Tournament Report from the 4th Badisch Conquest Game 1 Sorcerer Kings vs. City States

Overview:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Hello everyone,

After illnesses and accidents affected my playing last month, I was really looking forward to the upcoming tournament on July 6, 2024, in March near Freiburg. Finally, three games in a row, even though nearly eight hours of travel can be exhausting. But there was an open challenge against my Sorcerer Kings from Carsten (Redfreak on Discord) and a meal at the Hirsch – that sounded good. So, we set off on Friday morning to visit Konrad and the others in the south. The journey to March near Freiburg was long, but the prospect of the upcoming meal, uh... tournament, and the reunion with friends made the hours fly by.

I had originally wanted to play a complete fire list, but my motivation to paint things in the heat was rather low. So, I just took what I had already painted. I wanted to swap the Eye for Jadoo, but a devious plan prevented me from doing so. Alternatively, it might also be possible that I simply forgot. In the end, it didn’t matter, as I, being the friendly casual player next door, don’t rely on my playing skills or the faction, but only on the favor of my patron deity.

My Armylist:

 Sorcerer Kings [2000/2000]

- Raj [160]: Shu'laat, Bound to the Elements
  - Efreet Sword Dancers (5) [270]
  - Ghols (3) [110]
  - Steelheart Djinn (3) [190]
  - Steelheart Djinn (3) [190]

- (Warlord) Maharajah [120]: Court of Fire
  - Rajakur (3) [120]

- Sorcerer [130]: Eye of the Blazing Tempest, Court of Fire
  - Efreet Flamecasters (3) [160]
  - Efreet Sword Dancers (3) [170]
  - Rajakur (3) [120]
  - Rakshasa Bakasura (1) [260]

Redfreaks Armylist:

[1990/2000]
== (Warlord) Aristarch [120]: Atalanta's Spear
 * Selinoi (3) [130]: 
 * Hoplites (5) [245]: Dorilates, Minotaur Haspist Auxiliary
 * Satyroi (3) [200]: 
 * War Chariots (Skorpios) (2) [260]: Skorpios

== Polemarch [175]: Blades of Eakides, Inscription of Lighter Alloys, Disorienting Strikes
 * Hoplites (5) [245]: Dorilates, Minotaur Haspist Auxiliary
 * Agema (4) [245]: Andromachos
 * Minotaur Thyreans (3) [190]:
* Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]:

City States with chariots, two large hoplite blocks, and extra stuff. Nothing unusual so far, and this list variant, which I had to play against in game 3 as well, is currently quite popular. Personally, I prefer playing against these rather than the Vanguard army, as it bothers me when Thorakites/Agema with Polemarchs jump in my face. Redfreak went 2:1 with the list at the tournament, and first we played the "Grind them Down" scenario, which I had practiced with the Sorcerer Kings several times in the past few days.

In round 1, we both placed our lone Light unit on the field, and in round 2, all three of my mages joined the battle. Redfreak only got his Assassin Satyroi and his chariot, which I found favorable. I was a bit confused as to why he chose the Satyroi first, and when they suddenly appeared on my flank, I was even more perplexed. It was annoying, even though I positioned myself in a way that would hopefully prevent them from causing any serious damage. However, they would slow down my game in the following rounds. At least I managed to score alone, increasing the points to 4:0.

In round 3, I rolled for my entire army and was delighted. Redfreak followed suit, and the laughter of my patron deity echoed in my head. Annoying, but somewhat fair. Given that the Assassins were practically within my army, it would have been nice to go first, so I placed the Ghols at the top. Although I already had three rituals in progress, the Raj was supposed to use a fourth one, and I wanted to position two mages in zones. This way, I would have the option for two rituals to be added to my deck in the next round.

I didn't get to go first. The Assassins attacked the Rajakur, scoring only a handful of hits against the D3 Hardened front. How I love Rajakur. For their points, they are incredibly resilient against such attacks, unless you happen to roll two sets of four fours. At least I was able to heal a bit with the Maharajah and the Sorcerer since both had no other targets.

Otherwise, we just marched forward, and I moved my large block with Raj into the central zone. The picture here shows it quite well, and only his cows with two-handed weapons are on the far left edge of the right flank from my perspective, but they are cut off in the photo.

The City States had two zones with their desired zone, and I had two without my desired zone. More importantly, I had completed two rituals, both Conflagrations, and both were added to my deck. The score was 8:7.

