It’s four days until CaptainCon. Kasul is sick in bed; we’re hoping he’s well enough for the trip to Rhode Island. I was sent alone to Enfield, December box in hand, to save the family honor.
It was… an experience, I guess.
For one thing, there was a lot of noise going on. The table behind us had a Magic game going on; there were two RPGs going on. I don’t know what team I was playing against, as my opponent didn’t use the app. The app would tell me everything about his team, but he didn’t use it, and I had no idea what he was playing, and it was so noisy. I went over and looked at his cards, and he did go through them, but in one ear and out the other, along with a lot of noise from the other tables.
Doing some research since I’ve been home, looks like he was playing the Neverborn faction, with Nekima (keyword: NEPHILIM) as master and Candy as an out-of-keyword henchmen, plus some demon dogs that summoned other demon dogs, and some plain old demons…
I really want people to use the app. It makes it so much easier on people who, like me, have trouble picking conversations out of the noise.
Anyway. We played the setup for the first tournament game we’ll be playing next weekend.
BOOTY & PLUNDER
Strategy — Raid the Vaults. Get points for controlling various points on the battlefield — probably the easiest strategy.
Schemes — Let Them Bleed, Espionage, Deliver a Message, Hold Up Their Forces, and Protected Territory.
I chose for my schemes Deliver a Message, with Blessed of December as the deliverer, and Protected Territory, which just requires dropping scheme markers on the enemy side of the board.
This second one was pretty easy, as I had two models that could just essentially teleport there. My December Acolyte could start anywhere on the board he wanted, and so he started in exactly the position needed to both contest a vault and drop a scheme marker. My Soulstone Miner was able to contest the vault in his deployment zone, and I had Wendigo out there to contest a third vault and also drop scheme markers. I didn’t need to control three from the start; but I got my one on turn 2, two on turn three, and three on turn 4. There wasn’t a turn 5 because… well.
I was able to pretty much have the run of that side of the board because Nekima was making a full court press onto my side. Dogs were summoned. A lot of his models could fly, and so they carefully avoided the ice pillars Rasputina was dropping and did some charging. I’d taken Snow Storm instead of Bashe this time, and the whole thing was a slaughter.
Now, you don’t get points for killing models, and while my big models (Ceddra and Snow Storm) were soaking up damage, I was scoring points. I did sacrifice Blessed of December to deliver a message to Nekrima, who killed her in return — but I scored the point.
By turn 4 I had just four models left, and I hadn’t killed any of his. We talked out the rest of the game and agreed on a final score of 8-5. I think I did pretty good for being entirely outmatched.
Ceddra died way too easily. She can equip mutations when she shapeshifts. I don’t have the box they come from, but I need those. I found them online and printed them, so I have them now. Her and Snow Storm dying so quickly was a tragedy. I have to do better, and I will.
I picked up the Center Stage box, which has the Ice Dancer models in it, and I have Rasputina, Abominable downstairs and I’ve begun putting her Kaltgeists together. I won’t be able to significantly change my crew around by CaptainCon (they require painted models and I am not a fast painter), but I’ll have a good team that I understand by the time the spring tournament comes around — I hope.
I did make some significant changes to my team from last time, aside from swapping Bashe for Snow Storm. I swapped an acolyte for a Soulstone Miner, because I was really missing that steady supply of soul stones, and I put the Magical Training on my Silent One, though it should instead have gone on my remaining December Acolyte, as my Silent One was eventually killed and zoooop no more seven card hand; and she already can use soulstones, so she just isn’t the natural target for these things.
Anyway, will see all these guys again Friday. I hope!