DDM 2006 Runner Up Tournament Report
Introduction
During Qualifier Season, Robert Hatch and I had an extensive email correspondance about what band to play. Jesse Dean, Brad Shugg also contributed a lot for most of the period. We went through all the types of bands you are familiar with, but during the middle of the season, Robert mentioned how strongly he thought the band now sometimes known as "Korducopia" (Cleric of Dol Arrah, Coatl, Aspect of Kord, Warforged Bodyguard, Azer Raider, Timber Wolf, Man-at-Arms, Human Commoner) would perform in the prevalent metagame. We all tested it some and it seemed to pan out. As you saw, Robert won his qualifier with it, I finished second in mine, and Brad also qualified with it a few weeks later.
Once we had a little time to digest the new WotDQ pieces, there were a few leads, but nothing jumped out at us. We decided to take the Kord band as still being the gold standard and see what could consistently best it. Redspawns showed up as a very strong army, but Kord could handle them more than half the time. It turned out that monks and other Kord mirror bands were the two toughest matchups. Monks were a close second choice for the army to bring to nationals, but I don't think either of us felt like we could play so many rounds without losing some games due purely due to bad morale checks. Obviously, some people disagree with this assessment :). So we practiced the monk and Kord matchups a lot in the last three weeks. I most of my success at GenCon to those practice sessions - it's always instructive to learn from Robert's whuppings! Unlike last year, I was playing a band I had practiced with for almost two months, and I had much higher hopes for myself. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating... (The following is the best I can reconstrcut events from memory. Pleade pardon any errors and let me know so I can fix them). Swiss Rounds
Round: 1
Versus: ?
Playing: Korducopia
On: Forest Cliff Lair My practice with Kord versus Kord matchups showed that it is hard for one Kord band to really lock down a strong position against the other. Even if one Kord band outplays the other, the band in the inferior position can still pull out the victory by winning the right initiative and successfully dismissing the other Kord. While I was not thrilled to be looking at a 50% matchup right out of the gate, I certainly was not surprised, given how prevalent Kord build were. I don't remember many of the details of the match. I do remember the key sequence, though. We maneuvered in the northern channel of the map, so the softer pieces were all protected as the Kords went head-to-head. My opponent won initiative on the engagement round (round 2, I think) and used Kord and the Coatl's snake's swiftness to successfully strike my Kord twice. I had the Bodyguard take the first damage, so my Kord was at 60 hp left. The key in this type of situation is to not strike the opponent's Kord with yours until all of the opponent's figures have moved. Following this strategy let me heal my Kord back to full while my opponent had to "waste" his CoDA's activation. This basically put me ahead by one swing in the all important tempo race. We ended the round with his Bodyguard having taken a hit and with his Kord at 60 hp. You can see my leverage here: even if my opponent won init, he could hit Kord twice (I would take both hits and make a morale check), but I would then heal Kord and deny my opponent a chance at dismissal. He would need to heal his Kord anyway.&am;nbsp; Since I got a cure serious wounds off before my opponent did, I will likely get a chance to cast dismissal first without having to take the opportunity cost of forgoing a cure serious wounds. My winning initiative, as I actually did in this match, just accelerated the process. I hit his Kord, and my opponent now had to choose between losing his Bodyguard (exposing Kord to death by a critical hit on the next attack) or taking the hit on Kord which would cause a morale check and leave him open to a dismissal attempt. He took the hit on Kord (20 hp left), and passed morale. Up on tempo, I could afford to use the CoDA to attempt dismissal this turn rather than heal, and I did so. My opponent's Kord failed the dismissal save and he immediately conceded, facing my full health Kord he even had a snake's swiftness swing yet to go. So I was off to an encouraging start, especially compared to last year when I lost in the first round to Mike Breznyack. Win: 1-0
Round: 2
Versus: D.J. Toomey
Playing: Young Master, Githzerai Monk x4, filler
On: Dragonshrine
