Welsh Masters - Game 2
So after a good win in the first round, I had started the long road to the top. My next obstacle to that was a Minions Player. His lists consisted of Rask, and Carver. With the scenario being the Pit, and looking at how the terrain was (A building to the left, and a hill dominated the main area) I chose Axis again.
His choice was Carver, and after speaking to him after the game, he said that he needed the armour cracking more from carver in that than the defence of Rask. Anyway, i lost the roll to go first, and picked the side with the building to protect my flag on it.
Turn 1, he gets his buffs out and runs everything forwards. Rosch and Brine are on the far left, waiting for my caster to go near the flag. Luckly, a few hard months of playing my local Minions player has taught me most of the tricks of that pair, and i had the inverters on that side to be ready. The battle engines went for the center and right sides, to deal with the Brigands that were stacked heavily in that direction.
I got the basic spells out, and ran everything forwards. I planned to feat to push him out of the zone, and get the flag for a nice 2 point push. This does not go to plan as well as I had hoped.
Turn 2: He gets his things forwards, with his road hog burning hot hell out of my screening bomb bots, and even clipping a few of the jacks (Who were unphased by the flames around them). Rosch and brine, to my utter annoyance, do a run to the far left, so they will be WAY out of Axis’ feat range even if he makes a bee-line directly for them. The War Hog comes in to put himself in the middle of the zone, killing a galvaniser that i had left too far forwards. I counter charge some of the slaughterhausers on the right with a few remaining bomb bots, and he finishes with 1 war hog, 2 lessers and 2 Brigands in the zone for the top of two.
Axis readies the tricks, but i decide to stay well back for this turn.. just inside Killbox. I feat, catching enough of his heavy hitters to neuter them for the next turn. The Brigands it seems have re-positioned outside of their commanders range, and therefore don’t contest, or even give free strikes. So my galvaniser runs forwards and pushes then out of the way, and continues towards the road hog, pushing that sideways and closer to the TEP’s. The inverter goes in after a great diffuser shot, and kills the War hog. The last galvaniser runs up to the two light beasts and pushes them out as well, to ensure a point. Due to Rorsh and Brine being out of the feat, I was too worried about being assasinated to put axis next to the flag. the last inverter was going to go fowards and help deal with the lessers, but due to placement of my flare bots no longer had a charge lane. this ended up being a great thing, and i instead ran him back to the center to be more defensive for Axis.
Turn 3: He gets carver in on the left side to cover as much as he can with the feat, whilst staying out of range of the TEP.. The road hog, which survived the sprays, gets in to one of the TEPs, and the Brigands get into the other, but are out of feat range so damage it, but dont kill it. The Road hog kills his without problem, and goes to move away with lightning strike, but i got him with a countercharge from the inverter I moved previously and kill it.
A unit of slaughterhuasers in the left side, along with the gun boar and battle boar, kill off the inverter and galvaniser that had made the zone mine. Rorsh and Brine made my life that little harder by moving up closer to deal with Axis. He did not get any points but an assassination was still an option for him.
On my turn, the TEP put a major dent in the Brigands, whilst with bulldoze, and Razor Wall, the diffuser went around pushing the rest on the left side slaughterhausers into the wall to kill them, with the elimination servitors mopping up the one that toughed. The last inverter went in to kill the lights, who were next to each other, and i has cleared the zone for another turn to get me to 2 points. the clock was now nearing 15 minutes left for each of us, so that was also a factor.
Turn 4: He brings brine over the razor wall to take a point of damage, then charges for free into the inverter. Brine almost kills the inverter, but some bad rolls on the damage meant i had 5 boxes left, with an Optifex directive nearby to help next turn. Carver moves round the left flank, with the aim to go for the assassination next turn, and the two slaughterhausers that are left block charge lanes to him. the second TEP is killed by the remaining Brigands, and my option for the scenario win was fading fast.
i decided that i needed to go for the kill. The lone diffuser aims and hits carver. Axis puts down razor wall between the slaughterhauzers and Carver, and gets Buldoze ready again, along with putting Iron Aggression on the Inverter. The Optifex Directive repair the Inverter, and he charges Carver, pushing Brine 2″ away, and out of a free strike range of the charge lane. He barrels into the Slaughterhausers, knocking them into the razorwall for them to die as soon as they hit it. The macropummeler hit carver, and then the meteor hammer finished him off to win me the game.
in review. The pit is always a painful Scenario for me, as getting the zone free is not usually a problem. Keeping it free from an entire army is the trouble. And boy do those pigs move fast... the threat ranges on them meant i had to always be aware of the assassination runs. A great game, and one that got me really ready for more.
