And proud of it. But we will get to that later. First up, the Dropzone Commander league started on Saturday, and I am off to a smashed start.
Game one was versus Tony. I didn't get any pictures of this one, which blows, since Tony's army looks really good from across the table. I didn't get a chance to really get up close to it, but from what I saw, excellent. He is running UCM, and for my inaugural game with people outside the KoGT we rolled Encroachment. Great, its kill points and focal points(table half really) all rolled into one, wreck my army ball. However, Tony's army has a Ferrum and a Kodiak, neither of which move up much. His troops are in flying transports, so they don't count either. He has a pair of Scimitars and his troops to put the hurt to me. I am running my basic list, squad of Tomahawks, squad of Kukris, pair of Yaris with microwaves, two squads of Braves, 3 Havens, and 2 Edens. One of the Tomahawks is my commander, level 2. Not the ideal killing list. It was build to run objectives. I moved a squad of Braves into a center large building that was linked to a small building, hoping to weather the fire in the bigger one, then roll over at the end of the game. Tony piled in feeble UCM infantry that couldn't possibly hurt my braves, unless he rolls stupid good, plays a card, I forget my espionage card, and I get Rick Rolled. Which happened. OUCH! No worries, I got this. My other squad of Braves takes a building farther into his table half and uses it to kill a Ferrum. Yep, you heard it right, my Braves killed his Ferrum. Which is good, because my Kukris were impotent raging on his Sprites. My Tomahawks were trading blows with his Scimitars and coming out on top. However, in the end they were just too far back to make it over the center line, largely due to a miscalculation on my final move. We did play this one wrong, and failed to add Kill Points to our infiltrated totals. Ah, well, in the end he had managed to move over 8 more points to my side than I did to his. Super close. I have no idea how Kill Points would have swung it, but it wasn't a terribly excellent start to the league. Which was fantastic.
My second game of the day was versus Andy. Andy is a great guy who I have seen at many a con, but never had the chance to play. Mostly due to him being at the top tables and me, well, lets just say, not. He is running a screaming red PHR with a pair of enyos, two phobos, troops in small dropships, and I believe that is it. Now, I do feel a little bit shanghaied on this game. I rolled for mission, assuming book one, however, Andy seemed rather insistent on using the second book. I had never even picked up the second book, so I had no idea. As it turned out, when I later skimmed it, the second book is all Focal Point mission. A 4 to 1 quarters to one objective ratio to be exact. Less than pleasant for me, but in my ignorance, I caved. I doubt I will again. Anyway, we lined up with corner deployment, three focal points placed in buildings along the diagonal. There is likely more to the mission, but again, I don't have the book. As it was, I knew straight out that to win this game, I had to play it stupid. Not stupid as in make mistakes, but as in 5th edition Eldar. Do nothing, then last minute land grab. SO, exciting, let me tell you. However, I wasn't terribly interested in that, so I decided to make a game of it. Sorta. I knew going into this one that the three building weren't long for this world. I laid into the building down the right side, which basically set Andy up for going down his right side for the building on my left. At that point, I should have focused on the center building, and when he was to committed, take out the left building, hopefully moving into the building on the right. Though I doubt it would have really mattered. Early on, I placed a group of Braves in a building to try and split some of Andy's firepower to slow down the building destruction, and lost a unit for my efforts. I moved one gate down by the right side building, in the hopes that a miracle would save it and I could get some points. I also moved a little close with my Kukris, again, trying to make it a game, and lost a Kukri. At this point, I am well down and buildings are crumbling everywhere. He did make the mistake of getting over into the building destruction thing, and fired a little more than he should have into his own building, before realizing he could actually play Focal Points and not just KP, but it was too late, and I finished it off. I also fired a little over zealously into the building on the right, taking it down farther than I needed to. It didn't really matter either way, since all three big buildings crumbled, plus Andy put 14 Dp on another building that was just in his way. In hindsight, I could have easily just sat back, let him destroy all of the buildings, not risked any assets and finished the game a no kill, no focal point draw. But that would have been a yawn, and who wants that. Andy was a gracious winner, not making me endure the repercussions of a failed gambit to kill one Phobos and do something in the game.
Alright, two games in and I am on two loses. No where but up, right? Well, game three was versus Troy. Troy is running a straight Scourge starter. An easy walk in the park. Unless we roll Battle Royale or something. Oh, look, Focal Points. So, my mission luck continues. I already know that my Kukris can hunt buildings, possible infantry at windows, and dropships. Everything else is untouchable. My Tomahawks hit his skimmers on 4+ minimum. He isn't going to window with two anti-infantry Yaris running around and that is all I have. But, by golly, I am going to make the best of it. So, I bare my little hedgehog teeth, bristle up, and release the porcupines of war.
