Truly Obscene Feasts

 Two 50ss games of Malifaux 4th edition.

First game:

Strategy: Standard Recover Evidence

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Scout the Rooftops, Grave Robbing

My list:

Kirai Ankoku, Lady of Vengeance & Ikiryo
Kuchisake-Onna
Lost Love
Batsch & Amalie
Carrion Effigy
Goryo
Shikome
Gwisin
Enslaved Spirit

Pool: 4

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Wild Card & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Sen
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Urami picks Scout the Rooftops, Honeypot Leaves Their Mark

Shikome went to pick up the initial strategy marker from far right, while an Illuminated did the same far left. 

Kitty, an Illuminated, Lynch and Hungering Darkness all kept spamming scheme markers near the center point as I was piling my own near it to bluff Leave Your Mark and Scout the Rooftops. 

Kuchisake-Onna summoned a seishin and made a Gaki near the centerpoint, which had Honeypot quite concerned. I think it was Lynch who killed the Gaki as soon as possible, which only prompted a second strategy marker for Honeypot. Bummer. High risk high reward did not pay out... yet.

Goryo had gone to place a scheme marker on top of a cliff near centerpoint. Batsch & Amalie copied it, so there were two. 

Carrion Effigy ran next to a bridge, and Lost Love stood by the effigy's side and went to drop a scheme marker on the terrain piece.

However, Kirai was just about the last model to activate. There were Seishins near the middle so she made an additional Gaki, feasting away the mark Honeypot left. Kirai also gave Ikiryo an action to drop a third scheme marker for Scout the Rooftops.

So, Urami scored two from schemes, but zero from strategy. Honeypot did vice versa, since they were able to pick up the extra point from strategy. Scores tied at 2-2.

Turn 2: Urami picks Detonate Charges, Honeypot stays with Leave Your Mark

The turn was defined by the action happening at the centerpoint. Urami began slapping scheme markers on top of the terrain for Detonate Charges - Scout the Rooftops lead to Leave Your Mark as well. And, well, Honeypot kept scribbling their initials to the hand best as they can.

One notable moment was when Ikiryo walked and charged someone, and then killed herself and blasted Adversary on the entire enemy crew, except for one Illuminated and Beckoner who were hanging around near the left edge of the table. 

Adversary proved to be deadly, as both Hungering Darkness and Kitty Dumont died without too much effort. And then to add an insult to injury, Kuchisake-Onna took a swing at Sen, and scored Red Joker, leaving Sen standing with just one hit point.

Gwisin, Goryo and Batsch & Amalie near each other proved to be a fortress. Attacks kept pouring at Goryo, but in the end phase it had only a few damage boxes marked in after Gwisin took a hit here and there, and the fungal duo did a little jig to cheer their spirit.

Honeypot managed to take a point from Leave Your Mark this time around, but Urami got two from Detonate Charges. Both got strategy, but Urami took the extra point as well for a 6-4 lead.

Turn 3: Urami picks Take the Highground, Honeypot chooses Make It Look Like an Accident

Sen who had just a single hit point left beckoned Gwisin from top of the terrain to score a point from Make It Look Like an Accident. Gwisin then did everything it could to run away, but Mr. Graves would have none of that and killed the target.

Enslaved Spirit died as well, although it first tried to go and claim the red roofed building for scheme. Illuminated in the middle died to Goryo and Kirai.

Shikome, Lost Love and Kuchisake-Onna did Take the Highground, but Kuchisake did summon Ikiryo as well. And as if there hadn't already been enough brutal attacks by Urami models, Ikiryo charged Mr. Tannen and killed him with a single action point. Ikiryo went off the board again, just in case.

Both crews took full points from schemes, but this time around Honeypot was left with no strategy points. This gave Urami a 9-6 lead.

Turn 4:

We didn't play fourth turn, as Honeypot at most might score a tie, and that would have required Urami models doing pretty much nothing.

