Here are a bunch of my collected thoughts about Gen Con So Cal 2004. I also have a bunch of pictures from the Con here.
WotC Miniatures Event Schedule
Thursday:
9 am - Aberrations League (lasts through end of the Con)
12 pm - D&D Minis 100 pt Constructed Assault tournamentFriday:
10 am - Anaheim Mayhem D&D Minis 100 pt Sealed tournament w/Draft finals
1 pm - Star Wars Minis 100 pt Constructed tournament
2 pm - D&D Minis 200 pt Constructed Assault tournamentSaturday:
10 am - Anaheim Mayhem D&D Minis 100 pt Sealed tournament w/Draft finals
1 pm - Star Wars Minis Clone Strike release tournament (100 pt Constructed)
2 pm - D&D Minis 100 pt Constructed Assault tournamentSunday:
2 pm - D&D Minis 200 pt Constructed Assault tournamentOther Miniatures Events
Dwayne (aka Tried on the WotC boards) ran two dungeon delves and the Titans Tourney (a non-sanctioned 100 point Triad tournament) for D&D Minis. I played in the Titans Tourney tournament (see below), and I saw some of the players in the dungeon delves; the format (gather treasure and escape) is intriguing and the players looked like they were having a lot of fun.
The Unusual Suspects
The minis event staff was: Ian (head honcho), Daphne (scorekeeper), Michelle (league signups & redemption), Joe (league signups & redemption), Cullen (judge), Mike (judge), Ray (judge), Dwayne (judge), Kevin (judge), and me (judge). Rob Heinsoo and Rob Watkins hung out quite a bit and judged too.
Thursday
I didn't judge on Thurdsay, so I was free to play all day!
Aberrations League: I arrived around 9 am to jump into the Aberrations league. I played 11 games total, with a 6-5 rec IIRC. I got lots of rares, and played a bunch of people that I hadn't played before: Mook, Sheridan, Timothy, Ian, Dwayne, and a few others.
I generally ran a warband that looked something like this: Cleric of Garl Glittergold, Warforged Hero, Mountain Orc, Dekanter Goblin, Elf Warrior, 2x Hill Dwarf Warrior, Man-at-Arms. I also used a Wyvern instead of the Warforged Hero in two skirmishes and went 1-1. I had a 2-1 record against Frenzied Berserkers.
D&D Minis 100 pt Constructed Assault tournament: From my experiences at other tournaments, I learned that I get stressed out and have less fun when I play a super-competitive warband and try too hard to win. For this tournament, I decided to play a fun warband and not worry about winning too much. As a result, I had a great time!
We played five swiss rounds even though we had less than 17 players in the tournament, so the final round had some players with uneven records playing one-another. I don't remember exactly how many players started the tournament, but we had 10 left when the final standings were reported. I had a 3-2 record and was 5th place. I won an Aberrations booster, which goes into my pool of prizes for an upcoming tournament that I'll be running in January.
I played Chaotic Good: Bladesinger (Cmd 3); Githyanki Renegade; Aramil, Adventurer; Elf Warrior; Lidda, Halfling Rogue; Gnome Recruit; Assembly Tile with difficult terrain; Creeping Tangle; Ancient Temple; Treasure Room. (My memory is actually a bit hazy on that last tile.) I've been playing a warband like that quite a bit lately, and I really enjoy it. I win more than I lose with it, and it offers a lot of flexibility. I don't normally use Lidda in the warband, but I thought I would need her Hide ability to force the inevitable HEBI warbands to come to me. As it turned out, not one HEBI warband entered the tournament, and I regretted using Lidda; she is much slower than the rest of the warband and her Slow Ranged Attack prevents her from getting ranged attack bonuses via Bladesinger's commander effect.
Match 1: Win
Opponent: Jason. Yuan-Ti Pureblood; Orc Champion; 4x Orc Warrior. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles.)
