First, thanks to Jeff, Terry and Dan for judging a smoothly-run
event, and thanks to Richard for the great store, great prizes, and
smooth organization.
The Pre-Game Show
The weeks leading up to the event were met with, as usual, lack of
practice time. I had thought about playing Ryld and three Large Blacks,
but Alex wanted to play that. This meant I had two Large Blacks left,
and I thought of probably every combination available. I ended up
putting this band in a bag and taking it with me: Tiefling Captain,
Large Black Dragon x2, Werewolf Lord, Orc Wardrummer, Cursed Spirit,
Timber Wolf, Orc Warrior. During the last 10 days or so, I managed to
squeeze in a few games against my friend Dan (Daniel Vahovick on the
roster). Like usual, it was me playing any old thing for him to
practice against, so he could pick a band. Ultimately, he narrowed it
down to the band he brought (Ballista/Marut, etc.) and a LE band (FGFP,
Maug, Ultroloth, fodder). I had chatted a little and emailed a little
with Jim (JohnnyQuest); I figured that since the HHx3 band he was
playing at slipped under the radar, as it were, it might be a nice one
to take--especially if there were a lot of CG bands there. As often
happens, I played exactly zero games with it (and no Vassal games
either) before the tournament. But, last year, I played a LOT of triple
and quad HH bands, so I know enough about what to do with them that I
wasn't worried about it.
Alex, my son and co-minis nut, worked from Friday night at 11pm until Saturday morning at 7am. By the time the games in Ypsi started, he'd been up for 22 hours straight (except for a cat nap in the van)
and by the time we got home, he'd been up for 47 hours straight (except
for the previous nap and another one in the van on the way home). He
was one of the pile of 4-2 players; taking 7th is never as good as
taking 4th, but he played like a champ given his lack of sleep.
The drive to Ypsilanti took about 2.5 hours, but was generally
uneventful. The air conditioning stopped working about a week ago
(evaporator needs replacing), so, since it's been in the 90s every day,
the drive was a little on the hot side. But that prepared me for the
tournament. Twenty-some guys sitting around on a hot summer day (plus
another twenty-some Magic players in the back) really heated up the
place. And with the temperature outside being so high, it was a sweaty
day.
When we got to the shop, I saw Tony, Matt and Rich in there. These
guys are all somewhat local, and I knew that they all had that "aw
dang" feeling when Dan, Alex and I walked in. We're all friends, but
we're also each other's stiffest local competition and I'm sure they
were hoping, as we were, for a smallish event without too much serious
competition (which didn't happen, in the least). Quite a few folks that I know from the boards and from other
tournaments and conventions showed up. It's nice to see these guys
again. At some point, there are a few surprised shouts like "Well look
who's here," and I look around and see Brad (bshugg) walk in. During
the school year I see him about 3 or 4 Thursdays a month, but, I
haven't seen him since the end of April. We caught up a little, and
everyone joked that now that Brad was here, the rest of us were going
to have to compete for the other top 3 spots.
The Games
I have this weird luck of drawing people I ride with as my first
opponent. I swear, the reporting software hates me. I always drive to
these things with Dan and Alex. In the 2005 qualifier my first match is
against Dan. At the 2006 qualifier, my second match is against Alex. At
this qualifier, my first match is against Dan again. What the hell?
Match 1 v. Dan (Daniel Vahovick -- Ballista/Marut/Couatl)
So, Dan wins map. (I win my own map exactly once the whole day--talk
about frustrating--at least I won map against Brad.) He sets up on the
side of the dead forest, we place all our figures (we've practiced on
this map a hundred times so setup goes fast) and get under way. I
carefully move and check line of sight, and he gets zero attacks on me
the first two rounds. I make sure that his Ballista has nothing to
shoot at. As the game progresses, I see an opportunity to double move
two of my Horrors to base his Couatl. I take the risk. He takes a shot
with the Ballista, and swings with the Marut. I believe one of those
was a 1 and so I'm in good shape. Next round, I fly away from the
Couatl (my decoy worked) and base his Cleric of Order. One swing, he
misses morale, and scoots off the board. Now I can play keep away. We
play a fodder war--my Mind Flayer stuns his Man-at-Arms through my
Skeleton, he kills my Greenspawn, nothing big. Because we played
cautiously (both checking lines of sight, etc.), we get only 6 rounds
in. I win 80 to 46 (my kills were the Cleric of Order and two
Man-at-Arms, he killed only the Greenspawn). I kept track of my die
rolls in that match:
1,3,17,18,7,13,19,15,4,18,13,12,5,16,19,20,3,17,19. Pretty darn good,
I'd say. My average roll was about 12.5.
