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Chris Yaure vs AJ Sudy |
UK's Graeme Tate vs Jason Levine |
Middle Earth Revival ...
Using the new second edition rules and Saturday/Sunday scheduling
was successful in returning the War of the Ring field
back to the middle 20's, with the third highest count to date!
In the Mulligan round on Saturday afternoon, 18 people appeared,
and thankfully half of them had the new second edition game in
hand. Nine games were played to impressively kick off the 2013
march to Mount Doom!
The new second edition rules proved fatal to the Shadow minions
in a number of the Mulligan games. Graeme Tate's FP killed off
Jacob Hebner's Saruman on Turn 3 with the Ents and followed that
up with a Witch King killing Blade of Westernesse on Turn 6 en
route to a ring dunk win. John Pack managed similar carnage,
killing off Kevin Wojtaszczyk's Saruman on Turn 3 with the Ents
and Witch King on Turn 7 by counterattacking Rohan forces. However
the DEW line could not hold and the Corsairs assisted in squeaking
out 10 VPs the turn before the FP would be pulling hunt tiles
for the win in Mordor. Dan Hoffman killed off Joe Yaure's Witch
King, but fell to the corruption of the ring. Aragorn was crowned
in seven of the opening games, four of which turned out to be
FP victories. The Dwarven ring bidding had four zero bids, three
games gave the FP one ring and two gave the FP two rings, with
four of those five Dwarven ring assisted FP games yielding wins
for the FP. After the first salvo of games, the balanced second
edition rules did prove true, with five SP victories (three SPMV,
two Corruption) and four FP victories (four Ring dunks).
In
Round 1 on Saturday night, eight more games were played with
a couple mulligan winners joining in to get anothersecond edition
game under their belts. The Shadow got the best of this round
with six SP victories (three SPMV, three Corruption) to just
two FP victories (1 Ring dunk, 1 FPMV). John Pack's FP almost
got a win vs AJ Sudy, but the last hunt tile corrupted Frodo
just as he was going to throw the Ring into Mount Doom. Jeff
Pattison had an epic game vs Tom Vickery going 13 turns with
Tom's FP recapturing Woodland realm to break the SP military
machine. However a Morgul Wound in Turn 13 corrupted the FP when
they were on their trek in Mordor. Andy Latto had a heck of a
time attacking Woodland realm in his game vs Kevin Lewis. 22
failed dice in a row, but the FP had a late Turn 8 Gandalf the
White which gave Andy time to regroup his forces and grab a SPMV.
Chris Trimmer also had an epic 17-turn game vs Dan Hoffman. He
managed to recapture Minas Tirth by two legions and held it through
the end to break Dan's military push. In Mordor, the fellowship
was saved from corruption by Mithril Coat & Sting to grab
the Ring dunk victory. Alexander Lange managed the first FPMV
in the tournament vs Martin Sample. Five games had 0 Dwarven
rings while two had two given to the FP and one had four given
to Steve Worrel's FP. However those four dwarven rings could
not stop Lyman "Berserker Uruk-hai" Moquin from his
SPMV.
Sunday morning's second round dawned on a perfect 16 qualifiers
advancement and the Free People's got back on the winning track.
Six of the eight games went to the FP, three each by FPMV and
Ring Dunks. Only Matt Bugbee's and Kevin Wojtaszczyk's Shadow
forces managed wins via military victories. Michael Sosa achieved
the second FPMV of the tournament over Jacob Hebner while Graeme
Tate's FP militarily ousted Jason Levine from the tournament.
Scott Burns followed them with a Umbar+Orthanc FPMV over Joe
Yaure. Lyman "Berserker Uruk-hai" Moquin's SP just
fell short vs Jeff Pattison's FP, having his winning VPs sieging
the Elves, but Jeff's FP dunked the ring while at 10 corruption
just in the nick of time. Andy Latto killed off Chris Trimmer's
Witch King on Turn 6 and used that momentum to dunk the Ring.
Christopher Yaure's FP hit 11 corruption and survived a final
hunt pull by AJ Sudy facing a 65%/35% hunt pool for the win.
The FP ended up with three dwarven rings in three games (one
a loss), one in two others and zero in the remaining three.
