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jgsugden
Commander
4320 Posts
    
Walnut Creek, CA
 | | 04/11/2006 1:31 PM |
| I'm limited on time, so here are the standings:
1.) Louis Sancha (LCS) 3-0 (win via bye)
Shuluth, Rakshasa, Artemis, Steel Predator, Thaskor, Ambush Drake, Mind Flayer Telepath, Duergar Champ (Teleport Temple)
2.) Tom Proudfoot (pdfoot) 2-1
Huge Red Dragon, Hill Giant Barbarian X2, Ryld Argith, Tiefling Blademaster, Trog Thug X2, Trog Barbarian (Field of Ruin)
3.) Elliott Chin (featers) 2-1
Epic Elminster, Archmage X2, Elf Pyromancer, Xeph Warrior (Tomb of Queen Peregrine)
4.) John Sugden (jgsugden) 1-2
Aspect of Kord X3, Moon Elf Fighter, Epic Rikka, Crow Shaman, Evermeet Wizard (6 summonable Timber wolves), Brass Dragon (Teleport Temple)
5.) Jeff Ashbury (JAshbury) 1-2
Epic Soth, Helmed Horror X2, Iron Golem, Beholder, Dark Moon Monk, Goblin Skirmisher X2 (Tomb of Queen Peregrine)
6.) John Wang (?) 1-2 (win via bye)
War Troll, Iron Golemm, Gauth X2, Beholder, Human Blackguard, Dark Moon Monk, Gravehound (map unknown)
My matches were as follows:
Round 1: A come from behind victory against JAshbury's Lord Soth band. I foolishly left Rikka off the board for an extra round, but I was able to get her and the Kords to take down Soth, which eliminated the golem for nearly 300 points. Jeff played a good game, but didn't get a great opportunity to use the abyssal blast.
Round 2: I played Tom (pdfoot) in a very, very close match. In the final round, we'd oth lost our commanders. It was down to Rikka and the Huge red dragon. Each was 1 hit from death ... and Tom won initiative. I don't think I made any major mistakes in thios battle.
Round 3: I played feathers with my outsider band ... while he was running a band that could dismiss outsiders 4 times. Ugh. I played very sloppy, forgetting to bring Rikka in twice! I also gave up the Crow Shaman by leaving him in a vulnerable position in the first round. It was a horrible game on my part. I rolled very well, but my ridiculously bad tactics couldn't be overcome by dice. Elliot slaughtered me. | |
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proudft
Sneak
109 Posts
| | 04/11/2006 4:22 PM |
| My matches were:
1) Elliott (Win)
2) John S. (Win)
3) Louis (Loss)
Each was progressively closer, until I lost. :)
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memphisto
Warrior
213 Posts
| | 04/11/2006 4:24 PM |
| Nice mini-report, thanks.
I'm fascinated by LCS's band. At first glance, I'm thinking "what the...," but then I took a closer look and saw so many interesting synergies. It still appears a difficult band to pilot and keep alive though. I would be curious to read a little of how this band was played, esp. on teleport temple. That is, of course, if anyone in the know has the time or interest to elaborate![:)] | |
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proudft
Sneak
109 Posts
| | 04/11/2006 4:34 PM |
| I can tell you it was a stun-o-rama vs. me, the Red Dragon was basically getting two stun cones a round for the whole middle of the match. Dirty sneaky mind flayers. :P
Edit: We were on Field of Ruin, not Teleport Temple, btw, so can't help you there.
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Lead Moderator
LCS
Underboss
1899 Posts
| | 04/13/2006 5:23 AM |
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Well, the main reason that I chose Teleport Temple was just to try to make sure I would get to play on it more often for practice. It's really not an ideal map for this band, but I figured it would work reasonably well with several fast creatures.
Anyway, I'll try to give a general play by play of my matches, as well as I can remember it. Some details might be wrong, or activations out of order.
The sixth player arrived about halfway through the first matches, so we initially had an odd number of players and I was the one that ended up with a bye for the first match.
1-0
For the second match, I was paired up against John Wang, who was piloting the warband with the epic War Troll (which also ended up including an Imp instead of the Dark Moon Monk since no one had an extra that John could borrow). John didn't bring a map so we played on Teleport Temple, and I lost setup initiative so John choose side A.
We spent the first round playing capture the teleporters, without engaging. When I had originally been deciding whether or not to run the Teleport map, I realized that I couldn't teleport and use the Thaskor and Predator's swift cones on the same turn, but managed to forget during the game, and had to be reminded [:I] during the second round.
