SFR, Inc.

[dburkley]

I'll start this thread off, but encourage others to add their information and experiences.

I thought this was a pretty good show, with probably 30,000+ attendees. The new location for the Exhibitor Hall seemed spacious enough, but seemed a little further away from most of the hotels that had direct connections to the convention center. Lots of banners for indicating the event rows, which made it easier to find a particular booth (if you knew the number), plus a number of vendor banners were above their own booths, which made finding them easy as well.

Most Dragon Dice events appeared to be well-attended. I don't have the results on all the events, but I can elaborate on one or two of them.

BATTLEFEST (Friday, 7 PM)
I believe there were 12 players in this event, which has been a favorite for many players. The field included a number of veteran players, but also some newer players, which was a nice mix. When you are accustomed to playing the standard 36-health game, its almost an unexpected pleasure when you can entertain adding in all those extra dice you wish you could have included in a 36-health army.

The contest was closely contested (but not as closely contested as last year's 3-way tie). Four rounds were completed, and nothing was clear by the start of the fourth round. The top three after 4 rounds were:
1. Daniel Burkley (Goblins/Eldarim/Firewalker/Morehl/Treefolk - 52% magicians)
2. Chuck Pint (Feral/Lava Elves - 82% magicians)
3. John Koslow (Frostwings/Lava Elves - 100% magicians)

Daniel Burkley's 2011 Battlefest Army
Summoning Pool
1 x Black/Gold hybrid Wyrm
1 x Black/Gold hybrid Drake
1 x Black Dragonkin Champion
1 x Gold Dragonkin Champion
1 x Black Dragonsteed
1 x Gold Dragonspy
1 x Black Dragonmount
1 x Gold Dragonmount
1 x Black Dragontroop
1 x Gold Dragonscout
1 x Coastlands Forest minor terrain
1 x Flatlands Forest minor terrain
1 x Swamplands Forest minor terrain
1 x Wastelands Forest minor terrain

Terrains
1 x Swamplands Temple (Home)
1 x Swamplands Dragon Lair (proposed Frontier)

Army
1 x Bronze Medallion
1 x Gold Medallion
1 x White Dragonlord (Eldarim)
1 x White Dragonslayer (Eldarim)
1 x Fireshadow (Firewalkers)
4 x Death Mages (Goblins)
3 x Leopard Riders (Goblins)
1 x Trickster (Goblin)
2 x Trolls (Goblin)
2 x Necromancers (Morehl)
1 x Unicorn (Treefolk)

I had the honor and pleasure of facing Chuck Pint (1st round), John Koslow (3rd round), and the new 2011 World Champion, Ken Williams (4th round) - whom I did not have the chance to play during the 2011 Worlds event. I also played against a young player named Alex (but not Alex Wiggs) who recently started playing (and, ironically, he gave me the toughest time).

I will describe a synopsis of each match and how each army tried to assert itself during the match.

1st Round
Chuck's army was one I had faced once before. Necromancers and Wolverine-folk are magicians that are very capable of fighting, as each has one melee face and one (Necromancer) or two (W-folk) save faces. The Necromancers cast Necromantic Wave (often as a Cantrip during melee, but at other opportunities as well) to allow counting magic icons as melee icons, so now the magicains become fighting machines. The Feral magicians can cast Wind Walks to help the army maneuver or counter-maneuver as the need arises.

The starting set-up had each side's Horde Army facing a 1-point Home Army. As so often happens, the opening maneuver roll and following terrain rolls often dictate the nature of the game. Goblin magicians have a maneuver face, so it was no surprise that I won the maneuver roll. Chuck's Home terrain rolled a 6, while the others were mid-ranged, so it was easy to turn to 7. There was a melee contest at the Frontier, which caused some casualties to Chuck's force, but I withdrew the army to Reserve. Chuck also withdrew both armies to Reserve. I claimed the 8th Face and then pursued an attrition strategy by casting Fingers of Death and an occasional Lightning Strike to first eliminate the Feral magicians and then the Necromancers. With 24-36 points of magic generated each turn, Chuck could not bring back his mages fast enough.

2nd Round
Alex (Brandon as it turned out) had an Eldarim Champion Army with 3 Trolls and lots of Blue Eldarim Champions. Both sides largest armies faced each other and the opening terrain rolls allowed for first round melees, and Alex gave out better than he got, so after three rounds I had to pull back to Reserve. What surprised me was that Brandon also pulled back to Reserve, copying my moves. I was content with that as I was able to recover more of my dead than he did, but not enough to want to go back to that 5th face Swamplands, knowing the Eldarim Champions would immediately return, as he still had the larger army - so I continued to stay in Reserve and roll for magic. We ended up tied as time ran out and neither of us claimed an 8th Face. Had Brandon returned to the 5th Face to move it up, I would have been bound to come out to contest it (for weal or woe), but we won't know what could have happened...

