The first ever Vassal tournament report.

[Sauam]

This is my first battle report in this section, I figure it would be good I just casually jog down my experience on the first ever Vassal tourney (well to be fair, the first complete one )... Anyways, big up to those that participated in the tourney and to Cleon for running it, one might think running small tourney is simple task, but it is still a job he had to do. Especially for a person that is not even in the tourney himself... and doing it for free. Thumb up to you sir.

Anyways, I don't really remember every detail since it's was awhile ago but I'll try to jog down as much as I can remember. Also this report mostly is from my perspective, so you can see through my vision on each game. I'll try to write down what I guess my opponent was thinking though... Anywho, let's get it going!

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Game 1 - Quintaton16 (FK) vs. Sauam (SG)
First, even before the match begins, I had to say I have the most experience against the FK since they are my friend's most used faction in real life. I knew by experience that FK will have hard time against the Sand Gobbies and it can be an uphill battle for the FK if they don't plan correctly during those early turns, it's quite crucial for FK to keep Krusk away from the middle of the field or he'll sandstorm like crazy...

To start off the match, the funniest thing was for me to realize that I've been playing the SG's start up wrong all these time, I mixed up the Javelineer and Scavenger's position, that was embarrassing rofl. Luckily that didn't change much the way SG are played. I remember Quintation went first, he attempts to kill his own Zombie Warrior by pulling him back but was unsuccessful... then came my turn and since I saw FK pulled back, I knew it was good time for me to advance Krusk toward and secure the position where Krusk can control the middle ground with his sandstorm. I think I pushed up a few unit and kill off the starting Shaman, I build almost all my card in attempts to have plenty of magic and to prepare for magic drain so I won't be drained out and waste a turn not having resources (if any faction can catch you off guard on magic pile. FK would be it)...

Anyways, after the first turn or two, there wasn't too much exciting action on my end aside from trying to slowly move Krusk toward, I remember Quintation didn't really got much going on as well and don't seem to aware of what I was planning, then I drew a wall like on my third turn and placed it forward on the left side of SG, covering more space in my control. Quintation still only have 1 wall at that moment. Knowing I have more space control I finally commit on pushing Krusk deep onto his field, landing himself on top of his only wall, then I remember summoning a Stonecloak and I think a Javenlineer protecting Krusk's side flak, using Krusk's sandstorm I manage to pushed my own unit and one of his unit to crowded 3 of the 4 possible opening on his wall in a single turn. Knowing there isn't much FK can do to a well protected Krusk, I feel pretty safe and knew Quintation is in trouble if he don't act quickly... Then came his turn and I believe he summoned (or was it force summoned?) Anica and she starts to attack one of my common unit and did not kill anything (I think). Also without moving Ret-Talus away from the center of his wall, I managed to sandstorm Ret-Talus back into his wall for a complete wall crowd for a turn, drastically slowly him down... Finally comes around my 6th turn or so, I was able to kill off Ret-Talus by just completely shutting down FK's summoning spot and was sandstorming everything around Krusk while he was parking himself safely on top of his only wall.

This was a quicker match then I expected but largely due to Krusk's surprise factor and from what I remember, Quintaton himself said he didn't had much exp against the SG and was baffled by Krusk's sandstorming ability, so this was one of the quicker match in my vassal game... Anyways, I really don't remember too much for this match since it was the first one and it was like 6 weeks ago, but the gist of it was Krusk manage to crowd FK's wall and it pretty much won the game by that.

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Game 2 - Prometheuslkr (SO) vs. Sauam (SG)
I was little worry about this match up because I don't have too many experience against this but I do know a few things on how to deal with those Vine Walls... Also as much as sandstorm and Taunt can slow down SO's vine production, I knew it was just as dangerous for Krusk to advance too early. If Krusk took too much damage too early on, I would have hard time dealing with the vines during mid/late game... I do have to say SG has a bit of an advantage in this MU, but really not by much if Krusk gets bate. It's risky match for sure.

