F,comm proves that they are a well organized and efficient team. Watch their teamplay skills on Trow territories for an example. MoL on the other hand appears very unorganized and more than a little unsure of themselves and their abilities. I know firsthand that MoL has the talent to be much better than this showing. Hopefully this debacle can be chalked up to first game jitters and MoL makes a comeback next week

Game One - Stampede Desert

This game opens up in a fairly typical manner; both clans ready themselves with pus as crossing guard teams head for their positions. F,comm approaches their crossing squads in a very FFA like manner, with individual players receiving a mix of ranged and melee units. MoL on the other hand opts for a more 'team-like' approach, giving one player all archers, another all warriors and so on. F,comm understands what is important here and wastes no time sending their squads to the three river crossings. Surprisingly, MoL sends nothing other than a single scout ghol to the center crossing. MoL forms two squads and with squealing pigs in tow, heads to the north and south crossings. F,comm, in a rather interesting move, decides to stash their pigs deep in the northeast corner with a thrall/dwarf/journeyman defense. During the entire match MoL remains unaware of where the F,comm pigs are hiding and yet they do almost nothing to actually search for them. In all fairness though, neither team put very much emphasis on finding enemy pigs, opting to wait for them to wander out into the open.

F,comm, realizing that their center force could possibly wait an eternity for something to fight, dispatches them south to help with the incoming MoL force. The MoL southern flank stalls for only a second before pushing across the south river crossing and rushing headlong into the fray on F,comm's side. Total Codex of MoL heads up the charge with his large archer squad. As the battle plays out it appears that MoL is going to pull off an advantage through TC's nice display of archer dancing. Unfortunately, Shrapnel and Screemer seem uninterested in supporting TC's ranged units and waste valuable time staggering back and forth between the initial F,comm southern defense and the now approaching center force who has moved in to assist.

Things turn even worse for TC as Vol and Ken of F,comm move in with fully loaded ghols and begin pussing TC's scattering archer squad. Vol Spends a bit of pus softening up some nearby warriors as well, slowing their ability to assist TC. Not that they would have assisted him anyhow. For a brief moment Shrapnel seems consumed with the fervor of battle and charges his apparently highly elite squad of pigs, warriors and single dwarf into F,comm's force of warriors, archers, and thrall. In Shrapnels defense it should be known that he was in control of a rather large offensive force AND roughly 9 pigs. This can get quite chaotic in the heat of battle. Perhaps a little work is needed in the area of unit distribution.

This is where things really begin to degrade for MoL. Screemer seems to be playing a different game. A game where the objective is to keep your own dwarf alive and ignore the fact that your friendly archers AND pigs are being executed in a most gruesome manner. El Gordo. Oh, El Gordo, a man who seems to know a thing or two about the usage of pus; where were you 40 seconds ago?! El Gordo's pus ghols move in behind F,comm's two defending forces and start pussing things up, causing a rather entertaining fit of confusion. If only TC had been able to arch the hell out of F,comm's now scattering forces, but sadly he is having trouble with rabble melee and ghols since his friendly warriors still seem uninterested in helping. In the end El Gordo eliminates a number of F,comm archers and a dwarf. Den from F,comm rushes in to assist with his pus as the leftover warriors battle it out. Unfortunately he seems to be just as dangerous as he is beneficial, leaving both teams of warriors substantially wounded; not to mention frozen in place. As the MoL southern flank collapses, Den moves in with help from some nearby warriors to finish off the MoL pigs.

This entire time little to nothing has been going on between the north flanks. A standoff has ensued between the two teams, which is humorously narrated by a MoL player who says "gdi they took hill". You were expecting them to stay on level ground with you, giving up a nice height advantage? Precious time is spent on the MoL side deciding what to do, while F,comm's remaining southern forces head north to put an end to this pointless standoff.

All is not lost yet, though. MoL has nine pigs remaining, F,comm still with their twelve pig total. MoL only needs to kill three pigs to keep things at an even score. With a thick defense across the river and a quickly approaching southern flank, MoL has only one remaining chance. If their archers attack during a pus volley they might gain the advantage they need to advance across to the unprotected flags. Right here MoL misses an incredible opportunity. The pus attack moves in behind the seemingly unaware F,comm defense, yet the MoL archers wade back and forth through the murk confused, lost and perhaps a bit scared. Had this last ditch effort worked there is a very good chance MoL could have punched a wide enough hole to get their remaining nine pigs in.