Match 2 v. Joe (Joseph Swalec -- Vlaakith, LBD, Thrall)
I was pretty confident going into this match that I had an excellent
shot at a win. Then I lost map, then I screwed up and put my HHs in a
position where he could fireball the Mind Flayer and the Dark Moon
Monk, and things went steadily down hill from there. He managed to
disintegrate a Helmed Horror (full 60 when I was down to 45 hp) and
that pretty much sealed it. I was behind 74 to 10. I didn't give up,
naturally, but two rounds later, when it was 124 to 25 I did. He took
me apart and, though I have this string of die rolls (3,1,3,4,4,8 ), it
those only exacerbated my own bad play. I'd like to blame the dice, but
really, I need to congratulate Joe--he out played me. I told Joe not to
lose any more games, and he almost came through on that for me (even
after the 5th match, my OMW% was 70% thanks in part to his early
successes).
Match 3 v. bshugg (Brad Shugg -- Ulmo Swarm)
So, remember how I said I had this weird luck? Alex played Brad last
year at Niles when they were both 5-1, and Brad won knocking Alex out
of qualifying. This year, in Ypsi, Brad and Alex play each other in the
first round. Brad had won that match, and his next one, so I had been
paired up. When pairings were announced, I headed over to the higher
tables since I was playing a 2-0 player. Brad said something about
getting paired down and I jokingly said I resented that comment. We all
got a laugh. I won map for the only time that day, and it worked well
for me (I didn't want to face Ulmo in the woods). Like in my match
against Dan, I focused all my early efforts on taking down the Cleric
of Order. Without that +5 on initiative, I have a much better
chance--Ulmo is going to make his morale check anyway, but, I need the
initiative boost. That wasn't too hard, and, by the time I'd gotten
there, he'd put Ulmo in harms way. But, really, the d20 hated Brad. In
the first three rounds, he rolled below average (lots of single digits)
and I rolled above average (lots of mid to high teens). I kept track of
my die rolls in this game too, here were the first few rounds:
(11,10,13,8,18,17,19,11,16,15,15,8,12,3,20,20,13,6,8,15). After I took
out Ulmo, it was mostly a waiting game. I got my Horrors on my victory
area and the SW v. HH battle began. It took him a long, long time to
drop one HH, and I couldn't get through incorporeal to save my life (I
missed far in excess of 10 incorporeal checks). However, since I was
doing 15 damage when I did hit, even with very sub-par rolls in the
later game, I eventually dropped a few Watchers, and, having killed
Ulmo and the CoO, I was too far ahead on points for him to catch up.
Match 4 v. Matt (Matthew Bass aka "the Boss" (thanks to a typo) -- Storm/Charger/War Wizard x3)
Everybody needs to show respect to Storm--even if you don't like
playing against her, you've got to acknowledge the power she brings to
the game. We played on Drow Outpost, which wasn't as good for me as my
own map, but I've played on Drow Outpost at least 50 times, so I know
it very well. And, with all my hitters having flight, it was no big
deal. Early on, tucked back in that little room, he had all three War
Wizards in a spot where I could drop a HH and base all three. I took
the opportunity. He nailed that poor HH with everything he had, but,
moving provoked AoOs, and I got in a fair amount of damage which he
could not afford to take. He took an early lead, since the HH is worth
more than a CWW, but he gave me a chance to take out Storm and I took
it. I eventually passed him on points and didn't look back. By no means
was it an easy win, and he played well.
Match 5 v. Vendelphian (Joshua Labar -- Solar/Guardian/DMH)
This was another matchup I felt good about. I lost map, again, but
Field of Ruin has lots of places to hide. I really, really didn't want
to lose a Horror to a slaying arrow, so we took a long time getting
into combat. But, it worked, and he never got to use that. I made a
huge tactical error in about the 4th round. I had stupidly surrounded
the Solar, forgetting that with immunity to fire (thanks to the DMH)
and the Shield Guardian, I would do 5 points a hit to him, and he'd do
25 per hit to me. Even as a construct, that's a horribly
disadvantageous way to play. So, I withdrew from the Solar (taking
three AoOs and a LOT of unnecessary damage) and went after the
Dragonmark Heir. The damage from the AoOs was enough to make the
difference in that game. I couldn't come back from having made that
error, and he won 199 to 150.
Match 6 v. Eric (Eric Sharrer -- UltroForge)
*Sigh* Another bad matchup on his map. This was more than tiring. I
knew that being 3-3 would mean no place in the top 4, and probably no
prizes. So, I had to find a way to win. And, I did. This was a tough,
tough match, and it looked, more than once, like I'd lost the game. He
killed everything except two Helmed Horrors and my Greenspawn.
