Continuing off of our previous two games we decided to do a teamup match using an Evangelion along with the mass produced Bigs for the Megadeus Army, with 1200pts that would mean facing off against Israfel or Zeruel. We went with the most deadly angel. The minis used are the Kotobukiya one coin figures for Big O and the Seika figures for Evangelion.
Below the break you’ll see a battle report and the mecha tactics of the game.
Round 1
Zeruel wins Initiative and goes first. Two cross explosions tear through the city and nearly obliterate Eva Unit 01 (HP-6600) even with the Persevere skill (M-2), four buildings are destroyed (Z: +1 VP, M+4).
Eva Unit 01 goes Berserk from the damage and charges in, several Crit Hits are rolled along with Make it Count (M-1) for a total of 17 Hits, Zeruel is able to block several but still stakes 2500 DMG (Eva +1 VP, M+1) from the ordeal, Eva takes 500 on the counterattack. Tied up in Melee, Big Duo can no longer shoot and so both Bigs move in to flank.
Round 2
This time Eva 01 goes first, Shinji uses the Giant Slayer Skill (M-2) to raise his PEN high enough to get through the AT Field, however, Zeruel has a phenomenal defense roll and manages to completely block the berserk Eva this turn, netting M+1 back thanks to the Invincible trait, the counterattack decapitates Eva 01 who was on their last 400 HP (Eva +1 VP, M+1).
On its turn Zeruel fires off a cross explosion only destroying the 5th building (Z: +6 VP, M+1), then gets into Melee with Big O. The sudden elongation of its monomolecular arms shear through Big O’s armor dealing 3000 DMG (Eva: +1 VP, M+1). On Big O’s turn it winds up for a sudden impact with Giant Slayer (M-2) to get its PEN high enough to bypass part of the AT Field, alas even with 10 Hits it fails to get through Zeruel’s defense, the counterattack chips off another 500 HP (Eva +1 VP, M+1). Big O disengages to allow Big Duo to bomb the area but the missiles fail to get through the AT Field. Big Duo goes in for a Melee strike but Zeruel easily blocks it and counters for 2500 DMG (Eva +1 VP, M+1).
Round 3
Zeruel is up first, it lashes out at Big Duo for 3500 DMG (Eva +1 VP, M+1) then disengages and fires off its Cross Explosions taking out two buildings (Z +1 VP, M+2) which gives it just enough Momentum to fire off a second cross explosion, obliterating Big Duo and nearly wiping out Big O. Big O makes one last heroic charge but can’t get through Zeruel’s defenses and finds its arms sheared off and destroyed (Eva +1 VP, M+1).
Round 4 & 5
Zeruel has free reign and destroys 2 more buildings (+2 VP)
Final score: Zeruel 10 VP. Eva + Megadeus 7 VP
Mecha Tactics Post Mortem
Eva + Megadeus player: I opted to take the damage for Eva Unit 01 to make it Berserk, rather than try to avoid it. I had forgotten that Berserk loses all weapons though since I was hoping to get a turn 1 kill in with the Progressive Knife. Still, with Zeruel going first in Round 1, perhaps the plan to rush him down needs revising so we don’t get our HP wiped out so early.
An Ace unit could use the Flawless Evade to get around a lot of the danger in the cross explosions, although we’ve had some conversations in the team that it’s probably too good against weapons that require Momentum to use (i.e. Buster Rifle, Cross Explosion, etc.) so we may chance Flawless Evade to have the Cost = The Round Number or the Momentum used by the Attacker (whichever is greater).
I think in a future rematch I’ll need to play more cautiously and accrue some Momentum for defense, although the new Defend the City rule that gives me Momentum and Victory Points every time I’m damaged in Melee worked well in my favor, but I would have needed to survive longer to pull off a victory. Unfortunately she decapitated or dismembers all of my giant robots.
I like the mass produced Bigs even though they still need some fine tuning. They are very sturdy and pack a punch even through its hard to get through an AT Field. They’re probably do really well against Israfel along with Eva 01 or 02 in a tag team match. In the future I want to work on some variants for the Evas to capture how the pilots changed by the time the Zeruel episode comes around. Plus we’ve got a model of Eva 02 with twin bazookas so it’ll be fun to have a mecha unit profile for that too.
Angel Player: Zeruel has always been the scariest angel for me, an unstoppable force that nearly killed the entire cast and NERV HQ. It’s definitely a badass on the tabletop, it’s points have probably doubled since it released but still feels fair even when fighting three versus one. I like the Invincible ability quite a bit, although I noticed the Unstoppable trait was using the old wording and needs to be fixed in a future update, whoops! I think we’re going to need to revise Absolute Terror and Spirit in the Machine because right now they’re too good, being able to instantly stop an attack can make or break a game so I think we need to cap how many blocks it is or maybe introduce a random element to it. August is going to be the Stellar Ship month so we’ll have to test out a few ideas in time for a September release.
MechaStellar 