Jason is a great player, so I knew I was going to need to catch some luck to beat him. That's exactly what happened. His Orc Warriors fell to magic missiles and ranged attacks. Then, IIRC, his Orc Champ missed two attack rolls (against my blurred Gith) and missed his morale save one I reduced it to half hp. I took some hits from his Yuan-Ti, but eventually killed it.Match 2: Lose
Opponent: Robert. Ryld Argith; Drider Sorcerer; 5x Orc Warrior. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles. There was a Treasure Room in there for sure.)
My reward for winning my first match is a chance to play the #1 player in California. Again, I would need to catch some luck to win this skirmish, but it wouldn't happen. To make matters worse, I got too greedy on round 1 and pushed my Bladesinger into a position where she would not only be able to get tile points, but also kill an Orc with a quick casted magic missile. This position allowed Robert to transpose in Ryld for an end-of-round sneak attack, followed by an initiative win and one more sneak attack which -- luckily for me -- routed my Bladesinger. (Had the Bladesinger not routed, Ryld would have gotten a second attack at the start of the round and the Bladesinger probably would have died.) I tried to recover by dimension dooring my Gith adjacent to the now-unprotected Drider, but I missed on my AoO when the Drider moved away. (The AoO would have put me in a position to rout the Drider with one more hit even from a chump.) A full-hp Drider gave Robert lots of offensive options, and he cleaned up quickly after that.Match 3: Lose
Opponent: Mook. Eye of Gruumsh; Ogre Ravager; 6x Orc Warrior. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles.)
I had beaten warbands like this before, so I was pretty sure I could beat this one too. I had to shoot down all of the Orc Warriors as they were exposed, egg the Eye, ray of enfeeble the Ravager, and then scoot & shoot until the Ravager routed or died. It was all working as planned; Mook only had one Orc left, his Eye was down to 5 hp, and I enfeebled the Ravager. His Ravager was in a position to charge and kill my Gith, so pinned it down with my Bladesinger. I figured the Ravager would hit the undamaged Bladesinger with one attack, but that was acceptible; it would spend the Ravager's smite, and my Bladesinger would be in good position for next round, when I'd be able to force a morale save on the Ravager without the Eye's commander rating. The Ravager did hit with one attack. Unfortunately, it was a critical, which killed my Bladesinger. My Gith routed soon afterward, and I conceded.Match 4: Win
Opponent: Wayne. Half-Elf Ranger; 2x Graycloak Ranger + 2x Wolf minions; Halfling Ranger; Half-Elf Sorcerer; 3x Elf Warrior. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles. He had an Assembly Tile with difficult terrain.)
Wayne was in a great position at the start of the match. He had tremendous terrain placement and he out-ranged me, particularly because of the potential of hiding Graycloaks. My only chance was to use my long-bomb play. I dimension doored my Gith up adjacent to several of his creatures as early as possible so he couldn't spread out. My Gith was at +4 or +8 AC for cover, firing into melee, or both. I needed to survive the first round of attacks, and then the whirlwind attacks could begin. That's exactly what happened; the Gith took some damage and was eventually forced to make a morale save (which he succeeded), but in the mean time, it had been slicing through all manner of elf and wolf opposition. The Bladesinger raced up to support, while the rest of my warband harassed down his Halfling. When all was said and done, I had only lost an Elf Warrior and a Gnome Recruit.Match 5: Win
Opponent: Joshua. Tiefling Captain; Red Samurai; Orc Champion. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles, though I know he had a Abattoir and a cave tile of some sort.)
I was confident I could beat this warband because their ACs were low enough for my chumps to hit often, and I out-activated it by a mile. My biggest fear was losing a lot of my chumps in the Red Sam's breath weapon. I caught some luck in round 1 when Josh moved his hitters up behind walls leaving me with line of sight to just his Tiefling Captain. At the end of the round, I shot three magic missiles (two from the Bladesinger and one from Aramil) at the Tiefling, who promptly failed her morale save. The next round, I won initiative and moved chumps to be the nearest enemies to his hitters so they couldn't rush my Bladesinger or Gith. Then the Tiefling failed to rally, routed off the board, and I whittled down his out-of-command hitters until they both routed.Final tournament thoughts: I had a lot of fun, and I am glad I got a chance to play three players that I had never played before (Mook, Wayne, Josh). I learned to not be so greedy with the Bladesinger, and that I should replace Lidda with a second Elf Warrior.
