Most people outside North America know little of Gen Con and even resident geeks can only tell you they’ve heard of it. Started a really long time ago, Gen Con was a convention to bring together pen and paper game players to share their love of Dungeons & Dragons and foam weaponry. Over the years it’s evolved into a major commercial venue showing off miniatures, trading card games, and tournaments. Thus the 2009 Gen Con was the perfect venue for PoxNora to present its awesomeness so Slugbait, Kaervas, and I made our way to Indianapolis.

I arrived just before dinner and got a message from a few co-workers on the Community Team to meet up for dinner at a restaurant in the mall. The mall across the street from the hotel was a spiraling maze that would rival any good MMO dungeon. I ascended 2 levels, wandered past NPC’s at a Cinnabon, and tried to use a map but to no avail. Leaving the building and wandering around eventually brought the results I needed. Poor Kaervas and Slugbait got in around 11:00 PM local, and we made our way to Champions to enjoy some wings and Salsa. After receiving an odd marketing pitch about a pen and paper gaming product, from someone who had a few beers, we called it a night.

The next day started early as we made our way over to the convention hall well before 8:00 AM. This event usually sees about 25,000 people so you can imagine the commercial opportunities here. Every trading card game or boardgame you’ve ever heard of , and many you haven’t, were not only for sale but being demonstrated. The booth as you can see was 12 PC’s with 30 inch flat screens showing off Legends of Norrath, Free Realms Trading Card Game, and of course PoxNora.

One of the most exciting things about the event, was SOE got the lanyard for the entire show. That means tens of thousands of people were wearing something that said PoxNora! How fricking cool is that? As the doors opened up and everyone started streaming in, it became clear to me this would be the biggest showing PoxNora has seen in quite awhile. The lanyards however weren’t it, as we printed thousands of cards with rune art on them letting people know about the Gen Con packs being offered. So not only were thousands of people walking by looking at the game, but we were handing out reminders for people to try it out.

The first day was rough as all three of us spent nine straight hours talking to people about the features of PoxNora. Things were just getting started however as we made our way to Jillian’s for the SOE Meet and Greet. I have to admit, they went all out for this. Open bar, free food, and tons of swag were available and I can’t remember a single complaint the entire night. Kaervas bravely accepted the less glamorous duty of manning our PC’s in the Tournament Hall in case anyone wanted to play PoxNora. Slugbait and I sat in a booth for just moments before we were cornered by a few very happy fans which were enjoying the alcohol. It was an interesting night, and we learned a new term called “pure” which describes something beyond awesome.

Friday and Saturday kept getting busier as we sat down hundreds of people to try out the game. Most of the demonstrations blurred together but we had an amazing opportunity to get together a few PoxNora players Saturday night for dinner at Champions. Phaeton426, Ssez, and PoxAurora all showed up and it was great to meet a few of you guys in person. We had a good time hanging out and I think they can tell you we’re probably a little different in person than you think.

Sunday finally arrived and was supposed to be the “easy” day, but hundreds of families showed up which gave us plenty to do. Slugbait got the Bubonic Plague at some point, and Kaervas had people coming up to him asking him if he was RadarX. Sure, I pointed them over to him, but it was funny right? At 4:00 PM everyone who wasn’t an exhibitor was sent out and clean up began. If I hadn’t been packing up and shrink wrapping a dozen PC’s and monitors, I would have marveled at the buzz of activity. Forklifts whizzed by picking up pallets and the sound of zip ties clicking were consistent the rest of day.

Overall Gen Con was an unbelievably tough job, but did so much for PoxNora it was worth every second. There was so much more that happened I wish I could share, but this has already gotten lengthy enough. We hope to see a lot of new players in the next few weeks, so if see one saying they are from Gen Con, just say “We apologize for RadarX” and welcome them into the community.

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This weeks Developer Diary comes from the newest member of the PoxNora team. You might recognize him as a player, but his experience goes far beyond that as you’ll see below. Today you’ll get to meet the man behind the CorpsE and hear about just what he’s working on for the game.