Sadly this is not the case. Without archer fire to distract them, F,comm's archers and dwarf have little trouble handling El Gordo's pus attack. MoL's remaining forces begin their upward assault on F,comm just before the F,comm southern flank reaches attacking postion. By the time the battle is fully underway MoL is fighting on two sides and have little to no hope of defeating their adversaries. In a last ditch effort, and in my opinion, a very brazen move TC takes the remaining MoL pigs and sneaks them around the north edge of the deep pond. The pigs nearly manage to slip through but are noticed by Vol's ghol and the F,comm thrall/dwarf/journeyman pig defense squad. The thrall break off to intercept the incoming pigs. Vol's ghol, who still carries a pus packet in his shoulder harness, manages to wipe out the majority of the pigs with a well timed throw. F,comm's forces quickly clean up the remaining MoL melee and game is over. 12 pigs in for F,comm 0 for MoL. MVP of this game goes to Vol of F,comm whose puswork terminated nearly all of the MoL pigs

Game Two - Territories Trow

MoL now have seven players, as do F,comm. Finally an even match. Both teams choose a relatively standard unit mix. F,comm wastes a few points on a single mortar dwarf who ends up taking a facefull of spears before firing a single shot. MoL splits into a three pronged assault while F,comm decides to keep nearly all of their units defending their center flag. This match is probably the most uneventful of the three. Or so it would seem.

MoL's three pronged assault quickly realizes that F,comm is holding ground at their center flag, and waste no time converging on them to attack from three different sides. While this match may seem uneventful, F,comm does show some incredible talent micromanaging their large center force. With so many different unit types scattered about, F,comm manages to NEVER warlock blast their own troops or get in the way of each other. F,comm's teamwork abilities are exemplified here.

At this point MoL holds five flags while F,comm holds one, so MoL decides to press hard against the center F,comm flag. MoL's southern flank hits F,comm and the typical standoff ensues. Some warlock fire is traded back and forth, a kryd gets kicked to pieces here and there. Nothing too exciting, until F,comm manages to sneak a small group of kryds past the MoL trow and heads them straight towards MoL warlocks. As MoL's troops move to save the warlocks, three F,comm trow follow and the southern flank is quickly destroyed in a quick trow/kryd battle. The victorious F,comm troops from the southern flank head out to grab flags.

MoL's mid attack squad, consisting of only soulless, is quickly destroyed by alternating lock fire. After this F,comm has 88% leftover while MoL has 54%. Things are looking grim for MoL. Instead of heading off to fortify some of their five held flags, MoL decides to continue throwing units towards the F,comm center flag. F,comm's center warlocks herd the remaining MoL forces into a small area while trow work the edges, keeping them nervous. Finally F,comm collapses its surrounding troops to finish off the remaining MoL forces. However, F,comm does lose three trow in the battle. F,comm's forces split to gather up the remaining flags. A quick trow vs trow/soulless vs warlock battle ensues, which gives F,comm the center MoL flag. MoL attempts to grab what flags they can, but F,comm dispatches small squads to nearly every flag to eliminate the would be flag grabbers. Shrapnel's smartest move of the entire match consists of sending a single soulless south to regain MoL's lost flag. Nearly less than a second before a follwing F,comm kryd tears him to pieces the soulless manages to re-capture the southern flag. MoL's final remaining kryd is killed in the north and the game ends with MoL retaining one flag. The southern flag. Nice move, Shrapnel

Game 3 - Flag Rally Cracks

Another standard unit trade begins this match. MoL chooses four dwarves at the expense of some melee units and both teams head out looking more determined than ever. F,comm takes the now familiar three pronged strategy, with two medium sized forces up each side and a large group of stygians heading towards the center. MoL sends out a sizeable mid force and another large force up one side, leaving their eastern flank nearly empty save for a single ghol sent to tag flags.

As silly as it may seem to some in a flag rally game, proper control of the center can give the team an advantage here. Mid offers a base of operations with the freedom to move to zones which may need assisstance. MoL knows this and their large mid forces quickly scares off the incoming F,comm stygians. MoL's offense begins moving into position for an attack on the northeastern flag IV and a great battle is nearly underway... Then F,comm pulls their forces back, basically handing MoL flag IV, and begins a slow retreat back to their home base. This is a crafty move and MoL falls for it, continuing to advance on the seemingly frightened F,comm force. Then a dwarf appears atop the crumbling ramparts. He even tosses a warning shot which explodes harmlessly a few feet in front of the MoL warriors. MoL continues to push and ends up gaining nothing as they dance back and forth dodging flaming cocktails. A lucky bounce from the F,comm dwarf takes out a handfull of MoL archers and the rest stagger around looking for a way in. F,comm seems content to use the majority of their forces as defensive squads while smaller forces are busy scrambling for flags.

MoL's main defense is scattered about flag VI. Four lone F,comm stygians manage to capture the flag while an incoming F,Comm force keeps the defending archers busy on the elevated plateau. Ken and Boab of F,Comm work into MoL's backfield and begin harrassing the small defenses on flags VII and VIII. A nice pus toss softens up the thrall defenders on flag VIII while stygs move in for the kill. At flag VII one dwarf and a handfull of ghols lay waste to the defending thrall/dwarf squad and F,comm takes their eighth and final flag. Game over.