You can read about my friend Kevin's experiences in that tournament here:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=348447True Dungeon: That evening, Robert organized a delve into the True Dungeon. He played the wizard. Also in the party was Kevin (cleric), Jason (ranger?), Mook (paladin or fighter?), and myself (rogue). One member of the True Dungeon staff joined us to increase the size of our party; I forget his name, but I know he played a warrior-type character. I had been through this adventure at Gen Con Indy, and most of the rooms were the same or very similar, so I tried to help as little as possible. One room was new, and we only succeeded because of a big hint from the staff member who was adventuring with us. I survived, and I know Kevin survived. We had at least two fatalities, maybe three. (Who else survived?)
Friday
I judged on Friday, so I arrived around 9 am to get set up, help people sign up, talk, etc.
Anaheim Mayhem D&D Minis 100 pt Sealed tournament w/Draft finals: This was the first of a series of Mayhem events that WotC is going to run at the major convention. All of the Mayhem events will be limited events, and this one was a combination of sealed and draft.
Ten players attended, and each received a starter and a booster from which to build their warband. As with any sealed event, faction rules were ignored and you could combine any creatures you wanted in your warband. They played three swiss rounds to determine who goes to the finals.
The standings after the third swiss round were as follows:
1. Robert, 9 points
2. Cullen, 9 points
3. Timothy, 6 points
4. Mook, 6 points
5. Steve, 3 points
6. Justin, 3 points
6. Kevin, 3 points (tied in OMW% w/Justin)
8. Jason, 3 points
9. Samuel, 3 points
10. Sergio, 0 pointsThe top four players got to participate in a draft, building a warband from two adjacent factions using only the minis they drafted. (Players could not use any of their minis from the sealed portion of the tournament.) Then they played single elimination semifinal matches.
Robert defeated Mook in one of the semifinal matches, and Cullen defeated Timothy in the other. Robert defeated Cullen in the finals to be the first ever Mayhem champion!
Prizes included lots of boosters, and -- more importantly -- custom painted minis! The champion got a Beholder mini (complete with stat card) from the upcoming Death Knell set. The second place trophy was a Chuul mini. The other two finalists received Ice Troll minis.
There are pictures of some of the trophies on my page of Gen Con So Cal photos (see the top of this page). You can also see pictures of the trophies on the WotC web site here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20041202bStar Wars Minis 100 pt Constructed tournament: Friday's attendance was a little light, so we only had 7 players for the Star Wars tournament. Since Clone Strike had been released earlier that day, it was legal to play Republic and Separatist squads, and all of the new Fringe characters were legal in all squads. One warband featured Jango Fett and Boba Fett, with an Ewok thrown in to round it out to 100 points. Players were also allowed to use the map from the Clone Strike starter if they wished.
The tournament was a bit of a marathon, and the final standings after the fifth swiss round were as follows:
1. Paul, 15 points
2. Chris, 12 points
3. David, 9 points
4. Rob, 9 points
5. Joe, 6 points
6. Jason, 6 points
7. Curtis, 3 pointsPaul played several very intense matches and came away as the champion of what I believe is the first WotC-run Star Wars Constructed event ever. IIRC, he won a whole case of Clone Strike boosters!
D&D Minis 200 pt Constructed Assault tournament: Again, because attendance was a little light Friday and because some D&D Minis players were still playing in the Mayhem event, we only had 7 players for the 200 point Constructed event.
Warbands were as follows:
Brian: LG, with LSD and Cleric of Order.
Jim: CE, Trifecta variant with Tiefling, Drider, Ogre Ravagers and Orc Champ.
