Dutch 5v5 tournament report

Tournament coming saturday, 5v5, a report will be made

that, and these smilies are great (except for the elephant, which has somewhat of an unhappy-man-thing going on :/)

F

I look forward to hearing about it. I'm hoping to maybe get a local scene together, but it's still in the planning stages right now.

This would be awesome to read, hope you can have it up soon. 5V5 is intriguing, fun, and somtimes frustrating, so I'm curious what's going in the global community on this!

20th of February once again saw some stirring of the Dutch Minis community: a 5v5 tournament, in preparation of the realm championships. With so little happening lately I decided to take the oppotunity and take some notes for a report. I hope you'll like it.


Intro:
My day started way too early for me, having enjoyed just 5 hours of sleep. I had way too many thoughts in my head after playing some Vassal and chatting with a friendly Canadian named Tyle. So I ended up laying awake for almost 2 hours before I could get some sleep, figuring out the last adjustments to my team.
I reached the venue in time, along with 5 other players (we had more than 4 players! yay!). The maps we played on where not the same as the Realm champion though, but an improvised adaptaion of the wintterspring map:



Forseeing long matches, we wasted little time and got right to it:

My party:

Varimathras - (Bracers of Nimble Thought), Death coil, Doom
Morova - Mana potion, Moonkin form
Thangal - Cat form, Fog of War, Starfire
Haruka - Chain Lightning, Healing steam totem, Healing wave, Earth shock
Velora - Holy nova, Mass dispel, Heal

The last 2 minis where changes I made while laying awake. I decided upon playing Wilton and Celenias earlier to bring the honour somewhat down, but in the end I settled for playig minis I really like.
The ABC's where somewhat botched, as I was lacking a purge and a bracers of nible thought. The first was replaced by an earth shock, the second was just left out, leaving me at 14 abc's.


The Games:

Round 1: Wilbert - Velen, Irana, Namrah, Savin, Vi'gor - 44 honor.

New map! I had a standard opening set out for the original map, so I had to improvise here. Luckily, my opponent had to do so as well, so the first two ticks saw mainly movement. T3 got right into the action though, with me nuking Savin right out the game with Starfire and just about any other attack I could bring to bear. Being 8 honour in the lead, along with some poor rolls on Vi'gor's and Velen's part, made me think I was easily in the lead.
Tick 5 proved me horridly wrong though. Irana was feeling abitious, and pulled of a 7 damage flamestrike on my five health Haruka and Morova, hitting Varimathras as well. The first two died and Varimathras was left at a painfull 6 health. Ouch. Still, things got worse, because now I also discovered that standing on or next to the VP tile nets your party not one, but two honour per model! That's a LOT! I had anticipated the VP to be insignificant, so this was quite something to think about. Morova and Haruka, of course, where my only minis originally standing next to the VP. Wilbert had 3 minis next to the VP, resulting in a 14 point honour swing in total for tick 5.
After this, it was an uphill battle for me. Thangal died, taking Namrah down before he went down himself. Varimathras and Velora where forced to cower until the rest of the team spawned once again. In what little time I had, I failed to put a dent in Wilberts' defences, especially after a flash of light hitting for full. Wilbert however, proceded to happily nuke my party, getting one more kill by exactly scoring enough damage on Morova. T10 saw us take 4 (Wilbert) and 6 (Me) victory points, but the game was done:

14 - 26 Victory for Wilbert!
mvp's: - Irana (7 damage-flamestrikes FTW) and ... none for me actually. Perhaps Velora for healing 8 with Holy nova?



Game 2: Allard - Haruka, Morganis, Morova, Thangal, Thrall - 40 honour

Nearly a mirror match, who would have thought? Hearing Allard won before time the previous round made me a little scared though.
The game started of pretty lousy for me. I wasn't happy with my deployment at all, apparently still having a bit of a rough time adapting to the new map. Once again tick 3 saw the first model dead, but this time it was my Haruka who bit the dust. The opening moves where all about who would take the first hit, and I decided to take it.
After this, my notes say: Carnage Ensued. Which pretty much sums up what happened. With two parties built for maximum dps, the board emptied pretty quickly. Allard deployed pretty favourably at the end of tick 5, scoring for four models. On the other hand, his Thangal that stood on top of the hill was Doomed, dying at the end of the tick and dragging Morganis down with him. Vp-scores raced, with me being behind 4-8 vp's in general. Tick seven showed the true destructive nature of Varimathras, killing both the opposing Thrall and Haruka, but taking the one-health friendly Morova down as well. The move was just too cool not to make.
This left us both at 26 honour, with just three models on the board (Varimathras, Haruka and Allards' Morova) - you could hardly tell we where playing 5v5. At this point, time was called, and it all came down to spawning and a few attacks. Allard chose Varimathras as his last target. Thangal rolled up first and slashed Vari down to 4 health. Velora rolled a slighly average 3 on her heal, putting Varimathras back to 7. Then Allard moved Thrall up the hill, next to Varimathras, for the Epic finaly of the match. Thralls slamed down an epic slam, hitting all his 9 dies (2 rerolls) and crushing my party leader, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

