Marut got smoked

I managed to get in two of the first non-league games in a long while. Both were versus Shane's Panoceana. I was hoping it would take the new guys seven or eight games to really pick up on Infinity. Just long enough to win the league, then get some good tough games in for if I ever get to play in some competitive events. No such luck. And as Pan-O seems to be a pain in my large metal butt, the large number of Pan-O players that are "getting it" is less than awesome.

That is completely untrue of course, the games I played against Shane were awesome, mostly due to how challenging they were. And Shane is an alright guy, too, I guess. Game one, he won the roll and took Initiative. I chose the side closest in the above picture, hoping the more open fire lanes would work to my advantage for AROs. It didn't. I also made the mistake of Deploying first. No idea why, I may have been thinking to show my hand in hopes of baiting him to certain lanes. I may have also just been super tired. Or both. Whether or not it was bait, it didn't really work, he set up almost completely at the diagonal from me. I then dropped my two held Dakinis on my right, across from the bulk of his force. Depending on why I deployed first, this was mistake number one or two. Either way, it was the first one that was really bad. Spoiler: They died. It may also be a bad idea to express how awesome it is that a future opponent can get more HMGs/Spitfires then they actually have models(well, almost). He had a Spitfire, two HMGs, and a Sniper in his 225 list. Curse you, Joan of Arc! I'm not sure if you are all aware, but that much firepower kinda stings. I was able to come out of the gate and snag a couple missions, but the real killer was that I then pushed my Marut forward, instead of bringing in my Garuda. I also put my Marut in a position that I thought offered cover, but in fact most definitely did not. As such, she went down like a wet paper bag. This put me into retreat AND loss of lieutenant, which meant my Garuda wandered off, leaving me with just a Dakini, Zaiyen, and three Netrods. Needless to say, I was never really ever to recover, and Shane beat me three or four to two.

After a little bit of watching Nabors smoke everyone else at Super Dungeon, I managed to convince Shane to let me try and redeem myself. Luckily, he was up for whooping me again, so we reset. He won the roll again, chose Initiative again, but I chose the opposite side and had him deploy first this time. We had abysmally low rolls for Civie and Crate again, but this time it meant that the LoF for the Civie was basically my side of the board, which he was never going to come to. He also Ambushed my Intimidate. I had double or nothinged Kill the Pigeon, hoping he would then try and protect the Civie, giving me LoF to his guys, but, no dice. With him watching my Intimidate, I eventually had to move forward, synch the Civie and drag it into LoF. A process that cost me two wounds on my Marut to crits from his sniper. In the end I was able to kill the sniper while within LoF of the Civie. The star of the match probably had to be the Garuda. He was able to drop in on the right flank, double tap the boarding shotgun, hitting his link leader, dropping templates onto the guys behind, basically removing the guys behind, but eventually getting locked down by the leader's E/M weaponry. He was then killed and had his documents swiped, but well worth it. I was later able to kill the leader before he could reach the crate. I also gambled with the Marut, and it payed off, as she was able to kill Joan of Arc, all while on one wound. This game was very tight, but with a few good(lucky) moves on the last turn, I was able to pull the win. A seriously tough match, and I am definitely glad we reset.

In the aftermath, I am not sure about the Zaiyen. This board limited its usefulness, though I think the pair at 300 points will solve that problem. Shane also ignored my Netrods in both games, which I actually think was to his benefit. Yeah, I lose an order, but that is all I lose. No loss in firepower or AROs or anything. It is basically my opponent using his order(s) to remove one of my orders. Seems like a good trade for me. The flip is that he was able to use his orders to hurt my firepower, orders, and AROs. I was able to target one of his Link members right out of the gate, which gave him a conundrum that led to a dead dude. This put him on the back foot, but in the end he was still able to keep going rather strongly.

In the future, I am thinking of down grading the Zaiyen to a Lamedh, and take another Garuda. This will give me 10 orders, plus lieutenant, and give me to AD troops. It will take some testing, but we shall see. I have two league games at this level, still, so, I will get to try it at least once. I am not sure I want to make the switch for a league game or not yet, but I may as well, since it won't matter at 300 points. I guess we will just have to check back to see if I did and how it went. Until then, Aleph is watching.(sorry, had to)