Game 2:

Strategy: Corner Informants

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Scout the Rooftops, Search the Area

My list:

Hamelin, Plaguebringer & Obedient Wretch
Nix
Fumigator
Tunnel Rats
Tuco Ortega
Rat Catcher
2x Stolen

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver & 2x Cryptologist
Sidir Alchibal
Desper LaRaux
2x Rough Rider
2x Ruffian
Huckster
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 3

Turn 1: Both crews pick... surprise surprise, Scout the Rooftops.

Although not much else happened other than troops closing in, it was apparent that Wastrels were not practicing enough social distancing. Rat Catcher summoned a couple rats, one of which went to drop blight on a Ruffian, from which it spread to a Rough Rider and a Cryptologist.

McCabe went to contest the marker in the center, and a Stolen ran to gave him pox after the kid had been lured by Hamelin and disoriented by fogs from Fumigator.

Five Wastrels were coming from the right, three of whom had bunched up. Nix was able to blast one Blight in there, from where it spread to Sidir, a Ruffian and the Hopeful Prospect.

Tunnel Rats was saved for the last activation, and dropped a scheme for Scout the Rooftops, and then used Secret Passage to deliver another marker to Wastrel side of the board, getting two points from scheme. Wastrels didn't have such a trick up their sleeve, and instead had to do with one. 

I gave strategy to Wastrels to move the markers around. I didn't know if that would pay off, but in my last Informants game I was at the receiving end of this, so I wanted to try it out.

So, a 2-2 tie again.

Turn 2: Both crews pick... surprise surprise, Detonate Charges

First activation was Rough Rider trying to shoot Tunnel Rats dead from a vantage point. But thanks to rotten luck and some cards from hand, stat five with a plus fate was not able to cut through def four. This had major repercussions, since Tunnel Rats was later able to walk on top of tall tower and contest the strategy marker on the Wastrel side, plus drop a scheme marker near enemy models with Biting Insult. Opponent was able to claim the marker back, but that required two models instead of one.

And whose a good boy? Nix is! And by good I mean of course super annoying. Good to see that the piece is conditionally as infuriating as ever.

Nix charged near Ruffian, Hopeful Prospect and Sidir. Would this trick pay off as well? He bit Sidir, who used his Tarnished Mirror to slap four damage back to Nix. Ouch. Bonus action was promptly the heal instead of revelers dropping. 

Welll, in the end Nix made took 50% off of Hopeful Prospect's activation, but he was able to remove blight from Sidir. My hand was relatively poor, just one ten, five empowers and... the Red Joker. I had difficult choice to make. A full-activation Sidir would mean horrible news to Nix, so a Stolen took double walk near the bunch and used Onward. No Tomes to empowers, and no Tomes from flip. So, Red Joker it was, to get off that bonus walk and re-apply blight to Sidir and Hopeful Prospect, and Desper LaRaux as a bonus as well. 

Ruffian beat the snot out of that Stolen, and Desper leaped out of Nix cancellation aura and charged the Stolen, killing them. 

Sidir walked and scaled on terrain, tried to shoot Nix but was canceled. He did a mortar strike and used soulstone to shoot Nix anyway, and managed to land in a couple of damage points.

New edition made it look like McCabe was sort of behaving better, but he relapsed into whipping a kid to death at the center. To his defense, the kid had already given him two poxes. 

A Rough Rider to the right climbed on the industrial platform and started shooting at Obedient Wretch, and brought her down to one health remaining. She thought since she'd die soon anyway, she went to at least take Hopeful Prospect with her. And didn't even die.

Tuco disillusioned Rough Rider away from contesting a strategy marker, and went to drop a scheme near the horse.

Plague had been able to dodge any too serious consequences for their actions... but then, something happened. No, that trend did continue, but it continued in such a way that it started to feel bad. Rat Catcher summoned a couple rats more, which eventually formed into a Rat King. With the remaining bonus and a single action point Rat King was able to kill an uninjured Rough Rider!

