Round 3 of Cancon Masters, sure enough Bender's Arse plate has dropped off as the Circle Dodge plan eats itself out of existence.
Pairing is Una2 and something there to fulfill the two list requirement of the tournament.
Griffons into a caster with the defensive stats 14/14/15? How about no. I think Gorten can maybe Una at this point? Rockwall stops me dying, got at least a couple spray bunnies. I regret the lack of local Circle players to practice into.
Gorten, Drillers, Gunners, Sprayers, Pigs, Crocs, Eliminators, Acosta, support chumps
vs
Una2 - 5x Scarsfell, Rotterhorn, 2x Wolwyrd, Ghetorix, Gorax, Blackclad, Shifting Stones, 2x Sentry Stones, whatever that attachment that gives herding/free upkeep
Scenario is Two Fronts (One day we'll forget it was called Close Quarters)
Something that is on my side is the terrain. The guts is incredibly open aside from a minute cork hill, both sides get a double trench. These things don't matter.
What it does have is that both sides have a pair of walls, a weird curved one near each flag and a standard one toward the other corner.
Middling useful terrain is a hill on the left flank and a forest on the right.
I win the roll, given the terrain mirroring and the slow scenario, plus sodding birds, I pick first.
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Merc 1: Woah. That is an ugly table cloth. I remember it not being appetizing, but the photo definitely adds to the puke-consisting-of-snot complexion.
Gorten/Jacks hang on the left to threaten the defensive score, Crocs in the centre to go where needed. Pigs go super right flank to hopefully threaten the opposing flag in the distant rounds after Una's feat.
Across from me is a ye old line of Sentry Stones plus twiggy plebs, then a line of Beasts. One of the left group is the Rotterhorn, the Green Pureblood isn't in the list and gets removed shortly, Una central, Ghetorix slightly to the right, Gorax is the cool kid at the back of the class.
Pigs up on the right, prepping to stab the clock.
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Circle 1: Manikins spread out front as you do, then it's a line of Griffons, then Una/Blackclad/Ghetorix.
Gheto gets Mirage, I think Hand of Fate doesn't happen?
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Merc 2: I measured the Griffons feat turn run and engage. Was super sad.
One of the Sentry Stones forgot to pop a forest, so at the very least I'll try to kill that damn thing.
Otherwise plan is to put in a griffon restraining order and keep the things I need alive for my next turn.
Gunner moves up, one shots the Sentry Stone. Sweet. Other Gunner moves up and tries to pop a Shifting stone. Fails hard.
Definition of consistency right there.
Gorten walks as close as he can to the curved wall, gets enough to stop the front landing zone. I then put a wall behind him and put some jacks to stop the Griffons getting in on Gorten, my thinking being that if Griffons surround Gorten it dictates to much what board edge I have to push.
I run the Red Eliminators and Acosta, the Kayazy jam on the left most Griffon, Acosta gets just within Vengeance trigger range on the left, sadly can't do that and be on the hill.
Tinker, Spray Bunny and Aiyanna/Holt hang so far back they are embarrassed, pretty impressive for inanimate dollies.
Ragman/Crocs hang in the trench, Submerge out of habit. Need Ragman further forest to try to put down Death Field, makes the POW 10 Sprays a lot better.
On the right, I run the Green Eliminators behind the wall. I expect they'll die to Mannikin sprays, should they live though they'll hopefully be able to get in and pop them, at least slow down the other Sentry wrecking my day.
The Pigs again move up but stay super flanky, Rorsh goes behind the forest, think he'd either draw three Griffons away or he could do a smoke pop escapish deal.
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Circle 2: So....that Griffon the Red Eliminators jammed? Rotterhorn. SMRT to me.
Rotterhorn squaks, kills one Eliminator, puts the other on a box.
Una walk to the centre of the double trench, pops feat, tries a shot on Acosta that misses. Already have Vengeance triggered, so he pops up on the hill.
A Griffon then goes in on Acosta, misses his boosted charge so he Dodges up the board to be behind the top left wall. Another Griffon runs up to him and blocks.
Centre wise the Wold Wyrds advance and pew pew down the left Gunner.
