Confession

 I have a serious confession to make.

I haven't been faithful to the general idea of this blog, which is to make at least some kind of a note about each and every tabletop game I play.

Well, I haven't been doing that with Exploding Kittens. The reason is that I didn't want to fill the blog with irregularly regular rounds of Exploding Kittens that consist of exactly one game with two players.

So, maybe some twenty or so Exploding Kittens have faded into oblivion, and in the following years to come I will never be able to know for sure if I played Exploding Kittens on May 2022. Oh no!

(But I will know that one round was played 28th of September.)

Welcome to Greatest Show on Ear... Somewhere

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Cursed Objects

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Load 'Em Up, Vendetta, Public Demonstration, In Your Face

My list:

Seamus with Whisper & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Mortimer
Bete Noire with Grave Spirit Touch
2x Rotten Belle
2x Dead Dandy

Stones: 3
Schemes: Load 'Em Up (scheme), Public Demonstration (Belles & Dandies)

Opponent had:

Colette Dubois & 3x Mechanical Doves
Cassandra Felton
Carlos Vasquez
Angelica Durand
Coryphee Duet
2x Showgirl
Mannikin

Stones: 1
Schemes: In Your Face, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Dead Dandy and a Rotten Belle try to flank from the right where Colette and Vasquez were with Mortimer somewhere in between those two and my main Redchapel blob. Rotten Belle was a little too effective at engaging enemy henchmen and/or leaders - Showgirl lured her a bit forwards, and right next Vasquez beat her down to one health and a ton of burning remaining. 

Copycat Killer was sent in from the left to offer free reign for Seamus on that flank. Well, Coyphee Duet came to butcher the little totem with just one charge attack.

At least Seamus managed to land in a severe injury to Coryphees before they were off to their business. 

My main blob in the middle was Madame, Seamus and Bete Noire farther up the board, followed closely by another Rotten Belle and Dead Dandy. Mortimer was trying to find a purpose for his existence after dropping a corpse marker for Bete Noire's Blasphemous Ritual. But as of now he was just standing alone, not near enough to support middle or right. 

A Showgirl, Angelica, Cassandra and Mannequin were somewhat hindered by terrain, or maybe they were just hiding from Seamus' gun. 

But yeah, losing two models first turn when already being outnumbered was a little worrisome for me.

Turn 2:

Come round two, all hell broke loose. It was like both crews were tossed in a blender and shuffled around the board.

Dead Dandy on the right was first to activate and decided to pick up his shoes and quietly backtrack away from Vasquez. 

I didn't want any foul trickery to cause Mannequin to activate close enough to Coryphee Duet to do any healing, so Seamus activated, walked for a bit, concentrated and shot the thing down and still finding time to plant a scheme marker within 1" of center point.

Colette Presto-Chango'ed Mortimer next to herself and a Showgirl past the centerline, safe from any current threats. A Mechanical Dove casually Red Jokers damage on Mortimer. Damn those birds are terrifying, since this wasn't the first time they were doing serious damage. Soon I will overestimate the threat they offer.

Anyway, Cassandra Felton enters mid-field aided by Angelica, takes away my scheme and places her own. Dead Dandy rushes forward to make that scheme into a corpse. 

Mortimer makes a zombie and tries to attack Carlos with meager results, except triggering Butterfly Jump. Carlos then breathes a pyre marker on Seamus.

Showgirl then lures Dead Dandy into the pyre.

Madame Sybelle tanks Coryphee Duet but not Mechanical Dove. She also lashed a couple points of damage to the Duet.

Bete Noire attacks Angelica Durand and while she makes decent amount of damage, she is thrown off the stage next to showgirl that had originally been placed to where Mortimer started turn.

What a confusing turn, with a lot of scheme marker planted and almost as many scheme markers taken away. Rotten Belle was my last model to activate and she ran as close to Cassandra as possible.

Scores go 0-2 for Resurrectionists from strategy and Public Demonstration.

Turn 3:

Third round things became even more chaotic.

Bete Noire kills showgirl with bonus attack from trail of gore, walks and interacts a scheme. Dead Dandy on the right takes a double walk and uses proper murder mystery on a corpse marker.