Somehow Wastrels had failed to plant any charges, and Plague lucked out full two points thanks to Tunnel Rats.

Both scored strategy, but Plague still had less points so they were able to move the markers for a 5-3 lead.

Turn 3: Plague picks Runic Binding, Wastrel stays with Detonate Charges

Now un-blighted Sidir was able to shoot Nix off the board. That could have been the beginning of a turning point for Wastrels, but then the Rat King ate Ruffian who had taken just one point of damage. Again with one action point and bonus. What is happening in here?! First summoned Gaki's eats all the schemes, now summoned rats do the same for models.

Plague did play a little too obvious Runic Binding, so Wastrels were able to wriggle out of maximum points, so Hamelin had to suffice with one. Tunnel Rats died in the process. 

Wastrels were pushing for the Detonate Charges this time a little more insistently, but Tuco was able to shoot off one of the markers, so Wastrels took zero once more. Plague also received strategy while Wastrels did not, so the situation looked grim after Hamelin was leading 7-3. 

Turn 4: 

Situation did in fact look too grim for McCabe, and we did not play the fourth round.

Rogue Appetite

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Informants

Schemes: Make it look like an accident, Search the Area, Runic Binding

My list:

Dr. McMourning, Malpractitioner & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Leftovers
Rafkin
Kentauroi
Bone Pile

Pool: 5

Opponent had:

Misaki Katanaka, Fractured & Wanyudo
Ototo
Yamaziko
Katanaka Crime Boss
Katanaka Sniper
2x Torakage
Shadow Fate Effigy

Pool: 5

Turn 1: Experimental picks Runic Binding, Last Blossom makes it look like an accident.

Rafkin started by prodding Leftovers, giving them an Interesting Parts token, and summoned a Little Gasser. Eventually Leftovers took a walk and a oozing slither on top a building, and placed a scheme marker to bluff for either Runic Binding or Search the Area. However, Leftovers were pushed from top of the building by some of the plenty crew signature actions, scoring a point from Make it look like an accident for Ten Thunders.

Yamaziko had taken a central position over a building, spreading those nasty auras all over the board. She even got concealment aura from somewhere to help Ototo, Shadow Effigy and Misaki.

McMourning pushed Kentauroi a bit with crew signature, walked, and had to use Vial of Goo to get a little closer to place a scheme marker to bluff two different schemes again. Eventually Kentauroi pidcked up Bone Pile and went forward, but had take a walk to go and drop a third scheme for Runic Binding. I had already activated Crime Boss inside the binding, and Yamaziko was sort of easy to reach as well. However, I was dreadfully afraid of multiple effective ways Last Blossom had to remove scheme markers that when opponent didn't remove one, I just grabbed the one point from Runic Binding as fast as I could.

Rogue Necromancy and Torakage went to contest strategy marker center-left. Leftovers and Crime Boss were doing the same to marker on the right. McMourning and Ototo were holding the central marker. Or at least were, until Wanyudo came to contest as well.

Zombie Chihuahua walked and charged and gave a solid hit against Wanyudo, which poisoned it as well. Later Sebastian bumbled around, eventually leaping to Chihuahua looking for spare parts. He sawed Wanyudo for a bit, and removed the poison to attack again. The thing was left with just two health remaining.

Various enemy models were able to damage Kentauroi down to one health remaining and burning, even when it had the fumes aura. 

By ganging up on the middle, Resurrectionists were able to take the lead in strategy. Both had scored a single point from schemes, for a 2-1 lead for McMourning.

Turn 2: Experimental Takes the Highground, Last Blossom attempts Breakthrough

I lost the Kentauroi, but I had the first activation. Rogue Necromancy did a leap near Wanyudo, and killed it with Pouncing Strike. However, this took my highest cards from hand, so I didn't push it when remaining two attacks missed Katanaka Sniper.