How I Started Working in the Gaming Industry:

I was playing an Real Time Strategy game called Battle Realms hardcore. I played a lot. I posted on the game forums in a constructive manner, never flamed anyone, and always tried to help out. I was also one of the top players in the game. One day out of the blue the game producer contacted me and asked if I was interested in a job as a game designer for the upcoming expansion. So I left my tiny hometown of Galion, Ohio and booked it out to L.A.

Games I’ve Worked On:

POXNORA!

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor (2009), THQ Inc.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (2009), THQ Inc.
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (2007), THQ Inc.
Company of Heroes (2006), THQ Inc.
Company of Heroes (Collector’s Edition) (2006), THQ Inc.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard (2005), Atari, Inc.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring (2003), Sierra Entertainment, Inc.
Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf (2002), Crave Entertainment, Inc.

What My Role is at Sony Online Entertainment Tucson:

Most of my role here at SOE Tucson is heading up the design and balance for future expansions of PoxNora.

How I Design:

This is a hard one but I feel it’s worth talking about so the community understands the direction PoxNora is headed. I am not a fan of nerfs. I loathe them and believe they are a last resort to something that cannot be fixed any other way. I would rather introduce counters to runes that are considered a problem. A good example of this was the ‘Predator’ ability we put on Doombringers. Harbingers have long been a sore spot with the PoxNora community so instead of nerfing the rune directly, we introduced a strong counter to them. This makes sense from both a business perspective and it also gives the players the capacity to make the choice to upgrade that ability. PoxNora will most likely continue in this direction since it helps grow the game and gives you the player choices.

My Hobbies
I love cigars, Scotch, baseball, my Jeep, working out, PoxNora and my sweet, sweet Dachshund, Rose.

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CorpsE Senior Game Designer

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Pox Doombringer (FW) x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 11 damage, 50 hp - 99 Nora

Abomination x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 51 hp, Vulnerability: Electricity, Berserker 3 - 73 Nora

Executioner x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 54 hp, Exertion 3 - 81 Nora

Blood Fiend x2
Upgrades: 47 hp, Blood Frenzy 1 - 44 Nora

Demon Lich x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 44 hp, Swarm: Deep Elf Skeleton - 84 Nora

Nefari Dragon x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 52 hp, Flamestrike 3, Vulnerability: Frost - 71 Nora

Scorched Dwarf x2
Upgrades: 24 hp, Nora Miner 2, Mason 2 - 29 Nora

Nefari Messenger
Upgrades: 48 hp - 72 Nora

Eternal Lich
Upgrades: 11 speed, 44 hp, Dark Favor 1 - 94 Nora

Sacrifice x2
Retribution x2
Fireblast x2
Price of Victory x2
Mobilization x2
Essence Drain x2
Sacrificial Dagger x2

This deck relies on AP generation and making attacks cheaper through spells or at the costs of a unit’s own hitpoints. All of the Forsaken Wastes champions can sacrifice their HP to gain extra attacks or AP except the Eternal Lich. This, coupled with Drive, Price of Victory, Ally: FW and Mobilization means that you can cover lots of ground and attack twice as often. This is especially powerful because most everything will hit in the mid-teens for damage. To compensate for the lowering HP, Sacrifice, Retribution and the Sacrificial Dagger give you ways to turn your low HP units into resources. Sacrificial Daggers on the range 6 Doombringers are especially deadly.

Aside from the main combo runes, the rest are mostly support. The Demon Liches are good recipients of the AP boosts by letting them get finishing blows, and provide global AP on drop. The Messenger is a Drive engine, which makes Sacrificial Daggers much more deadly. The Dwarves obviously provide nora as well as Mason, and considering how harsh you can be on your own shrine, you’ll probably need it. The Nefari Dragons and the Eternal Lich simply provide some additional solid ranged support. Finally, the Fireblasts and Essence Drains allow you to translate double attacks from your champions into kills, especially in the case of Essence Drain. An Executioner with essence drain support can move 6 spaces and kill a 60 hp champion in one round.

