Report by Chris Tulach, D&D Minis Organizer
This last weekend, we had 12 people participate for the BFCup at Brush.Fire.Con II in Germantown, WI. The format was an official DCI-sanctioned 100 point constructed Quick Strike tournament, and we certainly had some great down-to-the-wire games!
We started the tournament at about 9:30 am, after all the registration was completed. We ran five rounds of Swiss, and the top four competed in a single-elimination tournament to determine the champion. The winner received a trophy, four expansion packs, and all the promo minis that have been released to date.
Out of the twelve players, 3 warbands were Abyssal Maw-Drow Wizard (known also as "Snowballs from Hell") heavy (played by Peter Lee, Greg Marks, and Frank Laycock; Frank's and Greg's armies were identical). All of them did well. Also, there were a couple of 3-miniature brute warbands (Brayden Glad and Todd Ammerman); one of which (Todd's) was a Blackguard-2 Displacer Beast band (commonly known as "Displaced Aggression"). Brian Nowak fielded a mobility-archer-caster CG warband, and Tim Bailey showed up with a Mind Flayer-led LE army.
After the first five rounds were finished, only Greg Marks had emerged with a perfect 5-0 record; there was a lot of parity among the rest of the pack. The standings going into the final were as follows:
1. Baby Snowmen with Teeth (played by Greg Marks), 5-0
2. Yeah, This is Creative & Original (played by Brayden Glad), 3-2
3. Elven Shaft (played by Brian Nowak), 3-2
4. Don't Touch My Maw! (played by Peter Lee), 3-2
5. Winter Wonderland (played by Frank Laycock), 3-2
6. Defenders of the Faith (played by Sam Hilgendorf), 3-2
6. Undrez Innadarl's Feral Drow (played by Jeff Dobberpuhl), 3-2
8. Good Guys (played by William Duvall), 2-3
9. Team Tentacle (played by Tim Bailey), 2-3
10. The Goblin Horde (played by Rick Brown), 2-3
11. Order of Light (played by Darren Spurrier), 1-4
12. Can't Touch This (played by Todd Ammerman), 0-5
The final four armies looked like this:
Baby Snowmen with Teeth (Greg Marks)- Drow Wizard
- Tiefling Captain
- Abyssal Maw x10
Yeah, This is Creative and Original (Brayden Glad)
- Tiefling Captain
- Red Samurai
- Ogre Ravager
Elven Shaft (Brian Nowak)
- Cleric of Corellon
- Drunken Master
- Half-elf Sorcerer
- Elf Archer x3
- Elf Spearguard
- Lidda, Halfling Rogue
Don't Touch My Maw! (Peter Lee)
- Drow Wizard
- Ogre Ravager
- Abyssal Maw x6
- Human Bandit
Greg and Peter faced off, while Brayden and Brian battled. Both games were pretty close, but Greg and Brayden pulled it out to play in the championship. Peter and Brian played for third place. In the championship game, Brayden, who had lost in Swiss rounds twice to Greg, pulled out a victory in the third time around to take home the BFCup! Brian defeated Peter to solidify 3rd place.
It was a great tournament, and the players all had their share of close matches. Some of the players that frequent these boards may post specifics of their tactics; all I know is that I saw a lot of good matches! I hope to see more people at our next tournament (a 100 point Quick Strike draft) at the same location on February 7th! Email me to let me know if you'll be in attendance.
Peter Lee's report
On fighting Greg on the Semi-final, with 16 Abyssal Maws on the table
I knew that I was going to lose this battle from the start. The Ogre Ravager proved himself in one or two fights, but this would not be the one. Most of the combat was "The abyssal maw charges" and about a 50/50 chance of hitting. It's the overkill problem -- I'm paying for 30 points of damage to hit things with only 10 hitpoints. I eventually lost when I only had the Ravager left.
The neatest warband was Brian's "Elven Shaft" which was my first and last battle of the night. I'm glad I got a chance to play him twice, because the first battle I let him set up line of sight against my Drow Wizard and he routed, eventually being killed by a Drunken Master that rushed up the board. (That sucked!) So I concentrated more in the second match and got my ass handed to me again...
It was quite impressive to see a CG ranged army WORK. Kudos to Brian for pulling it off.
On the hour drive back to Madison, I was thinking about the tourney. The last tourney I saw a Drow Wizard launch a snowball into an entry tile first turn of the game -- routing a goodly amount of troops off the board. I thought to myself, "I gotta try that!" so that was one reason I put the warband together. I think the battles that I could sucessfully use the Drow Wizard I won, and the battles that I couldn't I lost.
