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ARMOR WARS© MARQUEE

8th January 2006

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Excitement and tension were in the air as Middlesbrough saw its first Marquee Heroclix event for the Armor Wars© expansion. Weakened by his wife’s birthday party the night before and carrying just over three bricks of Armor Wars boosters Crimson Duck turned up bright and early with Craig to set up the tables for the day's affair. Each table was adorned with a laminated map and two tasteful lime green Score Card Sheets ready for the players to record their teams on. Something special for the Marquee! Attendance was a very respectable ten players, including one player making his tournament debut and three other players who had not taken part in the previous day's event. Excellent news. This meant Heroclix in Middlesbrough had seen attendance of 21 over the two weekend events with no less than 15 different players taking part. It also meant the Judge wasn’t going to end up well out of pocket with his gesture of ensuring the new retail venue would see a sales increase in Heroclix by pre-buying the cases for the day.

  ®rmor ®

Armor Wars© as good as Fantastic Forces©?

Why don't you buy some and find out - then come and join in at one of our tournaments. Newcomers are ALWAYS welcome!
   
The players each coughed up £15 for three boosters apart from Ste D who had coughed up £15 worth of comics the day before and Parry who coughed up £10 and a Veteran Ultron as negotiated the day before. A fair amount of Uniques were pulled including three for Parry (Shathra™, Sentry™ and one I don’t remember) and three for James (who kept it very quiet ‘till the Duck spotted it) including the very nice Spider-man™. Other highlights included Ste D’s third Spider-Woman™ (not including the New Guy Night one he got at NGN or the one he bought off eBay) another Sentry™, a Black King and a Mystique™. We also saw a Veteran Ultron™ (damn my impatience I could have gotten him for less than a fiver now there are two in the town), Titanium Man™ and Warmachine™ so overall some nice pulls. Ste Date would have claimed the 'duff booster pull' award had there been one with a fairly wrethced selection.

 

The players muster teams from their three boosters each
   
One of the most impressive things seen today was two Unique Sentrys pulled but neither one were used in the game. Shame someone had to go and spoil it by using the Veteran Titanium Man™ and then rolling well too, you know who you are! Sick and tired of seeing the Battle of the Ste’s taking in place in the first round of just about every tournament to date, Judge Duck had decided to employ a new randomising mechanism for first round pairing. Rather than a straight shuffle of score cards and laying out on tables he shuffled and then asked for numbers to be picked. Just for fun, he looked at the top two sheets prior to asking for the first random number … Ste Hunt, followed by Ste Date. Thank goodness he had devised the new technique.

sentry is a drunk

Matt - always smiling and Sentry, drunken hobo who didn't see the light of day
   
Round one saw Stephen Hunt’s “Destroy Doug Ramsey” team wipe out Liam Cooke’s nameless Iron Man™ (E), Executioner™ (E), Echo™ (V) and Wendigo™ (R) team thanks to a very open map and three running shot characters. It just goes to show how important winning the map choice can be. Dave Smith lost a very tight first round battle to Matt Barker by 16 points as Ultron™ needed a jump-start to get going on this particular Sunday morning. Perhaps he was just confused by the Psylocke™ twins? Parry Cooke was fairing no better than his sibling as he went down to Ste Date’s uninspiringly symmetrical “Banshee Master” including two Spymaster™ and two Banshee™ (Beegora and Bejaysus). Phil Grinstead had once again travelled from Durham to battle with clix and he made a good start here by disposing of James Phoenix’s “Firebirds” entirely and losing only Spymaster™ and Banshee™ from his “Mystique et al” force. Yes, there were a lot of Spymaster™ and Banshee™ about today. Craig’s “Looking for Sanity” began to find some in a victory over Paul Wastell’s “First and Only”. I do hope that the name doesn’t reflect the intentions on Heroclix tournaments for this debutant. Paul did pretty well, scoring 215 points from the more experienced Heroclixer and relative tournament veteran using Magma™, Shaman™, Ghost™, Echo™, Firebrand™ and Captain America™ to fairly good effect.