It’s the second day of Fan Faire and if things go anything like yesterday, it will certainly be an adventure. I’ve slept only a little so far and while I’ve seen plenty of these shows, I’ve never experienced it from this perspective. My day starts bright and early so I can get a jump on things.

6:25 AM - I head down for an early breakfast knowing it’s quite possible I’ll miss lunch.

6:35 AM - 6 extremely loud lawyers from Washington D.C. are eating at a nearby table. They have apparently been up all night gambling so this explains what I smell.

6:50 AM - One lawyer goes for broke and drops $2 on Keno. I shake my head, close my nose, and finish my food.

7:25 AM - Only a few members of the community team are in the ballroom. The EverQuest II Community Manager is setting up for her tournament.

8:15 AM - The tournament PC’s are all patched and ready to go. I have the list of entrants which are in groups of six (that I designate as waves) and scheduled to show up every 30 minutes.

8:50 AM - Time for the community team huddle. We take a quick moment to make sure everyone knows where they are supposed to be and on the proper medications.

9:00 AM - The doors open and a groups of people start to meander in. Some of the more exciting panels are keeping the crowd here manageable. The first wave of Tournament groups show up. One is missing two people.

9:05 AM - In the interest of getting things going I grab two people from the 9:30 group because they have no clue who else is in their group.

9:10 AM - The two missing group members show up. I cry on the inside.

9:30 AM - The Game Room is now completely full and I have people waiting to use machines. Wave 2 of the tournament has now shown up.

9:40 AM - Wave 2 sits down and an entire group hasn’t shown up. A group from Wave 5 desperately wants to move people out of their group to let a friend in.

9:45 AM - After plenty of debate I allow them to move two people.

10:10 AM - We’re a few minutes behind and groups are coming up to check in. I tell them to come back in a few minutes.

10:12 AM - One group comes back and I define “a few minutes” as 10 or more.

10:30 AM - 2:00 PM My time in the Game Room has blended into a montage of walking circles around the PC’s and ushering people into the tournament. The EverQuest II Community Manager gives me a granola bar and a little of Niami’s famous trail mix. It’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

2:15 PM - I go to the restroom and remove my shoes. My feet have started swelling so I blame whoever makes Airwalks.

3:00 PM - The Game Room has slackened a bit so I’m able to move back and forth between it and the PoxNora display. Hawkfain and PoxVega are talking with prospective players. I shuffle a few old media contacts over their way. Poxvega has not screamed “POXVEGA!” all day so my fingers are crossed.

3:30 PM - During a lull HawkFain sits down to try out Kung Fu Hustle. He’s brutalized by the game, but to add insult to injury, one of their developers comes over and makes playing look easy.

4:15 PM - I sit down for the first time in 8 hours, and 5 minutes later I can’t feel my legs.

4:20 PM - One of the community team tells me to stop sitting cross legged.

5:30 PM - We’re pushing in the last groups for the tournament. There have been a total of 23 which translates into 138 players and only 18 are getting prizes. Some of these guys are taking things pretty seriously so I want to help and offer advice.

5:35 PM - One guy snarls at me that “More DoTs!” is not being helpful. Apparently he’s a Paladin or something.

6:25 PM - We wrap up the tournament a bit late, clean things up and head for the Community Address. I already have an idea of what they are announcing, but haven’t seen the specifics so I’m a little excited.

7:05 PM - 1500 people pack into a large ballroom and the presentation begins. Free Realms is adding more to Go Karts and putting in soccer.

7:25 PM - One of the speakers goes up on stage in a banana suit.

7:26 PM - I start texting to find out who he lost a bet to.

7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Exhaustion is setting in. I know they announced the next EverQuest and EverQuest II expansion but the rest is hazy. What I also thought was pretty cool was every attendee was getting a free copy. PoxNora gets some face time and the video looks amazing.