I also realized that depending on the drow wizard to get a snowball off in the entry tile is pretty much the same as going to a chess tourney and thinking that the Four Move Checkmate manuver is going to have you win.
The Human Bandit I usually left in my Entry Tile as insurance against a Quickstrike victory -- only the ravager remaining. Unfortunately, the one battle that it would have mattered Greg sent in his Maws and defeated me. I'm thinking now that it would have been better for me to not use the Ravager and Bandit and instead have a Red Samurai -- that might have made a difference in the final Maw vrs Maw battle, but I don't think it would have had me win the game -- no way that I could have killed enough in the Flame cone.
Jeff Dobberpuhl's Feral Drow went 3-2. And yet there was no heavy hitters in the warband! Interesting!! How did he do so well versus the warbands with Tanks?
Well, I played and lost against this warband. The Drow Cleric's Slashing Darkness was uber-nasty against the Abyssal Maws -- I think it claimed 3 of 6 of my maws. The archers could also rout most of my figures in one sucessful shot.
The nastiest part was a Harpy's Song -- I made something like 5 of 7 saves (I was really lucky) but one of the maws that failed the save was guarding my Commander, and the Warg was able to get into base contact with him -- that pretty much finished me off.
I seem to remember that it ended with just my Ogre left; it was pretty much a slaughter.
Tim Bailey's Team Tentacle went 2-3. I'm curious as to how effective the Mind Flayer + Elemental support tactics were. Was his weak link the Displacer Beast (who had to avoid the Mind Blast AoE)?
I also fought agaist this one. One well-placed snowball killed all three of the Skeletons1, so I had a strong numbers initative advantage about halfway through the match. With all my strong combat attacks (15 damage attacks from the Maws and 30 damage attacks from the Ogre) the Displacer Beast didn't last that long, even with the conceal (conceal was unlucky for me; probably absorbed 60+ points of damage or so.)
I was a bit worried about the Cleave ability from the Water Elementals, so I was pretty careful about leaving one maw at a time to slow them down while trying to handle the Beast. I remember one point where he made an attack with the beast and followed up with a mind blast; I think I made most of my saves but the beast failed, and I think I was able to finish him off.
1: Both players forgot undead are Immune to Cold attacks.
Brian Nowak's report
I played the CG army at this tourney, and let me just say, going into it I was fairly certain I was going to get swallowed whole by Abyssal Maws and frozen into dainty elven popsicles by Drow Wizards.
My army, the Elven Shaft, was an interesting one to play. It required a great deal more thought than the average 'smack-em-up' army, which is why I fielded it in the first place.
The primary focus of my army was ranged attacks. With four ranged attackers and the half-elf sorceror this was fairly obvious. But I think people underestimated my army, which greatly played to my advantage.
The Cleric of Corellon was chosen mainly as a source of buff spells: bless and magic weapon, and if I had the chance, a cure for my monk. But, the hold persons were tactically advantageous as well. I only cast it three times during the tourney, twice at a Red Samurai (who saved both times), and once at a PDK, who rolled a natural one on his save. Also, the Cleric served to ensure that my elves would hang out on the board for a while longer. The Cmd4 and Cmd Effect put my elves at +9 morale bonus. For 1st level monsters, that's pretty huge.
The Drunken Master and the Elf Spearguard served as my tactical team. I would place them off to the side, letting them sit for a few rounds. Then, I would zing them down the battlefield in an attempt to get at commanders. It worked fairly well, especially after the PDK was held.
For terrain tiles, I chose the Rubble Assembly tile, the Shrine tile, the Abbatoir, and the Treasure Room. My goal with terrain was to provide deceptively advantageous tiles for my opponent that provided me with numerous lanes of LoS. The Rubble Assembly tile was chosen because, depending on the Army I was facing, I could begin with LoS on my opponent, or I could hide until I was able to move to cover. The Shrine would draw people to its magic circle, and with half of that piece of terrain completely open, it was the perfect firing grounds for my army. It also served well against those armies who played the slow-moving-cover game.
My main tactic was to get as many shots as I could in before they closed for melee. Then, before they had a chance, play the shoot and run game. Take a double move. Shoot, take a single move. Take a double move. Shoot, take a single move. And so on and so forth. The half-elf sorceror was included for problematic pieces. During the first few rounds, I would fire 7 arrows (most at +5 after the bless went off). Even with such a low attack bonus, I knew I'd hit simply because of the sheer number of shots I was making.
