Recapping the second battle of the challenge between me and Randolph!

This is the second battle in our series to see who can win with all 10 factions first- here is the recap of the first battle, where Randolph crushed me with Kragg to get his first win. In battle number 2, I decided to go with Vitawaasi, the newest faction and another faction I am relatively strong with. Randolph went with Primus, a dangerous challenge due to their high health (just like Kragg). While Vitawaasi has a lot of strong suits, they are not as good as Doom Sand with raw damage, so this was an even tougher matchup on paper.

WARBAND SELECTION: I sideboarded out the Veteran Hunter, Camouflaged Ambusher, and Bladefang Olitiau. The Veteran Hunter and Camoflauged Ambusher are both really great units, and I almost always not only keep them in the main warband, but use them early and often. Primus has the highest faction health in the game though, and it’s especially a strength in their cheaper units, making the low damage ranged attacks just not as strong as they’d be against most other factions. The Olitiau is a cheap flyer, and Primus has no cheap flyers, just average and high cost ones. I don’t think it matches up all that well against Primus. Randolph sideboarded the Yugolori Sentinel, Feral Hydra and Jungle River Kraken.

TILE/RESOURCE PLACEMENT: I went with terrain advantage this time. I like selecting terrain with Vitawaasi because they have a great combo of ranged units and trap-setting. However, as mentioned in my vangaurd, the range was not going to be my core strategy, but rather an auxiliary option. I mostly wanted to spread Primus out and make it a fight for them to get ample resources. I was pretty satisfied with the result of the board. Randolph favored mana closer to him which set up a gold mine in a hard to reach spot (for me). I think set the board well for himself also.

EDGE: EVEN

VANGUARDS: I went with the Savannah Scout and the Bultungin Berserker. The scout is a great unit that is fast and picks up resources. The Bultungin Berserker provided me with some punch against higher cost units, which Primus certainly has, through Championslayer. This also left me with some gold to start with, which I wanted in case Randolph pulled the Runestone combo right away.

I went with a vanguard that costed 6 gold total, leaving me 4 to start the battle with.

Randolph elected to go with the Darktrench Yacumama, an Aquatic unit. I personally don’t like to use Aquatic units in the vangaurd but it can provide a big resource boost because they can begin on a resource center. Randolph also went with the Tortuloid Bladebreaker, one of the best defensive units in the game and a steal of a value at 5 gold. As I feared, the Primus high health was going to be a factor in this battle. I think Randolph had a slight edge with his vanguard just because the Tortuloid is such a challenge to get off the board without strong range and spells. Because I took a couple of ranged units out, it turned out to be a great choice.

The high health of Randolph’s vanguard was a big advantage throughout the battle.

EDGE: RANDOLPH

BATTLE:

We both claimed a gold mine right away, with Randolph using the positioning of his Aquatic unit and me making the obvious move with the Savannah Scout. I used my bonus gold plus the gold from claiming the resource center to recruit the Vitawaasi Geomancer. The Geomancer has a low damage but high range spell, Stone Missle, that I could start using to chip away at the tanky units. One strategy I wanted to deploy this battle was getting units wounded. Vitawaasi has some abilities that can capitalize on wounded enemies and Stone Missle is an effective way to put some damage out there. I stuck the Yacumama for 1 dmg, then opened second round doing the same to the Tortuloid. Randolph advanced the Tortuloid and claimed my gold mine. This gave the Bultungin Berserker a choice of which unit to go for, and I opted for the Tortuloid. Unfortunately, the Tortuloid Bladebreaker parried the attack, leaving me with nothing to show for it. In Factions, a key statistic in evaluating the value of a defensive unit is how many attacks it survives. Surviving an attack by dodging it, avoiding it, or just having enough health to handle it is extremely valuable because it wastes enemy activations, mana, and abilities while your unit remains around. No unit can survive attacks quite like the Tortuloid Bladebreaker!