9:00 PM - ???? - I make a few notes in my organizer and eventually drift off to sleep. Once again no idea what time my roommate came in.

Lonx Hurler x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 49 hp, Lay Trap - Frost 2 - 69 Nora

Lonx Striker x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 48 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 66 Nora

Lonx Recruiter x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 50 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 74 Nora

Lonx Adept x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 50 hp, Vulnerability: Fire - 82 Nora

Yeti Shaman x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 46 hp, Majestic 2, Vulnerability: Fire - 75 Nora

Nora Beast x2
Upgrades: 66 hp - 47 Nora

Tracker Gnark
Upgrades: 11 speed, 55 hp, Leap 3, Vulnerability: Fire - 99 Nora

Glacial Titan
Upgrades: 12 speed, 69 hp, Arctic Camouflage - 117 Nora

Lonx Ambusher
Upgrades: 51 hp, Assault, Vulnerability: Fire - 75 Nora

Yeti Berserker
Upgrades: 9 speed, 55 hp, Leap 3, Berserker 3, Multiattack 1 - 86 Nora

Crystal Pheonix
Upgrades:28 hp, Divine Favor 3, Vulnerability: Fire - 55 Nora

Gale Force x2
Ice Storm x2
Deep Freeze x2
Call of the Tundra x2
Conjure Ice Block
Cleansing Storm
Flag of Unification
Ice Shard
Provincial Marker

The rule for this deck is only wild champions and no Jakei, angels or elven ancestors. This restricts our options quite a bit, but there are still a good number of champions - the biggest penalty is the lack of long range units. Elders and angels are usually the long range slots but to compensate here we’re running with a good number of midrange units and using all of the available damage spells. The deck shines in close quarters, naturally, with the Glacial Titan, Berserker, Gnark and even the Hurlers and Recruiters giving melee options. Whe first 3 are being able to cover a lot of ground as well, between 13 speed and/or leap.

Generally Lonx Adepts will be your best support tool in this deck as they give good midrange damage and also provide your only pseudo long range in their Frost Aura granting ability. Strikers will be your “ranged damage”, as they are cheap and hit decently hard. The Ambusher serves as an anti-range tool - a sudden engagement behind lines with assault can be brutal. Recruiters aid here too because of assault, though their primary purpose is to pump out the cats. Gnark or the Titan are your tools for breaking stalemates and turning games in your favor - the titan is not always a favorite, but his offense is still huge even at melee. Just be cautious with him around FW or other factions with dangerous spot removal.

Your support options are mostly self-explanatory, with a few odder choices. The Flag of Unification is a big help in a shorter ranged deck like this with evasive and charge - optimally you’ll put it on a snowcat, but a Yeti Shaman also makes a good target. Cleansing Storm is not always included these days, but is still a good surprise and being tied down can easily be deadly to something like Gnark or the Titan, so it is a decent investment. The Ice Shard, finally, makes a slot not for frost damage champions, instead mostly to protect you from opposing fire without access to the Extinguisher and with so much Vulnerability.

FanFaire is over and it was an amazing event this year. For me however it was quite a bit different than any other I’ve ever attended. In the past I’ve been there as media and walking around covering events. Of course I made a lot of assumptions about how things were organized and set up but I ad admittedly was wrong about much of what goes on behind the scenes. What I’m going to do today is give you an inside look at exactly what we do and what the PoxNora team. Welcome to Fan Faire

8:15 AM - Arrive at airport and wander over to Hawkfain. PoxVega arrives and we both notice we are basically one of the last people to board. HawkFain was “responsible” and checked in earlier but boards with us. We board the plane in separate rows but fortunately there was a middle seat for most of us. PoxVega sits next to a very loud woman who insists it is her birthday and wants a drink.

10:25 AM - We’ve left the plane and I’m the only one who checked a bag so we start following PoxVega to baggage claim. After grabbing my stuff we queue up (see I like Europeans) in a long line for cabs. You see Las Vegas is kind of like a 100 degree theme park. PoxVega spends the next 10 minutes scaring HawkFain about cab drivers.

