The campaign for the Jimulthuan Quadrant is taking place across time, space and intellectual property!
In deciding the outcomes of this campaign, we're not limiting ourselves to 40k. So when Kraken suggesting we play Marvel Crisis Protocol to represent his inquisitorial warband's attempt to destabilise Zamaroon, I jumped at the chance.
Baron Wasteland - Hydra
I went with Hydra, as they have a chaos cultist feel to them: a couple of renegade imperium officers, a brainwashed gunman bodyguard, a dark mechanicus construct, and some kind of mutated ogryn.
I feel there's a decent balance of range, movement and sheer hitting power in this list. Baron Strucker's leadership allows me to pass off conditions to my targets, and heal damage at the same time, so I'm hoping them will give me some durability.
- Baron Strucker (leader)
- Arnim Zola
- Baron Zemo
- Winter Soldier
- Abomination
Team Tactics: Soldat Activated, I Am A Baron, After All, World Domination, Instant Recovery, Warpath
Strange Days - Convocation
This is a selection attempting to look a bit like an Inquisitorial warband. So there's a pompous psychic weirdo to lead (Strange), a humble assistant (Wong), two scantily clad women with swords (Magik and Nebula) and a barely controlled psychotic on terrifying amounts of steroids (Juggernaut).
They're not really a team, but by giving Strange The Bar With No Doors as a tactic card, he gets a leadership buff that he can spread to the others. It's not bad, either, a flexible one for defence that can be swapped back and forth (not that I'll be doing that).
Is there a plan? Not really - Wong sits on a point and helps the Doc, the others try and clobber foes so that I'm either scoring or denying scores. The usual!
In the final round, it looks like the Convocation have run out of steam. In a triumph of technology over superstition, Arnim Zola KOs Magik.
- Doctor Strange (leader)
- Magik
- Wong
- Juggernaut
- Nebula
Team Tactics: Astral Ring, Bane of Damballah, Wand of Watoomb, Orb of Agamotto, The Bar With No Doors
Mission and deployment
We select Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding as the Extract crisis (four Guests to pick up, and they'll drag you back into the action if you stray) and Infinity Formula Goes Missing! as the Secure (four objectives that give extra power each round).
Convocation set up with Magik and Nebula in the top-left; Strange, Juggernaut and Wong in the top right.
Opposite them, Arnim Zola and Baron Zemo cover the bottom-left; Abomination goes into the centre; Winter Solider and Baron Strucker go bottom-right (immediately using Soldat Activated to make Winter Soldier into Strucker's bodyguard).
Round 1
The round begins with the usual scramble to grab objectives: Arnim Zola and Baron Strucker grab Guests, as does Wong.
Juggernaut is probably the only guy I've got who can go toe to toe with the Abomination, so he slowly trundles towards the middle, building up momentum for later. Strange floats forwards in a similar way, setting up for the next rounds, but staying near Wong.
In an uncharacteristic show of bravery, Baron Zemo dashes across the field to steal the Guest right in front of Nebula and Magik. This sets him up for some punishment, and he takes quite the beating but, crucially, is left on a single point of damage and holds on to take an early lead.
Score - Hydra 5 : 3 Convocation
Round 2
Convocation get the first turn, so waste no time in clobbering Baron Zemo before he runs away. Arnim Zola fires back to daze Nebula, but then gets selected for Juggernaut's special attention.
Juggernaut finishes off Zola (with help from Magik), but leaves himself open to attack from Abomination, who piles on a considerable amount of hurt, dazing Juggernaut.
On the other side of the field, Baron Strucker gambles on leaving his objective to take out Wong. But despite being poisoned, incinerated and left on a single wound, Wong continues to stand firm. Wong then uses his activation to heal himself and keep scoring two points.
Dr Strange heals up Wong to full health, then hits Winter Solider and drags him away from the leader he's meant to be bodyguarding.