I actually did a fair amount this game. I did bring teeth, and by bringing my Braves to the walls, actually managed to draw out his infantry as well. I was able to use Havens and Yaris to harrass his infantry, doing enough damage to force him back into his APCs. For the most part, this game was more about killing than Focal Points. As the points were on the ground and not in buildings, it meant that we weren't going to try and destroy them. I moved to place infantry near the one to my right fairly early, and due to pressure on his forces and a basic wall, Troy couldn't really press the issue. I became over interested in the killing of his force, and was a little late to the party for contesting.
I also made a rather strange mistake, and pulled my braves out of the building by the right objective, trying to place them on the center objective, but coming up short on range. This lead to a clear win for Troy. I hadn't brought enough to the left objective, and had no chance on the center. The flip side was that had I held the right, I could have contested the left and center, giving me four points, with him controlling the left and center and nobody near the right, giving him four points. As I had lost far more than he had, I would have still lost, but on kill points. Either way, the whole thing was based on a gambit that had failed. Maybe another day.
With several games under my belt for the day, none of them objective missions, and none of them ending well for me, I felt it was time for a change. My final opponent, Nabors, was working on putting some stuff together, so I dove into make my list a little more teethy. My AA was weak, I basically would suicide the Kukris, trying to take out the infantry dropship, slowing my opponent, and giving me better control of objectives. With my objective starving, this strategy was mostly useless, and my Kukris were dying for minor strikes against random light targets. I wanted in a Jaguar, however, a Jaguar would cost me my scout slot and thus my Yaris. I couldn't afford to slap them with a Coyote to free up the slot for the Jag, since all three squads together was far to many points, even with naked Yaris. However, I did discover I could drop the Kukris, bring in a Coyote and three AA Yaris. Not near the anti-air I was used to, but if I didn't have enough anyway, would less really hurt that bad? Also, three fast Yari's with AA could take down the light dropships suddenly flooding my meta, and only cost 27 points a piece. Also, I now have a usable command radius. It also means I have 5 E10 shots at 5 targets. That's a little bit more firepower. It is a list that may hurt against the Ferrums, but otherwise, I think it could work.
Wait, is that an objective on top of that building? Nope, its an Excellent Vantage Point marker. That's right, I am going to finish out my first league week with Battle Royale. Let me hear you say "Woot, woot!" And I was worried I would change my list and finally get that objective mission. Sigh. Nabors took a list very similar to the one Andy took, but added a generic commander and put his troops in APCs instead of light dropships. Neither of us really targeted the buildings, and I was able to whittle down his forces, mostly targeting dropships and APCs. He did fail to make proper target selection with his Enyos, forgetting that I had troops in the third building.
I did discover that Yaris can take cover behind the legs of a Shaltari heavy walker chassis. Nabors did a lot of damage to me, but failed to really finish off much. I do believe he will be looking to pick up some Tritons(light dropships) for both his infantry and his soon to join scout walkers. My list performed very well, with the added firepower really bring some hate to the game. I was able to do some damage to his air assets with small arms and the Yaris, but not a ton. The large number of Gauss Canons meant I was able to actually take on his walkers, giving me the chance to kill them, even if they were hull down. Hopefully I will be able to get similar results this coming weak.
My record so far for the league: 1-3, or a 1.25 average. Very unimpressive. And while I would have settled for a 2 avg or even a 2.5, starting from mid to bottom in the rankings and working my way back goes a long way to making me feel better about participating in the league. The Infinity one was a little rough due to being kind of unbeatable(real or imagined) and going through in a way I didn't really care for. I'm not making any predictions on my placing in this league, but I do hope to feel less pressure.
But wait, there is more. On Sunday I managed to make it down to Hobby Quest and play in Julian's event. It was a single minion team versus a growing zombie horde. As a late comer, I missed the first "level," and most of the instructions. However, I decided to go with a Crooligan and used From the Shadows to place outside the ruined chapel everyone else was holding up in. This meant I was fairly free to run snag some treasure chests that were left from level one. And as that allowed me to bounce all over the board,a 0)action interact, I kinda went nuts, snagging things. Also, as a Crooligan, I have next to no damage, and much of that is poison based which would get me zero experience. Though, I did manage to snag a Relic Hammer and kill one zombie who was getting a little too close. As I was only able to play for a little bit, after I made a full circuit of the board, cleaning up the remaining treasure, I fell into character and ran off the board.
You can't see it in the picture, but I am carrying a Relic Hammer, Great Sword, and a Witchling's mask. If I had had a free hand, I would have nicked those twizzlers as well. A great event, and I will have to come back for the next one. It is similar to what I want to run as a demo deal, but quite a bit different in execution. A fun run, even though I was a total jerk. I don't think I really annoyed anyone more than a little, though I would have rather been able to hand off the items I snagged, since that would feel even more Crooligany from the original Molly story. I wish I could have stayed longer, too. It really was an awesome time, and I recommend it to anyone.
Well, I'm off. I am thinking about some tweaks for my DZC list, maybe you all will hear about them next week.
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