as i did not make it into the final 16 at nationals i decided to watch as many of the games as i could, write down all the armies in the top 16, and try to do some battle reports

1nf1n1ty already posted the top 16 armies so i can skip that. i was watching both semi final games so i missed some of the details,.... the semi final games were:
zurgan w/ cloak of the martyr
magus relaphon w/ storm maul
*leech troll
3x **orc marauder
army played by _zap_

vs

***zombie centaur
*zombie centaur
possessed draconum
*leech troll
lady gliasti w/ thunder javelin and potion of vitality on soulmare
army played by pickman

the terrain was 2 curtain walls, 1 between each objectives and the middle objective, a longhouse in front of zaps starting area, and another longhouse slighty further away from that and to the right.......both players played their blank domain

unfortunatly the only details i got were that gliasti/ soulmare moved up and then MB/B using the AOE effect on the thunder javelin over and over to slowly kill all the support while relaphon was untouched, i dont remember any of the SM targets, but relaphon ended up going down. pickman went to the finals

the other semi final game was:
possessed draconum
*leech troll
khan rava w/ magestone bracers
flea
zurgan w/ storm maul
army played by neutralyze

vs

blackguard w/ karudans bow on bpr salamander
zeph wyndfenner w/ storm maul
khurga
***crystal protector
army played by drakeO

terrain was longhouse between two objectives an 8x2 water along one edge of the feild a deep water peanut on the other side of the feild with a blocking peanut next to it..... pestilence was in play

the salamander submerged, moved out and then mounted bound w/ overwatch to start teh rain of k-bow arrows on the opposing army, after a few turns had passed for each player all that was left was zeph w/ maul and blackguard w/ bow, and possesed on the other side....the drac was mauled, blackguard pushed to break from the drac which killed it setting off the bow, killing the drac..........drakeO went to the finals



for the final game the terrain was water peanut right in front of pickmans starting area, a 8x2 water between his objective and the center one, a curtain wall in front of drakeO's starting area, and a curtain wall next to the water.....the domains were inferno and pestilence

pickman went first, moved the possessed and leech troll away out of the eventual k bow blast, then MB/B behind the salamander, used the thunder javelin to dismount blackguard into the water, setting off the bow doing 4 damage to each everything in his own army, but eliminating the salamander and blackguard...
next drakeO i believe mauled and 1 pestilence on gliasti, killing her and the other 2 pestilence damage to the centaurs
it was then back and forth pestilence damage and maul damage on the troll and drac, the troll tried to heal the drac needing a 5, rolled a 4, .....pickmans army didnt make it 2/3 of the way across the feild....the game was over in 11 minutes....drakeO bacame the new national champion





i will be posting my own battle reports, which might not be as interesting as the finals and semi finals, but will be more detailed, sorry if there are any mistakes but i tried to remember everything i could from the mess i had for notes

Nice report DJ.

Well, a non-storm maul army almost won. :)

Hey there,

The champion did make one attack roll during the game. He rolled a phenomenal 6 click heal roll with his CP before she succumbed to pestilence. I was commenting on how I hoped I could get such a roll when my troll missed her heal roll by 1. *Sigh*

For those who wondered why I chose to dismount the Salamander and set off K-bow:

1. I f I had dealt damage, Blackguard still has an 11 attack with K-bow after the 4 clicks I could deal him. Hmm, Who would he have shot?

2. If I had ignored him and raced after Storm Maul, it would have taken Drake0 exactly 3 turns to kill Soulmare (2 for Storm Maul and 1 for pestilence each turn). Including the need to push to get into range, I didn't have the luxury.

Only two things could have made the game much longer and given me any chance to win. First, would have been not having pestilence. That's what allowed him to cap Gliasti on his turn. Otherwise, I would have had my potion. The other would have been to go second. I thought going first was good initially, but I could have placed terrain (and hid my entire army behind it) such that K-bow would have been a non-issue if I had gone second. Unfortunately, I would probably have died from Storm Maul and pestilence anyway. But I might have had a slim chance. ;)

It was ugly! He made a great army!

He only had to make two real decisions in the game. The first was killing gliasti and the second healing Kurga. Other than that, it was just both of us pointing at figures and saying, "take damage." Not the way I prefer to play Mage Knight. Even If I had made my heal roll, I doubt my possessed would have made it across the field to deal lethal damage to zeph while taking 3 damage per turn himself.

Pickman

P.S. Note that he did not make an attack roll against me the entire game. My army was decimated by auto-damage.

P.S. Note that he did not make an attack roll against me the entire game. My army was decimated by auto-damage.

This does not make the game fun does it. Can't wait to see the uber relic/book/spell combo that comes out in the next set to counter these uber relics. We are in a cold war. Lets sign a tready before someone gets hurt. They errated Spirit Armor before it was even used. Let's bring some fun back to the game before it's too late.

Good job pickman. You fought the good fight. The fact that you made it as far as you did with a non-Storm Maul army should be complimented.

Not that I mean any disrespect to the champion or the other Storm Maul players. It's just that personally, I can't stand Storm Maul and some of the other "gimmicky" (is that a real word?) tactics that have come about recently. People should actually have to roll dice and move figs. Not just sit back and mutter "take 2" for 10 minutes until the game is over.

I agree whole heartedly. Unfortunately, I don't think that storm maul will be changed and if it is changed, I don't think it will happen until it is totally abused enough that the powers that be decide on some sort of change.

I dont know why you would use storm maul compared to book of lightning. I belive that the book has more potenial because you can book the person with storm maul and have a healer and get healed right after he storm mauls you.

Storm Maul hits anyone, anywhere, automatically.

Book of Lightning cannot hit anyone immune to ranged combat, :mi: , or anyone in base contact with a friendly figure. An attack roll is required, and a miss hits you instead.

see, that annoys me. alot. alot of ppl complained about magic blast, and magic enhancement, but at least you had to roll! there were plenty of 'cheap' game plays but this is redictulous. (i'm a terrible speller). its times like this i wonder 'how did it come to this?' 1.0 and conquest was all the rules it ever needed, maybe new abilities here and there, new peices at least once a year, it was good. most of us were happy. that annoys me to no end, i disagree with where this game is going. i will not play a game that you kill your opponent by autodamage. i cant beleive ppl would even use that stradigy, it takes all the fun out of victory.

highly annoyed,

darth

What about Ram, Trample and Shakeoff? On multiple occasions I've killed opposing figs just by using these three abilities. Autodamage isn't the problem. Autodamage which requires no skill or tactics to employ is.

If you're using Ram, Trample and Shakeoff you'er going to be at least making breakaway rolls, which means there is a chance of not actually doing the damage in any given turn.

i agree fully, as long as there are roles being made and tactics in play theres no problem. you cant ram some1 to death, you need be careful to ensure your rammer doesnt lose it before you can use it. or venom, you cant just sit there and hit venom them, it works better with strdegies in play.

darth