Final standings from today's 200 Constructed tournament:

1st - Guy Fullerton (5-0) Storm Silverhand; Valenar Nomad Charger; 2x Bralani Eladrin; Shadowdancer; 3x Xeph Warrior; Frostfell Rift

2nd - Michael Domezio / TianZi (4-1) Urthok the Vicious; Snig the Axe + 3x Goblin Skirmisher; Large Green Dragon; Maug; Blood Ghost Berserker; Greenspawn Sneak; 2x Kobold Monk; Hellspike

3rd - Louis Sacha / LCS (3-2) Cleric of Dol Arrah; Slayer of Domiel; Kolyarut; Dwarf Artificer; Sacred Watcher; Aramil, Adventurer; Warforged Scout; Aasimar Fighter; Dragon Shrine

4th - Ian Bell / IanB (3-2) Battle Plate Marshal; Tordek, Dwarf Champion; 2x Thundertusk Cavalry; Hill Dwarf Warrior; 2x Man-at-Arms; Hellspike

5th - James Chang (3-2; 1 bye) Nentyar Hunter; Free League Ranger; Guenhwyvar; 2x Storm Archer; Axe Sister; 2x Elf Warrior; Dragondown Grotto

6th - Brian Johnson (3-2; 1 bye) War Chanter; Frenzied Berserker; 3x Shadowdancer; Gnome Trickster; 2x Xeph Warrior; Mithral Mines

7th - Dave True (2-3) Dark Naga; Beholder; Maug; Large Duergar; 2x Acheron Goblin; Greenspawn Sneak; Frostfell Rift

8th - Alessio Cei / Korhal_IV (2-3; 1 bye) Tiefling Captain; Hill Giant Barbarian; Marilith; Orc Wardrummer; 3x Orc Warrior; Dragon Shrine

9th - Tyler Anderson (2-3) 2x Red Hand War Sorcerer; Fire Giant Forgepriest; Dragonmark Heir of Deneith; Greenspawn Sneak; Timber Wolf; Kobold Miner; Keep of Fallen Kings

10th - Joshua Peterson (2-3) Champion of Eilistraee; Aspect of Kord; Mounted Drow Patrol; Crow Shaman; 2x Hero of Valhalla; Devis, Half-Elf Bard; Wild Elf Raider; Caves of Chaos

11th - John Schatz (1-4; 1 bye) Sword Archon; Mercenary Sergeant; Dragon Samurai; Justice Archon; Man-at-Arms; Drow Outpost

(I didn't keep the 5th round pairing sheets, so I'm missing one player's bye.)

My Matchups...

Round 1: John Schatz - He was running a 5 activation warband, and he hasn't played in a few months. To make matters worse, I won map init, which was painful for his relatively slow warband. He was admittedly rusty, and overextended his Sword Archon, who fell pretty quickly. It was mop-up after that. Result: Win (1-0)

Round 2: Dave True - Man, I did not want to face Dave's Beholder warband with my low save guys. He plays Beholders very often and knows how to make your life miserable with them. I set up second and got some leverage after eliminating a few minor pieces early without exposing my own. After destroying the Maug, I had to go all-in against the Beholder ("...the Death Star has cleared the planet ... the Death Star has cleared the planet..."), and I didn't quite blow enough rolls for me to lose the match. But it was *very* dicey ... as Beholder matchups often are. Result: Win (2-0)

Round 3: Michael Domezio - I won map init (my +4 vs his +5), which was very important. Although it took me 4 (!) attacks to kill his Greenspawn Sneak early, and I effectively wasted a bunch of ranged attacks on Kobold Monks with their pesky AC 26 in cover, I eventually put enough damage on bigger creatures to give me a chance. The game came down to one lucky roll, after a mistake I made; I had a chance to move a Bralani such that his LGD couldn't morale check it, but I forgot to do so. The LGD hit, forced the morale save, and I fortunately succeeded the +10 morale save. When time was called, both scores were still pretty low, but I had enough activations left to finish off his Blood Ghost Berserker for the win. Result: Win (3-0)