The next round kept the Free People's rolling with all four
games going to the FP by Ring dunks!. The only Dwarven rings
given were one to the Shadow by Kevin Wojtaszczyk's FP to Michael
Sosa's Shadow. Kevin managed some early luck in the hunt, not
being found till half way to Mordor and then avoiding any corruption
issues. A quick walk through Mordor looked like the plan, but
a Lidless Eye play to pump four eyes into the hunt box and a
subsequent Eye tile pull caused a big corruption jump and slowed
the FSP a turn. In the meantime Michael's shadow completed the
capture of six VPs and were in siege on the remaining four, but
a low eye roll made a safe passage on the final steps up Mount
Doom. Graeme Tate's shadow had the best shot of breaking the
Free People's dominance of the round, getting Andy Latto's FP
to 10 corruption and then drawing the Shelob tile! However a
1 was rolled which saved the FSP from corruption death and gave
Andy a chance to play some character healing cards and squeak
out a win. Jeff Pattison managed to get Gandalf the White in
Turn 1 vs Matt Bugbee and the extra actions proved critical to
slow the shadow military and give Jeff a FP ring dunk on Turn
12. The longest game of the tournament was a monumental battle
between Scott Burns FP vs defending champion Christopher Yaure's
SP. Scott drew every card from each deck in the game while Christopher
almost drew all the Shadow cards. The FP military were thick
which really hampered the Shadow military and in the end gave
the FP the additional turns needed to dunk the ring.
In the semifinal round no Dwarven rings were bid and the Shadow
stopped the FP's winning ways. Andy Latto's SP used the Rage
of the Dunlendings to muster forces to surprise attack the Shire
for the final victory point and avoid challenging a large Aragorn
force protecting Peligar. Kevin Wojtaszczyk's shadow was hampered
by a number of high eye rolls, but they did prove damaging in
the hunt. Most notably the critical reveal tile drawn on the
FSP third move, which had Scott Burns choose to take the longer
FSP route than risk additional hunt tile pulls stopping in Moria.
Scott's FSP still managed to make it to Mordor and was in a position
to draw tiles for dunking the ring on the next turn, but Kevin's
shadow squeaked out 10 VPs just in time, with a lone S&E
regular holding down Dol Amroth by a sieging Aragon force with
no dice left to attack.
The final was shifted to Tuesday morning so we could both get
in a heat of Hannibal. Ironically, the random pairings from Hannibal
had us destined to play against each other that evening! With
the under card Hannibal game completed and a bunch of Monday
events under our belts, we got back to completing the history
of the One Ring. In the bidding, Andy got two Dwarven rings to
play the FP. The first set of action dice rolled for the Shadow
were a disaster. Kevin allocated one eye and then rolled four
more along with one army and one character die. No musters, no
events, along with five eyes... Sure enough, with all those Eyes
Andy moved safely once to force one allocated eye next turn and
started mustering the elves to war. Turn 2 had two Wills and
a C for the FP while the SP got two musters and a couple more
eyes. Andy moved the FSP twice, being found on the third move
and choosing to kill off Gandalf to the 1r and take the one longer
northern route to avoid additional hunt tiles from sitting in
Moria. He had his eye on a Turn 2 Gandalf the White, but with
only the shadow's first two musters of the game, Kevin got Isengard
to War and then waiting for his last die to muster in Saruman
to deny Andy's Turn 2 Gandalf the White. Turn 3 had Andy use
up his Dwarven rings which turned an M->P and a P->C hoping
for a Will of the West to get Gandalf the White. The SP haven't
rolled an event yet and used a Character die to play Palantir
of Orthanc to give the FP the choice of killing that card or
promoting Gandalf with the next Will they roll. The Elves got
pushed to one space from war as Andy was denying an easy Witch
King and Celeborn's Galadhrim got another elite into Lorien.
By Turn 4 Mordor forces were outside the forests of the Woodland
and Lorien realms. Andy pushed the Elves to war at that point
and Kevin sieged Woodland Realm while Lorien built another elite.
Power of Tom Bombadil also appeared. The WK was mustered and
captured Woodland realm with minimal resistance and Gandalf the
White was promoted because Will was rolled. Kevin started hounding
the FP last known position with Nazgul to get hunt re-rolls.
