A tournament win!

Over the weekend, we had the tournaments for both the DzC and Malifaux leagues. I ran the Dropzone tournament, so not much to report there, other than I thought it went off really well, with the only snag being attendance. The Malifaux tournament was also small, but we played four rounds anyway. That, I think, went really well. I didn't see any bad games or upset players, so that is truly awesome.

Round one was Turf War and Assassinate. I was playing Daniel's Nephalim. His list was Barbaros with a couple upgrades(whirlwind and flay ones) and three Young Nephalim. I was back to my Taelor and Nothing list, and ran that all day. This game was a blood bath. Being a mass melee in the middle, we basically just tore each other apart. We both managed to get assassinate early, myself on two, him on three, or maybe even late two, and a point for Turf War. Started the day with a draw, not terrible, I will take it.

Round two was versus Joe. She had changed her list a little, taking Snowstorm(Cerebus), Ice Golem, Silent One, and an Ice Gamin. I don't think this list is as good, but I do think that was intentional. From what little participation I had in the league, she seemed to be taking a lot of flak for some mistakes and for doing very well. We had Squatter's Rights and Plant Evidence. In this one, I used Scout the Field to move Taelor to board center, she used Snowstorm to move himself and the Ice Golem up, likely to set up an attack on the Nothing Beast with the Golem. The Nothing Beast promptly ran forward and ate the Golem. Taelor was also in range of Snowstorm and she began to wail on him, and he went down early as well, His Silent one stayed perched on a building, while his Gamin came forward on my left to drop markers. I had a Void Wretch over there, who made himself a minor nuisance, then died. My other Wretch was unmolested on the right, and got both of my Evidence markers before starting to head across. With two Squatter's markers going, and her unlikely to reach them, Taelor went after the Gamin, and the Beast lined up to get the already dropped marker or head after the Silent One. We barely got two activations at time on turn four, but I was able to delete her marker on four, and she couldn't get in to drop another one. Originally we called it a 5-0, but Jules said something about time counting as turn end, which made it 6-0 for me. I had this one early, with the Golem going down easy, and then Taelor's follow up. Joe was in fine spirits, as I think she kinda hoped to not do well, if only to stop the harassment. I can understand that perfectly well.

Round three was versus Russ. Russ was the only player switching crews up between rounds, and he was doing it cross factions. We were playing Reckoning and Protect Territory. He ran Ototo, Izamu, a Wastrel, and Chiaki. Everything in his crew can heal. If given the chance. This was a game of hard decisions. He didn't make anything an easy choice, and I had to work for everything. Turn one I moved up, did some damage, had Taelor place a marker, and basically set up for turn two. I managed to bury Izamu, before he had activated, and probably should have gone for a void kill on him, but it would have been hard and unlikely. Instead, I charged Taelor at the Wastrel, and bashed him hard on the first attack. This meant the second attack would kill him if it hit, and Izamu would return, next to Taelor. After more than a bit of thought, I decided the point out weighed the risk, and dropped the Wastrel, returning Izamu to the table. Luckily I was able to fend of Izamu. On turn three, He attacked the Beast with Ototo, but didn't finish, thanks to Void Shield. Taelor then dropped Oathkeeper for Fast and ended up one shotting Izamu. Unfortunately, Izamu is able to make an attack back, then Sacrifice himself, denying Reckoning. Which meant I needed another model. Taelor was in charge range of Ototo, and thanks to Oathkeeper had the extra action to make it happen. And she did. Two swings later and it was just Chiaki versus the remainder of my crew. At the beginning on three, the Beast charged in and killed Chiaki. The rest was moving back into position for Protect Territory and collecting points. A lopsided win for a very tight game. Probably the hardest I fought all day, and I felt better afterwards, as opposed to our last match up.

Having ran through everyone and moving into round four, it was rematch time. At this point, I was ahead 13 points and running with 2 wins and a draw. Russel had two wins and a loss, Daniel a win, a loss, and a draw, Joe was on three losses. I think this event was ran on differential, but I'm not completely sure, As it was, I was also up 13 points above the next guy. I stepped out to make a call, and when I came back, found out it was me versus Daniel, for an Assassinate/Turf War rematch. I also knew that as long as I didn't get a 0-7 loss, I would hold first. And as this game began to progress, that knowledge became less comforting. We set up, I moved Taelor up and we began. Very quickly I got a run on Barbaros with Taelor, but forgot to drop Oathkeeper, and so he lived. Daniel was then able to push Taelor back towards his board edge, leaving her wide open for the rest of his crew. Due to some poor cards, weak prevents, and my screw up, Taelor went down, netting him Assassinate. And he just refused to lose momentum. We both got Turf on two, but it became quickly obvious that I wasn't going to be around long. Now, with my one point, I was in a position to let it go, and win the whole thing by a point, but by George I wanted to make a show of it. Well, want in one hand and... At this point I just piled everything into Barbaros, hoping to get Assassinate, as it was basically my only remaining hope. Did I mention Barbaros has high Wp? And the Beast attack Wp? Yeah, that's a thing. It was very uphill. I was also starting to wear and so I'm sure wasn't on top of my game. I should have slow played. Sorry, inside joke. Anyway, I did finally manage to take down Barbaros, but I succumbed right after. In the end, I lost 7-4, so finished with 2 wins, a loss, and a draw, which meant I tied Daniel for tournament points, and smoked him on differential. I also would have likely one on total Vps as well.

Afterwards, the totaled points and gave out awards for the tournament and the league. I took first in the tournament, scoring a Miss Ery. Daniel took second. In the league, Joe took first, but I managed to pull out second with far less games. Russ took home the Holy Grail Black Knight, since he was thrashed through most of it. I also managed to pull second in the Drop Zone league. So, a very strong showing for myself, especially since I tend to falter in tournaments. I was very happy, and enjoyed both events. Hopefully we can get more people for the next one, which I think will be in Greeley, at the Nerd Store, to which I have never been.

Definitely looking forward to seeing more people there. Also, I should have a bit of hobby progress up later this week. *gasp* Yeah, I know, right.