sefadu vs. USCR, times two

OK, couple posts left to catch up on to close the year out.  

Couple weeks back, Maurice and I sat down for a couple games of Mercs. Less detail written out, but more pics, so here we are.

First up was my first three-on-three battle. The dynamic of the smaller teams was interesting, even if the pick for sefadu was pretty easy (both the Leader and the Medic are that good, and then the Grenadier is a natural #3.) My esteemed opponent went USCR, and selected his Commissar, the Sniper, and the Medic. We played on the 'Docks' map, no secondary objectives or anything fancy like that.

Most of the action centered on the small building on the east of the map. He put his Sniper on top of the crates nearby so he could cover the battlefield, while I unwisely spread out my troops for a three-pronged assault (and denying my troops the Leader's bonuses, naturally.) A quick back-and-forth ensued, but in the end the spear of sefadu did the job.

For our second game we returned to the five-man teams. My objective was Secure the Target, so I had to have troops near the objective in the middle of the board at the end. Luckily there was some terrain I could hug until then. 

The deciding factor for, like, everyone, was when Maurice rolled... Deliver the Package. Meaning he had to have the carrier in my deployment zone at the end of the game. Naturally he rolled for the carrier and got the Leader, and that's a long walk for their low, low movement values.

The fab five.

The above picture is not a glamor shot, it was the actual USCR deployment. Going for the icy human wave ('the glacier'?) The plan was to just move forward and neutralize threats. And an early shot from the USCR Sniper ruined the next few turns for my Grenadier, which was a great way to kick things off.

I pushed forward rapidly, like sefadu does, and claimed the 'cornered' ruins in the pic above. The centerpoint objective is maybe a card length away from the left wall there. On the upper right, you can see the glacier making its way south.

Not pictured, in the back right of my deployment, is the sefadu Gunner. Much like my Grenadier, the Gunner got hit by a shot from across the field, and spends the next few turns fixing his armor, tying him up and forcing me to rely on the crew in the middle.

 I have disparaged the Berserker in the past, but he really proved his value today. Making my stand on the cornered terrain was my best decision of the day, really. I normally try to rely on more of a moving game, but I had to stop the carrier and I had to take the objective, so it was a natural fit.

The Booster was following up on the Commissar... until the Booster needed to Matryr himself to stop an errant grenade from the backfield. Unexpected!

 The Berserker  takes advantage of the situation!

The glacier eventually breaks past, though, but who should show up to save the day? The flippin' Gunner. Boom boom pow. My Leader and Medic are still camped out in the center, and the days is ours.

I have to admit, playing against USCR was a very different adventure. Just leaving the Sniper at home was a change of pace.

And since Mercs is so fast-paced, after that we still had time to play through a game of Netrunner. Which I hadn't played in many, many years. To the point that I really didn't remember how it worked anymore.