I'd practiced a lot against monks, and had a setup ready to sue for this map. I won side init and took the fire side. My first round moves put Kord way down in the cold shrine, standing just back from the doorway that leads to the shared victory area. In this position, only two monks at a time can base Kord. The Bodyguard, CoDA and Coatl all move right behind Kord, with the Bodyguard protecting them all. The Man-at-Arms and Azer Raider blocked off the corridor to the north to seal the back door into the cold shrine. Now any monks who wanted to come that way would have to take a 50% of missing my fodder or "waste" a stunning attack to get better odds. The Timber Wolf went to get tile points, while my Human commoner stood ready to fill the breach if the monks did break through my fodder wall. DJ moved his monks down into and near the shared victory area. He placed his Young Master behind a pillar, but in a spot where his commander effect only reached one of the spaces where a monk could base Kord. DJ went first next round and moved two monks in to the niche to attack Kord (most monk players seem aggressive by nature - an interesting irony). He wanted to get both attacks in right away, so he forwent the YM bonus on one of them. I believe the Bodyguard made the first stun save and was able to take both auto crits to the tune of 50 damage. The extra 10 damage would have been helpful here. I was again in a circumstance where patience helps Kord. Attacking a monk right away would have been bad, as it would have opened up another space for a different monk to step in and hit Kord this round. So I waited to use Kord until my last two activations, when my opponent was all done. I don't remember the rest of the sequence in detail, but now I had four swings in a row (I won initiative the following round) against DJ's monks. I'm pretty sure I killed/routed the two initial monks with those attacks, costing DJ 4 unused stunning attacks. Two monks aren't enough against the rest of the Kord team, and I managed to gain a solid win Win 2-0
Round: 3
Versus: Shayne Lindeman
Playing: Redspawn Firebelcher x4, Tiefling Captain, Orc Wardrummer, Hyena
On: Teleport Temple
I was happy enough to face another metagame band that I had prepared for, especially on a map where my Kord band had a really strong opening move. I won side init and took the "good" side. My first turn move was to have my core four pieces all move up and around the teleporter just tothe north of my start area and against the wall. I moved the wolf to get tile points and blocked off some teleporters. The Azer Raider came up to help block against belches. I very specifically did not occupy the teleporter just above the exit area. As hoped, Shayne moved a Redspawn onto that teleporter, presumably thinking that it offered a nice point from which to launch a belch on my grouped forces near my teleporter. I won round two initiative and passed to Shayne. We both basically dithered around with minor adjustments, hoping to get the other to commit. Since I got to go last, after all his pieces had gone, I was able to commit to an attack "for free". The central teleporter on which Shayne parked a Redspawn was just close enough for Kord to get a swing off at the beast, followed by a snake's swiftness swing. I think the Redspawn routed at that point, putting me up on points. As usual, I start getting foggy on the details here, but we basically fought out the battle right near my victory area A above my start area. The critical blow to Shane was when I won an initiative (get used to seeing "I won initiative" in this report :) ) and was able to use my Kord's Melee Reach in a way Shayne didn't expect to kill his Wardrummer using Aggression. Although my Bodyguard and Azer were hurt or killed blocking access to my CoDA and Coatl in the backfield, the healthy commanders and their spells ensured my victory once the wardrummer's countersong was silenced. Win 3-0
Round: 4
Versus: Glyn Dewey
Playing: Sword Archon, 6 Sacred Watchers, Standard Bearer
On: Forest Cliff Lair
