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Well - this not a UK event - however, I played at it and it was great fun - click on the picture
Well, I've returned from being shown just how good a community DDM can really be. Firstly a big thanks to Marco (one of the Manchester famous 5 UK Nationals players) whose hospitality was boundless! Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Castellie delle Chianti were fantastic places to visit. I flew from England being unclear IF there was a tournament going on there - their website (apart from being in Italian) was giving me a very confused message - it was on/off/on/ and then noff.... When I arrived in Italy with the family we had settled on this being our family holiday and that we (my son, Gritbone, and I) would drop in on Lucca Games and Comics and meet some of our friends. We had packed some warbands and trades! - just in case... So, the week was spent touring around - Tuscany was entrancing and the food excellent. The weather was just perfect - over 20C, but not too hot. Marco and his partner invited us for a typical Tuscan meal cooked by his mother at their apartment - a real treat!!! So - to the day - we turned up around 10:30 to find Lucca crammed with cars (typical in Italian towns - but not with people dressed as Pokemon figures, drow and Star Wars characters). Parking took some time. We sent the girls (wife and daughter) off to tour the city (a really old and walled city). We walked with hundreds of others to the main event location - a number of very large tents in the event area of the City - and stood in one of the two very long queues. We saw more people dressed up in various fantasy dresses. The big difference between these Italian "fantisionados" and our own is probably 3-4 stone in weight... we are likely the heavier. They also seem to have 4x more of the fairer sex attending. Once in we soon found the tents that provided games rather than comics - I think most would be surprised just how many stands there were doing all kinds of CCGs and medieval regalia. Combined with the 1000's of attendees milling around it was an amazing place to be! I regret not taking a full day just to wander about with a large amount of € - but then I'd have to go alone... We wandered up to an area with gaming tables - a DDM game was going on with about 7 people we didn't recognise getting really into it! Wandering up suddenly one of them said "Peter.... I am Menzoberranzan from the forum. How are you?". We must really have looked non-Italian (fat, non-fashionable and pale) - anyway, these were the Turin crowd! They finished off the game and I played one of them with an old warband I had been considering (dual golem and a Lich Necromancer). The matchup was bad - Gauths doing a load of damage and a Chraal blocking entry - I lost, so decided that if there was a tournament I'd not play this band! Suddenly the place erupted as the Milanese crowd, the Romans and some more from the Lucca/Pisa area arrived. A tournament was suddenly on - 15 players - and they had got some tables for it. Cesare (another of the famous 5) pulled together and they bought some booster (by the way - they were selling Harbinger boosters there for €15 each!!!!) for prizes. Now I had to make up my mind for a warband - I decided on using an Archmage band I had had some success with: Archmage Inspiring Marshall Graycloak Ranger + wolf Pyromancer Elf Warriors x 2 Xeph Warriors x 6 Tiles: Creeping Tangle, Corridor, Rock Shrine, Rubble Assembly Organisation: 200 pt, Assault, 1 hour game - but not a swiss system as far as I could work out - the rounds were worked out using a d6 for pairing.... the timing also started a bit strangely - but it worked (except in the final round). Session 1: I think I played a guy called Half Dragon (not real name - mother was better than that) He had a Drunken Master, Inspiring Marshall, Frenzied Berserker, Goliath Barbarian, Wand Expert and Xeph Filler. Tiles included Rubble Assembly, Broken Wall and a Treasure Room - not sure of the final one. He set up first and I managed to place my Corridor in my favoured place for a round 1 fireball. He went to tile points with his Treasure Room. I used my Corridor for this. He set up and was quite sure I couldn't get a 1st round fireball off - but the Corridor tile has some hidden LoS that most miss. He won init and went first. He quickly brought up his Frenzied Berserker to move into my half - but not quite. He also moved up hos Goliath to an advanced position. In return I performed my GMA and placed Xephs in defensive positions and the archers on the Rock Shrine. Also got the Pyro to a place ready for a Fireball into his assembly area. That was the next activation. I placed it such that all his minis were in it except the two activated ones and the Drunken Master. Most important to me was getting rid of the Wand Expert and somehow hurt the IM badly. I was really lucky - the IM failed the check, but passed MC, the Wand Expert passed the check but failed the MC, the rest died! The next round he did his GMA - and moved several of his pieces around. His FB was OOC so didn't get moved. He also moved out his IM into open territory. On my turn I Dimension Doored and quick cast an EMM to kill the IM outright and then moved into hiding. With no commander the game was over since I could slowly kill any of his minis over time. I think I went 238 v 57. Half-Dragon ended up 6th. 1-0 Session 2: Half Dragon (Corrected from Blue Moon) He had a tough matchup for me: Couatl (oh dear - poor Pyro), Sword Archon (ouch....), Justice Archons x 2, and 4 M@A. Tiles: Rubble Assembly, Treasure Room, Torture Chamber - I forget the last one again. The worst thing about this matchup is that the Archmage's ability to kill off single commanders was gone. I knew that a round 1 fireball was of limited value so I needed to wear him down as he moved up. I suspected that the M@A would be a shield as well and I had little chance of hurting any of his JA's significantly with their DR. The Pyro was also going to be near useless later because of the Couatl. He left a LoS open to his assembly tile but no way of gaining Tile Points in the first round. I won init and decided to use the Fireball anyway - he had left 4 M@A out in the open and one of the JAs were there for the burst. Two of the M@A passed their saves, but the JA took 10 pts and two other M@A died. This meant I had clear activation control and could control much of the game even if I couldn't kill much of his warband. The game initally became a hide and go seek event with him hiding behind his Treasure Room. I had placed my Rock Shrine close enough for my archers to snipe off and do