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Lucca 2007 - The Italian Nationals
Italian Police have all the fun! As so many times before, I finally chose my warband based on a bad nights' sleep. The meta game was to either play large pieces such as dragons in some formation, typically mixing Large Blacks and Large Shadow Dragons, or countering this with Ultroloth based warbands such as adding the Noble Salamander for damage resistance, durability and massive damage output. I'd nearly determined that I'd follow the triple Large Shadow Dragon bandwagon but I had a nagging feeling about it. At 75HP they’re not the strongest pieces for durability and some maps just aren’t possible to get them into action properly for their best and most feared jump and triple attack activation, followed by a second jump and hopefully manage another set of three attacks against a flanked mini. This usually ends up in a key piece dying. However, with the anti-dragon meta I decided to go the third route after a night of realising that triple shadows wouldn’t stand up to most of the stronger anti-shadow warbands in the hands of skilled players. So I decided to build around fighting the anti-shadow warbands and ensure that what I built was equally capable of dealing with Large Shadows. It wasn't a surprise that I went for a Ballista warband again when I'd examined the various possibilities. The core of a powerful Ballista warband is what I term the "Crew"; Arcane Ballista Each member of the crew has a very specific purpose – Couatl for elemental protection, good manoeuvrability, Legions undeniable gravity and, of course, Snakes Swiftness. Cleric of Order to secure up the Couatl with Major Resistance and a higher morale save, to provide a higher AC for any beater (or the Couatl) to allow the strongest possible defence around the Crew. He’s also there to help win the map - the very best map for ranged warbands. The question was what to fill it out with. I dropped my 2006 warband build with Tordek and the Counter Singing Standard Bearer since this warband was built around the need to combat GAS. The present game doesn't really bear as much immediate reliance on a commander effect to be powerful. This meant that I had a clean slate to design around. I came up with some options: Tordek I like Tordek and he’s a great piece to have around with Sacred Watchers or other creatures. I discarded this piece with Storm and the Large Shadows in mind. I needed an indirect threat that I could use to whittle their hit points down. Tordek is too slow to chase down the evasive Shadows. So I examined: Champion of Dol Dorn This warband had some good benefits. The Sacred Watchers could approach hiding dragons and do their own battling as the shadows approached, act as blockers and provide a nice counter to other Sacred Watchers or Cursed Spirits. It's weakness was really obvious when I started exploring the Salamander threat. It also had only got 7 activations – a number that I don’t like. With DR and the Ultroloth the Sacred Watchers would simply provide +8 AC to the Noble Salamanders I was expecting to fight. So I dropped that one in preference for one that had a lot of close up auto damage, both direct and indirect; Champion of Dol Dorn This had a good blocker, a spare spell caster for the ballista and 8 activations. The War Wizards' damage output can be brutal in Phalanx casting using the Couatl as its target. This would allow me to indirectly target pieces hiding with a major threat! The Man at Arms is a cheap blocker and the Scout is a great cheap Victory point grabber. I noted some nice benefits associated with the Champion - his provoke could save the Couatl or War Wizard if needed by simply basing, provoking the threat and then allowing one to move the other pieces away without Attacks of Opportunity. The feat of strength can also move away a key threat from a weaker piece or simply push away a piece that is using the Champion to provide melee and cover AC benefits. The Champion is durable with high saves, a reasonable AC, both of which the Cleric can augment further. It felt like a well rounded warband. In further analysis the warband isn’t that strong against well played Sacred Watcher Swarms and against smaller creatures and there are some maps what are horrible for it - for instance Hellspike Prison. I'd just have to hope that I didn't come up against these, or against too many invisible warbands. I was also really hoping that I wouldn’t come up against Ulmoswarm – surely not… I'd packed all these warbands together with two variants of the triple Large Shadow Dragons. Monday – packed and collected Wayne from Metro Station. Jammed a bit and
chatted. The Tournament 35 players arrived. Booboo, Massimo (il Professore) war our judge, under the careful watching eyes of Level 4 Magic Judge Antonio Grosso.