And right on schedule, I face the fourth main metagame band! I knew Glyn was from California, and thus dangerous. But I also knew that my Kord band was a tough matchup for Glyn, so I may have gotten a little sloppy. The key to making this match even better for me was the forest terrain, so I was happy to win side initiative and take the start area on the forest side. Naturally, my round one moves consisted of getting all my big pieces in the north central forest area. Not only do I get the critical benefit of having my Coatl being able to cast spells without taking AoOs from basing Sacred Watchers, I also get the side bonus of Kord AC getting to 23, which makes him moderately tough for the Sacred Watchers to hit. My Coatl cast undeniable gravity and grounded two of his Sacred Watches, which doesn't matter as much as usual because they can still ignore terrain. On round 2, we both moved cautiously. Glyn had spread out his SWs, some getting victory points, one or two hunting my fodder, etc. His Sword Archon was far from the action, staying safe. I took some spell potshots (deific vengeance and sonic orb) on some of the closer SWs and passed incorporeal. Since Glyn was obviously going to score victory points every round and I would not, I decided to take a risk at the end of the round when Glyn's pieces had all moved. I moved Kord out of the forest and into the "cave" side to kill his Standard Bearer who was nearby. I wanted the points, and wanted his Sword Archon to have to come close to get the commander effect. I also noted that the SWs were spread out enough that only one or two could get an attack off on Kord next round if Kord didn't move first. I won round 3 initiative and made what I now consider was probably a mistake. Since there was nothing near Kord for him to kill, I passed to Glyn hoping to get another set of end of the round/start of the round swings. Glyn promptly moved some SWs to base Kord such that I had to kill a SW befor I could retreat back to the forest. I also would be unable to use snake's swiftness on Kord until he got back to the forest. Of course, Kord missed incorporeal on his chance to free himself at the end of the round. I won round 4 initiative and the situation was now a serious problem for me. If Kord failed to cut his way out now, he would be based by another 2 or 3 SWs, and the fight would be on his terrain, with my spellcaster/commanders being forced to take lots of AoOs. Luckily, Kord killed the blocking SW and was able to retreat partially into forest (and adjacent to the Coatl!) taking 3 AoOs, of which only 1 hit. Now I was up enough on points that the rest of the SWs had to come in after Kord. At this point I should point out that Glyn had quite sub par rolling, with far more than half the results being under 10. I night have killed another SW with a snake's swiftness at the end of the round. Round five was more of the same, with Glynn missing a lot and me being fairly lucky against incorporeal, killing my 4th (I think) Sacred Watcher. Glyn's attacking luck was poor enough that, thanks to the CoDA's heal spells, y core four pieces were all still very healthy. This was the final round, and the score was something like 94 (2 rounds vp, 4 SW, 1 SB) for me to 53 (5 rounds vp, 1 MaA) for Glyn. He moved up his Sword Archon and hit Kord (bodyguard took the blow). I finished things off by swatting the Sword Archon for 30 damage. At this point, things took a twist. Glyn called over a judge (Guy Fullerton ended up handling the situation) and complained that he felt he had not had an opportunity to play the match to conclusion. I was asked my opinion, and stated that I felt the match had come to a reasonable conclusion. I think 5 rounds is enough for a full game no matter the score, and the score itself was reasonable given that we were both playing a type of "point denial" band. I wasn't worried about going to another round, because the most likely outcome was for me to win initiative and kill the Sword Archon. Glynn needed a bunch of crits, and for my Kord to fail morale. Guy decided not to award another round, because he needed to keep the tournament moving. Because he considered the situation a gray area, Guy gave me a caution for slow play. If we had only gotten 4 rounds in, I probably would have gotten a Warning. Since all my other matches were going pretty fast, I didn't worry too much about the caution, and it ended up not mattering. I told Glyn that I was sorry he felt that he did not get his full licks in, and I hope there are no hard feelings. I mention this incident to highlight how seriously the judges were taking the issue of slow play. They kept a close watch on it, and it was not a problem at this event. Win 4-0
Round: 5
Versus: Mike Derry
Playing: Young Master, Githzerai Monk x4, Standard Bearer, Timber Wolf, Azer Raider
On: Dragonshrine
