World Fellowship Report

[tjpandv]

Z is in 4th place after Day 1 - fingers crossed for today.

[TrevortheAwesome]

I know he's advanced to the second round today, he just beat my buddy Ponto.

[thekaiser]

Hey, just heard the news of taking second Zxqueb, congratulations!

So, you are going Liao? Have to get rid of that SC avatar on MWrealms now, eh?

[RoyalScion]

Second....

Trevor just posted that Zxqueb won Fellowship Worlds!

GJ!

[vladdswrath]

Congrats Matt!
Now on to slay the evil Canadians!!!
heh....

[baw]

Good Job Zxqueb!

[Zxqueb]

Heh -- thanks! It was a BLAST at Origins this week! Not only did I win Fellowship worlds, Warlord1985 won the Battlestar Galactica Hotshot tournament. It was a good weekend for northern Ohio!!

I will likely write up a report on Wednesday after I have had time to clear my head and spend some time with my wife!

Z

[mikeguth]

I am honored to have been able to read and post to a site administered by Zxqueb!

mike guth

[baw]

I love to read after action reports. Don't wait too long.. The details will start slipping away

[warlord1985]

Congrats again Z, we all had the best times this weekend.

[dragondawg]

Congrats here too Matt.
Great Job.

Best Origins ever.

Winning last year was great, but this year I had a much better time because I shared so many great times with so many great people. Thanks again to Zxqueb, warlord, jmickle, southpaw, all of Trevor's guys from WA, and so many more. Takar, Jarius, William, Abe, Paul, Jeff, Garry, Anthony, Frank, Chris in CA, Jeremy in VA. Awsome.

[Zxqueb]

This was my third year attending Origins for Mechwarrior. Each year keeps getting better than the year before. In fact, this one would have been outstanding even without the whole winning Fellowship Worlds thing.

It started great with the scrubby match on Wednesday. We had at least 24 people there (perhaps more, I didn’t take names like I should have and people came and left as the evening progressed). I made an effort to pair up people who hadn’t played before, which worked out pretty well. To have Mechwarrior players meeting and making some connections before the con really began was cool. I know I was checking in with many of the “scrubby” players to see how they were doing and the big tournaments began. At the end of the scrubby match, Poncho (one of Trevor’s crew) took home the golden Flavio for winning the match. ObeeKris took scrubbiest army for his pre-aod DF Light lance.

Thursday, while usually my RPG day, was actually still wargaming this year. I played classic Battletech in the morning and D&D minis / the dealers room in the afternoon. That was followed by the Envoy appreciation night which was well run and insightful.

Friday, I was planning on playing in the first day of Nats sealed, but since the Ares event was going on, I opted for that instead. We got 2 vanguard and 1 domination booster for the sealed. My 450 sealed army was:

CJF Thor
--0/2/1 pilot

CNC Anubis
--0/2/1 pilot

HK MHI Amphibious APC
--Liao grey death Scout Battle armor
--HD towed gauss rifle

Total = 449.

I wish I had taken notes on those games, but I didn’t and after all the excitement, they kind of fell out of my brain. At any rate, I went 3/0, but didn’t get enough VCs to win the tournament. Having Dom in the sealed pool was nice for those who pulled a mission card!

Saturday began the Fellowship worlds event. I didn’t play Nats since I was already pre-qualified for Worlds this year. Originally we were going to go 2 sealed (3 boosters / 600 pt) games and 3 constructed games. I wasn’t really keen on 3 boosters / 600 pts because it meant that there was no editing to be done. At that point value, it is more about what you pull and less about how you build your army. Maybe with 2 mechs / booster in wolf it will be less of an issue. Luckily, there was a last minute change in the event to 5 rounds constructed, which I liked much, much better.

The army I ran was:

BR Solitaire / Graves

BR Solitaire / Petros

RotS Bishop
--Merc Kelswa

RotS Bishop
--CNC Thunderbird BA (elite)
--WH Clan BA (vet)
--Wh Clan BA (elite)

HS TTL x2
HS Combat Tech

JF Sylph

True Grit

This army is pretty strong since it has multiple threat points. If I lose one, I have others to back it up. This one has 3 main threats (Solies and the tank drop at 5+ damage), and 3 minor threats (arty + 4 damage pulsers). Repair techs helped to pushmove the TTLs if needed and to repair a battery after it was pushfired (as well as keeping the Solitaires in play).