Ototo hit Zombie Chihuahua and healed back to thirteen or so after probably Sebastian came in sawing the henchman. Chihuahua took a double walk to contest center-left strategy marker, and holding one building for Take the Highground.

Crime Boss was able to smack Leftovers down to three health remaining. Torakage came to contest the center-right marker as well. Bone Pile reinforced Leftovers and threw them a bone, tying up that marker as well.

McMourning did a scary activation by scaling up to Yamaziko, slapping her down to two health remaining and poisoned. She had not yet activated, so that was a death sentence. He also tossed a Vial of Goo on Shadow Effigy, essentially dooming it as well. 

By then both players had spent their entire hand. Shadow Effigy took a point of damage and tried to hail mary itself into Shadow Emissary, but failed the attack and died to poison. Yamaziko, too.

Another Torakage had made it piece of cake to score Breakthrough with two points for Ten Thunders. 

Opponent had kept pushing my models off the buildings left and right, so Resurrectionists struggled to get even one point from Take the Highground. Both players had enough strategy markers to score points, but since Ten Thunders had still scored less from strategy, they got to do the little placearoo.

Scores tied at 4-4

Turn 3: Experimental Makes it look like an accident instead, Last Blossom wants to Assassinate Sebastian

Rogue Necromancer was able to slap Katanaka Sniper down from a shack, scoring a point. However, only one of the attacks hit and left the little guy alive. Zombie Chihuahua tried to score the second point next, but failed to do even one point.Eventually I had to use McMourning to finish the point for me. 

Ototo crushed Sebastian in one cruel activation, two points for Ten Thunders again.

Leftovers were split open, and one of the Bisecrions and their assorted appendages were cut down by Misaki and Crime Boss. One Bisection remained, though. Status quo remained for center-right marker, although Bone Pile, Torakage and Bisection were all sitting with just three health remaining. 

As their last activation, another Torakage went to claim the strategy marker on my side of the board. Rafkin had to backtrack. He had two attempts to shoo off the minion - first with crew signature, which failed. Then by scoring masks on the melee. Attack hit, but was not masks.

Ten Thunders got a point from strategy while Resurrectionists got none. Both had scored two from schemes, so it was a 6-7 lead for Misaki.

Turn 4: Experimental reshapes the land with corpses, Last Blossom tries to Scout the Rooftops

Rogue Necromancy. Did a thing. By murdering Misaki, who was at eleven health remaining. Okay, there might have been a black joker involved there. This was a deciding factor for the game, though. Although I see we played one major aspect of the strategy incorrectly - those strategy markers had been happily arranged within 8" of each other. So close in fact, that a single model was able to contest all three. And that had been Misaki.

 Remains of Leftovers had been scattered all across the Ten Thunders side, but there were four of them. I had a hard decision to make - and Chihuahua killed itself for the fifth marker.

I had this demented plan of running McMourning to the center, attacking Crime Boss or Ototo and summoning Chihuahua back, and remove the summon token with crew signature. However, a Torakage abandoned scheme and rushed on top of the building with most remaining Last Blossoms, and there was no easily available space for the good doctor. He was able to claim one strategy to himself with what remained of a Last Bite.

A narrow 10-9 victory for McMourning.

Damn the cult

We played a game of Talisman, with four players. 

The cast:

Arcane Scion -> Prophetess
Scavenger
Warlord
Celestial

We played with a hidden ending and Cataclysm board.

Early game was dominated by having the Toxic Spring pop up on Graveyard, and Fountain of Wisdom right next to it.

Arcane Scion got otherwise good start, but got into the nasty situation of hanging by the thread with just by one health remaining. Eventually Warlord paid for Black Knight to put the wonder kid out of his misery, and Prophetess entered the game.

