies away, aoo hits but damage is split so no MC. I put him at the edge of the slope in the woods next to AB thinking I was in a good spot....Cleric tried to stun the FB but she passed. he stopped the WEW short of the shared VA , so 20-0
Round 3 - or BLOODBATH - he wins init, as expected the bat uses devis' 5 hp cure to prolong the FB's life, it swings on the SG, hits and misses i think. The cleric uses his other command he the FB FAILS - no deathstrike. The SG swings and kills her and then the bat.
Lightning sphere and antoher lightning bolt to kill his Devis and IM.
EXCELLENT MOVE.
The gnome comes up and slides the coatul, it takes 5hp and slides down the slope. He bases with invisible FB, hits. Milaee MM for MC at -2 and I fail.Couatl is off the board and the SG. Thsoe of you keeping track  - I scored 123 in kills and he scored 94 in kills in that single round.
Score is at 133-104. If he wins init he can base attack and snakes on my CWW.
then they call time before we roll. I had a +5 advantage and would have run far far away so I felt I had the edge - no matter - I go 5-0 for my first time and seed 1st.

4 boosters, another Blood Golem, another Tuscori, another Gorgon - please visit my HW list!

Congrats and nice report.Â

 

May I also add that it's good to see that AB used in the Qualifier.  A very decent warband.Â

 

 

Here is my report.

I chose this band the night before. I never practiced a single game with it before the qualifier. I always wanted to try two chargers and seeing Mark Liberman do well with it prompted me to try his band. I had strongly considered Ulmo swarm, and Umber Hulk,WWL,dual Black band with drummer but in the end I went with CG because I had a lot of experience with the pieces, and it was fun, and it fit my play style.

My Band:
Storm Silverhand
Cormyrean War Wizard
Virtuous Charger x2
Graycloak Ranger
Wolf
Bat Familiar
Mialee
Jozan
Xeph Warrior
Map: Dragon Shrine
10 Activations



Round One – Opponent Eric Zipfel - DCI ranked #21 in the world.

Eric’s Band:
FGFP
Ultroloth
Large Duergar x3
Goblin Warrior x2
Goblin Skirmisher
Map: Caves of Chaos

Somehow when Eric and I talked before the tournament I knew that we would end up paired in the first round. What a battle - #17 in the world vs. #21 in the world.

Eric won side and chose the fire side. Without a Dragonmark Bodyguard I knew I could pop the FGFP for 50 cold damage with my CWW and phalanx casting. Plus I had 20 auto damage from Silver Fire so I felt pretty safe in this match initially. Eric blocked passages to the fire area with his large based duergars in the first round. He didn’t have any speed to get first round VP. He had his FGFP out in front in the hallway parallel to the main chamber. He moved him out to enter the main chamber from the side with the Ultroloth behind. I ran a wolf into the shared victory area and cast magic fang and magic weapon on the 2 chargers. Storm cast fly on one of them. I sent the graycloak and CWW along the bottom edge near the exit. Mialee and one charger went out the top of my start area and the other charger went to the edge of the main chamber from the side entrance off the one corridor.

In round two I used a MM on the FGFP. I used the flying charger to attack his two goblins in his victory area at the top. I planned to use my two attacks to kill them both and deny him VP. The charger would have enough speed to easily rejoin the main battle and his FGFP and Ultroloth were two far way to threaten my over extension. But my charger missed on one attack and only killed one of the fodder so he was able to score VP in round two. Eric only inched his FGFP and Ultroloth a few squares forward. He was reluctant to get too close to my band. I used the CWW to shoot a 30 damage LB on the FGFP and a Large Duergar. Round 3 I won initiative and decided I needed to take my shot with the CWW while it was present. Storm used SF on him and the Ultroloth and a Large Duergar. The Large Duergar routed off the map. Then I moved the CWW up next to Storm and hit the FGFP with the 50 damage cold ray. Just like that the FGFP was left with 60hp and he hadn’t engaged yet! I figured I had this game in the bag now. My chargers should be able to hit him enough times to kill him before the two of them dropped. Well I need to stop underestimating the FGFP’s ability to turn the game around so quickly. He came in and based Storm and smacked the CWW. The Ultroloth came in and scorching rayed the CWW to kill it. I used both of my Chargers to attack the FGFP but I was unable to get them into a flank position or on the magic circle so I missed with all four attacks! The following round they missed on 3 out of 4 attacks and the FGFP went to town smacking my guys around with only 45hp left. My graycloak could do 10 damage per attack but I was shooting into melee through cover so He missed with every shot too (about 6 or 8 total). The FGFP killed the Xeph and then cleaved on Storm and hit Storm again. She was down to 15hp. Eric’s mistake here was that he could have auto-killed Storm with a scorching ray from the Ultroloth. Instead he swung with his Large Duergar on a magic circle so he was getting a +11 on the attack roll and missed. Had he hit I would have surely lost. So the turn passed to me and Storm healed herself to 25hp and stepped away from the Duergar and he missed again. Jozan healed her 5 more to put her back to 30hp. Keeping her away from the FGFP’s reach was critical here. It kept the VCs fearless because the FGFP turned his attention to them. The next round one of my charger’s died and the other one was near death and the FGFP still had about 15 or 20 hp left. I was in danger of losing the other charger and having no way of killing the FGFP. Plus I was behind on points.