11:00 AM - We arrive at Bally’s and toss our bags to a bellhop. Having no idea where to go we head for the nearest ballroom by the longest possible route we could find in the casino. After ascending two levels and almost wandering into some type of medical convention, we make our way to the actual area SOE is setting up in.

11:40 AM - We aren’t on the setup crew (that’s right SOE employees do a lot of the manual labor) because we have to run the late night gaming, but these guys have already been working diligently. A team has been stuffing swag bags for hours and a small team has set up almost 90 gaming PC’s with networking for players. It’s time to grab lunch.

12:15 AM - We wander through the Paris hotel for roughly 15 minutes before PoxVega points out a buffet we should go to. Being indecisive we decide to move on and walk to the end of the hotel where we find a quaint restaurant with $50 hamburgers. PoxVega tells us I told you so and we make our way back. Buffet wasn’t bad and had fancy schmancy French desserts. They even had snails and goose poop.

3:30 PM - We make our way over to see if we can check in. HawkFain grabs a passing bellhop to find out our luggage was on it’s way up to the room of someone else. I check in and we make our way over to the large room which contains a dozen different displays of different games. PoxVega and HawkFain man the PoxNora display while I take my post at the gameroom.

4:00 PM - 8:00 PM - The gameroom didn’t necessarily need me there so I made my way back over to the PoxNora display and started grabbing by passers to show them the wonders of the game. We showed quite a few people including media what PoxNora was all about.

8:30 PM - With only 90 minutes before late night gaming we make our way to a restaraunt for some hamburgers. Our waitress isn’t bad looking and PoxVega orders his hamburger with “Abuhhhh” on it.

10:00 PM - We are ready for late night gaming. HawkFain and PoxVega hang around for a while to answer questions but most people are trying things out or playing other Trading Card Games.  HawkFain spends a few minutes playing Kung Fu Hustle and is shown up pretty quickly by another SOE employee.  We finally shut everything down around 1AM and I make my way to the room. After jotting a few notes in my organizer I laid down about 2 AM.

2:00 AM - 6:00 AM - My roommate came in at some point. I was that tired.

So this was Day 1 of Fan Faire and now you have an idea of what we do at these events.

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Barbarian Commander x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 52 hp, Battlemaster 3 - 72 Nora

Barbarian Archer x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 51 hp - 74 Nora

Favored Nomad x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 59 hp - 72 Nora

Barbarian Elite x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 50 hp, Blood Frenzy 3, Exertion 3 - 100 Nora

Veteran Barbarian x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 49 hp - 64 Nora

Houndmaster
Upgrades: 9 speed, 50 hp, Summon Beast 3 - 80 Nora

Barbarian Guardian
Upgrades: 9 speed, 51 hp, Camaraderie - 95 Nora

Barbarian Shaman
Upgrades: 9 speed, 51 hp, Heal Champion 2 - 62 Nora

Savage Shieldman x2
Upgrades:9 speed, 49 hp, Shove - 74 Nora

Impervious x2
Hammer Strike x2
Strip Armor x2
Earthquake x2
Desperate Heal x2
Righteous Deflection
Disarm
Glorious Charge
Visage of Ironfist
Ironfist Standard

Here is a simple racial theme deck for the barbarians. Barbarians have become significantly more viable in recent expansions with changes to Favored Nomads and the release of Barbarian Archers to handle ranged combat. The biggest strength of this deck is resilience, as barbarians tend to have a hefty amount of hp and defense, not to mention access to a bit of healing and defensive abilities. They also have the ability to provide some significant buffs to their army. Cheap double Motivate and Battlemaster 3 can produce very dangerous champions. The big weaknesses are low speed and lack of nora and mines might be a good substitute for some of the utility spells. However because miners don’t fit our theme the mines won’t be too impressive. Relying on the strengths of the champions and backing it up with a slew of good utility spells the deck can enjoy success at pretty high levels of play.