Cassandra spent time loaning pyre markers from Vasquez and breathing fire of her own on Dandy and Rotten Belle. Catastrophic news is that Seamus now touches two pyre markers. 

Coryphee Duet moves a bit with Angelica's help, splits itself and the active Coryphee walks behind a wall to lock Seamus in place. 

Seamus must activate, and he concentrates to get rid of distracted. Then he takes a swing at the engaging Coryphee, which results in a kill. And then he has to do it again with the ensuing Mannequin. Finally he is free to deny Performers from scoring Leave Your Mark! Oh wait, no he can't - another Dead Dandy had formed a scheme marker out of a corpse a bit earlier.

Oh well. He then just takes a walk away from the hazardous markers with only Burning +8!

The other Coryphee wrecks Dead Dandy, securing opponent a strategy point.

Colette Presto-Changos Carlos (who I think wasted his activation in fighting Mortimer ineffectually) and Rotten Belle and then uses False Reality to place Mortimer in between those dreadful pyre marker. 

Madame had probably been attacking Coryphee Duet.

Mortimer charges a dove and digs up a zombie.

Opponent reveals Leave Your Mark and both of us had strategy this round, so scores go 2-3 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Mortimer goes to spawn a scheme marker up there somewhere, but is then Presto-Changoed back to the action and Cassandra goes right next to my precious scheme marker. 

It was either Cassandra of Vasquez who put another pyre marker on Seamus. Will this never end?!

Madame Sybelle kills Angelica Durand for a strategy point and somehow ends up in the forest. 

But at least two .5 pint halflocks later Cassandra is no more. But Seamus sits at Burning +10, which I think is my personal burning record.  Dead Dandy comes to assist some burning off of Seamus and turns a corpse into a sixth scheme marker on opponent's table side. 

Bete Noire takes a deep dive into middle and hits Colette for half of her damage as well as removing arcanist scheme marker that was within 4" of center point.

Carlos and Mannequin had placed scheme markers to secure Leave Your Mark end condition.

Scores go 3-5 since both scored strategy and Resurrectionists also got Load 'Em Up.

Turn 5:

Last turn Seamus got a little too effective. First he shot Showgirl dead for my last strategy point, loaded up a corpse into his gun and shot Colette off the board. Not dead, mind you, just buried. This wasn't especially clever since she had already activated and I would've needed her on board to score Public Demonstration.

Opponent kills Mortimer after Seamus' dubious performance and of course I had brought him close enough for opponent to score In Your Face.

I couldn't remove scheme markers from opponent, but at least Seamus was easily within range of Load 'Em Up.

Scores jump to 6-7, quite a catch-up for Arcanists.

Loyal Hats with No Rats

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy:  Flank Carve a Path

Schemes: Breakthrough, Leave Your Mark, Sabotage, Public Demonstration, In Your Face

My list:

Hamelin & Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Disease Containment Unit
Obedient Wretch
Rat Catcher
Catalan Rifleman
2x Malifaux Rat

Stones: 7

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration (Wretch, Catcher, Rifleman)

Opponent had:

Asami & Amanjaku
Ama No Zako
Shadow Emissary
Wanyudo
Obsidian Oni
Yokai
Katashiro

Stones: 5

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

First round Ten Thunders came in aggressively kicking the path carvers - so much so that both were on my table side at the end of turn. 

This was bad news for the plague models that were figuring out scheme markers for Benny. In the end I messed up my plans and activation orders and got only two rats of of my scheme markers. I also didn't have time for crew rats to concentrate before forming Rat King because there was a threat of Wanyudo shooting rats.

As is customary for me, I had made a huge bottleneck of my models in the middle. I was also worrying a bit of Asami summoning Obsidian Oni, so to do at least something productive Hamelin walked to kick one strategy marker which Nix continued to push forward. 

At the end of turn one my positioning was terrible. Nix was far away from anything to offer his sweet auras, Catalan Rifleman was in the frontline and Stolen were on the other side of continent from Hamelin.

That Rat King better be worth it.

