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Neidhart
Skirmisher
37 Posts
    
 | | 06/05/2006 10:38 PM |
| Ok here is my qualifier report. (Sorry if it is too long)
First, I would like to thank Jeff Yandora, the TO, the judges at the qualifier and the people of the Phantom of the Attic. It was very organized with great judging in a great gaming atmosphere.
A special thank you to Pat Ellis whom I have never met or spoke with, but without his posts I probably would not have even played the Archmage warband.
It was awesome meeting a lot of the Maxminis folks. Hope to see you all at GenCon. Congrats to the other qualifiers.
Ok, so why did I play the archmage? Starting in Oct/05 my first 10/14 tournaments were 500 pt ones and I played an archmage in almost every one. I became very familiar with how to use him. When I started playing 200 I did not even consider him. I played a Marut/Couatl warband in the Michigan qualifier was not happy with my performance (could have been the 101 temperature I had the night before). So I wanted to switch to something different.
It was about this time that I was reading about the Archmage and thought yeah, I will try that! My original band had Rikka and not the Xendricks. I practiced and went 8-1 with this band, but Rikka got smashed good. I tried the Xendricks and they worked much better. So I brought one LG and the two different Archmage bands to Pittsburgh .
0430 hrs – up.
0510 hrs – leave Windsor with a vanload of five Canadians in total
0605 hrs – pick up Herb and meet Jeff and John and we all drive up to Pittsburgh
~1015 hrs – arrive Pittsburgh
~1016 hrs – make final decision to go with Xendricks and the Archmage band thinking what the heck, I will try it and see what happens.
So my warband was – Archmage, IM, Xendrick Champ x2, GCR, Wolf, Xeph x2, Devis on the King’s Road Map
After signing up and getting ready we are all set to go and they announce the first pairings as I am all excited and who do I get matched with – not someone I don’t know – I get paired with Herb!
Match 1- Herb Helzer (Helzapoppn) 4-2
HBG, Zakya x2, DC x2, Fiendish Dire Weasel, TW, Goblin Skirmisher
Dragon Shrine
I won map initiative and took my map, obviously. I think Herb one side initiative taking side B. In the first round Herb moved his Blackguard out to the left of the A/B victory area. Now I hate to use the GMA and/or quick cast so soon, but you will see a trend over most of my games. I dimensioned door and quick cast a mordy sword on him then GMA away. I used my graycloak and xendricks to shoot away and killed his dire weasel and then successfully banished one of his Zakyas. Herb then came after my Xendricks where I killed one of his DC and he killed one of my Xendricks. After 5 rounds time ended with me being up 87-74. Had we gone another round his Blackguard we have died to mordy’s sword.
1-0
Match 2 - Joshua Dartez 5-1
EoG x2, OC, Umber Hulk, Orc Wardrummer, Quaggoth Slave x2, Hyena
Teleport Temple
Once again I won map initiative and Joshua won side initiative deciding to play on side B. Joshua moved up his OC to the same position Herb had put the Blackguard. I was able to obtain a small los on the OC and once again, in first round I used quick cast to do maa twice on him forcing a morale save. He failed and the OC ran off. He ended up running his Eyes towards my starting area in the bottom right. I did some more damage to one Eye with Xendricks, put a mordy sword on one. With all that one Eye went down. Then in the forest area I moved the Xendricks around without provoking aoo to do 15 dmg a hit. When his second Eye failed morale he conceeded.
2-0
Match 3 - Matt Noble (Sirohk) 5-1
HBG, Zakya x2, Chraal x2, Dire Rat, Timber Wolf, Warrior Skeleton
Dungeon of Blood
I lost map and side initiatve. I had never played on this map before, so needless to say I had to find out where everything was and check distances and lines of sight. I started in start area B. At the beginning I was trying to decide how to best beat his band. It was either try and banish a Zakya or put a mordy or two on the Blackguard and then send up the Xendricks to hit for 15 each to kill him as the Chraals would go down as well. I ended up doing the dimension door, mordy Blackguard, GMA in the first round, yet again. I figured after 4 rounds I could get him down to morale, which he would probably make, and then send in the Xendricks to assassinate him. I was trying to be careful with my archmage and used a graycloak and the xephs to block the Chraals from getting a damaging breath weapon off. As well Matt was extremely careful with his Chraals in moving them close.
