SFR, Inc.

[dburkley]

DREAMATION was held at the Morristown Hyatt & Conference Center, Morristown, New Jersey, from February 24-28, 2011. This convention usually draws about 1500 attendees.

The SFR booth was moved to the hotel lobby, opposite the hotel's front desk. This was a well lit area that was adjacent to the playing area for all the Dragon Dice events and some boardgaming events. The main boardgaming area was in a room next to the front desk, so I received a lot of visibility from the boardgamers.

Dragon Dice Events
One event that may not be familiar to many was the "Constructed Starter" event: Bring your own 2-Player Starter, constructed as you see fit within the following limitations: Two 18-health armies, each of a different single race. Each 18-health army must consist of 1 monster, 1 rare, 3 uncommons, and 5 commons and all must be different (ie: no more than one of any single die). Two different colored Dragons (choose from black, blue, green, gold, ivory, or red), and four terrains (one Coastland, one Flatland, one Highland, and one Swampland) must be included. Intermediate Rules as found on the SFR website will be used.

This was to encourage novice players from last year to bring their dice and try out this intermediate event and elevate their game to the next level.

Here are the results of the Dragon Dice Events at DREAMATION:

Thursday Events
C293: Dragon Dice Intermediate Event: Constructed Starter.
Three players signed up for this event. Frank Warren won this event with a constructed Feral/Undead "starter" and qualified for the Regional Championship round on Saturday.

C294: Dragon Dice Novice Event: Introductory Session.
No one signed up for this event.

Friday Events
C342: Dragon Dice Intermediate Event: Single Race.
Six players signed up for this event. Dusty Youngs won this event with a Treefolk army and qualified for the Regional Championship round on Saturday.

C343: Dragon Dice Novice Event: Introductory Session.
Two players signed up for this event. Dan Raven won this event.

C387: Dragon Dice Intermediate Event: Constructed Starter.
Six players signed up for this event. Dusty Youngs won this event with a constructed Goblin/Undead "starter". Since Dusty had qualified already for the Regional Championship, Russ Lockwood qualified as the 2nd place player with a constructed Dwarf/Goblin "starter" army.

C388: Dragon Dice Novice Event: Introductory Session.
Two players attended this event. June King won this event.

C435: Dragon Dice Advanced Event: Constructed Army.
Six players signed up for this event. Dusty Youngs won this event with a Goblin/Undead army. Since Dusty had qualified already for the Regional Championship, Tomas Carillo qualified as the 2nd place player with a Firewalker/Scalder army.

Saturday Events
C508: Dragon Dice Intermediate Event: Sealed Starter.
Six players signed up for this event. Dusty Youngs won this event with an Amazons/Swampstalker starter army. Since Dusty had qualified already for the Regional Championship, Micheal Schuller qualified as the 2nd place player with a Dwarf/Goblin starter army.

C553: Dragon Dice Advanced Event: Battlefest!
Four players signed up for this event. Dusty Youngs won this event with a Goblin/Undead army. Since Dusty had qualified already for the Regional Championship, Jared Schuller qualified as the 2nd place player with a Lava Elf/Scalder army.

C554: Dragon Dice Novice Event: Introductory Session.
Four players entered this event, all of them former Dragon Dice players who had not played in years, but were pleased to see that Dragon Dice was still being played and promoted. Jason Stark won this event.

C589: The 2011 DENCC Region 4 Dragon Dice Championship. Entrants must qualify through any of the six qualifier events played throughout the convention. All legal dice may be used in this event. All spells are in play.

Six players had qualified, but Russ Lockwood did not attend on Saturday and Mike Schuller bowed out, leaving four players - so it became a round-robin. True to the name of the game, dragons would play a major role in almost all of the games.

Dusty Youngs was the heavy favorite with his Goblin/Undead army, based on his track record in the qualifiers - but Jared Schuller was the defending champion, having won the DENCC Region 4 Championship last year at DREAMATION. Jared spent his two hours between the Battlefest event and this one to assemble a new Lava Elf army/Undead army led by a DragonLord equipped with a black Dragon Staff. When these two met in the 2nd round it was the fastest match of the event, as both home terrains started at '6' and the Frontier at '2'. Dusty had only a Hedge Wizard as his Horde army, with his home army lead by a DragonLord, a Minor Death, two Death Mages, and a black Dragon Staff.

