While I haven't been able to get Eurybia's model up on Tabletop Simulator, I do have a beautifully printed version that I was able to get onto the table last night for meat-space testing. I was reminded of the advantages of playing live, such as the opportunity to game out the set-up stage of the game, using every dastardly trick in the book to make sure my opponent couldn't sweep the board of my habitats and vice versa.
My opponent piloted Eurybia Primary, in all Her unpainted grey glory, since he has a better win-record, and would probably suss out any overwhelming effects of Her dual coolant systems better than I could. I took Tethys Primary, as She is a fantastic all-rounder, and would be a good test for Eurybia. Speaking of, Eurybia got the Gracious personality, while Tethys got the Sagacious personality.
This is how we set up the buildings, with the non-combatant blue and green habitats often capping or blocking off the yellow and pink habitats from easy targeting. Notable was the fact that most of the exposed yellow habitats were close to my opponent's side of the board.
Deployment for me was a matter of preparing Tethys for an ambush while planning how I would move Tethys into the top-left quadrant of the board and pick off those yellow habitats without letting Eurybia get behind Her, or use Her coolant systems to bombard the heck out of Tethys without worrying about returning fire. Eurybia was set up conservatively, apparently leveraging that edge in sensors and ranged weapons that would see Her just out of the arc of Tethys' gun battery, and the opposite side of Tethys' body from Her macro laser.
Thins started off relatively slowly, both Titans working to amass an extra card for the next round, while Tethys re-oriented towards Eurybia, and Eurybia starting pushing Her habitat advantage by smashing the first of Tethys' habitats, and using Her coolant systems to deactivate Her initiate crew for use next round.
Both Titans comfortably flush with power and systems loaded, Eurybia advances to the centre of the board and Tethys advances to meet Her, tearing into Eurybia with Her claw and macro laser, which Eurybia is able to tank on Her shields and armour. Eurybia makes a threatening motion with Her laser blade in return, but having survived the initial clash with relatively minor damage, it's not fired yet, despite Eurybia's crew members lining up to use the power of friendship and teamwork to gut Tethys like a fish.
Realising that standing in front of Eurybia is begging to be knocked out, Tethys steps back and away, preferring to risk vulcan gun fire rather than a close-range laser blade hit, and manages to block the incoming storm of fire (5 cogs for the first shot, 1 cog each for the following shots, lost because of the block of the first shot takes their designated targets out of contention after pushing Tethys 45 degrees counter-clockwise) on Her left leg, while using both shields systems to pull in shield tokens from Her flanks to prevent the loss of 1/4 of Her armour. Notably, dumping three cards in reaction to Eurybia's vulcan gun attack means Tethys also sacrifices Her cards-in-hand advantage, but doesn't lose the armour...
Here is where I make the decision to back Tethys off from direct confrontation and start working on those yellow habitats with Tethys' gun battery. Tethys keeps going left, working on getting away from the laser blade and rocket pod on Eurybia's own left side, and drawing a bead on those yellow habitats on the west side of the board (the left of the image above). In terms of buildings, the score has been equalised, having started off with Eurybia one habitat ahead. Eurybia gives chase...
I activate Tethys' adherent crew, and post off of a two-habitat yellow building to bring Tethys around to bear Her macro laser on Eurybia while Eurybia swings around to lead with Her left arm. I've moved into the lead, but there are still yellow habitats laying around and Tethys will be reloading Her gun battery soon-ish. Eurybia's scans give Her the initiative, to which I respond by taking it back, and my opponent activates Eurybia's sensor to take it again, now blowing the coolant system to make sure it'll be available next round. Eurybia now has the initiative, meaning She has the edge in the following confrontation.
This edge means that Tethys eats a face-full of rockets from Eurybia's rocket pod, reducing Her shields to tatters (down to 40%), and leaving Tethys open to whatever Eurybia has to throw at Her. Except that Tethys cannot as Eurybia steps back into cover, leaving Tethys with only sub-optimal targets a macro laser. After some quick, Propeller-aided cognition, I realize this calls for the second oldest trick in the book. Tethys is, after all, ahead on buildings, and if I push that to 6 or more, then it doesn't matter if Eurybia follows up with a knock-out, as Tethys will still win. So Tethys' master crew grabs Her sensor and peers east (the right hand side of the board), and detects a tall pink building where initial scans had indicated a much shorter building. Eurybia cannot let this building stand, and comes about...
