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Monday 11 May 2015

#TOMB2 Month Three: Nekima Rises (or not)

Month Three Hobby
Well here we are at the end of another month. This month was both more and far less successful than the previous months. I got 2 games in this month with Zoraida (more than the first two months combined). However, due to the realities of real life getting in the way (as I am currently in the process of moving to a new place so haven't had much time to set up my stuff and paint) I have not finished Nekima for the end of Month 3 :(. I'm probably about 50% done her at best and doubt I will have much more time this month to paint until I've finished the process of moving into a new place. So rather than focus on the painting failures, below I have included summaries of the two games I played with Zoraida this month.


Games
Game 1 vs Ironsides: (40ss)
Zoraida with Crystal Ball
Bad Juju with Fears Given Form
Nurse
Iggy
Nekima with Fears Given Form

Ironsides with Warding Runes, Frontline Leadership
Mouse
Captain with Warding Runes
Oxfordian Mage with Blood Ward
Oxfordian Mage with Nemesis Ward
Oxfordian Mage with Doom Ward

The strategy was Turf War and we both took Murder Protege (announced) and Assassinate.
Nekima started the game by rushing up my left flank to go hunt down the captain (for murder protege) while Bad Juju went around the right flank to put pressure on Ironsides. The rest of the crew hung around the back of the turf war circle behind some cover. As it was my first time against Ironsides I didn't really know what to expect. Turned out that Ironsides triple walked to engage Zoraida and Iggy turn 1 (the Nurse was just out of range). Turn 2-3 Nekima killed off the Captain, and an oxfordian mage Bad Juju killed off another mage and on the other sides Ironsides and the third mage killed off Iggy and did some damage to Zoraida. I managed to score turf war both of those turns, as did my opponent. The Nurse/Iggy weren't able to do much this game since Ironsides was in their face immediately and due to proximity to Mage with Blood Ward she was immune to conditions. Turn 4 Bad Juju killed off the final oxfordian mage, which meant that it was impossible for Philippa to score turf war any more, putting me in a really strong position. It looked like I was pretty much guaranteed to score 7 points (as it was unlikely she would be able to deny me Turf War) and 9 if I could kill Ironsides on turn 5. End of Turn 4 I had moved Nekima into range of Ironsides so I could light her up turn 5. This ended up backfiring when Ironsides won initiative turn 5 (neither of us had any stones left). Ironsides had used a couple small comboes on Zoraida up to this point and Nekima had taken a few hits from the captain so they both had slightly over half their wounds left. This is where Ironsides finally showed the potential of her power. She finally had enough adrenaline saved up (4 I believe) and the high cards in hand to really hit the combo. When the dust had settled, Zoraida was dead and Nekima had 1 wound left (after he free 2 action ML attack had missed while at ML 4 due to lack of adrenaline left). I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I had won the game now. Still, I thought to myself that I could score 9 and win 9-4 instead of 7-4. The Nurse buffed Nekima to Min damage 6 which with 3 attacks should easily be enough to kill Ironsides as I still had a handful of high cards. However, I stupidly forgot about Ironsides' defensive trigger. I hit her for 6 damage but Philippa top-decked the Tome she needed and hit Nekima for two damage, killing her and scoring 3 vp for murder protege. Damnit! If I had just walked Nekima away on turn 5 or after she survived I would have won but I got greedy for VP and it cost me. The game ended and by scoring 5 VP in turn 5 Philippa had tied up the game 7-7. In the end I scored 3 for Murder Protege, 4 for Turf War and Philippa score 3 for Murder Protege, 2 for Assassinate and 2 for Turf War leading to the 7-7 Draw.

Second Game: (40ss)
Close deployment
Squatters Rights
Assassinate
Protect Territory
Cursed Object
Make Them Suffer

My Crew:
Zoraida with Animal Shape and Hexed Among You
Bad Juju with Eternal Fiend
Doppelganger with Useless Duplications
Nurse
2 Waldgeists

Opponent:
Misaki with Disguised and Untouchable
Ototo with Call the Thunder
Samurai with Favor of Jigoku
Samurai with Favor of Earth
Monk of Low River
Torakage

I took Cursed Object and Protect Territory (Announced), my opponent took Assassinate and Make them Suffer. By infiltrating my waldgeists I stopped him from being able to interact with 4 of the 5 squatters rights markers until he could remove them. Turn 1 I summoned a voodoo doll, which hemmed Ototo and then the Nurse paralyzed him. Ototo would be paralyzed Turn 2-4 before finally getting to activate turn 5. Since he was paralyzed I also used him as my cursed object model as my waldgeist just interacted with him and added cursed object each turn he was paralyzed, allowing me to easily score those 3 points. I also managed to get two squatters rights markers flipped turn 1. Turn 2 Bad Juju (who had been boosted by the nurse to rush up the field turn 1) killed off the Monk and started starting a Torakage who smartly ran away while shooting. The Samurai both sent some time firing at the waldgeists (with their guns basically ignoring cover and the - flips from waldgeists. However, around turn 4 we both realized that their ML attacks ignored armour (as my opponent was a newer player and I've never played against samurai). The Samurai on his left flank then charged and killed off my waldgeist that had spent the game interacting with Ototo and holding up a couple markers. I thought I had made it impossible for Misaki to get to my backfield and attack Zoraida by having my waldgeist's huge ML reach and blocking terrain make it impossible for her to charge me. But I hadn't played Misaki before and didn't know she could charge while engaged like Von Schill. Doh! That meant that Zoraida was in big trouble turn 2 as Misaki charged in and took off more than 1/2 her wounds. Luckily I managed to win Initiative turn 3 and Raven Shaped my way 15" across the board with lots of terrain and models in between so misaki couldn't catch Zoraida. Zoraida spent the rest of the game raven shaping away and eventually placing a marker in his far corner away from everything else to score protect territory. I figured he had assasinate so even if it meant not getting the best use of my master, Zoraida (on 1 wound left at this point thanks to some Torakage shots) had to run and hide for most of the game. Turn 5 Misaki killed the Voodoo doll (finally scoring a point for Make Them Suffer) and Ototo finally activated and flipped the squatters marker that my (now dead) waldgeist had been guarding. This scored him 2 points in turn 5 and the game ended 10-2 in my favour (as I had a few models drop markers turn 5 to get my points for protect territory).

Month 4 Plans
Well the first thing I need to do is obviously finish Nekima.. After that I have not decided what I am going to add in Month 4. I know I want to add at least 1 Beckoner and a Performer, but this leaves one more model I can probably afford. Currently debating between a 2nd beckoner, Johan, Bishop and Doppelganger (who got used in one of my games this month to great effect). Once life is less crazy later in May I will hopefully post another update with pictures of Nekima and update you on my choices for Month 4 additions.

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