We set up in opposite corners. He took a corner as adefensible position, I took the opposite corner in the nameof an interestin game. I had my Concussors and Prime well-shielded by woods and he had his squad stuck up on a hill. I spent the first few turns of the game manuevering my Concussors into a good firing position, while my Prime took pot shots at the Union boys with the Heavy Beam Laser or the Beam Laser.
I must say that both of us had very BAD dice rolling luck during this game. We shot and we shot and we shot. I killed 5 of his infantry, he shattered 4 of my Concussors. While this may seem average in a small game, it must be realized that we missed a LOT. And I couldn't make armor rolls to save my matrix! And, speaking of a matrix, I pumped 10 MP into my Matrix cannon and it went Core Syphon on the first shot, killing nothing and dying in the process. Cool! If only a target had been within 20" instead of 30"....
So, at the end of the game the final score came in as follows: Shard: 240, Union: 185, Shard Victory. The good thing that came from this small, closely contested game is that I learned a few things. First, never pump more than 7 MP into a Matrix Cannon UNLESS there is a target within 20 inches. I know, I know, I said NEVER do it, but it will be cool to lose the model if you can blow it up in a REALLY spectacular fashion. Second, while the Heavy Beam Laser is cool for the Prime to have, it is wasted on infantry targets. Well, it would be good against Growlers, but it was less effective than the Beam Laser against Union infantry on the basis of rate-of-fire alone. Third, if you have a pure shooty army, do no deploy in such a way that it takes 2 turns of manuevering before you can fire in the third turn. Waste of points, waste of firepower. Fourth, the Shard are exceptionally cool and I am SO glad I decided to do this project!