Matt beating Dave. Dave got to the final so that was a great effort Matt
   
Ste D and Ste H obviously disapproved of my thwarting Lady Chance by sneakily changing my pairing method as their first round wipeouts saw them come face to face for Swiss Round 2. Will this curse never end? Ste D didn’t fair too well this time round suffering a total annihilation at the hands of Titanium Man™ in a map strangely reminiscent of that seen in the first round. I am beginning to thing Mr. Hunt was particularly wanting a John Walker LE by the end of today. He was certainly giving it his best shot! Phil moved to 2 – 0 with a win over Matt’s “E-Jazz”. Banshee™ may have been protected but it didn’t stop the minions of Mystique™ kicking the living daylights out of him and his less Irish supporting cast. Good man that Matt is he took his thrashing with a grin and still seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. At some point I will have to play Matt in a friendly game or Judge-up another willing volunteer/victim so I can actually get a game against the bloke.

Haven't we played each other before?
   
Dave bounced back from his first round loss by using his “He’s Behind You” team to take out Craig’s Iron Man™, Crimson Dynamo™ and co. Ultron™ must have had some caffeine in his system by now as he had woken up and was firing on all cylinders. Somewhere in the midst of round two the strangest result I have ever witnessed was unfolding. Brothers and fierce opponents Parry and Liam faced off against each other in luxurious looking accommodation with a swimming pool. As I wandered past I noticed their game had ended early and enquired how it had gone. They told me they had agreed to end early with Liam taking a serious beating. Looking at Liam’s scorecard, I saw he had 306 points recorded with a defeat. I assumed there was a miscalculation as I explained that in a 300 point game if you had scored more than 300 points you must have won (arch rivals not withstanding). Further investigation revealed that the brothers had agreed to end the game with most of Liam’s force battered but hanging on by a thread, not realising that the points total was the deciding factor. So, in a strange quirk Liam picked up the win and both players learnt a valuable lesson on Heroclix tournament rules.

Calm before the ... more calm
   
That just left James and Paul to battle out the fifth second round match. Having walked by the game twice and seen an experienced Quicksilver™’s damage perplexed to three before a successful Hypersonic attack from James on the first occasion and a critical hit on three characters with a Pulse Wave by him on the second I was amazed to learn that Paul had won by 310 points to 285. I dread to think what must have been happening when I wasn’t walking past that table to account for such a result. Were you using some of my dice for some of the game by any chance James?

   
Round three saw Phil’s luck from his previous tournament reversed, as he had to play the top man in round three. Phil had just made the final of his previous event by avoiding the horrendous prospect of facing Veteran Icons© Superman™ in the third round. Phil fared better than those who had faced Ste’s Titanium Man™ running shot menace before him, but realised his chances of victory were slim as a third consecutive roll saw Ste choose a very open map (at least he picked a different one this time). Ste suffered his first casualty in losing rookie Ghost™ but took out an Echo™and a Banshee™ to claim a victory and finish 3-0 to claim a place in the final.

On an unrelated and totally pointless note I think Phil is quite possibly the healthiest Heroclixer in the North (if not the UK) with his fruit and bottled water. Brain food and brain juice eh? I might have to try that, but new dice might also be a good idea.

   
Dave Smith’s Ultron™ continued to grow in strength leading to a pretty convincing 476 points to 123 win and helping to amass an impressive 1238 point total over the three rounds. Craig was more than happy to achieve a first tournament victory over Ste Date – it just shows what strange things can happen in a sealed booster environment. Both players even agreed that is was a very good game afterwards, wonders will never cease. Craig wiped out Ste’s force and hung on to about half of his own for a total of 434 third round points. Matt’s “E-Jazz” took on Liam’s nameless four and Liam did really well to triumph and clinch a final placing above his brother which is was pretty pleased with. Ahhhhh sibling rivalry, you can’t beat it. As Liam was winning, Parry was completing a pretty bad day of dice rolling and hot Shathra™ death by losing again at the hands of James. I would imagine that pulling three Uniques from three boosters was pretty good consolation for bring up the rear of the final placings though.