Aside from the Kord band of Robert Hatch (Dagni), Mike Derry's monks was the band I most wanted to avoid, but I couldn't any longer, as we were 2 of the 4 or 5 unbeatens at this point. I won side initiative and took the fire side so as to execute the first round maneuvers detailed in my report of match 2. Mike was wise to my ways however, and predicted what I would do, jokingly likening it to the Sicilian Opening in chess. Still, it's a good setup, and it's what I had practiced, so I executed the round as planned. It also occurred to me that Mike might have been trying to psych me out and trick me into going to an inferior, or at least unpracticed, deployment Mike moved his monks down to the shared victory area, but kept his Young Master safely way up near his victory area, counting on the Standard Bearer to relay the crucial Commander Effect. One monk went up to threaten my tile grabbing Timber Wolf next round. I won round two initiative and passed to Mike, hoping to make something happen at the end of the round. He was too wary to come into the 2 square wide niche, so we both bided time until my Kord went at the end of the round. Now free to go, Kord moved into the Sacred Circle (very important for him when facing monks) and swung at a monk. I think I missed it, but I'm not sure. I had saved the bodyguard for last to go protect Kord in case I lost initiative. Recall that one monk was too far away (near my wolf) to do anything next round, so I effectively faced just three monks. Mike won the next initiative (or I could have crept back to my hiding hole) and took two stunning crits on Kord. The bodyguard took one hit, and I made both stun saves. This was huge, of course. Mike also moved two monks to block the same niche Kord had set up in. This kept my CoDA completely sealed off from healing Kord or the Bodyguard. To open a hole, my Coatl sonic orbed one of the blockers, and my CoDA successfully dismissed it. Here I made an overly risky move that was a mistake: my CoDA followed up his dismissal by walking past the other blocking monk to base Kord and the Bodyguard in preparation for a heal next turn. I was convinced that Mike would not use the monks auto crit on CoDA when the attack would only do 20 damage (he was out of Commander Effect range), so I thought I would have a 50% chance to avoid the hit, and a 50% chance to avoid the stun if I were hit. My assumption was pretty dumb! Of course Mike used his Unavoidable critical attack on the AoO. If my CoDA were stunned at this point, I was in a world of hurt. I lucked out and passed the stun save, and now my risky gamble paid off - Mike had used up one of his crits on a secondary target who was now basing the Bodyguard. I won the next round init and I believe I knocked out another monk. I made stun saves from the next two monks' stunning attacks (putting me at 5 for 5 on stun saves for the game). Mike was getting desperate at this point, and based Kord with the Young Master at the end of the round. I won the next initiative, killed the Young Master with Kord's Aggression and a sonic orb, and that was the game. It doesn't come across so much in the telling, but making the stun saves the way I did had a great deal to do with my win. Win 5-0
Round: 6
Versus: Roger Witte
Playing: Inspiring Marshal, Elf Pyromancer, Wemic Barbarian, Frenzied Berserker, Devis, Mialee, Ragnara, Greycloak Ranger, Wolf (minion)
On: Teleport Temple
Finally a band I was not prepared for! The Frenzied Berserker would be a problem, as she deals damage in the magic number of 30, the number that kills Kord and a Bodyguard in just five swings. The Wemic Barbarian was less a worry to me than another FB would have been. But still, being out activated is not something I like, since it diminishes Kord's opportunities for last/first gambits. Also, I lost side initiative, and got stuck with the "bad" side. My first round consisted of most of my pieces hiding out around the teleport in the bottom right corner near my start area. Roger moved out and occupied a lot or teleporters. By round two, I figured that I would keep losing fodder and get behind on points, so I decided to be a little aggressive. I moved out my Coatl from the buker to sonic orb his greycloak who was on the bottom edge of the board, hoping he would route and leave a clear path for Kord to go kill the Inspiring Marshal before he used his GMA. The greycloak made morale, so Kord waited. I think the threat of Kord kept Roger from immediately basing and possibly attacking the Coatl. Roger used an early GMA to get his two beaters positioned on teleporters and his other pieces ready to kill my fodder. His Wemic ended up on the teleporter next to the victory area A right below my Start Area B. The Wemic was cleverly positioned so that Kord could not move and attack it that round. Roger stood most of the rest of his pieces, except for the Pyromancer, who scorching rayed my tile grabbing wolf in hopes of causing a route to make the Wemic fearless. The