2v2 Battle Report

[benjoewoo]

This is the first in hopefully a series of reports for my play group.

 

We played 2v2, as we had 4 people. If you've been reading the seamus thread in the ressurectionist forum I started, then you know my group has been getting a handle on the rules by playing a series of death match games. At this point we're pretty comfortable with the rules, and we played this game with a strategy and schemes.

 

We played a 26 SS game, based on a flip of weak/moderate/severe for 26/35/50.

 

Strategies: Reconnoiter

 

Schemes: A Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Deliver the Message, Plant the Explosives, Bodyguard

 

Teams: Ressers (Seamus & Nicodem) vs. Alliance (Lillith & Viks)

 

Crews (26 SS): Seamus (Seamus, CCK, Sybelle, Rotten Belle, Nurse), Nicodem (Nico, Mortimer, Vulture, Necropunk), Lillith (Lillith, Barbaros, 2x Waldgeist), Viks (Both Viks, student of conflict, ronin)

 

Selected Schemes: Seamus (Plant the Explosives), Nicodem (A Line in the Sand), Lillith (Breakthrough), Viks (Bodyguard, Vik of Blood)

 

Map/Deployment: Town with small cover going across the center line, mix of hard and soft cover, three rows of buildings with no entry, a severe lake. Standard Deployment

 

 

TURN 1:

 

This turn was mostly moving around for Alliance, and Ressers put out some corpse counters and got a flesh construct and a new rotten belle--the belle was cheated with a crow. The deployments essentially pitted Seamus vs. Lillith and Nico vs. Viks.

 

Seamus' crew spread up in a widely dispersed column near the center line and dropped scheme markers while luring a waldgeist essentially to Seamus' deployment zone--gamble on killing/disabling it before it could drop a scheme marker, or let it drop the scheme marker and get rid of it after killing the waldgeist. Lillith attempted to use the push action on Seamus, which failed. Lillith's crew threw down forests like no one's business. 

 

Nico essentially positioned people places.  Viks moved up, no real interactions.

 

Seamus' crew attempted to paralyze the waldgeist, which failed because the Illegal Prescriptions "cheated" suit failed to cast, and the second cast ended up casting downers, which prevented CCK from blowing it away despite a severe and moderate. 

 

TURN 2:

 

This turn saw a lot of gambles.

 

For the Seamus and Lillith fights, Lillith did some damage to Seamus, who spent a soul stone to prevent 3 out of 6 damage. Sybelle called a belle to herself after taking a walk and dropping a scheme marker. The Belle companioned and lured Lillith over, healing Seamus and then luring CCK over. 

 

Barbaros charged Sybelle, and through his push interaction made 2 of melee attacks with Barbaros and 2 with Lillith. In using the last two soulstones, Sybelle survived with 1 health. Nurse came by and medicated Sybelle back to full, paralyzing her in the process. The waldgeist that was lured into a deployment zone charged the rotten belle not called to Sybelle, doing 5 damage total. The belle was able to disengage and dropped a scheme marker within 3" of the waldgeist. By this point, the waldgeist was within 3" of a scheme marker and both Lillith and Barbaros were on top of a scheme marker from being lured/charging the Sybelle/rotten belle combo.

 

Best part of this fight--Sybelle somehow surviving 4 melee attacks with two soul stones thrown out. The opponent used all cards in hand to cheat for attack flips and damage flips, which will be key in the explanation for the Nico and Viks' side.

 

Seamus was engaged by the non-lured waldgeist, so he spent his actions rotating around the waldgeist so that he canceled the waldgeist's position for Reconnoiter, pulling off a 1 damage melee because he could--Seamus should've attempted to disengage but I made a mistake.

 

On the Nico and Viks' side, Nico summoned an additional two punk zombies. Nico sent a hired necro punk and a punk zombie to drop two scheme markers for A Line in the Sand. Viks crew just wrecked those two guys and killed the vulture, but didn't remove scheme markers, opting to push forward a little too far into Nico's area. Nico's second punk zombie and flesh construct engaged Vik of Blood and student of conflict, doing pretty good damage, leaving Vik of Blood at 1 Wd left. 

 

The turn would've ended once CCK finished activating but because the Lillith player had 0 cards in hand, Flesh Construct re-activated and was able to kill Vik of Blood. 

 

 

End:

 

Vik player was understandably salty that his teammate hurt him, as Vik of Blood was in the fight that ultimately left her so low prior to the Barbaros/Lillith fight with Sybelle, and the Lillith player didn't account for Flesh Construct's re-activation.

