Format: DCI Sanctioned 200 point Constructed Assault.
Number of players: 8
Factions: 3x LG; 1x CG; 3x LE; 1x CE

Eight players showed up for a DCI sanctioned 200 point constructed tournament on at Game Kastle in Santa Clara, California on Thursday, March 16th, 2006.

Final Standings

1. Glyn Dewey (3-0; aka elder_basilisk)
   Half-Orc Paladin; Village Priest; Ulmo Lightbringer; Sacred Watcher, 3x Arcanix Guard; Warforged Scout; Dragon Temple.
   Opponents: Bye, Ray (win), Guy (win).
2. Guy Fullerton (2-1)
   Rakshasa; 3x Helmed Horror; Dark Moon Monk; 3x Goblin Skirmisher; Drow Outpost.
   Opponents: Jeff (win), Michael (win), Glyn (lose).
3. Michael Derry (2-1; aka derry)
   Cleric of Yondalla; Couatl; Marut; Justice Archon; Warforged Bodyguard; 2x Man-at-Arms; Magma Keep.
   Opponents: Dave (win), Guy (lose), Ray (win).
4. Jeff Wilder (2-1; aka Wayne)
   Tiefling Captain; 2x Orc Champion; Grimlock Barbarian; 2x Mounted Drow Patrol; Orc Wardrummer; Broken Demongate.
   Opponents: Guy (lose), Jim (win), Eric (win).
5. Ray Snyder (1-2; aka NinjaRay)
   Shuluth, Archvillain; 2x Khumat; Dark Moon Monk; Large Duergar; Kobold Miner; 2x Warrior Skeleton; Broken Demongate.
   Opponents: Eric (win), Glyn (lose), Michael (lose).
6. Eric Cleaver (1-2; aka doranur)
   Shuluth, Archvillain; 4x Duergar Champion; 3x Kobold Miner; Fane of Lolth.
   Opponents: Ray (lose), Dave (win), Jeff (lose).
7. Dave True (1-2; aka Darksuit)
   Alusair Obarskyr; Couatl; Githzerai Monk; 3x Gold Dwarf Soldier; Aramil, Adventurer; Standardbearer; Broken Demongate.
   Opponents: Michael (lose), Eric (lose), Jim (win).
8. Jim Metzendorf (0-2; aka jimm94)
   Nentyar Hunter; Aspect of Kord; Longstrider Ranger; Rikka, Angelic Avenger; Elf Warrior; what else? there were 8 activations; map?
   Opponents: Didn't play 1st round, Jeff (lose), Dave (lose).

Additional Info
Glyn's Tournament Report on Maxminis

My Warband
Rakshasa (Cmd 4)
3x Helmed Horror
Dark Moon Monk
3x Goblin Skirmisher
Drow Outpost

IMO, if you are going to run a Helmed Horror warband -- that is, one which relies on Helmed Horrors for the bulk of your offense -- you need to run three plus a source of magic weapon and a solid commander that minimizes your chance of getting nerfed by the Dragon Shrine map.

Because the Helmed Horrors don't really have any tricks up their sleeves, I wanted to include some kind of tech that keeps my opponent guessing about how the engagement would play out. That pretty much ruled out using a cheap melee commander like Urthok. The three options I considered were the Rakshasa, the Dark Naga, and the Mind Flayer.

I chose the Rakshasa for a variety of reasons:
- The Rakshasa is pretty resilient. Opponents generally have to use a heavy hitter to eliminate it.
- The Rakshasa's commander rating is the highest of the trio. (Tied with the Mind Flayer.) This gives me better odds of winning initiatives and avoiding the Dragon Shrine map.
- Triple Helmed Horror warbands are essentially point-denial warbands, and the Rakshasa's slide spells are awesome defensively.
- I planned to run the Drow Outpost map in order to better handle Marut matchups and Whirlwind Attack matchups. Slide is necessary for a Helmed Horror to reach the shared victory area in the first round on the Drow Outpost map. (I couldn't count on the Dark Moon Monk for first round victory area points, since any given matchup could require the use of magic weapon spells early and often.) Slide also gives me the potential for sliding enemies into a pit square, which is essentially a DC 15 save or die effect that only Spell Resistance offers any additional protection against.
- The Rakshasa's commander effect is fantastic in many matchups. Against Couatl + Marut builds, the Marut can only deal 20 damage per hit to a Helmed Horror who benefits from a stolen Couatl commander effect.

