|
|
|
|
Back from Lucca Games and Comics - in my opinion one of the greatest conventions going! And I am the Italian Champion!!! All I need to do now is learn the lingo and the passion! Left Manchester early 1st of November intending to play a GAS variant - but not 100% sure what I was going to run. My Cloistered Monks (YM, GMx3, Sacred Watcher x3) was high on my list. It has strong defensive and manoeuvrability qualities that I so like. The SWs are very neat in keeping the auto damage from hurting the monks and a great secondary beaters. But... still not 100% sure. Arrived in Lucca, Badilen and Lorco (Danilo and Loris) collected me from the airport. The next couple of days I stay at his house just north of Milan, eat fantastic food cooked by Danilo's mum (who is a keen DDM player also), get my backside handed to me in chess by his brother three times (at least I last until the end game), play some test matches against Orion (Cesare), eat more exquisite food (yummy) and spend some great time with Danilo, his girlfriend and family. The Italians are legendary at being hospitable and they really are:
Drove down with Loris and Danilo to Lucca and found our ways to the hotels/B&Bs. I'd realised that the place the Tino and I had decided to share during our stay was a gay specific apartment... ooops - a "where is your hand? Between two pillows" moment. The apartment turned out to be really nice.
Gaming, Live Action and R.A. Salvatore signing books and more Walked around the convention, the town and met up with some others. Had a quiet dinner in a vineria in central Lucca - 25€ for the two of us. Played some test games with Tino and realised that GAS would have no chance against his build of LE with standard rolls of the dice. Simple LE Quad with Mindflayer would mean that each morale check would be at +8 only - likely to rout time... so we discussed some changes to my second choice - Ballista/Couatl and I borrowed his Mialee to complete the build: Ballista No time to test it since we made the changes after a pretty sleepless night (funny how you can play 30 games being half asleep). Morning started well when our key broke in the lock - looked like we wouldn't get out of there!!! Arrive at Lucca Games halls (tents) and see more and more Italians arrive for the tournament:
Game 1:Cowsland2
Cleric of Order Being on my map, in my favoured location, this was a fairly quick match. He was a good player but simply having 5 activations wasn't enough in a Ballista v Ballista Match. The other problem for him was that his whole warband was pretty slow and he had one large creature - Justicator. Not a lot of manoeuvring in this game - simply sit back and shoot as he had to close in. 1-0 - feeling a lot more relaxed now Game 2: Dario Death Slaad x 3 I felt really bad about this one. Chaos hammers AND Dario... not a good omen. Also had to run it on his map, Broken Demongate. Key move was probably placing my scout on the same square and his Spider of Lolth. Immune to poison is nice. Once he moved around my Cleric stunned it (Command) and he only ever gained about 10 VPs. He still sneaked in a couple of good hammers even though I blocked LoS (or so I thought). Once his second DS had died and he only had one, without a hammer, and the Tiefling, he conceded. I'd lost Mialee and the Standard Bearer so there was a lot of power left. 2-0 Woootttt Game 3: Blue Moon Quint Duergar Champs My son often plays Duergar Champs - not a nice matchup, especially on his map - Dragon Shrine. Of course, I lose init and play on this. Big issue is that he only had 6 activations and had no low level fodder to dedicate to tile grabbing. Also a slow warband so 3 rounds at least until he can engage. By then Urthok had made a morale (pass), one two others were seriously wounded. By the time they engaged Tordek (Blocker) things were really too late. I was able to gain VPs while his warband was being eaten by Tordek, the Ballista and the Couatl. I also only failed one conceal. Good game, but not fair on him in many ways. However, the one conceal I did miss was on a critical hit roll. 3-0 - feeling somewhat surprised at getting this far Game 4: Menzoberranzan Human Blackguard on Nightmare I won map init and side init - sadly that really was the game. HBG on NM was dead in round 2 and the rest of the monks came up against the immovable Tordek who, together with the ballista and the Couatl ripped them to small croutons. The map makes a huge difference when you have slow and large creatures coming in. 4-0: Gaining a bit of confidence Game 5: Gantz Young Master Lost map init and we played on his King's Road. Gantz (Michele) is a very skilled GAS player and manouvered around until he had all the monks in single strike range of most of my pieces. I did my best to protect the painful ones (Couatl, Tordek and Ballista) by keeping the Standard Bearer in a protected place. Huddled around and was basically waiting for an opportunity to move Ballista and let rip on a monk and hope he ran off. Last round came, he was up by 1 round of VPs and my Scout. He hid Young Master and I managed to get one LoS on his last monk (I'd just killed his Wolf with Tordek critting his ranged weapon). Needed to roll an 8.... rolled a 3! He wins by 13 points. Clever GAS tactic, but I learned from it. 4-1: Feeling strangely cheated by chance... but Gantz played well. Game 6: Herald Ballista Mirror Match! Nearly... I felt Tordek would be better than Rikka. We both shared the same map. Herald had also beaten Orion on the way, so this was going to be tough. This was a very funny match. Basically we both thought we were gaining VPs, but we were in the wrong VP areas :). I felt Herald made a couple of strange choices in setup in that the first round he didn't move the Ballista up to the front at all. This left me with a lot of opportunities to shoot. Rikka was soon dead and, although he had done his job, the Monk had to be hidden for most of the match. I gradually moved Tordek to a position where he shielded my Ballista and where he had to shoot at him. He conceded when he realised that the next two shots would destroy the ballista and he had nothing left. Nice guy and a fun, tactical, game. 5-1: Shared 2nd place with Cesare (the European Champion and #3 in the world 2006 GenCon, #3 in the world Epic) Went out for dinner with the inofficial DnD forum, Italia - beautiful food and a great time. Lots of pictures at: http://superman75.spaces.live.com/