Celestial had mediocre progress, not facing serious setbacks but not great progress either. It soon became apparent that it was a race between Scavenger and Warlord to win the game after Scavenger robbed the remains of Arcane Scion, getting the Talisman that gave +2 Craft in the middle and inner region. Warlord had utterly obnoxious  battle stats, but was locked behind unfinished warlock quest. This gave Scavenger the headstart to start getting through the inner region. Which was astonishing in it's own right. Scavenger had two health remaining, but managed to roll just one life lost at the icy tower thing, and even beat up the snowbeast like it was nothing. Mines and portal of power were a joke.

But then the hidden ending was revealed. Cult of the Damned was formed, and suddenly all the heroes had to set aside their petty squabbles and try to eradicate all dwellers. This... was perfectly doable, but somehow that happened when Warlord had to miss two turns, and Celestial was missing their next turn as well. This gave the cultists an enormous head start. 

Prophetess and Scavenger (who had one life remaining) were both attacking with Strength 4, while Celestial was doing just a little better. But warlord had easy enough time dispatching a stack of three.

Given the circumstances, adventurers were doing better than expected during battles. However... they absolutely started to botch their movement rolls, which meant that six remaining cultists were  able to infiltrate through portal of power after Warlord failed to attack a stack of four.

So, EVERYBODY loses.

Trolls Not Allowed

A four player game of Dungeon Lords. One of the players, Red, had never played Dungeon Lords before, so she was a bit overwhelmed at the mechanics, but winged it on the go without a long term plan. 

It's been a long time since the rest of us had played this game as well, but at least we were able to plan forward a little, and could try to convince ourselves we were focusing on some aspect of the game. I did masterfully navigate the evil-o-meter to construct lame, easy to beat adventuring parties. Throughout the game only two of my tunnels were conquered - although this did not make me the battlemaster, that title was shared with another player. But I had only Demon and Slime monsters going on for me. 

One of the players drew out the Paladin on the second year, and was able to eventually transfer it to Red. Oh no. Red took a whopping -12 points from conquered tiles. But yeah, that's not -16. During second year she made the investment to acquire a dragon. She was able to blast through the adventurers, Paladin or no Paladin. 

The was the time to count scores. And much to everyone's surprise - and most to Red's surprise - it was actually she who managed to win the game. 

Since we included the expansion monsters, RNG decided that this game did not have trolls for hire at any point of the game. 

Pit Society

 Some more games from my boardgame marathon.

Art Society

I got to try out a new game for me, called Art Society. Players arrange a gallery from paintings they get from auctions and score points based on fluctuating trends.

To me it looked like this game exemplified the "easy to learn, hard to master" -trope. We had three players for the first game, which ended in a real close race of 82/80/78 points. I didn't have much of a plan except for hoarding decors and trying to maintain cityscapes as the vogue trend. Sure enough it ended up to be the top trend, although it did not secure me victory.

Later I played a couple of two-player games. In the first I wanted to try if playing strategically would be any good, and decided to maximize my vogue-factor. Sure enough I got five paintings to the eyeline which were of the trend I was lobbying for... but that trend didn't end up being in vogue after all. It was a loss because of that.

In the second two-player game I went back to reactive gaming style, not trying to force an outcome. It worked way better, since I won that game.

Monster Pit

Monster Pit with three players. This was first time playing this game for each of us. Here and there we played some rules incorrectly, but guess the misplays balanced each other since some were in favour of the monster, and some in favor of captains.

Anyway, Vaiel the Enchantress was the monster since that was the recommendation. 

I was playing Nova, the Ice Princess captain. Other captains were Kei the Querling and Quatonor the Rakshasa. 

Early on the King's Emissary was replaced with the outlaw creature thing, which stalled entire round's worth of captain actions. It felt like we had had zero progress, and the monster had already waltzed through one third of the vengeance track. Rakshasa was our only captain worth anything, although Querling was doing decent support. Ice Princess just got injured and wasn't able to heal for like an eternity, essentially losing her captain ability. The white tower was blocked by some kind of an enemy. 

Thanks to captains bumbling around, the monster didn't even get wounded until it was way past 50% of the vengeance track.