But most of that is probably obvious to everyone.

What isn't obvious is my inclusion of Goblin Skirmishers instead of Kobold Miners. I simply don't like Kobold Miners ... at least not for Assault, and certainly not when I only have 8 activations to start the match. It's too easy for an opponent to eliminate one or two Kobold Miners in the first round. That means my warband could be at a significant activation disadvantage in the engagement round. Helmed Horrors already have a very low damage/cost ratio, and giving up activation control in the engagement round is a really bad idea when you're already suffering from low damage output. In addition, our local play group runs a lot of LE warbands with Kobold Miners, and my Goblin Skirmishers were a bit of counter-Kobold Miner tech.

Don't get me wrong, though. Kobold Miners have their place, and Bounty is a fantastic reason to run them. They just weren't right for this tournament.

I've criticized the effectiveness of Helmed Horror warbands on the message boards, so a few folks were curious about why I ran this warband. The reason is that I've never run or played against a 3x or 4x Helmed Horror warband; I wanted to see what such a warband really offered, particularly now that the War Drums environment reduces their effectiveness. What better way to see how well they do than to run them?

Match 1
Opponent: Jeff (aka Wayne) ran a 7 activation CE 5 hitter (or quasi-hitter) warband, with a Tiefling Captain and Orc Wardrummer.

Jeff won map init and chose his Broken Demongate. Then he won setup init and chose side B (the side with the rooms). His two Orc Champs and the Grimlock Barbarian were in the middle-most starting area. The rest of his troops went to the corner starting area. All of my troops went into the corner start area for side A.

Our early round movement brought us into conflict just on my side of the center choke point. He was careful with his Tiefling and I was careful with my Rakshasa. My Dark Moon Monk used a magic weapon spell on one of the Helmed Horrors because she didn't have anything better to do, and this would actually make a difference on one attack. When combat ensued, luck was clearly on my side. One of my Helmed Horrors critted an Orc Champ, which forced it to make a morale save at +15. Jeff rolled a 4. The Orc Champ routed and was killed by another HH crit on an AoO. In the next round or two, I got two more crits, including one that finished off his wounded Grimlock Barbarian. (Helmed Horrors scored 4 crits on 10 attack rolls; these were all natural 20s, since my Rakshasa didn't have line of sight to his Tiefling. I was using Jeff's die.) At that point, he'd lost both Orc Champs and the Grimlock, so he conceded. I hadn't lost any creatures at all; I extracted one Helmed Horror from danger with a timely slide spell. Neither of us scored any victory area points. This match ended in about 30 minutes, so there isn't much else to talk about.

Record: 1-0, thanks to huge amounts of luck.

Match 2
Opponent: Michael (aka derry) ran the Marut + Couatl + Warforged Bodyguard warband that uses a Justice Archon as a secondary hitter and a Cleric of Yondalla. The Cleric of Yondalla helps with initiative, morale (for the Couatl), and keeping the two Bold creatures under command.

Michael played a slightly different version of that warband at our last key tournament, and ended up with a 5-0 record. I figured he might play it again, and I also assumed at least one other player would attempt to replicate his success with that warband, so I counted on facing that matchup at least once. As a result, I did a lot of thinking about how best to approach it. I knew what my point liabilities were, and I knew what I'd need to kill in order to outscore that warband. I knew how many hits I needed to score against the Marut to eliminate it with Bodyguard protection and/or Couatl healing. I knew when Helmed Horror swings on the Bodyguard would give a higher yield, even though each hit did 50% less damage. I knew how a stolen Couatl commander effect would help my warband immensely. I knew which side of my map was better for my warband in this engagement, and I knew about a big problem in my first round's deployment on the bad side of my map. I was ready.

Michael won map init and chose my Drow Outpost. I don't think he had analyzed this matchup on the Drow Outpost as much as I had, so I felt this was a big advantage for me. Michael also won setup init and chose side B, the side with the hut. There was a risky deployment strategy he could have used to give him the chance to get an early victory point area scoring lead, but he didn't take that risk. I don't know whether he knew what that option was. In any case, it probably would have been too-risky of a choice for him even if he had used it. I set up with a Helmed Horror in position to be given a magic weapon spell, slid one square via the Rakshasa, and then double moved onto the central scoring area.