Fortunately, I had stayed even on assault points the whole game (maybe
I even got ahead once or twice). And, I managed to finally drop the
Ultroloth. Like usual, my only viable strategy was to avoid the FGFP
and take everything else down. I managed to do that, and keep two
Horrors alive. At the end, my Horrors, with flight, could fly in
opposite directions fast enough (one was down to less than 35 hit
points and so I was a single swing from a loss) that he couldn't do
anything about it, and I squeaked out a victory 196 to 154).
The Post Swiss Show
So, we're all standing around, eagerly awaiting the tie-breaker
results. With 5 players at 4-2, all contesting two slots, it's awfully
tense in the room. Alex had beaten Joe, which meant Alex's odds
improved, but mine fell (Joe had kept my OMW% very high by being 4-1
prior to match 6). My losses were to a 5-1 player and a 4-2 player, and
nobody, as far as I knew, had better tie-breakers. Turns out I was
right and I took third. Tony took fourth, surprising everyone (him more
than anyone) since one of his losses was to Brad, who dropped after
going 2-2. Tony and I high-fived each other. Then we all congratulated
the other players, watched them open their goodies, and settled down
for the playoffs.
Match 7 v. Daniel (Daniel Reppel -- Storm/Dancers/Wizards)
Daniel won map (of course), but he knew that Helmed Horrors weren't his
enemy of choice. We both made a few early mistakes: he commited to some
charges that he couldn't make, and had to charge my Bat Familiar
instead, etc.; I lined up all three HHs for Storm's silver fire. But, I
could overcome my early mistakes. I took the opportunity to base his
War Wizards, and that paid off again. The AoOs provided enough damage
that two swings afterwards caused death. I routed Storm in the middle
of the game, and, of course, the exit square was exactly 12 squares
away. So, I moved my HHs to flank Storm, because I knew she'd rally.
She did, and, though it took me too long to kill her, I killed her.
Daniel was getting assault points every round, and I got none. And, we
played a LOT of rounds. At the beginning of the tournament, the judges
advised everyone to take notes, and to keep track of score. I always
do, so this was nothing new for me. Daniel wasn't keeping track. And,
though my card of data was easily visible (I kept it right in the open,
and the judges watching the game watched every sum as I tallied),
Daniel wasn't watching. As the end neared, he was ahead 170 to 130. He
should have won the game, because his Shadowdancers could have run
away. But, he wasn't keeping track, and I wasn't going to volunteer
anything if I didn't legally have to and if it meant I'd lose. So, he
kept attacking me with his Shadowdancers, and I kept fighting back. I
put my Helmed Horror on one of the Sacred Circle victory areas--next
round is 180 to 140. In the next round, I kill a Shadowdancer and now
the score is 190 to 178. Next round, I kill another Shadowdancer and am
ahead 206 to 190. That's game. If Daniel had run away, he'd have won. I
was certainly happy with the win, but, things could have gone very
differently.
Match 8 v. Dagaron (Tony Gullotti -- Ryld, LBD x2, Thrall)
I was going to drop, to give Tony all the fame of taking first. I have
all the minis I need, so I didn't really need more, but I figured I'd
give him the crown. Tony, though, wanted the 4 boosters more than he
wanted first place, so he wanted to drop more than I did. So, I
accepted his offer to drop and accepted first place. I'd have liked to
play it out, though I think he had the advantage. It was funny to see
the people who took 3rd and 4th place in Swiss knock out the 1st and
2nd placed in Swiss players. But, I didn't think about it until I was
driving home.
The Post-Post Game Show
On the way home, around 9pm, Dan gets a call from his sister-in-law.
Dan's brother Bob had had stabbing pains in his chest, vomited a bit,
and was feeling pretty bad. She called to get Dan to talk Bob into
going to the hospital. Bob, like me, has no insurance (Bob is a
self-employed engineer, his wife has been part time since she gave
birth about a year ago). And, like many guys, he's stubborn about
having to put himself in a position where he's paying a fortune for the
doctor to say "it's not a heart attack." Still, you don't mess around
with this stuff. (Ironically, I completed my CPR re-certification last
Wednesday, so I was in a good position to talk to Bob about what was
happening.) We're driving west on I-94, through Michigan, to get home.
Bob and his wife live in Battle Creek, so, we stay on the road at stop
at the hospital. We get there a little after 10, and end up staying
past midnight. Long story short, the doctor said "it's not a heart
attack."
So, poor Bob and his wife are going to be out a few grand that they
can't afford (bleeping medical costs), but, he's okay. Alex, at this
point, looks like a zombie (also ironically, Alex and I watched Shaun
of the Dead on Friday before he went to work), and when we get home, he
crashes.
It was a long, weird day. I think it was a nice Father's Day present
for me to qualify, but I'd rather have seen Alex qualify. Still, he
gave it his all, got to 4-2, beating a lot of serious talent to get
there, and at that point it came down to unfavorable tie-breakers.
Dave |