SFR, Inc.

[ddicerc]

Time for all you East Coast Dragon Dicers to prepare for the big event in July-DexCon 11, featuring the Dragon Dice National Championship! This year's DexCon will feature the following events (times and dates not yet confirmed, but probable):

Thursday July 17
8 PM: SFR Special Event!

Friday, July 18
8AM: Single Race
2PM: Novice
8 PM: National Qualifier 1

Saturday, July 19
9 AM: Sealed Box
2 PM: Novice and Battlefest
8 PM: National Qualifier 2

Sunday, July 20
9 AM: National Finals

I plan to be set up on Wednesday night. SFR will have a table there with merchandise for sale. (If you plan to be there, and are looking for particular products, let me know and I'll make sure I have them on hand.) If there is interest and I can find a time slot, we may also try to run an Intermediate Constructed event for all the newer players we've had at our Double Exposure events.

DexCon is one of the premier events on the East Coast. It is held at the East Brunswick Hilton, conveniently located immediately off exit 9 of the NJ Turnpike. I guarantee that if you come to this con you will have a great time!

For more info on the con, visit the Double Exposure web site at www.dexposure.com. For more info on the DD events there, e-mail me at DDiceRC(AT)aol.com (using the @ sign for AT).

The head of Double Exposure has been bugging me about getting more DD players at the con, so let's show him a turnout he won't forget!
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[dburkley]

I'll be there to defend my title.

Daniel Burkley
2007 DD US National Champion

[ddicerc]

The DexCon Master schedule has been posted. Interesting tidbit: If you go to the "Collectible Gaming" list, Dragon Dice is the only one running a National Championship event! SO come compete for fun and glory-plus a trophy, which (unless things change) is the ONLY Dragon Dice event trophy awarded anywhere!
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[chuckpint]

Ok, ok, I'll get a trophy for the World Championship at GenCon....

_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[dburkley]

Hello Steve,

According to the Dexcon 11 Schedule recently displayed, there are three Dragon Dice events scheduled at the same time on Saturday at 2PM:
C711: Battlefest
C712: Beginners
C713: Sealed Box

This appears to be the only difference from what you described on the forum earlier. I find it unusual to schedule several DD events simultaneously, so is the Sealed Box event suppose to be at 9AM, as you originally indicated (rather than at 2PM in Dexcon 11's schedule)?

Daniel Burkley
2007 Dragon Dice US National Champion

[cliffwiggs]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

[dburkley]

[cliffwiggs]

[cliffwiggs]

[chuckpint]

It's possible that SFR may have some extra hotel space for GenCon. We'd be looking for you (and your friend) to pay half of a room. If you are interested contact Cliff.
_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[ddicerc]

OK, I don't always have shocking events to report from the East Coast cons, but this is a good one...

The 2008 Dragon Dice National Champion results-

In third place...

Dan Burkley (2007 National Champion)...

In second place...

Robert "Pelter Boy" Braun (2006 World Champion)...

And your 2008 Dragon Dice National Champion...



Yep, that's right. Little brother (and new forum member as "Frosty the Wolfpack") Jonathan outduels his big brother Pelter Boy, the defending national champion, and veteran Dragon Dice player Mike DeZearn to become the youngest national champion ever at 13! (That's last year's champ, Dan Burkley, on his left, and of course Pelter Boy on his right.) He already plans to not let his brother live it down at least until next DexCon. (But wait-little sister also played her first regular DD event this year (Sealed Box), so family supremacy is not yet a settled issue.)

I'll have a more thorough report tomorrow. But I can say that my record of selling an ultra-rare at every con is still intact. A new player who was playing in our Sealed Box event pulled an Ormyrr out of her box. I think over the last six cons, I'm up to 2 Unseelies, 1 Inferno, 2 Magis, 2 (or maybe 3) Unicorns, a two-headed Goblin out of the old starters, and now an Ormyrr sold. (But, oddly, no Frost Ogres.) So if you want to buy some dice...
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[DEEPBLUEB2]

I told you he was on fire!

[ddicerc]

DexCon 11 Report

Wednesday night was just for setup and the opening ceremonies. In the DexCon 10 video shown at the OCs, there was a scene of me selling a Dragon Dice starter set!

