| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
| | Author | Messages | |
Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6842 Posts
    
West Valley City, Utah
 | | 02/20/2006 1:33 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by zenthrus
quote:
Originally posted by Corim Danex
What do you want me to post?
Your warband. Your opponent's warbands. A general summary of how matches went. These would all be nice [:D]
Congratulations on the win!
Thanks. I started typing up a summary. I will be finishing it and posting it later on. | |
"Look to God and live." Alma 37:47
Vindicated Champ of Hippogriff (Arcadian Hippogriff) and Uncommon Horse | |
| Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6842 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 02/20/2006 3:02 AM |
| Going into the event, I hadn't played in an event since the prerelease for Underdark. I was worn out from DDM. I didn't even try to come up with a warband. I just decided to use a warband like Drakkengi was practicing with, since he has been so dominating lately. I didn't have any idea what worked against it, so I might as well use it. Before the tournament, I had never played with this warband before. I had only used the commander and the Mongrelfolk before. My warband was as follows:
Duergar Champion x2
Helmed Horror x2
Urthok the Vicious
Mongrelfolk x3
Tiles:
Assembly (Rubble)
Mushroom Tangle
Shrine
Blood Rock Cave
My thoughts about selecting the tiles I did were as follows:
I chose Rubble because it has been my favorite. It has the flexibility of the wall to hide behind if there are ranged threats, while allowing for closest set up to the center of the board if there is no significant ranged threat.
I chose Blood Rock Cave for the Mongrelfolk and assault points. My plan was to place this tile first after assembly, for assault points mattered more to me than blocking line of sight or setting up a battle spot. This was because of the value of assault points, but also because I seriously don't have enough experience with melee bands to have any idea how to "control" location of main fighting.
I chose Mushroom Tangle for a few reasons: (1) because it could slow down opponents; (2) because the Helmed Horrors would not be hindered by it (unless a Couatl removed their flight); and (3) because it has no walls, and it is one of the easiest tiles to place.
I chose Shrine because it was one of the first tiles I grabbed that had a wall, just in case I needed walls to deny tile position or block line of sight.
ROUND ONE-- Bye
(I was surprised). I didn't mind getting the points. I walked around looking at the possible warbands I would face. The warbands were approximately like this:
Drakkengi--warband just like mine except with Kobold Miner and two Mongrelfolk instead of three Mongrelfolk. I should say that my warband was just like his, since I was the copycat.
chattan--
Lich Necromancer
Clay Golem x2
Cursed Spirit
Troglodyte
Warrior Skeleton x2
Something else?
(Used Orc Skeletons to replace with Lich Necro's commander effect)
Toxic_Rat--
Frenzied Berserker x2
Elf Pyromancer
Satyr
Inspiring Marshall
Healer
Crested Felldrake
Something else?
Caustic_Mouse--
Young Master
Githzerai Monk x2
Justice Archon
Couatl
Aramil, Adventurer
Jarvissteven--
Orc Champion x3
Ryld Argith
Orc Warriors (6?)
Abyssal Maws (2?)
(Another Warband)--
Steel Predator
Chraal
2 other pieces including commander
(chattan's son)--
Balor
Harpy
Red Samurai
???
(Another Warband)--
Frenzied Berserker x2
Inspiring Marshall
Xeph Warriors (#?)
Other (??)
COMMENTS
I was actually quite concerned about nearly every matchup. The Steel Predator band and the last warband I listed did not concern me as much. But I was quite worried that I would lose to about any other player. A player who came to trade and not participate in the tournament was there. I was able to chat with him while Round One took place. I watched bits of each match and tried to imagine what to do with my warband if I faced each band. It was a bit overwhelming.
ROUND TWO-- vs. Toxic_Rat
He won tile initiative and elected to place first. I don't remember what he did with his first non-assembly tile. I put my Blood Rock Cave as close to my assembly square as I could, with the L set up so that my warband would see where I would stash the Mongrelfolk.
When we started, I had no idea where battle would take place, especially since he had the Inspiring Marshall. I think I had both Helmed Horrors use slow ranged attack to try picking off something. I sent the duergars around by the mongrelfolk. There was a 2 square gap between the top of the L-wall the mongrelfolk were behind and a 5 square wall from one of his tiles. As his final activation of the first round, he brought his frenzied berserkers up to plug that gap.
I won initiative on the next round and brought in a helmed horror on a charge, attacking around the lower right corner to the frenzied berserker on the right. I brought one of my duergars in to attack the FB on the right. His two FB's attacked my first duergar champion. I brought my second helmed horror near the fight. I also pulled away the mongrelfolk adjacent to the other frenzied berserker away (no attack of opportunity because of corner). His healer came up and healed 15 on the injured FB.