During the first round, Michael decided not to extend his Couatl all the way onto the central scoring area; it was his only way to get first round victory area points, but it was also slightly risky because it could have allowed me to base his Couatl and get up to 40 damage on his Bodyguard at the start of the second round. (He didn't vocalize this as an option during play, but it was an option that I was aware of and had prepared myself to take advantage of.) At the end of the first round, I was on the central scoring area and he was not, giving me a 10 point lead. This was fantastic, because it would help offset the easy points he could acquire by destroying my Goblin Skirmishers.

Michael won initiative in the second round and forced me to go first. We were both pretty passive. My Dark Moon Monk cast another magic weapon spell on a Helmed Horror. My Rakshasa moved to have line of sight to his Couatl so my Helmed Horrors would benefit from energy resistance. Michael moved a Man-at-Arms and Justice Archon onto the central scoring area. A couple Goblin Skirmishers moved up to make ranged attacks on Man-at-Arms; they all missed, but they were in defensive spots that limited where his Justice Archon could land next round. One Helmed Horror moved up a bit, and the other two made ranged attacks at Man-at-Arms. Both of those attacks hit, putting 5 damage on the Bodyguard and eliminating the other Man-at-Arms. (This put me up by 13 points and 2 activations.) I moved my Goblin Skirmishers. Neither of us engaged any heavy hitters. We both got victory area points.

I won initiative in the key third round. We both dallied a bit. He moved fodder, I cast a third magic weapon, and so on. Michael eventually had to activate heavy hitters. He moved the Marut up and swung on a Helmed Horror, hitting it for just 20 damage, thanks to the Rakshasa stealing the Couatl's commander effect. He left his Bodyguard one square away from the Marut; I think he was leaving himself some defensive options in case I sent Helmed Horrors over to his Couatl or Cleric of Yondalla. I believe he moved his Justice Archon next to my Rakshasa and missed with an attack. I took the opportunity to fly my Helmed Horror into a flanking position behind the Marut, now that the space was open, and hit with an +21 attack (thanks to the stolen Cleric of Yondalla commander effect). The Helmed Horror that had been hit by the Marut took two swings (at +21 and +16) and hit on both of them. The Marut had now taken 30 damage. Michael moved his Cleric of Yondalla around a corner so I couldn't steal its commander effect any more. I moved the Rakshasa, provoked an AoO from the Justice Archon (miss), and cast slide on the third Helmed Horror to base the Marut. Then that Helmed Horror attacked twice, dealing another 20 damage to the Marut. We both got victory area points. With three Helmed Horrors basing his Marut and no adjacent Bodyguard, the next round's initiative could be critical.

I won initiative in round three. I got to activate two Helmed Horrors first. If I could hit with three of four attacks, I would destroy the Marut, take a big points lead, and eliminate the majority of his offense. I missed with my first attack at +19, but I hit on the next three at +14, +19, and +14, which destroyed the Marut. Obviously, I got some pretty good luck on my attack rolls, hitting with 4 of 5 primary attacks (expected) and 4 of 4 secondary attacks (not expected). Michael responded by aggressively attacking my Rakshasa with his Couatl and Justice Archon, but he missed with all of his attacks. Then, my Rakshasa moved away, provoked two AoOs (both of which hit, dealing 15 damage and forcing a successful Poison save), cast slide on a Helmed Horror to put it adjacent to the Couatl. That Helmed Horror activated, hit the Couatl once, then critted on the second attack. This dropped the Couatl to 30 hp, forcing a morale save, which failed. The Couatl routed just a few squares from the exit. I sent my Dark Moon Monk to harass his Cleric of Yondalla, and Michael moved his Bodyguard to flank the Dark Moon Monk. Thanks to one of his Man-at-Arms, we both got victory area points.

I won initiative in round four and decided to go first, but Michael conceded at that point; he knew I was going to base his Couatl with two Helmed Horrors, which would lead to a dead Couatl within a few rounds, and that would be a point deficit he could not recover from, given that my Helmed Horrors were barely wounded.

