His list:

• Sheik Araoui Ibn Khalid, Khaliman Diplomat
• Sorhna Oracle
• Malikh Jaraya
• Malikh Jaraya
• Suleman Ghulam
• Malikh Tuareg
• Malikh Meharist

My list:

• Tamel’Seh Far Eye
• Crow Thunder-Warrior
• Auroch Totem-Warrior
• Auroch Totem-Warrior
• Wolf Thunder-Warrior
• Toad Thunder-Warrior
• Toad Thunder-Warrior

Scenario: Jin posts.

Per the usual, I don’t remember all the details of the game, but for me it was mostly a refresher anyway. I did lose to Joel’s Khaliman and his superior tactics. The Meharist is one quick mutha and was able to take control of one of the Jin Posts very early and then come support the effort at the middle Jin post later on. We finished at 9pm rather than from playing a certain number of turns, unfortunately, as one of my Auroch Totem Warriors was in charge range of his Sheik.

I do still like Alkemy as a game, but the lack of releases makes it difficult to make it anywhere near the top of my gaming list. However, if anyone asks me to play, I’d be more than willing to do so.

Here’s my Aurlok Nation list:

• Tamel’Seh Far Eye
• Auroch Totem Warrior
• Auroch Totem Warrior
• Wolf Thunder Warrior
• Crow Thunder Warrior
• Toad Medicine Shaman

Round 1 (Jin Posts) vs. Andy’s Kingdom of Avalon: With the exception of a second Crossbowan in place of a Templar Novice, Andy’s army ended up being nearly identical to Jim’s army, which I’d played before. The big fear for me in this game was getting my guys shot up on the approach to the Jin Posts. With as little scenery as we were using, this was a definite possibility. Also, having heard of, but not seen the effects of the Deacon’s “Corruptive Bonding” formula, there was fear of that as well. I deployed my forces mostly to my right side of the table in hopes of controlling one Jin Post definitely and contesting the center one. I don’t think in 200 points one has enough figures to cover all three. The first 3 rounds consisted of one or two activations and a pass on both our parts. Andy ran the Deacon around to collect as much components as possible. He was full up at 12. This game was very bloody. I ended up running one of my Aurochs into one of his Crossbowmen to try and minimize their effect and maybe cause some confusion. It didn’t really work all that well. The other guys hung around the Toad Medicine Shaman to build him up for his damage spell. In the end, we drew, but I’d lost all but a couple of figures.

Round 2 (Informants) vs. Doug’s Khaliman Republic: I’d never played this scenario before, but as it turns out, the army I built is perfect for this scenario. It’s all about speed and TamelSeh can hand it out while being pretty quick himself. I decided before the game began that my strategy would be to run full out and try to get the 5 VPs before Doug does. Doug used the Shiek’s first turn of activations to shoot at my army. The Wolf Thunder Warrior and TamelSeh ended up taking a couple of wounds each. This wouldn’t matter for the scenario and Doug would later say he regretted doing it. In the end, he tried to kill TamelSeh with the Shiek while TamelSeh was standing “on watch” next to the 3-point Informant. After two successful cover saves, it pretty much ended the game. We ended up spending the last 30 minutes chatting about all kinds of stuff. I ended up with a win and no minis lost or enemies killed.

Round 3 (The Chests) vs. Jim’s Kingdom of Avalon: I’ve played against Jim’s army before and so I had some idea what to expect. This scenario, however, I’d only played once. There wasn’t all that much eventful, unfortunately. Jim ended up successfully opening one chest and claiming a total of 7 VP in the end. I had 3. A good number of my figures were killed and several of his as well, due partly to the Deacon’s “Corruptive Bonding” spell. I ended up with a loss.

I came in 4th place and apparently was very close with 3rd, but my Goal Average broke the tie in Mark’s favor even including my bonus points for turning in my list on time and being the only one with a fully painted army.

The prize support was excellent and since only 6 people made it, I believe everyone walked away with something. Personally, I picked up the Khaliman starter.

While there were several well painted figures in the painting competition, I ended up winning with my Toad Medicine Shaman. This entitled me to my choice of LE figure when prize distribution came around (though, that painting DVD was sounding good, Doug! ) and I chose the Khaliman LE.

Sryth picked up the Khaliman Tuareg box and hooked me up with it with the promise I’d “hook him up” with something sometime.

All in all, the tournament was a blast and it was great getting to see the guys from St. Louis again. I look forward to the next time we can do something like this. And thanks, Doug, for bringing prize support!!!

After that, Joel and I sat down to a game. I played my tournament list:

• Tamel’Seh Far Eye
• Auroch Totem Warrior
• Auroch Totem Warrior
• Toad Medicine Shaman
• Wolf Thunder Warrior
• Crow Thunder Warrior

I was thinking that based on my last few games that I haven’t been gathering all the components I should be and I haven’t been using the Toad Medicine Shaman to his fullest potential.

He played:

• Sheik Araoui Ibn Khalid
• Oracle of the Sornha Family
• Ghulam of the Suleman Family
• Jaraya of the Malikh Family
• Jaraya of the Malikh Family
• Malik Tuareg

This was a really good game. Not really a close game, though, since he jumped on two of the Jin Posts before I did and got an early lead. He and I controlled one of the Jin Posts on either end of the table easily and quickly while we fought back and forth for the middle one. My one big mistake was not running everyone closer to the Posts on the first turn. Instead, I moved the Toad Medicine Shaman slowly and behind everyone to benefit from his “Empathy” ability and to build the setup for his “Animal Fury” formula. I did end up getting the formula to work, but it failed to killl anyone. All in all, I think that was my big and really the only game-changing mistake I made. In the end it was 3-0 in Joel’s favor. In the end all of his remaining figures were in the red while the figures I had were mostly pretty well off health wise. A very fun and good game.

I have all my minis painted for my army and I feel like I can run it pretty well now, so let’s see how the tournament goes.