Finally my break came with my last charger down to 25hp when it scored a critical on the FGFP to kill it. Just a regular hit would have killed it but I was glad to finally put it away. But my excitement didn’t last long. Storm was killed by the Ultroloth. My last charger was attacked by the other L. Duergar which dropped it to 5hp. I killed a L. Duergar not basing the charger. The score was now at 177-189 with me trailing. My 5hp charger then managed to route the L. Duergar basing it and it ran off to give me a 192-189 lead. I just needed to kill a 3pt fodder piece and score VP to win. Mialee and a Goblin Warrior were based with each other for the last two rounds and neither had managed to hit the other. Eric’s goblin then kills Mialee and puts him ahead 192-195 and now he is threatening to win with VP. We are just about out of activations. All of our main pieces had activated. I am desperately looking to see how I can score three points and get to the center of the board for the tie breaker. I see a path where my Graycloak can move up and shoot at his goblin. I pray for a hit and roll a 4 but that is just enough to hit AC14 and I tie the score at 195-195. I move my wolf to the top victory area and announce that the game has ended in a tie and I win on closest piece to the center. Eric looks shocked and then says, wait I still have one more goblin warrior left to activate. Now I am stunned. I completely forgot that he hadn’t activated yet and Eric promptly marches him 12 spaces to end one space closer to the center than my Graycloak and wins the game! Now I am kicking myself because in my excitement to announce I had won I had hastily moved the graycloak. I could have put him right on the center and made the same shot on his goblin and I would have won. Darn it. I’m not even sure that Eric knew what the tiebreaker was and if I hadn’t blurted that out maybe I would have won anyway. Oh well, next time I need to relax and not move so fast when the game is so tight.

Round 2 – Opponent – Toby Natale
Toby’s Band:
Hezrou
Trog Brabraian x4
Wardrummer
Orc Skeleton
Map: Ratfang Sewer

Toby is a kid who is always at Jester’s Playhouse playing in the DDM tournaments whenever they are held. He has played for at least two years and is always a fun kid to play with. I have faced him several times and usually win easily but I give him credit for coming out so often and having a lot of fun. Toby parked his drummer in the top left corner start area. The rest of his guys started in the bottom left area. We moved out in the first round. I buffed my chargers with magic weapon and fang and one with flight. Toby made a huge mistake by placing all four of his Trogs and the Orc Skeleton in my victory area where they were all adjacent with each other. His Hezrou he split and came around the bottom where there was no sewer. This was also a mistake as his main guy and commander had no LOS to the Trogs and was no where near the place where the battle would be. I knew that a charger could take out the drummer with a skirmish attack and I would only miss on a 1 and a 3. So I flew the one charger straight out towards the drummer at the end of the round so it would be within 12 spaces of the drummer.

I won init the next round and was about to LB the trogs but decided I should kill the drummer first. I flew the charger into the corner and killed the drummer with my two attacks. Then I phalanx lightning bolted all the trogs and orc skeleton. Two of them routed off the map. Two only took 15 damage and the orc skeleton was toast. I blocked the Hezrou’s approach with a wolf so he couldn’t get past it. I used my other charger to fly in and take out another Trog and Storm used her SF to finish the other one off. I now had a commanding 125 – 5 lead and he was down to just the Hezrou.

The next round I ran all my pieces into my victory area and squatted on tiles with both of my fearless chargers blocking the entrance and Storm and the CWW just behind waiting to hit the Hezrou with spells and ranged attacks. I continued to block the Hezrou with fodder – first a Xeph and then Jozan, while I sat and racked up VP. I didn’t attack with my chargers until he finally closed in. I was up 185-43 when I finally engaged the Hezrou with my Chargers after it had been weakened by spells and ranged attacks from Storm and the Graycloak. I killed the Hezrou to go well over 200. The match was over in about 20 minutes even though we played about 6 rounds.