But then... something changed. Rakshasa captain got beefy enough to start attacking the monster, and wounding it more often than not. Even Ice Princess stopped being useless after she got a champion that was able to switch one monster result to captain result from ANY dice roll. That stuff alone was responsible for at least three crits.

Querling captain was cleaning up town from spawned monsters, and eventually took some hits against the monster as well. After such a difficult start, it began to look like we were breezing through the fights... But as it happened, we almost became to victims of our success. After a couple of utterly miserable progress rolls, the monster was suddenly standing four spaces away from it's victory. But it only had five health remaining. 

That's when we had to resort to sacrificing people for the statues. Barracks went first, taverns next. Ice Princess had become filthy rich from completing two quests, and was able to trade a bunch of champions from Querling to attack the enchantress herself, dealing two points of damage with a crit. Rakshasa was doing crits as well, so the monster was sitting with last health remaining. However, the "must change districts" thing made it so that only one captain would be able to attack  through Watchtower. Better make that one count, because our progress rolls had so many dice that the monster might leap to victory with some bad progress rolls even after we pushed it back ten spaces with a wizard.

Rakshasa was able to put down the monster, kingdom was saved! 

Running the firs laps

So, I visited some friends and we had a sort of board game marathon. Here are the card games.

Wave

A co-op card game. That's new to me. We onl had to players for this one, so we had that Silver NPC.  The mechanic where cards have two different sets of value (numeric and based on color) was neat, and the blind card system was entertaining as well. Based on just two games Wave seems to make a decent job at being a co-op card game. 

Our first attempt we lost real bad, with easily over twenty or even twenty-five cards left in play. Second game when we actually had any idea what we were doing, we actually got down to just one card remaining in play, so yay for that.

Munchkin

A three player game of Munchkin. I took the lead early on, which... is not exactly a good thing in Munchkin. I got hammered down fast, and didn't rise again as a human cleric, always dragging a level or two behind others. Game was won by Halfling... thief, I think?

 The stars aligned, and we saw the giant nose get killed by potion of halitosis. 

Joking Hazard

Well, you know how this goes. We had three players, and game ended in a curiously even 12/11/11.

Leech Infestation

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Wedge Recover Evidence

Schemes: Scout the Rooftops, Frame Job, Reshape the Land

My list:

Rusty Alyce, Trigger Happy & 2x Hollow Waifs
Marlena Webster
Desolation Engine
Ashes and Dust
Hard Stop Herbert
2x Scavenger

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Kastore, Fervent & 2x Urn Bearers
Gwyll
Leech King
Athorak
2x Cavern Nephilim
Blood Vessel
Giant Leech

Pool: 3

Turn 1: Amalgam picked Frame Job with Ashes and Dust, Returned took Scout the Rooftops

My first activation was to go and bait Frame Job with Ashes and Dust by scaling the model to a building in the middle, and slapping down a scheme marker that might work as a Scout the Rooftops marker. 

Neverborn wasn't too interested with the Ashes and Dust, until Kastore went to pick up a strategy marker nearby, and did some damage with a bonus action. 

Kastore took a severe enough beating from Desolation Engine that an Urnbearer lured him back to safety.

Leech King summoned a Giant Leech next to Ashes and Dust, which was eventually shot to pieces by Rusty Alyce.

Hard Stop Herbert picked up my strategy marker for this turn.

Late in the turn someone pushed Ashes and Dust away from the building. Cavern Nephilims and the hired Giant Leech scored two points from Scout the Rooftops.

And since there was a building in the middle, and deployment was Wedge, both players had easy time claiming the extra point from strategy.

It was a 4-4 opening for both players.

Turn 2: Amalgam picked Scout the Rooftops, Returned took Grave Robbing

After hired Giant Leech came to engage Rusty Alyce, A Hollow Waif went to drop a scheme marker four scouting and gave a soulstoned warning cry for Alyce, who was able to shoot the Giant Leech dead with one shot.

