MERCS Tournament Prep

Tuesday night board game night at Icons turned into "MERCS tournament preparation" this week as Thomas, Josh and I got some games in before the tournament at Games & Stuff I'm running this Sunday.

I played two games of my CCC against Josh's USCR.  Here's some highlights and pics.

Overall: Not enough terrain on either map.  I need to put more terrain than I think I should when playing MERCS.  That's the form of the game.  I think I should also use more full cover walls.  I quickly built a small two floor building using my TerraClips.  I think this was a little too much.

Board setup for game one.

My Incinerator moved up and got hit my all three shots from the Behemoth. Damn.

TOO MUCH OPEN AREA. I set up the board so its all my fault.

I managed to get my "speedy" Medic to the balcony, but running ahead of the pack ended up being a fatal flaw. Lesson learned.

One of the things I love most about MERCS is simultaneous actions. We had an unusual situation with a four-way simultaneous action. It ended up not doing too much because of which of my models it was, but it was still weird.

My Heavy "set" and the Incinerator had broken armor, so she "repaired".

Other half of the simultaneous.

I was the Ice Grenade's bitch this night.  The USCR Leader has Ice Grenades which can anchor models for three turns.  The problem is the Leader can target an area of the board.  Well the Leader (the guy all by himself just above the building in the next picture) targeted the balcony and froze my medic in place... with his back facing the stairs.  Ballsacks.

My Demo (just below the door) was able to toss a grenade into the room and deal a Blood each to the two USCR on the lower level. Score.  My Heavy (to the right of the Demo)? He ain't doing shit. He was useless.

USCR up the ladder, about to get ass-rapey.

He's in 100% of my back-arc and I can't turn around for two more rounds.

My Demo broke the USCR's armor and was dealing Blood, but my Medic had broken armor and was a dead man.

Everybody was getting shot in the back.

Outside the building, my Leader went on Suppression to stop this A-hole from doing anything and my Heavy had him in an Overwatch arc just in case. I ended up Suppressing him for the rest of the game.

Medic down, the USCR I grenaded through the door comes back for revenge.

This was the end of turn five (of a six turn game) and at this point I surrendered in favor of getting another game in.  My Demo was going to take at least one Blood. So the "final" score was 7-4 with Josh winning the most Blood.

I did three main things wrong.

1. Running my Medic up ahead to get elevation early got him killed. Sending a man ahead alone into a hot-zone is dangerous. Duh.
2. WTH was my Heavy doing this game?!  Nothing. That's what. 
3. Incinerator. I killed you. I'm sorry.  Don't run models without long range weapons up in nothing but half cover.

Game Two!

I did much better.  I moved the brick walls and added a full cover wall.  Here is the setup at the end of round one. 

Speedy Medic in a good position this time.

My Incinerator was able to get up to the wall just in time for the USCR Medic to come running around the corner. I torched his ass.

*BWOOOSH*

The Demo took some fire getting into position, but he was getting his Heroic bonus so he was shooting well.

Medic shooting in through the door.

I continued torching the USCR on the right, which apart from doing Blood was forcing Suppression checks compounded by my Heavy (on Suppression) which was locking him down.

Medic's armor broken. USCR Booster moving in on the Demo (left side of the building).

The Booster got behind my Demo!  I was able to execute a Move & Shoot so I turned and fired.  Heroic (as well as Short Range) made the penalties easier, but my double 4's doomed me!

NO!!!

The USCR launched another damned Ice Genade at my Medic, freezing both the Medic and my Leader in the doorway.  My Leader couldn't move and didn't have LOS on anybody. I realized far to late that I could have used his action to try and repair the Medic's broken armor, but in the end that wouldn't have mattered.

My Demo got a shot off on the Booster, bringing him to two Blood.  The Booster then shot at me, killing the Demo but triggering Overwatch from my Heavy, which took him down.

Now we're there...

... and now we're dead.

The whole time I was frozen in the doorway I was able to keep shooting at the USCR Leader that put me there.  I broke his armor so he couldn't get up the stairs (or anywhere else for that matter).

Frozen models can still fire. Much to the USCR Leader's regret.

Once the Ice Grenade wore off it was turn six.  My Leader moved to face the Behemoth and I did an action that I think is one of the most clever ones I've ever made playing MERCS.

My Leader went on Suppression.

Its the last turn. If the Behemoth opened up at my Leader he could deal a ton of Blood.  If I Suppressed him successfully he wouldn't be able to shoot. If I failed it would still raise the FN.

Well the Behemoth passed his Courage check but only landed one hit on my Leader so the game went to me! Yay me!

End game state.

These two games illustrate why I love MERCS.  In the first I made some dumb shit tactical decisions and paid for them through the whole game.  In the second game I used smarter tactics and came out ahead.  It doesn't so much matter what faction you play as long as you bring sound tactical decisions that exploit that faction's abilities and that unit's synergy.

End of lesson.