How a speed 4 warband made a top 8 constructed championship appearance.
Having made a top 8 appearance, I feel it necessary to take a moment to thank those that helped me to get ready for gen con and enabled me to get that far. First, my girlfriend, who, without her support and patience as I stare at a maps and move tiny pieces of plastic around, none of this would have been possible. She is a huge fan of mine, and always gives me the best advice, “Just relax and have fun!� Second, a big “Thank You� goes out to both Xeno_Zephyr (Dan McManus) and JayMOTU (Jay Nephew). Both of whom practiced and strategized with me throughout the qualifier season and in getting ready for the championships. Jay was instrumental in organizing mid-week practice sessions and for thoroughly beating me… repeatedly… at those practices, and Dan has long been a great coach and friend.
After a long and arduous summer of planning and trying to come up with a warband that I liked, I settled on:
Battle Plate Marshall
Champion of Dol Dorn
Champion of Dol Dorn
Couatl
Sacred Watcher
Mialee
Hill Dwarf Warrior
Man At Arms
I knew I’d be sacrificing first turn tile points on 2 of the 3 maps (and possibly 3 of 3 if I lost side init on the blue dragon lair). But I figured it would give me a fighting chance. In testing the band, I lost to 3x Helmed Horror with a Mind Flayer, but beat a few good chaotic good bands. I was happy, I had my warband and very little in the way of expectations. My companions both told me that I had a strong warband, one that could really surprise people if they weren’t prepared. I knew my glaring weakness was lack of mobility, so I really didn’t want to see any ranged warbands.
Our group (soon to be named Team Xeno_Zephyr) strategized and practiced leading up to the championships, and the Wednesday before Gen Con we all boarded up in Dan’s car and made the long drive from Syracuse, NY to Indianapolis, IN. 11ish hours later we were checked in and ready to experience the best 4 days in gaming.
Thursday was a lot of league play, just relaxing, trying not to worry about the championships. Thursday Night, Jay and I were in our hotel room going over the attack sequence (recalling a sealed match we had played a couple months ago, where my champion of dol dorn attacked his hobgoblin marshal using feat of strength, while the marshal was on an icy square on the frostfell rifts). As a learning experience, we saw that the last action is to make the morale save, after damage and all other effects have happened (so in our game, it should have been: push the marshal from ice, push from feat of strength [into a pit], save against pit, and if it’s still around, then save for morale). We went to bed shortly thereafter, and tried to get some sleep.
Friday rolls around and we eat breakfast and make our way over to the mini’s room. When we hear that there will be 2 flights both Jay and I hope to be paired up in a different flight. We got our wish, and I ended up playing in Flight 1 and he’s watching…
My first match was against a gentleman named Jim from Minnesota. Jim had Storm, Virtuous Charger, Shadow Dancer x2, War Wizard, Warsinger, Mialee, Xeph.
Jim was a good player, very friendly and a great representative from Minneapolis. Round 1 was all about positioning, he brought his xeph up towards tile points, and I responded by double moving my sacred watcher into base contact. Round 2 I got lucky in that he brought his charger in to attack my sacred watcher in round 2, and missed both incorporeal checks. My response was to kill his Xeph with my watcher, then move into a flankable position against his charger. I was then able to move my champions up and got a hit off this round. He brought storm up to make the charger fearless, but left her within 4 squares of one of my champions. I won next round init, killed the charger with my sacred watcher and one of my champ’s. I then moved my watcher behind storm, where my champion could, with a grand dwarf move action, get two attacks off with flank. He responded by positioning his dancers. I then used my GDMA and based storm with my champions. The other one activated with feat of strength and hit storm both times for a total of 60 damage. He did not activate storm in his next phase, and I was able to bring my couatl over to cast snakes swiftness on a champ to kill storm. My opponent was able to kill my watcher, but with two mostly healthy champions and his warband not fearless anymore, he conceded with the score 100-18
1-0
Round 2: Eric
Eric had brought an Ultroforge warband, Ultroloth, Forgepriest, Dragonmark Heir, Greenspawn Sneak, Timber Wolf, Prisoner, Goblin Skirmisher, Skeleton Warrior. Another friendly opponent, Eric played very well. This match was on the dragon lair, and luckily I won side so my Sacred Watcher would be able to get onto tile points the first round. This was a very close game, and Eric already gave a spoiler in that the game came down to his wolf missing Mialee the last round of the game. The final score was 102-105 (Eric scored 6 rounds of tile points and killed one champion, I had 6 rounds tile points, killed the dragonmark, both sneaks, and his prisoner).