Eurybia's adherent crew takes control of Her vulcan gun and annihilates the tall pink building at the edge of vulcan gun range and Tethys comes about and steps forward to likewise pick off yellow habitats off the tops of buildings, exposing more to Her macro laser. But, for various reasons, I decide that Tethys should try to exploit that damaged frontal armour of Eurybia, because although it would be fewer points that the two yellow buildings that are beautifully lined up for a laser, attacking Eurybia should force my opponent to spend Her power on protecting Herself, and that should minimize the counter-attack. Which is does, to a degree, and Eurybia is able to absorb the snap-shot by blocking with Her right side and intercepting with a shields system.
Eurybia is now ready to square up, and moves left, coming about to shank Tethys, taking the initiate back from Tethys' sagacity with a quick scan. Tethys banks off of a yellow habitat, destroying it, and closes to face Eurybia. Tethys' claw crunches into Eurybia's frontal armour and Tethys smashes Eurybia right into the building on Eurybia's left, demolishing it. Eurybia brandishes Her laser blade, but doesn't activate it until the next round.
Now Eurybia attempts to stab Tethys in the initiate crew compartment, but Tethys ducks and instead takes the laser blade through the sponson. It's a slightly more acceptable loss, and as Eurybia side-steps, Tethys comes about with a punch to Eurybia's side. Eurybia vents a coolant system, and Tethys has to pour on the gas to smash Eurybia through a block of buildings. Eurybia's master crew operates Her sensor and detects a tall yellow building, but it's not enough, and Tethys spots a pink habitat crowning a blue building instead of executing a body slam to crush Eurybia through another block of buildings (having run out of power thanks to Eurybia performing an emergency coolant venting and nearly freezing Tethys' arm).
It's a time-out, and the final score is 21-19, with 3 victory points of destroyed systems to Eurybia and 2 victory points of destroyed systems to Tethys, while the building score is Tethys with 19 habitats remaining on the battlefield and Eurybia with 16 habitats. It raises something of a question as to what, exactly, is a comfortable lead as it would not have taken much to push that to a tie, or even a victory for Eurybia. Unfortunately Eurybia wasn't able to indulge in such tricks as using an initiate crew to operate the coolant system and deactivate both a senior crew member and a weapon, but this was Her first time in action and there was some discussion of the economy of a coolant system.
There's also the matter of set-up. As it currently stands in Tabletop Simulator there's a default set-up and players can add/subtract habitats as necessary for the Titan they're using, but it's a very generic set-up intended to be relatively neutral. In this game I was able to both set up Tethys' pink habitats in ways that were both relatively well protected, and able to keep Eurybia occupied in a section of the battlefield where Her habitats were most exposed. My opponent's early set-up also involved a lot of buildings composed of a yellow habitat capped with a blue habitat, which is good for neutralising those pinky one-cog gun battery shots, but less so for resisting a claw or a Titan pushed through a building with a claw.
Given then that the battlefield favoured Tethys somewhat, I think it was a good first out for Eurybia, particularly when my opponent was able to use Her coolant system to deny me that last body-slam, which would have seen the score more heavily weighted in my favour. I think the next time I'm playing the game I'm going to be running one of the Styxx configurations with a capacitor and a coolant system, or perhaps take the helm of Eurybia Herself to see what sort of envelop I can push.
It's also interesting to note what is going on when a player declines to activate a system. It's a bit like in those shows (super sentai, tonkatsu, etc) where fists/weapons/what-have-you are brandished so that they (a) do nothing, and (b) are shown to be available in the future.
We discussed what would happen when a sponson is deactivated, and I think the best thing (for now) is that a deactivated sponson's arc bonus lasts until the end of the round, unless it's damaged, and deactivating it doesn't need to remove that bonus.
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