Kevin: CE, with Vampire Aristocrat, Orc Champ, and Ogre Ravager.
Mike: CE, with Drow Cleric of Lolth, Hill Giants, and Orc Druid.
Scott: CG, with HEBI + Frenzied Beserker.
Sven: CG, with HEBI + Frenzied Beserker.
(Name forgotten): LG, with a Young Master, four Lion Falcon Monks, and a Healer.The player whose name I forgot dropped after round two, and Scott dropped after round three.
After four swiss rounds, the final standings were as follows:
1. Brian, 12 points
2. Mike, 9 points
3. Kevin, 6 points
4. Jim, 6 points
5. Sven, 3 pointsBrian played very well on the way to the championship and showed that LG (or LSD warbands in particular) can still be competitive. IIRC, he won a case of Aberrations minis. You can read his summary of the tournament here:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=348409Saturday
Saturday was a long day. I judged again, but I had to get up even earlier than the day before...
Breakfast at Tiffy's: Rob Heinsoo, Mike, Dwayne, Kevin, and I met at 8 am at Tiffy's, a restaurant less than a block from the convention center. I can't reveal everything we talked about, but there was a lot of brainstorming about tournament formats, league formats, campaigns, warlords, red cards, and ideas for new miniatures. What's the halfling's name? Tiffy, of course.
Anaheim Mayhem D&D Minis 100 pt Sealed tournament w/Draft finals: This was very much like Friday's Mayhem tournament, but Ian gave it another twist. There were 28 players, but Ian decided to only run four swiss rounds. For the first two rounds, the players built warbands using the minis from a starter and a booster. Before round three, players would be given two new boosters and had to build a new warband from only those minis. (You could not include minis from the original starter and booster in your second warband.) Not only did that help avoid some of the randomness inherent in sealed games, but it also made the players very happy; for their $24 entry fee, they received one starter and three boosters! Considering that would go for nearly $60 retail, that was a great deal! After the swiss rounds, the top four would do a draft finals just like on Friday.
Unfortunately, I don't have the final standings after the fourth swiss round, but I do remember that the top four players were Alex, Brian, Timothy, and Rowan. There was a tense drafting session (with a crowd of onlookers observing their drafting pod), followed by 20 minutes to build warbands. Brian and Rowan lost in their semifinal matches, leaving Alex and Timothy to play for the coveted Beholder trophy. Timothy emerged victorious and put an end to Robert's one-day reign as the Mayhem champion. In addition to his Beholder trophy, Timothy got a case of Aberrations boosters and three Clone Strike boosters.
Star Wars Minis Clone Strike release tournament: 28 players showed up for the Clone Strike tournament. Players built either a Republic or Separatist squad using the contents of one Clone Strike starter and one Clone Strike booster. There was confusion over whether players were supposed to use 80 point squads or 100 point squads, but Ian confirmed the 100 point total; characters are generally more powerful (and therefore more costly) in Clone Strike, so it was no problem reaching the 100 point total.
Despite the fact that we had 28 players for the tournament (including a bunch of brand new players), the event only lasted for 4 swiss rounds. Because of that, two players had perfect 4-0 records when the event was finished, giving us a tie for first place. Both of the top players took home 9 boosters. (I don't have the final standings for this event, sorry.)
This tournament was played at the "back" set of tables in our area, which had very high foot traffic. Lots of bystanders came by and watched the action. The colorful maps and obvious Star Wars coolness drew their attention.
D&D Minis 100 pt Constructed Assault tournament: I was so busy with the Mayhem and Clone Strike tournaments, that I barely even noticed the 100 pt Constructed Assault tournament. I believe there were four players in the tournament. Eli was the eventual champion, and you can read his report here:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=348475Tried's Titans Tourney: Dwayne ran a late-night non-sanctioned D&D Minis 100 pt Constructed Triad tournament so some of the judges and WotC staff could play. I had played a bunch of Assault games, but this was going to be my first experience with the new Triad format (Assault, Plunder, Cave of Pain).