Round 1:
I played StarDat. He ran:
4 HD Havoks + 0/2/1 pilots and decoy and the HD FP.

I played Hooray for the underdogs. He ran a mission as well. We had loads of water in play. He ran up to my army on the first turn. I tank dropped with a crit miss. We shot at each other for a while. He killed Petros and the kelswa as I remember, I salvaged a couple of his mechs and killed one. I made the mistake of pulsing the last and putting it into salvage. I missed the suicide army. It was well played by Stardat and a dumb error by me. I lost that one with 2 VCs. He had 3VCs. I was glad to see him do well in the tournament.


Round 2:
So I was at the top of the losers bracket. I played Cruxmea who had the bye in round 1. He ran:

Jack / LE Julz + repair
WH Loki + heat seaking ammo + 1/1/0
HL Hadur
HD LRM battery
BR Shock troopers
HD Grey death

He played something that made everything blocking – Mountain range, I think. I played Dust storm and basically took the strike range away from him. I hit the Loki early and kept jack based while I whittled it down with my Kelswa and Scott. This was a pretty solid win with 3 VCs.

Round 3:
Played MechMedic. He played:
Jack / Julz
Seka + preferred pilot + enhanced range targeting
3 NC atvs
1 HK atv
1 ROTS Minigun

Mechmedic is a really good player and a good guy. This was an amazingly hard fought battle. He played crags on me, so it was hard for me to get to seka. I can’t remember what I played. He sat Seka in water behind blocking and shot at me as I advanced. I based him with a Sylph, managed to get behind seka and tag it. Afterwards, I was able to move in and finish her off. In the end I won with VCs 1 and 2, he took VC3.

Round 4:
Played kuryakin:

Seka + Yuri+ Decoy
Mjolnir + 2/1/0 pilot
LI Longtom
CJF Longtom
DF Skandi
WH PAL
WH Minigun
M PAL

Another fine player. Another Seka, this one without Jack thankfully. There was a lot of maneuvering in this game. He missed one of my solitaires that had moved in for rear arc on his seka, but missed. I managed to take that one out and slowly take out his arty while maneuvering away from his seka. I managed to eek out another close win, this time with 3 VCs.

Round 5:
Played Safari.Joe:
Jack / Julz
Seka + preferred pilot + enhanced range targeting
4 rots atvs

Another intense battle. I got off some really beneficial terrain placement which helped me keep Jack out of play a bit. He had to come forward and left jack pretty vulnerable. That allowed me to kill jack and retreat. SJ wasn’t able to kill enough to make a comeback and If I remember correctly I was able to kill off seka close to the end of the game. I won this one with 2VCs.


So I finished Day 1 at 4/1 and placed 4th.

Top 16, I played Ponto first, who won the scrubby match. He’s a really solid player and a nice guy. I had been checking in with him all week long and was happy to see him do well. He was playing a tank drop crazy army.

RotS Bishop
--WH Kelswa
RotS Bishop
--WH Kelswa
RotS Bishop
--WH TGR x2
--HD TGR
SS Paladin
SS Gun Nest x2
DH Gray Death Scount BA x2
CNC Shamash
CNC ATV x3

We had Crags and caverns in play. Each turn the game went from him to me as we killed similar point units. I took out one kelswa drop, he killed Selene. I killed some infantry, he killed some infantry. I had the last turn and killed one last ATV swinging me the game. It was CLOSE… the closest game I had all tournament and quite a lot of fun! My Faction pride almost lost me this one. I had VC 1 and 2 (barely) he had VC3.


Game 2
Played darvinyar2. He played:

WH Thor/Aiko/Decoy
HD Bishop
--WH Kelswa
SH Sniper Artilery
JF Sniper Team x3
RD Sylph
SH TTL
WH Minigun
True Grit

Perfect day in play. I have to say, this game might have been different if darvinyar was fresh. As it was, he had barely slept the night before and was noticeably having a hard time concentrating. He made some major mistakes with both his transport (allowing me to kill it with the tank early in the game) and his mech, leaving it vulnerable to my tank drop. This one was a win with 3VCs.