In the second round, I decided to take the chance and try the Ambush Drake's slow breath on the War Troll (big risk, big reward), but it made the save and John took out the Drake with a combination of the Gauth/Beholder/War Troll. I moved up Artemis and took a shot at the troll (who was holding the teleporter next to the forward victory A area) and missed, and then used his second activation to move him back out of range and line of sight. At the end of the second round, I teleported the Rakshasa and moved near the rubble area so that I could slide the Blackguard off of a teleporter, then I moved and beamed in the Duergar to base the Blackguard.
In the third round, John responded by going after my Rakshasa with the Iron Golem. I couldn't get my Thaskor exactly where I wanted him, so I settled for a spot where he would get tile points and could go after the blackguard next round. I was ignoring the Iron Golem, figuring that it was better just to go after the Blackguard and not waste attacks on the Iron Golem since a little bit of damage on it wouldn't affect whether or not the Rakshasa survived. Shuluth and the Mindflayer Telepath were back out of the way, an unfortunate side effect of trying to control teleporters that were necessary for defensive purposes during the early part of the round. At the end of the round, I teleported the Steel Predator and moved to where I was just barely within 6 of my Rakshasa and I could move to swift-cone the Blackguard and a Gauth and then attack if I won initiative. I figured it was worth the risk, since even if John won init and tried to rout the Predator, the Rakshasa was borrowing Tyrannical Morale from the Blackguard (the only way I could boost the Pred's morale save because of Arrogant), and there isn't any reason not to use it when the creature is going to rout off the map in the initial double move anyway.
I won initiative for the fourth round, fired off the Steel Pred's cone on the Gauth and Blackguard as it moved past an imp to base the Blackguard and attack. The Blackguard had made morale, but had about 15-20 hp left at that point. I think my second activation was the Duergar who missed twice. John used the Beholder to slide the Blackguard to safety and then squished my Rakshasa with the Iron Golem. My Thaskor moved up and stunned one of the Gauths (and maybe the beholder as well). I moved Shuluth near the fray, although if I had left him one sqaure back I could have gotten tile points this round as well. John sent his War Troll and Gravehound after my Mindflayer Telepath, who had been left exposed holding the teleporter near the "blasted corner" Victory B area when Shuluth left the other nearby teleporter to get closer to where the fight was happening, and my Telepath ended up stunned from the War Troll's attack (which turned out to be a good thing for me, since he had already activated this round and couldn't rout off the map during the final round since he had use his activation to de-stun). If he hadn't used the stun, he would have risked getting stun coned later if the Telepath made the morale check, so it's a difficult call to make. I'm not sure if it was on an AoO from Shuluth commander effect or a regular attack, but I also routed a Gauth this round who was just one square too far away around the wall from the Blackguard to be put under command, and which would ultimately make it off the map in the final round.
I'm fairly sure I won initiative in the final round (we were running out of time, so we knew it was probably going to be the last round). I could still reach the Blackguard with the Thaskor by moving and using melee reach, and I finished it off and the Golem went poof as well. The Duergar finally hit something, splattering the Imp, whose respawn didn't matter at this point. The routing Gauth made it off the map since it couldn't rally without the commander. The Beholder was inflicting wounds right and left, and the remaining Gauth burned the Thaskor as well, but they couldn't do enough damage to force a morale check on it or the Steel Predator. Artemis didn't do much all map (although I had been moving around the far corner so that I could eventually sneak attack the beholder), and since there was no way for him to do enough damage to rout the beholder (since I ended up needing to kill the Blackguard with the Thaskor instead of moving to get a flank), so Artemis just stood around for his last activation instead of moving up to base the beholder and attack. I had moved Shuluth back to where the War Troll was going after the Telepath, and John realized that even if he killed the Telepath, the only way he could get enough points to win was to rout Shuluth, which required a crit from the War Troll and which didn't happen.
During the match, I think I made nearly all of the Inflict Wounds saves against the Beholder, and I made all of the Paralysis/Stun saves against the Gauths. I was lucky that John didn't roll high enough to get any of the really painful beholder effects, or I might have lost the Thaskor or Steel Predator very quickly during the last two rounds. I don't think John really got enough use out of the epic War Troll to earn it's cost, even though it did kill the Ambush Drake and would have routed the Telepath if he hadn't used a stunning attack. I didn't get much of any use out of my Artemis either, other than the slight activation advantage from his Dual Activation ability and a body to block a teleporter.
The Teleporter Map did slow down the match a bit, but we still got in five rounds. If the match had gone one more round, I would have had a decent chance to rally the Telepath if I won initiative and deny those points, although the unwounded War Troll would probably kill Shuluth. I probably would have been able to eliminate the Beholder with Artemis unloading three sneak attacks and a backstab, with help from the Steel Predator and Thaskor, although it's possible that the Beholder could have (assuming it made its morale check if I won init) eliminated two of them with some lucky rolling if it used both activations right away. Initiative would have been big, and the outcome would have depended heavily on dice.
