Utah Game Day pics and battle report

[Agent Minivann]

First off the game day was attended by Agent Minivann of course, Junior Agent Minivann, one of my neighbors and his son, one of my friends, for the Utah County guys, and then UtahScott, Nickmodaily, and Ortimus for the Salt Lake guys.

We started off on three of the official maps.


Nickmodaily (left) and Ortimus (right) went head to head on Searing Pass (I might be botching the name here).


I saw this on the Searing Pass map during my free for all (FFA) and had to take a pic. Nickmodaily's -trons lived up to their potential against Brunak.


My neighbor and his son went FFA with UtahScott (right) on Wellsprings of Obsession. I think we have some new recruits here. My neighbor's son won the game IIRC.


Junior Agent Minivann, my friend, we'll call him Fat Tony, or I called him Jojo in my battle report notes (it's an inside joke, and he's on the right), and I went FFA on the Forgotten Forest map. Fat Tony won that one.


My wife snapped this pic while we were mid-scaping. I wonder if my wife put me in the center of the frame on purpose, or was it just that I was sitting there?

My neighbor had to leave after that first game, so it was just the 6 of us on the big map. It is a little less than 3 Master Sets, 3 castles, and I don't know how many RttFF's. It started as a modified GaryLASQ three hex MOP (with a castle added) plus one of his Tundra mops and grass only mops, but then Ortimus and Nickmodaily started working on adding the rest of the stuff. Here's some shots of the big map:











I've only got 11 of 31 pics uploaded so far (I hate dial-up), and the rest of the pics go along with the battle:

We went with 2 castle defenders with 500 points each, and 4 attackers with 250 points for two and 300 points for the other two. We kind of modified the play goes to the left with play going to the left on one side and then opposite on the other side. Junior AM, then me, then Nickmodaily went to the left, and then UtahScott, Ortimus, and Fat Tony went to the right. Nickmodaily and Fat Tony defended the castle. The Minivann family got the 300 point attacker's armies. We did "premade" armies with one unique per table.

The Armies:
Nickmodaily's army:
Warriors of Ashra
Taelord
Aubrien Archers
4th Mass x 2

Fat Tony's army:
Roman Archers
Johnny Shotgun Sullivan
Minions of Utgar x 2
Agent Carr
Syvarris

Ortimus' army:
Guilty
Minions x 2

UtahScott's army:
Drake Alexander
Krav Maga Agents
Dumutef Guard


Junior Agent Minivann's army:
DW8K
Saylind
Deadeye Dan
Dumutef Guard

Agent Minivann's army:
Krug
Q9

I think I got them right. I accidentally deleted some of the important notes. I'll start into the battle report proper as I get the pics uploaded. I need to get some sleep now.

EDIT: corrected a map name and clarified FFA

[feekonea]

looks like everyone had fun, Im excited to find out how that castle battele report turned out

[LilNewbie]

Great pics and recap! Thanks for posting them.

Newb.

[krai]

i'm sorry i couldnt come my parents were working

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

.....the big map. It is a little less than 3 Master Sets, 3 castles, and I don't know how many RttFF's. It started as a modified GaryLASQ three hex MOP (with a castle added) plus one of his Tundra mops and grass only mops, but then Ortimus and Nickmodaily started working on adding the rest of the stuff.

hey, at least the Tundra section looks familiar . another good use for MOPs - a place to start before making alterations.

thanks for providing all the pics and info Agent Minivann.

i see the Tundra mop is stacked on top of one of the Grass-Only mops. the idea behind the edge-rules for mops is that they link horizontally, but what the heck - link 'em vertically if it works

actually, when i started thinking about mops using castle sets the thought of designing them for vertical stacking had crossed my mind...

[Agent Minivann]

I made the three hex mop that is a complete mop when combined with the two grass ones. I modified it a bit so the castle would have a bit more real estate to sit on, but then everything got modified. I'm not sure how much of the original three hex mop is under there, but the castle is sitting on top of it. You'd probably have to ask Ortimus and Nickmodaily about the map, but it was a fun one to play. I'll get to the battle report once I get all the pics uploaded.

Also note Ortimus' 1 castle set that has a wash. I'm definitely doing this. Seeing wahed and unwashed on the same castle is quite a striking difference. Also Ortimus did a mod on one of the Dumutef Guards. He's got more modded guards as well, but I didn't get great/any pics of them.

[nickmodaily]

That looks great, Minivan. Thanks for posting the pics. Now I can show my wife who everyone is when I'm telling her about what a great time I had.

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

Agent! Whatta event! Whatta set up!
Love the winding staircase in this shot. Great implementation of the battlements too. And that Castle set up - wow!




That's a tough spot for Brunak, but his Bloodthirsty SA can get past that Gladiatron Melee Defense. Was Raelin on Brunak's side? Sounds as if the soulborgs took the mount down? Great potential carnage asada either way!!!

