Turn 8 Continued:You might be wondering why I went after the Orlock Vents rather than after one of the Goliath territories. There are several reasons:
1) The Orlock player is a less skilled player than Octavian.
2) I think, that the Orlock player has set his sights on the Van Saar territories as his next target for expansion. So if I take the Vents from him, he won't waste his time trying to take them back. By contrast, if I went after the Goliath vents, Octavian would fight to take them back.
3) By not attacking Octavian and taking territory from him, I will avoid antagonising him, which will make him more likely to turn on the Orlock player.
4) If Gannicus manages to take the Escher Vents of Joffrey, then it means that if we see the need to, we can both simultaneously double team:
a) The Escher: Guilder Contact (x2), the Holestead and the Friendly Doc.
b) The Orlock: Workshop and Spore Cave.
5) If Gannicus and I can capture territories so that we can meet up in the middle of the map - say at the border of where the Orlock Workshop meets the Escher Friendly Doc, then we will have divided the board, and will be able to dismantle Joffrey or the Orlock player a tile at a time.
That's the plan anyway. I doubt we will resort to double teaming, but it's a very good to have it as a threat. I just want to see things go badly for the Orlock player. He's going through a phase where he has to work the word 'be-atch' into every sentence. He's got to be close to getting a temporary ban from the store.
Escher versus Delaque:
The first game was Joffrey versus Gannicus, with Joffrey going after Gannicus's friendly Doc.
Joffrey had a bad week last week, losing twice in a row to Gannicus. He came back with a vengeance this week though. Probably as a result of Gannicus goading him about his step sister. His gang has a nasty little close combat team, who all have agility and/or stealth skills, which allow them to slip from his vents, and straight into close combat early in the game. 2 of them also have Impetuous, which allows them to perform a follow up move of 4". One of them even has smoke grenades. Very difficult to counter.
Gannicus got smashed. By turn 5, he had 10 guys down (7 out of action), compared to only 4 for Joffrey (with none out of action). Joffrey took the Friendly Doc. That was not good. The last thing we need is Joffrey kicking it up a notch, just as the Gorlock alliance is disintegrating.
Delaque versus Escher:
An ordinary human would have been somewhat disheartened after receiving such a comprehensive thrashing. But Gannicus is no ordinary human. For you and me, suffering a defeat like that might cause us to take some time to reflect, consider our actions, work out solutions, maybe take some time to deal with the emotional impact of the failure. But for Gannicus, all it means is that he'll have to make space in his schedule for the exacting of swift (and probably disproportionate) revenge before cracking open his next beer.
Accordingly, Game 2 did not go anything like Game 1. Gannicus attacked the Escher Vents, adapted his game plan, and had the Escher close combat team pinned in place by regular and overwatch fire upon their entry onto the board, which allowed Flaming Moe to burn down two of them, including the smoke grenadier. Moe, subsequently got counter charged and taken out of action by the remaining CC specialist, but she didn't make it through the next turn.
The game ended on turn 6 with the scoreline at 5 to 2 in favour of Gannicus, but Gannicus only had 1 guy go out of action, whereas, he managed to remove 4 of the Escher from play. Gannicus took the Vents back.
So Joffrey took the Friendly Doc and Gannicus took the Vents. Normally, I'd say that was about an even trade (the income bonus for the friendly Doc canceling out the tactical advantage of Vent infltration), but in this particular case, I'd maybe give the advantage to Gannicus. Vents are a big advantage for a shooting gang like the Delaque. Being able to place 3 guys on the table, above ground level, at the end of the first turn is a big advantage for a shooting gang - you get to put some shooters up nice and high where they can get a clear shot at enemy gangers who would otherwise be in cover (like the Heavy Stubber).
Additionally, in this case, taking those Vents dents Joffrey's ability to get his Uber CC team across the board. On the other hand, Gannicus is definitely going to miss the extra creds from that Friendly Doc. Time will tell.
The map:Cawdor: The Hand of Redemption - Underhand
Escher: Gothika - Joffrey
Delaque: Black Coats - Gannicus
Van Saar: The Second Stringers - Jonah
Orlock: The Mortlock Cartel - the Orlock Player
Goliath: House Bloodaxe - Octavian