Epic MERCS is Epic

Still fresh from my chain of wargaming this weekend, last night was board game night at Icons.  My buddy Josh was working around the clock (apparently) to get his brand spanking new USCR MERCS painted up for his first game.  He attended a demo I did a few weeks back at Icons and has been eagerly anticipating the coming of the people's army.  He texted me some in-progress pictures of his painting, but I was not prepared.

My god, they look beautiful.

The bastard.

Click on that shit for a larger view. Seriously.

Even the bases look amazing!  Son of a bitch!

We played the standard "first to kill 3 wins".  Its simple and elegant. I like it.

So with CCC vs USCR my strategy was this: split into 2-3 groups.  One group has the heavy & leader on Overwatch & Suppression, respectively.  The remaining groups of 1-2 units will run up the flank behind cover and try to get in the rear, where the Armor is lower.  Other than that just take as many shots with Strength 2+ weapons as I can to try and break armor, further reducing the Armor level.  Oh, and have my demo shove a grenade up the Behemoth's ass (spoiler alert: I never had the chance).

It probably would have worked brilliantly if my "noob" friend wasn't such an amazing wargamer!

He took to the system immediately and we ended up having dueling Suppression & Overwatch units, which took quite a bit for me to keep straight and remember how to properly trigger everything during a susceptible action.  It quickly showed just how complex a game of MERCS can be, greatly adding to its epicness.

Josh quickly got his Medic on the hill and put him into Overwatch.

Looking down the barrel of death of a healer.

Team 1 in position. Heavy on Overwatch, Leader on Suppression. Team 2, Go!

Team 2 moving up the flank. My Medic took a hit crossing the gap (Overwatch) but I made it before the Behemoth was in position. There's a USCR behind the building which my Demo ended up taking out.

As you can probably tell, I left the Sniper at home for this game, planning on getting the Incinerator into a rear position via Bounding. Eventually the Demo & Medic got taken out when both the USCRs behind the barrels on the hill went into Overwatch.  Demo & Medic poped out from behind the building and were cut down.  Good play on his part.  Getting into the rear is risky with all the movement (often into the open) needed, so it was a risk I knew I was taking.

It came down to my Heavy, Leader, Incinerator against his Heavy, Leader, Medic.  My Heavy had a good shot at the Behemoth, and I new he was going to fire, so I kept the Heavy on Overwatch.  Despite the fact that the Behemoth has a 2 Courage (!) Josh was rolling ballz Courage checks on Suppression, then I managed to hit him with the Incinerator, which couldn't do him damage because of his (even weakened through failed armor check) armor but did incur a +2 penalty on Courage check.  So the Leader stayed on Suppression.  By now my Leader had 2 Blood on him, as did the Behemoth.

This was it. First to deal 1 Blood would win.

Ballz Initiative roll!  Will this be the end of the CCC?! NO! Because the Behemoth failed his Suppression check!

This is where it got Epic.  Next round.  The Behemoth activates.  He aims the template at my Leader/Heavy.

It ALL comes down to this.

He hits the Leader!  My Leader is down!  But wait!  That shot triggers Overwatch from my Heavy! If I can score one of my three shots the Behemoth will take a Blood (remember, broken armor) and both the Behemoth and my Leader will simultaneously go down!

3 Blood on the Leader to record that he's dead no matter what. I roll for the Heavy...

THE HEAVY ROLLS THREE MISSES!!!  EPIC GAME ENDS WITH USCR VICTORY!!!

Victorious USCR are Victorious.

Nice try Incinerator. Maybe next time.

So in my post analysis, what did I do wrong?  Well I can't really think of anything; meaning my current skill level is telling me I played a good game, as did Josh.  I feel like I was on my game too, and didn't really make a bunch of mistakes.  I do have to be much more studious about keeping track of Suppression and Overwatch triggers, as I missed one very early on.

It was the kind of game you want every game to be: complex, engaging, and fun.

In a word: Epic.