Faux Pas Reports (Dreamer vs Marcus)

[BlitzMonkey]

Got my first game in ever as the dreamer last night. It was a ton of fun, probably the most fun I have had playing as Neverborn.

Corner Deployment 
Extraction 
Schemes were Deliver the Message, Body Guard, Protect Territory, and Spring the trap. I opted for Bodyguard on the Hooded Rider and Deliver the Message, both unrevealed. 

My list:
Dreamer with Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly, and Wings of Darkness
Teddy
Hooded Rider with Ret's Eye
3 Day Dreams
1 Silluird

His list was 
Marcus with God's Domain, Arcane Reservoir and I can't remember what else
Sabertooth Cerberus with Imbued Energies
Miranda with Imbued Energies
Johan with Imbued Energies
Jackalope
2 Canine Remains


Terrain was kind of relevant, but kind of not. We had a river going down the middle to the left. There was a house close to the river and a bridge on both sides of the house. The marker was on the inside of the river with the house blocking it in. Whoever got that corner was going to have a huge advantage as the other corner had limited options to get around. We flip for deployment and he gets that corner. Great.

He deploys the Cerberus on his left far flank with one canine remains and jackelope on the left side of his deployment. Marcus, the rattler, Myranda, and the other Canine Remains were centrally located.

My deployment was Hooded rider on the left (there was a row of houses to navigate so I can flank) with teddy ready to run across the bridge. The sillurd was on my right part of my deployment. The dreamer was centrally located with the nightmares in a triangle pattern around him. My starting hand had 1 11 and the rest were below 6. Ok, no problem! Stone away and strike out. I get nothing but low cards. This bums me out a little, but I'd rather filter them now, I guess? 

The first round was interesting. I managed to use a stone to give myself positive flips on a summon flip and summoned in the twins with one lucky high card and cheated in the other, both healed to full. On my right, he threatened a Sabertooth to my teddy. He traditionally gets super lucky with the Sabertooth (he got like 8 attacks one time) so I am a little hesitant of it. We do a little dancing, but no engagements. The hooded was B-lining up the left side. 

Turn 2: I won initiative and cant remember the order of things, but I managed to get one stitched in and gave fast to the twins and moved up with the dreamer, being careful of my waking. The hooded popped one canine and the non-slow summoned stitched (because I hit the trigger) gambled and destroyed the other canine. This was good because it means I could start out activating, but he had more peeps around the marker to move it. I still got my strat point, but he moved it back to his corner a little bit. Not good. I managed to snag Johan with a lure and teddy brought Johan down to 1. He also got the drop on my teddy and took a big chunk out of him, but he managed to stay alive. 

Turn 3: I won initiative and finished Johan promptly with Teddy. His cerberus leaped over Teddy and got to deliver a message to Dreamer, scoring 2. Those keeping track, that makes it 1 to 3. I summon some Insidious Madnesses and rush the objective. I do a big chuck to his Rattler with my Rider as we dance back and forth. He isn't able to make a lot of the damage stick on the rider at this point. Dreamer also gave one of the twins fast, so Leilu activates, Lures myranda into the river (causing hazard damage), and double Whispers in Blood. Lelu then goes and takes a huge chuck out of Cerberus. He doesn't kill him, but he is hurting. I have more guys within the objective due to spamming Madnesses and get the objective to move back.

Turn 4: He wins initiative and tries to put some damage on Lelu, but black jokers one and whiffs on the other. I leap my silluird into base to base with Marcus and do my own Message UPS. I finish off the Sabertooth and lure Myranda up more and do some major damage to her in hazardous terrain. He pops Myranda and summons out a Cojo. He is able to clear some area with his push, but it was a desperation move. I am able to do some major damage to him and keep him in the river, bringing him down to 1. The Hooded rider finishes off the Rattler. He is down to Cojo on one wound, Marcus who kills the silluird, and is Jackelope. Turn 4 ends and I reveal my other scheme. After asking if I have a way to heal the Hooded to above half wounds (which dreamer can do and could do easily), he says good game. End of game score was 9 to 6. he got 3 strat points, 2 points for Deliver, and 1 for protect territory. Turn 5 would have been me getting the last strat point. 

Things I have learned:

Summoners are dumb. I hate playing against them. After playing AS one, I see the appeal. They are dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb. OMG dumb. There wasn't a lot he could do really. Maybe bring some deploy from shadows stuff to engage me? I dont know. It was rough for him. He had a blast, luckily. I didn't overwhelm him any one turn, but was able to stop him. Had I not rush the objective turn 3, he would have been able to just run back and camp points.

Edited December 10, 2015 by BlitzMonkey

[BlitzMonkey]

To clarify, I don't actually hate playing against summoners.  I only mean that they are hard to stop and I see why they can sometimes be a negative play experience.  Luckily, it wasn't the case last night.  

[MEGAHORSE]

I like it. Poor guy had some bad luck on those flips in the heat of things. Was this his first time playing against Dreamer or a summoner? I know Marcus can be a bad time if he gets the jump with Cerberus, so kudos on keeping him in check. The terrain did seem pretty relevant! I disagree there after seeing what you mentioned about the twins and him having an optimal deployment zone. Overall, Good report. 

[Zachrin]

I was the Marcus player in this game!  It's not my first rodeo with Summoners (I frequently play vs a Nico player, and I play Ramos myself), but it was my first game vs the Dreamer.  I was really caught off-guard both by the speed he was summoning models, and how quickly they were healing up.  Summoning the twins turn 1 was bonkers, and I think I put too much value in getting my Message points early before the board got flooded.  

 

Cerberus did his job passing the message along, but I also could have kept him in the front line to try and finish off Teddy.   I think I mis-positioned my jackalope & 1 doge vs the Rider: they weren't gonna take him out on their own without lucky flips, and they would have been better tying up stuff near the point. I also should have thrown the Rattler over there earlier once I figured out he was your Bodyguard, to take him out before his pseudo-armor got too high.  The Silurid was a great pick on your side, and I really want a box for Marcus. 

 

All in all, really fun game, and great write up!

Edit: My 3rd upgrade was Arcane Reservoir.  I'm also calling it 'Hungry Cry' from now on.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Zachrin

[BlitzMonkey]

I couldn't remember the last upgrade.  

[BlitzMonkey]

I like it. Poor guy had some bad luck on those flips in the heat of things. Was this his first time playing against Dreamer or a summoner? I know Marcus can be a bad time if he gets the jump with Cerberus, so kudos on keeping him in check. The terrain did seem pretty relevant! I disagree there after seeing what you mentioned about the twins and him having an optimal deployment zone. Overall, Good report. 

The optimal terrain was because I had to go at wide angles to get to the point.  I made it work, luckily.