magic damage. By the time the second round started he made one major error - and that war leaving his injured JA out of command from the Sword Archon - the Archmage took advantage and forced a MC with his swift cast- it failed and ran away! (Couatl's commander 0 is often not enough). He carefully manouevered his Sword and Couatl so that they could see and rally the JA back the next round - but they were still in clear sight of the Archers who were sometimes successful in injuring the Couatl and the Sword Archon. He made one major blunder - and that left the previously routed JA OOC - he desperately wanted to attack the Archmage (who now had placed one Mordy's Sword on the Sword Archon) and placed the Sword in the only place he could possibly attack the AM the next round - I really needed that init.... two hits and I would need to make a MC for the mage (and I don't usually succeed on these). The Xeph's were doing their bit in providing cover for the Arch Mage for a reach 2 mini - but the one hole I had left was just out of his Speed 8! Luckily I won that init and placed another Mordy's sword on Sword Archon. And withdrew 8 - I also moved the IM to cover any following followup from the Sword Archon or Couatl. I was really luck with the next few activations as he failed to hit the IM on the first go with the Sword Archon and following a Snake's swiftness he passed his MC. In the meanwhile the Archers and some Xephs managed to hurt the Couatl, JA and Sword some more 5 HP bits - two 20's (lucky rolls) - and the Couatl had lost some 45 HP. He had pulled in one of his JAs to attack the Pyro (who was killing the M@A by now - one in a melee attack!!!!!). The JA hit and the Pyro just passed his MC! I think if Blue Moon had reversed his order and kill the IM first he would have failed the MC and had the points for him - nevertheless, he stayed. The Archmage pulled off a Banishment on the JA - this was the point where the Pyro actually killed the M@A that was basing him. Lucky roll of 16.... All that was left was a 15HP couatl, a Sword Archon who was going to die as soon as it activated, and an OOC JA. He soniced the IM with his Couatl and stayed put and then the Sword Archon activated and died - at this point the game is as good as over. Next activation I EMM the Couatl and have 230+ points against about 80! Some very lucky rolls went my way... and he made some mistakes that will have made a major difference.... Blue Moon ended up 12th. Session 3: Panamon Fast and Furious - the name of the band that contained: Greenfang Druid, Bladesinger, Graycloak Ranger, Timber Wolf, Frenzied Berserker and 7xWild Elf Barbarians.... crumbs.... and a lot of damage output... Tiles: Assembly Tile 6, Treasure Room, Broken Wall and yet again one I can't remember. Again a bad matchup since he had two high hitpoint commanders. The Archmage would have to do his best to deal damage wherever possible - the only saving grace would be the low ACs for the archers and Xephs. One comment on this game - we started fairly promptly (probably the first to start the game off) but the timing started about 40 mins later Anyone who has played the Archmage knows that it is great for 5-7 rounds... but for 1 hour and 40 mins this is a recipe for disaster. So I asked for the time at the beginning (checking to see when and if I needed to get the rest of the family from the frolicking) and it was 16:26. I'd not played against a bladesinger either so I wasn't sure how fast etc. it was... I just needed to hold back and hurt them as much as I could Placement went fairly well with some LoS open for a round 1 fireball - but I held back. Panamon is a very skilled player and guarded all LoS will low value fodder. He used the Broken Wall to collect tile points. The first round saw him place 3 WEBs on it and gather all his other minis behind the corridor tile... I couldn't get a really powerful Fireball off, so decided to get rid of the 3 WEBs with the one Fireball I would be likely to get off before combat was joined. It had the added benefit of denying 1st round tile points. All 3 WEBs failed the DC15 check and died. He then placed the Timber wolf there and the Archmage gave it an 15 HP EMM and it ran off the board. I tile grabbed with my wolf on my favoured Creeping Tangle tile. Nice to hide there for the game. He cast regeneration on the FB. In round 2 he drew in the FB into striking range of my group and during this round I EMM:d his GcR who routed (luckily he forgot about the Blindsight). Much of the rest of the round was positioning round 3: I was holding back a GMA for a mistake like bringing in the FB into the fray - the AM moved up and placed both swords on the FB and then activated the GMA to get him back out of harms way into the midst of the Xeph's. A lot of damage was dealt to the FB from the Archers and the Pyro by the end of the round. By the end of the round it had 1 round left to live! Again, his idea was to engage the AM with it - but not enough time to do so. He used the Bladesingers MMs to reduce my activation control again and I made the mistake moving my wolf forward 2 squares on the tile and got flamed by the Greenfang druid and failed its MC. The only good thing from this came later when the wolf rallied and moved in to stun one of the WEBs. However he was gaining tile points and I wasn't. After a number of rounds, the IM ended up routing (I don't remember how) and I was left with the Archmage and the Pyromancer, he had both commanders and one WEB. He moved in with both ready for attacks the next round - however, at this point, we had played over 1hour and 20 mins and this was the last round. I DD:d the Archmage to a tile grabbing location (missing that he could possibly have killed my Pyro with his last WEB). I should have moved 8 and EMM the WEB and then counted up. I wasn't 100% sure if the game was going to continue, so move out completely. I asked the timekeeper for a ruling - was this the last round? He said yes - it had gone on too long due to one of the games starting really late. Now he could possibly have won I think - he moved in the last of his activations, the WEB, to his the pyro. If he had hit the pyro would have (at best) have had to make a MC. The worst of it was that the pyro was based by the Greenfang druid. If he had routed.... likely dead. Well... the WEB missed. . We counted up - 116 to me and 80-something to him. If the Pyro had died I think he might have won... phew.... 3-0 I had a lot of really lucky rolls at important times... otherwise I would say that this was a lost tournament for me... some very good players there! Final placement: 1° Zanaroth |
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