ToMB2: First game with Zoraida

I got in my first game with Zoraida last week at the FLGS. This was also my first game against my opponent, who goes by Yoritomo Jiriki on various forums. I had to cheat the ToMB rules a bit, since it was nominally a league game at 50ss.

  • Close deployment
  • Reckoning
  • A Line in the Sand, Outflank, Bodyguard, Breakthrough, and Make Them Suffer

My crew:

  • Zoraida with Crystal Ball and Hex Bag
  • Bad Juju with Eternal Fiend and Fears Given Form
  • 3x Silurids
  • Terror Tot
  • Depleted
  • Doppelganger

The Terror Tot, Depleted, and Doppelganger are all outside of the ToMB format, but I needed to get to 50ss somehow.

His crew (roughly):

  • Von Schill with Shirt Comes Off
  • Steamtrunk
  • Taelor
  • Lazerus
  • Librarian
  • Hodgepodge Effigy
  • Sue

I took Bodyguard and declared Breakthrough. My opponent did not declare any schemes.

Deployment
Deployment

My thinking was to use the Silurids and Tots for Breakthrough scheme markers, and Eternal Fiend on Bad Juju ought to make Bodyguard reasonable. Hopefully, the Depleted would help to tarpit somebody, while being a bit difficult to take down for Make Them Suffer or Reckoning. I failed to consider what I would do with the Doppelganger.

Bad Juju about to get smacked
Bad Juju about to get smacked

First turn, two of my Silurids and a Tot ran up the flanks to put down Breakthrough markers.  Zoraida summoned a Voodoo Doll who Hemed the Steamtrunk, and loaded it up with Poison.  Most of the rest kind of bunched up in the middle, and my other Silurid got murdered.

Bad Juju ended up charging into a furball in the middle of the board.  He did some damage, but as much as I wanted.

Turn two, things started really going badly for me.  My opponent first killed a Silurid, revealing Make Them Suffer, then took down Bad Juju.  That left only a final Silurid and Zoraida as possible targets to bring Bad Juju back.  I over-focussed on the Hemmed Steamtrunk, and took it down.  On the plus side, I got a lot of Breakthrough markers down.

Turn three, I brought my final Silurid into combat.  I wanted it to die, just to get Bad Juju back out.  My opponent obliged, but managed to Paralyze Bad Juju with Von Schill’s shirt before he could activate.  Zoraida summoned another Voodoo Doll, but failed to Hem anything.

Through turns four and five, my opponent just took my crew apart piece by piece.  In the end, all I had was Zoraida.  At least he was unable to remove enough scheme markers to deny me Breakthrough.

The game ended with a solid loss, 3 to 5+.  There was some uncertainty as to how many Make Them Suffer points my opponent had achieved, but he definitely had a good win.

I made a number of serious mistakes in this game:

  • I took a Doppelganger without any real plan for her.  That’s 7 stones that weren’t put to use.
  • I had too many scheme runners for my schemes
  • I didn’t have enough Swampfiends to keep Bad Juju going
  • I got excited about the Voodoo Doll, but didn’t consider carefully enough what to use it on.  Furthermore, when I was in a bad position, I stuck with it and essentially wasted my AP rather than moving to a new one.
  • In this strategy and scheme pool, I really should have taken another heavy hitter, and fewer little guys.

Hopefully I can keep these lessons in mind next time!

 

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