Battle Summary: Lions vs Devourers

After having played my first game of Confrontation last week, Carter Brent and I decided to make Wednesday night Confrontation night at our LGS. Our goal is to invite people to play and introduce Confrontation to a bunch of new folk. We heard that a guy named Dan was coming to learn how to play but he wasn't around at first so we decided to get started without him.

Carter and I started a 300AP game with Magicians to practice the Incantation rules. Carter brought his Devourers to do battle against my Lions. Migail the Selenite was my Magician choice while Carter used his newly acquired Velrys, Prince of the Impure; whom I can only describe as a magic wielding, half-elven samurai bad-ass.

We played about one round before Dan showed up. Carter handed the reins over to the newcomer and let him try out his first full scale game of Confrontation. He did a great job picking things up.

Memorable gaming moments included:

– The Archers of Icquor repeatedly shooting their own Paladin comrades in the back while firing into battle.

– Those pesky Warriors of Blood who managed to hold off twice their value in AP for 4 rounds while chipping away at their aggressors with the Counter attack ability.

– A big, bad Voracious Warrior dying at the hand of a Paladins Sacred Blade when double 4s were rolled.

– Migail the Selenite shutting down Velrys killing spree by charging into combat while wearing the Armor of Allmoon (or as Dan calls it, the Armor of Cheating).

– Velrys revenge: casting an Ephemeral spell (forgot the name) upon his death that ended up killing two of my guys and wounding a third.

– That little kid who was hanging around the table and talking to us. Apparently he likes Yu-Gi-Oh!

Looking back, I realized I made a bunch of mistakes while playing. Here's a list of things I would have done differently.

1) Brought Spear Guards instead of War-Picks: I don't think my Guards landed a single hit the whole game. That's not to say they were useless. They did a good job of keeping Velrys and the WoBs occupied. But I would have preferred a +1 in Defense to help clog up the Fray as opposed to a +2 Strength which I never got to use.

2) Used my Centaur more effectively: With throwing axes, Brutish Charge, and a charging range of 40cm; there's no reason why I should have left my Centaur tied up in the same combat for 4 rounds. The better thing would have been to disengage from the Fray, look for an opportune target to shoot, and then re-charge on the next round (giving me the Brutish Charge bonus again). Not only that, but I must have forgotten to declare War Fury before rolling INI at least 4 times during the game. Where was my brain for all of that?

3) Used Migail more effectively: I hid him behind some trees and out of harms way. Problem is he was out of spell range for most of the game as well. With the Armor of Allmoon as his artefact, I should not have worried about getting caught in combat and instead placed him up front with the rest of my force.

4) Used my Reserve cards: Dan only had two unit cards in the pile after I killed his wolfies early on. I was winning most of the tactical rolls. Why didn't I keep my troops in reserve until after Dan moved his? What was I thinking? I guess well never know. Which brings me to my next point…

5) Used Premonitory Vision: I don't think I cast this spell until the 4th round, when I didn't really need it any more. Extra reserve troops would have helped so much more at the beginning of the game… Again, why did I keep forgetting to use my stuff?

I had a blast playing, despite all of my tactical faux-pas. I think Dan enjoyed himself too. We had some other guys show up to watch later in the evening after they had wrapped up their Battlemech game. Hopefully they liked what they saw and will come back again when we have our next Wednesday night game. If anything I could tell they were impressed by Carters Devourer models and his uber-wicked Aberration of Dirz.