Preliminary Battle Report
Som'er Teeth Jones
2x Mosquito
Gremlin Taxidermist
3x Bayou Gremlin
4x Piglet
Vs.
Misaki
Shang(?)(Totem)
Yamaziko
2x 10T Archer
Oirian
Wastrel
Strategy: Shared Distract
Schemes:
(Me) Kill Protege (Yamaziko), Breakthrough
(Opposing) Kill Protege (Gremlin Taxidermist), Assassinate
The board is mostly open, with terrain pieces with some largish terrain (LOS Blocking) forming a square about half-way into the board. Misc. low walls, forests, etc. make up the rest of the terrain, but did not greatly effect the gameplay.
T1: Both crews move up, with Som'er remaining stationary in back after being shadowed by Misaki. I summon a gremlin, heal the new one, and summon a 'skeeter off the original gremlin, pigs split left/right (2 each) with gremlins going 3-1 to the left, everything is in cover. Misaki's crew generally advances forward. T2 Misaki, Yamaziko and Shang all commit towards the left (Around a largish piece of LoS blocking terrain) while the 2x 10T archers & Oiran advanced in the middle, the Wastrel used some silly movement tricks... getting back into my deployment zone on the right side.
T3 & 4: Having feinted left, I abandon two of my three skeeters, one bayou gremlin, and 2 piglets to tarpitting that part of the board. Som'erteeth (shadowed by Misaki) and the Taxidermist start to use reckless to book it towards the top-right corner of the board (his deployment zone) while my remaining skeeter and 2 piglets clean up the 2 10T archers and the Oiran... my two Bayou Gremlins from the depoyment zone eventually deal with the Wastrel, losing one Gremlin (Harmless.... is insane vs. gremlins it seems).
T5 & 6: Som'er flees towards his deployment zone, with an initial pig-ladder from the 2 center piglets. Misaki chases Som'er down, with them ending up based to base in the 10T deployment zone. Between shadowing, and flipping/drawing like a king I wasn't able to slow her at all, although she eventually fell to some early damage via PMF (T2-3) and the Taxidermists exploding piglets T4/5/6. Had my opponent chosen to ignore assassinate and hide in my deployment zone, the score would have been 2-0 (I make breakthrough, lose distract & kill protege), Instead I killed Misaki through healing flips and Stuffed Piglets, winning 6-0.
Lessons Learned?
Trying to balance piglets stampeding/doing some damage with crew against setting up a pig ladder really hurt me this game. Although I did accomplish a late pig-ladder, if I had tracked it better I could have ignored shadowing by pulling Som'er around and never actually walking. Similarly Skeeters didn't get a chance to cast Sooey! or Gremlin's Luck very much, which seems sub-par, On the turn I set up the Sooey! to rescue my poor left pigs, I simply forgot to do it.
Alternatively, without stuffed piglets or PMF, I find that I have no idea how Som'er will deal with high-value targets like Yamaziko or Misaki, which is a problem I'll have to consider next game. I think Kill Protege was an overambitious scheme, but could have worked if Yamaziko had been positioned poorly.
During the entire game, I summoned several stuffed piglets (from corpse counters), as well as 1 bayou gremlin, and 1 mosquito. I didn't really feel that trading an 11 for the summon+the action for the healing flip to summon a mosquito out of a gremlin was paid for, and in the future I think I'd rather just start with another mosquito and keep my AP.
Anyways, that's my quick thoughts for now, hopefully more games later.
Soshi