First a caveat, this is NOT a Charlie Large Spuds I'm so great post.....honest :)
Dropping down to Dark Sphere Thursday night I rocked up with my Boba Smurf list determined to put into practice my recent epiphanies about deployment and opening moves. I've realised that I generally set up facing forward and fly off in that direction with a plan but less idea of execution.
I drew John as an opponent. John's a great guy and a very good player. He's been terrorising people with his HLC IG / Quad Z95 list for a while now and placed top 4 at last weeks MK Regional. In honesty I was just looking to give a decent game and try out a few ideas around deployment, opening moves as well as bait and switch.
As it happens I somehow flew probably the best game I ever have with this list and took the win 100-36 :)
As a flanker list my opponent has rarely given me that lank with any ease. As such it was time to start creating one. Deploying my Z swarm on the far right John followed conventional practice to follow suit on the diagonal and had his IG lurking nearby. I knew that he was likely to burn a few turns with the IG to force the engagement with his Zs so that the IG was free to swoop about sniping from range with the HLC.
As such I had Boba adjacent to the Zs angled toward the board edge so that Turn 1 the Zs pulled hard left along my horizontal board edge while Boba ran up the vertical.....thus creating my flank!
After that it was some pretty hard flying as I attemptted to engage the IG as soon as possible. A couple of turns in Boba's boosts had him a bit farther ahead than I would have liked and leaving the supporting Zs behind. Luck played an early hand as Jon rolled his Zs in after Boba as I deliberately bumped the IG with him to deny him the shot.
Trapped between Boba and his Smurfs Jon's Zs were soon falling though I was very aware that I wasn't focusing in on IG and I aware of his late game strength. Boba getting some decent rolls helped out greatly and by mid-game I was feeling far more comforatable as I'm pretty happy with my dogfighting abilities. Being far more positive with Boba was reaping rewards and moving last I was often able to dodge IGs arc.
Late game it a was Boba and two Zs versus IG and I gladly paid a sacrificial Z to run away and regroup. Re-engaging with the Z, no 13, running as a blocker I had the upper hand and eventually got on to IGs tail at which point it was waiting for the dice to come up.......which they did.
In honesty I flew much better because I realised what I needed to do and actually did it. Luck still played a big part, with a few crucial turns where the game swung both ways, though you've got to give Her Ladyship the chance to smile on you :)
A big game for me but mainly because I didn't just learn, I applied the learning :)
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