Each of the champions has something unique to offer in this deck. First is the Barbarian Commanders, who are some of your best combatants with high damage and enrage and also provide the excellent Battlemaster 3. Following up in the support area are your Veteran Barbarians - these guys are kept cheap to bring out fast as possible for motivate. Having both Veterans out significantly increases the killing power of your deck. Archers and Favored Nomads are your best sources of damage and with motivate they can really bring the pain. Nomads also offer an excellent sideways form of nora generation with all the cheap spells you can throw out. Savage Shieldmen bridge the gap between damage and support and while they’re not great at any one thing, they can help protect your range and fight against pure melee units.

The first of our more specialized units are the Barbarian Elites, who have the potential to be your biggest damagers if you play carefully with them and use spell support. They can really bring the pain under the right conditions. Next we have a Houndmaster, who offers excellent detection as well as some helpful long game potential. The dogs are also good with Revenge and Motivate, and the Houndmaster has decent stats as well. The Shaman offers an extra damage type not to mention healing, which is good for your elites or dealing with pesky Sonic Elementals. Finally, the Guardian serves as a walking discount for our army. He’s very expensive, but if you can get him out and protect him he will make his cost back. Nexus Aura is a good once per game turn changing ability, and scramble is very potentially powerful, though not often will it go off. In general the Guardian is a good early game champion for Camaraderie.

This deck makes use of a lot of spells to cover holes in the champions. Hammer Strike and Earthquake provide good spot damage and also help tremendously in controlling enemy champions. Desperate Heal, Impervious, and Righteous Deflection give you a good number of options for keeping your units alive however don’t be afraid to make use of Impervious freely. It can really change the course of a battle if an opponent has to let a champion live for an extra turn and the spell will come back quickly. Double Strip Armor makes good use of the high amount of physical damage. Glorious Charge gives the deck’s offense some range, and is especially good with Barbarian Elites. Disarm makes an appearance for standard reasons, as does the warbanner. Finally we have the Ironfist Visage. Clear is very helpful for a deck like this with no movement abilities, and the helm provides late game power to a deck that is otherwise lacking somewhat in that department.

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Kaervas Assistant Game Designer

Everyone knows what a game designers, artists, and programmers do but what about a community manager? A number of you have asked me this question over the past few weeks. What do I do for SOE Tucson, and more importantly how can I help you as a valuable member of the PoxNora community? Community Management is complex and varied enough that it’s difficult to find someone who hasn’t been in my shoes that understands what it entails.

My primary function is to help gather feedback from the player base in order to help the development team. They are capable of digging through hundreds of threads to find out what is on your hearts and minds. Wouldn’t it be better though if they were doing something like fixing bugs or enhancing game mechanics? It’s my job to know what all of you are thinking, or at least what most of you are thinking. Should this be nerfed? Should that be buffed? Is this spell bugged? Do you hate a particular rune and why? I read all this information, compile it for easy digestion and present it to the developers for their assessment.

Being the voice of the community isn’t my only job however, as I spend quite a bit of my time promoting different events. This can be as simple as letting all of you know about patch downtime and posting the notes. Other times SOE has major events like the launch of a game they want everyone to know about. Generally however it’s about making sure everyone sees things like the Weekly Rune Discussion Thread, the Player Spotlight, and anything else exciting happening in PoxNora. The Message of the Day and website news doesn’t update itself!

The lifeblood of a competitive game like PoxNora is tournaments and it’s my job to make sure you guys can beat each other silly on a regular basis. It might sound pretty easy to pick 16 players plus alternates, put them in a bracket, do announcements, officiate and observe all the matches, and write up the championship match. Ok maybe that doesn’t sound easy, but when you add it in with everything else, things can get a little crazy at times. There is comfort however when I see how excited many of you are to participate and I’ve watched some incredible matches just in the two I’ve run so far.