I honestly cannot believe that the time went by that fast. It would have obviously benefited me for the game to go 5 rounds as mordy would have taken over and I could have possibly got 116 pts. I have never ever played a game that lasted only 2 rounds. After that I was ahead in points 46-33. In then end, after two rounds, Matt extended his hand in a display of great sportsmanship. As mentioned in another post, this was extremely unusual for both of us as all of our other games went much longer. If there was one dark spot on the whole day, this would have been it. I am glad that Matt qualified. He is an excellent player as his record would indicate going 5-1.
3-0
It was at this point in time that I had one of my proudest moments. After 3 rounds of play the standings as listed on the DCI sheet were as follows:
Ryan Dodich 9 66.6667
Terry Dodich 9 66.6667
Brad Shugg 9 44.4444
There were only three of us at 3-0 and my 13 year old son was one of them and he was listed in first place!!! It is unfortunate that he could not pull out another win in his next three games so that maybe he could qualify, but that is the way the dice falls sometimes. I was also praying that I would not have to play him in the next three games, for obvious reasons. Thanks to Jeff for giving me a copy of the DCI sheet.
Match 4 - Brad Shugg (BShugg) 4-2
Sword Archon, SW x2, Warforged Bodyguard x2, Healer, Commoner x2
Drow Outpost
I was glad to play Brad in this next game. Knowing he is a judge I asked to please let me know if and when I was taking too long to move. He really did not have to say anything all game, which was good.
Ok this one started good as I won map initiative, I think Brad won side intiative and started on side B. I was intimidated by playing Brad because I knew he was an excellent player and his reputation speaks for itself. I figured that I did not have a chance no matter what I did and I had no idea how to beat his warband with two WF Bodyguards and a Healer. I could try and banish his Sword Archon but if it did not work I might leave myself too vulnerable. I finally decided on a strategy of putting a mordy sword on each SW because those were the only two that could not be healed.
As it turns out I did not have to worry about it as he came in to base my archmage in the second or third round with his Sword Archon. I moved away my archmage with him taking 30 dmg from the SA, put two mordys on the Sword Archon and then hid in the bottom right corner of the map. In the meantime one Xendrick attacked the Archon. Brad said later he should have had his Bodyguard there because the SA managed to hit the Archmage again forcing my first morale for him of the tourney and he made it. In the end Brad had a chance to kill the Archmage if he killed Devis, then moved in and hit the Archmage in the forest. It did not work and the game ended because the SA would have died to mordys sword. Was a very good and close game.
4-0
Match 5 - Jason Jeung 3-3
CoDA, Iron Golem, GDS x2, Arcanix Guard, SW, Dwarf Wizard, Healer
Drow Outpost
Holy cow I win map initiative again and win side set up taking side B. The bottom line in this game was that I was able to get tile points and I picked off his smaller guys one at a time. His Iron Golem literally took the road from the upper right starting area to my lower left starting area and because he was slow, he basically did not hurt me. After six rounds I was ahead. Was a good game and would have been closer had the Iron Golem had a chance to do his thing.
5-0
Match 6 - Mark Abernathy (Lord Raven) 4-2
"Brady Bunch", FB x3, Rikka, Xeph Warrior x3, Elf Warrior
Teleport Temple
Even though Mark did not have a commander I did not win map initiative and had to play the FB on teleport map. I do not think I could have had a worse match up. I won side initiative and took side A. Mark put Rikka on before the first round initiative and put her in my victory area next to his starting area. When I won first initiative I had a big decision to make. I could try and banish Rikka but I would have to use a dimension door and GMA to be able to get my Archmage back to a safe location and to prevent his FB from basing him. I tried it and it worked. He also moved a FB to a teleporter that had los to my starting area and since my Xendricks were on the outside row they could shoot at him doing some much needed extra damage.
