dok's battle reports

[dok]

At last, I have battles worth reporting. The Mile High City has been graced with the presence of lonewolf, and last night we got together for a couple games of 'scape. We set up Moss Creek Road and got to it.

Game 1:

dok
Romans x3
10th x2
MDG
NGS
MBS

lonewolf
Gladiatrons x4
Blastarons x2
Raelin

It was startzone-stuffing squadscape at its best, and I got my butt handed to me pretty good. I made an early mistake of pushing NGS too far forward and allowing him to get engaged inside Raelin's aura. At that point I basically sacrificed him to buy time to get the rest of my army arranged. NGS did his job as a tank, even if MBS failed to get any paralyzing stares on Raelin in the process.

It was the sequence in the aftermath of NGS's death that swiftly cost me the game. I was feeling pretty good about my setup as I had two blocks of Romans sitting 6 hexes from Raelin, with the 10th right behind them. I figured that lonewolf would have to break through those Romans in order to get at the 10th, and in the mean time I'd be hitting with 4 attacks of 2-4 attack dice. Mike surprised me by continuing to ignore the Romans, and simply shooting with his Blastarons (including a few on height 3) at my 10th, sans homing device. In the first turn of this, he managed to kill 3 of 4 Redcoats clustered around MDG. (Some might argue this is why Redcoats suck.) I scrambled and managed to get some shots in, but I was down to 1 Redcoat 2 turns later and that was pretty much the game.

By the time he killed MBS, I had only taken out 3 Blasts and 4-5 Glads. I still had all my Romans (and MDG), but it was pretty painfully clear that they wouldn't be able to get it done without ranged support, so I resigned. It might have turned out differently if more of my 10th had survived that first exchange, but unless I got him under a full squad of Blasts, it wasn't going to matter.

In retrospect, it was clear that I should have advanced with the Romans and engaged as many Blasts as possible. Lonewolf was really only concerned with my ranged figures, so I may as well have used the Romans more aggressively. That, and the early mistake with NGS, was two mistakes too many against this player/army combo.

It was a real pleasure to see lonewolf play the 'trons. That army involves making a huge number of decisions every turn, and watching lonewolf crank through it all as he moved 8 figures and picked his targets was fun to watch. I can see where people trip up when playing them, but in the right hands, they are really tough.

Game 2:

dok
Knights of Weston x3
Sir Gilbert
Nilfheim

lonewolf
Deathreavers x2
Braxas
Laglor
KMA

The first couple rounds turns were spent with lonewolf spooling out his rats and me assembling my knights in a column on the road. Then things settled in with Nilfheim taking on rats, while the KMA fired in from the next zip code. Nilfheim managed to freeze 5 rats in 3 turns and open up the path; I did expose him to elevated Krav at one point (my only blatant mistake of the match, probably) but managed to escape with only 2 wounds.

The Knights, freed from the Deathreavers, took over, and swiftly worked down the road and brought the pain. I lost a couple knights in the process of killing the Krav and two more rats. At this point, I felt really good about my chances, but then Braxas began her reign of terror. She killed 5 knights in her first two activations. Still, I felt pretty good, as I managed to get a couple wounds on her with Nilfheim's approach and ice breath, and the next turn would presumably see me fly over and bring Nilfheim's 6 attack into play.

But then came the key turn of the game, as lonewolf brought Braxas to Nilfheim, and put an all-skulls roll on me against a single shield, killing Nilf in one shot and denying me my next OM. In one roll, I went from favorite to severe underdog. Gilbert and the remaining knights put up a valiant effort, getting several wounds on both Braxas and Laglor, but in the end it was to no avail.

So, I have tasted defeat in Heroscape, and twice in one evening. But the thing is, losing to a player as talented and gracious as lonewolf is actually a lot more fun than beating a weaker opponent. Thanks for the experience, lonewolf.