Turn 2:

Wanyudo charges in to further bottleneck my crew, blocking the easy advance of Benny, Rat Catcher and Rat King as well as dropping a Pyre marker. Consequences could have been disastrous but fortunately I was able to remove the wheel from the board.

Disease Containment Unit and Obedient Wretch were not enough of a resistance against Shadow Emissary and Katashiro, but at least there were no casualties other than Ten Thunders getting both of their strategy markers like 2" away from being on my deployment zone.

Catalan Rifleman went to place a scheme marker in the middle for Leave Your Mark, but Asami came to bully him by eating his scheme marker and then placing her own. She also summoned two Tengus whose dark bargains were put to good use.

Ama No Zako came to play football with my strategy marker that Hamelin and Nix had been pushing around. This forced Hamelin to get away from the central action (and Stolen, by the way) to score me strategy for this round.

Scores go 1-2 for Ten Thunders when opponent reveals Leave Your Mark of his own.

Turn 3:

Unfortunately I have missed taking a picture of turn three so details might be off. 

But what I do remember is that I got Nix and his Loose Bowels aura to a nasty position even after messing up his placement last round. This could have been super impactful, but Asami's hair couldn't bear the stench and pushed the dog some 12" away from everything and summoned more Tengus. 

Already weakened Obsidian Oni places scorches the earth around it so that Rat King, Rat Catcher, Benny and a couple of Malifaux Rats would be having painful activations if I wasn't able to destroy the Oni.

I don't remember what actually killed Obsidian Oni, but at least Catalan Rifleman was shooting it, bringing it down to one health remaining. That isn't so impressive as it only had two health remaining at that point. It was either Benny or vomiting Stolen.

Ama No Zako and Hamelin quarrel the entire round, which in itself was bad trade for Hamelin.

Rat King nibbled Asami away one tiny bite at a time, and both Obedient Wretch and Rat Catcher parked themselves in near vicinity of enemy master for Public Demonstration.

Disease Containment Unit and dragon were duking it out, and while the unit proved itself resilient, it didn't matter much when there was a Yokai jumping around trashing the place and bringing enemy strategy markers to my deployment zone.

A super accurate vomit made by one of the Stolen denies Ten Thunders what looked like trying to score Breakthrough.

But since Ama No Zako had tied up Hamelin and dragon made my other flank kind of busy, outcasts scored only Public Demonstration this round, while Ten Thunders easily got strategy, getting scores to 2-3.

Turn 4:

Fourth turn there is a plague onslaught.

Tengus start disappearing. Ama No Zako dies. Katashiro dies (or maybe that was last round?) Amanjaku dies. Even Asami dies. So it's easy game for Hamelin now, right? Right?

Well, at least scoring last point from Public Demonstration was now impossible, and I had already missed one strategy point.

Outcasts still can't get access to the important bits to limit opponent's points. Nothing I can do to enemy strategy markers, but at least finally both of my strategy markers are on the opponent's table side. Scheme marker in middle also secures me Leave Your Mark.

Outcasts get strategy and Leave Your Mark, getting to 4 points. But this doesn't even the score when Ten Thunders also get strategy and reveal Breakthrough.

4-5 it is.

Turn 5:

Nix gets one strategy marker to Ten Thunders deployment, and planting scheme markers near center point isn't problematic.

Yokai spams scheme markers to my deployment zone before disappearing. Tengu tries to give Slow to Obedient Wretch but fails to do so.

This made it possible for Wretch to walk to remove one scheme marker.

So it was a tough game, and illustrates one thing I particularly enjoy in Malifaux: last round opponent has one model remaining while I have more models on board than at the start of game. But that tells nothing of how the game was played or who won.

Luma Down

 Lantern Year 19 showdown - King's Man level 2

Defenders of the settlement are Agyruu, Laifuseuskaja, Menoloromias and Hovelina. 

Showdown starts nicely enough when Laifuseuskaja picks +1 permanent evasion right from round two and giving the adversary -1 speed token.

But time is of essence against King's Man, and only Laifuseuskaja is dealing damage reliably. 