Dave's Ultron™ gives Craig's lot a good seeing to
   
Feeling compelled to ensure the atmosphere of the inaugural Marquee Event felt special and to maintain a bit of suspense, Judge Duck read out the final standings in reverse order. Well done to Dave who made his first ever tournament final and meh to Ste on reaching his umpteenth (just kidding Ste, or am I?). A couple of the players wanted to buy one or more of the spare boosters, so after a bit of ducking and diving, borrowing and lending of boosters and contents all eight of the other players were pooled into two four-player pods for an exciting Battle Royale event for an extra prize!

Random picture of Heroclix© to fill space
   
Craig, Liam, James and Phil made up the first pod (3rd – 6th placed) whilst Ste, Paul Matt and Parry were involved in Pod 2 (7th- 10th placed) with the last two survivors of each pod facing off in a final. Figures didn’t heal between the two rounds either so a chaotic slug-a-thon was all but ensured. Or at least that was the theory. The first pod went to plan with the four immediately jumping in and kicking lumps out of each other. The second pod were somewhat more reticent about throwing caution to the wind and time was called before players were eliminated. As it was Liam, Parry, Phil and James moved into the final, with Phil pipping James to the winners prize LE.

Battle Royale ... well it was on one table at least!
   
In the Marquee Final running concurrently, Ste Hunt’s mobility was once again proving the deciding factor as Titanium Man™ and friends soon set about the Ultron™ crew to show who was boss of the Armour Heads. It was at least nice to see two characters in battle armour leading the two teams in the final being that it was an Armor Wars™ marquee and for even more effect, Dave’s lot had an Armor Piercing feat too. Unfortunately, the final was a little one-sided and Dave only managed to take down a rookie Ghost™ and an experienced Spymaster™ whilst his team were obliterated. One step closer to a win Dave, you are certainly challenging the big boys now. I reckon the next event or two with the luck of the dice on your side we could well be seeing you pick up the tournament winners award for the first time.

Winner Ste Hunt (left) and Fellowship Winner Dave Smith
   
Final placings were …
Placing Name W L Points
1 Stephen Hunt(*F) 3 0 1543
2 Dave Smith (*F) 2 1 1238
3 Phil Grinstead 2 1 1186
4 Craig Woolnough 2 1 939
5 Liam Cooke 2 1 733
6 James Phoenix 1 2 843
7 Steve Date 1 2 684
8 Paul Wastell 1 2 648
9 Matt Barker 1 2 637
10 Parry Cooke 0 3 456

Showdown in the park - the Battle Royale Final!
   
All in all it was a great day. Ten players for our first Marquee was pretty darn good attendance (even if I do say so myself). This included one tournament virgin and another player who had travelled 30 miles to take part and we had a great mix of players both experienced and novice. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and I think its fair to say so did the players who took part. Really special thanks must go to Sam as ever for providing the venue and meaning this could actually take place. The teas and coffee went down really well today and I even managed to get someone else to do some of them (although I was stuck with the washing up again). Thanks to Wizkids for their support, to Paul Mc for registering his store in the Approved Play system that enabled the marquee to take place. Most of all thanks to everyone who took part and made it such a great event with a brilliant atmosphere. We need players to keep supporting these events to keep them viable and at the moment we are going from strength to strength thanks to you guys. Let's keep the Heroclix flag flying high in Middlesbrough … and then spread the joy to the Southerners by travelling out and taking over the world.

Ste Date creates the best formation seen since the classic Kobra Christmas Tree of Gencon 2005. It still got hammered though! Shame, shame, shame ...
   

 

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