Today in Kalamazoo, MI we had our first ever DnD 2.0 tournament using sealed  DoD packs.   The event was non sanctioned and immediatly followed a 1.0 sanctioned event earlier in the day.  The 1.0 event had 4 players :(  but we had 14 players turn out for the DnD 2.0 event!   The place was packed and everyone was excited about using the new rules.  I provided color print outs for every player of the stats, plus multiple copies of the rulebooks to hand around.   We used the cards and rules as written following the floor rules (banning TQ, TT and dragonsdown grotto).  We did create our own mount rules that were basically word for word from 1.0, that just removed the routing rules.

When the players were seated we started passing out the packs.  I was pretty amazed at how strong some of the pulls were.  I was helping pass out duplicate stat cards so didn't get a chance to open my packs right away.   I was admiring one players pull (nightmare + drider)  when he asks me for a duplicate card.  The duplicate fig he had?  Eternal Blade of course!   Yep, 2 blades, Drider, Nightmare!

I finally made it back to my pull and cracked the packs:
Macetail Behemoth
Ogre Brute

Dwarven Maulfighter
Thundertusk boar
Shrieking Harpy
Human Cleric of Bahomet
Spined Devil
Yaun-ti Malison

Drow Bladefighter
Miltiant Archer
Boneshard Skellie
Blackwoods Dryad
Demonweb Swarm
Farmer
Merchant Guard
Blood of Vol Fanatic

No crazy big hitters, no good ranged, and nothing I really considered broken.   I messed around a bit with the band and ended up running:

Macetail
Ogre
Maulfighter
Thundertusk Board
Spined Devil  -21 points in 2.0 so far
Shrieking Harpy
Miltiant Archer
Merchant Guard
Farmer

Basically i planned on having a lot of guys who could fight ok, boost them with the archers commander effect and use Lure to try to devastate their biggest threat.  My entire force had a lot of HP to chew through especially with the back up of the bodyguard.  Those HP would hopefully let me wear down my opponents.    I was a bit worried with some of the bands I saw running around but figured what the heck.  I would just have fun.

I chose Hellspike Prison for my map choice.  I didn't have much range and wanted to set up decent charges.  Using the smoke rules of 2.0, I planned on picking most fights slightly on my side of the smoke where I could line up charges but my opponents figs would have trouble seeing my guys.

  Anyways we played 4 rounds.

Round 1:  Josh Hughes (Azuretide)
Blade Spider
Umber Hulk
Cliffwalk Archer
Rot Scarab Swarm
Dwarf maulfighter
2 Boneshard Skellies
Militant Archer
Pig Farmer
Frostfell Rift

Josh is a talented player and i was a bit worried about facing his ranged guys on his map, especially since I was running 3 large figs.   I led off with my macetail in hopes that it would draw shots but Josh didn't bite.   I decided to follow up with my smaller hitters (spined devil, harpy, ogre)  as I figured they wouldn't be the main threats in the fight so wouldn't mind getting softened up.  Again he didn't bite.   We both seemed to be rushing to get to the open areas near the center  to avoid slipping into a pit so I held off on moving my boar rider in hopes I might get something worth while to charge.  He  moved the blade spider up to about 15 away from my mounted dwarf mauler  and I rushed up and landed 2 hits on it for 45.   This made him sad and he took some shots at the boar but only landed  10 damage or so.    I won the follow up init and with 2 swings (Thanks mount!) finished off the spider.  This left him a bit weak on offense against my pile of beaters.   We scrummed around a bit trading damage me on his maulfighter and him on my boar.   We each manuvered our tricks into position (harpy and scarab) and set up for the big brawl.    He won init and snuck in some damage and moved the scarab under my macetail to stun lock it.   I coned his guys with the harpy and then read the rules on Staggered.   It seems like a staggered critter can't act on other critters turns  allowing me to turn off the scarab.   This freed up my macetail to keep laying hits, and combining it with lure on his umberhulk I was able to pick off his maulfighter before time ran out with out losing anything  serious.   We ended on turn 4  after a cautiously played game.   Josh played very well but had a few bad rolls and a bad rule break go against him.   I expected him to go 3-1 for the rest of the day.


