Splitcog Studios: Wrath of Kings Tournament at Game On! in Chattanooga

Flying Squirrel Bar in Chattanooga...go there!

This past Saturday I attended a tournament at Game On! in lovely Chattanooga Tennessee. I always love going to visit Chattanooga (it helps that I have some excellent friends who live up there and know all the best places to eat/drink). This trip was no exception.

Check out the Flying Squirrel Bar if you get a chance. Excellent beer selection, great setting, and most importantly fantastic food!

On to the tournament!

Zach Beker did a great job running his first tournament. Using the Conquest of Kings tournament setup, he deviated slightly by allotting time to deploy before starting the round timer, thus giving us more time to actually play. Both styles have their benefits, but I'd much rather have more time to actually play the game than spend a portion of it deploying.

Game On! is a clean store with excellent air conditioning and friendly staff. The locals gave me a warm welcome and I got to see (and play against) against several people I first met at the CMoN Expo.

We had 6 players (2 each from the houses of Teknes, Nasier, and Hadross) in this skirmish level tournament and played 3 rounds.

My Hadross list consisted of:

Gutter Friar x2
Frenzy Charger x1
Carcharian Frenzies x3
Sevridan Gutters x4
Deepmen Guardians x4
Calith Reavers x2

Option A: Ilva
Option B: Sevridan Gutters x3

Motivations were (in order): Treasure Hunt, Burn It Down, Land Grab

My first round was against a fat bottom girl list from Ross, one of the local Nasier players. Lots and lots of Pelegarth, including a Howl and the character. Wow are they tough to crack open. My first onslaught with the Carcharians resulted in a lot of sloughed off strikes while the Sevridan had a better go at it. I was mopping up objectives for Treasure Hunt while he was trying to get his leaders stuck in but not over extended for Call to Glory. Ilva was the MVP of this match as her Wail obliterated swaths of pelegarth. Hadrossian victory!

Round 2 resulted in 3 mirror matches. My opponent was the other Hadross player Chasen. We had been talking tactics most of the day so far, so I knew it was going to be a grueling bout. Hadross is expertly equipped at taking out Hadross. He brought more sharks than I did, but our lists were pretty similar. He racked up points using Sever the Head and got a huge early hit taking out my Ilva with his. After our armies took severe beatings all game, we drew at 0 to 0.

Final round I played against Mike Schaefer. Mike's a real stand up guy I met and played at the CMoN Expo and so far his pigs and linemen went undefeated. Taking the win in this match would put me at 7 Tournament points to his 6. We both took Land Grab for our motivations, and I was confident that I could lure him away and drop either sharks or crabs on my objectives to keep things close. Starting out 11 to 8 morale (he had a lot of pigs and linemen) meant that I had to keep the pressure on him. Ilva's Syren's Call and the Sevridan's Gelatinous Shift were extremely useful for keeping him from popping his objectives. His Zalaak's abomination was troublesome...and the CAGE didnt see much action. The game went to time with a score of 8 to 7 in Mike's favor for the tournament win relegating me to somewhere around 3rd or 4th place.

I did get Top of House and a set of gold foil Hadross stat cards though!

Ilva was hands down my MVP. Ilva riding a crab the first round or two is absolutely killer. Unfortunately you have to really dedicate to that list with at least 3 ranks of specialists...and by unfortunately I mean for your opponent's 1 wound infantry.

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The tournament point system is interesting in the fact that after 3 round I was playing for 1st or 3rd place, but not really 2nd place depending on how the other 2 games went in round 3. So even if you lose a round, you're still in the running.

As people get more practiced at the game, I'm sure the 1 hour time limit for skirmish level will be more viable. I urge TO's with newer player bases to let the games examine cards, make choices, roll for side, and deploy before starting the round clock. Or adding a few extra minutes to the pregame period and allow deployment during then to give the players more time to actually play.

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Some pictures of the tournament taken by Zach Beker!