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DinoBen
Sergeant
412 Posts
    
Based outta Games of Berkeley, CA
 | | 04/17/2006 6:03 PM |
| Come test out your warbands before they get slaughtered in a DCI sanctioned event at Games of Berkeley this Tuesday @ 6:30pm. As always a lot of fun, lots'o trading to be done, and great league prizes to be had.
On a side note this will actually be the last unsanctioned event at Games of Berkeley as the store has requested we sanction our league play. So, we may actually have to start getting serious! [)]
Report to follow event. Hope to see you there, -Ben | |
Champion of all things Athasian
"Don't sing it - Bring it!" | |
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DinoBen
Sergeant
412 Posts
Based outta Games of Berkeley, CA
| | 04/19/2006 1:22 PM |
| With tax season in full swing we didn't have many participants, getting up to 5 at the high point. I did manage to get in a few rounds against Paul Mills, a fairly experienced minis player.
As this was a casual event, I decided to bring out my "fun" Dragonne band yet again and we all agreed to try out the "new" maps from the Fields of Ruin. I ran "Cats & Dog"
50 GFD
36 Dragonne
36 Dragonne
36 Dragonne
27 3x Hunting Cougar
15 Graycloak Ranger
00 Woof
My opponent played a CE band he built in anticipation of facing LG bands. He ran "Tossed Slaad"
Death Slaad
2x Blue Slaad
Zombie White Dragon
3x Orc Warrior
Well, so much for his Chaos Hammers. We faced off on the legal Keep map. I won first round init and let Paul go. He moved his ZWD as far forward as he could - so much for me plinking an Orc Warrior with my Graycloak... At anyrate, we moved our forces into place in front of the victory areas, I was able to get my wolf to score victory points on the first round. I also moved one Dragonne and HC back around the central portion of the keep while he kept his Slaads in the back to avoid a Predatory Roar from catching everyone.
I won 2nd round initiative. Moved a HC to eat the one orc warrior of his from setting my large based Dragonne behind his ZWD and coning all of the Slaads. I then moved my DC to do exactly that. Now that the major opponents were Roared on, my Dragonnes were going to be attacking them at +13/+8 for 20 Magic damage... I like Dragonnes. Paul decided to move his Slaads back around to attack my potential flankers and moved his ZWD to his Victory area.
This left me in a tough spot with only one commander. I decided that moving my troops was the way to go, so I reversed direction to cut around behind the main building with the GFD and the Greycloak, leaving the HC's to their fate and charged one of his Blue Slaads with the Dragonne I'd already put back there... and missed twice! With two charge attacks (yay pounce) at +15/+10 I shoulda hit an AC 22 at least twice! Oh well, I moved my third Dragonne to the edge of the map in a charge position on the Blue Slaad I had just missed and that was the end of the round.
Paul won this round of initiative... [V]. He then attacked my Dragonne twice with his BS, which forced a morale save and I rolled a 3, so he routed right off the board! *sob* He then attacked the HC that was basing his DS, Hitting with the first attack, and missing with the second (what are the odds?). I was then able to charge with a second Dragonne and do some damage to a BS and move my GFD to put all my critters (except the wolf) back into command. My second remaining Dragonne put some more damage on the wounded BS, but it passed its morale check. On the fodder front, his ZWD breathed on my out of command wolf from his Victory area into my victory area, this of course forced a morale check and would force me to somehow move a HC into my victory area to continue getting victory points. I rolled a 19, the wolf passed his check, one more round of VP for me! He then positioned his two remaining OWs to attack the wolf the next round and I moved my GcR back around to see his OWs and try and take them out before they could get to the wolf.
I win initiative on the second to last round. One Dragonne activates and kills the first BS. The second... flies to base the DS and put 20 magic damage on him and my GFD charges his BS with Pounce... and misses! CR@P! This leaves my opponent with "stay and fight one Dragonne and my GFD with my BS or move to aid my DS..." He moves to aid his DS (potentially saving one of my Dragonnes and GFD). He swings on my Dragonne with the DS and rolls a 5 on his second attack keeping me from having to save vs. Deadly Rend *whew*. Graycloak takes out the OW closest to the DS, one OW kills my woof [V], any my HC with 5HP that is basing his DS hits the DS for 10 damage... ooh, the DS is only a few points away from a Morale check...
Last round, I win initiative! I use the GFDs auto-damage Produce Flame to force a morale check against his DS... and he passes! Oh well, I then activate my Dragonne basing his DS and hit twice putting 40 damage on him which puts him down!.. And that's pretty much it, I won though it was a pretty bad beating [B)]. We'd hit one hour so we only had this round to finish. He couldn't really kill any one of my critters with his BS and a failed morale from the one Dragonne he could get to wouldn't force that Dragonne off the map.
Final analysis: I like Dragonnes! Neither warband was "Tier 1" but we agreed that Pauls warband could be much better with a bit of tweaking. I'll discuss that after I post the results of our 2nd match. | |
Champion of all things Athasian
"Don't sing it - Bring it!" | |
|
DinoBen
Sergeant
412 Posts
Based outta Games of Berkeley, CA
| | 04/19/2006 4:02 PM |
| ROUND 2 At this point two more players had shown up so we paired up randomly and I ended up playing Paul again. He hadn't brought a 2nd warband and I knew he'd hoped to play against a lawful band, so I offered to bring out an LG band. He told me that wouldn't be fair, but I assured him that I felt I'd be OK even against 3x Chaos Hammer. His band again, "Tossed Slaad":
Death Slaad (DS)
2x Blue Slaad (BS)
Zombie White Dragon (ZWD)
3x Orc Warrior (OC)
My band, "Holy Chicks!"
