Recapping the first battle in a series against Randolph M!

Factions collaborator and content creator, Randolph Manlapig and I are going head to head to see who can win with each of the 10 Factions first on Tabletop Simulator. I’ll try to recap the games from my perspective in this series! In the first battle, I decided to go with a faction I usually play pretty well to try to start off with a W, and that would be Doom Sand. Randolph went with Kragg. Here is a link to the video!

WARBAND SELECTION: I sideboarded the Tyrant Chieftain, Doom Sand Outlaw, and Battle Tembophant, while Randolph sideboarded the Orc Goliath, Wild Kongamato, and Orc Warlock. I opted not to include kidnappers as Kragg’s high health and attack stats make kidnapping not as relevant, and I also didn’t include the Tembophant, as a cheaper melee unit it is effective against weaker melee factions, but would not match up well against Kragg.

TILE/RESOURCE PLACEMENT: After winning the opening roll, I decided to go with the Resource Center advantage. This allowed Randolph an extra terrain tile, which is not ideal against an aggressive melee faction like Kragg. Randolph took advantage by placing tiles in the center and over his base zone, while simlutaneously using his water spaces to make one side of the board really rough for me to access. Because Doom Sand (and Kragg) don’t use water spaces, I placed tiles ended up providing a lot of straightforward melee areas throughout the middle of the board- a big advantage for Kragg. As for resources, my mentality was to horde mana and bombard the lower rank Kragg units with high damage spells. I thought recruiting the Goldminer Contractor could offset any gold issues, so I went with a mana pool closest to my base camp. Looking back, the board was far too easy to traverse for this strategy! I think Randolph definetly outplayed me in this aspect of the game!

EDGE: RANDOLPH

VANGAURDS: I went with the Sunray Ukhozi , Goldminer Contractor, and Anubite Battlemaster for all 10 gold. I wanted a resource center grabber and of course the contractor for extra gold production, as well as a Captain. Overall, my vangaurd was solid, but not aligned at all with my original strategy of spell-blasting units to oblivion. I did have the best unit on the board in the Battlemaster which is always a positive.

I recruited a vangaurd that did not fit with my initial strategy of heavy spellcasting!

Randolph, on the other hand, went with Goblin Scout, Kifoguru Charger, and Veteran Orc aslo for all 10 gold. This is a fast, aggressive warband that is a pretty standard choice for Kragg’s style. Overall I think his choice was a lot better for the board and the nature of his strategy.

Randolph’s vangaurd featured fast units and a captain that could support them with a ranged attack

EDGE: RANDOLPH

BATTLE:

I got the Anubite positioned to strike whatever Randolph sent towards the resource centers, which is his style especially with 3 movement units. I also was not trying to hide the fact I was rushing the Ukhozi to the outside Gold mine. This was probably a hasty decision. Randolph claimed the Gold Mine and was charging downhill, but kept his Veteran Orc on the periphery. First points went to Randolph- I sacrificed the Ukhozi to snag the gold mine, and his captain commanded the Kifoguru Charger to kill it in the next activation. His scout then claimed my gold mine anyway. These bad moves by me with the Ukhozi foreshadowed some even worse ones later on.

RANDOLPH: 3

PETE: 0

With Randolph holding both gold mines and me backed into a corner, he wisely identified the second round as a time to already push for a big lead. He recruited the cheap ranged unit Goblin Stonethrower and his focal point of attack wave, the Greater Roc.

Randolph immediately kept the pressure on in the next round, as the Goblin Scout raced all the way into my basecamp zone to knock out the contractor, further crippling my resource production. My last unit on the board, the Anubite Battlemaster dispatched of the scout to get me on the board.

RANDOLPH: 4

PETE: 1

With by back already completely against the wall and Randolph playing a flawless game so far in terms of terrain tiles, unit selection, and being aggressive at the perfect time, I finally made a good choice. It became apparent that it was far too late to get my spellcasters on the board, so I went with a unit that could beat Kragg at their own game. The Sabertooth Wyrum.

Randolph put a ranged damage on the Wyrum, but I responded with the Anubite using it’s Ranged attack to kill the Stonethrower. I wish I had maybe used the 4 damage Ranged attack, which is a powerful weapon, on a more significant target, but I was a little too passive with the Battlemaster. Nevertheless it picked up it’s second kill.