The gap in victory points is closing, but with the damage being handed out, attrition may yet decide this.
Score - Hydra 8 : 7 Convocation
Round 3
Baron Zemo wakes up and wastes no time in running Nebula through, so we have our first KO. He also scampers away from the top-left objective, leaving it to Magik and bringing the Guest with him.
Still surrounded by a press of enemies, Juggernaut swings in every direction. Arnim Zola is flung away, but Abomination barely feels it. Abomination settles the debate of the strongest by thumping Juggernaut to within an inch of his life, before Arnim Zola moves back on the point and zaps Juggernaut to remove that last inch - KO!
Magik remains on point, but throws out some big attacks that severely damages Baron Zemo with the Wand of Watoomb and dazes Winter Soldier.
Now Baron Strucker has been deprived of his bodyguard, Wong plays Astral Ring to project himself onto the bottom-right objective. The astral Wong also aims a few kicks at Baron Strucker, but can't make contact.
I guess being astral makes you less good as ass-kicking.
Dr Strange flies in to throw some more damage on Baron Strucker, but still can't drop him. Nonetheless, with two Secures and two Guests in their possession, plus another Secure that astral Wong is stealing, the Convocation pull into the lead.
Score - Hydra 11 : 12 Convocation
Round 4
Reminding everyone that I Am A Baron, After All, Baron Zemo heals all his damage and charges back at the top-left objective. Unfortunately, his steel falls short against Magik's sorceries and he gets KOd in short order.
Abomination and Arnim Zola team up to daze Magik, as Abomination scoops up one of the fleeing Guests.
Dr Strange fires up Bolts of Bedevilment and dazes Baron Strucker, picking up his dropped Guest. This allows Winter Solider to respond and get a bonus attack at Dr Strange at point blank range.
It must really upset him to see what a bad bodyguard he's been.
When it comes to Winter Solider's turn, he continues in a similar vein: pounding Dr Strange with Red Fury and Assault Rifle combination attacks, while Strange scrambles around for enough power to raise his shields with Hoggoth's Hoary Wisdom.
After much dice rolling later, Dr Strange is finally dazed, although it cost Winter Soldier so much power, he doesn't have any left to pick up the Guest (which would have sealed the game, as it turns out).
It's been a punishing round for the Convocation, although Wong's steady supply of 2VPs per turn is keeping them within touching distance of the finish.
Score - Hydra 15 : 14 Convocation
Round 5
Dr Strange clobbers Winter Soldier, wanting no repeat of the last turn, and manages to fling Abomination off the bottom-right objective.
I have to do this twice, in fact, he keeps running back. And that costs me too much actions, so I can't get on to the point to contest it. I should have saved the Orb of Agamotto for exactly this kind of desperate move - I wasted it earlier to steal a fairly achievable march!
But he can't score any points or even put much hurt onto the monsters (he's had a very good game).
Baron Strucker heads back over to Wong and hits him with enough plasma blasts to daze him - so it took the whole game for this strategic genius to get the better of a 2 Threat.
With nothing left for the Convocation, and a relatively free reign for Hydra, they clean up the points and seal the game.
Score - Hydra 19 : 14 Convocation
Back in the locker room
Suffer not the witch to live! For a pack of villains, my team worked remarkably well together. I think my early gamble of diving with Baron Zemo paid off (it could have all gone wrong otherwise), and I was lucky that Juggernaut dived into my lines (and failed to make much of a dent).
Yeah, he whiffed like an egg. Nothing stops the Juggernaut except being punched a lot, it seems.
Well done to Kraken for wrapping his head around all the spells of Convocation (it's not the easiest affiliation to run). I though Magik did some good work on her flank, and the Strange-Wong combo was very potent in holding down their flank.
I really enjoyed running Hydra - which has convinced me to bring them to an event this weekend (with apologies to all the other affiliations I currently had drafted - your turn will come).
No comments:
Post a Comment