42 - 26 Victory for Allard!
mvp's: Thrall and Varimathras for an Epic Showdown



Game 3: Jeroen - Azarak, Elizabetha, Mortimer, Radak, Daxin - 36 honour

Even though the ABC's where slightly different than expected, this was a matchup I tested, and I felt quite confident going into this match. The first ticks saw the warlocks summoning two Jhuroons and a Piztog, and Daxin revealing a Soulseeker.
Once again tick three was the cue for action, but this time I was prepared. Azarak climed up the hill, revealed Master Tactician and shot Haruka for 5 damage, the armor stopping only 1. The next action was for Thangal, revealing Fog of War as the sekkrit Tech. After the Fog came down, I could controle the incoming fire, keeping Elizabetha and Radak out of range. Haruka got shot by Mortimer, but only after he finished Daxin with both a Melee strike and a flame shock, which already put him at a safe 6 health.
It was going downhill for Jeroen from here on. Mortimer, being in melee-range, was death with shortly afterwards. Next up was Elizabetha, in attempt to stop her from firing of another 7 dice attack. Azarak and Radak scored, the latter fearing Haruka, but at the expense of his own life. At the end, after throwing some rediculous dice (Heal for 5, Shadowbolt volley for 5 with crit, both without rerolls or moonkin aura's), I guess I got over-confident. Morova died to the re-spawing warlocks, and Velora was shot by Azarak from across the board. Still, it was to no avail, as Azarak was death with by Varimathras on overtime, putting me too far in the lead to lose.

14 - 36'ish (not entirely sure) Victory for me!
mvp's: Azarak (massive damage and sniping my poor Velora) and Varimathras for keeping my minis alive with his aura, all the while reaping souls like there's no tomorrow.


With all the battles finished, it was time for the scores:
#1: Wilbert - Velen, Irana, Namrah, Savin, Vi'gor
#2: Allard - Thrall, Haruka, Morganis, Morova, Thangal
#3: Kevin - Vi'gor, Dralor, Tinker, Parvink, Elanna
#4: Me - Varimathras, Morova, Thangal, Haruka, Velora
#5: Jeroen - Azarak, Daxin, Elizabetha, Mortimer, Radak
#6: Mark - Azarak, Morganis, 2 from Daxin/Mortimer/Elizabetha, Morova (not entirely sure)

Congrats to Wilbert for winning, good job!

I had a blast playing this tournament. The format is amazing! Each battle felt like a true battle, a real event packed with action from beginning till end. And partywise there's so much options! A lot of the parties I thought would not be valuable seem a lot more interesting after this experience. I'm really looking forward to the realm championships, as this format (dare I say it?) might atually be better than 3v3. Perhaps 4v4 is an interesting option?

As for my team: I am quite happy with how it preformed. Varimathras is amazing, giving me so much healing without losing ticks for actually playing heals. I think I'm not over exaggerating if I say he healed 8 to 16 damage each game. In combination with Thangal, especially his base attack, and Morova, this party rocks. Starfire was a mistake though, as ticking up 4 ticks is horrible, and defies the thought of the party. Also, doom and Holy nova where hard to play, and often did not really time out that great. Holy nova for an 8 health heal is still brilliant though. Velora was nice, but I'd like to try Lotherin, as his crit goes great with this party. I was surprised how well Velora survived by simply staying behind the other minis. In fact, I belive she only died once or twice, as opposed to morova's four times.
I'm really curious as to see how Varimathras would preform with a soulseeker and bracers of nimble thought. As for Thangal's second ABC, I'm considering Potion of healing or Mana potion, simply for adding some heal without losing any ticks.

I also wish to say I'm sorry to the community for shouting all sorts of things that where not true. Scoring 2 vp's instead of 1 at the end of t5 makes a huge difference, and makes camp-teams all the better. I'll post some of my new ideas shortly.


I could go on and on writing, but I think I've created enough of a wall for now.


F

p.s. I cannot stress this enough: the format is amazing! Play it and enjoy!

I need to start testing 5s at some point. I have felt lethargic lately in regards to the minis and haven't been pursuing an aggressive training regime yet.

Part of me wonders if a team like this would do good:

Prophet Velen - Chain Lightning, Healing Wave
Tinker Timbleton - Arcane Flux, Counterspell, Mana Pot, Polymorph
Savin Lightguard - Flash of Light, Bulwark of Azzinoth, Cleanse
Phadalus the Enlightened - Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Wrath of Air Totem
Nathressa Darkstrider - Distract, Expose Armor, Drakefist Hammer

5v5 has a LOT going on but I have a gut feeling about this one...

I played the Velen team (VVINS as I like to call it) and when playing against the team packing Tinker I really only had to conclude that Tinker really misses the ability to really punch into the enemy. His 5 dice just often don't really do much to 3 resist and he is way too squishy to be expected to burn multiple ticks in a row on an enemy in 5v5.

I really love to use him/loathe to fight against him in 3v3 as you can do some nasty tricks with Tinker (or 2 Tinker's for that matter). But in 5v5 I would rather bring a big hitter than a little scratcher.

Same counts for your Nathressa by the way. Made to do many small attacks, but too easilly burned down by 5 opponents (with possible pets) to really make a dent in the enemy with many small attacks.

Go Big is what I suggest when it comes to 5v5. Big hits kill more and are a lot harder to heal through. And there are enough active models on the boar to force your opponent not to go after that ticked up mage/warlock/whatever.