As I shook hands with Jason and we made little jokes about having the same name, I’m sure neither of us suspected we’d be sitting two tables away the next morning in the finals! Jason’s warband was not one I had practiced against, and yet I felt reasonably confident about the matchup. My entire warband, except the Blackguard, is immune to the Lich’s paralysis abilities, and all but the Blackguard and Green Dragon are immune to the stun effect of the Harpy’s captivating song. Still, I have great respect for the Cursed Spirit, and I was a little worried about Jason being able to reduce my morale saves by six, effectively countering my commander rating.
I set up in Cocoon Corner, according to plan, and then I won first-round initiative. After brief internal debate, I passed the turn. I half expected Jason to immediately use the Harpy song to try to keep my Green Dragon from getting first-round tile points. But he didn’t, opting instead to fly the Harpy within range of a victory area for tile points on round two. I used my optimal deployment shown above, and Jason moved his hitters up far enough to allow them to move and attack in round two.
Second round, I won initiative, and there were just too many nice cone possibilities to pass the turn. I breathed with my first Chraal on an Orc Warrior, the Ravager, and the Cursed Spirit. I got lucky and passed the incorporeal roll, and even better, the Spirit failed the save, killing it. My second activation was to breathe with another Chraal on the Harpy, Red Samurai, and another Orc Warrior. The harpy failed the breath weapon save, but passed morale. Jason then returned the favor, breathing on all three of my Chraals, and then thankfully missed on the Ravager’s smite. This would be the first of three matches in which a Ravager swung at a Chraal and missed, wasting a smite.
When my next two breath weapons killed the Troglodyte, the Berserker, and two more Orc Warriors, Jason wasn’t looking too happy. Over the next few rounds my Chraals routed the Ravager and killed the Red Samurai, and began the long process of killing the Lich five HP at a time. By the time Jason was reduced to just his Lich, I had lost a Chraal and the Blackguard had been based by the Lich. But I was in no real danger, as Jason had nothing left to capitalize on it if the Blackguard failed a paralysis save. I don’t remember if I managed to kill the Lich before time expired, or if I won on points, but I remember it ended up being a very one-sided game. Jason played very well (as evidenced by him subsequently making the top 8,) but his band just didn’t match up well against mine. 1-0
I'm not sure where my brain went during this round, but I played extremely poorly and deserved to lose. It was only through a healthy dose of luck, and a couple of mistakes by Chris, that I managed to pull out a win. For some inexplicable reason, I did not follow my planned deployment for round one, instead moving my Chraals out far enough to allow a one-square gap between the walls and my Chraals. I also foolishly left a space large enough for the LRD to land adjacent to my commander.
Round two, Chris breathed on two Chraals with the LRD, and got the expected 50% failure rate on the saves. Both Chraals returned the favor, breathing on the LRD, who failed one save, and catching the Eye in one breath too. I also elected to breathe on the Tiefling with my Green Dragon, and to my delight, the Tiefling failed both saves and routed to a position near the exit. So far, so good.
Round three, my positioning mistakes came back to haunt me. My Blackguard is based by the LRD and moves away, taking a 20-point AOO. I fail to close the hole where the Eye can come through, so through it comes, taking a couple AOOs on the chin before smacking the Blackguard for another 25. I end the round amazed at my own stupidity: there's an Eye with 55hp sitting in base contact with my Blackguard, who has 25hp left. If Chris wins initiative…
But with a routing Tiefling, he doesn't. I consider what to do with my two activations, and I don't see a way out of the mess I'm in. The Eye is immune flanking and therefore I can't get a sneak attack with the Blackguard. Two Chraal hits and two Blackguard hits won't kill the Eye. I can't do enough damage to kill it in two activations, so I have to hope he'll fail morale. I swing with the Chraal that's within Reach 2 of the Eye. The first attack hits, but the Eye makes morale. I'm pretty much finished, I think, but I take the second swing anyway, hoping for a crit. No crit, but it hits, and the Eye is at 25hp. For my second activation, the Blackguard casts Cure Moderate Wounds on himself and moves away, taking another 25 damage AOO. He's at 10hp, but at least in a position where the LRD can't base him. I pass the turn, expecting to lose the game on Chris' next activation. Chris activates the Eye, and walks through another 15hp AOO from a Chraal, to swing on my commander for the knockout. At +15 vs my AC20, he needs a 5 to win the game. He rolls a one. We both stare at the die in disbelief.