In round 4, I decided to place my Conflagrations at the bottom, in front of my Bakasura and the Wind Maidens. I also moved a Sword Dancer to the bottom to at least make him think I might attempt an attack with the block. With 4 additional cards in my deck, I hoped the strategy deck wouldn't help him see through my plan. So far, I had almost always failed at trying to kill Hoplites from the front. Since the Sorcerers were far away, I couldn't place a Sandstorm either. If everything went wrong, the two regiments, Bakasura and the Wind Maidens, would just run next to the Hoplites. Something would work out.

Redfreak started, shot at me with the chariots a bit, and moved. I had characters for healing and placing ritual markers, so we passed through several activations without much happening. At some point, his Selinoi moved in front of his Hoplites, as he was getting nervous about the big Sword Dancer block crashing into the Hoplites. I took advantage of this and activated the big Sword Dancer block instead of the smaller one. I decided to bind one of the chariots with a Move Charge. Since this went through the forest, I didn't make any impacts, but I hoped this would encourage Redfreak to place the Hoplites with Polemarch into the zone. After all, there was nothing threatening left on the field, and people often forget that a Bakasura has an 18" Move Charge Clash. It took a few more activations, but eventually, he moved the Hoplite block into the zone. I don't remember if he used Mobility for it, but the vulnerable, bound Sword Dancer block was too tempting for him to ignore. He had forgotten about the Bakasura and its range, and usually, monsters don't jump 18" across the table. I wasn't 100% sure it would fit either, but I didn't want to measure while he could still act. So, I only checked when he was completely done, continuing my other activations while Redfreak feared the worst. But before the friendly Bakasura greeted the Hoplites on the flank, my Wind Maidens ran past the cows with shields and into auto-charge range for the other Hoplite block. Then the Bakasura came in and dealt 20 damage with Resolve. Since it was only a "small block" of 5 stands including the cow, there wasn't much left of it afterward. If they activated next round, they would hopefully just die from the Aura of Death. We both had two zones again, but this time I had my desired zone and was in a pretty good position. A ritual moved into the deck, and I briefly considered not using it, but in case something weird happened, having it was better than needing it. The score was 15:11.

In round 5, anticipating his impending Supremacy double activation, I decided to build my deck as I almost always do—as if I wouldn't go first. He would likely use the Supremacy to clear up the left flank. On the other hand, it would be a huge waste not to place the Wind Maidens at the top in case I did go first. So, I went with Wind Maidens, followed by four or six "alibi" activations like the Rajakur, Ghols, and Raj, then the ritual with Sword Dancers, Bakasura, etc.

Of course, I didn't go first, but Redfreak was so focused on securing another zone and protecting himself from the Wind Maidens' charge that he built his deck incorrectly. Instead of moving the Minotaurs with a Move Charge into the Flamecasters first and then the Hoplites into my Wind Maidens, he moved the Hoplites back a bit and turned to face the Maidens. Then the Minotaurs moved past the Flamecasters into my zone, and we discussed why he did that. Now, my small Sword Dancers could flank the Hoplites, and the Maidens could simply charge the front. Both were at two, but if it succeeded, both Hoplite blocks would be gone.

Sure enough, it worked, and the other Hoplites died from the Aura of Death, allowing Bakasura to devour the Selinoi. When Redfreak was done, the Raj slew the chariot and moved into the zone, giving me three zones for this round. Additionally, the Flamecasters fired at the shield-bearing cows from behind.

In round 6, with a clear advantage in cards and points, I placed the Flamecasters at the top, as I wanted to shoot the Minotaurs in the back one more time. Then came the rituals with the Wind Maidens and Bakasura. The Sword Dancers were less important. I went first, and the Flamecasters freed the cows with shields from the slavery of the City States. Torrential Fire and Aminim dealt 18 hits, and the cows withstood one or two.

He was reluctant to move the Agema forward, and my Wind Maidens caught the cows with two-handed weapons in the flank with a 4+ Move Charge Clash. The cows fell, and we ended the game, discussing the mistakes and other details.

Game 1 won, and it felt like every non-German speaker at the tournament was successful too. With my best-broken English, I had no desire to struggle through an English-speaking game. While I had been practicing with Duolingo lately, the guys always made jokes about it, so my motivation to endure a game in English was rather low—to put it very kindly. During the lunch break, I met DonKihot from Switzerland. He had moved from Ukraine to Switzerland over 10 years ago and played only in English but spoke perfect Swiss German. He would have been an ideal practice partner for English, as I could fall back on German if needed. Thanks to my esteemed patron, however, Round 2 brought Christian (Atherakian) as another German-speaking opponent, this time with the Hundred Kingdoms. For the xext Battlereport click here.