I don't remember the exact sequence, except that I decided that I wasn't going to do well in a toe-to-toe fight with 2 FBs with healer and other support. I decided to disengage all except one helmed horror. My other helmed horror went around the corner to the right and based his satyr and crested felldrake and healer. My 2nd duergar champion went around in the general direction of his elf pyromancer and commander. Urthok also headed up there. Mongrelfolk were retreating deeper into his territory to keep getting assault points on various tiles.
The decision to attack his support troops paid off. I took down his healer, his satyr, and the felldrake with the helmed horror. My other helmed horror lasted a long time, occupying the two FB’s and whittling down on HP’s of one. The duergar champ and urthok took care of the pyromancer and inspiring marshall. The helmed horror who took out the satyr and others came up to help finish off the commander. Then, his last FB (first one finally died) was out of command and I moved my pieces so that the FB couldn’t see any of mine. When we started the final round, I was less than 10 points away, so I just activated out without doing anything and collected the final VP’s to win.
LUNCH BREAK
This is the first tournament I have been to with a lunch break. Wonderful idea. I hadn’t had time for breakfast, and needed nourishment badly. I asked some questions and rediscovered that clay golems require instruction. This would be important to know if I ever faced chattan. I decided that if I faced chattan, I would focus all of my attention on taking out his lich necromancer ASAP and ignore the clay golems until that time. I had also seen parts of that first match when chattan faced Drakkengi. Drakkengi lost. His blood rock cave tile was set up very close to chattan’s assembly tile. Chattan sent a skeleton in and took out a mongrelfolk, which turned into an orc skeleton since the lich was nearby. I decided that I wouldn’t put my blood rock cave near chattan’s starting tile in order to avoid this.
ROUND THREE—vs chattan
Jarvissteven, having won his first two rounds, announced that he had to get to work, but also had some things he needed to take care of before that. He left, dropping the rest of the tournament. That left chattan and I as the only two undefeated players. For some silly reason, the computer had me ahead at this point due to strength of schedule. My bye seemed to be favoring me. The two warbands which I have listed player as (Another Warband) also dropped out. There were only 6 of us left. I ended up facing chattan.
He won tile initiative, which I didn’t want to happen. He placed his End Game tile (whatever that one with the chess board on it is) on his side, preventing me from placing my Blood Rock Cave anywhere on his side except near his assembly tile. I had already decided not to put the cave there, so I put my cave along the bottom (my perspective) with two rows of five squares on his side of center.
When I set up, I put all the mongrelfolk on the cave tile and put the rest of my miniatures on assembly, with helmed horror in front due to magic missile immunity. Once again, I had no idea where battle would take place. I realize early in the first round that his cursed spirit was placed in such a way that it could get assault points by moving to his mushroom tangle, placed on my side of center. I thought (due to unfamiliarity with pieces) that mongrelfolk had speed 6, and believed that my mongrelfolk could run over to my mushroom tangle (which I had set up in lower left corner). Before doing this, I thought, ok, two mongrelfolk will get on, but one is just out of range. Then I realized that I could try moving that one onto the chessboard tile. When I considered moving him onto that tile, I was reminded that they had speed 4. So I just ran him in a straight line toward the mushroom tangle, planning on getting him there on the next round. I sent one of the other mongrelfolk (which were close enough) onto the chessboard tile. At this point, I realized that his lich could magic missile it and kill it anyway. So I decided to leave my last two activations as my last mongrelfolk (which would score assault points by replacing the other mongrelfolk who ended up getting hit with magic missile) and my helmed horror, who was positioned to charge the location where the cursed spirit would go. I moved my other hitters in a way that left charging lane open and prepared for either direction chattan sent his pieces. He ended up heading for the chessboard with the golems. He sent his cursed spirit on for assault points. My helmed horror charged and hit and succeeded on incorporeal check. It took several rounds of full attacks (total of about 5 missed incorporeal checks after the first success) to finally take down the cursed spirit. His lich necromancer had to move into the chessboard in order to magic missile the first mongrelfolk. One of his warrior skeletons and his troglodyte had gone after my 2nd mongrelfolk who was getting assault points on the chessboard. They took a long time to kill him. My 3rd mongrelfolk settled on the mushroom tangle. Since his lich necromancer had gone in to magic missile, I sent in two duergar champions to attack the necromancer, even though there was an an attack of opportunity the first one took to get into postion. Fortunately, that one missed. But he based the necromancer. His lich moved, provoking attack of opportunity and magic missled my 2nd mongrelfolk since his other minis kept missing their attacks. His golems approached my first duergar champion and started hammering him. I brought my 2nd duergar champion by his warrior skeleton and troglodyte, provoking 2 attacks that missed, in order to base the lich necromancer. I activated the 1st duergar, reasoning that taking 2 attacks of opportunity to move in to the middle of the tile to base the lich and moving in to place that the 2 clays would only get 1 melee attack against him next round instead of 3, since statues prevented them from getting in and fighting effectively. This worked as my duergar stayed alive, and now the lich was flanked. I ended up bringing in my 2nd helmed horror around the bottom and killing the warrior skeleton and troglodyte over two rounds. His other warrior skeleton had ran off to collect assault points, and I ignored it since I was also getting assault points.