So, come fifth turn, three out of four survivors start to lose their mind. Agyruu receives new perspective once Menoloromias uses his re-roll to save our support... and Hovelina and Menoloromias both get danger seizures. I was actually waiting for this for Hovelina since Immortal is starting to be kind of troublesome. So, out of the entire deck, what she receives? Well... what can I say. It appears she's destined to be Immortal.

Even if the survivors were not in real danger, I wanted to make haste as I didn't want to waste Laifuseuskaja's re-roll on saving him from a mere brain trauma. 

In the heat of the moment I just burned out all of Laifuseuskaja's survival points. And there, at the end of sixth round, King's Man was already dead with zero wounds being done by anyone else other than Laifuseuskaja. Yeah, not even one. Not even the last one. So. There we are. Enerva's superior super survivor essentially dead after five showdowns unless I figure out something... Ugh.

Menoloromias had tried to grind himself King's Step and got to four tempo tokens, though. But it was Laifuseuskaja who received the secret fighting art - through gaining Regal Plackart.

Lantern Year 20 - Cracks in the Ground

Settlement finds a Founding Stone, but not after wasting every single re-roll at their disposal apart from that of Laifuseuskaja's. 

Then, settlement finds the threat from beneath the lantern hoard.

Lepuri finally understood the meaning of his encounter with Lamplighter. His lantern was snuffed out so that he could have the strength to venture down - and there he realized that he was, in fact, immortal. Already two immortals in the settlement, though. I hope it's not a case of "there can be only one".

1: Settlement innovates Song of the Brave
2: Laifuseus tells people to make more re-rolls, and that's what Tranch and Nodaanna did. Welcome, Noch. When they do this on their own it doesn't work out as well and Nodaanna dies. Tranch receives Narcissistic disorder... this guy dares to gain Narcissistic disorder when Laifuseuskaja could have saved himself from turning into a King's Man with that...!
3: Noch is baptized in Scarification ritual for Tough fighting art. 
4: Cracks in the Ground cause Hovelina to fail in her training of bow proficiency and gain +1 accuracy instead.
5: Same happens for Menoloromias, except that he gains Strength.
6-7: Scrap Smelting for Iron
8: Unkho dies from inhaling vapors.
9-10: Laifuseuskaja tries some Augury, but nothing comes out of it.
11: Shrine Ritual is success
12: War Room plan is made.

Lantern Year 20 hunt & showdown: Sunstalker level 2

Since I have to save Laifuseuskaja's potential for various upcoming Nemesis fights, I don't have the guts to step up my encounters just yet. Let's see how this one goes first.

Hovelina, Menoloromias, Syllogi and Noch begin the hunt. Noch had to be taken in as I didn't want to lose Hovelina to Knowledge Worm. Turned out I wouldn't have needed Noch in the first place, Hovelina became a necromancer without breaking a sweat.

Hovelina loses her delusions of immortality after seeing cradling skeletons. Dry lands has survivors lose some survival but gain Iron - and then. Madflies. Nope, nope, nope. War Room re-roll is instantly used. I have some real bad experiences with that event... instead, survivors find Corpse which has even a heavier toll on survival levels of the party. 

Mineral gathering gives some damage and broken lantern.

Some survival is regained through multiple path of the brave during Overwhelming Darkness, and even more during Sonorous Rest. 

Last hunt event is Crackling Sunstorm, which guarantees maximum survival for survivors in the end.

Showdown?

Well it starts off rather annoyingly with Sunstalker burping out a bubble and hitting Menoloromias with all four attacks. Then there is trap in the first batch of Necromancer's Eyed hit locations. Syllogi has Double Dash, so he's the one aiming to get some salt mined. 

Hovelina crits twice (gaining priority target in the process) and then Menoloromias attempts to fish out the trap, succeeding. He takes a hit to the head.

With Sunshark Bite coming up next I started to have anxious feeling I wouldn't be able to do this without dreaded severe injuries. Hovelina kept raining death on Sunstalker, dealing criticals left and right. However, one of the crits placed her permanently in darkness. And next I had to pick Prism Dehydration that otherwise would have been pretty much a free turn.

... and then, just as the showdown was starting to get interesting, Sunstalker deflated like a balloon. Even did the same noise. 

Hovelina took a couple of successful volleys against the beast and one mood and two cards on the sun track meant a surprise victory. Fine, I guess?