3rd Round
John Koslow used the same Frostwing/Morehl magician army as at last year's Battlefest. It's a bit more intimidating than Chuck's Feral/Morehl magicians, because the Frosting Magi have a face with Fly SAIs and if you face them on a magic face or even an 8th Face that you own, they can still use the Frostwing anti-magic racial ability to shut down your magic, but they can still attack using the Necromantic Wave on a Necromancer's cantrip, and they have a good chance of casting an Open Grave using Frostwing Cantrips - so these guys can move and fight and not care about casualties.

John's Horde Army face only a 1-point Home Army, while mine faces a full-strength Home Army. I win the Initiative by a slim margin and elects to go first, and like the 1st Round, John rolls a 6 on his Home terrain, which dictates the initial game-plans. We fight over John's Home terrain, which I eventually capture through maneuver. I beat up John's army, but he is able to cast Open Grave and the losses go to the Reserve (but there is still a small victory acheived, because those units are no longer at the terrain), and every now and then a Smite actually kills a unit (which consumes some magic to bring it back into play. John continues to contest the terrain by generating magic in the Reserve to cast several Wind Walks on the (now smaller) challenging army (at one time having 5 Wind Walks in play), but having double maneuvers for an 8th Face is a great asset (as well as having Goblin magicians that have a maneuver face) and I'm able to generate as many as 48-62 maneuvers. I attack the army each turn, and even though Open Grave is present, it still drives units back to Reserve, so they are not present at the terrain during John's turn and therefore, John has a smaller army to roll maneuvers with. After a few turns that end up being very similar to the last one described, John adopts a new strategy to try and capture the Swampland Home terrain. He gets it up to 6 and I counter that with a spoiling attack by Pathing 4 units and a Medallion to attacj the 4 units he has at that terrain. I win the maneuver roll, turning it down to 5, and attack the army, causing some casualties, but not eliminating it, and I withdraw to Reserve. John moves it to 6 again and brings a second army from Reserve to my 8th Face as a challenging force and/or a spoiling force to try and use Frostwing anti-magic to curtail my magic. My response is to attack this army in the following turn and as I'm resolving the attack, time is called.

4th Round
My final opponent is Ken Williams, who recently won the 2011 Worlds title. I had Russ Lockwood take a picture of me as the 2010 World Title holder congratulating Ken as the 2011 World Title holder. (As soon as get that picture from Russ, I'll try to get it posted on this thread.) Ken is a relatively new player, not unlike myself when I started coming to GenCon in 2008 after I won my first tournament at DEXCON in 2007.

The fact that I'm facing Ken indicates he has done reasonably well in his prior 3 rounds, although I don't know his current score. Ken brings an interesting assortment of dice as his Battlefest Army, which included 2 Gold Medallions, 3 Trolls, several Frostwing Vindicators (Heavy Melee), one or two Scalder Dragonne Knights, a Dragonlord, and some Goblin Death Mages.

Ken's Horde Armies face my 1-point Home Army, and my Campaign Army faces Ken's 1-point Campaign Army. I win the Initiative Roll, electing to go first and Ken's Home terrain ends up at 6, while the others are mid-ranged. I maneuver the Frontier terrain, which Ken does not oppose (smart man, as I wanted to try and get a Wayfare SAI to move some dice to my Horde Army) and attack, but no cantrips and no Teleport SAI, so I have to deal with Ken's army at his Home terrain straight up. I maneuver Ken's Home Terrain to 7 after some deliberation (which he opposed and lost) and melee his Campaign Army with mine, scoring some hits and taking a Smite in the counter-attack. I withdraw the Campaign and Home armies to eventually reinforce the Horde Army.
Ken tries to maneuver his Home to the 8th Face, but its a smaller army than it started the game with and I stop him. He elects not to attack and pools all his armies into Reserve. I capture the 8th Face and cast Deadlands and Finger of Death a mage, reinforcing with the army from Reserve. The rest of the game I use an attrition strategy again, generating 24-36 magic a turn and killing off either the Trolls or the mages as the magic totals permit. He recovers some losses, but takes new ones as I keep up the Death magic attacks. Ken makes a valiant attempt to capture my Swampland Home terrain, as he still has a big army. My response is to I summon my 3 hybrid Black/Gold dragons to the terrain. His Dragonlord fails to make his roll and get a Breath on one of them. He is able to kill one, but I replace it the next turn and keep up the Death magic attacks. The Dragonlord fails again, and the Dragons generate more damage, which cause casualties he can save against, but can't kill the dragons. The death magic attacks eliminate the Dragonlord and another unit, and the Dragon attacks add further to the attrition, but he gets no luck from his Troll or Gold Medallions. He gets down to two units, which include a Troll and his Gold Medallions, so he keeps on going, and when he fails to bring back anything on his turn, he concedes (with plenty of time to spare). Had he gotten any decent luck, he could have brought back his other Trolls and possibly more units. We had a nice friendly game, reminding each other of reactions (Dragonlord vs Dragon Attack) or 8th Face effects (Temple), or discussing options.