Round 3 – Opponent – Bill Gushue
Bill’s band:
WWL
Black Dragon x2
Thrall
TimbWolf x2
OrcWarrior x2
Map: Hellspike I think.

I won map and used the Shrine. He started on the fire side and I the cold. Bill is a pretty good local player who has only been playing about a year or so. He knew what the good bands were but he wasn’t real familiar with the line 12 rules which got us into an argument in round two. Bill had split his dragons – one stayed near the top of the main chamber and the other he flew all the way down to the bottom of the main chamber coming in from the side near the exit. The WWL came into the middle left of the main chamber. I had most of my tech pieces in the narrow corridor outside of my start area. The chargers I positioned to block the two side entrances. I positioned everyone and counted the squares to make sure there was no possible way for him to bring his top dragon in 10 spaces and shoot a line to hit all my tech. The top charger would be the closest target and a line to any of his corners would hit a wall. Bill thought he could fly his dragon in and get them. I showed him that he couldn’t and that I had placed my guys accordingly because I knew that. He spent about 9 minutes trying to get it to work. I know because I was watching my clock to time how long he was taking. I was about to call a judge for slow play. Then he decided he would bring his wolf in first as a target to shoot his line. But the problem was the hallway was only two squares wide and he wanted to shoot the line straight down a single row of squares. This is exactly the situation I have argued on the boards repeatedly that Bill should be able to shoot the line the way he wanted. But because there is no 1x12 template he had no straight line. Any straight line along the edges would run down a wall or hit the corner of a wall before it hit any of my guys. He was very angry with this because logically it didn’t make sense that he couldn’t shoot his line down a single row of squares. I told him I agreed with him logically but by rule he had to pick a starting corner from the dragon and a corner on his target the wolf. So he had no line anywhere. I called a judge over to get support and showed him the print out of Guy’s clarifications so he wouldn’t be angry at me. So after about 20 minutes now on this one turn he didn’t line at all and simply moved the dragon and thrall in to attack my Charger. To add insult to injury he proceeded to miss with both attacks on the AC20 charger. My charger took the AoO from the dragon (The Thrall was around a corner so I had melee cover) which he did hit with I think. I came back in and smacked the Thrall. The first attack was a crit but the second one missed. I used Mialee to MM the Thrall to drop him to just 20hp left. My plan was to finish the Thrall with a LB or SF. Bill then strangely used his bottom dragon to move in and line my Graycloak ranger alone. I’m not sure why he wasted his BW on a 15pt graycloak. He failed the save but I had a fodder on the acid space so it only took 20 damage and was fearless in range of Storm. He doubled moved his WWL down to base my wolf on the shared victory area. I should have moved it away with my earlier activations. He was threatening to kill it next round and gain fearless. So now I had a tough decision. I could slide my wolf away but that would bring the CWW out into the open. Plus I wouldn’t be able to use the LB to finish the Thrall. I didn’t want the Thrall to survive to the next round in case I lost init. But I didn’t want the WWL to become fearless either. I decided to slide the wolf away and then use Storm’s SF to finish the Thrall. But after sliding the wolf I realized I couldn’t get Storm in the right line to hit the Thrall. So I changed my mind and took the slide back. Bill didn’t say anything at the time. Had he enforced my move I would have stuck with it. But he probably figured the wolf would have gotten away and having me leave him there was better for him so he didn’t stop me from taking my move back. So I decided to wait until later in the round to use my SF. I think I shot with the graycloak at his dragon along the bottom. Then Bill moved one of his wolves down into the area where I was trying to line up my LB and SF and put his wolf right in line. The turn came back to me and now Bill had made a mistake as his wolf was now in perfect position for me to use as a target for my SF which would kill it, go through the dragon and into the Thrall. As I was moving Storm and announcing my SF line he wanted to take his move back with the wolf. I said that he can’t because I had already started moving my piece. He said he allowed me to take my slide back. I explained that my take back was during my turn and I hadn’t moved any other pieces. I had marked off the spell though so in the end I decided to allow him to reposition his wolf out of fairness. So I placed Storm back and he moved his wolf one space to the left to base my wolf. Now his wolf would be the closest target and I couldn’t get the Thrall in the line at all. So I decided I needed to make a sacrifice. I used one of my chargers to come in and kill this wolf. I placed it so that Storm could shoot her SF line through him and catch his dragon and Thrall. I did that and put 20 damage on my own charger. His dragon took 20 and the Thrall was dead with no new thrall save needed. Then I brought the CWW around and did an auto 25 damage to the WWL. Ironically I won init next round and slid my wolf away and ran him to safety behind my forces and retreated the CWW too. Storm was left in front and the WWL and his bottom dragon based and attacked her. But she got off a full attack on the WWL and my Bat came in to heal her and my chargers closed in on the WWL. He made the MC but was killed next round and then time was called. I only lost one charger. He had lost the Thrall and WWL. I won 126-60.

