[Chris Perkins]

Just finished up a marathon of a game with Evantage.

Round 1, I developed Master of the Hunt (MotH), Knights, & Varks while Evantage developed Brutes, Nakita, & Guilty.

Round 2, I went all 3 OMs on Varks while Evantage went Nakita/Guilty/Brutes. I won init, moved my Varks up on height surrounding Arktos to get 4 shots on Evantage's pod, but Nakita smoke powder hit on the first attack. In hindsight, this was a massive mistake and could have easily cost me the game; I should have left 1 of the Varks behind my Knight screen to avoid loss of OMs since the 4th attack was unlikely to be used (4 smoke powders missing in a row is pretty unlikely). Evantage had OM1 on brutes, who engaged 1 Knight & all 4 Varks, but were only able to kill 2 Varks despite using a berserk. I then slipped Arktos forward through the brutes, where he took height and killed Guilty (adjacent, no smoke powder). The Varks killed a brute but ran into more smoke powder from the Nakita on their 2nd attack. Evantage had OM2 on Nakita, but they were unable to kill any more Varks. On OM3, Arktos & the Varks killed 2 Nakita (adjacent attacks) and 1 Brute Grut.

Round 3, I went Varks/Varks/Knights, having now had 1 Vark back behind my Knight screen to keep the OMs safe. Evantage went Himmel/Brutes/Arkmer. Himmel did some damage to Arktos, while I killed a Brute. The last Brute tried again to kill the knight he was engaged with, but failed on both tries. Arktos then snuck towards Evantage's SZ and 1-shot killed Arkmer before he could take a turn while my last Vark tried to kill the last Nakita, but failed. Evantage lost an OM and my knights moved in on Himmel in the middle of the map, but did no wounds in 2 attacks.

Round 4, I went Knights/MotH/MotH, while Evantage went Himmel/Himmel/Ranjit. I won init and got 3 knights around Himmel with Thorgrim and the last knight took the disengage glyph, but the 4 attacks only did 1 wound. Himmel then killed all 3 adjacent knights. MotH advanced, but failed Javelin and was too far away to attack anything. Himmel killed my last Vark and moved back next to a Nakita for safety. MotH moved up and attacked Himmel from heighted range, but the Nakita hit smoke powder to end a perfect 3/3 on smoke powder rolls for the game. Ranjit moved up and engaged MotH, but did no damage.

Round 5, I went all-in on MotH while Evantage tried to sneak in 1 last Lion of Punjab round, going Ranjit/Nakita/Himmel. Evantage won init, Ranjit removed my OM3, and did 1 wound to MotH. MotH, with the disengage glyph, moved around Ranjit and killed the Nakita, burning OM2 & reducing Himmel's attack. MotH retreated back up to height, next to Thorgrim, missed the Javelin on Himmel, and attacked Ranjit, doing 1 wound. Himmel then engaged MotH & Thorgrim, but did no wounds.

Round 6, I stayed all-in on MotH while Evantage went Himmel/Ranjit/Ranjit. I won init, MotH used the disengage glyph to take the height on the opposite side of the road (within move of Kelda), and attacked Himmel, putting 2 more wounds on him. Himmel disengaged from Thorgrim (1 wound), killed the knight on the disengage glyph, and put a wound on Arktos to bring him down to 1 life left. MotH held his ground, attacking Ranjit, but did no wounds. Ranjit moved up and hit a 3/3 on MotH, but I blocked with a 3/5. At this point, MotH/Thorgrim were a perfect 0/6 on lava rolls the past 3 rounds.

Round 7, I stayed all-in on MotH while Evantage went Ranjit/Ranjit/Himmel. I won init & MotH did a wound to Ranjit. Ranjit failed to remove an OM and did no damage, but moved close enough to take Kelda the next turn. MotH burned Kelda before Ranjit could get to it. Ranjit the moved adjacent again but did no wounds. MotH re-took lava height and put several wounds on Ranjit (1 life left). Himmel finished off Arktos (spirit on MotH) and moved back closer to the middle of the map. I finally take a lava wound, on MotH, to end 1/8 on lava wounds.

Round 8, I stayed all-in on MotH while Evantage went Ranjit/Himmel/Himmel. I won init & MotH killed Ranjit. Ranjit's turn was burned, and MotH re-took height in the center of the map and killed Himmel to end the game.

MotH was my MVP, wiping through the heroes in Evantage's army once the Varks had cleared out the 2 squads. I was surprised this game went 8 rounds, as I don't think either of our armies has a ton of durability, but we both had a few pieces just decide not to die in the mid-game.

gg Evantage, it was a fun one.