Into the Dojo : Part 11 – Honeypot vs Frontier

[Regelridderen]

Lynch snorted a line of sparkly crystals off the back of Mr. Tannen's hand : "Aaaah! What's this you say. Misaki want's us to blow up some warehouse in the jungle? Jolly well, man let's do so, a man must obey his mistress...". When Kitty Dumont's spectral shape suddenly emerged from the ground : "Bad news, boss. There's a bunch of bounty hunters on our tail, and they're up to something.". "Brilliant!" Lynch replied : "Time to feed the darkness...".

PLANT EXPLOSIVES – CORNER DEPLOYMENT

HONEYPOT CREW

Jacob Lynch + Hungering Darkness and 4 stones

Gwyneth Maddox

Kitty Dumont

Mr. Tannen

2 Illuminated

The Lone Swordsman

SCHEMES : Hidden Martyrs, Deliver a Message

vs

FRONTIER

Basse + Bernadette + 5 stones

Austringer

Pathfinder

2 Rough Riders

Johnathan Reichart

Tannenbaum

SCHEMES : Outflank, Power Ritual

 

TURN ONE

Oh <ins. expletive> the board was filled with severe terrain for my opponent to ignore. It was fairly easy to deduce that his schemes would be, so the Honeypot chose to go hard for the center. While Bernadette and Johnathan each hitched a ride towards a corner, while Basse took his little posse to face the gamblers. A few scintillating clouds burst through the air, a trap was summoned and promptly turned into a depleted and that was the end of first turn.

TURN TWO

Basse and Lynch were locked in a deadly melee, depleting most of the gambler's stones, while the frontiersmen on the flanks planted explosives and scheme markers, and Johnathan turned around to aim for hitting the center scrum T3. Yet, the illuminated were now raining down scintillating clouds around the centre. And Kitty managed to drop a bomb just across the centre line, while Lynch handed Basse a crumbled old note saying "Ha! Ha!" - to which he got a shot gun red joker in return "Ouch!", but then Tannen snuck into position with a slight grin and started to talk, although he was greatly annoyed by a frikkin bird attacking out of nowhere.

SCORE : Honeypot 2 (Strat + Deliver a Message) vs Frontier 2 (Strat + Outflank)

TURN THREE

Seizing initiative, Tannen started babbling away. He needed to secure the centre for Johnathan's charge, if only that pesky bird would leave him alone. Meanwhile the pathfinder blew up the depleted and summoned yet another trap, that Lynch quickly identified as having a drug problem. Then Johnathan charged and ripped the head off of Tannen and made a martyr of him. Basse blasted Lynch to kingdom come, and meanwhile the frontiersmen were dropping bombs in my backyard. Kitty returned to block their way, while the Huggy Obeyed a rough rider to pick up his bomb and then asked the lone swordsman to decapitate him, the swordsman then brought the bomb to other half and set his sights on Bernadette Basse, but unfortunately he couldn't reach her. And Gwyneth stumbled across the centre line to drop a bomb of her own.

SCORE : Honeypot 4 (Strat + Hidden Martyr) vs Frontier 4 (Strat + Power Ritual)

TURN FOUR

As if things weren't bad enough being down a master, Basse blew away Gwyneth and an Illuminated in two shots then picked up her bomb. Johnathan charged another illuminated, but only beat to its final health. The Lone Swordsman drew his Final Breath and woved to kill Bernadette, but... failed miserably from a black joker, then got beaten down to 1 health in return. Huggy went to block the path of the rough rider on the far edge to ensure there would be no Power Ritual - at least that was succesful.

SCORE : Honeypot 4 vs Frontier 4

TURN FIVE

Final turn had some heavy demands. Basse needed a 3+ of Mask and would then be able to drop two bombs. Huggy needed to get close to either of the two murder machines to score 2nd point of Hidden Martyr. And someone would need to place a Honeypot scheme marker next to Basse - and the lone swordsman would need to survive pick up and drop a bomb.

Bernadette started, but failed killing the Lone Swordsman, Kitty then summoned dark tendrils and pushed her out of the way, allowing the swordsman to do his bomb shuffle. Huggy tried to disengage the Rough Rider after it failed to hit him, but lo and behold he was stolen the 2" he needed to engage Basse. And as the final flip, Basse dropped a bomb flipped a 2 of masks. ending the game.

FINAL SCORE : Honeypot 5 (Strat) vs Frontier 5 (Strat

 

AFTERMATH

A great game as always. The Honeypot was severely outclassed on mobility, but that's the nature of the game, when you've decided your crews before strats and schemes. I'd never faced the Frontier before, but man are they fast! 

I struggled a lot with the timing of Gwyneth and got nothing but a couple of cards for her 9 stones, and I got very little from Kitty - even if she was instrumental in the strat. And I never saw Lynch really cash out.

What saved me was the Obeys of the Hungering Darkness. It allowed me the reach and the actions I needed to topple a flank - even if the cards were against me. I might have been to cautious with Huggy in the end, but after losing Jacob, the Darkness was my ace in the hole.

My opponent had a couple of lucky red jokers on damage, but what really blew my game was Tannenbaum forcing me to discard severed at the end of turn, he didn't do much more, but that was annoying as F.

And then I need to remember to properly read the 2nd score point of the schemes,