A week after the last game, I played Morrison again for a shot at ending the Iron Campaign at last with a winning record for my Stark armory teams. This time the build total was 600 points:

Iron Man (Secret Invasion) 188 + Brilliant Tactician 20 + Alpha Flight 0
V Iron Man (Armor Wars) 172 + Alpha Flight 0
LE Iron Man (Supernova) 160 + Alpha Flight 0
Guardsman 32
R Mandroid Armor 28

= 600 points exactly.

Morrison had a Soldier team of

Uncle Sam 140
The Thing (Secret Invasion) 100
August General in Iron 100
Captain America (Avengers) 95
The Punisher (Secret Invasion) 83
Dum Dum Dugan (Secret Invasion human) 75

and picked the Arkham map. He also played the game-changing Deep Shadows battlefield condition, rendering my vast range advantage completely moot. Both of us fielded Eleha’al Vines; I used a Kinetic Accelerator and he had a Tombstone.

He moved out first, hefting a Tombstone with Cap, and I saw a chance to take a free first strike despite the shorter range by doing a Running Shot with Vet Iron Man then TKing him back to the start area with Mandroid armor.

Here I made a horrible mistake. I sent V AW Iron Man to take his shot, boosting his Speed to do so, only to miss the target. But I’d wound up putting him JUST OUTSIDE Mandroid’s Deep Shadows-truncated Telekinesis range and so was forced to leave him a wide open target for Thing’s “Clobberin’ Time” attack.

Which didn’t miss.

From that point on I was completely on the defensive, again making a terrible error late in the game when I got that same V AW Iron Man figure on the healing Vine but didn’t block the doorway with the Mandroid that he’d taxied FOR THAT VERY PURPOSE and thus gave up easy, easy points to Uncle Sam’s Transporter move & attack. In the end, I’d KOed no one and lost all but Secret Invasion Iron Man and the Mandroid.

Attempt to end the Iron Campaign today with a winning record? FAIL.

With plenty of tournament time left and no other players, we played a second game, a rematch. This time Morrison picked the Sinister Prison map. My Wasteland got Ordinary Day‘d. But with my full range powers back, I was able to blow down multiple walls to get early shots on his team and keep HIM on the defensive all game, losing no one and KOing Uncle Sam and Dugan.

So again the Iron Campaign holds at an even win/loss record: 11-11. The first match shows how truly range-dependent this team is. I rather wish I’d swapped out Vet Iron Man for Hulkbuster after all (if only to avoid making that disastrous first move). Similarly, the second game illustrates how dominant the team can be even on super-cramped field like the Prison.