My first battle was against Peter Lee's "Don't Touch My Maw". I've played Peter before, and he fields awesome armies, but it has always seemed as if luck chose to abandon him at the last moment. I was definitely scared facing an army of Maws and a Drow Wizard. When I saw the Bandit hide and the Ogre Ravager come out, I knew it was going to be a long battle. Normally against massive hp creatures, my tactics would have been to simply ignore the beast. In this instance, I couldn't do that, unless I managed to get a fig down and into his assembly tile to kill that Bandit. In a small tactical error, Peter left his Drow Wizard open to LoS of two of my archers with nothing in between them. So I took my shots at the Wizard, had him routing, and watched the battle turn.
I learned a few things about the Maw armies at this point. If they can manage to close to melee, they are frightening. Buta Drow Wizard/Maw army needs line of sight just as badly as I do, which serves more in their detriment. With my archers hitting at +5 for 5 dmg, one hit causes a Maw to make a morale save. In Peter's case, his army didn't have the Command value to keep those Maws on the board. Only a few of them saved.
My second game was against Darren Spurrier's Order of Light. From one scary army to another, I swear. During playtest of this army, high speed, high AC figs seriously messed me up. Their ability to close to melee in a few rounds without seriously being worried about my arrows is a severe detriment to my army that needs people to stay away. So, when, in round two, the LFM closed into melee with Lidda, I knew the game was going to be short. Oddly, though, he missed. So, the tactical squad came a running. The Drunk Monk staggered right over to the LFM and landed a hit. The Spearguard moved, but did not attack. I had set up some flanking fun, and was holding my breath for the next round, when I realized that I could use the rest of my army to take shots at him, even though he was in melee and had cover. It was better than letting him stand. I think I managed to lob one shot successfully. But, every little bit counts. Next round, the rest of his LG army is still way away, not causing me any fear, and I win initiative. Monk attacks twice, hits once. Spearguard attacks once, hits once. LFM is down 35 hitpoints now, and it's Darren's turn. He decides to take the AoO's and run. He's got Mobility, so it shouldn't have been a problem. I get three attacks: Lidda misses, Spearguard misses, Monk crits. Game over for the LFM. Then it was just a matter of waiting for him to come out of cover and try to get me.
My third game was against Tim Bailey's Team Tentacle. I went into this game not very frightened. Terrain setup heavily favored me, leaving the center of the board wide open for my archers. And I completely attribute this loss to luck. Magic Missles and arrow shots managed to take out the Displacer Beast. And a well placed Turn Undead had the skeletons running, but when my monk and spearguard closed to melee with the Mind Flayer, things went way south. Over then next three rounds I managed to get the Mind Flayer down to 5hp, only to have him and an Elemental kill both the monk and the spearguard. Which left me with two full hp elementals and a 5hp mind flayer. Five shots at the Mind Flayer, all missed. Then, he moved, and my only targets were elementals. And then time was up.
My fourth game was against Greg Marks' Snowballs with Teeth army. Having faced Peter Lee's Maw army and fairing well, I wasn't too frightened, even though I know Greg to be a very astute tactical mind. It was a close game to the very end, when, in a last ditch effort to save his army, Greg's Tiefling Captain charged my Cleric of Corellon, rolled a nat 20, and killed it. After that, it was just a matter of mopping up remains.
My fifth game, the final Swiss round, was an important one. I knew if I lost, I had no chance of getting into the elimination bracket. Playing William Duvall's Good Guys army, I was not entirely too worried. When four rounds had passed, his LG forces were fully buffed, and I had yet to score a single hit against these high AC monstrousities, I began to get scared. He was on the verge of closing to melee. It was almost game over. In an odd tactical maneuver, Bill brought his PDK to the fore, and I pounced. The Cleric tossed a Hold Person his way, and he failed, rolling the infernal 1 on the die. I moved quickly, bringing my figs into melee as fast as I could. In two rounds, the PDK was dead before it had a chance to move, leaving the rest of his army out of command. And while it took us another 5 or 6 rounds, I eventually routed enough of his figures to call the game a win.
During the elimination bracket, I was pitted against Brayden Glad and his three fig army of doom. Big fig armies are my true downfall. It takes forever to get them to route with the ping-like damage I do, and then if they don't it takes even longer to kill them.... To top it off, terrain placement favored Brayden heavily. In what I can only call a cheesy maneuver, he placed his Shrine tile so that his ogre ravager could stand on the center square of the map without risk of my army seeing him. Brayden was content to sit for ten rounds, waiting for the default timing to declare him winner. I almost was willing to let him have the utterly cheesy and lack-luster win. In the end, I maneuvered to attack. The battle was close, and in the end, his powerful figs withstood the army of small ones.
