Aristeia! - Event Analysis - Otono Cup

On Sunday the 16th of June 2019 New Zealand saw its first ever Aristeia! tournament, at the Hobbymaster Event Center in Penrose, Auckland.

The Otono Cup was a three round AGL event with the Carano Mod, featuring Assault, King of the Hill and Carnage as the Scenarios.

The excitement, showmanship and action of the Hexadome dazzled as six teams battled for the honour of raising "The Bear", our beautiful trophy.

In our last article we covered the Deepwater Dragons team which I selected for the event. One point
which I did not discuss in great detail in that article was the need, in selection, to consider the full range of Scenarios being played and not just one matchup.

In selecting Maximus, Valkyrie, Mendoza and Dart I hoped to cover a good range of different situations on the table. Largely I saw Maximus as a literal shield, not really acting often himself except to get into position and take hits for the rest of the team. Mendoza was there to stop partway hits on Valkyrie and Dart from sticking, and keep bringing Max back up so he didn't go down. Valkyrie and Dart were both my killing pieces, and my scoring pieces. Both offered decent speed and the ability to prevent opponents removing them from the Scoring Zone.

When I stuck to that general outline, things went well. When I didn't (my third match in particular) the wheels started to come off.

Round One: Assault

Deepwater Dragons

VS

Bad Wolves

Our first opposition were our old friends and rivals the Bad Wolves, with whom we were very familiar after the Pre-Season AAL. They were bringing Maximus, Murtair, Kozmo and Parvati in their Team for the Cup.

With Murtair dragging down their Initiative Total the Bad Wolves were starting as the Underdogs, but they put us into a Starting Zone which allowed us an unobstructed advance and we set up relatively confident that we would be able to execute our plan to get up in the first round.

We pushed up our whole team into the Center Zone, with Maximus activating first and leading the way. Both Max and Valkyrie got into position and helped to block, 'though in order to prevent a tie I had to push Dart into the Scoring Zone (so the Wolves Max couldn't make it in).

The Bad Wolves then scored unopposed as a series of bad disengagements, combined with my own Aristos failing to hold anyone in place, along with an excellent shot from Parvati (taking out Valkyrie entirely before she activated) but while Murtair went down from the Wolves, so too did Dart.

In the third phase the Wolves made a brilliant play to counter the unopposed Mendoza in the Scoring Zone, using "Track" to cover the remaining space his move wouldn't allow for while the rest of the Aristos were largely still tied down in a swirling melee in the center of the field.

In the fourth phase the Dragons Max moved up to his counterpart and managed to displace him using "Scram" to clear Valkyrie (after his Shield failed to do the job).

This allowed the Norse Goddess to move down and attack Murtair, 'though she failed to put the Wolf-boy out of commission to free Mendoza.

Thankfully Dart came around and Mendoza then disengaged and double moved across to win the Zone.

This meant that the final score would depend on the last phase, with the Dragons going in on 5 points to the 4 of the Wolves. Successfully saturating the Scoring Zone in Smoke meant that Kozmo wasn't getting anywhere, and Valkyrie managed to move close enough to the Wolves Max to drop Frostburn, giving us the chance to win. But with Mendoza out of range and Dart failing to Disengage from Parvati it left just the Dragons Max to move into the Zone and tie it up for the phase.

Final Score: Dragons 6 - Bad Wolves 5

Frags: Dragons 1 - Bad Wolves 3

Round Two: King of the Hill

Deepwater Dragons

VS

Thunderbolts

In round two of the cup we met another rival from the AAL Pre-Season, the Thunderbolts. They had stuck to their well tested team combination of Hannibal, 8-Ball, Massacre and hEXx3r.

The Deepwater Dragons started as the Underdogs but the choice of starting Zones wasn't too critical for the match. The Dragons took a relatively dispersed approach, while the Thunderbolts stayed in a slightly tighter formation.

The key element which decided this match was well timed Frags. Massacre was taken out twice to prevent him activating to eliminate Dragon Aristos, Hannibal just before he ordered 8-Ball to clear out the Scoring Zone and while hEXx3r spent much of the match frustrated by Valkyrie and Dart (with Hidden making it difficult to play games with her either) she, too, went down at a critical juncture.

