Ides battle reports - Part 1

Come one, come all, partake in this greek tragedy of minor proportions, the trials and tribulations of a befuddled wargamer down under, read the ramblings of a man pissing into the wind.

All aboard for this glorious train ride, the tales of my games at the Ides of March.

To reiterate, I brought along Mordikaar and eXerxis. Both lists of my own design, shaped and chiseled with the help of such luminaries as Chas A Roberts, Chris Baker, Nikola Jaksic and Adam Oakson. Your input and help through this was most appreciated, the dojo'ing of lists always an enlightening and enjoyable process.

Game 1 vs Josh W, facing the eHaley with Mordikaar in Close Quarters.

Josh having 2 Stormwalls with eHaley, I felt I couldn't drop eXerxis. There was past discussion that the amount of shield-guards I have in that list complicates things for him, but I still felt Mordikaar was the better drop, particularly with the agoniser in there. And boy did that mewling little fucker get some work done. After Josh failed to stick any shots onto him, Aggy went on to deny allocation to both colossals for the rest of the game. Things also didn't look too flash when I set Haley on fire with the perfect scatter at the bottom of 1. With Keltarii swarming around the Stormwalls and refusing to die, I got Mordikaar and his Reptile Hound onto the flags to get me the scenario win.

Game 2 vs Louie, Axis tier vs eXerxis, in Recon.

This was one brutal game. I dropped eXerxis figuring that it had the beef to weather the attacks of massed infantry, and in theory, this more or less worked out; even though I barely dinged his army overall, I was steadily claiming control points on my left flag. I did not focus properly on this goal however, and ended up burning through my clock getting too caught up in killing irrelevant stuff. My last seconds were spent using Xerxis *Pitch for the first time ever to fling his jack away from contesting the flag. Such a rad game.

Other notable radness was Rhadiem holding a flank by himself for ages. Remember the rules for Evasive, I was able to duck and weave through the sprays of his Reductors to end up engaging them and preventing further sprays. He's so money, and I'm beginning to think he's actually worth his 5pts more and more.

Game 3 vs the Big D, Daryl Painter and his legion; eAbsylonia vs eXerxis, in Destruction.

This game hinged on me making one vital mistake: running Rhadiem off to the side to allow Abby to proc Conferred Rage. It was a little frustrating that I ran through the math, figured out the threat ranges, sussed out everything academically, but still fucked it up. I think I had a vague idea that getting Abby to Rhadiem off to the side would pull her away from the center of the table and her battle group, but her feat is a pulse anyway and more importantly she has Teleport.

AHURRRRR.

I promptly lost all five of my cyclops' on that turn, and just expected to die after that. Some how I managed to hold on for a few more turns, miraculously destroying his Carnivean, Scythean and Seraph with only my Archidon left out of my battlegroup ( a big part of that was hurtling it into Abby in the attempt to kill her). At the end though, it was Abby and a mangled Ravagore vs Xerxis and some support staff, so big X finally went down.

Game 4 vs the Big Show; Chris T, again running Kara Sloan into eXerxis. Scenario was Incoming me thinks.

After our game at Battlecry where I fumbled things pretty bad, I was stoked to have a chance to make up for the loss. With the speed and shield guards in tow, and no Stormwall in sight, I felt confident Xerxis would be able to bring it home. Going into the tank for a while on my second turn, I decided it was time to feat and get the alpha, removing both his Hunters, and leaving Thunderhead with no arms or cortex. I almost fucked things up though, thinking I had to push my Brutes out the far edge of his zone, but out of shield guard range. But I weathered Kara's feat turn, and the position of the Brutes prevented any of his Murder-ponies from contesting. My following turn was just mop up; killing the objective to make sure I secured the scenario win, before sending in Molik to one-two Kara.

That being the end of the day, a group of us headed back to my place, then back to the Shore to pick up Luke H's keys, then back to my place, where beers, curry and discussion degenerated into how lethal paracetamol is for cats. And perving at Nikola's crotch.