Gencon tourney - running commentary

First game down. Modified Search scenario, with Intel in each building. I played a Scourge opponent. The game was really bloody - bloodier probably than any I've played to date (I ended up with 900+ kill points).

Based off the lessons I learned with Mary, I pushed forward to grab the middle Intel early, which forced is into a delaying CBQ. In fact, there was one building on my backline I never ended up searching!

Key moment in the game was when he blew up the central building with my infantry. But right behind it he had his Desolator (and commander), and two squads of tanks and AA - and my AA bubble in range. With the building down, I destroyed his Desolator, which promptly crash landed and destroyed four units.

I found two objectives, one of which I got off the board. I also scored a few other victory points from the Intel. Based off Hawk scoring, I ended up with 16 VPs, 13 for victory point difference, and 3 more for kill point difference.

Off to the next match.

Awesome!

Good stuff sir. Enjoy yourself.

Second game went down to the wire. One of the new scenarios, Take and Extract. I played against UCM - a good opponent. He managed to blow up my small building before I could extract the objective. But I blew up his army (600 KP to 250 or something) and held the middle. So he won 5-4.

Based on the tournament scoring, he won 11-9 ... about as close as you can get.

Oh - and found out I was #1 and my opponent was #2 going in, so it's still close.

One more round!

Sweet! Austin represent

Thanks for posting, sounds like fun.

Final round going in I found out I was in 3rd place despite the loss, mainly on the strength of the first win. Top scores were 28, 26 and my 25. (My3rd round opponent may have been at 25 or 26 as well - I'm actually not sure.)

The scenario was a new one, Secure the Flanks, which has an interesting corner deployment area, and both objectives and focal points. I was playing against Scourge (again), but this was a more experienced player, and he was running double Desolators. Yikes. I really thought I was toast.

But, if I learned nothing else in those games against Larry and his PHR it was the value of target acquisition and saturation, and early on his risked his Desolators against my small AA bubble. I managed to take out one Desolator before they could both fire on me (which is good, because I was still bunched up from deployment - they move FAST) and then the next turn killed the other Desalotor after it fired a salvo. Huge turning point, especially since one was his commander.

And after all my complaining about the Dreamsnare, it made it points back and more, as a shot magnet and save multiplier. Two of three opponents spent a lot of shots on trying to kill it, and my save ratio was ridiculous. I think I played pretty well, but my saves bailed me out repeatedly.

So, the long and the short of the last game was that we each got an objective off the board, and he snagged the third objective, but my Braves tar pitted his Destroyers (who are SICK!) in the building so he couldn't get them off the board. I had units on both focal points and controlled both focal points, while he only had units on one. I had over 1000 kill points to his 400, so I got bonus points for that.

Soil got 16 points total (12 for VPs, 4 for KPs), which gave me 41.


And the win! The previous first place won 12-8, and so despite narrowly losing he second round, I came in 1st! :o


Most importantly, it was a lot of fun, and people were really cool, and Hawk was great. Simon ran the event, and things were really smooth, minimal kvetching, no douchebags, just a good event.

Happy times! Good for you. All that preparation paid off. What did you win other then glory and fame that is.

Awesome! Good job Robby! I'm glad it all fell into place in the end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fang27

Happy times! Good for you. All that preparation paid off. What did you win other then glory and fame that is.

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Thanks! And thanks for all the help prepping me. Even though I didn't face any PHR, all of those practice games were really valuable. Running through various different strategies turned out to be key. And I think you'll like the story about the Desolator I shot down - over two squads of tanks. ;-)

I don't know what the prizes are yet. I'm supposed to head over to the Hawk booth today. I'm guessing its some amount of $$ in stuff from the booth.


And funny thing - even though the game isn't supposed to be very killy, and Shaltari weapons are reportedly kinda weak, I killed 900, 600 and 1000 points in my games vs Scourge, UCM and Scourge. From the brief glances I got at the score sheets, that was the most - by far. Guess I'm kinda aggressive. :-)

No,really? Hadn't noticed.
Well we figured there would be very little chance you would see any PHR.
How many of the players were from outside the USA, if any were?

I think there were two PHR armies there, I just didn't play any.

Also, I'm not sure any if the players were from outside the US. I didn't pick up any strong accents, but I didn't meet everyone. Most were US though.

For prizes, I went to the Hawk booth and got offered two of the new starters, although I already have all that I need, so they let me grab some blisters instead. I picked up a Desolator, Annihilator, Reavers and Stalkers, plus Scourge command cards. Not a bad haul. :-)

Awesome! Can't wait to see them!

Sorry I'm late to the party. Congrats Robby! You definitely earned it with all that prep work.