2-0
My third match was against Tom who had won his first two matches with his Huge Red / Dual HGB band.
He won map initiative and setup initiative, so we played on Field of Ruin and he chose side B to set up.
In the first round, we both moved up towards the center of the map, but kept spread out across the width of the map. He brought the Huge Red up into the narrow side gap, and a Hill Giant up into the wider side gap and the other Hill Giant into the shared victory area. I moved the Thaskor and Artemis up towards the wide side gap (taking a normal ranged sneak attack with Artemis's second activation), and moved my Telepath, Duergar, and Rakshasa towards the narrow side gap (but still spread out and a ways away from the Huge Red). Shuluth moved to a point where he would be able to reach the center gap next turn. I used the extra activation from Artemis to save the Steel Predator until last, moving it just onto the edge of the shared victory area so that I would be able to pounce on the Hill Giant if I won initiative and if I decided to attack first, but he would need to move the Hill Giant to reach me and only get one attack if he attacked first. I decided to use the Steel Predator's swift cone right away, even though I would only get that one Hill Giant, since waiting for multiple targets meant taking the risk (especially w/ Ryld's commander effect) of having to make a morale check with the Predator before I could get it off later. The Hill Giant failed the save, so it was worthwhile even though I didn't hit anything else with it.
I won initiative for the second round, and moved up my Telepath to stun cone the Huge Red, which failed its save. With the issue of dealing with the Huge Red delayed for a round, I moved the Thaskor up and did the same thing to the Hill Giant in the wider side gap with the Thaskor's swift cone, and stunned it as well as getting in a hit. I can't remember which creatures Tom used for his first two activations, although it might have been better to un-stun the side Hill Giant before Artemis had a chance to go after him. I used Artemis next, using one activation to move in and lay on a sneak attack w/ backstab, followed by the second activation with a sidestep into a flank with the Thaskor and two more hits. The side Hill Giant made its moral check, but I was still happy with the amount of damage I had been able to put on it. A Trog Thug and Barbarian promptly put two hits on Artemis (benefiting from the Blademaster's damage boost). I moved in with the Steel Predator, putting more damage on the center Hill Giant, and used the Ambush Drake to breath on the center Hill Giant. Unfortunately, in order to avoid getting in the way of the Predator or catching it in the cone, the only spot the Drake could reach and still breath was within the Hill Giant's reach. He routed the Ambush Drake with a hit from the Hill Giant. The Duergar moved up to annoy the Huge Red, and actually managed to put 60 points of damage on the dragon by itself (half of it from a crit) over the course of the match. Shuluth moved up towards the center gap, not quite into position to stun cone the center Hill Giant yet.
In round three, Tom routed Artemis with a swing from the side Hill Giant. At that point, Artemis only had 10 hp left, but both Troglodytes missed as he ran away. The slowed center Hill Giant missed the AC 23 Steel Predator, and promptly got stunned by Shuluth. The Telepath tried to stun the Huge Red again (although I think the dragon got a chance to attack the Duergar first, but only managed to force a morale check which the duergar made). The Predator did enough damage to the center Hill Giant to force a morale check (with a crit in there somewhere too), but the giant made it. I was able to rally Artemis, and moved him back towards the center with his second activation. Even though the Ambush Drake had stopped in a spot where it had line of sight to the Rakshasa, it failed the morale check to rally and left the map.
Round 4, the Huge Red got away before the Telepath could stun it, with a missed AoO from the Duergar, and flew over and breathed on Shuluth and the Steel Predator (although both made the save). I then made the mistake of bringing Artemis back into the fight. I should have kept him out of the way with only 10 hp left, and denied Tom the easy 89 points. Instead, I moved him up past the stunned center Hill Giant to try to do a bit more damage so that I could finish the Hill Giant off before it had the chance to take any more swings at the Predator. The Thaskor finished off the side gap Hill Giant. Ryld and the Blademaster moved up to take swings at Artemis, who got lucky and survived. At this point, I realized my mistake, and hoped to get Artemis out of there somehow. Sidestep was blocked by difficult terrain, so I took the attack of opportunity from Ryld after putting one more hit on the Hill Giant. Artemis died. The Steel Predator finished off the Hill Giant and then killed a Troglodyte Thug that had been hanging around the center as well. Either Shuluth or the Telepath re-stunned the Huge Red.
Round 5, Ryld engaged the Predator in the center shared victory area, and the Predator managed to put a little bit of damage on Ryld. The Thaskor hit and morale checked the Troglodyte Barbarian, but it made the save. The Huge Red de-stunned and then made both saves against Shuluth and the Telepath.