Round 2:  David Paul (Vrecknidj)
Cyclops
Yaun-ti  champion of Zulkir
Blood of vol Cultist
Large Fire elemental
Ettercap
Animated Statue
Pig Farmer
Spined Devil
Militant Archer

I won map so don't recall his choice.   He had a solid mix of offense as well but no real tricks to enhance them.  During set up  he took the hellspike side and split of his fire elemental in the small scoring area.  This seemed odd to me since he was able to land his statue in a scoring area.    As we started manuvering forward I tried to bait the fire elly up away from his support and he took the bait doing a bit of damage to my dwarf and boar. Unfortunatly that left it wide open for my whole band on turn 2.   I pounced on it and rolled  1, 3, and 2 for my 3 attacks leaving it at full strength rather than dead.   This gave him a turn to get into position and put a bit more damage on my boar.  Lucky for me he engaged from a mixed front while my guys were fairly concentrated.  He landed an entangle on my merchant guard forcing me to keep my guys fixated around it.   We began to trade blows  and thanks to redirecting some damage and effects to my bodyguard plus getting a stun off from the macetail I did a bit more than I took in.   I used lure to draw his Cultist through a meat grinder of AoO's and finished off the fire elemental with out losing anything but my pig farmer.   He put some more damage on my guys and I killed his spined devil. The next turn he missed some attacks before finishing off my merchant guard giving me some more damage advantage.  Finally  as time was called we finished the round with me luring his yaun-ti then killing it with AoO's and my mounted maul fighter, and despite him killing my ogre and I think my harpy or spined devil, he couldn't get enough points to pull ahead.     Dave spread his damage out a bit on my threats which let me keep them in the game longer than they should have.  I think this ended up costing him the game.   Also I think he didn't expect how damaging the harpy could be and bloodied it giving me a second use of lure.   Lure lets me negate an entire round of attacks from a hitter + put 2-3 more swings on it with AoO's.    You really need to focus on it to have a chance.


Round 3:  Paul Cline (I believe?)
2 Eternal Blade
1 Drider
Large Fire elemental
Sauhagin
2 Flame Snake
Pig Farmer
Fane of Lolth

Gulp!  At least he wasn't able to fit the nightmare in the band as well.

He won map init so we fought it on the Fane of Lolth.   I picked the two rooms side as I figured it gave me a better approach to a secluded scoring area in the prison cells.   We manuvered a bit in the beginning and I think he could tell I was heading for the prison cells as he moved his drider up to block the path very early on.  This let me position my troops in cover with the boar in charge range of the drider.   The rest of his band was at least a full turn from backing up the drider.  or so i thought.  I was forgetting about bounding assault. :(    I won the follow up init and charged the drider putting a lucky 45 damage on it.  He followed up trying to move it away provoking an AoO which let me finish it off before it could deal any damage.  This gave me a strong advantage that quickly went away when both EB's bound up and laid the smack down on my Macetail.   A crit hit for 60 + 30  dropped it before it could do anything!  I was just about to move the fig off board when I realized he had declared his commander effect before moving the fig.   After reading the EB's card I showed him where he had to declare the effect at the beginning of the round.   He agreed and my macetail returned to play with 25 HP.   I moved my  bodyguard up behind the macetail in hopes of sucking up some damage and scrambled my other hitters into place.   I was able to hit one EB with the ogre and push it 1 square back so that both EB's weren't adjacent to the macetail letting me take swings at them with out them retaliating for each other. I put 25 damage on one EB, then  at the end of turn I foolishly moved my spine devil next to both EB's and swung at his flame snake.  Whoops,  he went from 45 to 5 hp  in exchange for 10 damage on each EB and a dead snake.   The next turn would end up being a critical init which I won with a 20.  After popping my champ effect the dwarf came charging in.  Thanks to flank + charge + commander effect,  I was at 20+ with each attack which gave me just enough damage to finish off the EB.  He finished off my spined devil, damaged my ogre, and killed off my body guard but I was up on offense at that point.  The next turn I lured his other EB past the mounted dwarf and macetail  and wounded it enough that my own attacks finished it off.   With just the fire elemental left for offense he conceeded the game.    The game ended up very lopsided, but I think with a few less lucky hits on either the drider or his EB's and he would of rolled over me.  If the drider tied up the dwarf for even a single turn longer,  I would of lost the macetail and probably the ogre before the dwarf would of had a chance to engage.   Once again lure saved my butt!


Round 4.  Elliot Parkhurst
Rage Drake
Eternal Blade
Snake toungue cultist
Cliffwalk Archer
Unsure on the rest

Elliot and I have faced off at the top table at countless tournaments.   Pretty good for being 18 years old.   Even more amazing he hardly ever plays except when I invite him out to an event!   His band was solid but I think he was getting bored playing.  We were locked in 1st and 2nd no matter who won, so he suggested we decide randomly who won.   I kind of wanted to play it out but gave in and won out  to end up 4-0.      His EB powering up the rage drake allowed it to dish out 100 damage in a single attack plus another swing for 30 thanks to the cultist!   That's a pretty scary threat!


Hopefully  David Paul can post the final standings.   The tournament was a lot of fun and the 2.0 rules made for some crazy situations and powerful combos.   It was probably the most fun I have had with sealed DDM in a long time.   All of my opponents were very pleasant  and put up a good fight.   All the games were very close and could of went either way.   I didn't normally get that feeling with DDM 1.0 sealed events.    The new map rules and  init rules were excellent and helped keep the game fair.   If you haven't had a chance to play 2.0 sealed,  get out and do it!