Hmmm... I remember failing on my roll and got to go second, not exactly a good start because I need to eliminate Prometheuslkr 's starting Shaman with my staring Jav, oh well. Prometheuslkr kill his own Shaman and gained a vine, then pushed his Savager and killed my Scav on my right. Standard SO opening I believe. Come my turn I move my shaman in range to his Savager and move my Jav also in range to it. Attempts to toss a clean hit hoping to off that early threat, which it didnot happen, I got 2/3 on it, an expected outcome. Then I build very quickly, leaving a Taunt in my hand I believe because I know how good Taunt is in this MU... Come his turn again, his Savager off my Shaman on his last health (or was it Jav?) gaining Prometheuslkr much magic already. I believe he also used Vine Growth around now and attempts to move his Hunter forward but luckily all my Jav is immune to Hunter's range... Come my turn again I moved Krusk to his right next to the wall, seeing that Prometheuslkr got some early vine production it was pretty much Krusk only way to advance safely. I remember seeing Prometheuslkr had around 5 magic pile at that moment, and I just drew Kreep in my hand, with around 5 magic myself and a Taunt in my hand, I feel confident to push Krusk upward, exposing ONE possible attack. At that moment I was actually wanting for Prometheuslkr to summon a Savager (not Glarg because Glarg would be too far to shoot Krusk, unless combo with Vine Growth)... Anyways, knowing that I had Kreep ready for counter attack... in my mind I want to drain his magic pile even if that mean Krusk takes a hit from Savager's 3 dice and likely only land 2 hit. I want to distract him from growing more vine and want to slow down his magic so I won't see any of his champion... So came his turn and he indeed summoned a Savager and attempt for Krusk's life. I believe my plan succeeded because Savager only end up dealing 1 wound on Krusk. Came my turn I summoned Kreep, Taunted his unit, kill off almost everything he had and was going smoothly on my momentum....

Mid game came, because of me being ahead of resources, I mange to deny Prometheuslkr's vine production with combination of sandstorming and taunting every possible unit away from his vine. I don't exactly remember what the finer details were but I manage to park Krusk relatively safe on one of his wall in the middle field, with Kreep on his right and I believe my own wall on his left... It's still very risky at that moment because getting too close to SO's vine is not the best thing to do, but if I were to grasp on this resource advantage that I opened, I need to commit to my plan. I believe Krusk also took another 2 wounds, putting him down to 3 life and I think Muglugg is still perfect health or 1 wound on him only. Not really what I wanted but seeing that I had like 10 magic, Kreep on the field and a Biter in my hand, meanwhile Prometheuslkr only has like 4 magic or so, I wasn't too worry, yet...

Late game came, Prometheuslkr got around 4 vines and 2 walls, his magic back to manageable rates. He then play Vine Growth under Krusk, knowing that he had the magic and the fact that my Krusk is tangled, I knew it was bad sign if I don't do anything soon, Prometheuslkr can just summon anything on the new opening spot from the vine under Krusk and end the game right there... Then I drew a wall at the best timing possible! I place the wall right at that said opening, and just left Krusk there entangled while he is perfectly protected from all sides, now I knew it was golden for me since there is almost no way for Prometheuslkr to get to my Krusk... Then I summon Biter and Silt, while my Kreep still almost in perfect health. It was good to go in my view, all thanks to the draw of that wall!!! There is almost no way for Muglugg to survive the onslaught of 3 healthy champion, let alone when Silt is in the mix... Anyways, we both went out of draw pile, Muglugg needing a champion of his own, summoned Splub and almost drained out his magic doing so, attempts to fight off the bargain champions that I got... There was still a slight chance for Prometheuslkr to take the win because I made a slight mistake to put only Kreep in between Krusk and Muglugg, due to the tight spacing we got from all those vines, Kreep could of rolled a 2 or less and run away like a little girl in face of the angry Muglugg... thankfully Kreep took some redbull that day and was all like "WHAT YO GOT!!!" and stay and fight like a madman, the game ended with Muglugg took some huge blow from everyone... In retrospect, although it seem to went quit smoothly for me in this match, it was still risky, it really can go both way if my draw of that wall didn't come on time. It was a good game imo and it was much needed for me to face the SO more.

[Sauam]

Game 3 - KCU Master 2007 (SE) vs. Sauam (SG)
This match up is of the trickier one for me. For one, I only have like 4-5 prior experience and they're all pretty much end up with Krusk being kill, with him trying out rushing the Shadow Elves, and learning the hard way that there's simply no way for SG to out-rush the SE. Not only that, it's also near impossible to crowd on SE's wall without eating an Into the Darkness follow by some Swordsmen hacking away at Krusk... So crowding was also out of the window. So I pretty much begin the match already planned to go for champion heavy approach.