SINGLE RACE (Friday, 9 AM)
I like the Single Race format. It uses Intermediate rules, and it's a great way for novice (or not-so-novice) players to take the next step in their game. It's a great event to let the newer players interact with some of the veteran players and learn some strategies and tactics, and sometimes the veterans get to learn something new as well.

There were six races represented among the 8 players in this year's event:
Feral - Jason Wallace
Firewalkers - Ivonne Hanna
Firewalkers - Jeff Shoesan
Firewalkers - John Monnett
Goblins - Daniel Burkley
Lava Elves - John Koslow
Swampstalkers - Geoff Hanna
Treefolk - Pat Pint

... and after 4 rounds, the Goblins climbed to the top of the heap, again.

Dan Burkley's Single Race Goblin Army
Summoning Pool
1 x Gold Drake
1 x Gold Wyrm

Terrains
Swamplands Temple (Home)
Wastelands Standing Stones (proposed Frontier)

Army
2 x Death Mage
1 x Dog Rider
2 x Filcher
1 x Harpies
1 x Hedge Wizard
2 x Leopard Riders
3 x Tricksters
1 x Troll
2 x Wolf Riders

I had the honor and pleasure of facing Ivonne, John M., John K., and Pat, across the tabletop. Ivonne had the hottest dice of all my opponents and bested me in both opening melees of the first turn, forcing me to retreat. I eventually recovered enough to grab an 8th Face and held it to the end to make the game a tie.
_________________
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

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Thanks for posting your army Dan...
and congrats.

I've updated the Worlds/ Battlefest and National's pool.


Battlefest Pool

World's Pool

National's Pool

[cliffwiggs]

'Alex' wasn't actually called Alex...

It's Scott Cobbs nephew and he was playing an army his uncle designed... can't think of his name right now... can't think of anything right now...
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[chuckpint]

I think that was Brandon. He (like Alex) had a mostly monster army.

My army:
2 Gold Medallions
8 Necromancers
8 Wolverine-Folk
2 Antelope-Folk
1 Horse-Folk

Home: Flatland Standing Stones
Frontier: Flatland Vortex

Like Dan said, I was mostly trying for magic and Cantrips. But as soon as I could not stop Dan from getting that first 8th, I was dead. Didn't help that about half my army got killed trying to stop him.

Played two games against mostly monster armies. As soon as I got to magic (both games had terrains with low numbers), it was all over. I just cast Lightning Strike and Finger of Death and killed monsters left and right. Ended up killing off both armies completely.

I forget who I played for the last game. It was a game that came up with fairly high numbers on the terrains. But this time (unlike the first game against Dan), I got the Cantrips when I needed them. At one point I dealt out over 70 points of melee damage with mages (I think both Medallions got melee as well). But it's hard to stop Wind Walks and Open Graves (cast from reserves) if you don't get any Smites.
_________________
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).

[Matthias Maccabeus]

I just wanted to say thanks to everybody that I played a game with. You guys were all VERY helpful with everything. I see I still have a bit to go in understanding everything. And my main goal of next year is to remember to cast Open Grave at least once!!


I'll go into more detail later this week when I'm finally back up and running with a battle report but my World's army was -

Swampland Temple / Swampland Standing Stones
Dragonne Knight x 4 (12)
Troll x 3 (12)
Gold Medallion (4)
Bronze Medallion (4)
Dragonne Rider (2)
Dragonne Tender x 2 (2)

Having never been to a DD tournament I wasn't sure what to expect. The Scalder's racial abilities gave me some insurance from missle and scorching shields made opponents think twice about melee(ing) me. And they are fast enough to outmaneuver magicians even with a windwalk or 2 against them.

The Trolls and Gold Medallion was to just keep me alive, plus they have some pretty sweet melee powers with Smite and Flurry.