Taking down his lich was the critical step in this match. For the next few rounds, both golems were confused. I believe he was able to activate one of them once and I was able to activate them about 3-4 times to attack each other (they were within melee reach of each other). My four hitters were able to take down a clay golem and I ended up going over 200 with assault points. I had many things work in my favor (looking back, it seems most things worked in my favor this match). This was only the second time I had defeated chattan in an event, IIRC. I was surprised and excited.
ROUND FOUR—vs. Caustic_Mouse
The only time I had seen gith monks against duergars & helmed horrors was when spikegif beat Drakkengi in a practice game a week or two ago. The monks and my opponent had me concerned. I won terrain initiative and promptly set up my Blood Rock Cave as close to my assembly tile as I could, with the same L set up I did against Toxic_Rat in Round Two. I didn’t care too much about the rest of the tile set up after that, but did try to place my mushroom tangle near his assembly tile to slow him a little bit. I think that my mushroom tangle did funnel his movement the other way (but I don’t know for sure). The other way being across the top of the map toward the middle and his treasure room “bunker” area. His mushroom tangle was placed nearer to me, adjacent to the treasure room. This proved to hurt him more than me, since my pieces never needed to get through that tile.
This time, I moved my helmed horrors less than full speed to be positioned near my mongrelfolk, in a place that they could react to my opponents’ movement. Urthok and the duergars moved onto the Blood Rock cave. I was thinking—I don’t mind if he sets up camp in his treasure room. I have seen spikegif use it effectively as both a place to gather assault points and a good place for him to control fighting. I decided I would play the same game, getting my warband around the cave and collecting points there.
Then second round started. I won initiative and asked him to go first. His two githzerai monks surprised me by leaving the treasure room and going around to the right side, out of sight of both my warband and their commanders. I thought, hey, now that his best hitters are out of the way, I can charged in by his couatl, justice archon, and aramil, who were bringing up the rear. My first helmed horror literally charged and attacked the justice archon. My 2nd helmed horror came in to base all three of those pieces. He decided to move the young master out of the treasure room, to his mushroom tangle, so that he could have the gith monks in command next round. His justice archon was not hitting my helmed horrors. Aramil took a step, and got hit by a helmed horror on an attack of opportunity, and routed. He ended up failing again next round to go off map. I brought a duergar up to hit the justice archon. I think that this finished it off. His couatl had moved away like Aramil, getting hit on attack of opportunity from helmed horror. I was thinking one of my problems was that Urthok was being left open and his monks might come right over to base him. Caustic_Mouse said after the match that because of mushroom tangle, the monks could not reach him with double move. My helmed horrors ended up coming over and taking on the young master, while the monks laid in to my duergars with stunning attacks. Both duergars routed. One saved the next round. The second ended up routing off map, but started rout a round later. After the helmed horrors took out the young master, I brought in the returning duergar to attack couatl. My helmed horrors risked attacks of opportunity from a gith monk to attack couatl. The couatl ended up going down. At some point, I ended up getting 200 points after assault points.
END
I was shocked in a pleasant way by the results of the tournament. It was really nice getting four boosters, and Runelord’s repaint is awesome. The three matches I played were against skilled players that had me worried. It was definitely an advantage to have a first round bye. I guess the good news for the local players with me doing as well as I did is that my interest in skirmish is back. I don’t own any of the maps yet that will be legal next month. There was a lot of good sportsmanship that I witnessed throughout the tournament. I was very glad that everyone got a booster who participated. I would much rather have that situation than a larger percentage of whatever the prize support was for first place. Especially since it was a 10 dollar entry fee, instead of the more typical 5 dollar entry fee.