Mark was not happy about those two things, but he made up for it with a brilliant move and capitalizing on my mistake. In the next round he was able to kill a Xeph and then use that teleporter to charge my Archmage. He did and hit him for 30 dmg. I teleported him out and ran him back deep into my starting area.
I was really thinking that there was no way for me to keep my archamge alive, but I would try. I send one Xendrick in to hit the FB that had based Devis and my commander. I remember saying something like, well Devis will be useless this game. As it turns out I was very wrong as he rolled a 20 on an aoo against the FB as moved by and did another 5 dmg in a later attack. Mark missed conceal at least once on that Xendrick before killing him. One FB went down with burnout. Then one FB got tangled up with my other Xendrick and one with my Archmage. He missed conceal at least two more times and I think that cost him the game.
After about 5 rounds he had one FB left and I had a Xeph and my Archmage. In the end he could not stop me from getting tile points and could not do anything but base my Archmage. It was an incredibly close game.
Mark mentioned how he did not qualify in Kentucky because of missing conceal and unfortunately it happened to him again. At the end he showed excellent sportsmanship. Mark was a very good player who piloted his FB well and most likely would have won had he not missed at least three conceal checks.
6-0
Finals – Match 1 - Herb Helzer (Helzapoppn) 4-2
HBG, Zakya x2, DC x2, Fiendish Dire Weasel, TW, Goblin Skirmisher
Dragon Shrine
A re-match with Herb and this time he won map initiative and chose he Dragon Shrine map. He took side B after I advised him that I had two maa spells. This game was one of the closest I had. In the first round he moved a Zakya to within dimension door range and so again, in the first round, I used my quick cast and GMA. I moved the Archmage in to banish the Zakya. He failed the check – yay, it worked again. Oh wait, I forgot to roll for sr. Uh oh, bad news, I failed both sr checks. With my GMA I was moved my Xendricks forward and was able to rout his wolf which prevented Herb from getting tile points.
I had a plan and that was to let him base my Archmage with both Zakyas. If I took the 30 dmg that would be ok as I would be able to make one have to mc and if he made it I should be able to kill him. As well, he other pieces were too far away to help out right away giving me an extra round to work on the other Zakya.
Well Herb did base my Archmage but one mistake, I forgot about the truestrike. It worked out ok because I was prepared to take the damage. When I moved my Archmage he took the damage but when I tried to magic missle him I again failed both sr checks. I was thinking, this is a disaster. The Xendricks both hit, my commander charged in and hit but I could not kill one of them that round.
Next round he killed one of my Xendricks before I had a chance to use him, but then I killed one of his Zakyas. My other Xendrick then had to mc and I failed. He ended up two squares from running off. I had killed his Dire Weasel and he killed my wolf. I checked the points and if he killed my Xendrick and Graycloak and Devis leaving my AM and commander I could win, but only if I get tile points. So I double moved my Graycloak to the common victory area and moved my commander down the left side so I could maybe try and rally my routing Xendrick. I collected more tile points.
In the 6th round I sent my commander down and the Xendrick made his morale check. My Archmage teleported to the other side of board. Herb had to use his pieces to kill the Xendrick and Graycloak, which he did. In round 7 I put commander in a spot where he could not be attacked that round and I sent the Archmage to my other victory gaining 10 pts. Final score 101-98. Whew, I barely escaped with a win. Herb played very well all day and I was happy he qualified as he had set that as a goal for himself and he was able to achieve that.
Finals - Match 2 - Joshua Dartez 5-1
EoG x2, OC, Umber Hulk, Orc Wardrummer, Quaggoth Slave x2, Hyena
Teleport Temple
After having played Joshua’s friend on the teleporter map and just barely winning I was afraid of having to play another one on that map. Fortunately luck was with me and I won map initiative again. I won side initiative and took side B. After moving several creatures, once again I was in a position to GMA, move and maa his OC in his lower starting area for a mc. It was a big gamble as I would leave my Archamge in a forest square, but in a position so that both Eyes could move and swing at him the next round. I was extremely tired at this point and became careless to the point where it almost cost me the game several times. I decided I would GMA move and do the maa quick cast thing. It worked and the OC failed his mc and ran off the board. A good start, but far from over.