Game 3:
Played Surat01 who was undefeated. He had:
CNC Anubis/Mazur
"Esperanza" Loki/Consuela
WH MHI
--HS TTL x2
Liao Long Tom
Liao Sniper Team
RotS Combat Techs

Perfect day in play. The army is pretty solid and obviously was one he was comfortable with given his record. I was able to get a drop on esperanza and hit her for 5 and finish her off soon after. It didn’t help that Surat wasn’t able to hit. Like at all. The whole game. He was beaten as much by his own terrible dice luck as by my play. Win with 3VCs.

Game 4: The championships.

Played Safari.Joe again. He had switched up his army, this time using:
CNC Nova Cat (vet)/Stark/Hyper Laser
CNC Nova Cat (vet)/DeJesus/Hyper Laser
CNC ATV x3
CNC Faction Pride

Neither of us had PCs left. So we were playing missions. I was holding “Last Man Standing” for luck. I forget which Mission S.J had. I was second player, so I placed blocking terrain close enough to get my bishops too on my first turn (10” since they were in the air) and one slightly to my right and closer to my DZ so he couldn’t see my DZ from the left ¾ of the board. He placed two small waters on the left and right side of the board that he could get to on one turn. He based my mechs with 2 atvs and left the third around the side of the blocking. His mechs took to water on the first turn. I close combated the atvs on my turn for three each and moved my bishops to nape of earth and behind blocking. Turn 2 S.J let his mechs clear (he couldn’t AO me or shoot me directly with the blocking between us and didn’t want to run). He based my kelswa’s bishop with his last atv. On my turn I shot the atv with my sylph and layed a pog under it. I broke my mechs at a run and ran them into the middle of the H building, killing his two atvs. Turn 3, he ran his mechs into LOS to threaten my drops. My turn, I hit the pog, killed the atv with my sylph dropped the formation and the kelswa and tagged his righthand NC for 5. My mechs cleared and went to green. He hit my Kelswa with the hyperlasers, killing it. I pushed my infantry formation to hit back with a pulse attack (though I can’t remember if I hit the pulse or not). In another turn or two I had taken out the one NC with Petros CC assault and forced the other to assault Scott (missing). He shut down and I was able to take him apart pretty quickly from there.

Overall, it was a solid game on both of our parts and my first playing against hyperlaser.

I have to say, the best part of being at big tournaments is the caliber of players. I had some extremely close games that could have gone either way easily. But beyond their skill level, the players were good guys to play against. Even though there was only one Fellowship award to give out, every single person I played was MORE than deserving of it. Its this reason that get me back to high level tournaments year in and year out. Kudos to the entire Mechwarrior Community at Origins! It was a BLAST!!

[tjpandv]

Great write up Z. It really sums up what you have to go through in a big tourney to get to the final rounds. I just love the way your day started with a crit miss on a TD and ended up with you winning it.

Your event was a good incite into the top tier at 600 points - I think if I came across a pair of Hyperlasers on Nova Cats, I'd have been like a rabbit in a set of headlamps. Did they work for him or did the RISC gear backfire?

I suppose whoever won the Fellowship for the Worlds Fellowship must be the nicest guy on the planet - he probably just rolled 2 dice at a time to give his opponent a chance.

Were there any non-US/Canadian players present? Maybe I'll save up my air miles and make the trip next year.

How did the TTLs do without transport?

I hope Elite has sent you a PM telling you off for not having any IT in your army...

[elite130]

lol, his choices and he did not consult me, from what I have seen he doesnt need to. BAW would agree with me but different people differen choices. His where the wisest on the days it mattered.

Good show Z

See you in 6 weeks

[baw]

Great write up Zxqueb. I am glad to see other peopel felt the pressure of the long intense sessions of playing I should have gone to origins to practice for that! I barely get to play now since I am running most of the events

Lol.. I was suprised by the sheer LACK of IT in the armies.. Sometimes I dream about putting 2 IT gear in a single mech and forget the Pilot (j/k)

I was playing a game yesterday where IT saved me out of a couple of Crit misses I am still really struggling about what to play at Worlds.. I played against a poor player yesterday in the First Scenario of July. His first roll to open a cache.. double sixes. His dice roll were incredible. I still won but it was a close thing. I would like to have him come to Worlds to roll dice for me 15 as an average I think I need to buy plane tickets soon