 

We called the game here because of time, but at the end of turn 2 Ressers were scoring 3 points for Planted Explosives (Lillith, Barbaros, and a Waldgeist) and 1 point for Reconnoiter (Seamus crew had 4 models to 3 in Seamus' deployment quarter, and Nico had significantly more in his quarter, Seamus cancelled a waldgeist in Lillith's quarter and Viks had more models in their quarter, but only 1 quarter so no points). At 4:0 favoring Ressers going into turn 3, we figured the game was likely over if ressers simply turned to killing and surviving rather than attempting too much more for reconnoiter, plus the Viks player no longer had a henchman and was about to lose a student of conflict, leaving him with only Vik of Ashes and a ronin, with Lillith's crew needing to pick up the slack between 4 models, who were already dealing with  a 6 model Seamus Crew. Nico was unlikely to die any time soon, and Seamus was in no danger as he had crossed fairly far from the Barbaros/Lillith/Sybelle/rotten belle brawl, leaving him and CCK to deal with waldgeist in good time and then move as they pleased against the Viks, so that regardless of Reconnoiter and Break Through points achieved by the Lillith player, it would be unlikely Ressers would lose the lead with their own Reconnoiter points and A Line in the Sand points.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

I played Seamus, and I think summoning a second rotten belle instead of a dead doxy was the right call--it healed Seamus and gave me better options for movement tricks in that situation than a dead doxy. I'm glad I took a belle and CCK with Sybelle and a nurse instead of Sybelle, Nurse, and Bete Noir/the hanged, as I would've chosen Body Guard as a scheme and literally no one died in the Lillith/Seamus fights, so I would've lost points and we would've called the game at a draw. Plus, Bete would not have given been as effective because both belles used lures in both turns, which really hurt the Lillith player's ability to position and keep Seamus engaged and in danger. 

 

I probably should've disengaged Seamus instead of doing the 1 melee I mentioned above, but just didn't see it at that time. We called the game before CCK activated to end Turn 2, but if I had successfully disengaged, then CCK would've been able to teleport to Seamus and double blast the waldgeist, likely killing it despite armor +1 and creating a corpse for me to get another belle/dead doxy.

 

The Lillith player tried too hard to kill my crew instead of fulfilling his scheme. He could've dropped two scheme markers with the waldgeist I lured into my own deployment zone, which would've granted him three points by end of game because it would take too long for me to remove them. His own lesser number of units kept him from effectively contesting Reconnoiter, but that's what happens in non-Resser vs. Resser match ups when the Resser is able to summon a model or two. 

 

He probably could have attempted to kill the belle instead of Sybelle, which would've succeeded since the belle couldn't prevent damage, which would have brought the unit count to a tie and meant the game would've ended 3:0 instead of 4:0, and it would have set up for the next turn, but that's the haps.

 

Vik player probably shouldn't have extended with student of conflict and Vik of Blood so hard, but he didn't count on his teammate allowing the flesh-construct to re-activate. 

 

Nico player did his job and carried more than his weight in the game--the early corpse counters boosted our crews so much for Reconnoiter and field manipulation. The blitz for scheme markers and model positioning meant Viks would fight through several units a turn to get to Nico, meanwhile they're getting blasted by decay, flurried, melee'd, etc. The Vik & Nico fight would have been bloody to go through.

 

I think going into Turn 3, while Ressers wouldn't lose the point lead easily, they could depending how the Sybelle/rotten belle/Lillith/Barbaros fight went. If Ressers won initiation and the nurse was able to paralyze the lured waldgeist and accomplice the nearby belle into a double clure on Sybelle, then Sybelle would be free to shriek at Barbaros and Lillith while they finished the belle and engaged other units. CCK and Seamus would finish off the waldgeist that Seamus was engaged with, and then they'd move to the Viks side or pincer Lillith and Barbaros.

 

If Alliance won initiation, then Lillith and Barbaros would likely try to kill Sybelle--I don't think they'd likely kill her, as the Lillith player had 4 melee attacks before and cheated 6 cards in the fight previously, which put her at 1 through two damage prevention flips that prevented 4 out of 12 total. I think the Lillith player would have used Barbaros first, to conserve Lillith to engage on Seamus provided Sybelle died. If Sybelle lived, I'd probably use nurse to re-heal and paralyze Sybelle in preparation for Lillith, who would want to kill Sybelle over Seamus to avoid two disengaging strikes from a rotten belle and Sybelle. 

 

I'm not sure what would've happened with Viks and Nico, but I think it would turn into a bloody fight, as  Vik of Ashes and the ronin would have to catch up to the student of conflict being jumped on by a flesh construct and punk zombie. A fresh corpse was near Nico already from Vik of blood dying, so likely another summon was coming to worsen the odds.

 

My fight with Lillith could have gone either way depending on initiation mostly and then flips. Nico and Viks I think was going to be a Nico win over the course of that turn.

 

Please post commends/feedback/rules corrections if you saw anything wrong. We read rule book sections several times during the match and had to make sure how casting worked in 2E vs. 1.5E, so we still have stuff to learn. It would be great to hear from other players, particularly on anything we got wrong in the rules and tactics wise.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I'm personally confused as to why the 2v2 game, with 4 people you could have had 2 games going on. The game wasn't built, or balanced, to accommodate such.

 

That isn't to say you shouldn't continue to do so if you are having fun, but any comments for you are going to be of limited value since the game isn't being played as designed.

[benjoewoo]

I know, and you've mentioned this before. We played 2v2 because there was only 1 play area that can accommodate a game and we all met up fairly late that evening, with only enough time for 1 game of 1v1 anyway, and no one really wanted to miss out.

 

It is fun, which is why we continue to do it, but we'll be doing more 1v1s as we're able. Our schedules just haven't allowed us enough time to get multiple 1v1s played.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Fair enough.