The Eyes came in and swung and only one hit the Archmage. I think one of them failed a conceal or just plain missed. Anyways I got the Archmage out of there. The next couple of rounds consisted of him killing a Xendrick, Devis, Wolf, Graycloak and both Xephs. I managed to kill his Hyena, a Qaggoth, We were getting tile points all along.
I moved my commander now to the far right of the map while my Archmage stayed on the far left of the map. One Quaggoth finally tracked my Archmage down in the forest and hit him forcing a morale check. I rolled and even with no commander around I made the check. If I did not make it that was obviously the game as he would have run off the map. The timer had signaled 10 minutes left and then 5 minutes left. Joshua was playing quick and so the last couple rounds I was playing extremely quickly.
After 9 rounds of play I realized that if I did not get tile points and he killed my commander I would lose. I needed tile points to win. I took the biggest gamble of the tournament and moved my Archmage to a spot on my victory area and not under the cover of any forest. I did not have a choice, if I wanted to win I had to take the chance. He based my Archmage with the Wardrummer, the UH and the remaining Eye. Him and Mark high fived each other as it appeared the game would be over shortly. Next round I won initiative and moved my Archmage to the common victory area taking the aoo. The UH hit and made conceal. They Eye hit and failed conceal. Holy cow. After 10 rounds of play I was up 187-158.
On one initiative I took a bit of time to check some distances with my Archmage. After doing so I said to myself – why am I doing this, it would benefit me greatly if I make him move first and so I did that. When time ran out Joshua was moving his last piece and then we would have rolled for initiative. He was a little upset because of what I had done with the Archmage and then making him go first. If I would not have done that we may have had time for another round.
Well I did not want the game to end like that. For the finals I did not want any doubt that something was done to prevent an initiative and so I offered to Joshua to play another. I would rather lose and be known as a stupid person with good sportsmanship than a winner who won with a last minute controversy. We moved the pieces back to where they were the previous round and replayed everything including another round.
As it turned out Joshua was not able to kill my Archmage or my commander and could not prevent me from gaining tile points. So in the end the result was the same but under circumstances which made me feel much better about it and I am sure made him feel better because there was no doubt. Joshua was an awesome player and could have very easily won that game if it had not been for conceal. Congrats to you Joshua for playing such a great tournament.
8-0 and thank god it was over because I was sooooo tired.
2330 hrs – depart Pittsburgh
0630 hrs – arrive at home more tired than you could believe
I just want to say that I was floored by the exceptional sportsmanship of all the players I played against. I try to teach my son that having fun and being fair is a lot more important than winning. On that day the stars were in alignment and luck was on my side and it worked out well. Most days it does not happen like that or go that well.
I would have to say that absolutely the Xendricks were the MVP of the tournament for me. With their hitting ability and conceal they were a force to be reckoned with.
Once again, thanks to all. It was a great pleasure to meet and play against all of the Maxminis and Vassal people.
Neidhart
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10446 Posts
United States
| | 06/06/2006 12:17 AM |
| Congrats on the win, and congrats to all the others who qualified, and thank you to all who came out and played like crazy but didn't make it.
The write-up was great--very informative. Thanks a million.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
My Trade Thread and My Reference Thread; Winner of WBC IV, IX and XIII; Rule #0: bshugg is always right! | |
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Kithmaker
Commander
3926 Posts
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kgradert13
Sergeant
909 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 12:29 AM |
| | No surprise to me. Marut w/ Sacred Watchers (and Commander 0 often) screams for Zakyas. Even Sword Archon/Sacred Watchers don't like to make a lot of Morale saves | |
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Lord_Raven
Sergeant
391 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 12:43 AM |
| Congrats Terry - if only you and your son had gone fishing that day though, I may have won that crazy Qualifier... My only loses were to you and Ryan! You must be teaching him well - keep up the good work!