Hitting 8 of those 9 Helmed Horror attacks against the Marut is unlikely, but not that unlikely. Hitting 8 of 9 with those specific bonuses (2 @ +21, 3 @ +19, 1 @ +16, and 3 @ +14) will happen just over 13.5% of the time. If I were Michael, I would have put the Bodyguard adjacent to the Marut, just to be safe. That's what I was counting on him doing, and that's why I moved one of my Helmed Horrors into the specific flanking position that I used; the Marut was boxed in, couldn't move, and would be destroyed in a round or two anyway. During that time, I probably wouldn't lose a Helmed Horror, and I'd still have a good points lead even if he managed to kill the soft part of my warband. I'd have the points lead and three creatures with ranged attacks sitting on a victory area. Good times.

Record: 2-0, thanks to 10 hits on 11 Helmed Horror attacks.

Match 3
Opponent: Glyn (aka elder_basilisk) ran an Ulmo Lightbringer warband with the Half-Orc Paladin and Village Priest as commanders, plus 50+ points of fodder.

...or at least that's what I thought of it originally. I saw Ulmo and decided to gang up on him the same way I ganged up on the Marut. I didn't even worry about what the rest of Glyn's warband was capable of. That was a bad idea.

Glyn won map init, choosing the Dragon Shrine. Thankfully, I won setup init and chose start area A, the side with the Fire Blessing. At least Glyn wouldn't start the game with resistance to my Helmed Horrors' fire damage. I set up with my Dark Moon Monk in position to reach the victory area on the far side of the statue of Tiamat. Glyn saw me count that out, so he set up his Warforged Scout in the only square of the victory area that the Dark Moon Monk could reach by herself.

Glyn won initiative in the first round. Most of our deployment was uninteresting, until I got to the point where the Dark Moon Monk was going to try to reach the victory area. (Glyn still had the Waforged Scout and Ulmo left to activate.) The Rakshasa had slid the Dark Moon Monk one square, so she could now reach an unblocked square of the victory area despite the Warforged Scout occupying the easy spot. To get there, however, the Dark Moon Monk would need to provoke an AoO from the Scout, and would end up adjacent to the Scout. The Scout would then be able to activate and attack the Dark Moon Monk twice, and then Ulmo would be able to activate, move 8 squares, and make a ranged attack against the Dark Moon Monk. If three out of those four attacks hit the Monk, she'd have to make a morale save. I figured Ulmo's shot would be a sure thing, and with the Dark Moon Monk's AC 16, two out of the Scout's three attacks could easily hit. I decided not to take the risk. Instead, the Dark Moon Monk moved to a position where she could make an AoO on the Scout if the Scout decided to run toward its own victory area.

In hindsight, that was a very stupid decision. I had forgotten that the Dark Moon Monk has both Mobility and Deflect Arrows. She'd have AC 20 versus one of the Scout's attacks, and AC 28 versus Ulmo's +20 (thanks to bless) ranged attack. The odds of the Dark Moon Monk being hit with three of four attacks was pretty low. On top of that, even if she had been hit with enough attacks, she would have probably made her morale save. And even if she had failed her morale save, she still wouldn't have routed off the board. And besides, her spells weren't really necessary for this matchup, so I could afford to lose her. So I definitely should have gone for the victory area. If Glyn did want to rout her, he'd probably have to leave the Scout on my victory area and put Ulmo somewhere other than a victory area, which would have given me a 10 victory point advantage. Odds are good that if the Warforged Scout didn't get all three hits on the Dark Moon Monk, Ulmo wouldn't have taken the shot; Ulmo would have gone for the victory area instead.

So, anyway, Glyn's last two activations were to run his Scout back toward the rest of his troops, and move Ulmo onto the shared victory area (the sacred circle). Glyn got victoy area points and I did not.

I won initiative in round 2. I counted the distance from my trio of Helmed Horrors down to Ulmo. I could just barely reach Ulmo with two of them. I'd be sitting on the sacred circle too; the attack bonus would certainly help hit Ulmo's AC, so I decided to set up for a round three kill. Both Helmed Horrors based Ulmo. Glyn moved some fodder. Then the Rakshasa slid my third Helmed Horror one square, which put him exactly 12 squares from Ulmo, too. So it flew down and based Ulmo. Glyn slowly moved his entire warband toward and/or around the Helmed Horrors. One of my Goblins moved onto the victory area by Tiamat for insurance. The Dark Moon Monk moved to a position where she could help block access to the Fire Blessing area. Two other Goblins did the same. The Rakshasa held back a bit, because two Arcanix Guards were moving towards it; I was leery of giving him too good of an opportunity to use Smite the Resistant. At the end of the round, we both got victory area points.

