Breaking News: League Game Won

I managed to get in far more games than I have been as of late this last weekend. Four games to be exact. I rolled in to Hobby Town on Saturday a little early, but everyone was already playing, so I hung out, grabbed some lunch, and when an opponent opened up, I jump right in.

Game one was versus Cody. He had just finished a Malifaux game, but was up for another or a Relic Knights game. Since his first Relic Knights game I only half officiated over, I figured I should give him a proper one. We set up 50 points, my Cerci versus his Noh. I had Conservation and Realign, I believe he had Tear It Down and Assassination. I started in early, shoving his stuff around with Tow and zipping this way and that. He mostly targeted me, trying to get into position to do the most damage. There were several activations where all he did was move. I'm not sure if he didn't have the cards, or just didn't want to show me his plan. I started with Realign and was able to snag it before I went through my deck. For Conservation, I ended up in a position, where I couldn't make it with my Pacer or my Bells to my Primary. I was, however, able to snag my Primary and drag it into the center, giving my Pacer the ability to run, grab, drop in a single activation, and my Bells, who already had the Conservation token from a previous activation, were then able to zip in and drop the marker. This put me at 10 points and gave me the win.

Game two was versus Troy, who wanted to give Dreamer another run. Troy hasn't really enjoyed Dreamer v2, but he was his first edition favorite. I give him kudos for keeping on keeping on. I have had a Leveticus itch lately, so I pulled him out. We were playing the new Gaining Grounds Guard the Stash scenario. We both took and revealed Deliver the Message, and I also took Spring the Trap. Troy took Bodyguard on the Widow Weaver. I ran Rusty, DE, Ashes, and two Waifes. He ran Teddy, two Primordial Magics, a Daydream, and a Widow Weaver. First turn, he put Teddy on my side into the DE. He took the DE way down, but the DE activated first, returned the favor and healed. Next Teddy activated, he returned the DE back to low wounds, but couldn't finish. Leveticus would later finish off the Teddy, with a little splash help from the DE. And thus began my Abomination factory. I was fairly spread between the two markers, while Troy was very heavy towards the one to my right, with only a last minute Primordial Magic slinking into the other one at the end of two. On turn three, I popped Leveticus out near the left one.

At this point, the DE had turned the right Primordial into a Abomination, Leve had turned Teddy into one, I had created one from a scrap previously, then Leve turned the Primordial into one, followed by two of Troy's Daydreams. And if I had more models, they would have continued to show up from various sources. Ashes killed Chompy, Alyce killed a stitched and was getting ready to fist the Widow Weaver. Turns three and four swung heavily my way. I thought about having the DE consume an Abomination, but with so many on the table, I couldn't possibly not summon a new one if he died, so I left him at one wound and was looking for a new target. However, it was not to be. Early into turn four Troy conceded out of shear fear of being blinded by my awesomeness. Or something. I don't think I was looking to get full points, but only Spring the Trap would have held me back, getting either 2 or possibly 3 points. Poor luck could have seen it at one. Either way, I was nearly immovable on the strat with so many models and I already had full Deliver the Message. I was also doing a fair job of killing Leveticus off early, which stops his Deliver the Message. Likely the strongest I have ever been when facing Troy, or likely most of my opponents. I was sitting pretty.

After that, I played a game of X-Wing versus Paul. We both wanted to play Empire, so we did. I ran 2 Fighters, Defender, Advanced, and an Interceptor. He ran two Bombers, an Interceptor, and an Advanced. I thought I was toast early. He took an early lead, and I was flying with my usual flair. And by "flair" I mean sparks, as I scrape of asteroid after asteroid. Fortunately, in true Empire style, neither of us could navigate an Asteroid field. Eventually, the asteroids and my own combined fire, plus the fact that Bombers are ugly early and meh late, I was able to turn the tables and come out with the win.

Sunday I got in a league game against Kevin and his Black Diamond. He had left some models at home, and so was limited on what he could use, since he had left some of the cards as well. He had the starter, plus Suspect 7, and a second Diamond Corps. I was running my standard everything, Marie, Esmee, Pacer, Wrecker, Bells, and Pit Crew. I had also tried Prox mines on Saturday and found them evil fun. Unfortunately, they are more fun the more evil you are. I also took two Esper Condensors and a Darkfield Generator. I won the flip and chose Hero. He flipped scenarios, I got Secure Perimeter and Defense of Life, he pulled Grand Convergence, I suggested a new flip, he obliged and ended up with Espionage and Carnage.Kevin has learned to use his pushes well during the league, and proved it this game. He slammed Pit Crew and Hell's Bells into walls and each other. But probably the best use of all was at the very beginning when he used Magnus's push to move my Mine closer to my Wrecker, so that, when he came up, and he was already in the queue, blammo. Thus, I basically payed to points to damage my Wrecker. I knew then I was in for a uphill climb. He also did things like blast the Wrecker, pushing the Pit Crew into a wall, killing one, while ignoring that they were in a Darkfield. He also resecured his own objectives, wasting my previous activation to secure it. However, I had an ace in the hole. As long as I kept the cards, his mainly shooting crew couldn't hurt the Bells, who turned into a bit of a lynch pin. I was also able to tow around his main objective, which we decided, shifted his "furthest edge" for Transport, slowing that down. I was also able to shift the Life token to the Wrecker after he slammed the Pit Crew into the wall, causing them to drop it. However, the real key came in when I was able to dodge with the Bells, then place my last Secure marker, netting me my primary, Secure the Perimeter, and my faction, Lap Time. Which surprised Kevin a bit, since I tend to not spend cards, due to Lap Time, and he had already flew through his deck once, and was well on a second run. I also managed to win without doing a single point of damage, though he had killed two Bells and one of the Pit Crew.

The morale of this little tale is that I finally won a league game. I think part of it was due to a favorable scenario draw, but I am gonna claim some skill. If only just a little.