Sunday 7 December 2008

Clash of the Titans

Well, the tournament came and went. It was a very small affair. I managed to pull off my Affliction and renegade combo off once per game, and the highlight of my evening was killing Beast-09 and Drago in the same turn. I should have killed pVlad too but I rolled a double one to hit a knocked down Vlad with Affliction and didn't have enough focus left over on Fiona to recast it. That would have won me the game, but alas, it was not meant to be.

There were only six people at this tournament, compared to the 20 we had at the last one - I think the unusual format and amount of points seem to put people off. That and Christmas. Personally I prefer normal 500 points games, but I'm still a beginner, I haven't had a chance to test the waters of the 750 point game.

My first game was against Johanna, and it devolved into Magnus the Warlord and Magnus the Traitor using all their focus to drop each other down to about 3 health each in melee. Johanna managed to get Morghoul into the mix, but I'd activated Fiona's feat (opponent rolls 1 less dice on attack and damage rolls) so the Traitor survived. Next turn I totally had a brain fart with the Traitor - I was planning on killing the Warlord and then punching Morghoul - but instead tried to move to allow one of my light warjacks in so that it could kill Morghoul once I'd punched him. So that moved me out of melee range of the Warlord, who miraculously failed to kill the Traitor. I then hit Morghoul first try with the fist and that was the end of him. Next came the comedy of errors of me not realising Fiona has a reach weapon and when I did she couldn't hit the Warlord at all until the very last roll, where I had no focus to boost my attacks. I even said "Double six please." just before rolling for the damage. And lo, the Dice Gods did visit me and I was among the Blessed with a Double Six. Much rejoicing was to be had. I even remembered to thank my dice.

Game two was again Frazer, who pays Khador. He brought pVlad and pButcher, both character jacks, a pair of destroyers and a kodiak. In all fairness I should have won by scenario on turn two, Vlad was knocked down, a renegade was in charge range, all I needed to do was land Affliction on him. But alas, the Dice Gods giveth and the Dice Gods taketh away. So I got gubbed right after killing Drago and Beast-09. I also forgot to use Fiona's feat, and Frazer declined to let me activate it since I'd just said it was his turn. No sportsmanship award for j00!

Game three was against Andrew Paul. I simply lost by scenario because he had the first turn. The scenario we played puts whoever goes second at a massive disadvantage - it didn't help that Alan has modified the scenario to start points scoring on the second turn instead of the first - that meant Andrew scored two points of the needed 3 to win on his second turn (seeing as I have no advance deploy warjacks) and I had enemy warjacks in the zones I needed to score points from - so I gained nothing on my second turn. In all fairness we continued playing after Andrew had won and I got thoroughly ganked. Both Magnus and Fiona were on fire at one point before the Avatar of Menoth stepped in.

Johanna won the painting competition but gave half her prize to me (Anastasia DiBray and a GF9 smoke template - I got the template) which was very nice of her. While I do feel my Magnus is exceedingly well painted (cough cough, massage the ego) I'm not that bothered about prizes and stuff. If the judges feel that my colour scheme is weak, then it's weak, making a fuss about it does no one any good.

Overall I didn't really like the tournament. Unusual lists and small attendance made it disappointing. I did enjoy myself, but nowhere as much as I do a regular 500 point game. Johanna also ate my bourbons.

No comments:

Post a Comment