2-0
Round 3:
Round three I saw another Ultroloth, but this time with dual salamanders. My opponent was a fellow named Greg, and I have to pause here to say something very important. If you’re ever going to a championship level tournament, please bring paper, a pencil, some way of keeping track of the score and your creatures hit points. Please do this. In casual games, it’s perfectly fine to put dice on the map in squares adjacent to pieces that are wounded. But if you are going to be playing at Gen Con, you must have some way of documenting abilities used, spells cast, hit points of your creatures, and the points for the game. My opponent had to borrow my pen throughout the match, did not have a way of keeping track of abilities, and it came back to hurt him in the end.
Greg was a good player, but got unlucky a few times. The game was still really close, and I managed to win 145-142
At this point I’m 3-0 feeling really good. I’ve taken down a versatile Storm PORC band, an Ultroforge and an Ultromander.
We take a much needed break and I come back to see that out of the 7 3-0’s in my flight, I’m the one that get’s paired down to play a 2-1. My opponent was Michael, who was running an Ultroloth, Chraalx3, Snig, 3x Sniglets, Prisoner, Timberwolf, Goblin Skirmisher. I was very impressed with his warband choice, given the number of Salamanders/Dragons running around. Our game was another close one, with it coming down to him getting his prisoner to the victory area after time was called in the round to win by 8 points (final score 63-71). We had only completed 5 rounds, and Peter gave us a one round extension. I could have pulled out a win, but my battle plate marshall (with flank) missed his Chraal, which would have led to my killing it and getting enough points to win.
3-1
I was a bit upset for losing the match, realizing that with my tiebreaker being a loss to the 2-1, I had probably missed the cut. My friends kept cheering me on, and I kept going.
Round 5:
I’m paired against another Jim, running an Ultroforge warband - Ultroloth, Forgepriest, Dragonmark Heir, Greenspawn Sneak, Prisoner, Goblin Skirmisher x3. I had told myself that I didn’t want another nailbiter of a game, so I pressed forward more than I had my previous games. Jim also played quick enough and brought the engagement to my slow warband by the end of round 2. Round 3 I was able to rout the forgepriest (he rolled a 1 for morale), but was able to rally the giant on his turn. I took a gamble and double moved a champion into base contact with the giant, hoping to win init and get a full attack off quickly. Unfortunately I lost init, and he was able to quick cast a scorch and nerf on my champion, then hit the champ once for 30 (he was too far away from the couatl), then rolled a natural 20 to kill my champion outright. I recovered after that set back, and continued to pound hit titan. I was able to get my other champion and sacred watcher into flank, and with retaliate +5 I was able to whittle his giant down and finally kill him when my sacred watcher critted him back.
4-1
Round 6: I get a really good pairing and go up against the player currently in 4th place overall in the flight. His name was Dany, another fellow from Canada, who had Shadow Dragon x2, Large Black, Large White, Tiefling Captain, Orc Warrior, Hyena.
Our match was on field of ruin, and he won first round init and did the first turn shadow jump, move in and breath on both commanders, both champions, man at arms and hill dwarf. The MAA and Hill Dwarf both died, but everyone else made their saves to take a total of 20 damage. I did the numbers in my head, figuring an out of command shadow dragon had a 50% chance to fail morale. Also, with retaliate and feat of strength, my champions could do 35/70 damage if they hit the dragons, the second hit causing morale (dragons needing 40 total damage before they had to make a morale save). So my first phase I brought my sacred watcher over into a flank position on one shadow, and my couatl moved over to flank the other. He brought his black and white dragons up, then I used my grant dwarves move action to move both champ’s into the flank position I had set up the previous phase. My first champion activates and hit’s once, passes conceal and does 35 damage, then attacks again, hits and again passes conceal to do 70 damage. If he fails morale, my sacred watcher (from flank) could kill his dragon. Unfortunately he makes morale and does not run away. He brings more of his warband, and my other champion activates and attacks the dragon with his feat of strength, hitting both times, but failing conceal on the second attack, thus his dragon did not need to make a morale save. I was still thinking that I was in good shape. If I win the next round init I can kill both shadow dragons before they have a chance to really hurt me. Unfortunately I lose that init as well, and my opponent shadow jumps both dragons to my commander 7 bpm. He’s only got 40 hit points left, and the second dragon in with sneak attack manages to kill him. I respond by moving up and killing one dragon, but being behind on points now I’m getting worried. The rest of the game I’m playing catch-up, and luckily my opponent leaves tile points to try to finish me off, rather than accumulating points and waiting for me to come to him. He manages to rout my couatl next, and in turn I kill his other shadow and white dragon. His black comes up and manages to rout one my champions, and I get lucky enough to kill his black as well. At the end I have Mialee, and one champion, against his tiefling captain. My champion has 10 hit points, his commander has 20. He wins the last round init, but thankfully misses my champion with his attack roll. I end up killing his commander to get over 200 points, with the final score being 210-164.