Round 4 – Opponent – John Zink (Fellow Team Amish player)
John’s Band:
Storm
CWWx4
Grayclaok
TWolf
Bat
Xeph x2
Map: Grotto

Well, John had lost his previous match because he couldn’t pass a SR check against the enemy Zak Rak and Ultroloth. So here we were in the matchup we were trying to avoid. John hadn’t qualified yet and I had already. Some Team Amish players would have wanted me to drop or concede to John here. But John and I had discussed this a head of time. John refused to acdept a concession and wanted to qualify on his own merits. I wanted to win a free Gen Con pass. So no discussions of drops or concessions took place and we played it out with all guns blazing. I knew some of John’s strategy with his band on this map. We both had 10 activations. Normally John has activation advantage and if played on Grotto (which we did) he can shoot lightning bolts into the victory areas and keep the opponent from scoring while he scored victory points himself. Well I could do the same thing. He chose the right side and I the left. It helped me tremendously that I won the first four inits in a row. I saved my last move to score with my wolf and shoot out some fodder. I was up 19-10. Round 2 I won init and ran the wolf back to hide and shoot some more fodder. So after the first four rounds I had killed all his fodder and scored one extra round of VP. I was up 27-10. Now I had 10 acts to his 6 and he had to come out. In the early rounds I was using the chargers and Storm to absorb his ranged attacks and heal them back while I plinked away with the Grayclaok, Storm and Mialee. Now that he was starting to come out I began casting fly on my chargers and Storm in preparation to position my lines. I used my CWW to slide down the slope and get a LB line off to hit two CWW. Then I used a flying charger to take out the lead injured CWW. The other charger came in and based two of his CWW. My chargers took a lot of damage and one passed a MC (countersong prevented fearless). Time was called just before John was about to kill one or two chargers but I was up 134-35 so even had he managed to drop them I would have won anyway. Good game John – sorry to knock you out of the running. I eventually ended at 4-1 and in 4th place while John ended at 3-2 and finished 5th. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Round 5 – Opponent – John Rock
John’s band:
Ultroloth
Duergar Champion
L. Green Dragon
Zak Rak
Sahuagin Ranger
Miner
Map: Hellspike

We played on Hellspike. John was only running with 6 acts to my 10 so I was in good shape. John was a relatively new player but had been doing well so far having defeated my fellow Amish player – John Zink in an earlier round. He started on the left and I on the right. His Zak and DC started in the bottom left start area. His miner started in his victory area by the lava. I started all my guys in the bottom right area.

John made some mistakes this game. He could have blocked me from scoring VP in the first round but didn’t. I ran my wolf into my victory area basing the DC. I used Storm to shoot out the Miner. So I started with a 10-0 lead. Then round two he kills my wolf with his DC but fails to move it. He brings his dragon in unsupported and breaths over my Graycloak, Xeph, and Storm. I use a charger to attack the LGD. My CWW puts 25 on the green and then his Zak double moves to base the CWW and Storm, another mistake. Storm now gets off a full attack on the Zak and my charger flies in for a flank and does more damage but he passes MC. The Zak was left at 5hp as I missed with my other attack. He wins init next round and attacks with his Zak. Strangely he pulls the LGD back out to retreat to my victory area. So I finish off the ganged up on Zak Rak. His Ultroloth had come down the other way by the lava victory area and did a scorching ray on a charger. I used the charger to fly in and block him in next to the lava so he couldn’t step away to cast a spell. I healed the charger with my bat so when the Ultroloth did a full attack next round it didn’t die. He brought his DC and LGD back into the action (too late now) and engaged Storm and the other charger. My CWW took out the DC and then between Storm and the Charger I took out the LGD. His Ultroloth dropped my charger. Through this an interesting series occurred. On one of his DC’s attacks he rolled his die which landed in a crease of the map. A 3 and a 17 were on the top. I told him it was cracked and that he should roll again. He insisted it was a 17. I was about to call over a judge to decide as both numbers were visibly showing. Then he used his finger to press down the fold causing the die to fall flat so the 17 was showing. I said I could have done the same thing if I pressed in the other direction so that the 3 showed. I insisted that it was cracked so he finally rolled again and rolled an 8 which was still a hit. Then later on my charger went fore the killing blow on his Ultroloth. I rolled the die and it smacked into my bat knocking the bat over but the die landed flat on a 15. I said that’s ahit and the Ultroloth is dead. Then he said I needed to reroll it because the die had struck my bat and had affected the roll. Come on! I immediately called for a judge as this was getting ridiculous now. I said the die is perfectly flat. I could throw it against the wall and as long as it stops flat it is valid. The judge (Rich the shop owner) kindly explained to John that his argument was pointless and that the roll stood. So I won 204-73.

