Enter, The Pact - part 3.
Turn 3
This turn, Priority went to the Epirians. Michael made an attempt to bring back the destroyed Hunter as a reinforcement, but knowing that Michael only had 5 command points and with two Command (2) characters on his side, Iain was easily able to match the possible maximum bid, negating the reinforcement.
Moving on regardless, the Epirians opened the turn by activating Hunter CM-34. In its Confused state, it was only able to take two actions, so stood in place to Aim and shoot at the Biologis Adept on the objective. While the Adept's chitin armor blocked most of the shots, the Strike Missiles punched through, obliterating the Kaigus where they stood.
The Adept pays for their boldness.
Seeking to dislodge the Spider unit from the bridge objective, the Sentinel Strongpoint unit moved out of the garden and brought their Brood Launchers to bear. With explosive projectiles raining down, the Spiders miraculously managed to block most of them, suffering only a single casualty.
The bridge is suddenly a precarious place to be.
The Biologis Attendant unit followed up, acid and darts streaming out and eliminating another two Spiders and raising their suppression level to 4.
The depleted Spider unit.
Sensing an easy kill, the Scarecrow pivoted on its balcony to bring its Maglock Railrifle to bear on the claw Tamakin unit. Using a command point to activate its Rapid Fire bot protocols, the Scarecrow eliminated one of the thralls easily, raising the remaining thrall's suppression to 6.
The Scarecrow draws a bead on the Tamakin.
Journeyman Tempus, still lurking behind his barricade, took aim once more at the Orakan, but his shots ricocheted off their toughened chitin, raising their suppression level to 3. Using his last two command points, Tempus reactivated the Scarecrow, which finished off the last claw Tamakin with another shot from its Railrifle.
The Orakan responded to his salvo, dashing towards him, but even with On the Move adding extra movement were unable to reach him.
The Orakan respond to being shot at.
Curator Kaniima moved forwards, Regrowth knitting one of his injuries closed. He spent 3 command points to use Namite Deconstruction on the Spider unit, eating away their armor and then also breaking down the Apprentice and his bot into component molecules. Using another command point, he spawned a unit of claw Tamakin, sending the thralls dashing to capture the now vacant bridge objective.
A new thrall unit is assembled, capturing the objective on the bridge.
The dart Tamakin in the center moved across to back up Curator Melrahb, taking aim at Hunter CM-34's rear armor. While the darts pinged harmlessly off the bot's armor, it's suppression level was pushed up to 5.
Dart thralls try ineffectually to damage the Hunter.
Curator Melrahb, meanwhile, spotted the Scarecrow facing away, and sensing an easy kill brought his staff to bear on its rear armor. While the resultant vapor cloud left the sniper bot Confused, it only inflicted a single injury, not enough to destroy it.
The Curator senses an easy target.
With another turn down, both forces received their 5 VPs for inflicting casualties, and their final 1 VP each from their Faction Objectives. The Epirians had killed two Kaigus Pact units, to their opponents' one kill, so they received the additional 5 VPs. This left the Epirians on 31 VPs, and the Kaigus Pact on 35 - still not enough of a gap to finish the game early.
The battlefield at the end of turn three. (click for bigger)
Turn 4
Priority went back to the Kaigus Pact this turn. Michael, not expecting success, tried again to bring back a destroyed Hunter as a reinforcement, bidding 4 command points, but is blocked by Iain's bid of 5.
Curator Kaniima immediately sprang into action, healing another injury before blasting the Scarecrow with acid from his Genostaff, melting the bot with a critical hit.
The Scarecrow bot's armor is no match for Curator Acid.
Realising that it would struggle to get a kill against the nearby Curator, Hunter CM-34 instead turned its sights on the dart Tamakin.
The Hunter opts for the softer prey...
With SKL zeroed out by suppression, the Hunter nonetheless managed 4 hits and 3 critical hits against the thrall unit. While their chitin blocked two of the hits, enough got through to wipe out them out, with the Hunter subsequently shaking off one level of suppression.
Journeyman Tempus, feeling a little nervous about the oncoming Orakan, aimed and shot with both pistols, but the shots once again spanged harmlessly off their chitin, raising their suppression to 4. Issuing an order to the Hunter to drop its suppression to 3, he then spent another two command points on Push the Machines, raising it back to suppression level 6, but allowing it to pivot and take a shot at Curator Melrahb. With the high suppression eating into its shots, the Hunter was only able to inflict three injuries on the Kaigus Commander, before shaking off a suppression point to 5.
... and then moves on to the high value target.
Back in the plaza, the Attendants ambled up between the crates, drawing line of sight on the Journeyman. With darts peppering his sheltering barricade, Tempus suffered a single injury from the Proctat's acid, which also wore away a point of his AV as it dissolved his armor.
The Journeyman bears the brunt of the Kaigus assault.
Ignoring the looming Hunter, Curator Melrahb dashed towards the nearest objective, healing an injury via Regrowth as he ran. Unable to reach the marker, he used a command point to spawn a unit of dart Tamakin right on the objective.
The newly created thralls secure the objective.
The Strongpoint unit moved around to draw a bead on the Hunter, their Brood Launchers inflicting 4 injuries on the mighty warmech, with an additional 2 injuries from suppression damage leaving it with 2 remaining.
Sentinels looking for a better target.
Meanwhile back in the center, the Orakan roar and charge the Epirian commander. His defensive fire does nothing more than raise their suppression to 5, which is in this case not a desirable outcome... Thanks to Bull Charge this leaves the Orakan each with 7 attacks in close quarters combat. With 7 hits and 2 critical hits, even though the barricade blocks two, the Journeyman doesn't stand a chance, with the armored thralls rolling right over his body.
The ill-fated Journeyman meets his end.
With the conclusion of the turn, both sides once again gain the 5 VPs for making a kill, but the Kaigus Pact forces gain the additional 5 VPs for killing more units than their opponents, and another 9 VPs for holding three objectives. This brings the Epirian total to 36, with the Kaigus Pact on 54, enough to claim a Crushing Victory and end the game!
The battlefield at the conclusion of the game. (click for bigger)
The ability to keep spawning units can be a two edged blessing in games with Kill objectives, as being able to keep throwing new units at your opponent is balanced out by those units being comparatively fragile and potentially giving away VPs every time they die. In this case, though, Iain managed to capitalise on his superior command point generation to let him bring on thralls when and where he needed them, while he chose to not bring back the Shatter Thralls at all due to them essentially being free VPs for his opponent in this game. While the game could have gone either way in earlier turns, the Kaigus Pact eventually won the day through weight of numbers.
With its handler no longer communicating, and finding itself the sole survivor of the Epirian militia group, Hunter CM-34 engaged its Return protocol, trudging haltingly off the battlefield as its servos protested their ill treatment in the engagement.