Hope to see you at GenCon! | |
Winter Fantasy, Wardrums Pre-release Champion
**Proud Member of Team Amish!** | |
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Kithmaker
Commander
3926 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 12:58 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by kgradert13
No surprise to me. Marut w/ Sacred Watchers (and Commander 0 often) screams for Zakyas. Even Sword Archon/Sacred Watchers don't like to make a lot of Morale saves
True -- which is why I used a Zakya in my warband for the MN qualifier (and it worked well, against the ONE Marut/SW band I fought). I guess I meant more specifically that there were a TON of them in PA, compared to the rest of the qualifiers.
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My H/W list is not current...
Trade Reference List
OLD Trade references (191) | |
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Neidhart
Skirmisher
37 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 12:58 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Lord_Raven
Congrats Terry - if only you and your son had gone fishing that day though, I may have won that crazy Qualifier... My only loses were to you and Ryan! You must be teaching him well - keep up the good work!
Hope to see you at GenCon!
Thanks Lord Raven, very kind words. I will continue to work with him and I expect he will play in the grinder. Hope to see you and Joshua at GenCon! Good luck at your next qualifier. Oh, and don't contemplate - that brady bunch is a great warband! | |
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Helzapoppn
Warrior
258 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 2:52 AM |
| Great writeup, Terry, and thank you so much for the ride and your patience at the end there -- the car's working now.
That first-round match, I actually blundered into a good ploy: Of my five main pieces, the Blackguard is the one best able to stand up to a Mordy's Sword...
70 Hit Points (start) -15 +10 (Cure Moderate Wounds) = 65 -15 = 50 -15 = 35 (morale check, need a 5 or better) -15 = 20 -15 = 5 -15 (dead)
Six rounds, to only five for the DCs and Zakyas. Also, at Speed 4 and only doing 10 damage per hit, I preferred to lose him than the others.
Anyway, banishing one Zakya was huge for you, and me failing to rout your Graycloak, Xen'drik & Devis was, again, huge for you. Still, even had all those things not happened your Archmage was unhurt and had a Mordy's Sword, endless EMMs and the forest to play hide-and-seek with my hitters -- I had little chance on King's Road.
The rematch was close due to four things:
1. We played on Dragon Shrine, where the walls helped block LOS and the Acid Blessing areas made you rethink using Melf's;
2. One Zakya withstood four SR checks (vs. Banishment and IIRC, a MordySword), AND made his out-of-command Morale Check.
3. Your Wolf scored 10 more tile points than he should have (one DC moved up and rolled a 1, and the Weasel hit and Blood Drained it, but the Wolf rolled an 18 to make Morale).
4. Near the end my Blackguard walked up and Smited your Graycloak, but he stood his ground and scored 10 tile points while your IM and Archmage got into position near Victory Areas.
Excellent work, terry. And Ryan will beat me very soon, I'm sure of it.
P.S. to Kithmaker -- I expected to run into lots of Sacred Watchers, which is one reason I went with Zakyas, but not the only reason (True Strikes can hit even an AC-buffed Marut in the forest, plus he has Speed 8, SR & DR5). That said, I fought one SW in six matches...but I did rout it off the board with a Chill Touch, so I'm not complaining.
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Champion of Iconics & the Apparatus of Kwalish (Constructs with Drivers? Brilliant!)
Dungeons of Dread Called Shot: Yeah, right | |
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Adkainen
49 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 8:05 AM |
| Well done! Good to know C/G is still alive. The commanderless tripple frenzied matchup was probably the bdliest. I am just wondering that there were no other IM-warbands (in combination with Goliaths/Wemics/Frenzied).
Hope to see this kind of warband winning the GenCon this year... | |
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johnny.quest
Underboss
1366 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 11:21 AM |
| | Terry, thanks for the great report, and congratulations. I highly respect the sportsmanship you and other players displayed. It's one of the reasons I love this game. How do you think you would have faired versus triple Helmed Horrors? | | | |
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Bluedevyl
Warrior
262 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 11:52 AM |
| Terry, thanks for the great report... I've played Sirohk twice at pre-releases, and I can speak to what a great competitor, but even more so, a great guy to play against.
