Demo action report!

[Smedley]

Alright, ran a demo at Oroboro Games in Redmond last Saturday, and while we only actually demoed to 3 people there was quite a lot going on!

First Demo: Dragyri vs. Forsaken. I wanted something to be a little better suited to taking on the superior numbers of Dragyri, so I opted to remove the Warwind and a coil for a Weaponsmith and Contradiction (plus the demoee really loved the Contradiction model, so I figured as long as he has impeccable taste, why not?).

Despite losing every initiateve roll, Bailey (my opponent) managed to work his Death's Device forward around some ruins to take out my Contradiction (though the Contradiction managed to poke him for 1 HP), then hit my Banes like a freight train and killed 2 of them before advancing on my two Coils and tying them up in melee.

This whole time I was whittling away on his slaves and Soul Searchers, but now I had a couple slaves, a Soul Searcher, and a Death's Device tightening the noose on my Weaponsmith and 2 coils. So I pull something out of my arse - since they're hopelessly outmatched in melee, I figure what the hell and have both Coils hit the deck, point their death disk launchers straight up at the Deaths Device and blast him to smithereens! In the same turn the Weaponsmith gets two critical hits on the remaining Soul Searcher, leaving me with two (prone) Coils and a Weaponsmith against two Spearslaves.

Bailey was a little surprised and at first thought that what I did was a bit cheesy, but as we sat there and talked about the game we started thinking about all the action movies we've seen where someone on the ground is crawling away from *insert big scary mean guy/monster/thing that is kicking the hero's ass here*, especially when they're about to get skewered and they're reaching for their gun, then they get their break, grab the gun, roll over and blast away. I explained a little more about what going prone meant, since he was a WM player he was used to being prone being a bad thing with few positives, and it made more sense to him. Overall a very interesting game.

Second demo: Brood vs. Forsaken. Interestingly enough, this was against a veteran VOR player who basically felt totally at home with DA. The Forsaken list was a little more standard (3 Coils, 3 Banes, Warwind). He made me take the first turn, I advanced my coils carefully and very mindful of his Grist's capabilities, and he promptly moved his Grists up, fired twice, missed with both but deviated ridiculously well and killed a bane, a coil, and damaged my Warwind. From there it was basically a sad downhill slope where I flailed uselessly against his Sawblades and was summarily beaten like an old circus animal. Banes even managed to do fairly well, although the two who survived the Grist's attacks were killed when they caused damage to the Sawblades (who regenerated everything..."Damage? What damage? Hey, how come there are all these vaguely bane-looking puddles of goo scattered around?").

The Warwind was the only thing that saved any face, being able to take out both Broodlings, a Grist (with a ranged attack) and one Sawblade before *SURPRISE!!!* the Sawblade's acidic blood finished her off. Oh, and to add insult to injury, one of the Broodlings and the last Grist made their regeneration rolls...

Third Demo: Dragyri vs. Forsaken (again!). Pretty straight up slug-fest. Contradiction gets way up into the center of the board, rest of army poised to reak havoc on my opponent's forces (Contradiction poised to blast a handful of slaves to bits, Weaponsmith within 10cm of a Soul Searcher, Coils in the center able to finish off Soul Searchers or start whittling on Death's Device, Banes ready to take out Death's Device) PROVIDED I get initiative. Sure it was risky and a bit stupid, but I was feeling daring.

So of course I lose the initiative roll, the spearslaves promptly swarm the Contradiction (but not killing him! w00t!) and slingslaves fill the Weaponsmith full of holes, but the Banes do manage to charge and smack the Death's Device around like a drunk southern widow. Contradiction whifs on two of his four attacks on spearslaves, Coils fill one of the Soul Searchers full of razor-sharp disks and the turn ends with my Contradiction still surrounded by slaves, the Banes victorious but so far away from the action they've effectively removed themselves from the battle, and both Coils within melee range of the last (wounded) Soul Searcher.

Last turn I get initiative, Contradiction redeems himself by tearing through 3 slaves then blasting the rest with his shotgun, banes hauling ass towards the fighting but only succeed in getting a front-row seat as the Soul Searcher makes the Coils look like they're about to be cooked on a rotisserie. I managed to pull it out eventually with two banes and a contradiction left, but my opponent left with a profound appreciation for his Soul Searchers and Slingslaves!

All in all it they were very cool games!

Smedley

[Pyrrhus]

Great reports - that last one sounds like it was a nail biter!