Lantern Year 21 - Nickname

Hovelina ended up as the Shining Coward of the Antelope. Could have been worse I suppose, that accuracy is always good with clawhead arrow.

Syllogi became Dingle Savior of the Lantern.

Menoloromias is also known as Wise Savior of the Antelope.

Noch is just Dingle Coward of the Lantern.

To my dismay I noticed that I still cannot complete prismatic armor set, as I lack the most common resource from Sunstalker's deck - small sunteeth.

Out of spite settlement then develops Shadow Saliva Shawl and Cycloid Scale Shoes.

Settlement seems to be starved of bone, too, and thus I cannot make beacon shields just yet.

1: Settlement innovated Face Painting as Enerva is low on re-rolls.
2-4: Ain't easy, painting those faces. It took three endeavors to gain +1 on intimacy.
5: Syllogi's matchmaker results in Hunree and Tranaloka making a new baby Hunoka.
6: Settlement makes leather.
7: Menoloromias attempts augury for intimacy - fails, but becomes Tinkerer instead.
8: Menoloromias' insight gave extra endeavor, and Zoronuro tried to do augury, failing just as well.
9: Shrine ritual is success.
10: War Room plan is made.

Then it's last hunt before the terrifying double test of Butcher level 3 and Manhunter level 4 in the same year. I really want that prismatic armor, so Sunstalker it is once again even with exact same team.

Lantern Year 21 hunt & showdown: Sunstalker level 2

Cuddling Skeletons yield the highly coveted small sunteeth. Solar winds give Unconscious Fighter for Syllogi, but also melts monster grease away.

Rotten Faces shave off a few points of survival from each survivor, but at least Trollbird promised to ambush the monster. 

Pickaxe got destroyed while digging for some iron. Remaining events were inconsequential and showdown started with an ambush.

Some annoying reactions failed to make the ambush a game-ending success story, but at least salt was easy to obtain.

In fact, all damage to survivors came from traps and reactions. And survivors getting greedy - when Sunstalker was about to die and trap had been fished out, Menoloromias just surged blindly for the killing blow. Turned out trap was fourth card from the deck. 

Noch had to spend her re-roll to save her life, and Menoloromias had to skip next hunt. But no permanent injuries, thankfully.

Lantern Year 22 - Lights in the Sky

Lights are certainly a blessing. But the continued lack of bones is not. I had hoped I'd get to make Skleaver or Denticle Axe this campaign, but apparently not. Well, at least settlement now has full set of Sunstalker armor.

1: Settlement innovates Saga because of the upcoming fight with level 3+ Manhunter.
2: Face Painting succeeds
3: Syllogi's matchmaker for Hunree and Tranaloka gives settlement Tranaree, but eating love juice afterwards kills Hunree even after a re-roll.
4: Nightmare Training for Menoloromias gives +1 weapon proficiency.
5: Tranaree gains Tough from scarification.
6-8: Auguries that give three intimacies, with four babies born and two parents dead.
9: Luma finally heals her intestinal prolapse with bloodletting. 
10: Voxanius tries to cure his Squamish disorder but fails even with +3 to his roll. 
11: War Room plan is made.
12: Shrine Ritual is success
13: Scarification for Chanial, Gambler's Scar!
14: Scarification for Pheboka, not losing any toes though.

Then is the (possibly) final encounter with Manhunter.

Special Showdown - Manhunter level 4

Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina, Luma and Tranaree defend the settlement.

What a first turn, though!

Tombstone did nothing, but the first AI card was Endless Barrage on Luma. This meant three severe injury rolls, two locations on heavy injury level and one location with only two armor points left. Fortunately severe injuries were light - only three bleed tokens and a -1 movement token.

Laifuseuskaja took a swing at Manhunter and mangled it's groin. Hovelina used clawhead arrow (failed to wound), and then launched a barrage of critical hits. One gave -2 accuracy tokens and +1 damage token for Manhunter, and another gave Manhunter's hat. 

Laifuseuskaja had to patch up Luma a little. Luma was able to score a wound with Sky Harpoon's special rule, which brought total wounds done count to four. Not good.