I won initiative in round 3. This could be good. I was in position to make four Helmed Horror attacks on Ulmo for the full 15 damage. The two attackers were on the sacred circle, so that's two +18 swings and two +13 swings. I only hit once. Ulmo -- who was now within range of the Half-Orc Paladin's commander effect -- decided to start chipping away at a Helmed Horror. Unfortunately, Glyn rolled a 1 on the first attack, a 1 on the second attack, and a 1 on the third attack. I'm not kidding. Three 1s in a row. Crazy. Then Glyn moved an Arcanix Guard up into flanking position and hit a Helmed Horror for 15 damage (thanks to the Half-Orc Paladin's commander effect). I was kind of flabbergasted ... not about the attack hitting, but at the phenomenal attack bonus the Arcanix Guard had: +17! What? I made Glyn double check the bonus: +8 base, +4 from the Village Priest's commander effect, +1 from bless, +2 from the sacred circle, and +2 from flanking. Yikes! And he had two more attacks coming just like that, plus a Sacred Watcher attack that was almost as good, as well as a Half-Orc Paladin smite. I was no longer very happy with how I'd set things up. I'd have to kill Ulmo fast if the Helmed Horrors were going to survive the fodder onslaught. So I activated my last Helmed Horror (who was not on the sacred circle) and attacked Ulmo twice. I don't remember whether the attacks hit. We both got victory area points that round too.

To be honest, the nitty-gritty details of the rest of the match aren't that interesting. Glyn contined to play well, capitalizing on my poor position. He eventually got his Warforged Scout onto the Fire Blessing area, so my Helmed Horrors were only hitting for 10 damage. I sent my Rakshasa down to steal the Half-Orc Paladin's commander effect, but my Helmed Horrors couldn't hit Ulmo consistently enough to finish him off. The Village Priest and the Half-Orc Paladin were healing Ulmo, of course. Meanwhile, Ulmo kept hitting for 10 each attack, and just about every Arcanix Guard attack hit for 15. Soon, one Helmed Horror was destroyed. Then another. Then the Rakshasa got stunned by Ulmo. Then the third Helmed Horror fell, giving Glyn 200 victory points exactly. I had not eliminated a single enemy creature. I only had 50 victory points from victory areas. Ouch.

Record: 2-1, thanks to Glyn taking full advantage of my not-so-wise positioning and my ignorance of what the Arcanix Guards had up their sleeves.

Final Thoughts

In hindsight, I should have done a number of things very differently in the third match. I should have sent the Dark Moon Monk to my victory area as I already mentioned, but I should also have sent my Helmed Horrors to kill the Warforged Scout. This would have given me a point lead, and would have forced Glyn to send part of his offensive core (probably the Sacred Watcher) to try to get to the Fire Blessing area. I should not have ganged up on Ulmo when I did, and I should not have fought on the sacred circle. I should have tried to destroy or rout the Village Priest first, keeping my Helmed Horrors spread out as they approached. Not only would the Village Priest have been an easy kill for 21 victory points, but it would have eliminated the +4 bonus to the Arcanix Guards' attacks, and it would have forced the fight to take place away from the sacred circle, which would have elimnated another +2 from the Arcanix Guards' attacks. At that point, the Arcanix Guards would have been much less effective, and I could have routed a few off easily via the Rakshasa's Bigby's slapping hand spells.

Even if I had used a better game plan, it wouldn't have been an easy fight. Ulmo would still have been dishing out 30 damage per round, and eliminating him or the Half-Orc Paladin would have taken quite a few succesful Helmed Horror attacks. Ulmo could have also been in position to eliminate the Rakshasa very quickly, too, which would have given Glyn a points lead. I probably could have won this match if I'd made the right decisions, but it's always easier said than done. In any case, Glyn deserves full marks for pummeling me so hard with what looked like a tier-2 warband.

I came into the tournament with two goals: Test the Helmed Horror warband, and avoid making mistakes in play. Neither goal was completely successful. The amount of luck in the first two matches skewed the Helmed Horror test. And although I played mistake free in the first two matches, my strategic choices in the third were definitely mistakes.

On the bright side, I had lots of fun and I picked up two rares that I needed. Cool! :)