Ironweld Battle Report

 

I recently attended Ironweld, which had a team event on day 1 (teams of 3) and a standard tournament on day 2. We were pretty pumped as this was the first team event some of us played in so we had high hopes for ourselves.The event event was singleton, meaning there could only be no duplicate characters on all rosters in the team, which made for some concessions in list building. As a team, we brought Malekith led Cabal, Hellfire Club and as usual I was playing X-Men. 

Here's the list I brought to the event

Core

Storm: In my opinion, the best leader for X-Men, she brings one of my favorite leaderships in the game and arguably one of the best.

Beast, X-23, Domino, Logan, Rogue: These are my main affiliated characters. With the exception of Domino, they all have above average mobility for their threat costs, are relatively resilient and either have unique abilities (like Domino's probability Manipulation or Rogue's Mutant Absorbtion) or are solid pieces all around (like Beast and Logan's throws and X-23's damage).

Tech

Honey Badger: With access to Too Dangerous To Ignore, X-Ceptional Healing and Anklebiter, Gabrielle's primary purpose is to help deal with the big threats of the meta like Malekith, Thanos and the Hulks either by taking hits or by lowering their defenses.

Pyro: Serving the dual duty of being an excellent control piece with Firewall (on wide maps like B and D shapes) and a good attrition piece with his above average damage, Pyro also gives us the ability to go into big resilient models fairly well with Fire Manipulation and the Tactics Card Kick' Em While They're Down.

Doctor Voodoo: With possession, Doctor Voodoo is still one of the best scenario focused character in the game, being able to force opposing models to drop their extracts and not be able to contest secures.

Angela: The latest addition to my roster, Angela brings exceptional mobility and is one of the key characters for playing the extracts in my list. She also brings one of the most efficient terrain throws, as she innately gains the power to throw a terrain up to size 4 every round without needing to attack.

Games

Game #1: X-Men vs Hellfire Club, Intrusion/Spider-Infected (17)

Teams: Storm, Beast, X-23, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo vs Emma Frost, Ulik, Rhino, Beta Ray Bill

For my first game of the day, since my team had the bye, I got to play a practice game against one of my teammates. Since they were playing 4 wide, using Voodoo to deny some of their scenario presence and very importantly, their leadership trigger on that character, it made it hard for them to come back since they were left with 3 characters to play the scenario. I end up winning that game 16-12.

Game #2: X-Men vs X-Men, Spider-Portals/Senators (19)

Teams: Storm, Beast, Logan, Doctor Voodoo, Angela vs Storm, Beast, Magik, X-23, Toad, Cassandra Nova

For the second round, I get paired against another very solid X-Men player in a mirror match. I end up winning priority, and we get to play on Spider-Portals and Senators. Since I was playing few models with less control options than my opponent, I was on the back foot from the beginning, which I didn't properly identify until too late into the game. By the end of Round 1, I was already pretty far behind with a score of 2-6 from failing to flip portals and not picking up enough senators, which compounded into a very rough round 2 failing most of my attempts at flipping portals while getting displaced a lot by my opponent, closing out the game 3-16 on round 2. Not identifying and recognising my options against their roster, I don't think I brought the right team for the match up and should've probably gone for a wider option.

Game #3: X-Men vs Criminal Syndicate, Infinity Formula/Spider-Infected (17)

Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo vs Kingpin, Rhino, Bullseye, Juggernaut, Toad

In the last round, I get paired against Criminal Syndicate. Since I had priority, I knew I could take the extract lead and force them to come contest my secures if they wanted to even out the score. Thanks to Kingpin's leadership, even with my extract lead we keep an even score up to the end of round 3, where they managed to daze some of my characters and take the lead 13-12. In round 4, Rogue dazed Rhino and KOed Toad with her spender to take back an extract while Doctor Voodoo steals Bullseye's extract, throws him off the point, then possess Kingpin for a huge final VP swing wrapping up the game 19-14 in my favor.

Team Performance

As for my teammates, the one playing Hellfire Club faced Guardians of the Galaxy on round 2, they ended up by KOing almost all of the opposing player's team and closed out the game 16-11. On their round 3 they managed to secure a comfortable victory against Midnight Sons 16-12. As for my teammate playing Malekith Cabal, in round 2 they ended up facing Avengers led by Steve Rogers, which is one of their most practiced match up, winning with a commanding lead of 22-2. In the final round, they end up facing a hybrid of Malekith Cabal/Hydra and brought it home in a very deadly game, securing the win 11-10

Overall, it was a pretty fun event. I enjoyed the list building limitations of a team event and trying to strategize which player would face which list. My team ended up winning the event, almost going undefeated with our only defeat being my loss in round 2. I would also like to thank the organisers and all the other players who played in the event, it was super fun meeting and playing new people.

Thanks for taking the time to read this piece and as always, don't forget to have fun!