Avatar Pandora vs Lilith, 35 Stones

Headed out to the Huzzah Hobbies last night to get a couple of games in. I had painted up my Avatar Pandora and Candy over the weekend, so I wanted to give them a try too, and wanted to give Avatar Zoraida another swing. I was pretty sure I would get two games in so I decided to figure out my strategies before deciding which direction to go. Here’s the first of them, and if I get a chance, I’ll post up the second.

GAME TWO - 35 STONES - aPANDORA vs. LILITH
Pandora w/ Avatar, 7 Stones
Coppelius
Lelu
Lilitu
Sorrow x2
Primordial Magic


Lilith, 8 Stones
Younger Nephilim
Younger Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot x3
Primordial Magic
Desperate Merc

Strategy: Treasure Hunt (Pandora) vs. Line in the Sand (Lilith)
Zoraida Schemes: Hold Out, Bodyguard
Lilith Schemes: Breakthrough, Hold Out

We kept the same board as before. The terrain was one of Bill’s fixed boards set up with a fenced-in cemetery in the middle of the board and then a lot of ruins all along the outside of that. There were not a lot of places to completely block LOS, so we added in a few more pieces of terrain – more ruins. This time our deployment was diagonal, and he put most of his crew behind some ruins while I kept mine up close and near the center of the board. I had Coppelius down on the southern end to dissuade any quick grabs of the dynamite markers down there, but that’s about it.

I apologize ahead of time – I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of activation order and the like. I’ll do my best to reconstruct what I can.


TURN ONE - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off by having both of my Sorrows link to Pandora while the Desperate Mercenary realized what he was getting himself into and ran ahead. The Black Blood Shaman moved up, cut himself for a blood, and pulled all the Nephilim towards him, and a Younger cut the Desperate Merc in half, taking the blood, and giving the Shaman his second blood token and a healing flip. The Younger then Matured into a Mature Nephilim.

I moved Lilitu up and grabbed the Mature with a Lure, bringing him closer to me but failing to double-take the action. Sadly it didn’t do too much more for me. The other Tots darted for the northern section of the board and those two dynamite markers. Coppelius covered the south, keeping out of range of attacks but close enough to move in with a paralyze if I needed it next turn. Lilith dropped a forest right between the Mature and Pandora and then moved around the side. Pandora moved up and pricked Lilith for a point, but had to spend most of her actions moving and couldn’t do much else.


TURN TWO - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off with what was probably a bad idea. I Bonded the twins and had Lilitu move up and Lure Lilith forward. I got another wound on her but couldn’t do much more and then had Lelu charge Lilith and miss twice. Lilith activated and companioned the Mature. She took three attacks to kill Lelu, and the Mature used Diving Attack to charge one of the Sorrows and kill it, then cut down the second one with his Melee Expert. Ouch! Not at all how I expected the turn to start.

I activated the Primordial Magic and channeled Project Emotions onto Lilith, but she used a Soulstone and prevented it. The Tots continued to move after the Dynamite, triggering the first one. Coppelius moved out and Paralyzed the Mature. I wanted to see which model I had to deal with quickly. The Younger moved up nearby, preparing to launch himself into the fight. Pandora activated and hit Lilith with Project Emotions, flipping a Crow on the flip and making her flee after both of us spent a soulstone to try to make sure it went our way. Pandora then slid around on Incites and zapped the Younger with Self Loathing, flipping two Severes for damage and knocking him down to one while making him flee. Finally, she pounded on the Black Blood Shaman for a point. This got her first manifest requirement to complete, though it took a couple soulstones.

The Black Blood moved up into the forest, and the fleeing Younger rallied. Lilith, on the other hand, would have to wait until next turn to rally.


TURN THREE - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I got lucky with initiative here and led things off with Lilitu. Since Lilith hadn’t rallied yet, and I drew a hand with a 13, 11, and 9 of masks, I started off with Luring her. She had (-) flips to resist and I pulled her in with my masks, triggering Double Take as much as I could. Soon she was taking damage just for being near Pandora, and my free attacks were even hitting because of Lilith’s (-) flip. Lilitu ended her activation where Lilith had 3 wounds left.

Lilith went and rallied, then went defensive stance and focused a strike at Lilitu, killing the poor girl. No worries, though, she had done her job. I went with the Primordial Magic channeling Project Emotions and spending a Soulstone to boost the resist. The spell spilled onto the Mature Nephilim and both Lilith and the Mature had (-) WP flips. The Tots moved in towards the next Dynamite while another one slid back towards my deployment zone trying to hide.

Pandora activated and hit Lilith with Self Loathing, killing Lilith. Then she did the same with the Mature, and finally finished off the Blood Shaman with her last casting. The Younger flew back to keep hidden from Pandora and try to fly around the long way to the southern dynamite markers while Coppelius moved over to the closest Terror Tot and plucked an eye from him, leaving him with 2 wounds and poison 2.


TURN FOUR - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off with Pandora, tossing some wounds on to the various minions out there and trying to reach the Younger Nephilim, but without as many targets, I wasn’t able to Incite around the board effectively and had to spend some actions just walking. The poisoned Tot died. Coppelius summoned an Alp next to the treasure marker then went after the Terror Tot in my backfield, but missed the attack. His last Tot used the blood from the Younger Nephilim and Grew into a second Younger. I had two sprinting back to pick up more dynamite markers.

The Tot near Coppelius activated but failed his Terrifying check, taking a wound from Pandora and more from Coppelius, killing himself. The Alp picked up the treasure.


TURN FIVE - LILITH INITIATIVE
One of the Younger Nephilim sped to the side and my Alp double-moved back with the treasure. The second Younger followed up and Pandora started her turn. She Pacified the first Younger, wounding it and moved into range of the second one. She Pacified that one, killing it since it had only one wound left. Two Self Loathings later and the last Younger was dead. Coppelius double-moved towards Lilith’s deployment zone to break Hold Out.


TURN SIX – n/a INITIATIVE
Pandora manifested automatically – I had the soulstone saved to prevent it but since there was nothing left for Pandora to do, it didn’t matter. Coppelius made it into Lilith’s deployment zone to break Hold Out and the Alp got the treasure back into my deployment zone.


Final score: Pandora wins, 8-0.


The game started out pretty bad for me, but the turn where I paralyzed the Mature and made both Lilith and the Younger flee proved key. Even down models at that point, I was able to eliminate the three hardest hitters and take care of them one at a time. Lilith’s biggest struggle is her willpower, and Pandora can handle that pretty well.

Regarding the avatars themselves, this was the second game out of two where I found manifesting was not going to help me out in the game. Had things been one turn behind and the Younger Nephilim were still out on turn 6, I likely would have needed to use my soulstone to prevent myself from Manifesting because the two Nephilim were farther than 12” from me and I needed Pandora to move to reach her targets. It will certainly require more testing, but Avatar Pandora’s Immobile is a massive disadvantage, and a huge drawback to manifesting her in most games.