The Gobbers then move between the Wolds and pop down their big cloud, Ghetorix and Gorax stay behind it. Shifting stones jiggle around, one goes in front of Una which stops any chance of dragging her in.
Around Gorten, Three Griffons run up and get in the way.
On the Circle Defensive flag, the Sentry Stone drains itself boosting Sprays which kills one of the Green Eliminators and damages the other Kayazy.
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Merc 3: My win condition was established in the last turn. I've got an easy feat choice and attrition/assassination plays, more than that though is that the last turn involved some good tank time for Circle, enough that clock is easily my strongest play. My activations only need to be reasonable and timely rather than great (I want to say it was about 45 minutes vs 25).
The remaining Gunner had gotten somewhat mauled to Griffon attacks, more to the point it was in the way of where I wanted to drag, so it moved out and died to freestrikes.
Gorten then walks around the Griffon in front of him to end up on the left of my flag, in front of the terrain wall, does a gun shot to finish off the injured Shifting Stone in front of Una.
He puts down a new Rockwall in front of him and feat pushes everything on the left eight inches to the right, though I don't get Una/Ghetto who are in the trench.
The three Griffons who were around Gorten get bunched up in a line near the spray bunnies, chocking up on the Green Eliminator that I moved into the relevant position.
The two Griffons on Acosta end up next to the Gobber cloud, the Wolds and other stuff end up next to the Circle flag.
I then attack the triple Griffin line, Ragman moves up and Deathfield, spreading Dark Shroud through the choke point Eliminator.
Both Spray Bunnie then move up and hit them, maul the hell out of them though I fell short on killing any. All were missing one or two aspects. The last Bunny also kills the Eliminator, was worth it.
Wrongeye Submerges and camps three, as I suspect he's going to get Griffoned. Snapjaw runs forward, as he'll likely be needed to clear out stuff contesting my flag next turn.
On the right, Aiyanna Stealths, Holt kills a pair of Mannikins.
Little Pig drops all his Fury and smoke, he goes to behind the forest. brine goes in, eats a manikin, then fluff enough attack rolls that I have to max his fury to kill a Wold Wyrd.
On the very top left, I have my lazy assassination attempt. Una is camping one. The last Red Eliminator walks into the back arc, does a pair of stabs, does five points I think.
Acosta charges her, hits, does 10 points that gets transferred to Ghetorix. Second stab hits, does seven or eight, whatever it is she goes to 1 box.
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Circle 3: The Gorax moves up behind Una, in the back of the Red Eliminator, gets the kill.
A pair of Griffins walk back, with Flank and backstrike the second puts down Acosta.
Blackclad hunters marks the Driller behind the wall, Ghetorix then charges him, maxes Fury to kill it.
Three Griffons in front of my trench go, one engages Ragman (No Spirit/Mind, so can't hit him) the other two, also missing aspects, go into Wrongeye, draws off a couple fury on transfers and leaves him with a scratch.
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Merc 4: Brine doesn't frenzy, so that's a bonus. Clock game still strong, plan is to be a coward with Gorten and kill some more stuff.
Gorten just runs backward.
In front of the trench, Ragman Death Fields again, the Spray Bunnies kill all the Griffons down there.
Wrongeye then moves up.
Snapjaw charges Ghetorix, loads up on Fury but sadly falls just shy of killing him. I'd been hoping to get the Driller backward to kill the Griffons that come in on Croc stuff, but it's not to be, so he goes in and easily finishes off Ghetto.
Rorsh gets into the forest, shoots down the Mannikin that spawned.
Brine goes into the next Wold Wyrd, kills it.
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Circle 4: Griffons come in, they kill the Driller next to Snapjaw, Circle clocks.
I had 20 minutes remaining, so that worked out. Wrongeye/Ragman/Spray Bunnies probably finish off the remaining Griffons, Gorten can walk to the right and extremely safe as the Pigs take over the Circle flag, so overall very content with my position.
This terrain, scenario and going first felt like a perfect combo for my list into Una, not confident I can replicate a win into rematches. we'll get one other chance this weekend, so that'll come up eventually.
In any event, 3 up! Can only go downhill from here!