Necromancer's Eye revealed trap coming right up, too. But there was also this -2 accuracy for gun action persistent injury in the batch, so I played extra carefully for a while, trickling only two wounds in per turn. 

Laifuseuskaja had to take one reaction in that gave random severe with +1 to roll. His shoulder was dislocated, which meant no more Counterweighed Axe for him. But at least he was able to start banging Manhunter with his shield, then. 

After the initial misfortunes damage started piling up on Manhunter. Hovelina who had Transcended Masochist fighting art tried to get Eternal Will from death pit, succeeding at that.

Then Manhunter died. 

Extra strength roll was botched, though. 

But then it is time to go for an actual hunt.

Lantern Year 22 hunt & showdown - Flower Knight level 3

Hovelina, Tranaree, Menoloromias and Zoronuro (who drank the Crimson Vial) begin the quest for the holy flower.

Manstealers ate Zoronuro's genitals away, and survivors skipped spaces until encountering Gracious Aroma from Forest Wants What It Wants.

After the middle space what was left of Zoronuro's genitals is carried off again by the manstealers and then the showdown starts.

Beginning was a bit worrying as the very first attack brought in heavy injury levels for Zoronuro, and I was able to deal only one to two wounds in per turn. Rawhide Headband was offering choices between A Thousand Cuts and Exterminate, so I was quickly in a worse situation I had been with the Sunstalkers and on par to that with Manhunter.

But once Hovelina got within 5+ crit range, she started dealing Laifuseuskaja level of wounds in to the forest knight. Eventually critting on 3+. she emptied Flower Knight resource deck. 

Lantern Year 23 - Murder!

Well. Looks like Otherworldly Luck that Luma received in fight against Manhunter was only otherworldly. Menoloromias murdered her! He must have thought there can be only one spear master, although he still has two points of proficiency to go.

At least murderer wasn't banished, he just went into darkness and came back with delusions of immortality.

Lepuri eats the Lantern Bud and both Warbling Blooms are planted as people.

Settlement develops Beacon Shield and Bone Pickaxe

1: Settlement has to innovate Settlement Watch from a batch of horrible innovations.
2-5: Endeavors at Face Painting to bring bonus to +3.
6: Matchmaker for a baby.
7-13: Auguries for two Intimacies that makes two babies.
14-15: Scarifications for Traalus and Nodanch
16: Settlement makes leather.
17: Settlement builds Stone Circle
18: Shrine ritual is success. 

Now that must have been some sort of record on endeavors. And would have been even more if Zoronuro wouldn't have received Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from manstealers.

Tinkers, Cooking and Collective Toil started the settlement phase with 10 endeavors. Four more from Lantern Bud and Luma's murder. Insights from five and Bolds from two survivors brought the remaining four endeavors. Although it's a shame that so many were wasted on useless auguries. Out of seven I succeeded twice on a roll of 6+. (Otherworldly Luck + three points in Understanding.)

Next up is Butcher level 3 who shouldn't pose that much of a problem since Laifuseuskaja can still participate. But I'll end this streak of Kingdom Death now, I hope it takes a little less time to continue this campaign than last time.

Enerva settlement

Population 40, Survival limit 13 (manhunter hooch), +4 on depart (+6 vs nemesis) (+3 survival, insanity from Knowledge Worm) +monsterlevel on arrival 

