BZ Tournament Round 2. pButcher v Makeda2 (skorne)

Game 2, and I drew Skorne for the second game running. This time against Raj, who I'd played recently at a Battlezone game night. At this stage, it looked like the tournament was going to be 3 rounds, so choosing Butcher again would mean I was locked into Sorscha for the 3rd round, but I'd felt so good about the Butcher list in the last round that I had to put him in again.

Makeda 2
Molik Karn
Archidon
Bronzeback
Tyrant Zardesh
Titan Gladiator
Etoller Soulward
Hakaar
Nihilators
Paingiver Beast Handlers

pButcher
War Dog
Demolisher
Beast 09
Boomhowlers
Valchev
Iron Fang Pikemen, Officer & Standard
Iron Fang Konvik
Iron Fang Uhlans
Gobber Tinker

Scenario - The Pit

 I won the roll, but decided to go second. Skorne is Skorne, right? If it ain' broke....
I've played "the pit" a few times now. My plan was to get Butcher on my flag in turn 2, protected by Decimator and the Boomhowlers. I'd attack the center zone with Beast and the Pikemen, and try to sweep his flag with the Uhlans.

This is the end of turn one, and I'd already made the mistake that would eventually cost me the game. I'd put everything where I wanted, then activated Butcher. For some reason, while moving him, I decided I'd like to put Iron Flesh on the Pikemen. I have no idea why I thought that was a good idea, but I moved Butcher towards them (instead of directly towards the flag and a mountain of cover). And I was still to far away to put Iron Flesh on the Pikemen. Oh well, how bad could it be?

Really bad it turns out. Raj had been up front with me before the game, telling me his list was all about speed. He wan't kidding. It turned out my silly move had set me up for a turn 2 assassination. His army flew up the board. The Nihilators got stuck in, most importantly taking out the Boomhowler in front of Butcher. The Bronzeback and Gladiator played bowling ball through the pikemen. Worse was to come. Molik Karn got into Butcher's face from way, way down town, killing the dog, and smacking Butcher about (down to 6 boxes I believe). Ouch.

All was not lost. In the next turn, Butcher feated, smooshed Karn into a bloody pulp, and took cover behind the Demolisher, his plan to dominate the flag forgotten. Beast 09 took out the Warbeast in the middle, and the Uhlans took the flag for 1 control point. When I look at this now, things don't look terribly bad. 

Skorne's next turn was a confusing one. Beast 09 was thrown from one warbeast to the other, getting pretty beaten up, losing both arms. A lot of Boomhowlers went down, and Paingivers moved in to contest their flag. The extoller (proxied - in the middle of the zone here), had ghost shot, which meant that Butch wasn't quite as safe as I'd thought he was, and took another few points of damage, leaving him at 2. Raj had soaked up a lot of time - I had close to 30 minute left, while he had 3:30. I had a lot of options. I felt there was a decent assassination option on the cards (as long as the tinker could heal up Beast 09), I could go on the offensive and try to take out much of the left flank and the warbeasts, or I could turtle up and hope he couldn't get to Butch in 3 1/2 minutes.

I acted like a wimp, and chose to turtle up. I did it poorly. It was the wrong option.

The Nihilators and Hakaar slashed throug the Boomhowlers, and Hakaar put an end to Butcher. Win to Raj, with about 30 seconds left on the clock.

This game was a lot of fun. It was wide open right until the end, even though I'd put myself on the back foot early. My inexperience really showed through here - on reflection I made at least 3 pretty poor decisions. I cant get too cut up about it though - I'm still learning, and this game was very good for me. 

Raj would go on to win the Tournament at 4:0.