Here, we are not limited to ADR casters, and I have the following two lists:
King Makers'
Damiano
- 3 Nomads
- 2 Manglers
10 Trenchers + Grenadier
2 x 10 Halberdiers
Free Kell and Orin
Hammer Strike
Ossrum
- 2 Blasters
- 5 Gunners
Thor
- Avalancher
Siege Crawler
6 Forge Guard
Herne & Jonne
TAC
2 Free Artilleries
For the first game, I was paired against David Granberg with Convergence. David had Mother and Father in his roster. From my experience, Damiano can be very good into convergence. Against any caster other than Axis, he has a huge attrition advantage. David chooses Mother, which is a good choice, because to win this game he will need tricks, not pure attrition.
David's list:
Destruction Initiative
Iron Mother
- 2 Axioms
- 2 Mitigators
- Diffuser
- Corollary
9 Free Elimination Servitors
6 Free Attunement Servitors
David deploys both of his Axioms centrally. I know from previous games that Axioms like to play on a flank, to be able to drag a heavy or two away and stay out of retaliation range. I sense that it might be different with two (being able to drag away 3-4 heavies), but will revert to the flank pattern as soon as one is gone.
So, I decide that I will remove the right Axiom, and so all my halberdiers go to right flank zone, to make contesting it suicidal.
David runs his forces up to project threats.
I use my cloud wall to deny those threats. I move my heavies into a position where the right axiom would actually have to back off it it wants to stay out of their threat ranges. Halberdiers prepare for a "flood the zone" maneuvre.
I didn't make a picture after David's turn, but he was not able to do any meaningful work. He did put one axiom into each zone.
I feat and remove his right axiom and diffuser. Halberdiers flood all over the space, and Orin goes to control the flag. I pass the turn and it hits me: he can try to do the Backlash assassination, I just made a huge mistake with moving Orin.
Of course, David tries that. He puts backlash on the red mangler and uses absolutely every 1-point dmg resource he has. He does not use anything that can make more than 1 dmg until the very last moment. In the end, Damiano survives on one HP, and there is nothing preventing Mother from doing the exact same thing next turn. Despite having the healing objective, I am sure that he can finish the job next turn if I don't finish the game now. There are actually two options for that: either I need to score 3 points (we are 2-0 in my favor now), which is possible if I clear one zone and kill his objective, or I go for assassination (this is possible, because he did a mistake with Iron Mother's activation, and didn't move her away).
I decide to go for the second option. First, I use anything I have to remove the servitors in the way. Then, I put three heavies on Mother, and thankfully that's enough (she is very survivable due to her high DEF). Victory by assassination.
Analysis
It is very obvious to me that Iron Mother is at a severe disadvantage attrition-wise in this match up. This means that what needs to be done is going for attrition-assisted scoring while keeping my own caster safe. In Iron Mother's case, keeping him safe means always keeping my front-line heavies (those most in danger of becoming puncutre-bots) within 3" of Orin, to negate any Backlashes for at least one turn. My mistake in this game was not doing that. The scoring could have been left to Kell without any problem.
Second mistake: I shouldn't have gone for assassination. It's much more dicey than killing the objective and one light. But I didn't go for the arithmetics in the heat of the battle and didn't realize I have that option.
One more thing, and I noticed it not just from this game but also several others, both before and after this game: it is maybe a mistake to concentrate both halberdier units on one zone. In this particular game, halberdiers contributed more to jamming myself than the opponent, and having a unit in the left zone could mean tying up some more servitors, making the backlash assassination much more difficult.
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