A Word of Thanks

There are some people who greatly contributed to my ability to play and win at GenCon. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them all, in no particular order:

• The SoCal DDM Gamers — I would not have won the championship without these guys. My game has improved immensely as a direct result of facing such highly skilled players on a regular basis. If you're ever in the area, stop by Dear Mr. Fantazy in Orange, CA on the first and third Saturday of the month. You won't find a more welcoming group of players, nor a more challenging metagame, anywhere else.
  
• WotC Design & Development Team — I also want to say a big thank-you to the designers, for creating a great game that is balanced, challenging, and fun to play. It was great to see Mike Donais, Ian Richards, and Steve Schubert in the minis hall the entire weekend, talking to players and soliciting opinions about how to improve the game. It's clear to me that the future of DDM is in good hands, and I look forward to working with the team to design a mini.
  
• Team GameRocket.net — It was great meeting the guys from GameRocket.net and talking minis strategy with them. Being part of Team GameRocket.net was fun! I'm particularly grateful to fellow GameRocket.net player Chad Benner (Chad the DragonLord) for providing the awesome pics of the finals. Those pics really tie the report together.
  
• Brian Mackey (Kiddoc) — I'd like to tip my hat to the outgoing champ. I've enjoyed reading his articles and posts over the past year, and I've found them to be, without exception, insightful and respectful. I'm going to try to follow his example and contribute to the DDM community as much as I can, by being an active and positive advocate of the game.

Ok, before this starts sounding too much like an acceptance speech from the Oscars, I'll get on with it already.

Preparation

When the Angelfire spoilers hit the internet, I looked them over carefully, trying to figure out what people might play in the championship. It was much harder to guess the metagame this year than last, which I think is a credit to the designers. Four minis from Angelfire stood out as possible contenders: the Justice Archon, the Chraal, the Hezrou, and the Archmage.¹

I immediately gravitated toward the Archmage. It seemed to me that the Archmage had plenty going for him: a potent ranged attack, the power to decapitate an enemy band, the ability to operate without a commander himself, and the defenses necessary to stay alive. I hoped that with careful play and the right support, an Archmage would have a real chance of being a powerhouse at nationals. My friend Robert Hatch (Dagni) also saw the potential there, and so the two of us started aggressively testing various Archmage builds. We played many games against each other and against other strong players from around the country (via Vassal).

After two weeks, I was forced to give it up. Too many test games ended with either the death of the Archmage, or more frequently, with the Archmage band losing on points after one hour. It was just too hard to protect the Archmage and still remain aggressive enough to keep up in the points race. I also knew that over seven rounds of Swiss, I’d likely face at least two CE-hitter bands that could kill the Archmage outright, regardless of whether I managed to keep up on points in other areas. So with regret, I set aside the Archmage in the “very close, but not quite good enough” category.

With only about two weeks left until nationals, I knew I wouldn’t have time to try out more than one of my three remaining possible contenders. I decided that I really didn’t want to play CE again, having played CE competitively more than any other faction. So that ruled out Hezrou bands, leaving the Justice Archon and the Chraal. I chose the Chraal, mainly because I’m more practiced with LE than LG in general.

Having decided that my band for the championship would feature Chraals, I next needed to pick a build. It seemed obvious to me at first that a top-tier Chraal band would require a source of magic weapon. I expected to face other Chraal bands and Justice Archons backed by Couatls, and doing five damage at a time against those foes would not be enough. (Or so I thought.)

My initial test build was:

Human Blackguard
Chraal x 3
Kobold Sorcerer
Blue x 2
Azer Raider x 2
Warrior Skeleton x 3

I played many test games with this band, and won most of them. I briefly tested an Orog / Dark Moon Monk version as well, which performed similarly.

But in examining the games I lost with these builds, I found that I was almost always losing on points, and almost always against other Chraal variants. Finally, the day before I was leaving for GenCon, I played a few last practice games against Robert (Dagni). He had settled on an Orog/Chraal build, without magic weapon, that seemed very strong. My test games on that day against Robert finally convinced me that the magic weapon was more of a hindrance than a help. By including magic weapon, I was spending 15 or 20 points on a soft, squishy unit that my opponent could easily kill. And even with magic weapon on my Chraals, enemy Chraals still did not die fast enough. Opponents could too often prevent me from killing one in a timed game, by rotating damaged Chraals out from the front line, and screening them with cold-immune fodder units. Meanwhile, my relatively expensive fodder would give my opponent more points than I could easily recoup.

So what to do? Having decided not to play the Kobold Sorcerer and expensive fodder, I had a 20-30 point hole in my band, the day before GenCon! What could I put in to give me a competitive edge?

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