Round 4: Ian Bell - I lost map init, but won setup init and set up on the magic circle side of the Hellspike map. I took a risk and put myself at a 3 point disadvantage by using a Xeph as a target for a whirlwind blast. Eventually we engaged, then the dice gods decided to laugh in Ian's face. I won the two important mid-game initiatives despite being at a +4 vs +7 disadvantage. Then he missed some +14 attacks vs AC ~18. Then, despite me making the huge mistake of moving Storm away from the melee*, he missed more attacks and I won *another* important init. I eventually killed everything but his two Man-at-Arms. Result: Win (4-0)

* Moving Storm was a mistake in triplicate:
1) I moved her away with 20 hp left because I didn't want Tordek to be able to provoke an AoO and move to kill her. However, Tordek *couldn't* do that unless he crit because of Storm's Electricity Healing. Duh!
2) Moving her away meant by VNC and Shadowdancer lost fearless from her commander effect.
3) Moving her away meant losing the benefits of Countersong, which allowed Tordek to benefit from the BPM's Retaliate commander effect, which in turn allowed him to kill my VNC in one swing instead of two.

Round 5: Louis Sacha - I won map init again, despite being at a +4 vs +7 disadvantage. I used my ranged advantage to get as much leverage as I could, but the Warforged Scout was very hard to displace and the Sacred Watcher was a big pain. I got enervated left and right. Then I took a gamble and extended my Shadowdancer and VNC out very far to harvest some fodder points. That gamble was actually a big mistake; I forgot about the Kolyarut's hold monster spell! Yikes! Fortunately for me, the enervated VNC made its save and I was able to successfully extract it and the Shadowdancer. Eventually, once Louis had moved his Slayer of Domiel close enough, I went all-in and killed her. The CoDA fell shortly thereafter, followed by Aramil, which was enough to give me a solid win. Result: Win (5-0)

I strongly believe you can't win a tournament unless you play well *and* catch some good luck. Today's results reinforced that for me. I really should have lost that fourth match...

Between the store's booster prizes and a bunch of prizes the players and Derry donated to the prize pool, everybody walked away with at least 2 minis plus other stuff. I chose a Marilith out of one of the prize boosters. Michael chose one of the map packs. Ian took a Blood War booster and (fittingly) got another Thundertusk Cavalry. Dave took the AT-AT. I don't remember what anyone else chose, though.

Oh yeah: Dave "I always play Beholders" True bought a Deathknell booster just before the event. Guess what rare it had. Yup.

Congrats to Guy!

Only wish I could have made it there, even late, if only to get promos...

And I'm very impressed by the Bralani. Even Calicles, who plays bralani so often yet makes fun of them, has finally admit to them being better than he originally thought. :P

Seems like a decent finesse piece.

Then again, 3 powerful, non-elemental lines don't have to be used as finesse. :D

~John

That band looks awfully familiar.

I am glad it worked out for you and I, also, like it very, very much.

Yeah, it worked out pretty well! Thanks for giving me the tip a few weeks ago

The Frostfell Rift map makes it even better. Even though it's somewhat riskier in terms of the Bralanis' morale saves, I only had to make two Bralani morale saves in the entire tournament, IIRC.

Yes, I've been very please with how it does on the Frostfell Rift. A few weeks ago I was trying to figure out which map to run it on (and settled on Broken Demongate) but my tests with it on Frostfell Rift have been very, very promising (making it my new map of choice for the band.)

I was the guy in 2nd with the LE Urthok/LGD band.

Guy: I had a 2nd Kobold Monk.

1st match: Ian Bell. We both had Hellspike. Combat happened close to the 4 square Start Area A section. I kept a Goblin/Kobold screen to protect my commanders from the Thundertusks, who only picked off fodder. I possibly overextended my LGD to get the cone off on a fodder piece, a Thundertusk and Tordek, but it also gave me a lot of flanking options and established the combat far from his Commander. I managed to sneak the Blood Ghost to base his Commander, at that about ended it. Ian was bit by bad dice in my match with him as well; a Thundertusk failed both a Kobold Monks Stun save and 2 MC's to rout off the board. I won the right inits and neither Thundertusk got a full attack off.

