Lahti Feb 14th 2009 tournament report [with pictures!]

On a cold St. Valentine's Day morning 5 finnish HD players from Lahti and a visiting star from Helsinki gathered in front of the closed the doors of Puolenkuun Pelit (local game store - unfortunately doesn't supply HD, but was kind enough to supply us with a place to have our small tourney) at around 10 am to wait when some worker would kindly arrive to work and let us to the warm indoors... it got even warmer when we started to play in the infernal flames of hell...

We used the Chronicles of Zaebas 3 -setting that I had roughly translated for this event and the 1635 rules.

Players present:
Joonas "Silveri" (Saracen) - officer: Nazir ibn Hamid ibn Hajad
Matias "Lemminkäinen" (Mercenary) - officer: La Voyageuse
Petri (Demon) - officer: Asaliah
Niko (Lost) - officer: Bran Carnoth
Immo (Saracen) - officer: Nazir ibn Hamid ibn Hajad
Ismo (Saracen) - officer: Nazir ibn Hamid ibn Hajad

We played 3 rounds in the tournament.

Terraformation rules are fun and can be used with the printout terrain

The first round was thought to have the veteran players facing the novices in order to explain the rules and mechanics of the game:

Joonas (saracen) vs Ismo (saracen), scenario Head Hunters. Insignificant victory and 1 point to Joonas.

The french cards can cause some difficulty to beginning players

The efreet doesn't mind the burning rocks

There's no kill like overkill

Niko (lost) vs Matias (mercenary), scenario Red Breaker - now, this scenario is very strange since the battlefield loses 5" of width each turn and the width is really 5" in the last turn! Winner is determined by the amount of "Parchments of Sapience" collected by the fighters. Matias won with a majestic victory and gained 3 points.

The lost tend to have rather small forces

Immo (saracen) vs Petri (demon), scenario Red Breaker, Petri won and gained 2 points.

After the 1st round, the scores were thus:
Matias (mercenary) 3 pts
Petri (demon) 2 pts
Joonas (saracen) 1 pt
Ismo (saracen) 0 pts
Immo (saracen) 0 pts
Niko (lost) 0 pts

The matches of the 2nd round:

Matias (mercenary) vs Petri (demon), scenario Mark of the Chosen. Here both armies have 2 "chosen" that attempt to reach the opponent's deployment zone and touch an altar situated there. Petri took and insignificant victory and gained 1 point.

Battle of the titans

It's always a pleasure to watch painted miniatures

Joonas (saracen) vs Immo (saracen), scenario Red Breaker. Once more, a saracen vs saracen -game. This was an extremely brutal game due in part to the "Firestorm" zone of conflict and the temple that gave +1 CBT to everyone for the whole game. 1st round didn't feature many casualities, but after the 2nd round both had only a pillar of faith left and a sacred warrior. The game ended with an insignificant victory to Joonas when after the 4th round both only had a sacred warrior left and in an exceptional bout of intelligence Joonas' warrior decided to run away from the rush of the templars while Immo's warrior succumbed to the Templars. 1 point to Joonas.

Situation in the beginning of the 1st round

Situation at the end of the 1st round - this will not end well

Situation at the end of the 2nd round.

Situation at the beginning of the 4th round, when the width of the battlefield is only 10"

Niko (lost) vs Ismo (saracen), scenario Red Breaker. Ismo won and gained 2 points.

Niko begins to realise that his plan may be at fault

After the 2nd round, the scores are thus:

Petri (demon) 3 pts
Matias (mercenary) 3 pts
Joonas (saracen) 2 pts
Ismo (saracen) 2 pts
Immo (saracen) 0 pts
Niko (lost) 0 pts

The matches for the 3rd round:

Petri (demon) vs Joonas (saracen), scenario Fountain of Sapience. A scenario that has a fountain in the middle. Each upkeep phase a "Tear of Sapience" is given to the one in contact (or in) with the fountain whose side has strategic control of the middle sector. Basically a variant of a collection scenario which ended with the annihilation of Joonas' army and a majestic victory and 3 points to Petri.

Firestorm+Demons=Saracens in trouble

Matias (mercenary) vs Ismo (saracen), scenario Opening of the Gate. A control scenario where the fighters must control the gate and the batteries - this time exceptionally with faith. The faith of the saracens wasn't enough though and the damned gained a decisive victory and Matias gained 2 points.

La Voyageuse 1635 - not available in stores

Niko (lost) vs Immo (saracen), scenario Head Hunters. A decisive victory and 2 points to Immo.

The dice weren't on Niko's side today

The event took around 7 hours in total

End results:

Petri (demon) 6 pts
Matias (mercenary) 5 pts
Joonas (saracen) 2 pts
Immo (saracen) 2 pts
Ismo (saracen) 2 pts
Niko (lost) 0 pts

The demons are a bugger to beat.