I don't remember who went first but I do remember KCU went ahead and start massacring his own units from the get go. Reducing my chance to protects Krusk and forced him into hiding, a good move on KCU part... In one hand I can try to push my common up and attempts to swarm/rush him, but knowing that it'll usually end up with Krusk taking a huge loss in the end, I chose to be safe and offing my own units to play the unit-war. Not really a good trade off for me... So for the first few turns, we went back and forth killing our own units, noticeably with me using Scavenger for the kill so I can deny KCU's Shadow event, but that comes with a cost... for me I was trying to avoid being hit by Into Darkness and lose my pumped Scav, meanwhile build for my champion tactic, as for KCU I am guessing he is massacring to prepare counter my inevitable champions with his Hydrake? Or just forcing me to kill my own units? For all I know he probably don't even have Into Darkness to begin with and I am just scaring myself (ironically, there was zero Into Darkness played the whole game )

Anyways, after a few turns and my unit count got too low (like 1-2 common left) I drew a wall and Kreep, then I try to form a plan with Kreep... I placed a wall almost next to my starting wall, then moved Krusk to his right travelling on the edge of the field where I counted that no Swordsmen could reach him, then I pushed a Javelineer all the way down to KCU's side. My plan was to bait Selundar to close in on Jav for the kill, then later I could summon Kreep and maybe team up with Krusk's sandstorm to deal some good first striking wound on Selundar and tag him out of his +2 attack ability. It was somewhat a transparent plan but a plan nonetheless, I had to do something before it's too late... Then came his turn, KCU placed a wall against mine foiling my forward opening, then summoned Xaserbane, played Stalking Advance, stalked Selundar next to Jav, then Xaserbane Stalked and Sneaked 5 spaces right next to Krusk, dealing 2 or 3 wound on him. This I had not prepare for, KCU totally counter my pressure by out pressuring me (further prove SG just cannot out rush SE...) Now KCU forced me to deal with Xaserbane since another hit from Xaser can end the game prematurely... I was little in panic, so came my turn I drew Mirage, a Stonecloak and tons of useless event, because of Xaserbane, I had to play Mirage unwillingly to move away the starting wall so I can surround Xaserbane with Krusk, Kreep and Stonecloak. I cannot let Xaserbane live so I toss 6 dice at it, good thing he was killed from the gang-up.

Mid game came and KCU was not summoning anything and actually only had Selundar himself for like 3 turns, meanwhile with 2 back to back Summon the Night cast upon the SG, reducing their ability to do anything... Krusk was still struggling around the middle field with not much protections since it is hard to move around or depend on his commons (I'm still in fear of Into Darkness lol)... So I quickly used up all my magic and summoned both Biter and Silt as the last Summon the Nights wears off, at the time Kreep is pretty much down to 2-3 health from helplessly being shot by Selundar. So I figures Biter and Silt are much needed... Since Selundar pretty much used up all his good event, it was pay back time! I started to attack KCU's wall just kind of waiting for his Hydrake to show up, which is his most reliable way to win at that point... and sure enough Hydrake shows up, KCU pushed Hydarke up along with Selundar, killing my Kreep. Now the battle is near ending with everyone in the middle of the field... I feel that KCU pushed Selundar way too far in order to kill my already weaken Kreep and ultimately paid the price. Because I pretty much used the combined effort of sandstorm and Silt's cunning to moved everything around so that I end up with Krusk well protected and very near Selundar and his Hydrake away from the battle. Just one turn later on, Krusk manage to sandstorm Selundar back into the battle zone not letting him escape, and with Silt and Biter they took turns chewing on whatever left of Selundar.

This was yet another intense battle, the turning point for KCU was when he Xaserbaned Krusk, I feel that if I wasn't able to kill Xaserbane that quick, I would of lost long ago... as for my turning point, it was when Selundar mistakenly travelled too near to Krusk's sandstorm radius. Letting him captivate the opportunity.

[Clarissimus]

Hey, I really enjoyed reading these because I have played a fair number of people who were using SG but rarely seemed to use them well. I saw the ending of your last game against Anoir and I was impressed with how aggressively you used Krusk. Sandstorm is an amazing ability (no wonder it costs 2 magic, the only unit ability so far to do so).