Now I am in the top 4 and playing for a Gen Con pass or airfare. Chris Pinyan was 5-0 and there were three people at 4-1. I had the lowest OWP so I was 4th and had to face my friend Chris who plays in my local tournaments in Doylestown, PA.

Round 6 – Opponent – Chris Pinyan
Chris’s Band:
Ballista
Couatl
Shield Guardian
CWW
CoO
Twolf x2
Map: Grotto

He won map and I knew this would be difficult. Chris started on the right side and then after setting up was wondering if he should have taken the left side instead. I allowed him to change his mind as I hadn’t started setting up yet. So he started all his guys in the top left corner. I started one Charger, Mialee, Jozan, wolf, CWW and a Xeph in the bottom right corner. Storm, Charger, Bat, and Graycloak started in the other area. My plan was to use fly on the two Chargers and Storm. Get them across the board to the bottom left corner staying out of sight of the Ballista the entire time. Storm would have to fly in with screening fodder to arrive at the Ballista the other way. I briefly contemplated hiding the whole game and just using my Graycloak to plink away with impunity. But that would not have been a fun game so I decided against it.

I used my fly spells and moved both charges down behind the wall of brambles, in position to cross over into the bottom left corner. Then Chris uses his LUG. Only the one charger failed and the Bat and Storm passed the save. So I flew the one charger right into the bottom left corner. The other charger now needed to circle around the bowl or slide straight down. Circling around got me a little bit closer and without the 5 damge so I screened with my bat and Xeph andmade the approach. My CWW slid down the slope along the bottom of the map preparing to try and run across to cover. My wolf had scored VP (10 activations allowed me the last move in round 1) so he moved from the center area to the bottom area. My graycloak shot out his wolf and then Chris made one minor error by exposing Mialee. My own Mialee killed her with a MM so I was up 21-10. The next round I won init and quickly moved the grounded Charger out of the middle and into the corner next to my other charger. Chris began taking out my screeners. He found a nice line to take out my screening Xeph, avoid LOS to the Bat, to get a Ballista shot onto my CWW. He put both freeze and flame into it with the expectation that +16 vs. AC 19 would hit and kill the CWW with 45 damage. It was a nice plan but his die roll of a 2 caused it to fail. That was pure luck there. My CWW ran across and I blocked with my wolf and Bat. My flying charger then flew over towards his army and made two attacks on his CWW. Luckily I landed both attacks and killed the CWW outright. (More good fortune for me). Storm flew straight out 12 spaces now so that 6 more next round and she could put a SF through the Ballista and bring my chargers back into command.

The next round Storm took 50 damage from two Ballista shots but passed MC. I used SF to hit the Ballista and CoO but his CoO passed MC. That one hurt some as had the CoO died my charger would have been able to base the Ballista on a non-forest square and therefore kept it from firing without moving away first. But instead it lived so my charger had to abandon that plan for now. Instead I brought the CWW down next to my other charger and shot a LB through all his guys. Countersong from Storm blocked the Couatl’s CFX and the CoO was dead the SG and Ballista injured some more. Now the space was open and after his SG smacked my charger twice I brought the charger in (took the AoO) and swung on the Ballista and killed it. That was practically game there. Storm died and so did the charger, but I won the game when time was called, 167-140.

Eric Samhammer would have been next with his InvisiFrenzy Band. But Eric approached me saying he and his friends had already made travel plans for Gen Con and he wanted to get a head start back on his 5 hour drive home so he offered to drop and give me first place. I accepted and then graciously gave him my prize boosters as a thank you for his kindness.

Thanks Jester’s for hosting and cooking. Thanks John Zink for driving and sorry I prevented you from qualifying. If anything at least we restored integrity to Team Amish. John will go through the Grinder now. Thanks to Eric for handing me the plane ticket and thanks to all the players for coming out to play. Congratulations to my friend Chris for going undefeated in Swiss. I knew you would do it and I am glad to hear that you might be able to make it to Gen Con now.