The players and many of their partners Round 1: Vermillion Built around the assumption that the Solar would get into combat quickly, that it'd have a chance to demolish the opponent in ranged attacks or using its melee attacks, his concept was neat - stopping the Solar dying with lots of damage sharing. Solar I lost map init, but I know this map has some very good ranged options from both ends. Vermillion didn’t realise there was LoS between two of the setup areas through the gap in the central market area. I killed Mialee, bat, the wolf and damaged the Shield Guardian with a Lightning Sphere. I buffed up the Champion to Save +14 against a slaying arrow and cast Legions undeniable Gravity on the off chance that it might work. To my astonishment the Solar failed! That made the whole match very one sided. At the end of the second round he was down to the DHoD and the Solar, and closing in on my position. By the third round the Solar had made a morale save and by round 4 he was dead. It would have been much closer if he hadn’t failed the Legion of Undeniable Gravity hadn’t succeeded in grounding him. 1-0 Round 2: KALOS Large Shadow Dragon x 2 I won map, luckily! Kalos approached very carefully , using his hide to good effect and soon I was surrounded by two shadow dragons and a thrall! Now was the time to prove if the amount of damage that I could deal was enough to save my warband. I managed to rout one dragon and on the last round I killed the thrall to win the game. It was a low scoring game with much of my warband neutralised by Kalos’ skill. The autodamage did, however, allow me to pull victory from the jaws of loss. 2-0 Round 3: Malsano Werewolf Lord My only concern with this warband was that it’d save and suddenly I had a massive amount of HP to remove. I won map, again! Malsano did a great job in hiding his warband from damage behind trees. I cast Legions Undeniable gravity early on and the Shadow Dragon failed and had to walk across. My chance came as he placed his WWL just behind an Orc Warrior. I lightning sphere cleared the OW and laid 20 pts of damage on the WWL. I then fired a bolt for 45 damage. The WWL failed its morale and just ran off. The Large black soon followed and so did the Large Shadow. With all indirect damage I also removed the Thrall without worrying about a new thrall. The Champion of Dol Dorn really came into his own against the CE creatures and managed to keep the thrall busy while the rest of the crew laid into the dragons. I can see why this warband won GenCon Indy 2007! Malsano was very unlucky with his morale saves – it could very easily have been very different. 3-0 Round 4: Gantz Large Shadow Dragon x 3 Gantz and I have some history - he beat me last year in the Swiss part of the
championship. His warband was exactly what I had decided on as a prime target
for mine. Some maps are useless for me, but he also needs Line of Sight, so the
combination of Champion of Dol Dorn and the Ballista could save my weaker minis,
should he jump in. 4-0 Round 5: Orion Ultroloth Again I won map! Very lucky for me. He placed first and left the sneak in a hidden area on his victory area. I was keen to put pressure on him, so I indirectly targeted the sneak via the Couatl. This allowed me to be 16 points up by the end of round 1. After this the carnage started. He placed one of his Salamanders a bit too close and I laid on it a cold bolt for 55 damage and forced a Morale Check. It failed and I had some time to arrange to receive his warband. Now he led with the Ultroloth, making my damage output much worse than against large creatures. It was also more difficult to target. Orion played very well and soon I had lost my Cleric of Order, my War Wizard had taken enough damage to force a morale check and the Ballista was taking damage. I managed to kill the Ultroloth, but he still had two (hurt) Salamanders. He did an exceptional job in chasing down my pieces and defending his position. In the end my War Wizard killed the salamander with 50 HP left with his phalanxed cold ray. The next shots from the Ballista killed the final salamander and he conceded. 5-0 I was through to the finals, but we had one more round. Round 6: Zad Vlaakith This match was hard fought and Zad pulled it off very well. We all need luck sometimes and I got some on map initiatives before. Zad got some this time. I couldn’t hit the Cursed spirit with my Champion. He did just enough to kill and gain VPs to hold back. In the ensuing battle both Large Blacks were forced to morale checks and were down to 30 HP. My Dol Dorn was on 40 hps, but holding the central VP area. He charged it with one of his dragons and critted, killing the Dol Dorn. Now we were playing a game of hide and come seek. I pushed my Couatl out to the central area to stop Zad pushing small pieces onto the VP area and ultimately win on 10 VPs at the cost of cheaper minis. I saw a pattern in his placements and realised that hiding behind the trees where he did, allowed me to place an indirect lightning bolt onto both dragons using the Couatl as a target. With some luck this could win me the game. One of the dragons failed the DC and died. The other was now on 15 – one sonic from death. Now he had to be more aggressive as we were nearly on the same points. He moved Vlaakith out from hiding and based the Couatl. On his attack the Couatl failed its Paralysis twice, but regained it the next round before his activation. I slid the Couatl away from Vlaakith first though, to ensure that she had to stay on in the middle as a target. I plugged away at Vlaakith with the Ballista and got it down to 5 HPs with the Couatl hitting once and the War Wizard using its last ray (fire), but by this time he just passed 200 pts to my 180+. Close but not enough to win. 5-1 First place in the Swiss ensured