Slept a bit better. Top 8 included Tino so we could chat a bit of strategy. Using the normal DCI pairings we wouldn't meet up until finals, should we both get through. Quarter Final Game 7: Herald Same game, but this time we swapped sides. My favoured side means I have control of the board better than he has. This time we remembered which VP area was whose :). I still had to work hard to get VPs from him. This was a strange match again though. He ran the Monk up to my scout but couldn't get there to stun. Mialee MM:d the monk so that, should I hit with the Ballista, it would force a morale check. He'd just left it out of command from the Sword of Hieronous. I roll a 20! Wow. AC33 so needed a 16. Then, next round, Rikka waylays, I win init, pump her with two Ballista shots, MC and she routs. Herald still worked hard and pulled back some of his damage ability by placing the Aasimar (who Tordek then killed) and the Jozan, as the closest targets. I do the same and sacrifice Man at Arms and Mialee. Then I place COO as nearest target. Luckily I win init and the Ballista is sand. Conceded at that point. Semi-final Game 8: Orion Fire Belcher x 2 I win map init - we both roll 19s! Cesare starts with 2 mistakes - chooses the wrong victory area for his Orc Warrior, and places the Magma Hurles in a tight Line of Sight. End of first round the Magma Hurler has routed. I also make a mistake and place my Ballista too far back to be able to use it to protect the slope. Cesare slides his Belchers down the slope and protects them with his wardrummer. Next round he kills my first blocker (Standard Bearer), I kill off the Drummer (being concerned that he'll bring it up to countersong). Now Tordek comes and blocks - not so easy to pass. Scout gets breathed on and decides to rout. Later that round Cleric of order Rallies him. Ballista gets off a Lightning sphere onto Orc Warrior and Tiefling Captain. Tiefling passes and takes 5 dmg. Next round combination of Tordek and Couatl kill first Belcher, next round second belcher takes 70 dmg and routs. Cesare concedes. Awesome game - even though it was a really bad matchup for Cesare he made it difficult.
Finals Game 9: Gantz
Michele and I, having met before, both strongly wanted our own maps - but he won. This time I had a completely different plan. The general idea was to pull in the monks into battle and force morale checks. This is possible with Tordek and the Couatl, even without the Ballista. The bait would be the standard bearer in an exposed position, causing a nuisance. First 2 rounds were uneventful - except that the scout was being hammered by his and unable to return the favour. Round 3 and I decided it was time - we met in the middle, around the shared area. Tordek had taken on one round of VP duty within countersong range. Moved down and attacked a monk in the area just below the shared VP area, 20 dmg, placed Standard Bearer exposed, protecting Tordek. Michele couldn't resist the bait (I wouldn't resist either). I'd buffed Tordek with AC and Major Resistance for stun attacks. First one lands - unavoidable attack with stun. I roll a 3! Tordek is stunned. While down (in forest) Young Master comes and lays 10 on him and another monk comes and flanks him, laying another 10 on him. Moves one monk up to stun Standard Bearer and rolls a 1! We're even on bad rolls. The good news is that this is the monk that Tordek just hit for 20. Ballista shoots for 35 dmg and I'm up one monk (rolled 16!). Couatl sonics Tordek's flanking Monk, he's unstunned. Next round I win init - and force morale from said monk, he passes, so now Tordek uses last attack to kill it. 2 monks up. Tordek is badly damaged but for the price of 2 monks. Manages to stun Standard Bearer, but passes morale. While stunned lays another 30 dmg on Tordek, passes stun and morale. Recover Standard Bearer. He manouvers around and pulls in Protectar and wolf to provide healing and flanking. He finally kills Standard Bearer and kills Tordek outright. I put a lightning sphere on wolf, killing it and then sonic the Protectar. He tries last chance to crit Cleric of order who has moved away. Time is called. We have same VPs, he has 69 pts kills, I have 34x2, 5 for wolf and 7 for Protectar. 130-119! This time I win :)
Winning the Italian Championship is particularly special. Firstly because of their incredibly high level of competitor, secondly because it allowed a Brit/Swede to return the favour from 2005 and the EU Champs 2006 where they showed their high standards and dominated, and lastly, because it is simply the nicest group of people to be around. They are an incredibly fun crowd and gentlemen! Thanks to all the Italians and Tino for their kindness and friendship, Cesare, Marco and Dario for their hard organisational work, Danilo and Cesare again for opening their homes and all the gamers for their "smart" behaviour! Gli italiani sono il la cosa migliore (I hope that is correct - I now have to learn Italian). Thanks to Superman for many of the pictures above. |
|
Copyright © 2006 Dataconsult
|