5-1
I see that going into the last round there’s only 1 undefeated left, and then I find out that after beating Dany I moved up into 2nd place overall. So my future in the top 8 relies on my going up against the last undefeated. I tell myself that my future is in my hands, if I win I definitely get top 4, but if I lose then I’d be 5-2 and things would have to fall my way for me to get in.
So going up against the only 6-0 in the flight was daunting, and when I saw his warband I realized what an uphill struggle I was going to face.
Maxime brought Storm, Shadow Dancer x3, Gnome Trickster, War Wizard, Xeph Warrior, for an invisible 7 activation warband. I really believe that I defeated myself mentally before the game started, and I made some bad choices early on (sending both champions after an invisible storm). I did get a bit unlucky (never succeeding a conceal 11 roll for invisibility) but Maxime played a tremendous game. He waited for me commit my champions, then jumped my BPM. 3 hits killed him, then he routed my couatl. I was behind on points, and realized that there was no way for me to catch up this match. I played it out until time was called, and I had a pretty good feeling about how I’d played overall for the day. Regardless of if I made top 4 or not, I was happy.
My final record for the day was 5-2, however one loss was to the undefeated Maxime and the other was to a fellow that ended at 6-1. Pretty good tie breakers, but I didn’t know how it would all shake down. Waiting for the final standings to show up, I was talking to Dan, and we all felt pretty good that I could end up in 4th place. Finally, when Peter came down with the standings and couldn’t find any tape to hang it up, he saw the look of anticipation and anxiousness in my face. I asked if I could just peek and he asked for my name. When I told him he looked at me and said, “You should feel pretty good right now.� A big weight came off my shoulders, and I knew that all the planning and practice had paid off.
They had released the championship maps that night, and I was extremely happy with them. My speed 4 beaters could get to the victory area by round 2, and with all the smoke it certainly helped any ranged attacks I might face. Plus, any creature that routed past the smoke would have a very difficult time rallying. I was feeling pretty good. A quick glance at the standings I realized I was the only 5-2 player to get in, and with Maxime being the only 7-0, I knew I’d be seeing him first at the championship table. I knew it would be a difficult match, so I spent Friday evening talking with Jay and Dan (over dinner at Hooters, woot!) trying to come up with things I could do differently to make a stronger showing in the top 8. One of Jay’s idea’s would be to use the Provoke ability as a defensive tool - prior to engagement but using it to protect my marshal for an entire round. Also - I knew that going after an invisible storm was a bad move, so resigning myself to playing a defensive/reactive game I planned a good strategy. I knew Maxime was a great player, and knew that he was very good at keeping all of his invisible dancers within 6 squares of his invisible storm. But I was hoping he wouldn’t be as familiar with the attack sequence, where I could push one of his dancers to be 7 squares away from storm, hopefully on an attack causing a morale save. I didn’t get much sleep Friday night, but came up with a few good plans for facing off against a very good opponent.
Saturday went by in a blur - we did the mini’s seminar and hit up the vendor booths, and then did the community draft that evening. I only played 2 rounds before dropping, realizing how late it was and that while sleep might be hard to come by, I should at least try.
Sunday rolls around and I get up, grab my warband and my lucky OOTS shirt, eat a bowl of oatmeal and head over to the convention center. I’m there over an hour early, so I chat with a few people, going over my match-up and listening to theories about how the dwarves can pull off an upset. With about 20 minutes to go, I walk over and sit down at Table 1. Listening to my Linkin Park Reanimation cd, I settle my nerves and prepare for the tourney.