Keeping 8-Ball in the Zone for most of the game, while the Dragons targets were largely outside the Zone, slowed down scoring so that the game ran to Round 5. But despite a good last moment hEXx3r play to pull Max out of the Zone and put herself in for a Draw things still ended up in the Dragons favour.

Final Score: Dragons 8 - Thunderbolts 4

Frags: Dragons 5 - Bad Wolves 1

Round Three: Carnage

Deepwater Dragons

VS

Cherry Bombs

The third round is where the wheels came off in terms of my personal performance as a Manager. A couple of dodgy early decisions followed by an entire game of playing Max wrong (moving him into opposing Aristos rather than to his Team) was only barely pulled back at the very end.

But, before we get to that, our opposition were our third regular opponents from the Pre-Season League (yes, there WERE two other players there with their Teams but the Dragons didn't meet them on the Hexadome) the Cherry Bombs. They had revised their lineup from the Pre-Season however, and now fielded Prysm, Lunah, Laxmee and Gata.

The Dragons were the Underdogs and I selected a Starting Zone with good total cover to prevent an Aristo who had not activated being picked off. With the tighter restriction on deployment offered by the Scenario Maximus couldn't make it into the Zone, and was then cut off from Mendoza, who advanced in and to the cover on the edge of the Zone, by Prysm moving past and between them. This set Mendoza up to drop from a well executed Lunah shot, while Valkyrie totally whiffed her attack.

In the following round Dart and Mondoza put Prysm down, but the Dragons failed to score the Zone, as none of their Aristos moved back sufficiently and another round of sharp shooting from Lunah sent Valkyrie to the infirmary. Max wombled meaninglessly around the table center.

In Round three Mendoza went to work, moving up and blowing Lunah away, while Valkyrie pinned (and was pinned by) Prysm. Max wandered in the center of the table for some reason, while Dart moved to score, only to have Gata flash across to counter and draw up the zone.

Dart now failed to clear her Dazzled State, leaving the scoring zone locked up, Lunah respawned and shot to no avail before being put right back into the Infirmary by Mendoza. Max finally started to move, but still didn't reach anywhere useful and Valkyrie picked off Laxmee.

In the last round the re-spawned Lunah had Max next to her, but shot anyway BECAUSE THAT'S NOT HOW MAX WORKS! She got her shot off, put Mendoza down and prevented a kill on Prysm. Which lined up a face off for the ages, Gata tried to Contender Dart, but didn't quite finish her off, leaving her Dazzled. Dart used her own Contender and with a mutual Frag both Managers were left with their teams on 8 points.

Final Score: Dragons 8 - Cherry Bombs 8
Frags: Dragons 5 - Cherry Bombs 4

Somehow this entirely lackluster performance (seriously, what the HELL was I doing in that last round?) was nevertheless enough to earn me first place in the event (I was the only undefeated player).

There was a lot of support, because our local Aristeia! WarCor did an excellent job drumming up prizes. And did you see how awesome that trophy looks?!? There were prizes for First Frag of the day, Most Frags Scored, Least Frags Taken, Best Painted... and then the category that I benefited from. My fellow players voted the Deepwater Dragons their favorite Team of the event (I can't help but feel all the blogging I've done on them has helped).

For another view point on the tournament I recommend the Aristeia! Tempest Hexadome video:

Now, where to from here?

The Auckland Aristeia League or AAL Season starts now and runs 'till mid August. We've already decided we are using the Koorie Queen Mod for the Season, which means I'm expanding out my Bench for the Dragons.

And I need to get ready for bans!

After that, we'll play one capstone tournament, which will be our farewell to Season Two of the Aristeia Global League.

The next few "Aristo Analysis" writeups will be on the Aristos I'm adding to the Bench for the Dragons to make up my Starting Eight. After that we'll move on to the remaining PanOceanian Aristos and finally we'll take a look at non-PanOceanian Aristos in the "Rivals" series. But that isn't likely 'till Season 3, or even 2020.

There will be more Infinity content coming up soon as well, as we prep for the next Global Campaign, which Heart of the Hyperpower will cover in detail.

As always, we look forward to your thoughts.