The second round of the elim bracket, I was against Peter Lee once more. While this battle was similar to the first, it didn't involve any huge tactical errors. If he had led with his Ogre Ravager instead of his Abyssal Maws, things might have been different though. By the time I needed to start moving away from him, all but one of the Maws was routed or off the map, leaving him with the Ravager, the Drow Wizard, a Maw, and a Bandit. In a ballsy maneuver, I threw the Spearguard and Monk all the way down the field, aiming for the Drow Wizard. It took them two rounds and that last Maw to get to him, but they did, and made short work of him.
All in all, I was pleased with my performance. I walked away with a booster of Dragoneye, an alt paint Stalwart Paladin and Daring Rogue, and an Orc Raider. Having already gotten my fair share of the WF promos, I gave mine to Peter. An interesting tourney, for certain, and definitely an experience I would do again. I much prefer Constructed to Draft, but I prefer Sealed overall, having played in all three now.
Braydon Glad's report
I'm the guy with the uncreative warband who took first, after loudly proclaming my expectation to go 3-2 in the opening section and doing so. ;)
Anyway, my games:
1st vs Sam's Defenders of the Faith-W
Fairly straightforward and what I was expecting to see, so I was not worried. He's essentially playing a gold deflection build, so I just hit everything except for the gold champ. I enjoyed laying out the terrain with lots of rough terrain to stop my routing, and still being able to set up on the sacred circle placed at the center and just wait until an nice time to fight.
2nd vs Greg's Baby Snowballs from Hell-L
I certainly was not expecting to see 3 of these here when I included the tiefling over clc grummsh. The terrain was mediocre, and I showed no experience playing against it. Greg's tactical prowess took the game, although it was not a blowout. Nevertheless, I think I only eliminated 8 of the snowballs before I was defeated. Miscounting the number of routing squares for my samurai (allowing it to just quite make it off the board instead of having two chances to save) really hurt.
3rd vs Frank's Winter Wonderland-W
Oh look, didn't I just do this? This is an identical warband to last time, and the difference was that I won terrain init, which allowed me to hole up in a defensive position near the center of the board through which there were only 2 paths and I was immune to the caster. When 5 snowballs plus the caster attempted to penetrate, I won init at a crucial point and killed/routed every single one with the breath weapon. At that point, the win was straightforward.
Of course the best part was placing my first tile on my opponent's side of the board so that we each played toward ourselves. I don't think he liked that very much, since not only is it easier for me to see his line of sight, but also he had to reach across the board 12 times a round. :)
4th vs William's Good Guys-W
An interesting and instructive game. He won terrain init, but made an extremely conservative first tile choice and I was able to grab the center with my shrine, point the L shaped wall toward him, set up two entry pathways and just sit with one big fig guarding each. Even after he routed the ravager with the fear cone (at no time in the game could he hit more than one of my figs with it because of my position), my position was still sufficiently strong to rally the ravager and take out all but the PDK.
5th vs Greg's Snowballs again-L
Having now played this warband twice, I knew a little bit more about it. Still can't win terrain init when I need to do so. We reached a roughly even position, but then he routed one of my big figs, it hurried away, I attempted to rally but failed again, leaving the table. The position was still playable because I had destroyed seven snowballs, but then a crit on the ravager required a morale save too, and I failed it again. Essentially, that was the match, and it would have been more interesting without missing on a 97.7% success chance amongst the three saves.
So I was at 3-2 with absurd tiebreaks. No one finished at 4-1 so I was seeded second in the finals.
Thus, I played Brian's Elven Shaft-W
Brian's a great tactician, but he did not take the best advantage of his winning of terrain init. He chose to lay his tiles to prevent any rushes or charges, but he allowed me to grab the center early with the shrine (starting to become familiar?) and build a fortress-like position with no meaningful line of sight toward his position. We stalemated for a few turns, at which point I helpfully reminded him that because my ogre ravager tied for the closest legal square to the center as part of my plan to play defense, and because none of his figs were worth as much, he was obligated to attack.
The resulting conflict was in my favor but became quite interesting because he was hitting with most attacks and I wasn't, but I picked off various units as he pinged me. At one point, I endeavored to trade my tiefling for his cleric, and then nat 1ed with the ravager on a charge against it. Fortunately, however, it had nowhere to go, so I completed the trade and then slowly hunted down his units as he slowly pinged me. It became a race but one that I was in a good position to win, and I eventually finished him off by killing a fig with the breath weapon as he danced around avoiding my rushes.
Greg's Snowballs- 3rd time's the charm ;)
He won init again, and build up a solid position, but in a maneuver I can only imagine was due to fatigue, decided to risk his position to an init check. I won, and breathed on 5 snowballs. This effectively ruined his operation on one half of the board and despite a strong effort he came up short. I felt bad about winning that way, but the trophy looked cool so I did it anyway.
Anyway, Kudos to BFZ for running another good tourney.