As usual, my memory for what went on in games is pretty spotty, so I'll keep this high level!
I ran Ragnar straight out of Davis' head. Ragnar's been my go-to for a while, and since we'd been slacking on Conquest play, I figured I could drive Davis' deck pretty well.
27 people showed up, and 3 (included me) used a bye for round one.
Round One was a bye for me, thanks to one of my earlier tourney wins! This allowed me to do some recon. I walked around and observed what I was going to be up against. I only saw one Aun'Shi. I saw one other Ragnar, several Catos, one Nazdreg, one Zogwort, one Urien, two Eldoraths, one Shadowsun, and many many Kiths. Thankfully, I think Ragnar is a pretty good matchup against Kith, so I wasn't sweating it too hard!
Round Two was (surprise!) against Kith. My opponent's name was Judah, and he ran a pretty straightforward Kith build. I had a nice opening hand, with lots of command. I managed to dominate command early and held my lead. Won on planet 4 due to planet win. Our game was fast, so we got a second one in--in this game I managed to assassinate his warlord in relatively short order as well. My first Conquest game in quite a while went pretty well, and I was feeling back in the swing of things!
Round Three was (surprise!) against Kith. This time, unfortunately, my opponent was Andrew. This had the potential to make for a long ride home! Fortunately, I managed to get the upper hand on Andrew's Dark Eldar, though as always, it was a pretty good game. Sucked that we had to face off so early, but I had hope that we could both still make the top 8.
Round Four was against Aun'Shi. Thankfully, Aun'Shi is my second favorite warlord, so I was very familiar with all the tricks! I played a bit more conservatively, anticipating the shenanigans. I may be wrong, but I don't think John played a single Kauyon Strike, and he only got one orbital city out. He did (through pure tricksiness) wipe a planet with a well timed marksman with gun drones. Ouch! Still, Ragnar wasn't about to get bullied around by some Tau, and we managed to pull off the victory. I believe I had all 3 Honored Librarians out this game, so I piled on cheap units to their planets and they made it through okay.
Round Five was against a gentleman named Josh running (gasp!) Kith. I was fairly confident going into this, but that confidence quickly drained. I drew a pretty poor opening hand for command, but Josh had the exact opposite! He COMPLETELY dominated me on command for three turns. And when I say completely, he was usually winning 4 planets, and drawing on another. The few times I did have a glimpse of winning a command struggle, he Archon Palace'd that away. It was both brutal and inspiring to watch! Josh ground me to a pulp and actually won by assassinating Ragnar! Well earned.
Still, I managed to make the cut to the top 8! In fact, I came out of Swiss ranked 2nd, behind only Josh.
Top 8 This time I was paired with another Kith--which was weird! This Kith was driven by Scott, and I was firing on all cylinders. Scott was an awesome dude to play with, but I pulled every space marine trick there is, and managed to take the game home.
Top 4 Finally, something other than Kith! This time, I went up against Pierson who was running Eldorath. He pretty much completely tore me to shreds. He had excellent command, and some well timed Superiorities, Nullifies, and Gift of Ishas. A well earned victory to Pierson who went on to win the whole thing!
I never expected to make it to the top 4, so I was tickled pink! I got some sweet schwag and best of all--Atomic Empire had a bar! They had some pretty rockin' local brews on draught. Very cool.
The final game came down to Josh and Pierson. I felt pretty good that my two losses for the day wound up being the two who would face off for the top spot! In the end, Pierson took it home.
The top 4 Warlords were:
Kith
Ragnar
Eldorath
Zogwort
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