Round 6, the Huge Red took the AoO from the Duergar (a miss) to finish off Shuluth (who had taken a hit from the Trog Thug in the center at some point). The Trog Barbarian hit the Thaskor which put it close to a morale check. The Duergar chased after the dragon, and I moved the Rakshasa to get it into a position where it had the Thaskor under command in case the remaining Trog Thug managed to force a morale check on the Thaskor. I think Tom had the chance to move the Blademaster onto the shared victory area, but at that point Ryld was still there so it didn't seem necessary to move the squishier Tiefling into danger. When time was called, we finished out the round. Ryld attacked but couldn't do enough damage to morale check the Predator. The Predator attacked and did do enough damage to morale Ryld, who failed the morale save and routed off of the shared victory area but stayed on the map. The Thaskor hit the Trog Barbarian and finished it off.
I had underestimated the number of points Tom had gotten from killing off my figures (he had eliminated 206 points worth of my band, and I had only killed 191 points worth of his), and the only reason I won is because of the final round's tile points since Ryld had routed off of the victory area leaving my Steel Predator as its sole occupant. We had been even on tile points, with both of us getting tile points for each of the rounds, up until then.
We made it through 6 rounds, so the game went at a reasonable pace. If we had played one more round, a lot would have depended on morale checks, but I think I still would have had a good chance of winning. Initiative would have been about even, since his Ryld was routing and my Shuluth was dead, although my Raksahsa did have a 1 point advantage over the Blademaster's commander rating. If I won initiative, I would have withdrawn my Thaskor to base the Huge Red and attack, putting it 25 damage away from a morale check. If I did that, then if the Huge Red wanted to move anywhere else it would most likely take a morale check in the process. If the Huge Red attacked the Thaskor, it would most likely have moral checked it, but couldn't have killed it unless it hit with all three attacks (with two of those at +11 against AC 23). I think I would have needed to move up the Rakshasa to keep line of sight on the Thaskor, so that would have been my second activation. My Telepath could still cone the Huge Red without hitting any of my creatures, so if Tom didn't use the Red right away, it might not get to attack that round. If Tom decided to use his other activation to attack the Steel Predator with the Blademaster, it would have had to move first and couldn't morale check the Predator without a crit (allowing the predator to follow up with it's two attacks). Even if he didn't, the Steel Predator could charge the Blademaster and still be on the victory area, and with pounce make both attacks and most likely morale check the Blademaster. Unless Tom moved the Huge Red away (it was blocking the exit on my side of the shared victory area just enough that a large creature couldn't make it past), my Steel Predator would not have been able to rout off the map even if it did fail a morale check. Ryld needed to make his morale check, or he would have made it off the map that round, giving me 55 more points. He still had one Troglodyte Thug left, who he could have moved up to base the Thaskor and reduce its AC, but that would have meant choosing between activating the Huge Red and the Blademaster. Regardless of which of us would have gained the advantage if we had gone one more extra round, it still would have remained a very close match.
3-0
I don't think my band was strong enough to go 3-0 without the bye. In addition to a bit of luck during both the matches I did play, the way that the pairings worked out prevented me from having to face the worst matchup for my band.
I was really lucky that I didn't have to face Elliott's band, since epic Elminster would only fail a save on a 1 against any of my band's tricks. Even if I managed to shut down the Archmages long enough to do enough damage to take the two of them out of the fight permanently, there wasn't any way I could shut down the dual Banishments that Elminster inherited from them. Even on his own, epic Elminster has plenty of firepower to get both of my beaters (both outsiders!) down far enough to use those spells.
The Ambush Drake's slow cone is particularly devastating against spellcasters, but with almost no chance of affecting epic Elminster and not a very good chance of getting it to work on the Archmages, it doesn't help much in that matchup (especially since both have the ability to Quick Cast). My only real chance would have been to keep the Archmages making multiple stun saves each round, and even then it would take really good luck on my part and terrible luck on Elliott's part for me to have a chance to rout Elminster.
John Sugden and Jeff's warbands would have been more even matchups than playing against Elliott's band, but both would have been tough matches. If I had played either of them instead on having a bye, there's a good chance I might have ended up 2-1. Both matches that I won could have easily gone the other way.
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memphisto
Warrior
213 Posts
| | 04/13/2006 12:40 PM |
| Really nice, detailed report LCS. Sounds like the matches were tense and close, and that the Teleport map didn't help things along with only a handful of rounds. I don't know about your scene, but IIRC our monthly Epic matches tend to go less rounds than 200pt constructed matches anyway. Nice job and thanks for the report!
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Completed trades: arbados
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