Congrats to all who qualified! | |
Champion of Tanis Half-Elven | |
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Sirohk
Commander
3930 Posts
USA
| | 06/06/2006 12:20 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Bluedevyl
Terry, thanks for the great report... I've played Sirohk twice at pre-releases, and I can speak to what a great competitor, but even more so, a great guy to play against.
Congrats to all who qualified!
Thank you! [^]
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Sirohk, the Bard of Heartstone
Knight of the Rahshasa's
And Crusader of the Zakya, Ak'chazar, Naztharune, and Naityan Rakshasa's | |
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Benimoto
Underboss
1125 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 3:00 PM |
| | Thanks for the great report, Terry. I'm not at all sad that I didn't get to play you in PA, but hopefully we'll face each other around here sometime. | |
Champion of the Rakshasa. Check out my Mini Terrain Maker, or my new Dungeon Map Maker (under development). | |
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Frost-Bitten
Sergeant
677 Posts
| | 06/06/2006 10:44 PM |
| | GREAT report...inspired me too continue my archmage dreams [:)] | |
PS. This is what the alphabet would look like if Q and R were removed
hardinjmm:
Frost-Bitten, there's more to life (and DDM) than LG!
Frost-Bitten:
More to life than LG... that is like saying there is more to Lucky Charms than the marshmallows!!!!!!!! | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 06/07/2006 10:36 AM |
| Congrats Terry!
I'm glad I helped to inspire you, and you writing informative reports will help others as well! If you coming to GenCon, we'll definatley have a chance to meet, and perhaps play against each other.
I'm also happy to see that a band that I strongly believed in not only qualified, but WON, a qualifier. AM are never going to be in 20% of warbands at a qualifier, but I do think that they will be competitive when ever they show up.
And those Xen'Drik's... so perfect for the AM warband!
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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The Lance
Skirmisher
45 Posts
| | 06/07/2006 5:19 PM |
| My first post on Maxminis!
(or anywhere for that matter...)
YAHOO!
Sorry that this is tardy, but I want to thank everybody that made the trip out to Phantom in Pittsburgh. Jeff did a great job hosting, but you guys had the hard part (Travel for hours before gaming). I was lucky enough to be a local beginner, and because of your willingness to travel, I got the privilege of playing with you guys, so thank you. (I'm Jason Jeung, I was the guy in the Mario T-shirt).
I had a great time (particularly this match referenced by Neidhart), and now I am a bona-fide competitive mini nutjob. I now see my every day expenses in terms of how many boosters I could afford. (example: car payment: 15 boosters a month). I look forward to learning as much as I can, and playing you all again (when I'm better...). Thanks again for making the drive, and for the very courtious and friendly manner in which you all killed my pieces and crushed my hopes of going to the nationals.
;)
See ya next time!
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Now go forth and destroy your enemies...
- The Lance (Champion of Minsc and/or Boo) | |
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Faragdar the Wise
Commander
3530 Posts
Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | 06/08/2006 12:22 AM |
| | Huh, I never thought AM would work anymore, with the loss of the speed 2 rule. I'm impressed that it still does. And I'm surprised by the Xen'drik Champions. I can see why they work with the AM, especially in the forest, but I'm still surprised. Of course, I haven't been playing much (though I'm seriously getting the bug again). | |
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish." - Albert Einstein
Champion of Myopic Half-Orcs
Winner, WBC X | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 06/08/2006 7:33 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Faragdar the Wise
Huh, I never thought AM would work anymore, with the loss of the speed 2 rule. I'm impressed that it still does. And I'm surprised by the Xen'drik Champions. I can see why they work with the AM, especially in the forest, but I'm still surprised. Of course, I haven't been playing much (though I'm seriously getting the bug again).
You should take the band out for a spin... I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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