wolf stayed! Roger had cast a fireball that included his Wemic in the hopes of knocking my Bodyguard low enough that a full Wemic attck next round could kill the Bodyguard. Unfortunately for him, my Bodyguard made the save, taking no damage thanks to the Coatl, while his Wemic failed, putting him at 65 hp left. Because the Wemic was now below Kord's magic number of 70 hp, at the end of the round I positioned my Kord at reach from the Wemic so I could kill it with Kord's Aggression and a snake's swiftness if I won initiative. The Bodyguard and CoDA were nearby in support. Of course, I risked 50 damage to Kord if Roger won initiative. Well, I won initiative and waxed the Wemic (who never got a swing off), which put Roger in crisis mode. He moved the FB through the bunker teleporter I had vacated and took a swing at my CoDA. A failed morale check by my CoDA could have turned things around, but Roger missed on the attack. My CoDA was on a teleporter, so he blinked out of the FB's embrace to somewhere safer near Kord. When Roger won the next initiative, he retreated the FB back into the corner bunker that I had originally occupied. Kord double moved and got a snake's swiftness attack on the FB. I won the next initiative and killed the FB (at melee reach) with a Kord attack and a snake's swiftness. Roger then conceded. Win 6-0
Round: 7
Versus: Kevin Cleveland
Playing: Tiefling Captain, Redspawn Firebelchers x2, Ogre Ravagers x2, Orc Wardrummer, Orc Warrior x3
On: Forest Cliff Lair
Well wishers were telling me that I was as good as in, but I didn't want to take chances, as we all know how capricious DCI Reporter tiebreakers can be! Now it was time to meet the third type of band I really did not want to face: Kevin's "2x2" band. Although having only 2 belchers made me fairly safe from destruction by un-bodyguardable auto damage, the Ravagers were a huge threat to Kord. With the Tiefling helping out, two Ravagers making full attacks have a 30% chance of generating a critical hit.
I won side initiative, so I took the forest side to present a higher AC to the worrisome Ogre Ravagers. I camped in the forest near the waterfall on round 1. On round 2, I won initiative and made Kevin go first. he knows all about Kord's tricks, so he played very cautious, shuffling his four heavy hitters on the Blood Rock. He had no way to prevent me from double moving Kord through the waterfall and using my Coatl's snake's swiftness from taking a Melee reach attack on one of the Ravagers. This is not as risky as it sounded. Even if I lost initiative next round, my Kord would survive two non-critical hits from the Ravagers, probably make morale (the wardrummer was beating resistance), and be bodyguarded immediately after. Of course, if I won initiative... I did win initiative in round three, and ulled off the second half of the Kord "yo-yo". The Coatl cast snake swiftness on Kord who hit the Ravager for 30 (the Ravager made Morale), and then the Coatl moved back into the forest. Kord then killed the Ravager and skipped back to the forest. Kevin was now down 39 points and got no swings out of that Ravager. Even better, the remaining ravager could not even base Kord, although he set up for a reach attack next turn. I moved the Azer Raider out into the pool to block Belches. Kevin killed the blocker and got maybe one belch off, with his wardrummer nearby. Kevin may have won the next initiative, because his other Ravager got two swings off in the next round, but both missed Kord. Between Kord, the Coatl and the Warforged Bodyguard kicking in 10 damage, I killed the other Ravager. I took some more Belcher damage, but now I would be able to use the Bodyguard to block off at least on belcher for a bit. The game was in the bag now, but here is why one should never give up too early. Kevin needed tons of luck now to have any chance, but he also needed the skill to see what moves to make to even give himself the chance to exploit that luck. First, Kevin won the next initiative (~35%). Then he realized that belching on Kord directly would not do enough to win the game, so he belched on the CoDA in hopes of causing a morale check. CoDA failed the check (20%), which was also critical for Kevin to have any chance. Next Kevin belched on Kord causing a morale check, which he failed (50%, since out of command - he would have made it if the CoDA was not routing), causing him to run off the board by one square. I was still not out of the match, though. Kevin was a little up on tile points, and I was up with the Ravagers being worth more than Kord. I just needed to kill either the Wardrummer or the Tiefling