2nd match: Louis Sacha. I won map and side and set up in B, giving the Sneak a statue to hide behind. He flew the Sacred Watcher right up there but the Sneak held on for 2-3 rounds of VP grabbing. On the flip side, the Incorporeal kept my LGD from clearing the Watcher off my VP grabber. Activation control kept Aramil from doing anything but a MM, no Enfeeble. I again was able to establish the combat near the Start Area A 4 square area and kept anybody who mattered WAY away from the Slayer (who eventually took out a Kobold Monk). I got the Maug on his Kolyrut, but had to keep sending a Skirmisher to gain the flank for my Enervated Maug, usually giving the Koly 10 HP, but wasting a swing vs my Maug. His slow moving Artificer was no match for the swift & hard hitting Blood Ghost, and no anti-Construct spells got off. The Blood Ghost made the Hold Monster save and that was about it as I was able to gang-up and swarm.

3rd match: Guy Fullerton. He won map init so we played on the new Frostfell Rift. I had designed the band to deal with ranged on a ranged map, and had 3 games practice on the Grotto, so I stuck to the gameplan. The Monks advanced but took cover, everything else behind. I wanted to squeeze his archers out from their nest using the Maug & LGD then whack em with a buncha Goblins, the Blood Ghost, shoot, even Urthok & Snig. He was able to squeeze a Xeph by me, and I didn;t want him getting points so I sent a Monk back to take care of him (MISS!). Then I had to send back the Blood Ghost to clear his tile grabber. That sucked getting the BGB about 1 round behind schedule and he never made a meaningful swing. The Maug took too long, the Dragon got bogged down, and as time wore down he had killed more fodder, but I had more tile points. I saw a chance to rout a Bralani, 50/50. He runs I win, he stays I lose. He stayed. I got a bit desperate and exposed my BGB, Guy wins. Activation control also means lotsa easy points for a VC or Bralani's to harvest.

4th Round: Alessio. W he won Map and Side, taking the Cold side and nerfing my Acid cone. Activation control REALLY helped vs. the Marilith/HGB big bases. I denied access to my main guys, he had to advance the Marilith, I critted with the Maug, hit with hte BGB, Marilith saves, I lose init, Marilith whacks Maug a bunch, then dies. His HGB whacked my BGB once, then won that init, whacked him again dead (no worries, he already whacked/MC'd the Marilith). The LGD nand my fodder/Cmdr combo went after his Wardrummer/Commander and killed em both (Monk stunned Tiefling!). I tried to ignore his HGB since I was collecting VP's and up on points. I misplaced a fodder and he based Urthok and I think missed the AC 22. I was able to pile on the goblins/Urthok and be close to Snig and the Sniglettes (with a hit or 3 from Urthok) routed (dead Wardrummer & Cmdr) the HGB. Game.

Game 5: James Chang. Hellspike. I thought, Ranged on my map? This will be easy. I lost side init. He split his forces, archers in the small 4 square Start B, Guen & co in the bigger area. I put BGB close to Guen, and everybody else for the archers. Long story short, he gets both my Monks early. I based Storm Archers w/ Maug, missed both AoO's, got pelted and died w/o swinging again. Panic? Next, dragon flies in, cones the group, gets pelted. Routs but stays on. Panic? BGB rushes down to archers, bases Nentyar, eventually hits and routs her. Gets pelted and dies. So now I have a weakened LGD, the Goblins and Cmdrs, vs 2 Storm Archers and 2 Elf Warriors. I based em all and won, but it was very close.

*********

I tried to build a band that could go toe-to-toe with a beater band, but still compete with a ranged band on it's own map. I'm bummed I lost to Guy but the band itself performed as intended. Go LGD!

*********

I got the Fane of Lloth map set, which I didn't have before so that's awesome.

I was very pleased with the way my band performed, in general. I think it has real potential as a competitive band. Some general notes: AC 22 is not always as good as I think it is. The thundertusk on Hellspike is very strong - you have a ton of movement options because it is so open, and you can come out of the smoke, attack, and move back into the smoke protecting yourself from any sort of ranged retaliation. GMA isn't as universally useful in this band as it is with the frenzied berserkers, but it is still quite good. I was strongly considering trying the CoDA in this band, but the extra two points it costs means I'd have only 6 activations. The retaliate commander effect is very useful too (probably more useful than the GMA, at least yesterday) so I think the battle plate marshal seems like the right choice.

