I wanted to change up my secondary hitter again to see if i still felt the Zakya was better than Pippy. I settled on the following fodder change as well. I also went with the crazy notion of playing on the map they chose for their warband so that i could get variety of maps, *and* see if i have the staying power on their map of choice.
Human Blackguard, Fire Giant Forgepriest, Dragonmark Heir of Deneith, Snig the Axe + 3x Goblin Skirmisher, Greenspawn Sneak, Timber Wolf, Kobold Monk; 200/10
Matchup 1 (win): Carl (Venport) - Inspired Lieutenant, Large Green Dragon x2, Duergar Champion, Timber Wolf, Goblin Skirmisher, Greenspawn Sneak, x2
Map: Drow Outpost (i let him use his)
Side: B (my win, my choice)
I put the Immune Acid on my commander to ensure that assasination would actually involve a fight, and then i simply placed myself so that his cones were limited and forced him into a place i could engage. I should have gone for victory first round, but instead chose to lay out fodder to make his positioning more difficult. We engaged round 3, with my giant saving vs. both breaths. I was able to maneuver and hit his duergar once, and also to damage one dragon. Next round i was hurt, badly. Comes down to my Giant with 30 hp i think, and he has all of his non-fodder. I win initiative, kill one dragon, cleave into the duergar, who fails morale. I think attack and hit the second dragon who also fails morale. WHEW. Duergar runs, Dragon stays, i clean the commander's clock. Game. The Forgepriest pulls another comeback out of his oversized butt.
Matchup 2 (win): Will - Brass Samurai, Centaur War Hulk, Gnome Trickster, Hero of Valhalla x5
Map: Hailstorm Keep (i let him use his)
Side: B (my win, my choice)
I let him lead and choose where he wanted to park, and i went the other way (going to the outside entrance). He moved to base my giant in round 2 and whirlwinds first thing round 3 (killing all gobos). I routed his Warhulk pretty easily. He takes some hp from the giant slowly, and kills Pippy outright with two crits. Giant engages samurai while the Blackguard and kobold clear out gnome and remaining heroes. Warhulk rallies and returns. Giant can move one, take AoO and kill / cleave samurai and hulk. Can: until i roll a 1. Sam and hulk reduce the Giant to 20 HP. I win initative, and properly kill / cleave this time for the win. Until those last two die rolls, i was behind on points. WHEW.
Matchup 3 (win): Mike (Loyce) - Urthok the Vicious, Large Green Dragon, Hellcat x2, Dark Moon Monk, Dire Rat, Kobold Monk x2
Map: Drow Enclave (i let him use his)
Side: A (my win, my choice)
I just faced two dragons, so one can't be that bad, right? When he has two hellcats he can be. I did my best to engage and kill the dragon early. He got off his cone, luckily giant saved (kobold saved, but failed morale and ate a AoO). Next round, first mistake: instead of hitting with dragonmark to force morale on the dragon, i use the giant (i might have been able to kill / cleave otherwise). Second mistake, i kill the dragon with dragonmark, attack hellcat, then don't retreat dragonmark. Luckily i was smart enough to maneuvar my giant so that i could avoid charges from the hellcats *and* keep them within reach (after he got off his first pounce rend combo). I route a hellcat and manage to move the giant to attack urthok so that if he tries to put the hellcat under command for a rally, urthok takes an AoO and dies. Giant lives another round, kills urthok .. cleaves hellcat. And i surround and pound the cat into submission. As always, Mike played a hell of a game, but the giant saved my butt.
3-0 again, and once more i am surprised at the giant's staying power and ability to mount a comeback. Again i made simple movement errors (that seems to be my biggest flaw) that my opponents were able to capitalize on (what lost me a Top 4 slot in prerelease). My dice weren't ever hot, but they only had a little cold spell during my game against Carl (which seems to be a frequent thing lately). Bodyguard never once took damage for anybody tonight, proving that i could have done just fine, if not better against conceal (Blind-Fight) in addition to more attack bonus and damage (w/o sneak). Having acid immunity allowed me to direct who the acid went to though, and that was useful. I think i will go with Zak again Wednesday, as a final run of this core before i start testing Unhallowed bands this coming weekend.
