How I Lost This Particular Game of Warmachine

My record is now officially 0/9, even after I declared the last battle results nullified because the winning move was not legal according to the FAQ.  Instead of a play-by-play I figure I'll just explain to you how I lost this particular match.  This happens often enough now that I could probably make a regular feature of it.  

So we start out with a rough representation of the battlefield.  The Spriggan is mostly scrapped, and neither the Devastator nor the Guardian have a scratch.  I'm thinking the old man has a nice safe spot behind the Avatar.  After all, who is going to risk taking a POW20 (w/ Eye of Menoth) free strike?  Karchev had already taken a fair bit of pounding, so another good hit would mean disabled systems.

 The correct answer is nobody, because nobody has to.  Sliding around to the side, Karchev can advance until only a small portion of him is in the Avatar's front arc.  He hasn't left the Avatar's melee range, so no free strike.  It puts him to just within reach of Severius, and he proceeds to make paste of the old man.

What I should have done is pivot the Avatar about 45 degrees to its right, thereby ensuring that Karchev would take a free strike if he tried to slip past.  Either that, or keep my warcaster way, way back.  The latter may not have worked, since my back was against a table edge and there really wasn't anywhere to go.  I could have used Vision, but with 5 focus available to him he could afford to get more than one decent swing with axe-of-doom and still finish the job.

Also, as a side note, can someone tell me why the Avatar rolls 4 focus on turn one and then 2 focus for the rest of the game?  Seriously, I would love a 4 focus Avatar turn someday when he's actually fighting something.