Desolation Engine charged Urnbearer and Leech King, leaving the Urnbearer with just one health remaining.

Most of Neverborn crew started relocating to the right after I had moved Ashes and Dust on the ramparts. There was also a Scavenger up there. Kastore came to beat up the minion, but didn't score a kill. In fact, Neverborn scored no kills this turn, which had them lose a strategy point this turn. However, damage done was prohibitively extensive. Scavenger was at three, Herbert at two and Ashes and Dust had lost half of their health as well.

Rusty Alyce had to walk, bonus and drop two schemes. Another Scavenger and the Hollow Waif had all placed enough markers to get two points from Scout the Rooftops, but then Leech King summoned a Giant Leech to Alyce, and the Giant Leech summoned a Giant Leech to Rusty Alyce. 

Oh well. 

Outcasts took the lead with 6-4.

Turn 3: Amalgam picked Detonate Charges, Returned took Make It Look Like an Accident

Returned had easy time doing Make It Look Like an Accident, when Urnbearer lured Scavenger from top of the ramparts, into her own hazardous aura, leaving him with just one health remaining - thus unable to activate without dying. Someone eventually did kill him though to get a strategy marker.

Kastore Murdered Hard Stop Herbert, and either him or Blood Vessel picked up the strategy.

Athorak was able to cleave a Hollow Waif dead with just one strike, although I don't remember who picked up the strategy. 

Desolation Engine charged the Urnbearer who had just one point left, and managed to kill her but it took all his action points. Scavenger had to shuffle round to come and pick it up, after which he was mauled by Leech King and a Cavern Nephilim. 

Another Hollow Waif picked up a strategy marker that had been left a turn before.

Marlena Webster charged a Leech on the building in the middle, killed it and picked strategy right away. So that was an intense turn with the strategy, but in the end both got a point.

Rusty Alyce shot random damage here and there. I should have focused solely on Athorak, but instead the bullets were spread between him and Leech King. She summoned an Abomination to Athorak, though. Unless I completely misremember, but I think she did five damage to Leech King and five damage to Athorak with just two hits. 

Detonate Charges didn't take too much effort, so scores continued with a two point lead for Outcasts, 9-7.

Turn 4: Amalgam took Runic Binding, Returned took Breakthrough

Early enough I took the singular point from Runic Binding. 

Gwyll had put a scheme marker to Neverborn Deployment, and Blood Vessel put one on the centerline where I really couldn't reach it. 

Kastore wrecked Ashes and Dust. I was afraid that he might get a no-heal token, so I let the guy fall with the first strike. He also killed the Abomination that had been summoned. I ran Dust Storm to block the picking up of the strategy marker.

I don't quite remember how I killed the Giant Leech, but I wasn't able to pick up the strategy during the same activation. Cavern Nephilim ran to block picking it up.

Oh alright, that's the game we're playing. I ran Marlena Webster to block picking up the marker that Dust Storm was already protecting. Well, opponent still had Lure's available, so that's why.

Athorak went to place a scheme marker to my deployment, so Rusty Alyce ran right next to it.

Because of the hunger shenanigans Leech King was able to reach my deployment anyway to drop a Breakthrough marker.

Neither crews got strategy, but both go full points from their schemes. But that was just one for Outcasts, so the game ended in a narrow 10-9 victory for Rusty Alyce.

This Is Not a Breakthrough

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Corner Recover Evidence

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Search the Area, Breakthrough

My list:

Jack Daw, Spirit of Betrayal & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Kari Zotiko
2x Hanged
Crooked Man
Guilty

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Kara
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 1

Turn 1: Tormented picks Breakthrough, Honeypot takes Leave Your Mark

Hanged and Guilty placed two scheme markers, Montresor watched Crooked Man to make a leap at one of them, and then during Crooked Man's own activation he did the same for the second marker to get in range to interact and pick up the strategy.

At least it took Beckoner and Mr. Graves some effort to get an Illuminated in range to do the same for Ten Thunders.