47 Cleric of Dol Arrah (CoDA)
42 Couatl
64 2x Justice Archon (JA)
31 Rikka
08 Warforged Scout
10 2x Azer Raider
I don't believe I lost initiative the entire game, which considering Commander 1 vs. Commander 7 didn't surprise me too much. We chose to play on the new Temple map with the Rivers of Blood! I chose to play on the side on which my victory area was the shattered cyrstal and altar. I plunked my WS right on there and positioned the rest of my band out of LoS from his band. I left Rikka off the board for now.
I won initiative and chose to go first. I moved my Couatl out in front of the pit / sacred circle that was his victory area. I then proceeded to move my minis in such a way that he could only target my Couatl with Chaos Hammers but the rest of my band could not be caught in that area effect. He chose not to cast any Chaos hammers that round, instead moving his OCs towards his side victory area, moving his BS's forward to better attack positions, one of them within two of my WS to squash it the next round. My last activation was my WS, which I moved away from that BS (he'd have to come get me!). His last activation was his DS, which he moved to base my WS and put 15 points of pain on him (he coulda done this no matter where I'd moved my WS in that Victory area). But that was the point, the WS was the bait and he took it!
Before rolling the next initiative I placed Rikka next to my WS, not basing his DS. I won initiative, flew my Rikka to base his DS and put 20 damage on him. I then flew my Couatl forward, cast Snake's Swiftness on Rikka and put another 20pts of pain on his DS, forcing a Morale save. Now, a DS without anothe commander has to roll a 9 or better to make their morale save... and he didn't. This caused Paul's only commander to route off the board. Paul then brought one BS to bear on Rikka and the other BS squished my bait.. er, WS. I brought my two JAs to base the BS that killed the WS, he moved his ZWD to sit on his Sacred Circle / Victory area and the OCs and ARs did a little dance for the enjoyment of their lords.
Paul did take notice of using the ZWD to base multiple opponents for the purpose of AoOs, so a number of my figs ended up with 10 or 20 points of nearly unavoidable ZWD damage.
Round 3. I won initiative, I put 20 damage on the BS that attacked Rikka and moved my Couatl up to cast Snakes Swiftness on Rikka again. This force a morale save from the now Commanderless BS, but it passed it's save. That BS then put another 20 on Rikka, likewise forcing a morale save, that I failed even with the +7 from the CoDA! Now Rikka was streaking for the exit and that BS moved closer to base my Couatl. The other BS managed to put 60 points of damage on one of my JAs with a critical! Yay being Bold! I moved my CoDA nearest to the damaged BS and cast Dismiss - POP goes the BS! The JAs did some damage to the remaining BS and the fodder danced once again. One of my ARs had been gathering VPs the 2nd & 3rd round. Paul flew his ZWD to base my Couatl, CoDA and the JA w/ 5HP.
Last Round, almost. I won initiative. Well, I'm not gonna let a ZWD take out a JA allowing the BS to concentrate on a lone JA! So, after the wounded JA hits the BS (once) I took an AoO on my CoDA to heal that JA back up to 35HP. Paul then has to activate both the ZWD and his remaining BS to take out that JA. My other JA activates, brings the BS down to one last hit needed, but a Snake's Swiftness from a JA kills it. At the end of the round I have 189 points due to killed minis and VP, Paul has 86 (Rikka actually routed off the board! [V])
That round had ended so quickly we still had time for one more, so I moved my last JA to attack his last OW... and missed! Well that wasn't going to do at all! So I used an Empowered Sonic Orb to blast the OW. That brought me to 192 and with one more round of VP and my opponent only left with his ZWD I had over 200 points at the end of the round. Like I said, I'd be OK playing LG vs. Slaad CE.
Analysis of Paul's Band. Well, like we agreed, not really Tier 1 material. But the weaknesses lie primarily in saves, low Commander Rating and the ZWD just wasn't doing much for him other than being a nigh indestructible tile grabber! So, we agreed that taking out the ZWD and an Orc Warrior and replacing them with and Orc Wardrummer and a Tiefling Captain would make his band much more competitive with +4 to Saves and a second Commander with Rating 4. This new band would be:
Death Slaad
2x Blue Slaad
Tiefling Captain
Orc Wardrummer
2x Orc Warrior
We'll let you know how it does the next time around if Paul brings it. Now I just have to make a good anti-slaad band.. ΖD] | |
Champion of all things Athasian
"Don't sing it - Bring it!" | |
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Shadow_Fox
Underboss
1751 Posts
Litchfield, MN
| | 04/19/2006 4:41 PM |
| | Great Report. I enjoyed reading it. Its always fun to break out the "casual" warbands (so many more options and flavors to choose from then if you were trying to win a major event) and see just what all of these figures can do. | |
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DinoBen
Sergeant
412 Posts
Based outta Games of Berkeley, CA
| | 04/19/2006 7:04 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Shadow_Fox
Great Report. I enjoyed reading it. Its always fun to break out the "casual" warbands (so many more options and flavors to choose from then if you were trying to win a major event) and see just what all of these figures can do.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I'll tell you what, Blue Slaads are beasts! They don't hit as hard as other CE "tanks" - only 20 Damage - but they have a better chance to hit on average at +13/+13 with melee reach 2 than most other CE hitters (+15/+15 paired when under command by a Death Slaad). The main thing, however, is their AC - 21! That's right on par w/ LG! That and they have a ton of energy resistances so they'd only take 10 from either a Chraal or a Helmed Horror! AND Blue Slaads have a nice place in meta-game vs. popular Lawful bands with their Chaos Hammers! Anyways, though I beat them twice I found a great deal of respect for them just the same. [B)] | |
Champion of all things Athasian
"Don't sing it - Bring it!" | |
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