Finally we have the less glamorous task of chatroom and forum moderation. Yes there are days I feel like I’m a crossing guard with a big red stop sign and whistle. We do have a number of rules to and generally they are followed but every now and then, people have to be reminded to wait for the Walk sign. I’m lucky enough to have a few helpful moderators but for the most part I enjoy the time I get bantering and listening to all the players.

So there you have it. That is pretty much what I do in a given day, you just need to imagine it all happening at the speed of light.

If you missed last weeks casual tourney, it was quite a show to behold. Eight players of different factions went head to head with only one walking away as Grand Champion. The final match between high ranked DevilsRath and Sepulcher would take many twists and turns, but in the end one Avatar would fall. Fortunately for you we managed to put together a summary which gives a blow by blow of what happened and some strategies used in upper level gameplay.

Both opponents faced off in the K’Thir Forest map with DevilsRath having the first move. His first champion, a Battlemage, is matched by Sepulcher’s Jakei Elder, Norabeast, and Warbanner. DevilsRath begins his Nora gathering strategy by placing a Nora Mine and a Deep Miner. The next few turns have both sides spreading out but eventually Sepulcher takes the offensive. Advancing a Lonx Recruiter and Jakei Frostbow across the northeast bridge, he casts Ice Block to contest his opponents Nora Font. DevilsRath moves his Battlemage in obliterating the Ice Block but Sepulcher isn’t ready to let up and advances his Jakei Frostbow to reblock while deploying 4 snowcats.

With his font contested, DevilsRath is on the defensive and deploys a Barbarian Elite and Dwarven Sharpshooter to provide sorely needed firepower. The Jakei Frostbow takes heavy damage but the Battlemage takes much more and is reduced to a meager 2 hit points. If this weren’t enough, a Jakei Extinguisher and Elder cross the south bridge. This is now a clear press and it will take a significant turnaround for DevilsRath to hold Sepulcher back. He moves a Siege Engine into position and advances his Barbarian Elite hoping to keep the northeast font contested. Sepulcher now enjoys his advantage and takes the time to deploy more units including a powerful Angel of Perseverance. The Barbarian Elite manages to take out the Jakei Extinguisher before expiring, but Sepulcher moves to secure to the northeast font. In a desperate attempt to prevent total nora control, a Deep miner moves in to contest the font once more.

DevilsRath hasn’t had his Nora Font in some time and is under constant pressure at this point. Sepulcher brings out Tracker Gnark and in a surprise move charges DevilsRath’s avatar. There is nothing but a Siege Engine and a Warbanner standing between him and victory. In a more surprising move, DevilsRath plays Divine Dispersal buying himself just a little more time to regain a foothold. Sepulcher however still controls both fonts and immediately redeploys Tracker Gnark, 2 Jakei Elders, and a Lonx Recruiter. DevilsRath responds with the mighty Euan Ironfist and a powerful Groble Piledriver to hold his position. What happened next would surprise almost every member of the audience watching the game.

Instead of fortifying a secure position at the northeast Nora Font, Sepulcher continued his assault against DevilsRath’s avatar. Tracker Gnark moves in and gets off at least one attack while Euan proceeds to pound on him. He is stunned but not out of the fight. The two Jakei Elders make a rush for the shrine as well. Tracker Gnark gets off one more swing before Euan eliminates him and DevilsRath transfigures his avatar. It probably should have been over by now, but DevilsRath refuses to give up. Sepulcher loses a Jakei Elder but at this point owns all the Nora Fonts giving DevilsRath nowhere to deploy any other units. He’ll have to rely on spells and equipment now. The Angel of Perseverance returns and with him comes an ugly ally, an Ice Golem.

For now it appears DevilsRath has held up against the merciless onslaught but Sepulcher continues the push on him from all sides. The fight was valiant and there were quite a few times the crowd expected at turnaround but the final victory goes to Sepulcher. Be sure to look for more tournaments in the near future where you can not only observe but get in on the action.

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