And I like how you don't just retell who did what and when but also the logic and strategy that was behind your decisions. So I am looking forward to the others.

[Sauam]

Final Game - Anoir (Bender) vs. Sauam (SG)
This is once again my friend's most used faction, so I had to say I got some trick up my sleeves when it comes to dealing with Tacullu. However unlike FK, the Bender does screw with the Sand Gobbies, especially the magic denial department... In general, this match up all come down to how efficient both player uses their magic. SG player need to wait for the right opportunity to sacrifice a champion purposely for Tacullu to unsummon, so I can lure him out. Kreep is the perfect luring target

After not playing with SW for weeks because I got lost in playing console games, namely Crack of Duty and Batman Crackcity... I nearly forgot how to play SG, so I made a few really stupid mistake early on which I won't discuss here . Anyways, I won the starting roll and chose to went first, this was very crucial because I need to quickly reduce a few starting units or it'll be impossible to avoid Bender's both Magic Drain, which hurts. So luckily I went first... We were both happily killing our own units until Anoir went all out and off'ed his entire army by turn 2! "That evil Tacullu" I said to myself, was not expecting that because I would of thought at least one Controller would be on field... then I gave up trying to fight and just summon as much as possible, seeing Anoir kept his hand at 3-4 cards each turn, I was guessing they were Magic Drains and/or Mind Control, so I was prepared to be drained. Looking at Silt that I drew on turn 3-4, I knew this was not going well for Mr.Silt... Anyways, I placed an early forward wall by turn 2 and Krusk was preparing the forward pressure by hiding behind it (this way, if I draw a Mirage I can move away the wall and go in for the kill on Tacullu's low life with SG's bag of tricks)... then I followed by summoning Kreep, knowing that it was pretty much the only champion I realistically can afford now. I moved Kreep away from Tacullu's sight and went attacking a wall. Kreep sole purpose is to see what Anoir would do to reacts and hopefully lure him out for some counter attacks, fully aware that Kreep is a goner, I gave him his retiring fund the moment he was summoned. Came Anoir's turn he moved Tacullu little to the open, cast Magic Drain on me, summoned a Controller, push her up, killed a Jav and tele-pushed Kreep into Tacullu's line of sight, then poof there goes Kreep.... Came my turn with only 1 magic left in the pool (damn you Magic Drain), drawing Biter now, it was pretty damn sad to know I will probably won't be able to summon the two, but Tacullu is in my counter attacking range, so I moved in with Shaman, plan to attack for 2 then escape back on to my side to prevent being taken over by Mind controls... but then Shaman rolled two 1s, making Kreep's sacrifice totally pointless.

At this moment, it was mid game. I realized I was going to lose if I don't do something soon. The board was: Anoir with around 10 magics, tons of draw pile left, 3 or so cards in hand that he refuse to build but only with Tacullu himself sitting in range of my sandstorm. As for me, I had only 3 magics, almost half way done in draw pile, 2 useless but yet handsome looking champions in hand, and a Jav and a Shaman on the field... So I took a long paused to think what can I possibly do now? If I pushed, Anoir will surely mind control me and with this little magic, I cannot commit to wall crowd... but if I stay where I am at, Anoir can easily summon bunch of stuff with Sorgwen and blast away all I had on field, and maybe even hurt Krusk in the process, then I'll surely loses with nothing else left... So after some careful thinking, I decide to push, hope to win with my trusty sandstorming ability, which never fail me yet, so I don't see why now. I moved Krusk to his favorite place, on top of Anoir's wall. Then storm Tacullu out for Shaman to attack, and storm Jav crowding the left of the wall. Sandstorm this time landed a hit and with Shaman following clean attack, Tacullu is now wounded 3 times. I used my last magic to escape Shaman next to the right of his wall, leaving only 1 open spot left for him. I build 4 cards, Silt and some useless events. I pat myself on the back and ended my turn.

Anoir turn comes and finally seeing some action on my end, it was time for him to lay waste and counter attack. He summoned Sorgwen and mind controlled my Shaman, using Sorgwen to kill the Jav that was crowding his wall, then using my Shaman to clean hit me 2 wounds, Krusk is down to 4 lifes... Not good... Come my turn I drew more Jav, using the only 4 magics I build last turn, I summoned 2 Jav, once again sandstorm both of them crowding Anoir's wall but this time I stormed Sorgwen back as well, fully choking all the open spot, then a Jav got a hit on Tacullu reducing him down to his LAST life. Krusk also said good bye to the traitor Shaman and ended his turn... Anoir addicted to controlling goblins, once again mind controlled one of the Jav and with sorgwen, backstabbed me 2 more clean hit, Krusk down to 2 lifes... Very bad.