Captain and I would win. My Coatl morale checked the Tiefling Captain with a sonic orb, and the Tiefling Captain failed but did not get off the board. My Bodyguard attacked the Wardrummer, but rolled a 1 (which mattered some later). Kevin rallied his Tiefling Captain (with resistance beat on) (60%). My CoDA also rallied. If I won the next initiative, I could still almost certainly kill the Wardrummer or the Tiefling Captain. I lost initiative (~35%), and Kevin wisely ran away as time was called. The AoOs on the Wardrummer were not enough to kill him, and the Redspawn were too healthy for me to even morale check with critical hits. So Kevin pulled out a memorable and gutsy victory by 11 points. Loss 6-1
Round: 8
Versus: Dwayne Stupack
Playing: Tiefling Captain, Redspawn Firebelchers x2, Ogre Ravagers x2, Orc Wardrummer, Orc Warrior x3
On: Dragonshrine
I was still in good position to make Top 8 even if I lost here, but I was in no mood to take chances. I was worried to play the same band that just beat me, and in such capable hands, as well. But, this game was on Draqonshrine, and I got the fire side, which really turned out to be decisive due to nerfing the Firebelchers. The other main factor in this match was that, after round 1, I won every single initiative roll! Round 1, I set up in the middle corridor just below the fire shrine. There was no way I was going anywhere near the Sacred Circles. At the End of round 2, I think I pushed Kord and the Coatl out at the end of the round to get one swing at the closest Redspawn. I won the next initiative, killed the Redspawn and retreated back to the central corridor. At least I think that's what happened, and it helps make the rst of events (what little I remember) make more sense. Down on points, but at least with my Kord used up, Dwayne pushed a Ravager into the corridor (only one would fit at a time) to swing at Kord (non basing). I think he hit. I actually missed a Ravager with Kord once on a 1, but with winning every initiative, I kept being able to kill Dwayne's Ravagers before they got many swings off. I think they got enough hits to kill my Bodyguard, though. The other Belcher had bad luck swing on my CoDA in the backfield, missing 3 times at least. The good map luck and good initiative luck carried me past a very dangerous opponent. Win 7-1
I was in! I was quite ecstatic to achieve my goal. It turns out that there were no undefeateds left after 8 rounds of play, and my tiebreakers put me in third behind Mike Derry and Kevin Cleveland. Dwayne Stupack also made the cut at 6-2 due to good tiebreakers. Since DCI Reporter uses a standard seeding system, I knew I would be facing Josh Huges (#6) who ran a quad Firebelcher band. I had a day to think about this matchup, but I played Dreamblade on Saturday and had scant time to look at the Finals map, Caves of Chaos.
Top 8 Matches I arrived at the Minis Hall at 9am to look over the map. From the first glance, it was obvious that this would be fine map for Kord, especially against Firebelchers. There was a nice chokepoint in the middle from which Kord could leap out to attack, but which an Azer Raider could block a Firebelcher from entering. AesophDarkFable greatly helped me hone the exact setup and first round movement I would make from either side facing Firebelchers. Soon, it was time for the match. Round: Quarter Finals
Versus: Josh Hughes
Playing: Tiefling Captain, Redspawn Firebelchers x4, Orc Wardrummer, Hyena
On: Caves of Chaos Josh trains with the redoubtable Brad Shugg, so I knew I could not take the map advantage for granted. I got the side initiative and spent the first round executing my pre planned setup and occupying the central choke point. Because of the forest and all the large bases, Josh had a little trouble moving his Firebelchers exactly where he wanted them. I won round two initiative and passed. Josh shifted his belchers around a bit and brought up the Wardrummer in countersong mode, ready for an assault on the chokepoint on round 3. But one of the Firebelchers was a mite too close to Kord's bunker. With the last two activations, Kord moved 10 and got a successful swing at the closest Firebelcher. The Coatl followed up with a snake's swiftness, and Kord forced a morale check on the target. the unlucky Firebelcher failed morale and just ran off the board. Even worse for Josh, that Firebelcher had been the one blocking the path to his Wardrummer in the forest. I won the round 3 initiative and briefly debated hitting another Firebelcher twice and retreating back to the chokepoint, but decided to go for the kill on the Wardrummer. Kord avoided rolling a 1, and the Wardrummer was dead. With all his belches reduced to 10 damage by the Coatl, Josh started attacking Kord with melee attacks, which could at least do 15 damage and maybe 30. I took some AoOs and rebased everyone in the forest to grant very high AC. From this point Kord systematically destroyed two more Firebelchers (one of them routed off) and CoDA dismissed the Tiefling Captain to get me over 200 (I had some tile points). Win 8-1