Luma XXX otherworldly luck
Voxanius otherworldly luck XXX
Noctamum XXX
Laifuseuskaja 
Zoronuro XXX otherworldly luck
Konahim XXX
Nodalus, hamstrung XXX
Firbab the First Baby XXX
Lepuri XXX -1 permanent strength from Lamplighter, -1 survival. Dared to investigate beneath lanthern hoard on LY 20, +10 insanity +1 permanent strength and Immortal & Flower Addiction disorders. Ate the Lantern Bud.
Nossos, with Ambidextrous XXX
Kholkho, Burning Focus fighting art. XXX +3 insanity, Anxiety from lost companion.
Chantur XXX +3 insanity, 
Phenial XXX
Agyruu XXX
Tranaloka - found from silk nest XXX, +9 insanity, Vestiphobia, Hemophobia and Secretive from lost companions.
Noram XXX 
Hovelina XXX 
Mallestik XXX
Kholbab XXX
Pheruu XXX
Chanram XXX
Lojuba XXX 
Syllogi XXX
Tranch XXX, +3 insanity and Narcissistic from lost companion.
Noandalus XXX
Menoloromias, saved by Lojuba during Overwhelming Darkness XXX
Firbalus, Blinded via Scarification, +1 courage XXX
Undenial XXX
Noantur, destroyed genitals via scarification. +1 courage. XXX
Kholbea XXX
Noch, +1 courage and Tough from Scarification. XXX
Hunoka XXX
Tranaree, +1 perm. strength, +1 courage, Tough (Has done scarification)
Pheboka, +2xp, +3understanding, +2 courage, +1 perm. accuracy (insight) (Has done scarification)
Phentur +2xp, +3understanding, +2 courage, Mammoth Hunting
Chanial +2xp, +3understanding, +3 courage, , +1 perm. accuracy (insight), +1 luck,  Tough (age) (Has done scarification)
Voegoran Warbling, Flower Addiction (not resolved) (Insight done) Blotted Out (age)
Nagravarkele Warbling,  Flower Addiction (not resolved) (Insight done) +1 accuracy (age)
Traalus +1strength (insight) (bold done) (Blinded from Scarification) Otherworldly Luck (age)
Nodanch +2 accuracy (insight & age) (bold done) (Tough from Scarification)
Lepram, (insight done), Heroic (age)

1x Muscly Gums
1x Shank Bone
Fertility Tentacle

2x Prismatic Gills
1x Shadow ink gland (organ)
2x Cycloid Scales (hide)
3x 1000 year sunstone
1x Salt

1x Bladder
1x Beast Steak
1x Fresh Acanthus
6x Broken Lantern

1x Monster Bone

1x Lonely Ant
1x Web Silk

11x Leather

8x Iron
1x Lichen

It just had to come vol III

 Had a 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Cursed Objects

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark, Set the Trap, Vendetta

My list:

Jack Daw & Ligeia
Montresor
Johan Creedy
Catalan Brawler
Hanged
Dead Outlaw
Guilty

Stones: 7
Schemes: Vendetta (Dead Outlaw on Iggy), Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Pandora2 & Poltergeist
Candy
The Carver
Hooded Rider
Iggy
Aversion
Wicked Doll

Stones: 6
Schemes: Assassinate, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Mistakes were made. 

I clumped up my models even there was Candy in opposing team... My last encounter with her wasn't that bad, so I had not learned the fear in its full extent.

Once opponent had moved Cnady with Hooded Rider, and given her Fast, I started to worry for a bit. I decided to launch Hanged on suicide mission, and managed to tie Candy in melee until Aversion activated. Only thing I could figure out was to make double walk with Jack Daw and use Drawn to Betrayal to re-engage Candy.

That did buy me some time.

Turn 2:

But in the end I could not delay Candy long enough for my crew to spread out. Nope, I had exactly two models outside of her devastating aura - Dead Outlaw and Hanged. 

It was the most hideous situation I've ever been in sixty or so games of Malifaux, but eventually it just had to come. I had to give up on second turn because the board state was hopeless in highest magnitude, and opponent agreed. Game was irrevocably lost after just a few activations, but we still played at least to the end of the turn to have something you could call a game. My "game" at that point was just to see if I'd be able to remove Candy. I couldn't.

At least there was some comfort in Iggy accidentally killing Jack Daw when opponent had Assassinate scheme. Woo hoo.

Life Leeching Like a Pro

Had a 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Guard the Stash

Scheme pool: Sabotage, Assassinate, Breakthrough, Public Demonstration, In Your Face

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
Jaakuna Ubume
Shikome
Gwisin
Onryo
Seishin

Stones: 8
Schemes: Sabotage, Breakthrough

Opponent had:

Titania2 & Gorar
Malisaurus Rex
2x Autumn Knight with Inhuman Reflexes
2x Waldgeist with Ancient Pact

Stones: 6
Schemes: In Your Face, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

For a wedge, first round was surprisingly peaceful. I brought Jaakuna Ubume, Grisin and Ikiryo to hang around the lower middle marker with Datsue Ba behind a wall, ready to go where needed. An Autumn Knight and Waldgeist were within a single walk distance of lower marker. Gorar was sitting in deployment zone.

