I wasn't able to get any games in on Saturday, due to graduations, jobs, and other life problems, but I did head down on Sunday to a tournament in Longmont. If you haven't been, you should go, Hobby Quest is a great store, and Jules puts on an awesome event. But who cares about fun, lets get into how I did.
Round one was versus Brent who was running a Nekima grow list with Lillitu. I am so glad Lillitu doesn't need Lelu anymore. Wait, no I'm not. He was the attacker with Supply Wagon, I had to Delay it. I took Assassinate on Nekima, mostly because he had said something about her always dying. I may have been duped. I also took Make Them Suffer, since he had several Tots, and I was looking to kill them anyway. On turn one I move Alyce up, dropping a scrap and putting her behind the Supply Wagon, thinking to protect it and set myself up for turn two. He managed to Lure her out and into a bunch of Tots, but not enough to get attacked. I then sent Ashes and Dust up to support her and moved the Engine to board center near the wagon. On turn two I lost Rusty Alyce to some severely concentrated firepower, but not before bringing some hurt. She actually died to Black Blood. It then turned out he had Assassinate. Curses. That's fine, I managed to kill a Tot on turns two and three, and one more and I would have three for Suffer. To the more canny players out there, yep, I was playing the old version. In the newest version of M2E, Make Them Suffer has to be done by the Master or Henchman, of which I had one, who was dead. At the end of turn three I did a reread to make sure I only had to kill one and realized my actual error. It did help a little when the player on the table next to me also messed up Make Them Suffer, though in a different way. So, Make Them Suffer is out. I am glad to say I realized during and not after, so no score funkery. I am now down to Assassinate and the strategy, which requires both of my two remaining model to be in the middle. I put Ashes and Dust into Nekima, hoping to kill her, but the opposite happened. The Desolation Engine was unable to help, having found a bit of lust deep in his innards and being unstoppably tempted by Lillitu. However, Ashes and Dust was able to hold up Nekima long enough that she was only able to move the wagon back to the center point. In the end he scored one for having the most models by the wagon and the three from Assassinate. Not a terrible trouncing, but I was disappointed by not scoring any VP.
Round two was versus Nate. Nate was running the Taelor list I would have run, except he took Kill Joy over Bishop. Again, I was defending, against Destroy the Evidence with Catch Them in the Act. Basically, I earned points by having Alyce watch the evidence get destroyed while she stayed alive. The gist being, I couldn't get points without him getting points. During the next round, Monica scored a point as the defender by destroying a piece of evidence while within LoS of her henchman, something that hadn't occurred to me. I took Frame for Murder on the Desolation Engine, knowing Taelor's proficiency at killing constructs, and Deliver the Message, knowing she would be moving forward into the thick. I placed Rusty Alyce where she could see the objectives, but was protected behind a wall. I then moved the DE up on the left to block that evidence, while Ashes and Dust moved around a tower to block the other. A&D also grabbed one of the Soul Stone Veins, which gave me two extra soul stones, which were incredibly useful, allowing me to freely spend Soulstones all game. My DE was able to get into his Void Wretch and kill it easily, which dropped Kill Joy who I Red Jokered on damage with my Melee Expert attack. This started a painful ride for Kill Joy, who eventually died to the Engine. Ashes and Dust blocked up his side, with a Ronin and the Convict Gunslinger, while Taelor held back a little, but eventually waded in. Taelor did kill Ashes, which I then wished I had chosen for Frame, as it was a conundrum for me before the game. But she didn't do it before I delivered the message. I was able to reform Ashes, and kept the evidence locked down all game. I sent DE forward, hoping to bait Taelor into killing him, and had we had time may have succeeded, but Nate was focused on his Entourage(which I forgot), and ignored the engine. *heavy sigh* In the end I got the only strategy point for having Rusty Alyce alive and two for a hidden Deliver the Message. He got two for Entourage and I think three for his other scheme, which I can't remember. In the end, I had a 3-5 loss, which was a small enough differential to move me out of last place.
Round three was versus Daniel. Daniel was running Joss with the Rail Golem and three Rail Workers. I took Deliver the Message, again, and Plant Explosives, both hidden. The strategy was for him to plant a scheme marker by the center obelisk each turn, while I tried to kill Joss. He had the Arcanist scheme to have the most scheme markers on the board at the end of the game, which hid my dropping markers for Explosives quite nicely. I also managed to Deliver the Message on turn two, but it may have been a mistake, since I then retreated with Ashes' Whirlwind of Scrap. Afterwards, I think I should have stayed engage, as it seemed afterwards that he was more interested in keeping Joss safe, then he would have been in killing Ashes with an unwounded Joss. I was also able to pop my explosives at the end of turn two, getting three models and locking in Plant Explosives. This meant I was already up five points. Daniel made me eat it, by popping his explosives on turn three, giving himself three as well. The rest of the game was me trying to hunt down Joss and him dropping scheme markers. He did manage to circle a work around and use a bridge that was set up basically like a ramp to lock Rusty into a combat that she seemed completely unable to escape from. This was huge for him, as she was staring down another of his Rail Workers with a single wound, and if she could have killed both, would have given me two Abominations with which to counter his Scheme Markers. As it was, the single wound Worker was able to move in and drop scheme markers to give him a third point for strategy. In the end time was called, and I tried in vain to use my last activation to kill Joss, but failed. I could have gone for more Scheme Markers, looking to block his faction scheme, but tried a Hail Mary instead. So, the game ended with me with my turn two five points versus his nine.
But wait, I thought I said I had brought home the loot. Well, I did. After awards for first and second(who I played both, and likely I played third as well), and best painted, the store owner started a great big wind up, and I knew exactly where it was going. Yep, folks, with my resounding loss in round three, I managed to put myself back into last place. I managed to take a list that smashed play testing and not win a single game with it. I think I only actually summoned three Abominations all day, including two from the DE dying, and all in game three. I will say that time hurt me rounds two and three, and poor scheme selection on round one. I need to either get my games moving faster or get to where I can take the win on turns three and four. I am also keenly aware that I generally choose the wrong scheme in M2E, and having the ability to choose from all the schemes doesn't seem to help. All three of my opponents were very gracious and awesome to play. Not a one of them let me sit on my mistakes, and, personally, that's when I enjoy the game the most. What did I win? Well, after a comments of everyone being ready, and my chiming in that I had my dice, I got a brand new block of dice. I think they are purple with gold pips, but sometimes they are blue with gold pips, depending on light. Either way, my Inquisimunda crew just got their dice.
On a side note, I may have picked up a new reader or two over the weekend, and to those people I would just like to say "Welcome" and "Suckers!"
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