I tweaked the Chaotic Good warband that I used in Thursday's tournament: Bladesinger (Cmd 3); Githyanki Renegade; Aramil, Adventurer; 2x Elf Warrior; Gnome Recruit; Assembly Tile with difficult terrain; Creeping Tangle; Ancient Temple; Intersection. I got rid of Lidda and replaced her with an Elf Warrior for better speed & better synergy with the Bladesinger. I planned to use the hard corners of the Intersection to open up line of sight. This warband performs well in Assault, and it is reasonable in Cave of Pain, but I had no idea how it would fare in Plunder.
Match 1: Loss
Opponent: Enrique. "Spank me Plenty" - Alusair Obarskyr; Gold Champion; Man-at-Arms. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles.)
I knew this was going to be a tough match. Luckily, I won terrain initiative and had lots of line of sight to his starter tile. This gave me about four rounds of attacks against his creatures before I had to scatter from my cozy spot on an Ancient Temple. He played it well and forced me to use my magic missiles against his lower AC creatures. I eventually forced Alusair to rout, but she rallied, only to be killed two rounds later. I did the scoot & shoot thing against the Gold Champion, but I was eventually forced into melee. I enfeebled the Gold Champ and reduced it to 30 hp, but it succeeded its out-of-command morale save and eventually beat me to a pulp before I could kill it.Match 2: Loss
Opponent: Robert. Ryld Argith; 3x Graycloak Rangers + 3 Wolf minions. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles, but I remember a Shrine of Justice.)
This was just bad news. Not only is he a better player, but Robert also out-ranged me with his hiding Graycloaks, held a huge initiative on initiative rolls, and had a much better Plunder warband with those wolves. I tried to maneuver Aramil and my archers into safe positions, but Aramil was hit and routed off the board. Eventually, I was able to kill a wolf or two and engage Ryld near the center of the board. Ryld routed for one round, but that only delayed the inevitable. Robert had been getting 5 or 10 terrain points per round, and once my Gith fell, he had enough points to win.Match 3: Win
Opponent: Kevin. Cleric of Lathander; 2x Warforged Hero. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles.)
Poor Kevin had lost both of his two previous matches, and now he had to face a ranged warband in Cave of Pain. Early in the match, he made a mistake and separated his Cleric of Lathander from his Warforged Heroes; I capitalized by maneuvering so that I only had line of sight to his cleric, blasted him with three magic missiles (causing him to rout), and then dimension dooring my Gith Renegade up for the kill. Once his commander was gone, it was easy to scoot & shoot his Warforged Heroes into oblivion.Results: With a 1-2 record, I ended up tied for 9th place (I think) out of 16 players. Better yet, I had a lot of fun again!
Dwayne has more details here:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=351111There are some additional details about the Titan's Tourney in Eli's summary of his Saturday experiences:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=348475Home to sleep: After a really long day, I got back to my mom's house (where I was staying for the weekend) around 3 am and slept.
Sunday
The 8 am alarm sure came quickly. I didn't judge on Sunday, so I played again...
D&D Minis 200 pt Constructed Assault tournament: I decided to conduct an experiment in how well a non-LSD Lawful Good warband could do in the 200 point format.
My warband: Purple Dragon Knight (Cmd 6); 2x Warforged Hero; Ember, Human Monk; Cleric of Moradin; Healer; 2x Barbarian Mercenary; 4x Azer Raider; Assembly Tile with difficult terrain; Mushroom Tangle; Creeping Tangle; Intersection.
My test to see whether I could point-grab well enough to compete with the inevitable CE warbands in the 200 point format. Timed 200 point games usually only go 4-5 rounds, so my goal was to expose only the tanks, grab tile points as often as possible, and kill as many Orc Warriors as I could during that time.
It was almost a success, and I might have even succeeded if I was as good a player as Robert and Mike (both of whom are at least a tier better than me). I played both of them in the first two rounds. Man oh man, those are two opponents you don't want to get placed against in the first two rounds of a tourney.