Aristeia! - Team Analysis - Deepwater Dragons 4 Otono Cup

In the PreSeason League and for the Otono Cup here in Auckland, New Zealand, we decided to run with the Carano Mod, meaning that we would each be playing with a fixed team of four Aristos. While the opportunity to change the team once was offered during the League, I stuck with my initial choice, and took the same four Aristos into the Otono Cup tournament

The decision to use the Carano Mod was both to encourage newer players, with the idea being that learning just four Aristos would be easier, and to encourage painting of our teams. It worked well on both levels and while I know it's the least popular Mod at the moment I sincerely hope it isn't dropped as I see it as an excellent tool for growing a meta which simply hasn't been fully appreciated yet.


My decision to stick with the same Team for the Otono Cup was partly driven by a desire for continuity between the PreSeason League and the Cup, to treat it as a capstone event to the PreSeason. The other part of it was experience with the team and a genuine belief that they would be effective in the three Scenarios we would be playing in the event, Assault, King of the Hill and Carnage.

Overall timing and positioning strategies within the team are simple, with Maximus, Valkyrie and Mendoza sticking together as a squad while Dart ranges away. Generally Dart isn't needed for scoring, but she's effective when brought in late with Ambush.

Generally speaking activating Maximus early and advancing him into the zone for the rest of the team to follow up works well as an opening play (when opponents will largely be out of range of the rest of the Team) or in later turns when you have eliminated active threats.

Valkyrie and Mendoza will usually be mid-order activations, with Valkyrie moving up to eliminate whichever Aristo the opponent sent in to match Maximus, while Mendoza follows to heal and finish off that target if it survived the initial assault. Dart, on the other hand, will nearly always want to activate late and pick off a target of opportunity inside the Scoring Zone if necessary or a key support outside it.

Assault

Maximus: Block, Scram
Valkyrie: Odin's Breath, Frostburn
Mendoza: Tabula Rasa, Hic Et Nuc
Dart: Ambush, Surprise Factor

Overall game plan: Win first turn with overwhelming attacks and then last with Tactics, draw when possible in mid game, closing the deal with Dart.

King of the Hill

Maximus: Block, Scram
Valkyrie: Ice Wall, Odin's Breath
Mendoza: Tabula Rasa, Hic Et Nuc
Dart: Ambush, Batrachotoxin

Overall game plan: Get Maximus and Mendoza into the center together and then hit and run with Valkyrie and Dart for points and to prevent opponent stacking.

Carnage

Maximus: Block, Adamantine
Valkyrie: Ice Wall, Valkyrie's Cry
Mendoza: Tabula Rasa, Hic Et Nuc
Dart: Batrachotoxin, Predatory Instinct

Overall game plan: Score the zones where possible but focus on damage output and keep pushing out healing with Mendoza, go for repeat small kills and avoid Tanks unless Marks force us to instead focus fire.

Both the Block from Maximus and Ice Wall from Valkyrie feed directly into both Valkyrie and Dart's damage output. Mendoza is notable as the only Aristo with the same Tactic selection throughout the
event, with Tabula Rasa and Hic Et Nuc just being overwhelmingly better except in very narrow team and scenario matchups.

Carnage is the Scenario with the most unique set of selections, as mobility and manipulation are less relevant while abilities which can be translated into direct damage are at a premium. This also brings out the strength of the defensive dice buffs and the likes of Adamantine.

Overall this build has proven to be much deadlier than either I, or my opponents, expected. It has pulled well ahead on Frags in many games, as well as forcing opponents to deal with missed activations and poor positioning from re-spawning.

On the other hand it is not as mobile as I would like, and it can be vulnerable to opponents with effective Status based approaches. Mendoza is an excellent healer, but he is not strong at state management. It can also suffer from really dedicated ranged Striker capabilities, due to the aforementioned lack of sterling mobility and also absence of Smoke.

For more on my thoughts about Maximus head here.

For more on my thoughts about Valkyrie head here.

For more on my thoughts about Mendoza head here.

For more on my thoughts about Dart head here.

While there are some changes I'm considering, this base team has proven to be very effective. I look forward to the Otono Cup tomorrow and I'll have a review up for the event in the next few days. Hopefully I remember to get plenty of photos for the games (which will decide if that's one article or three).

After that we will have a discussion about expanding this set of four Aristos out to a bench of eight, as that's going to be the setup for the upcoming Seasonal League.

Wish us luck!