Round: Semi Finals
Versus:Guillaume Garant-Rousseau
Playing: Cleric of DolArrah, Coatl, Aspect of Kord, Rikka, Warforged Scout, Human Commoner x3
On: Caves of Chaos
Kevin Cleveland had lost to this band in the quarter finals, so he and Mark Lieberman (who played against this band in Swiss) gave me some pointers. The basic thrust was to be wary that Guillaume would play very aggressively, and that the Scout in a certain patch of forest was a secret weapon, because I would have no realistic chance of ever stopping him from getting tile points. I won side initiative and took the side that forced Guillaume to put his scout relatively near my start area to get tile points. Surprisingly to me, he also Waylayed Rikka onto the board right before round 1. I won round 1 initiative and bade Guillaume go first. In my third phase, I moved the CoDA and Bodyguard down near his Scout and Rikka. Rikka moved up towards them and got a "free" swing on CoDA, which the Bodyguard absorbed. I wanted to move CoDA and the Bodyguard that direction anyway, but I put them in their exact final squares knowing that, if Guillaume moved Rikka in to attack, my Kord could swing at her (through cover) after a move of 10. As the last two activations of the round, Kord moved up and hit her for 30, and then the Coatl induced another Kord attack, which critted Rikka for the kill! That was my first crit by Kord all tournament that wasn't wasted on something that dies in one hit anyway. Now Guillaume had no choice but to be aggressive and come after me in the cave I took residence in. He moved up during round 2, and I settled into the cave and killed his Warforged Scout. Guillaume won third round initiative and moved his Kord to directly kill my exposed Bodyguard with Aggression. His snake swiftness attack put 30 damage onto my Kord. As happened in my first Kord match, I held off my attacks until the very end of the round, meaning that I got to heal my Kord back to full while leaving his injured at the end of the round. I was even more fortunate than that, however, as his Kord rolled a 1 for morale after I dealt him 60 damage! His Kord did not leave the map, but his CoDA and Coatl were now exposed to my Kord. I won round 4 initiative and dealt 40 to Guillaume's CoDA while also basing his Coatl. I couldn't find a spot to sonic orb the commander to death, so I just snake's swiftnessed instead and killed it. Guillaume needed to get Kord under command of the Coatl, so he needed to take the AoO. Kord hit and Guillaume's Coatl failed morale, dooming Kord to exit the map when he next activated. At this point Guillaume conceded. I lost my only game where Kord routed, so I can understand how disappointed Guillaume must have felt. If his Kord had not run, and he had won the next initiative, the result was still very much in doubt. Win 9-1 &nsp; Round: Finals
Versus: Mike Derry
Playing: Young Master, Githzerai Monk x4, Standard Bearer, Timber Wolf, Azer Raider
On: Caves of Chaos Finally, I was one win away from making a mini for Declan, but I knew this would be my toughest match yet. After a short break to help me get more nervous, WotC started the final match. Mike won side initiative and chose the cave side. I was happy enough with that as I slightly favored the forest side. In round 1, he advanced to the small patch of forest at the edge of the map, while I camped out in the large piece of forest near the cave entrance. The storm broke in round two. Mike moved his Young Master monk up a little bit in the forest to ensure his commander effect spread into the patch of forest I was occupying. He then moved a monk into the forest and auto crit/stunned Kord. The bodyguard took the damage and failed the stun (that first save is quite important, so it was a big blow already to fail it). But I realized that my Kord could now (without taking an AoO) move 10 squares and take a swing at the YM in forest (AC 25). The Coatl could land completely in forest and cast snake's swiftness on Kord to finish off the YM... if I hit. Of course, this move was rather risky, as it involved leaving Kord alone in the clear, unprotected by a Bodyguard. I still think it was worth