The Palantir cycled a few cards but the FP managed to get three
blue special tiles to no red special tiles played for their future
trek in Mordor. Turn 5 had the North and Dwarves start heading
down to war and Isengard was mustering many troops with the Voice.
Turn 6 got Worn with Sorrow and Toil played while Strider left
for Minas Tirth. Misty Mountains boasted Moria troops joined
with Rage of Dunlendings and Voice forces to launch an assault
on Rivendell while the S&E got to war. With the Elven muster
bag down to just one elite left, Andy played A Power too Great
in hopes of preventing the attack but Kevin burned an army and
character card with an action die to remove the card and Rivendell
fell, though damaged the SP forces. Meanwhile the FSP kept moving
toward Mordor, taking a stop in Dale to kill WWST. Turn 7 gave
the SP an opportunity with the FP using up their Wills/Character
dice early leaving just army/muster dice to take a stab at Rohan.
Andy had consolidated his force from Edoras to Helms Deep and
scouted out of the Fords of Isen. Kevin chose to siege, but not
attack Helms Deep, and then capture Edoras and all the Rohan
muster spots before grouping his forces back in the Helms Deep
siege. Four regulars, the WK and 4 Nazgul then left Rivendell
and headed West. Andy got the Dwarves to war and started to look
at protecting the Grey Havens and the Shire, along with locking
down Erebor. Turn 8 was a critical turning point for the Shadow.
The FSP were revealed only two away from Mordor and rolled W,W,P,
M,C,C. They hid with the first C, but then a Day without Dawn
killed the two Wills. This was followed up with Shadows Gather
which triple moved the force outside of Lorien to team up with
the 4/0/5 heading toward the Grey Havens, making it an 8/2/5.
The lack of dice caused the Grey Havens to fall. The FSP also
did not have the dice to get to Mordor after the first move they
tried revealed them. The ninth turn the SP rolled four eyes and
no character dice, but had Shadows Lengthen to jump the remaining
Orthanc forces to Helms Deep to make a 5/5/5 stack and the S&E
moved outside of Peligar. However the vacated Orthanc was too
tempting for the Ents to avoid, so Saruman was killed. Turn 10
had the FSP declared in Mordor and the SP with seven VPs. The
FP rolled four C/W's,P and M, so with an elven ring they could
try and run and dunk in one turn. Meanwhile the SP did not roll
a C which stranded all the Nazgul leadership in the Grey Havens,
far from the looming battles in Helms Deep, not with 0 leadership,
and either Peligar, Shire and/or Dale. Andy's first tile draw
was a reveal leaving no chance at running the five steps, so
he turned to extending the game one more turn and getting half
way up the mountain. The SP only had four possible army dice,
with using the Mouth to change a muster to an army. To start,
Kevin launched the siege in Helms Deep, sans any leadership.
Luckily, We Come to Kill got a few extra hits and knocked down
the Helms Deep forces. Kevin chose to stop the battle and in
the end used three action dice and an elite continuation on the
fourth try to finally break behind the walls of Helms Deep to
take his ninth VP. The Dwarves in Erebor moved to defend Dale
and then counterattacked Woodland. They took heavy losses but
knocked down the SP DEW forces so they could not take Dale. Peligar
however could not hold to a final die assault to close out the
remaining tenth VP just before the FP could have another turn
to run the last three steps of Mount Doom giving Kevin the SPMV.
The final tally showed the FP had won 16 games (4 FPMV, 12
Ring Dunks) to the SP's 16 games (11 SPMV, 5 Corruption). The
games tended toward the 3-4 hour range with only a few epic battles
pushing into the realm of 4-5 hours. No 5+ hr adjunctions were
needed. So both the game balance and length seem to be improved
with the new second edition rules. With the increase in participaion
ttoo, I'm planning on keeping the same format. A thank you goes
out to everyone who played in this year's tournamenand a special
thanks to those who brought along a copy of the game. With our
increasing numbers and 2-player format, we are always in need
of people to bring copies of the game and it is much appreciated.
Congrats to everyone on a great tournament and I hope to see
everyone back for 2014's battle for Middle Earth! For those interested,
make sure you check out BoardGameGeek around February/March of
2014 to sign up for the International War of the Ring
Online tournament!
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Lucas Rhodes vs Matt Bugbee |
Finalist Andy Latto cannot deny Kevin
Wojtaszczyk his third title. |
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