Earliest Loss?

[Pseudo]

What's the shortest game you've had that's ended in a loss?

I'm working on an Empire of Man deck and just tried my first game against the computer with cults. On turn 18 the Xenopods dropped a hydrogen bomb on my fortress and that was it for me.

[Indricotherium]

I had a game in the player created Mutant Campaign where I had issues getting units out. Somewhere around turn 10 I had my only combat unit head out to take a nearby town. When they were two moves away from home base, an Imperial Recon unit just rolled in, machine guns blazing. It was pretty humiliating.

[greymalkin]

I've had many losses within the first 15 turns when playing against the Empire.

[ker]

Probably not the quickest loss I've had but I just had the Big K demand 11 humans from me in one turns time... I had 8 and an income of 2. I tried to find some squatters I could put to good use but to no avail The only comfort is that I was playing Machines and they probably don't taste very good.

[Hamram]

I lost on turn 13 to a pair of roaming ravagers as machine empire.
Not too suprising for me, I never manage to get the machine empire to work.

With the mutants I can go razors and the big dragons for an easy win, xenos has their godly R'lyah and Xenomorphs.
Humans can always defer to marines and emperor's own or even Mata Boyd.

What am I supposed to do with Machines if I really want to win? Skeletors Mk3 has been my best bet yet, but they aren't universally effective due to their low durability.

[Indricotherium]

Hey Hamram,

Machines definitely play out differently from the other races. While you can build a 'fast' deck with the Machines they, IMO, play out best with a slower deployment and utilizing a lot of different unit types. I don't have a ton of time ATM but I'll throw out some points you may find useful.

1) Research is key, the Machines have a lot of great upgrades and weapons. Develop your area to the max and start cranking the tech.

2) Spiderbots. Take 5. I back them up with a couple Liches who I use to bushwhack enemy recon the Spiderbots find. Revenants are also good in this role.
2a) I never bother with the Ghost Probes - too easily discovered, less sturdy than Spiders and don't have Commando. My deep recon is all stealth hero based.
2b) Same goes for Hydras, though they can bushwhack light recon well they're not sturdy at all.

The idea here is to do aggressive recon in your area and progressively strip your enemies of their recon assets.

3) The Penetrator 1 point kill munition coupled with the Apparition and a handful of tactics equals dead enemy HQs once your heroes locate them. Nukes? Who needs 'em!
3a) If you can get into range, the Wraith is even better for this with Precision Strike and 1 extra attack and fate point.
3b) Also great for vaporizing enemy outposts when their stack is deep in your territory.

4) A Harpy with any of the Skeletors is great for early game exploration even without any recon ability.

5) Think combined arms with your armies. A couple of mechs or tanks with survivable infantry (Mk IIIs and Sentinels are the best but the other Skeletors get the job done) is deadly.

6) Nanite Cloud + Breakthrough(Proteus) = auto-breakthrough b/c the cloud always causes at least 2 dam. (did not come up with this but I forget who it was)
6a) For that matter, if you can crank them out, Nanite Clouds go great with every unit, even allowing Spiderbots a great chance to vaporize units they stumble over. It's the Mac Tac Nuke.

7) I have found Cyborgs, both types, and the Constructs only useful in theme decks.

8) As ever, Shock attack is THE MAN. So, Scourge Platoons, Zombie Launchers and Styxx's. But you only need 1 or 2 shock units per army really.

9) Don't overlook Thrall Chambers late game. I use them to garrison everything, do brute force recon, setup early warning lines and even for human wave assaults to soften up targets.

Hope this helps.

[ker]

What am I supposed to do with Machines if I really want to win?

I used to have loads of trouble with them not long ago too. Basically, what Indricotherium said. Also, you might want to check out my machine deck here

[ScoutSergeantCyrus]

Turn 18something, Starke rolls out of the toxic bogs into my bases with a pair of Vengeances and an entire posse of weapon teams. Seriously, wtf?