Bill Baldwin and I face off in the quarterfinals. (click to enlarge)
The Finals
Round 8 (Quarterfinals): vs. Bill Baldwin (Trollbill)
Orog Warlord, Chraal x 2, Efreet, Mountain Orc, Blue, Orc Warrior, Goblin Skirmisher x 2, Warrior Skeleton x 2
Bill wrote an article for WotC about his GenCon experience, and it's a great read. The third part of his article deals with our game, but I highly recommend all three parts:
Bill remarked during our game that playing Chraal vs Chraal is "chesslike," and Dwayne made a similar comment on the boards. I like playing chess, but for some reason these Chraal mirror matches leave me a bit cold (rimshot). You could say that they move at a glacial pace (thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal.) Seriously, I don't want to give the impression that I didn't have a good time playing my mirror matches, because I did. They just seem somehow un-DDM, with not enough drama and tension. And, they seem to rarely go more than four rounds, which can be unsatisfying. I think the coming rules change, specifying a maximum of eight minis, will help mitigate that somewhat.
But, I'm getting off topic! In this matchup, Bill was very conservative with his Efreet. He was concerned about giving up the 42 points if he lost it, I think. I don't think I damaged the Efreet at all the entire match, unless maybe it took 5 from the Green Dragon's breath. He used it to ping my Chraals with the fire spells, but kept it well back from where my Chraals could get at it. This was a decent strategy, given the fact that we both knew this game would be decided by points. However it meant that my Chraals were free to breathe on all his fodder, since there was unlikely to be a good chance at the Efreet. With so little of his fodder being immune to cold, I got a lot of points from doing that.
Bill used a Chraal to rout the dragon off of a victory location in round two, but it was just a few squares short of being off the board. Worse for Bill, it ended its rout under command. As time was running out, I rallied the Green Dragon (again needing only a 5), and Bill made a comment similar to, "That's probably game." But I was in a panic because I thought the Efreet had not yet activated. I was counting on a 30-damage scorching ray killing one of my Chraals, and was frantically trying to harvest points to make up for it. Bill seemed confused as to why I was obsessing over killing Skeletons, and after time was called he pointed out that the Efreet had already activated. So my Chraal was safe, and I had a very comfortable points lead at the end. I think Bill played pretty much a mistake-free game, but the matchup did not favor his band. 7-1
Round 9 (Semifinals): vs. Robert Hatch (Dagni)
Orog Warlord, Chraal x 3, Orc Raider, Orc Warrior, Warrior Skeleton x 8
Well I don't know about Robert, but when I sat down for this game, I got a "it's just like shooting womp rats in Beggar’s Canyon back home" type of feeling. He and I had practiced this exact matchup only once, but had played similar games without the Green Dragon tens of times over the past few weeks. This time was familiar, yet different, because now we were playing for much higher stakes.
Robert knew intimately, the moment he sat down, what a big advantage it was to set up in Cocoon Corner, and how critical it would be to deny my Green Dragon first-round tile points. When I won tile initiative, he commented, "Well, that's a huge part of the game right there!" and I agreed.
Throughout round one, Robert methodically prevented me from moving my dragon where it wanted to go, by first blocking potential landing squares with skeletons, and later with Chraals. The only times I could have moved to either victory area were early in the round, when it would have been near-suicidal to do so, because of all the attacks the Green Dragon would suffer before the end of the round. So, I don't risk it. The dragon does not get tile points first round, but sets up where he can park himself in a victory location for round two.
Robert has left me some bait near the blood rock for round two. I can move the Green Dragon and breathe on three Skeletons and a Chraal. But, then the counter-attack from the Chraal and the Orog will hurt a lot. I decline to risk a 28-point dragon for 9 points of skeletons. (continued)
Intermission
Saturday night, after the Swiss rounds were over, I went out to dinner with Sven, Robert, and Kevin. It was great to relax and unwind some. Everybody comes to GenCon for the great gaming, and there sure is plenty of that. But in some ways, just having a meal or a few drinks with friends is the best part of the con. As we sat around the table, we re-fought the battles of the day, describing tense moments in our games, and risks we took that paid off (or didn’t). We commiserated with Kevin over his ninth-place finish, mulled over our matchups for the next day, and wished each other luck before calling it a night.I phoned my wife to tell her I was in the finals again, the only person from last year to make a repeat appearance. She congratulated me and asked what I thought my chances were to win it all. I replied, “Pretty small, really. Everybody who’s left is really good. It’ll take perfect play and a lot of luck.” Honestly, I just wanted to win one game. I wanted to be able to say I had improved upon my performance from last year, where I made the finals but was eliminated in the first game. I never expected things to go the way they did.
I awoke Sunday morning rested and refreshed. Breaking up the championship into two days was pretty much the best idea ever. Last year, my brain was totally fried by the time the finals started, after about 10-12 hours of play. This year, I had some unwind time, a full night’s rest, and the opportunity to think over the bands I’ll be facing and what strategy to use against each one. I feel like I’m going into the single-elimination rounds at the top of my game.1
Robert and I set up for the semifinals pretty much the same way we always do on the dining room table at my house. (click to enlarge)
Note how my first-round moves differ from the "ideal" setup (shown on page two). I wanted to have more sightlines for command on the bottom of the board. (click to enlarge)