Dusty struck fast with his Undead-heavy army at the Frontier (which had another black Dragon Staff), summoning one black dragon with the staff and another black dragon with magic at Jared's home.

Jared's Horde army was eager to melee and Dusty obliged by attacking without maneuvering. Jared saved against the 8 damage inflicted and delivered 15 of his own, which Dusty could only muster 4 saves, forcing a surviving Death Mage to flee with the coveted Dragon Staff.

Jared's Home army had to deal with 11 points of damage from the black dragons, which the Lava Elves survived at their Highlands homeland with 4 losses (leaving 9-health & the Dragon Staff) and one dragon flying away. Both of Jared's main armies advanced the home terrains to 7. Dusty was in a bind.

A new black dragon joined the first at Jared's home. Dusty hoped that the pair could effectively dealt the 9 damage necessary to eliminate Jared's home army - and it seemed like the best strategy to pursue to avoid Jared's bid for victory, but dragons have a history of not being a reliable blocking force, and both rolled bellies at the worst time for Dusty. Jared claimed both homes on his second turn for the win.

Jared went on to win all of his matches. He successfully used his black Dragon Staff to help summon his two black/red hybrid dragons in both his other games. In his first match, Frank Warren had to deal with both at the same time on the first turn of the match and Jared rolled two Jaws, consuming the unfortunate army. In Jared's third match against Tomas Carillo, Tomes also had to deal with both dragons at once with a breath and 9 damage. He fared better than Frank, but it was still a crippling blow.

Jared Schuller successfully defended his regional championship at age 16. His dad said if he saved his money, he might let him come to GenCon this year. Dusty came to GenCon 2010 to play in some of the Dragon Dice events, and I'm sure he'll be back at GenCon 2011.

Jared Schuller's championship army:

Terrains: Highlands Temple, Highlands SFR Castle

Main Army (only 10 dice!)
1 x DragonLord
1 x black Dragon Staff
1 x Troll (Goblin)
2 x Minor Death (Undead)
1 x Lich (Undead)
1 x Necromancer (Lava Elf)
1 x Infiltrator (Lava Elf)
1 x Wyvern Rider (Lava Elf)
1 x Bronze Medallion

Summoning Pool:
1 x black/red Drake
1 x black/red Wyrm
1 x black Dragonkin Champion
1 x black DragonChamp
1 x black DragonHero
1 x black Dragontroop
1 x black Dragonmount
1 x black Dragonfoal

Sunday Events
C667: Dragon Dice Playtest Session. Players try to conquer the world of Esfah in a boardgame version of Dragon Dice.
Ten players entered this event, which I divided into three groups. Two 4-players games were set up using two different 16-area mapboards, and when the last two players showed up late, I started another 2-player game by assembling a 10-area board with the alternative hex tiles.

The Basic Game version was used for all three games (no rares, monsters, or dragons). The two 4-players games pitted two Death races against two non-Death races (Goblins/Lava Elves vs Coral Elves/Treefolk and Goblins/Lava Elves vs Feral/Firewalkers), and each pursued significantly different set-up strategies and play tactics. The 2-players game was Amazons vs Dwarves. All the games were finished within 90 minutes. After a lunch break, six players returned for a second 6-player game (Coral Elves/Lava Elves/Scalders vs Feral/Firewalkers/Treefolk) using the hex tiles to set up a 24 area board.

Players got into the mechanics quickly after an explanation and turn example. All the players liked the mechanics and spell list, although some criticized the the black spells seemed either too inexpensive or too potent for the cost (with the critics having been the recipients of those spells) - and their point was valid and reinforced an observation made in last week's playtest session. One player appeciated that the spell list had the colors spelled out, as he had a color sight deficiency, and he suggested having the color combinations printed out on the mapboard or tiles, so he and other color sight deficient players could easily figure out what the terrains are.
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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]

Congrats!

Sounds like you had a lot of return players.

The constructed started sounds interesting, maybe we can have that as an event at Gencon2012

Cliff
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99