I managed to get in two games of Relic Knights this past weekend. One on Saturday versus Shane and the second, on Sunday, for the league, against Matt. Both players play Doctrine, both ran Delphine. Delphine is gross at low points. She, basically, can just Infinity style Rambo, with the help of her Cypher, Ehkis. While this can be incredibly strong, it can also be a weakness, as the Doctrine player can forget to do the rest of his crew. That isn't to say that he needs the rest of his crew all that much. Did I mention Delphine is gross?
In game one, versus Shane, I had Conservation and Siege. He had Grand Conjunction and Anarchy. We were both running starter boxes, though if that keeps being the case, I am going to build a equal point list, because my starter hits like a ton of really soft. wet noodles. Not pleasant, but it didn't really hurt. Though you may suffocate. Eventually. We used my industrial board for Malifaux. It works a little better for Relic Knights, but the bridges are still a bit of a nuisance. Though, they did get use more. He deployed his objectives, roughly, around a corner, while I spread a triangle in the center.
I moved Marie-Claude up onto his secondary rather quickly, but he was later able to push me back, and I didn't really push things, which I probably should have.
I started out using the Wrecker to pressure his Novitiates, but as she was needed elsewhere, I eventually pulled her off, and the Novitiates were able to push forward and drop three infuse markers on my Primary Objective.
My Wrecker headed up to aide Marie, but he eventually go hit by Delphine, dropped the Conservation marker, then got pushed off the ledge. For a while I played a AoE game with Shane, but he was able to remove the more dastardly ones using Ehkis. At the start I was up on cards in my deck, but since I was using cards to drop AoEs and he was just using Ehkis's held Esper to remove them, I eventually dropped below him, and ended up losing Laptime one or two activations before he ran out and gave me Siege.
I used my Pit Crew a bit more this game, keeping the Wrecker around longer, but that was about it. They eventually died to Delphine as well.
Eventually, the Wrecker fell as well, leaving just Marie to finish things off. However, the Royal Wrecker had grabbed a couple of Conservation tokens, which she could now just grab on the run. However, I can only carry one at a time, so I had to make two very long trips to get it done. Unfortunately, I did not make it. Marie-Claude eventually fell to Delphine's constant chattering and Shane one the game, 10-3. He also managed to table me on his very second game. The AoE war was a mistake. I was looking to waste his activations, but all I really did was waste my cards. I also could have used Marie to get a conservation token, freeing up the Wrecker for the third. In other words, I went all the wrong directions and lost, again. A good game. I would like to think I learned something, but I don't think I did. I am afraid I am going to have to bash my head on this rock a while longer before it sinks in.
So, new day, new opponent, same basic crew. We are at 35 points in the league, so we get to add some toys. Matt chose the Academy Guard. Bastard. I, of course, added the Pacer, but after Saturday's game, I also dropped the Pit Crew, and threw in some Hell's Bells. I think it was a good choice. The Pit Crew will likely make an appearance in my 50 point list, but at 35, the Bells are more useful. The Pacer on the other hand... Less useful versus Delphine, mainly because Ehkis is always in the queue, and always deleting AoEs, like Oil Slick. Matt didn't end up really going after Grand Conjunction, so it mattered little. He did beat the snot out of my Pacer, though, which was largely fine for me.
He chose his Guardians for me to target for Assassination, and they suck. Or rather, Hell's Bells suck against them. They have a guard that only works against melee. So, I took one swipe, failed, then wandered off. They also moved, since he misunderstood Defense of Life, and I forgot to say that I was going to put it on the Librarian. Which, in hindsight was a bad choice as well. With his AoE, he can basically self force the Life token drop, then the Guardians, with fly, grab and run. The Novitiates, which were neither a target or a threat, would have been a better choice. I also misstated severe terrain, and would have cost my self a point of damage to avoid it against his Guardians which just guarded anyway.
I ended up sending the Wrecker into his back corner to get his Primary, because if I kill his Primary, I get Tear it Down and he loses Grand Convergence. I also went after the Guardians, which have Regenerate, so they are very hard to bring down. This meant that I was fighting two front, piling cards into both, and eventually cost myself Laptime. When I had 1 card left, I used the Wrecker's First Responder ability in a futile attempt to get Assassination and Laptime, with a single card left in my deck. However, I instead healed up the Guardians and brought another one back. Soon after, the Wrecker fell. And the rest of my cadre, save Marie, followed after. At this point, I was definitely feeling like calling it, I was out of time, but I just really wanted to play it out.
The loss of nearly my entire force seemed to focus me, because I immediately turned away from his Primary, and targeted his Secondaries. the first one had already been damaged, and as Marie circled away from it, she finished it off. She then started to target the other one. Matt, wisely, said skip it, and started heading to take down Marie. In doing so, he brought the remaining Guardian out, which I promptly shot, netting me three points for Assassination. However, he was using Delphine to smack on Marie, and I didn't realize Overcharge only works against Attack Prevention, not Damage Prevention, so that would have been huge. But I was still focused, still on task, and the second Secondary was taking it hard. With only three points left on it, and Marie happily hidden behind a tree, Matt called it. He didn't think he could get in line to finish Marie, and she would be able to shoot the objective dead when she activated, and I would win the game. Frankly, I was stunned. I think I managed to pull this one out by losing my crew. As has happened before, when I no longer have the wrong models to activate, it gets real easy to activate the right ones.
I am still trying to get this game figured out. Especially balancing Laptime and being more aggressive. I am enjoying the models. I am painting Harley Quinn, which will finish my Gotham City Sirens Hell's Bells, and I hope to have them posted up here soon. I will then be working on Princess Malya and Mr Tomn for a hobby challenge, and possibly running her very soon. Time will tell.
Till next time, race on!
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