Thursday tends to be slow during the day. A couple of demos, but then the "SFR Special" event. Unfortunately, I can't say anything more about this one, except we had a lot of fun and got to find out a little about the future of the game. (NOW don't you wish you had come?)

Friday is the first big event day. Our events and winners:

Single Race-1. Dan Burkley, 2. Robert Braun, 3. Jonathan Braun

National Qualifier 1 (winner of each qualifier moved to finals, along with the best 2nd place finisher and the one regional champion we had)- 1. Dan Burkley, 2. Jonathan Braun

All in all, Friday was Dan's day.

Saturday was our second big event day, and our busiest at the table. We ran a number of demos, and got a few new players hooked (as in buying starters). Our events and winners:

Battlefest-1. Dan Burkley (continuing his hot streak), 2. Jonathan Braun, 3 (tie) Robert Braun and Mike DeZearn

Sealed Box (see note below)-1. Robert Braun, 2. Dan Burkley, 3. Mike DeZearn

National Qualifier 2- 1. Jonathan Braun, 2. Mike DeZearn (Since Jonathan was the other 2nd place finisher, Mike got the final spot in the National finals)

Sealed Box was not only our best event, but the biggest "collectible gaming" event at DexCon. (Since we had 8 players, that tells you the state of collectible gaming at this con.) We were going to run a Novice event at the same time, but the two Novice players decided they'd rather play Sealed. So it was a little different, since both the GM (me) and the veteran players were helping out the newbies. One player had just been introduced to DD at Dreamation, and she brought along a friend who had just demoed the day before. Another player had played years ago, and decided to give it a try. Then there was our youngest player, my 9-year-old daughter Stefanie, who went from playing Novice six months ago to trying Sealed Box. (She even won a game using a CE/LE starter!) Lots of Undead/Feral, a couple of AM/SS, and one ach of the elves and DW/GO (Dan's second place army). And one of our new players pulled an Ormyrr out of her starter!

Saturday was a good day for sales as well. But the poor cousins are the Scalders- I didn't sell a single SC kicker all weekend!

Sunday of course was the main event, the National finals, and I already told you about that one in a previous post. Our field was pretty good- the reigning National champion, a former World champion, a veteran player/game master, and then Jonathan (who, however, had been a World finalist in '06, thanks to his insane luck). But here's today's sibling argument for veteran tournament organizers to resolve: Which of these is the most significant accomplishment- (1) winning an Eastern Regional championship at the age of 11, (2) winning Worlds at 15, or (3) winning Nationals at 13? To Jonathan it doesn't matter-even though Robert has his special prototype die from Worlds, Jon has a trophy to show off.

Finally we closed up shop (although the Braun family hung around to try out D&D 4e in the afternoon) and went home.

Winner of the "worst streak of luck" was Mike D., who couldn't get any kind of rolls all weekend. (It wasn't the army construction-it was just one of those streaks where he got melee when he needed saves, magic when he needed missiles, etc.)

Dan's coming out to GenCon, so be prepared!

If you want your Dragon Dice fix, make sure you get ready for Dreamation this winter, and then for DexCon 12 and the next Nationals!
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[cliffwiggs]

The big question is what armies did each person play? What is the army to look out for in the hands of a young one?
_________________
Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[dburkley]

First off, "Thank You" to Steve for putting on the numerous Dragon Dice events. I attended DEXCON 11 to defend my Dragon Dice 2007 US National Championship title. I started out great, winning the "Single Race" event and the "Battlefest" tournament (my first time trying that), and winning the first "National Qualifier" event. I came in 2nd in the "Sealed Box" event, and also posted a 3rd place finish in the Championship round. The "Torch" was passed, but it was a lot of fun. The selection of the army, the above-average high terrain rolls at the beginning of each game, pursuing my game plan vs reacting to the opponent's game plan, and good fortune in the dice rolls contributed to my accomplishments (with probably equal weight).