The Tortuloid Bladebreaker effectively anchored the battlefield for Randolph.

The attack left the Bultungin very vulnerable due to some nice water spaces aligning for the Darktrench Yacumama to slide up and eliminate the Bultungin for the first points of the game, however Randolph missed this strike and stopped short to remain on his own tile. Randolph had me pressed up against my basecamp and it was again a good time to unleash his best units. He had enough gold for the Mystic Witch to then Runestone the Monarch Coatl into the game.

Using Runestone to put the Monarch Coatl into play is a great strategy but it costs a lot of mana.

I had enough gold lined up to recruit a unit that I realized would fit really well into this board state, the Tigromaul Ravager.

The Tigromaul Ravager’s Natural Hunter ability scores an extra point when it kills an injured unit.

With the Yacumama taking 1 damage from the earlier spell, the Tigromaul Ravager entered the board and immediately killed it, picking up an extra point from Natural Hunter. The Tigromaul is a real challenge for both regular ranged and melee units, with Stealth and Immunity to regular range. It’s vulnerable to spells, but with Randolph using all of his mana on the Runestone combo, it proved to be a great play.

RANDOLPH: 0

PETE: 6

At this point both of us were playing really well with preimere units on the board. Of course, the best unit was the Monarch Coatl, who led off the next round by zooming up and killing the Bultungin for 5 points.

RANDOLPH: 5

PETE: 6

What happened in the next few activations was probably my best moves so far in the series. With the Monarch Coatl on the ground, and surrounded by my home terrain spaces, I was able to sneak the scout around behind it to do 1 damage, (wounding it). I then did the extremely rare and normally ill-advised move of making a melee attack with the Vitawaasi Geomancer, giving the Coatl 2 damage. I had to make these attacks from certain spaces to allow room for the Tigromaul Ravager to come ripping around the front and attack the Coatl for lethal 4 damage. Natural Hunter kicked in again making it a 10 point kill!

I was able to kill the Monarch Coatl for 10 points and seize momentum by setting up the Tigromaul Ravager.

RANDOLPH: 5

PETE: 16

The Tigromaul Ravager was dominating the battle, but Randolph quickly and skillfully pivoted. He had ample gold to bring out the Greater Wyvern and keep it on a Primus home tile, which made it have Stealth as well. This would make it a difficult challenge to eliminate it with the units I had on the board. The Tortuloid Bladebreaker also dispatched of the Savannah Scout, cutting the lead to 10. The Tortuloid wasn’t done having an impact, as it survived another Stone Missle and an attack from the Tigromaul.

RANDOLPH: 6

PETE: 16

Since Randolph had wisely switched his tempo to defensive positioning I had to switch mine as well. The Mystic Witch was deep in Randolph’s territory but I could continue to apply pressure with one of Vitawaasi’s marquee units, the Owujo Warlocklord. I used Mana Rot right away, a little bit of a mistake because I thought that the Bogdeep Witch might be recruited soon, but not a huge one. Mana Rot picked off the Mystic Witch to give me an enormous lead.

RANDOLPH: 6

PETE: 22

The Owujo Warlocklord is devastating against spellcasters, and a solid fighter as well.

Randolph did not flinch however, and began to mount a furious comeback. Had I been slightly more patient, I could have used my 1 use Mana Rot to take out another unit as well, as Randolph did indeed recruit the Bogdeep Witch. The Bogdeep Witch was a perfect pick as her rank was the highest on the board and Randolph could double tap the Tigromaul Ravager with back to back Shockwaves, of which he had just enough mana. The Bogdeep Witch probably saved the game for Randolph at this point, however I’d rather my opponent spend mana on a pair of Shockwave spells instead of an Arcane Blast. It was still a fantastic play by Randolph as the Tigromaul was off the board. The Tortuloid Bladebreaker knocked out the out of place Vitawaasi Geomancer, putting together a good round overall for Randolph.