The Bronze Medallion was for the occasional Path and Windwalk. Wayfare from both medallions helped a bit too. The Scalder cavalry is ridiculous fast. I knew that they could keep up with any other cavalry units, even those that doubled their results (goblins, dwarves, treefolk). Though getting those 3 off an 8th face with quadruple maneuvers proved tough in playtesting, that's where the Troll's and Smite came in.

If any face was ever on magic the Scalders were quickly to that face and moving it off as fast as possible. The goal was to get an 8th face quickly with the cavalry and then leave the Bronze Medallion, at least one Troll and one Dragonne Knight there to make sure it was fairly safe from a Path / Wayfare.

I always kept at least 1 D. Knight in reserves whenever possible to help reinforce wherever needed. They are crazy fast and have decent saves so they could help out quite a bit and weren't very terrain dependent. If the Trolls weren't going to roll (like just clicking up a melee face without anybody to attack), I would often drop them to reserves just to get a chance at regen if I had any units int he DuA.

The Temple was to help bury since there's only 4 magic total in this army. The Standing stones was because Gold magic is legit and being able to cast it can be pretty important. Though I picked the Swamplands because of my trolls, I think that was a bad choice with all the Leopard Riders I played / saw. If I had them I would have grabbed a Feyland instead.
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HeroScape - Tree Town Open Champion (2008, 2016), Nebraska Skirmish Champion (2008, 2010) GenCon LightWeight Champion (2009), GenCon General Wars (Aquilla Champion 2009) GenCon Unique Hero Champion (2009, 2010)
Dragon Dice - Gen Con Worlds Champion 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 O Town 2013 Overall Winner

[shoesan]

For Single Race, I liked my chances with this Firewalker army... but as luck would have it, I played both of the other Firewalker armies in the tournament, so my terrain movement advantage was limited. I had some bad maneuver luck in my first game to John, and lost. But won the next two. I'd play that army again in the same format... I think it definitely had potential to win it all.

Home Terrain: Wasteland Temple
Genie
Ashbringer
Ashbringer
Sunflare
Sunflare
Sunburst
Expeditioner

Horde:
Fireshadow
Sentinel
Sentinel
Watcher
Watcher
Watcher
Guardian

Frontier Terrain: Wasteland Temple
Guardian

Red Drake
Red Drake
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Shoe

[shoesan]

For what it is worth, here is my No Magicians army that won the tournament, though there were only 4 people in the touranament:

Home Terrain: Swampland City
Troll
Troll
Leopard Rider
Filcher
Cutthoat
Mugger

Horde:
Troll
Leopard Rider
Leopard Rider
Leopard Rider
Wolf Rider
Wolf Rider
Wardog Rider

Frontier Terrain: Swampland City
Thug

My first game was against John K... only the second person I had ever played Dragon Dice against. Talk about a welcome to Dragon Dice playing! I was lucky enough to win, but more importantly, lucky enough to play someone like John early... someone you can really learn from.

I like No Magicians... games go faster and there is less confusion!
_________________
Shoe

[koslowj]

I've got all the paperwork for the events still sitting in my bag. I'll try to pull things out and get the official results posted sometime later this week.
_________________
John Koslow

[DEEPBLUEB2]

[Drachenwurfel]

The Problem is, this two Dice are so horribel strong, you better put One or more in your Army.
If you compare Magic with One of the two Dice, you will see a Magic Army needs 12 Points of Magic for the effect of One of those. If you do this, your Offensive Capability is strongly limited.
On the other way, Troll and Medallion may do theyr trick Not only in Magic, they may do it in Many other Situation.
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All gone

[Matthias Maccabeus]

I do tend to agree with Jim. As I was putting the army together, I initially had a Minor Death, Hedge Wizard, and Trickster x 2 instead of the Bronze Medallion, and the uncommon and common Scalder Cavalry.

But in my play-testing 4 points of Goblin mages really wasn't that exciting and the Regen / Gold Medallion was a way better way to keep my forces alive. I dropped the Mages for the Bronze Medallion because it was way better and could cast Wind Walk as well as Path (which is the main reason I had the mages). I ended up dropping the Minor Death for the lesser Scalder Cavalry because it seemed I needed just a little bit more maneuvers, not more melee (plus for promotion purposes).
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HeroScape - Tree Town Open Champion (2008, 2016), Nebraska Skirmish Champion (2008, 2010) GenCon LightWeight Champion (2009), GenCon General Wars (Aquilla Champion 2009) GenCon Unique Hero Champion (2009, 2010)
Dragon Dice - Gen Con Worlds Champion 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 O Town 2013 Overall Winner

[stormywaters]

I just made a post about Regenerate, so come on over and discuss!

http://sfr-inc.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3143