it. The expected result (49%) was the death of the YM which, given the course of the rest of the game, seems very likely to have given me the game. Even one hit would lead to a morale check. Well, I hit on Kord's attack, but whiffed on the snake's swiftness attack (needed a 7, rolled a 2). Kord immediately took two stun crits (and one regular attack) for 70 damage. Kord failed the stun save, which was really unfortunate for me. Now the CoDA had to gamble and heal Kord that he might survive to the next round. The Coda took a stunning attack and was hit, but made the stun save (one of only two saves I made this game) and was able to heal Kord back to 50 hp. The last monk used his auto crit to take Kord back down to 20 hp, but at least the auto crits were used up! If the YM had been killed in my initial assault, the three last crits would have only done 20 damage each to Kord, who would have had 50 hp left at the end of the round. I think that would have been a decisive advantage. I won the next initiative and had no choice: I unstunned Kord and used another snake's swiftness to hit the YM and kill him. I was back in business! Note that while all this was going on, I flooded all 4 of my fodder pieces to my victory area that Mike's Timber Wolf was guarding. Eventually I killed the wolf and gathered 40 victory points to 0 for Mike. With the YM out of the equation, Mike had to rely onhis +9 monk attacks (with some flanks thrown in). If he could miss on 3 of the next 4 monk attacks by the two monks he activated, I would get to heal Kord again, and he might very well live to the next round to make hay on the monks. Unfortunately, Mike rolled well and finished off Kord. My Bodyguard unstunned, and I forget what the CoDA did. I won the next round initiative and went for another move that would put me significantly ahead if it worked. The Coatl, still happy in the forest sonic orbed a monk, and the my CoDA made the last move that gave me (in my opinion) a better than 50% chance to win the game. The CoDA provoked several AoOs (only one stunning, I think) and was headed into the forest to cast dismissal on the hurt monk. Not only would this have put me ahead again on points, my CoDA would now have had a 24 AC and could well have survived for the rest of the game. Well, the stunning AoO hit, and I failed the stun save! Arrgh. CoDA was still in the clear terrain, and he even failed morale by rolling a 1. The Bodyguard moved to support the CoDA, and promptly failed a stun save when he next took damage for the CoDA. This game was kind of the mirror image of my previous game against Mike where I made almost all of my stun saves. Failing too many stuns was the biggest factor in my loss. I think Mike won the next initiative and continued to swing and wear down the CoDA. But hope broke out again when my Coatl sonic orbed the hurt monk again, and the monk failed morale and headed for the exit with no one to rally him. After all that had happened, I was still ahead on points and would stay so if the CoDA survived. My tile points would compensate for the Bodyguard who was sure to die. If the CoDA had been in the forest even at this point, I think I still would have won the game. But stuck in clear terrain with AC 18, and with the Bodyguard failing every stun save, I now needed Mike's luck to turn bad. Not atrociously bad, but certainly I needed him to roll well below average. It was not to be; Mike continued to roll solidly in the low double digits and he wore out my Bodyguard and CoDA for a final score of 153 to 128 when time was called in the 6th and final round. The final score is probably a little misleading, since all three monks were unhurt. If the game had gone on two more rounds I might have been able to morale check a monk with my last two sonic orbs, but Mike might have been able to hide the monks away. I had my Coatl try one last attack just for the sake of defiance, but then I had to concede defeat. Loss 9-2 I was certainly disappointed to lose, but it took some of the sting out to lose knowing we had both played a good, fast, close, gentlemanly game that could have gone either way. It would have been hard to lose because of a horrible blunder, or because of extreme luck on either side, but this was just a case of him playing so well as to leave me little margin for mistakes or below average luck, and I had a little of each. He certainly played the best of anyone I faced during the whole tournament, and got his just reward. (At least I can say I gave the champ his only loss :) ). As we are used to saying here in Red Sox country: Wait 'til next year! Pat Lynch &nbp; |