Maxime comes over and sees me sitting there, finding out that we’re paired together he looks happy. We had a fun match, relatively low stress at the end of swiss, and I’m thinking he’s happy he’s not going up against any of the shadow dragon bands that are so prevalent.
Here’s my game recount for my top 8 game against Maxime.
He wins set-up init and takes the side I had hoped for, (the side without difficult terrain). I set myself up after and he wins first round init, making me go first. Most of round 1 is all positioning, him going invisible and me casting a magic weapon spell on one of my champions. At the end of the round he’s got a Xeph warrior on tile points and I don’t, so He’s up 10-0. He won round 2 and again let me go first. He again works on positioning, bringing storm up and around the far side, keeping his war wizard close. I counter by using my hill dwarf and man at arms as blockers, forcing him to use extra movements to get around my figures. We both continue positioning, and the round ends with my watcher and a champion on VP’s with his invisible xeph and gnome. Score 20-10. Round 3 I win init (yay!) and again let him go first. He again positions storm and the war wizard, his xeph and gnome move around the central victory area. Finally I burn my GDMA and bring a champion into base contact with an invisible dancer. It was risky, but I figured it could pay off for me. I use my feat of strength, and attack with my lower number first - I hit, and pass conceal 11, and ask if he wants to use defensive roll. He counts 6 spaces to storm and says No defensive roll. I declare my push and sent him 7 squares away, dealing 30 damage and forcing the morale check at only +6. If he fails the dancer will be past the smoke, and unable to rally when she activates.
His first die roll goes off the table and lands on a 9, so I hand it back to re-roll, and he rolls a 15. The dancer stays on the board, and activates to move and attack my battle plate marshal. He hits once, and then misses with the next dancer that jumps in to attack (invisible + flank and he rolls a 2). I respond by using my other champion to use his feat and attack the wounded dancer, hits once but misses from the defensive roll, then hits a second time to kill her. The round ends with me up on points at 48-30. Next round I win init, and go first, provoking with one champion to protect my battle plate marshal, and attacking his shadow dancer. Both attacks hit but he’s within 6 of storm and passes morale. I then heal my battle plate from my couatl and bring it up to protect the champion’s flank. Maxime takes the opportunity to jump in and attack the couatl, hitting enough to cause a morale check which he passed. My watcher turns to attack a now visible gnome, hitting for 15 with retaliate. Unfortunately my couatl is down to 20 hp’s, and Maxime finds a great line to hit my Hill dwarf, both champions and my couatl with silver fire. I kill another shadow dancer and the round ends with both of us on victory points. I do the math and find out that we’re tied dead even at 86-86. I win round 5 init and go first, moving one champion of dol dorn up to attack his visible gnome, hitting and beating conceal 6 to do 20 damage and force a morale save at +11 (level 7 + storm commander 4). He passes, and then I bring my other champion up to attack as well, hitting with the attack, but rolling a 2 for conceal 6. He responds by bringing his war wizard over and sliding his gnome to the only safe adjacent square, then moving his gnome away from there. I realize that this is going to be the last round, and double move both mialee and my man at arms into the forest. He double moves storm up onto the central victory area, adjacent to the center of the board. I realize if the score doesn’t change, his 57 point storm is the highest point piece on the board, he wins on a tie-breaker. My sacred watcher attempts to hit his invisible xeph warrior, and rolls a 7 for his attack roll (hitting), but a 2 for his conceal 11 check and misses. My battle plate marshal is to far away to attack storm, he could charge a dancer but she’s still got a defensive roll. I double move him up into the central victory area and let Maxime finish the game. Round 5 ends and Maxime wins, 96-96, tied for closest to center of the board, but has the highest point piece at the center. Maxime was thoroughly impressed at how much different of a game this was then at the end of the swiss. I was grateful to have made a lasting memory in his mind, but still wishing I could’ve had the chance to go further with my warband.
The game was over and I had lost, my final record of 5-3 being no where close to justice of how strong these speed 4 guys are. I hope in the future that other people would see this as a precedent and consider more speed 4 options when making a serious constructed warband.
I’m sorry for making this such a long-winded report, but I hope that somewhere in my writings there’s been something useful that someone somewhere could learn from it. With the changes coming for the new DDM 2.0, I don’t know if I’ll still be around (studying for the CPA exam will take up most of 2008 anyways). Perhaps you’ll see me again in 2009…
Cheers,
-Erik