| |
"Look to God and live." Alma 37:47
Vindicated Champ of Hippogriff (Arcadian Hippogriff) and Uncommon Horse | |
|
Drakkengi
Sergeant
890 Posts
| | 02/20/2006 5:43 AM |
| Nice write up. I always like hearing what happened in the other battles that I couldn't watch. Congratulations on your win! It's good to know that warband did well even if I didn't do that well piloting it. Most of all I'm really glad to hear that your skirmish interest has gone back up. I will always remember my early days in this game and how much I feared coming up against you and your HEBI band. Ah the good ole days......actually I guess now would be the good ole days since I can actually win every now and again. [:p]
Overall I had a good time at the Open but was a little dissapointed at the turnout. I was hoping we would get a better showing at what I thought of as one of the Big tournaments. Oh well, hopefully we will get a bigger group with the new set and new rules. I guess we can get an idea of the local group size at the Wardrums release. Anyway I hope everyone had fun and I'm looking forward to a second chance at the "Utah Closed"....if we do end up having that event. | |
| |
| Master Peon
spikegif
Warlord
5699 Posts
| | 02/20/2006 12:13 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Corim Danex
I was very glad that everyone got a booster who participated. I would much rather have that situation than a larger percentage of whatever the prize support was for first place. Especially since it was a 10 dollar entry fee, instead of the more typical 5 dollar entry fee.
I arrainged this prize support as the shop still had been unable to get thr reatil kits and I wanted to make sure everyone who showed was able to get something. | |
First peon to make it to "Knight Warlord"
Completed Trades -148- | |
| 
Most Edumacated
zenthrus
Warlord
5132 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 02/20/2006 12:52 PM |
| Sounds like a good tourney despite low turnout. It's good to hear that your interest in skirmish is back since I just started and we don't have a huge group to play against.
| |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
Champion of Dwarven Thunderlashers
Knight of the Large Dire Chicken
Have/Want List
Trade References | |
|
Caustic_Mouse
Sergeant
464 Posts
Tooele, Ut
| | 02/20/2006 3:54 PM |
| The open was great experience for me. I don't get out to play as much as I would like and enjoyed playing Jarvissteven and Corim_Danex for the first time.
As for my warband, I was up late nad changed my warband more than twice. I was most concerned about inspired frenzy which I had a good feeling about facing. As it ended up I played two inspired frenzied bands and barely "eeked" out a win against both. However my inexperience with the warband really showed.
All in all I had a great time and would like to thank those who came, Hastur's, and Spikegif. | |
Champion of Axe Beaks and Brownies | |
|
chattan
Sergeant
393 Posts
| | 02/22/2006 3:19 AM |
| Boy, the power of the bye is amazing. [:0] Not only did Corim get a win with excellent tie breakers for doing nothing, but he got to use that time to get a sneak peek at all of his potential opponents and their style of play. That was especially unfortunate for me since I was playing his exact mirror band during his scouting exhibition. Then to have that compounded by a lunch planning session. *sigh* The fates were against me that day. Kudos to Corim for taking advantage of the situation and putting it to good use for the win. I wouldn't be nearly as bitter if he'd traded the Marut he got in his booster for the Dromite Wilder I got in mine. [)]
Thanx to spikegif and Hastur's for putting on a great event. Thanx to everyone else for showing up and being good sports. My son and I had a blast. While it was unfortunate that we didn't have any newbs out, it was good to get together with the core group and have a good time playing. It's been too long.
I particularly enjoyed the prize support. I didn't mind paying $10 for each of us since we got a total of 3 boosters for our troubles. I echo Corim's view that a more even distribution of prizes is better than a huge prize for the winner.
C'yall at the War Drums prerelease!
chattan | |
| |
| Master Peon
spikegif
Warlord
5699 Posts
| | 02/22/2006 9:44 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by chattan
C'yall at the War Drums prerelease!
chattan
Not sooner???? [?] ΖD] | |
First peon to make it to "Knight Warlord"
Completed Trades -148- | |
|
Caustic_Mouse
Sergeant
464 Posts
Tooele, Ut
| | 02/22/2006 10:51 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by spikegif
quote:
Originally posted by chattan
C'yall at the War Drums prerelease!
chattan
Not sooner???? [?] ΖD]
Isn't the prerelease a week from Saturday? | |
Champion of Axe Beaks and Brownies | |
| Master Peon
spikegif
Warlord
5699 Posts
| | 02/22/2006 1:07 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Caustic_Mouse
quote:
Originally posted by spikegif
quote:
Originally posted by chattan
C'yall at the War Drums prerelease!
chattan
Not sooner???? [?] ΖD]
Isn't the prerelease a week from Saturday?
"release" event is a week from this Saturday
release date 3/4/06
Prerelease 2/25/06 at WF | |
First peon to make it to "Knight Warlord"
Completed Trades -148- | |
|
chattan
Sergeant
393 Posts
| | 02/22/2006 9:44 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by spikegif
quote:
Originally posted by chattan
C'yall at the War Drums prerelease!
chattan
Not sooner???? [?] ΖD]
Nope. I'm a single parent this weekend. [:(]
chattan | |
| |
|
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.7 | You must be signed in to participate in the
games. |