Now come my turn and this was the last turn of the whole tourney for me and Anoir. It was either me go or he go, Tacullu was down to 1 life and Krusk is down to 2. I had little to no magic and Anoir had tons and moved Tacullu all the way into the corner under a wall. If I cannot deal that last wound on Tacullu, Krusk surely will die with Sorgwen in play... I had two choice at that moment. Either 1) Pull back and build for Biter, which I been holding on to. 2) Move Krusk and the wounded Jav forward and attempts to sandstorm Jav upward for the final blow. I chose the super risky option number 2 since the other option likely gets unsummon anyways... So I move a half dead Jav up, sandstorm him 1 space, rolled a 3, so sandstorm was a miss on him, then finally Jav attack Tacullu and rolled a 4. Good finale at the last.

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That is all I could remember guys, the Bender battle was much more vivid since it just happened days ago, so it might be too long and too detailed, but I hope it was worth the read. As for those I battled, I hope to do some rematch with you guys down the road, make it a 2 out of 3 perhaps? I rarely goes on Vassal but once I get more times off from work/video games. I'll likely be on more often.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

Sandstorm is an amazing ability (no wonder it costs 2 magic, the only unit ability so far to do so).

Ret respectfully disagrees.
But I agree, I don't have that much experience with all the new factions and the all new Match Ups, played the SG a few times and SandStrom was not that decisive as what he described in his games.

[killercactus]

Ret respectfully disagrees.
But I agree, I don't have that much experience with all the new factions and the all new Match Ups, played the SG a few times and SandStrom was not that decisive as what he described in his games.

It depends on how aggressively you play Krusk. I see a lot of people leave him back, which I think is a mistake. I watched a couple of Suaum's games with the SG, and he has them down-pat.

Sandstorm is a truly amazing ability.

Excellent report, Suaum, and congrats!

[Jexik]

Interesting report.

It sounds like I play the SG very differently, or at least with less Sandstorming. For me it's usually more like Ret's power, something to do at the end of the game to help break a stalemate.

Grats on the win!

[thenightsshadow]

Interesting report.

It sounds like I play the SG very differently, or at least with less Sandstorming. For me it's usually more like Ret's power, something to do at the end of the game to help break a stalemate.

I have the same feeling, but probably unlike Jexik, I have an even record with the Sand Goblins, 8-8. I'm not that good with them or the Deep Dwarves.

[Jexik]

I lost the one tournament game I played with them, against a TO who got a Bragg out very early and the Freezes to back him up.

Darkbladecb fears my SG though. I think he won for the first time against them this week.

[Sauam]

Thanks guys, it was fun tourney for sure, I look forward to the next one and hopefully I can keep my championship title

As for Krusk's Sandstorm usage, from my experience eventhough I vouch for it's greatness, it does sort of depend on match up. Some match up Krusk simply just cannot go too aggressive because it's too unsafe, the Shadow Elves match up is a prime example, even against KCU's SE my Krusk was massively turtling and was only able to use sandstorm like twice, and that was the very end of the battle to net a kill... Perhaps one of the reason why my battle report seem to have me heavily abusing sandstorm, it's because 3 out of 4 matches were against summoner that Krusk can really abuse sandstorm on (FK, SO and BD are among those match up)

However with that being said, I do believe having Krusk too far back idling is a waste of his ability even in his not-so-ideal match up, sandstorm doesn't even need to be active in order to be useful, having Krusk up in the middle line (not front line) has a huge psychological threat to your opponent, that alone is worth pushing him forward... In my friend's own word "everytime I see Krusk in the middle, I starts to sweat bullet, I don't like seeing him there"

In my opinion, successfully mastering in Krusk's positioning is a key to Sand Goblin's victory. Only relying on their superior spec can only go so far, and can easily be countered in certain match up. I just feel the Sand Goblin is very well rounded in all areas and has such amazing ability to combat each type of match up... I dare to say out of the 14 factions, the Sand Gobbies will have the least unfavorable match up once the online match up ranking are solidify