The National Qualifiers and Championship events used a format I was unfamiliar with, called "Alpha" format (last year's event was Round-Robin). The first round was a multi-player game, where the winner scores 3 points (and everyone else scores 0 points), followed by 3 rounds, matching the best pairs - but you can only play an opponent once (or round-robin, if a smaller field). I had never played a multi-player game of Dragon Dice before, and the multi-player round was a wild affair for the 1st Qualifying round. I played a DragonLord/Goblin/Fireshadow army. Robert played Undead. Mike played Dwarves/Scalder Magicians.

The Championship round was basically decided by the multi-player round, which (like most multi-player games) can be a "political" contest. The player sequence was Daniel Burkley (DragonLord/Goblins/Fireshadow), Robert Braun (Undead), Mike DeZearn (Dwarves/Scalder Magicians), and Johnathan Braun (Frostwings missile/magic). Johnathan and I advanced our home terrain dice from the 6th to the 8th face fairly quickly (so we each had one terrain). I was at Robert's home site to try and advance that terrain die to the 8th face (which started at 2, and had moved it to 4 in two turns). Robert abandoned his home site after the initial round (after failing to change the face down towards a magic symbol) to concentrate at Johnathan's home site, but failed to stop him from claiming the 8th face. Mike was at the Frontier terrain (quickly abandoned by everyone else), advancing it to 6, while keeping a force at his home terrain die, but keeping that at 4 in order to conduct Missile attacks.

The final sequence started with me. I rolled enough magic at my 8th face to summon 2 Dragons (both of Mike's Gold/Red Hybrids) to the Frontier terrain die, and advanced Robert's home terrain die to 5. Robert tried to change Johnathan's home terrain die from 8 to 7, but failed and withdrew to reserve. Mike fights the Dragons and kills one, but loses most of his army doing so. He advances the Frontier terrain die to 7, and advances his Home terrain die to 5, and then abandons the Frontier terrain die (since he feels he cannot stand up to the remaining Dragon), but in doing so - he sets up Johnathan for the win.

Johnathan rolls for magic at his Home terrain die (Flatlands Stones), needing 4 points to cast "Pathfinder" and transfer a die to the Frontier terrain die, which he does easily (as half his army is magic-users). The Dragon doesn't bother him at the Frontier, because Dragon attacks are conducted at the beginning of each player's turn, and Johnathan has already done his 1st March. On the 2nd March, he chooses the "new" army at the Frontier and turns the terrain die unopposed to the 8th face and wins the game.

So my "reign" as US National Champion has passed, but I will look for a new adventure: I will attend GENCON this year and see how I fare in the "World Championship" arena.
_________________
Daniel Burkley
US National Champion (DEXCON 2007, 2009, 2010)
World Champion (GENCON 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014)
Battlefest Champion: DEXCON 2008, 2011, GENCON 2009, 2010 (co-champion), 2011, 2017)
"No Magicians": GENCON 2008
"Single Race": DEXCON 2008, GENCON 2010, 2011, 2014 (co-champion), 2017

[cliffwiggs]

Thanks for the summary Daniel. I agree that many games are decided by the terrain roll and how much your opponent sticks to their game plan vs being reactive. Neither one nor the other is better. I have won games where I gave up an 8th to put myself where i needed to be (usually at Magic on a seperate terrrain) and I have also won games where you spend your entire time preventing your opponent from reaching their strength. Imagine a magic army and a melee army stuck in missile because neither player will leave the terrain, but neither can turn the terrain up or down.

I am not planning on playing world this year, but MissTiffany tells me that I haven't planned on playing it for the last three years and I have everytime. So if I play it'll be with an untested army, so I'll probably do something 'traditional'
_________________
Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[ddicerc]

Jonathan's army was a Frostwing missile/magic army, one he's played quite a bit. His advantage was that the other three players were all playing melee-oriented armies. I told him on the way there that morning that if the terrains came up low he could actually become the favorite, but if they came up high he was pretty much hosed. They came up well. (In his game vs. his brother, he got a 1 with his mages at home, then 4/4 on the other two terrains. He couldn't have done better if he had picked the terrain faces himself!) His one other excellent tactical choice was using a Flatland SS as his home terrain, which gave him access to Path when he captured it, as well as allowing him to double magic at that terrain.
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)