RANDOLPH: 16

PETE: 22

Bogdeep Witch’s high rank and Shockwave helped remove my top threat on the board, while the Tortuloid Bladebreaker continued to hold down the center of the battleground.

Despite the good round from Randolph, I still had a lead and needed to keep the pressure on before he could rebuild. Time was not on my side though, because his Bladebreaker had effectively outlasted my units in the center of the battleground, meaning Randolph had control of the resource centers. I brought out the Kikiyaon Bloodhunter and immediately picked up a point through Exsanguinate, getting me a little closer to victory. The Kikiyaon Bloodhunter was a good choice because it has good movement and is, like the Tigromaul, very difficult to attack thanks to abilities. I was able to rapidly cross the battleground and kill the Bogdeep Witch to put me at 26 points.

The Kikiyaon Bloodhunter picked up crucial points and disrupted Randolph’s defensive tactic.

RANDOLPH: 16

PETE: 26

Randolph changed the entire outlook of the battle throughout the next round. I was not at all prepared for him to go on a sudden offensive with his Greater Wyvern. The Wyvern was the best unit on the board from a statistical standpoint and I had almost no way to kill it. It was an excellent change in strategy from Randolph and one that totally shifted the momentum to his side. Randolph swung the Wyvern across the battleground then flew deep into my territory to kill the Owujo Warlocklord. Up until that point, I had the battle pretty much under control, but the bold strategy had really thrown me off and forced me to scramble for the last points.

Randolph attacking aggressively with the Greater Wyvern nearly completed his impressive comeback.

RANDOLPH: 24

PETE: 26

Randolph had taken control at the game almost completely, controlling the resources and eliminating all of my units. He also added some reinforcements in Amazon Champion and Amazon Javelineer (via War Horn). It looked like he was going to pull off a come from behind win through his Tortuloid Bladebreaker’s toughness and bold move with the Greater Wyvern. The freshly summoned Amazon Javelineer used a ranged attack to give Randolph his first lead by killing the Kikiyaon, who was caught on the ground surrounded by Primus units and spaces.

Randolph took the lead late after controlling the battleground bringing in additional units.

RANDOLPH: 29

PETE: 26

I had to wait a round to recruit something and was hanging on by a thread..Fortunately, I had played the game to one of Vitawaasi’s strengths, maximizing points off of wounded units. Those extra points meant I just needed to eliminate one unit on the board to get the win. I didn’t have the gold recruit the units to kill Wyvern or the Amazon Champion, and accessing the Tortuloid Bladebreaker (who was down to 1 health- finally) or the Amazon Javelineer, would normally be very difficult as they were both a far distance from my basecamp. Fortunately for me though, I could one of Vitawaasi’s sneaky good units. The Pakamtu Marauder is a really nice support unit with a ranged attack. The thing that makes it so useful is the ranged attack combined with Stealth. While not that powerful by any means, the combination of a ranged attack with attack deterrence of Stealth means that the Pakamtu can almost always be relied on to safely deal 1 damage. 1 damage was all I needed… I crept the Pakamtu out of the basecamp during the reinforcement round, careully not ending up adjacent to any enemies. With all of the Primus spellcasters dead, I was able to move into position to shoot the Tortuloid for the final 1 damage, giving me 5 points and a victory by the slimmest of margins!

I was only able to recruit 1 unit- it happened to also be the 1 unit that had the skillset to win me the battle!

I got my first win of the series with Vitawaasi, mostly because I had a strong start and midgame. I had a lot of trouble closing it out though. Credit to Randolph, The Tortuloid Bladebreaker allowed him to extend the battle to keep him in it and then he made some tremendous decisions to almost win. Through two battles with two of the factions I play the best with, Randolph has been the better player.

RANDOLPH WINS: KRAGG

PETE WINS: VITAWAASI

We each have 1 win! Battle 3 is on Friday, November 7th… We will see who gets their second W!

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