Match 1: Loss
Opponent: Robert. Ryld Argith; Large Red Dragon; Drider Sorcerer; Orc Berserker; 8x Orc Warrior; Assembly Tile 3; Treasure Room; Mushroom Tangle; Torture Chamber.
Officially, I only lost to Robert by just four points (44-40), but it should have been a 16 point differential because he could have eliminated my Healer if he really needed to. If I hadn't made one critical mistake (as I have a habit of doing against really good players), the game could have been much closer; I forgot about the fact that Driders can cast lightning bolt, and he destroyed two Azers and a Cleric of Moradin at once for 24 points. All things considered, I was pretty happy with that match.Scoring Notes: Robert had 20 Assault points, plus the points for two Azers and one Cleric of Moradin, for a total of 44. I had 20 Assault points, plus the points for four Orc Warriors and one Orc Berserker, for a total of 40. I believe our match lasted three rounds.
Match 2: Loss
Opponent: Mike. Ryld Argith; Chuul; Red Samurai; Drider Sorcerer; 8x Orc Warrior. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles, though I know he had a Treasure Room and a Corridor.)
I lost to Mike by 18 points (76-58), making a bad mistake that allowed him to lightning bolt 2 Azers in the last round. Without that mistake, I would have lost by only 8 points. I caught some luck in the match (his Ryld routed, losing a round of attacks), but so did Mike; his Red Sam critted my Warforged, which prevented me from extracting it before it was killed for 36 points. Had I been able to extract it, he would have had a much harder time destroying my other Warforged Hero or unwounded PDK, and the game could have actually gone my way. I also could have made my life easier if I had oriented my first feature tile better. All things considered, I was pretty happy with that match, too.Scoring Notes: Mike had 30 Assault points, plus the points for one Warforged Hero and two Azers. I had 40 Assault points, plus the points for six Orc Warriors. Our match lasted four rounds.
Match 3: Win
Opponent: Sergio. Red Wizard; 2x Mind Flayer; Green Dragon; Destrachan; Half-Illithid Mind Flayer. (I didn't write down his terrain tiles.)
I beat Sergio by a score of 157 to 20. He's a relatively new player and played as well as I could have expected with that warband. I had too many tanks for him to effectively deal with, and his Red Wizard fell to Ember and a Barb Merc that raced in from the flank. I cut down a handful of his other creatures before time expired.Scoring Notes: Sergio had 20 Assault points. I had 10 Assault points, plus the points for a Red Wizard, a Mind Flayer, a Destrachan, and a Half-Illithid Lizardfolk.
So the net result is that I lost with LG in a 200 pt Assault tournament, but the matches were close and LG was piloted by an inferior player (comparatively speaking). Had I made zero mistakes, I think either of my first two matches would have come down to die rolling. A player with the skill of Robert or Mike could have won consistently with that LG warband, even against the likes of Drider-centric CE warbands.
In fact, the next time I try that warband, I am going to risk having far fewer activations in exchange for having another hunk of resilient meat (Warforged or ?) or another point grabber (Lion Falcon Monk). I think I will do okay.
Why bring the Intersection Tile? As odd as it may sound, I needed freedom of movement. In order for my strategy to work, Ember absolutely must be able to get tile points on round one. When I play LG against Mike (for example), he always makes it as hard as possible for me to do anything besides walk through a tight choke point. With its walls on the corners, the corridor guarantees there will be at least three paths through any area.
Considering my strategy was to lose as few points as possible, why did I bring so many Azers, a Healer, the Barb Mercs, etc? It may sound dumb, but I didn't realize just how vulnerable those guys were until that first game against Robert. On round two, I was kicking myself for including them in the first place.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I had much more fun than at last year's Gen Con So Cal, where I made too many additional plans during the weekend. This year, I spent a lot more time hanging out, talking, and playing. I met lots of cool people, and I came away more satisfied. If I could preregister for next year right now, I would!