Suddenly, my situation looks pretty good. The Eye is at only 5hp, the Tiefling is routing, the Orc Champ is out of command, and the Dragon is based by two Chraals and can't land next to my commander this round. All I need is that Tiefling to rout off or die, and I should win. I rush the OOC Green Dragon next to the Tiefling just in case it rallies, but it doesn't. A lowly Skeleton finishes off the mighty Eye, and then it's a game of keep-away from the OOC LRD. The LRD does bring down one Chraal, and the Champ nearly brings down a second by itself, but in the end both of Chris' remaining hitters go down. By some miracle, it's a win for me. 2-0
Round 3: vs. Kevin Kosztko (Red Kev Dragon)
Eye of Gruumsh, Red Samurai, Orc Champion, Ogre Ravager, Tiefling Captain, Orc Warrior x 6
My opponent from round 3, I have recently been informed, was 15 years old. I believe this would make him tied for 2nd youngest to qualify for nationals. Kevin Cleveland won the California qualifier (also age 15), and Darien Stupack was the youngest at (I think) 11. But, Kevin played very well despite his young age.
I deployed as usual, and my opponent made an aggressive advance with his hitters in round one. Round two, I delayed moving my Chraals until the third or fourth set of activations, hoping that I could bait my opponent into moving his hitters first. He did, and after they had engaged the Chraal that was the center point of my defense, I swung a second Chraal in to base the medium-sized hitters. After a few breath weapons, they could ill afford to take two Chraal AOOs to go after the Blackguard, and the Ravager’s large base could not fit through at all. At some point, the Ravager missed a Chraal on a smite attempt (for the second time in the tournament).
I felt I played very well this match, and I had a huge advantage in board position at midgame. However, the game’s conclusion was hastened along when every single one of my opponent’s heavy hitters failed their morale saves. I think most rallied, but by then they had lost momentum and were very low on HP. It’s hard to win with CE-quad unless you make at least half of your morale saves, and my opponent had no luck in this regard. 3-0
Round 4: vs. Sebastien Poupart (BadCleric)
Eye of Gruumsh, Orc Champion x 2, Ogre Ravager, Tiefling Captain, Orc Warrior x 6
When I saw I was facing an identical band as the previous round, which I had defeated by a large margin, I think I got a little overconfident. I remember thinking to myself, “I wonder if the Canadians got the memo that CE-quad ain’t what it used to be.” Such hubris was justifiably punished shortly thereafter, as Sebastien decimated my band.
Sebastien was more precise in his positioning than his countryman (and luckier as well; whereas my prior opponent failed all his morale saves, Sebastien made all of his). He engaged my center Chraal with all his hitters at once, bringing it to morale in an amazingly short period of time. Foolishly, I rolled the morale check without counting how close to the edge of the board the Chraal was – and I promptly failed, rolling a 3. The Chraal routed off the board, and then to add insult to injury, I realized that the Blackguard was exactly six squares away from where the Chraal had been – and I had not used Tyrannical Morale, which would have changed the result.1
This huge error was compounded when I then activated my creatures in the wrong order, allowing Sebastien to kill a second Chraal before it had activated. I could have easily gotten another two swings in from that Chraal before it died, which would have made a huge difference in the endgame. But, I saw an opportunity to stay in the game. Sebastien had based my Green Dragon with his Eye (50 hp remaining,) his Tiefling (20 hp remaining,) and his Maw (10 hp remaining.) I activated the Dragon and attacked each unit once, forcing three morale saves – and Sebastien made all three.2
It was basically mopping up for Sebastien from that point on. I think I managed to force him to kill my third Chraal before the Blackguard, but that was the best I could do. I want to congratulate Sebastien on a very tightly-played game, my only loss in the tournament. 3-1