that I had to play the 8th placed player. And he was playing the one warband I didn’t want to face – Ulmo swarm! Round 7: ¼ finals – Janos M Janos had won the German nationals with this warband and had fought his way to the ¼ finals with one round lost to arriving late from the airport. This was a supreme performance and one that was deserved for him. He’s a supreme player and an expert with this warband. I lost map! Ulmo I lost Map init. This was bad, but knowing that he was going to have to expose himself a bit to indirect lines I might force his hand and come in. I had 110 pts of autodamage for him in the form of 4 sonics and both rays from the War Wizard. All I needed was some luck to pull them all off. I raised the Couatl’s AC to 24 from the Cleric of Order and went hunting. I managed to get a line off through one of his Sacred Watchers onto his Cleric of order using the Couatl as a targeting mechanism through the forest. I passed incorporeal check and his Watcher was fried. His cleric passed both its DC check and the morale check. Now he hid it (wisely). This meant that Ulmo was left with only +13 save on MC. A 30% chance to rout. Next round I won init and laid a sonic and a ray on the little creature – down to 30 HP and time for Morale check – of course he passed. I had left myself exposed though. Some luck allowed the Couatl so save vs a stunning attack but was now surrounded by Sacred Watchers and Ulmo. He focused on the Cormyrean War Wizard and won a critical init and killed the Warwizard. He also forced a morale off my Couatl – which I passed. I moved in my Ballista to give flanking to the Champion of Dol Dorn - +16 to hit vs AC31! Worth a try. Now it was my turn to have some luck… the Champion critted! Ulmo was dead! The game turned. I healed my Couatl up to 40 HP and took some attacks from the Sacred Watchers on the way out. Only 1 hit. I was now within easy distance of the cleric of order – 30 pts of VPs if I could sonic him the next round. He did his best to run away. I won next round and the Couatl did the job. I moved the Champion down to the second VP area, to gather enough VPs to win. Janos chased my Cleric of order through the forests but didn’t manage to kill him, all the while beating down on the Ballista. In the end he conceded. Amazing game and incredible luck for me to crit Ulmo at such a opportune moment. 6-1 Round 8: ½ finals – Kaz Kaz had a great warband concept and played exceptionally well to get this far. It was a hardy warband with lots of damage potential. Asura x 2 We both played cautiously on round 1 – I left out an easy couple of targets for his fire wind. He bit, sending both Asuras over. I therefore sent in the Couatl to provide 10 fire protection. I won init and pulled out a sonic on one Asura. I then moved back to the Crew and slid down the War Wizard to place a line through it onto the Asuras. I passed their Spell Resistance and they both ended up needing to make Morale Saves. One failed and flew to within 4 of the exit. The other passed and laid 10 on my Man at Arms and Jozan and the Scout. Now I was chasing the game. The Asura passed its rally attempt and was back in the game. He blocked my Ballista from a clear shot on his Asuras with his timber wolf. I had to shoot it first. I did and then tried to kill one of the Asuras – missed by 1 AC. I now placed the Dol Dorn in the central VP area as a pin cushion with the Couatl providing elemental cover. Soon I was shooting at the Xendricks and each hit caused one to morale check. This time two failed and ran off. He placed the Warpriest in front of the two Asuras and continued to lay damage on the Champion. The Ballista loaded with a fire bolt and fired on the Warpriest. The first shot missed, so the second got the cold bolt. 35 hp damage and morale check. He failed, but was 1 from getting off the map. Now the Asuras were exposed. The Warpriest failed it rally attempt. The last two Asuras were soon also dead. Game over. Kaz played really well and this match was very tough! The Dol Dorn, in fact failed his MC and the Cleric of Order had to come out of hiding, add his +5 and a use a Major Resistance spell on the Dol Dorn. The Cleric of Orders Commander effect also allowed him to go straight back onto the VP area and protect the rest of the Crew. Round 9: Final – Orion again
The map init was essential! I rolled a 3! Orions’ first roll rolled off the table and his second attempt came up… a 1!!!!! Wow – incredible luck.
Having learned from our first game, he didn’t seek any VPs in the first round. Otherwise he carefully placed his pieces and slid them down the bottom. I placed the Champ as a blocker and ensured that the closest target for a charge was the scout. My luck was a little out at the beginning as he led with the Ultro, enfeebled the Dol Dorn and then Exhausted it. -15 dmg and -5 to hit… ouch! I shot the ultroloth with the Fire bolt and then with a normal one. This left 15 HP (after the slide down the slope). He used his hobgoblin warrior to block one shot from the Ballista for the next round. I saw a vague line for the War Wizard to kill both the hobgoblin and possibly bring down the Ultroloth – I used the Cleric of order for phalanx casting, killed the Hobgoblin, passed the Ultroloths spell resistance and killed it. I win next round init and use the cold bolt on the closest Salamander – I roll a 1!!! I use a snakes swiftness and roll a 20! 60 damage! he fails his MC. The other Salamander moves in and the War Wizard places a his phalanxed ray of ice for 50 dmg – it also fails its MC. Orion concedes. This game was brutal and although it might seem otherwise, without passing the Spell Resistance, he was lined up nicely for a great assault on my Crew!
Top 3: Cesare, Alepulp and Zad |
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