Lunch Meat and Lunch Break an LVO Qualifier Battle Report

 

Over the past few of weeks, I've been playing in a LVO qualifier on TTS, ran in a league format with locked lists. I brought the same list I had at Ironweld, mostly to keep a roster I was comfortable with. If you want to read a breakdown of that roster, you can check it here in my Ironweld Battle Report.

Games

Game #1: X-Men vs X-Force, Mutant Madmen/Skrulls (20)

Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, X-23, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo vs Cable, Psylocke, Domino, X-23, Honey Badger, Punisher

For my first game, I was facing X-Force which I knew from the get go was a favorable match-up for me, especially with priority. We start with a pretty even score on round 1 but I manage to break parity with Rogue and Voodoo, giving me a 4 point lead on round 2. On round 3 and after a some back and forth between our models, I manage to consolidate a bigger point advantage and lock the win 22-8.

Game #2: X-Men vs Midnight Sons, Mutant Madmen/Legacy Virus (19)

Teams: Storm, Beast, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo, Angela vs Blade, Immortal Hulk, Doctor Voodoo, Beta Ray Bill

Going in the second game, I knew I was already iceskating uphill against Midnight Sons which is one of the better team against my style of scenario focused X-Men since, with their leadership, Bump in the Night, they can very effectively chase my extracts holders and hit them hard enough to gain tempo on attrition. Early on, we trade hits and points back and forth, Immortal Hulk taking down my Beast and my Doctor Voodoo taking out Beta Ray Bill. Thanks to Voodoo's possession and having a KOed model only leaves them with 2 characters being able to interact with the scenario as opposed to my 4 (down to 3 with the opposing possession). That advantage enabled me to break paraity and win by a very narrow margin on round 5, 19-16.

Game #3: X-Men vs A-Force, Mutant Madmen/Montesi (18)

Teams: Storm, Domino, Logan, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo vs She-Hulk, Medusa, Crystal, Okoye, Ghost-Spider

Having priority on a pay to flip and the only uneven extract from my opponent's list was pretty much the best case scenario for me going into this game, as it would let me take the lead on VPs through extracts and force my opponent to chase my models. Against A-Force particularly, not having to attack them or chase their models would also mean that their leadership wouldn't be as good as it could be. We trade points back and forth, but I manage to pivot from one side of the board to the other and keep most of my VPs away from She-Hulk and Medusa, easing the pressure on my characters. Combined with Doctor Voodoo's posession to stop Ghost-Spider from interacting with the secures, I consolidate my points and win 19-16 on round 4.

Game #4: X-Men vs Hydra, Scoundrels/Cubes (20)

Teams: Storm, Rogue, Logan, Doctor Voodoo, Angela vs Red Skull Master  of Hydra, Baron Zemo, Spider-Woman, Doctor Voodoo, Beta Ray Bill

Not having priority, I chose to bring Angela to try and steal one the cubes on my opponent's side of the board, knowing either their Red Skull or Bill would use Eyes on the Prize to grab the central one. However, I did not expect them to use the grunts to successfully block access to one of the cubes, while grabbing the central cube, leaving me unable to pick the other one on their side as it was blocked by terrain, forcing me into a more aggressive position than I would've liked. Knowing I would have to break parity on the secures, I used Angela's mobility and throw to daze the grunts and contest a secure without being overexposed to their more aggressive models. My opponent manages to have an excellent round 2 into my team and take a significant VP lead. Luckily for me, Logan manages to set up a good follow up turn when I have priority on round 3, dazing all of Red Skull, Beta Ray Bill and the opposing Voodoo, letting me catch up and take the VP lead. We then again trade points and characters, with my Rogue surviving a last attack from Spider-Woman, winning me the game a very close 17-16.

Game #5: X-Men vs Cabal, Mutant Madmen/Hammers (18)

Teams: Storm, Domino, Rogue, Pyro, Angela vs Malekith, Red Skull Master of Hydra, Mystique, Iron Man

Knowing that, going against X-Men my opponent would pick the Cabal part of their list, I chose to bring as much tech as I could into Malekith Cabal, which isn't a great match up for me. On my second activation, I made a significant mistake by assuming to be outside of Deception after a double movement from Mystique which brings her, with an extract, near the opposing Red Skull who manages to daze her in a single attack, triggering Malekith's leadership, who then advances, takes a hammer and flip both Madmen trap on a side, taking both the scenario and attrition lead with a score of 2-6. With such a big gap on round 1 and poor positioning on my part, I wasn't able to come back from that swing and that sealed the game relatively quickly afterwards with a final score of 8-16.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with my performance, except for the last game on which I did a lot of significant mistakes that I should've been able to avoid. Although I made a fair amount of mistakes, there were some choices in the roster that I wasn't very satisfied with that made me want to change characters and tactics card to try other things. So I will be tweaking my list for the next weeks in order to find a list that doesn't have the same weaknesses and that I can be comfortable with.

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