What's FFA?

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

I saw this on the Searing Pass map during my FFA and had to take a pic. Nickmodaily's -trons lived up to their potential against Brunak.

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

Also note Ortimus' 1 castle set that has a wash. I'm definitely doing this. Seeing wahed and unwashed on the same castle is quite a striking difference.

yes, i noticed this. i can see how a wash on fortress walls would blend better with wallwalk/road tiles and stone walls from the road/forest set.

[UtahScott]

@ krai --

Maybe next time! I think we're planning the end of October, in Salt Lake?

@ Hex --

FFA: free for all (?)

@ GaryLASQ --

When the Salt Lake crew got there, Minivann had the 3-HEX castle MOP set up, and a grass and tundra MOP. Since we all wanted to do some kind of castle assault, the castle became the focus of the big map. No one really knew what we wanted for the big map, so Ortimus decided to "just go crazy," and throw on a bunch of extra stuff, MOPs be damned! He added a second castle set to the first, and built a whole bunch of terrain facing the castle. I walked over when the basic footprint was done, and there was *just* enough room on the right to slide the tundra MOP in, so I did; it seemed a shame to waste it , and orienting it sideways provided two rows of glacier cover. It didn't follow the all-MOP idea, but at this point we no longer cared. Next time, though...!

Here's a description of the rest. The attackers' starting line was right in front of the two roads. The road on the right winds up a small mesa, and a ladder in the rear provides access to the tundra area, or the bridge approach to the left. The road on the left splits in two; a lower path winds left, up to the front gate. The main road climbs to bridge the tundra, then goes under a castle walkway and counterclockwise to the castle rear, where only one ladder (!) offers access to the interior. At the far left, the defenders had a forward guard tower, and there was enough terrain to circle clockwise around the castle (which no one did). There were half a dozen glyphs scattered in the center of the map, and one more outside the castle rear, next to that ladder.

The attackers' 1100-point plan? Krug and Q9 would bash/shoot down the door; Saylind would fly to the top and summon in DW 8000 and a Dumutef to wreak inner castle havoc; the half-dozen Minions and Drake would swarm the castle, and the other Dumutefs, Guilty and the Krav Maga would work on clearing ground in front.

It didn't work out that way, oh no. As the attackers barely began to move, Nickmo moved his Aubrien archers out the front door, then frenzied. Twice. What did this mean? The forward guard tower was now packed with pointy elven death....


But I'm getting ahead of myself. We brought along a gift bag for Minivann that I'll let him tell you about, then we split up for 3 pre-made maps. I'll cover the Wellspring of Obsession. I built that for Fat Tony, as he had only played once before, and I'd throw in whoever else wanted to play. But by the time it was finished, so was the big map, and the others had settled down on Searing Pass and Wolf Swamp Road. Since Scott and his son just showed up, I decided to explain the game to them. With 300-point MasterSet armies, here are the forces:

Scott the Dad:
Syvarris
Grimnak
Finn

His son:
Mimring
Marro Warriors
Agent Carr

Me:
DW9000
Zettian Guards
Tarn Vikings

There were half-a-dozen glyphs scattered around. No order markers, but we rolled for initiative. Because of seating, Dad was in the middle, his son was on the rocky heights, and I was on the far end.

Son moved Mimring and half the Marros in, half-wounding Syv and Finn.
Dad took Grimnak into the pond to battle Mimring, with Syvarris as back-up from the shore. I moved in the Guards and 9000.

Dad lost Syvarris, Grimmy was being a dragon-lunch, and I (almost) took out Mimring to even things up (Dad finished him off). Finn then moved my way, zapping one Guards and 9000 (owch). Son now moved up his 3 Marros, (getting 3 glyphs) and Agent Carr. Dad now only had Finn, in the sandy center of the map.
His son decided to team up with him to take me out. I still had all my vikings. Son flanks me with a Marro, and moves the other two and Carr into the center of the map, next to Dad, who he turns on (!) and wipes off the face of Valhalla!
Dad: I thought we were a team?
Son: You only had one guy left. I changed my mind.

Son then took out half my Vikings with a Range +4 glyph. Carr was in the center of the map. I went for him, but couldn't finish him off. Son wins.

I was happy to introduce them to Heroscape, and both were rather excited about it. They actually stayed longer than they should have to finish the Free-for-all.

So...how did the other two official maps go?

[UtahScott]

PS.

I wanted to get a group photo of everybody together, but forgot.
Let's do that next time!

And nobody had an opinion on my group names? URGH, etc? *sniff*

[CornPuff]

Dad: I thought we were a team?
Son: You only had one guy left. I changed my mind.

Priceless!

I love the MOP inspired castle, and the pic of Brunak getting blastinated!

looks like good fun was had by all