DDM Constructed Qualifier Bloomington, IN 05/19/2007

Here's a tournament report from the DDM 200 point Constructed Qualifier in Bloomington, IN held on 05/19/2007. The link to the original post can be found here:

http://www.hordelings.com/forums/postView.php?post_id=79487&viewPage=0#79487


So, after qualifying at XP, I had a choice to make. Do I play in more Qualifiers or do I sit out and not play during the season? Then what if I went to a Qual and did well, would I drop and let someone else qualify or would I try for the free passes to Gencon? Well I debated back and forth over which to do. I thought about judging for a Qual to help out but then I finally decided to just play and have fun. Earlier last week I decided for sure that I'd make the trip to Bloomington for their Qualifier. I had been playtesting and running Ultroforge pretty heavily. However with having 3 maps that were tough to play on (Thieves Quarters, Dragondown Grotto, and Ratfang Sewers) I decided to switch to something else. I'd been thinking about SWarm again as with the rise of CG and CE I thought it was a good counter to it again. So, over the last week I practiced against Black Dragons and got ready for those matchups.

The weekend started Friday night when I drove up to Richmond to meet Visage and another friend Khellandros for some playtesting. Visage's Sune/FB x 2 band got me in both games due to him hitting alot against Incorp and me not being able to hit him while he was invisible. Afterwards we went to Walmart and got some waters and things for the trip up there and then I crashed on Tony's couch so we could get up early and leave. We got up about 5:30/6 and left KY and headed for Bloomington. About 3 1/2 hours or so later we got there. I walked in and looked around and didn't see anyone I immediately knew. A few minutes later Scott (Bleys) walked in and while I didn't think much of it at the time, what would happen next would play a part in how I finshed in the tourny. The parking out front is limited to 2 hours since it's next to the Courthouse so I was advised to move my car around back so I wouldn't get a ticket. I knew that I didn't want to register at the same time as Tony (Visage) because I've seen the pattern of if you register at the same time as the person you rode with, for whatever reason you seem more likely to get paired up together. So I told Tony to register first and I'd go move the car and come back and register separate. I'll get to why that was important later.

So we get down there and chat a bit before the tourny. I see Aesoph, Johnny Quest, Lalato and hang out with them until time for the tourny to start. We sit down for the first round and I go to get out my cards and realize they were still in the car so I had to run and get them. About 5 minutes later I came back in an out of breath fat man and sat down to play my first round.

Round 1 - James Prather (Storm, Virtuous Charger, Bralani, CWW, Bat tied to Storm, Bat tied to VC, Graycloak with Wolf minion, Wild Elf Warsinger, and Xeph Warrior on Graycloak)James got map and side so we set up on Dragondown and he put me on the dead forest side. James won first round init and actually only lost 1 init from what I've got marked. However Incorp proved to be his bane as he lost the incorp battle making 4 or 5 and not making 12 or 13. The 4 or 5 he did make were mainly with the Graycloak for 5 damage shots. Beginning of Round 2 I won and passed it off to him and he moved down the VC to try to take out a SW. He missed the Incorp and I SWarmed it and eliminated it. He tried to get off a Lightning Bolt with the CWW and failed the Incorps. Third round he tried it again with the CWW and again failed the Incorps. I then moved up and SWarmed the Wizard and Storm. I eliminated both of them for game. 1-0

Round 2 - Gary Ploog/xxBuzzxx (Ryld, LBD x 3, Orc Warrior x 2, Gnoll, Hyena on Broken Demongate)Gary won map and side and I set up in the cave part of the Demongate. We maneuevered some early and I chose to try to eliminate Ryld early and SWarmed him. He got off his BWs on 2 Watchers and I think he got them both eventually with the BWs. I moved the Archon over to flank Ryld and with a +21 to attack I roll a 1 to miss him. It was at this time that Gary got a good streak of rolls and managed to start beating down the Archon and my SWs that were left. Next round I had some more bad rolls while trying to kill Ryld and when I finally got him I just didn't have enough HPs to take the dragons down. Gary ended up killing the Archon and got me down to 1 Watcher to get over 200 points. 1-1

