Two Quick Batreps: Brawlin' in the Bayou

[hannibal]

Kealios and I played two quick games last night, him taking Marcus and gang with both.

The first game was in the Hag's Territory. His crew was: Marcus, Myranda, a Moleman, Rattler, Cerberus, and a Silurid. My crew was: Ramos, Joss, the Steamborg, the student of conflict, and 2 Arachnids.

For strategies, Kealios got claim jump and I had Reconnoiter. My schemes were Hold Out and Stake a Claim. He picked Hold Out and Breakthrough I think.

The game never made it past turn 4. And believe me, it was an absolute slugfest. The silurid never got to do anything because Ramos summoned an electrical creation which passed over it and then exploded. Later an arachnid charged and killed him.

Kealios responded by one-rounding the Steamborg with a transformed Cerberus. He cheated with a damage roll, placing a red joker and then getting moderate damage on the continuation flip. A follow up attack finished off the steamborg.

At this point I thought I was in a ton of trouble. So did Kealios.

But Ramos came roaring back with an massive companion strike. The student activated, gave Ramos fast. Ramos responded by zapping Myranda with a couple of Electrical Fires, bringing her down to two wounds. With his last AP he cast Arcing Screen. Then he linked in with an arachnid who charged Myranda and killed Myranda.

The Rattler then charged the arachnid, missing and allowing the arachnid to skitter away. The ceberus cam around the corner of the objective hut and killed my arachnid, taking two wounds in the process.

So the next turn opened with a Rattler and ceberus bearing down on Ramos and Joss, with Marcus off to the left thumping on that last arachnid who'd killed the silurid earlier. It would all come down to initiative:

I got it. Kealios burned a soulstone . . . and failed.

So now it was all about the alpha strike. I'd win here or that was it. The Student of Conflict went, making Joss Fast. Then Ramos went and killed the Cerberus with electrical fire (!). Then Joss charged the Rattler, putting a few wounds on him. The rattler's return attacks simply wouldn't do anything thanks to Joss's high defense. The tide had turned.

Marcus dispatched the arachnid and then withdrew behind the objective building. He'd spend the next turn getting away from Ramos and his sniper-like spell and healing the Rattler. We agreed whoever won the Rattler/Joss fight would be the winner, as the game would basically be over and we could squeeze in another one.

So Ramos gets the initiative, going for the alphastrike. Ramos tried casting electrical creation and failed twice, despite burning a soulstone. I literally needed a 3 or higher to get the spell off with the soulstone. Drew an ace. :laugh:

But then Joss went and killed the rattler. So Marcus agreed to pay his delinquent union dues and Ramos went home.

So we played a second game. Kealios kept the same list and I pulled out the Viktorias. I had the 2 Viktorias, Hans, Taelor, and Bishop. We played Bogs, and flilled Fog for our feature. We ended up having to call the game early because the store closed, but the game was essentially over. So the fog never came out.

Kealios got Treasure Hunt and I got Reconnoiter again. His schemes were Bodyguard and Eye for an Eye. I chose Thwart and Eye for an Eye. We placed some thick forests in the center of the table because there were more shooty models on the table.

Kealios showed a lot of respect for Hans. His ability to see through those patches of forest was amazing. I could basically see through terrain where he was on the other side.

So he sent forward the silurid to grab the treasure and then tried leaping him behind the line of Myranda (in rattler form), Marcus, & the Ceberus (with the actual rattler) ready to come around the corner.

Sadly, it wasn't to be. The silurid failed his leap and Hans finished him off. Myranda moved up to charge the sword Viktoria. Unfortunately, Bishop followed up, tossing Myranda out of melee from Viktoria and closer to the center of the field. From their, Myranda got gang tackled by Taelor and pistol Viktoria, and that was all she wrote.

Meanwhile, sword Viktoria charged the cerberus and a combination of the Masamune and the Fury spell one rounded the triple headed beast.

At this point, we knew Marcus was in trouble. The Rattler was out of position and had to spend a turn slogging through the forests. Marcus tried a desperation move of Feral+Alpha on Bishop to get him to attack pistol Viktoria. Sadly, despite 3 attacks he couldn't do enough damage to kill her (but he did bring her down to 2 wounds).

So we decided to call it there. Taelor was going to charge the Rattler, at which point it'd be just Marcus and the Moleman against a nearly entirely healthy Viktoria crew.

Some thoughts:

We're finding the schemes to be almost no brainers. Granted we haven't played a ton of games, but it seems that Hold Out is an almost granted 2 VPs. I mean, if your opponent has the ability to bust through your lines and deny you that scheme you've probably lost anyway.

Whereas some I just don't see the point to take. Like Eye for an Eye. Having to be within 1 model of your opponent means that if you wipe him out, you actually lose VPs. Similarly, Breakthrough is the flip of Hold Out: I don't know that I'd take it. Maybe its just we're playing 30SS games where you don't have the spare models to go on these wide sweeping manuevers?

Ramos: okay, so I get the idea of summoning arachnids, I just found myself not doing it. The linked in with Joss was just so much more valuable. It gave me the ability to get Joss stuck in and inflict some damage before he got charged or feral+alpha'd. The end result is I left like 3 scrap counters right in front of me.

And yeah, Joss is all that and a bag of potato chips. I can see why people say him over the steamborg.

Arachnids: man are they flimsy. Only 3 wounds. That means if you don't use them right, they're gonna die to harsh language and a wet sneeze. Now granted, I meant to use them as a picket and replace their numbers. But as Ryan Phillippe said in the Way of the Gun: a plan is a list of things that doesn't happen.

All in all it was fun, just not Kealios's night.

[orius]

Hannibal,

Its funny cause I was playing that night and I used Ramos as well vs Royal's Nicodem list and I play him very much diffrently than you with a 1 diffrent model.

(25 points)

Ramos

Joss

Rusty Alyce

2x Spiders

At first i thought at 10 pts Rusty was not going to cut the mustard, boy was I wrong. Drawing 8 cards is awesome, so is her abilitiy to make abominations since she can do it easier than Ramos can, and besides like you said I like companion for Joss! I was always casting arcing screen, electrical creation then electrical fire some times I would not use electrical fire so I could position better for arcing screen.

Anyway I agree Joss is all that and a bag of chips but I find rusty to be better honestly for my play style. My strategy was first turn grab a scrap make a spider then from them on rusty turned any dead spiders into steam punk aboms. Since she could do it easier and ramos could companion Joss. Her shooting is nothing to sneeze at either, especially with head shot and her bag of tricks defensive moves are great!

One big diffrence is I like to play more summon centric of a list and with Rusty getting me two free cards (or more with her defensive trigger) I find it much easier to have the tomes I need to pull those off. I also will not hesitate to use a 1-6 of tomes and soul stone it to successfully summon.

Regardless, I play very picket heavy with a screen of tiny spiders and Joss in front with arcing screen, ramos and rusty behind firing away as needed works very well for me!

Its just cool to see diffrent play styles with similiar lists!

[junkenstein]

Its just cool to see diffrent play styles with similiar lists!

I agree, it does bug me when you get told you're not using a model/army "right" (Warmachine players take note!)

[Kealios]

Well, that being said, there are often combos that are built into any given model, with an intention of "Let's see if the players discover this one!" Usually it doesnt take long for those combos to be found, and then its on like Donkey Kong.

However, every now and again, someone finds a combo that wasnt intended, and this a) leads to fun and alternate uses for the models in lists not viewed as standard, or leads to something that gets errata'd quite quickly

[Sushicaddy]

I agree, it does bug me when you get told you're not using a model/army "right" (Warmachine players take note!)

+1 agree