Avid readers will recall me commenting how I should not have made that move to close Eos with Eurybia in the previous week's battle report. Well, I may have done it again. This time I had rapacious Eurybia close with gracious Clymene, in particular Eurybia quinary closing with Clymene quinary, and it worked out better than one might imagine, but really not any better as I ended up getting knocked out in the 5th round. In part this is because Clymene's quinary configuration is monstrous: a specialist system begging for a plasma siphon, a coolant system on the left shoulder, and then two plasma shotguns and a plasma driver (and stabilizers on the left shoulder). This configuration of Clymene can unleash a barrage from a plasma shotgun, using the plasma siphon to power it with one card, super-cool both plasma shotgun and plasma siphon with the aid of an initiate crew, and then fire it again. It has two big weaknesses, which are short-range, topping out at range 4 for the plasma driver, and the coolant system is exposed on Clymene's shoulder. Anyone with a long-ranged weapon like a rocket pod, missile pod, macro gun, or plasma howitzer could start the game hard and probably knock Clymene out about as promptly as She knocked out Eurybia in this encounter.
However, Eurybia, in this case Her senary configuration, was also armed with short-ranged weapons and only one coolant system to keep things moving. She had wings, but I definitely did not put the crew in to make the most of these systems. Likewise I didn't utilize the harpoon gun in an effective way, and lost the pincer way too early. I suspect the shield calibration I chose could have been more effective as well had I put two shield tokens on arms and wings, and one for each of the legs. I could have also wandered off and amused myself clearing buildings, which this configuration of Clymene is very well suited to do. And it almost worked out, having survived round 2's fire-hose of plasma, I could have probably gotten a ring-out on my opponent had I pressed harder. The irony of doing what I'm used to doing, which is not over-extending my Titan, instead of following my instinct to reach for the win, was Eurybia's loss. I feel like I need to play some solo-games with this configuration to get a handle on this configuration of Eurybia. Nonetheless, the final score was 23-20 for Clymene.
Eurybia has the initiative, and I decorate Her in teal to make deployment of habitats easier. In truth I should probably start suggesting that we decorate the board according to the set-up rules, and work the battlefield as well as my Titan's deployment. In the latter case I decided Eurybia is heavily armoured, the nice, safe center of the board She goes. My opponent then set up in what could have been an absolutely hilarious position had I thought to set up my Titan deck so that Eurybia could turn around, detect Clymene, put a crew member on the harpoon gun, and then yank Clymene through the thin wall of buildings in front of Her. I was, however, also in the position to get blasted with plasma if my opponent had a similar idea, and a coolant system to keep Eurybia moving.
A tense first round as neither of us did anything. In fact, this was when I should have fired up Eurybia's legs and moved out of the way, as Clymene would be hoping to push a card advantage, and while She was sitting there chugging away I could position Eurybia for a winged assault.
Having waited a smidgeon too long, Eurybia paid the price, losing Her left wing and Her pincer, which put me at risk of losing in a knock-out, but in a pretty good position to pull a ring-out of Clymene. Eurybia had swung around and right to tile 46 (11 is bottom right), and then operating with my master crew moved to tile 23 to kick Clymene into the pink habitat left in tile 43. Eurybia got cooked by Clymene's left plasma shotgun, and I used my coolant system operated by an initiate crew to recover the legs to my hand. Then I got Eurybia turned around, but got blasted again!
Eurybia punches Clymene, who punches back, and then a body-slam from behind to exhaust Clymene's defenses. I have card-advantage, and I have a great position. Here is where could have either gotten a ring-out, or at least pressed Clymene up against the edge of the board. But I'm ahead on buildings, why rush? Because you can't give them an inch, that is why!
Having left it too late, my opponent is able to seize the initiative, extricate Clymene from Her bad position, and accept being kicked through a building because it exhausts Eurybia to do that, and I lose that card advantage. I do manage something good with the master crew operating the harpoon gun, but without the pincer to tear at Clymene, or the spare wing to batter Clymene, She makes it to a safer position despite losing some armour in the process. Those dings will buff right out!
I still feel Eurybia was safe, but I don't have the cards to get to safety and don't activate the crew that might have pushed Eurybia to walk further. My opponent operates their coolant system using their own master crew, recovering four cards to get Clymene turned around, and exploiting that damaged left back, destroying Eurybia's port armour and shield generator to achieve a knock-out!
Two great strategic lessons here, the first being that if you're going to choose a Titan, you should consider what can be done with that Titan. I think a master-crew-operated wing can do some spectacular things, particularly with a little lay-up, and a pincer can do an astonishing amount of damage to buildings should it use the bottling rule and not be afraid to be used. A little bit further ahead on buildings and a knock-out still would have gone to me. Secondly, a master-operated coolant system can recover four cards. FOUR CARDS. You could use both arms and both plantigrade legs, and then use them again! In terms of re-orienting after deployment, or when you're in a bit of a pickle, that extra speed will come in handy.