RANDOLPH: 4

PETE: 3

Randolph recruited the Troll Ravager- a solid choice. The Ravager is a good point-scorer because of it’s ranged attacking and Versatile ability. However, it was the Greater Roc that made it’s presence felt, swooping in from the side of the board and further injuring my Wyrum. This was an odd move by Randolph as the Wyrum still had Natural Toughness, which mitigated the damage. However, with Kragg, aggression is key. While maybe not optimal, it wasn’t nearly as questionable as my early game moves because he kept me on my back heel and forced me to deal with the Roc then and there. Unfortunately for Randolph, deal with the Roc then and there is exactly what I did. The Sabertooth Wyrum is one of the very, very few units in the game that can kill the Greater Roc outright with a single attack.

The Greater Roc and Sabertooth Wyrum are the most powerful monsters of their Factions, and both left a big mark on this battle.

RANDOLPH: 4

PETE: 11

The big lead would end in the next activation with the aforementioned Troll Ravager pummeling the Anubite for 6 points. The Troll Ravager is a very dangerous unit on any board with Kragg having the terrain advantage because it’s 3 damage is high for a ranged attack and it can still make melee attacks effectively as well.

RANDOLPH: 10

PETE: 11

Thanks to the Sabertooth Wyrum, I was in the game, but the board state and resources all favored Randolph. He cut into my last advantage by recruiting the Monstrous Ogre, a high health unit to shore up his lower health units on the board. Remember that Veteran Orc? It was still on the board, quietly being the likely MVP of the game. Almost every round Randolph was able to command a bigger threat through the Orc deep in his own territory. The Veteran Orc still being on the board and facilitating the attack is probably the clearest example of where my failure to use any of my starting mana to this point really limited me.

I then had my very best round of the battle when I needed it most. At this point, the lack of gold production really was beginning to hurt me, but the Sabertooth Wyrum’s raw strength enabled me to survive enough rounds to have a few options. Doom Sand having 10 mana at any point is a threat, so it was time to put it to good use. I was able to recruit the Outlaw Mage during the reinforcement phase and cast Fireball from my home space.. This was key because the spell costs 6 mana.. which dropped me down to 4. The Outlaw Mage could generate mana at the next round putting me back at 6. The Outlaw Mage has a great rank, and would get 2 activations before the Monstrous Ogre meaning 10 damage worth of Fireballs before the Ogre can activate. It’s almost like these were the type of units I should have been using all game long!! I torched the Monstrous Ogre for 5 damage, thinking I’ll get another activation. In the video, you’ll see that I MOVED UP 2 SPACES from my basecamp to do this, despite it being in range just 1 space from my basecamp.

Sabertooth Wyrum’s 8 health and Outlaw Mage’s 4 rank gave me the chance to take a big lead.

Randolph popped the Wyrum with the Troll Ravager– yet another attack the Wyrum took without dying, the 3rd one of the game! The Troll Ravager scored a point through Mauler, which means that it scores a point if it damages (but does not kill) the enemy unit. The Troll was now in range and the Sabertooth Wyrum killed it- the Wyrum survived 3 attacks and killed 2 big units for 15 total points. Clearly my MVP. One Troll got swapped in for another as Randolph added the Troll Crusher to the mix during the round. It’s another big, ranged unit for Kragg that the board set up nicely for.

PETE: 18

RANDOLPH: 12

It was at this point, for a good 10 seconds, I thought I had swung the momentum completely and was ready to strategize on how I’d close out the game, likely with another Fireball… but then realized something Randolph had picked up on a couple of activations earlier. My Outlaw Mage, because I had moved it up 2 spaces, was within range of his Veteran Orc. The Veteran Orc had been slowly advancing all game long, never using it’s ranged attack, and I had made a massive, massive mistake. The hero of the game, surviving the ENTIRE battle, capitalized on my lapse and killed the Outlaw Mage for 5 points, leaving me with just the Wyrum on the board.

PETE: 18

RANDOLPH: 17

Randolph’s used The Veteran Orc and Troll Crusher single use ranged attacks to win the battle!

From there, the Troll Crusher used its ranged attack to finish off the Wyrum. With my gold depleted, I was unable to generate enough in 2 rounds to recruit a unit, meaning the battle was over!

FINAL SCORE:

PETE: 18

RANDOLPH: 26

I made big mistakes out of the gate, failed to use my superior spells and strayed from my strategy right away. I made some really strong moves in the late game and ended up being 1 space away from a likely win, but made a late mistake. Randolph’s unit selection this battle was outstanding. He was implementing a blend of flying and ranged units along with a multiple effective affordable units. The common thread was aggression and making attacks deep in my territory. Additionally, he capitalized on my misplays. It was a masterful game that Randolph outplayed me most of the way and he picks up a WIN with Kragg!

RANDOLPH WINS: KRAGG PETE WINS: NONE

Fortunately, I played a lot better in our next match- Primus (Randolph) vs Vitawaasi (Pete).. but did I play well enough to even up the series?? I’ll let you know next week!

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