Since Ten Thunders looked like they were trying to assault Crooked Man with shenanigans, Jack Daw activated and brought the undead miner a little further into safety, and slapped injustice upgrade on Gwyneth as well.

Since opponent had not been trying to reach the center point until the very end of the turn, I was out of tools to deny Leave Your Mark... or was I? Kari used silver whistle to give a walk for another Hanged, and then the minion charged Kara and Hungering Darkness, who had been doing the scheming business. My idea was to score rams or tomes for the melee attack to block at least one point from Ten Thunders, but the attack missed. Bonus did hit, slowing Kara as well as giving her staggered.

Lynch charged the Crooked Man, but brings him only down to two remaining.

So, Ten Thunders took the lead with 3-1, since both scored strategy and Resurrectionists took Breakthrough just to abandon it.

Turn 2: Tormented picks Assassinate on Kara, Honeypot takes Take the Highground

Kara was in big trouble. I had a thirteen and a black joker in hand, and she was still staggered. Montresor charged and hit with both attacks, bringing her down to two remaining. Cursed to Watch gave an action for the Hanged, who had to use the black joker to secure kill. Assassination scored.

However, Illuminated was able to kill the Crooked Man and collect the evidence. Hanged did the same for Kara's evidence, and dropped a scheme for two thirds of my next turn's schemes.

Hungering Darkness and Lynch both had miserable activations, missing most of their attacks. Resurrectionists had better success, but they were burning through their soulstones with reckless abandon. This maxed out the injustice upgrades, targets being Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Gwyneth and Illuminated. None of them were able to get rid of their upgrades just yet.

Another Illuminated and a Beckoner took positions on high ground, and so was Mr. Graves who had been sitting on top of a terrain since turn one. 

Although Ten Thunders were occupying enough terrain to get two points from Take the Highground, Gwyneth invited Montresor to play at Mr. Graves's table, thus getting his nasty aura away from any upgraded enemy models.

Resurrectionists managed to catch up a little, but game was still 5-4 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 3: Tormented picks Runic Binding, Honeypot makes it look like an accident

Jack Daw activates first, and removes Hungering Darkness with Drawn to Betrayal. He shot an Illuminated down to two health remaining, although Lynch who went down to seven health remaining was a juicy target, too. I just didn't want to scare him away from between my scheme markers.

The damaged Illuminated activated right away, but failed to do anything meaningful - except give Runic Binding for Resurrectionists.

Montresor walked to get at least two models under his aura, but failed remaining actions. 

Lynch also suffered a multitude of rams, but at least he got a point from Make It Look Like an Accident by forcing Guilty to fall, and summoned Hungering Darkness back. Guilty then legged it as far as it could, but Kitty managed to drag it back for Hungering Darkness to charge and kill with the crew bonus. 

Gwyneth eventually came to pick up the strategy marker from the Guilty. However, a Hanged was able to finish off the already activated Illuminated, scored Reposition so that it could move from melee with Hungering Darkness, pick up the strategy marker and pull Hungering Darkness back into melee. 

Kari and Hanged were able to finish off Lynch. Another Illuminated went to place schemes for next turn, and Beckoner seemed to be doing the same.

While Ten Thunders did get two points from their scheme, they didn't get a point this turn from Strategy. Scores tied at 7-7.

Turn 4: Tormented picked Leave Your Mark, Honeypot wanted to Reshape the Land.

We played only a few activations in, as Jack Daw was able to pick up marker from Lynch, kill Hungering Darkness again and pick up it's marker as well. Beckoner committed to Reshaping the Land, after which Kari went to stand on the center point and dropped a second marker for Leave Your Mark. She tolled Mr. Graves into a corner and tied him up with a Drowned. I still had eight action points plus signatures left to do my scheme. While there was a fleeting chance Ten Thunders might deny a point from Leave Your Mark, it was next to impossible to deny both.

So it became a 10/9-8 win for Jack Daw.