Christmas tournament game 2 vs Axis 75pts

After the quick scenario in round one the second, and last, game of the day would be against a Convergence player. He had brought Iron Mother and Axis. Seeing the double TEP list I knew I would be up against that from the get go and therefore I wanted to drop my Horgle2 list to have the survivability against it. He chose Axis, his list:

Axis
- Inverter
- Inverter
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Transfinite Emgerence Projector
Transfinite Emgerence Projector
Clockwork Angels
Optifex Directive
Optifex Directive
Reflex Servitors
Steelsoul protector
Steelsoul protector

The Pit

My list:
Horgle2
- Mountain King
- Bomber
- Bouncer
- Runebearer
Braylen Wanderhart
Min. Stone+Ua
Max Sluggers
Min Highwaymen
Fire eaters

We played the scenario The Pit, which is a scenario that fits very well with the list I have with Horgle2. He won the roll off and chose to go first. I chose table sides with a long wall to hide behind, and set up my list to skew onto his flag side with my mountain king thought as an anchor in the center. The highwaymen went to flank to the opposite side of the TEPs which he had place opposing my flag, so going for my flag was not a good idea. A mistake I made here was placing the bouncer centrally. He was not needed in the middle and would have been much better to make sure my flag was not taken.

Round 1 - Always this running

Round 1 CoC has started their advance

My opponent ran, placed Axis so that he could take his flag on his turn and dug in the servitors so that if I came to close he could counter charge. I ran everything forward and with the mountain king getting inviolable resolve and the bomber fire starter. My sluggers started moving to the left to fit behind the MK.

Round 2 - The feat off

After round 1

Axis moves up to the flag and feats. He places both inverters in the zone to threaten my Mountain King next turn, outside my threat, One TEP does 11 damage to the MK with one spray, the other does nothing. The other TEP runs.

On my turn, I contemplate whether I should go for a long shot assassination or not. I decide against it, since I see an opening to kill one of his inverters and then hope for the sprays not do deal enough damage on the MK. So I feat with horgle and throw a consuming flames on one of his inverters dealing a whopping 6 damage. I feel a little out in the open where I am standing, but have to be there to reach enough with the feat and consuming flames. The bouncer just runs out of the way and the MK moves up to spray the now burning inverter but rolls a triple one and misses. The sluggers save the day by killing it, although I forgot to move one close enough to my flag to contest. My fire eaters move up and put Axis on fire, dealing no damage, The highwaymen inch forward. My opponent scores one on his flag.

The MK still stands, CoC turn 3

Round 3 - Arm 23 Mountain King is tough AF
His game plan on his turn is obvious. Kill the Mountain king, place angels on my flag and double score. However, the 4 sprays do not do enough damage on the MK for the Inverter to finish him of and he lives with something like 13 HP, as the last hits were taken on the bouncer, to remove him from the equation. For the MK not to get free access to the TEPs, the Mechanics move up to jam him.
Axis scores two additional points on my his turn.

I am happy the MK survived and by spellslaving consuming flames, I manage to clear of two mechanics blocking my MK so that it reaches one TEP and the last Inverter. The MK easily kills both and a mechanic, the sluggers move in to contest the flag and manage to kill one of the angels. The fire eaters move to contest his flag and the highwaymen continue to flank. This was a crucial mistake. Since time was on my side now, I should have just contested his flag with all of the highwaymen.

After my turn 3, Not running the highwaymen to contest...

Round 4 - Game over
Axis just needs to clear two fire eaters and two sluggers. No problem and game over for me.

Afterthought
I was a bit sloppy with my round 3, thinking I had it in the bag when I managed to survive with the MK and kill the last inverter and a TEP. I should have moved my highwaymen much more aggressively. This combined with the disrespect of not contesting my own flag cost me the game. But my god how hard the MK is with arm 23. The sluggers also pulled their part, but I don't really think the fire eaters pulled their part. I should probably just have moved them in to contest. Not at all an unplayable match up, probably a rather good one for Horgle2. And he is rather fun to play!