Round 3 - Sam Santos/Lalato (Tiefling Captain, LBD x 2, Umber Hulk, Cursed Spirit, Hyena, Thrall of Blackrazor, Orc Warrior on Mushroom Cavern)I finally got map and Sam won side. Ratfang wasn't a good map for Sam as it lowered the already low attacks of his warband. We maneuvered some early and I made sure to run the Scout off the VAs so the Thrall couldn't eat him. Second round I won init but passed it off to Sam. Sam moved the dragons over to use their BWs and I made a placement mistake that he caught and got 4 SWs in both BWs. After the Incorps I had 1 of the 4 undamaged, 2 of the 4 at 5 hps left, and 1 that got hit by both BWs but made both it's saves and was at 10 hps. I then SWarmed one of the dragons and eliminated it. Next round I went and sent a few watchers after the Thrall and got a few hits on him. He took some AOOs to hit the Sword Archon and hit him once to put 20 damage on him. I then moved over a watcher to finish him off. His Umber Hulk and other LBD went to work on the Archon to try to finish him off. He got the Archon and I got the LBD shortly after that. Then it was 4 SWs against the Tiefling and the Umber Hulk. I put 2 Watchers on the Tiefling, 1 on the Umber Hulk, and 1 in a VA. Next round I got the Tiefling and that was game. 2-1

Round 4 - Dan/Rakahaka (Hezerou, LBD, Ogre Ravager, Abysmal Maw, Orc Wardrummer, Cursed Spirit, and Orc Warrior on Hellspike)Dan won map and I won side. During set up he set up the dragon so it was in the small start area not far from my Start area. I spent the first round making sure not to give him a line to more than 2 Watchers. He got the BW off on 2 watchers and I dont' remember if it passed incorp or not. I think one watcher got hit and it missed the other one. Second round I won and passed it off to him. He moved up the Ogre Rav and tried to hit a watcher but missed due to Incorp. The Hezerou did the same thing and missed I think. Dan struggled some with Incorp but he did kill 3 watchers within these first few rounds. After that he struggled with Incorp and I managed to kill the Ogre Rav and the Hezerou. From there it was my 3 SWs and the Archon left to take on the LBD. I got the LBD and that was game. 3-1

Round 5 - Stephen Honeycutt/Thaine (Werewolf Lord x 2, Thrall of Blackrazor, Orc Wardrummer, Quaggoth Slave x 3 on Teleport Temple)I won map so we played on Ratfang. Thaine had played Bleys and his UlmoSWarm the previous round so he wasn't happy to play back to back SWarms. We moved up to each other first round. Second round he took a gamble and went to move the Thrall to the Archon so he could get off 1 attack, use Haste, and then get off a 2nd attack and hopefully put 40 damage on the Archon. He had to take 4 AOOs from Watchers to do it, but he should have had 5 hps when he got to the Archon. However, the AOOs went like this, hit for 15, crit for 25, crit for 25, dead Thrall. I then SWarmed one of the WWLs and flew my Archon over to hit him and critted him for 55 damage total. After that it was a matter of finishing off that WWL and then getting the 2nd one as well. Pooring that much damage on early with the 3 crits really hurt and Thaine wasn't able to get rid of the Watchers fast enough after that. 4-1

Round 6 - Tony Pitman/Visage (Cleric of Sune, Frenzied Berzerker x 2, Gnome Trickster, Wild Elf Warsinger, Devis, Xeph Warrior, Dwarf Battlerager on Mushroom Cavern)Before round 6, I looked at the 4-1s and who I'd like to play. I didn't want to play Scott or Tony as you'd hate to play a friend and possibly knock them out of the running. So I hoped to either get paired up to face JQ or to get paired down to face a 3-2. It didn't happen and I got paired with Tony. Having playtested with Tony the night before I knew what not to do. I tried to engage him the best I could but Tony didn't miss hardly any Incorp. Then I put the Archon over to use Melee Reach on 1 FB and drop her to 30. I hoped to be able to then win init and finish her off and not let her get to him. Well he won the init, slid her over to the Archon with the Trickster and then she managed to finish me off between her 2 attacks and her Deathstrike later that round. After that Tony finished off the 3 Watchers I had left to take the game. 4-2

So after that we looked at who was in. There were 4 5-1s and out of the 4-2s we knew it was either me, Bleys, or Thaine that was getting the 4th spot after Johnny Quest dropped. I admit that I'd like to play as I'd like to win the free pass to Gencon, but I talked to Scott and Stephen and agreed to drop for either one of them if I got it. Turns out that Scott got it because earlier in the day I had not registered when I got there and went to park my car behind the building instead. So, while I would have dropped anyways for Scott, still weird to see it come down to that in a 29 person Qualifier.

Overall though I had a great time. I got to hang out with my friends Aesoph, Johnny Quest, Bleys, and Lalato again. The Game Preserve did a great job hosting the tourney and Aesoph and James did a great job judging. I look forward to making the trip for some more Qualifiers and things in the future. Now it's back to the drawing board for Cincy in 2 weeks.