First Battle Report: Lions vs Griffins

I just got back from playing my very first game of Confrontation! It took place at my LGS here in Rochester, against The English Confrontation Forums very own Wrathmaur (i.e. Carter Brent).

  I've been slowly assembling a Lion force for the past two months and was itching to see my fully painted pack of Guards in action. I asked that Wrath bring his Griffin to the battle so that I could have an opponent with a human face to learn against. (I'm still freaked out by his Devourers!)

We played a 200 point game with no magic.

Griffins:

-Misericorde
-3 Purifiers
-2 Fusiliers

As you can see, Wrathmaur intended to get the most out of his Hybrid purchase with Misericorde and the Purifiers leading his army. I had no knowledge of the Purifiers and their abilities prior to this game and thus was constantly surprised by the tricks that Wrathmaur would pull on me with these guys through the battle.

Lions:

-2 Paladins
-3 Guards with War Picks
-3 Guards with Spears
-3 Archers of Icquor
-Kelt Centaur (Ally)

This is pretty much my whole Lion army except for my Hero and Magician units. 12 units for 202 AP. Pretty nifty. I purchased the Centaur the night before and didnt have time to assemble it before playing. I didn't know how Wrathmaur would feel about me plopping down an empty cavalry base and calling it my Centaur, but he didn't seem to mind a bit.

The remains of a ruined cathedral were fittingly located on the Griffins side of the battlefield. An abandoned house lay tucked back in a corner of the Lions side. In the middle was a large stone fountain on a hill which created two open lanes on either side of the game edge. Wrathmaur tucked his two Fusiliers behind the ruins where he could fire out of the windows behind cover. Misericorde and the Purifiers hung out in front of the ruins (some may have started the game back with the fusiliers but I cant remember). I divided my troops into two forces and placed them on either side of the stone fountain, hoping to attempt some kind of pincer / flanking movement. The passage closest to Wrathmaurs ruins was occupied by my three Pick Guards in a row with an alley way open for one of my Archers to fire into the cathedral. I placed a Paladin behind the Guards as a leader of sorts. I did roughly the same thing in the far corridor with a set of Spear Guards, a Paladin and an Archer. The third bowman was placed near the fountain, poised to climb the hill and gain a better vantage point. For some idiotic reason I placed my Centaur on the far side of the battlefield behind the Spear Guards, miles from Wrathmaurs forces.

Turn One consisted of me moving my troops up as far as I could to engage Wrathmaur as soon as possible. Wrathmaur readied himself for battle and opened up lines to shoot from. This being my first game, I became anxious when I realized how far the Griffin Fusiliers range could actually reach across the battle field. Those guys definitely win the AT&T award for being able to reach out and touch someone almost anywhere on the board. Not wanting to get shot up was one of the main reasons I pushed so far into enemy territory. Luckily for me, the gunmen missed both shots in round one. I, on the other hand, was able to send a Purifier to Serious by ganging up on him with two Archers using my extra shots awarded by the Icquor upgrade.

Round Two and Three sort of blend together in my memory, so this may not all be chronologically correct. My Centaur was stuck behind a meat plug of my own soldiers, trying to slowly make his way around the stone fountain and get into combat. I moved them up to make room for the Centaur and ended up blocking my 3rd Archers LOS. Wrathmaur was holding steady, like he knew something that I didn't know… The way was open for each of my Pick Guards to charge a separate Purifier. I rubbed my hands together and declared the charges for each one. That's when Wrath pulled his Purifier card out of reserve and counter fired into each one of my Guards. The dust settled… and all three Guards were still standing! Two misses and a Light wound from the pistol of the Seriously wounded Purifier.

Misericorde rushed in to help her damaged comrade deal with the Lightly wounded Guard that had charged him while the Fusiliers took aim from the cathedral windows. I was still freaked out by the snipers in the church. If I decided to shoot twice with my Archers I would have to wait until last. If only once, then I'd fire at the same time as the Fusiliers. I was fearful of my Archers being killed or wounded before having a chance to shoot, so I decided to fire once and hopefully wed all mess each other up at the same time. As luck would have it, not a single shot from either side hit, causing me to curse myself for not taking the extra shots at -1 INI.

Now it was time for some fighting! There were three battles going on. Two face-offs between a Guard and a Purifier, and a gang up on my third Guard by Misericorde and a beat up Purifier. I don't recall everything, but I do remember putting a Guards first dice into DEF and the second into ATT only to have my Attack dice stolen by the Purifiers Feint ability. I didn't see that one coming. Wrathmaur would continue to cancel key dice rolls for the rest of the game, much to my chagrin. To wrap up the combat round, my wounded Guard survived against Misericorde and the wounded Purifier by producing a wonderful set of sustained defence rolls.

My memory gets real hazy after this, so Ill just summarize the rest. Round Three movement phase finds my Centaur still putzing along, trying to get into battle. I was only a handful of centimetres away but not enough to do any good. More shooting with very little accomplished. My Paladin joins a Guard, making it two-on-one against a Purifier. Misericorde finishes off the brave Guard of Alahan from last round and pursues into the Guard / Purifier fray closest to my approaching 2nd force. Some bad rolls and Wrathmaurs incessant dice stealing ends the round with very little damage dealt to either side.

Round Four. My Centaur charges Misericorde from behind! …Finally… A Guard disengages from combat and engages a Fusilier who came into the open to get a better shot, leaving a Paladin and Purifier to duke it out. The same Purifier disengages from the Paladin, leaving him out to dry, and engages the Guard from behind. *DOH!* My Archers drop arrows on a lonely Purifier and kill him. Misericorde kills my 2nd Pick Guard and starts to fight the Centaur. They exchange wounds. I would have probably buried a War Pick in that Fusiliers head but Wrathmaur again steals my attack dice with Feint.

Round Five. The reinforcements arrive. I come to the Centaurs rescue by surrounding Misericorde and her Purifier companion with three Spear Guards and a Paladin who are eager to deal some pain; but not before Wrathmaur targets his own Purifier with a Fusilier to better the odds of hitting my guys. The Centaur gets shot and receives a Serious wound. At this point we pretty much wrapped up the game with Wrathmaur conceding defeat. It only seemed a matter of time before the remaining Griffin units got swamped. I thanked him for a wonderful and exciting first game of Confrontation and discussed playing another game soon with Magic rules.

Wrathmaur is a wonderful teacher. It was a pleasure to learn the game from him. He seems to have all the rules, charts and abilities memorized… not to mention he is a lightning calculator! Planning battle tactics were enough, but all the number crunching was starting to melt my brain (which may not be a bad thing). All in all it was a fantastic experience. I just need to better learn the strategy of reserve cards, as well as how to use that friggin Centaur!