While Guy is right about the degree to which I got hosed by the dice, I certainly didn't play an error-free game against him; my big mistake was leaving one thundertusk in a position where it took an out of command morale check, which it failed, then it died from the AOOs and was unable to deathstrike because it was routing. That kinda sucked. I was counting too much on the 22 AC, and would have had it under command probably in the next phase, but still, lesson learned. I am still trying to get used to Hellspike, it isn't a map I have played on very much overall.

Against TianZi, I am not totally sure what I should have done differently, other than be slightly more precise with my figure placement, and maybe a little less aggressive about pushing across the board. If I had been less aggressive with them, I probably could have lured the bugbear into a position where I could have killed it, which would have made a big difference in the game. I took a lot of damage from that guy, as his semi-crappy +11 turns into a +19 while flanking in that band. Making one of my +14 saves with the routing thundertusk might have helped, but that isn't really THAT far outside of the pale. Getting crit for 15 by kobold monks and goblin skirmishers all over the place also was kind of annoying (it feels like it happened about 32 times, although it was probably only two or three times.) Sadly Snig made his morale check when I had an early opportunity to do a drive-by with a thundertusk on him, and I was not placed quite right to get the retaliation bonus on the swing. Getting Snig out of the way would probably have saved me a good 15-20 points of damage on key pieces.

The other games I played were mostly not very close. I played the 5 activation dragon samurai/sword archon/justice archon band, and was able to base the sword archon with all 3 of my hitters at the end of turn 1 thanks to a GMA. That was pretty much all she wrote.

The closest game I played besides the two losses was against the Aspect of Kord/Champ of Elistraee band. Kord died fairly early thanks to some sneaky retaliate math, although I did end up taking 60 damage on Tordek in the process. I ended up winning this one by routing the MDP, and when he had to pull the champ of Elistraee back to rally it (smoke in the way otherwise) I was able to do a thundertusk drive-by on the exposed crow shaman and then move to a victory area, which forced him to come after me with just the champ and the wounded MDP. I think the only things left on the board at the end were one thundertusk, the battle plate marshall, and the champ.

The least close game I played was against Dave True's beholder band. We ended up playing on Hellspike, and the beholder is just totally, totally screwed on that map.

Nice band Ian. How did you happen to come up with the idea?

In discussions with Elder Basilisk one night before we knew the full stats for Blood War, we were conjecturing about possible bands involving the thundertusk when we only knew the preview stats, and BPM/Tordek/Thundertusk x2+whatever would fit was one of the lineups we talked about. I don't know if he has had a chance to test it much in league as I've had a hard time actually making it regularly for the last month and a half.

The other version of this that I tested was:

BPM
Thundertusk x2
Gold Dwarf Soldier x3
Standardbearer
Warforged Scout

I didn't like it as much, for a number of reasons, particularly the slow speed of the GDSes. Getting reliable tile points is nice and the standardbearer increasing the area covered by retaliate is nice, but all in all Tordek's offensive punch and psychologial threat value are more important/useful.

In discussions with Elder Basilisk one night before we knew the full stats for Blood War, we were conjecturing about possible bands involving the thundertusk when we only knew the preview stats, and BPM/Tordek/Thundertusk x2+whatever would fit was one of the lineups we talked about. I don't know if he has had a chance to test it much in league as I've had a hard time actually making it regularly for the last month and a half.

The other version of this that I tested was:

BPM
Thundertusk x2
Gold Dwarf Soldier x3
Standardbearer
Warforged Scout

I didn't like it as much, for a number of reasons, particularly the slow speed of the GDSes. Getting reliable tile points is nice and the standardbearer increasing the area covered by retaliate is nice, but all in all Tordek's offensive punch and psychologial threat value are more important/useful.

I was just curious, I used the exact same band. I played on Dungeon of blood and faired quite well. I found the speed to be very slow, howerver I did have good line of site to move the dwarves into place with GDA. The last game was against a ballista band and I was able to out manuaver it and base the coutal and War Weaver. With Tordek following right behind. That was really my only strategy thorughout the tournament. The mashalls commander effect was only somewhat usefull. By the time I won Int. I wanted to go right away and was unable to make full use of it. Both my thundertusks survived Morale saves everytime, but where not so lucky against DC spells and abilities. Overall it's a fun band but by no means a teri 1 band.