Kirai summoned an Onryo that was nearly killed by another Autumn Knight. I thought it would be safe to place Lost Love with By Your Side to heal that Onryo, but I completely forgot how Malisaurus tramples over people. Saving Lost Love cost me Red Joker from my hand. Last Malisaurus uses tendrils to push the enforcer away from Protected range.

Upper middle marker had Autumn Knight contesting it, with Malisaurus and Titania close enough, so situation there was alarming.

Hired Onryo was going north, and Shikome went around 21" with the help of Seishin, high up on the board to close in with Sabotage target. A Waldgeist managed to charge Shikome and deal in a few points of damage.

Turn 2:

Neverborn gets Black Joker on initiative. The only way for me to win initiative in this matchup. 

Onryo manages to land no-heals on Malisaurus Rex and I vow to remove the thing this turn. And I did this via two attacks from Onryo, three attacks from Ikiryo, two spirit barrages from Kirai and a balanced sword and violent ghosts attack from Goryo. 

Or at least in my fantasies I did that. No, after all of that, the thing was still sitting with nine health remaining. There is a smiley for this somewhere. Oh yeah, here it is: 

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

If we discount the Shielded+2 that was given to Malisaurus, five points of damage in total still was not impressive. Malisaurus kills Lost Love with two swings, and upper Autumn Knight kills the summoned Onryo.

Shikome disengages from Waldgeist and moves inside the building, but the thing just climbs over size 1 obstacle and continues to beat my minion. Hired Onryo disengages from Malisaurus and is trying to come to aid, but is still way too far to be of any help. 

Jaakuna Ubume had charged a championed Autumn Knight, and nearly killed herself. Datsue Ba also charges the knight, also getting her knife parried back. 

The Autumn Knight concentrates and tries to kill Jaakuna Ubume. She has focus from first turn, and I have two cards left in my deck. I suddenly realize I still got Red Joker coming, so she uses focus for defense. 

Gwisin had charged the lower Waldgeist to offer Take the Hit for Jaakuna, but I completely forgot about that ability until it was too late.

Both players score strategy for 1-1.

Turn 3:

Titania heals Malisaurus and lower Autumn Knight. Goryo tries to deny heals for the rex but fails. Malisaurus kills Ikiryo before she gets to activate and after rampage even manages to land a hit on Kirai.

 Situation in the middle was unbearable, but at least I lucked out with Shikome - she flipped Red Joker for damage on Waldgeist, and was able to interact a scheme marker with her second action. 

Onryo takes a double walk to control enemy top strategy marker. This probably triggered Gorar to come upwards, yet not close enough to deny Onryo's control. Lower Waldgeist disengages and runs past center line to my side. 

Gwisin was now free to advance and interact a scheme marker to enemy deployment zone.

Datsue Ba wastes her entire activation against Autumn Knight. Autumn Knight manages to land one hit against Jaakuna Ubume, and fortunately leaves her alive with one health. 

Seishin moves Kirai to contest my top marker from Malisaurus, and then Urami master uses shears on the beast rather effectively. At the end of the turn Malisaurus is down to four health.

Upper Autumn Knight tosses Goryo away and tries to challenge Kirai with proper suit, but since challenging is an attack action, it was transferred to Seishin instead. 

Opponent scores In Your Face from killing Ikiryo, and I get Breakthrough and strategy for 3-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Titania started by healing stuff, but at least there was so much stuff that needed healing that all of them didn't pile up on Malisaurus Rex. Goryo puts no-heal on Malisaurus and charges in for a few points of damage. Autumn Knight charges Kirai who now had seven health. Kirai puts both attacks and challenge on Goryo although this empties my entire hand.

Kirai then manages to shear Malisaurus down to one health. One health! With Kirai having Life Leech, that was a death sentence that came to fruition as one of the last activations. Phew! Was this the first time I succeeded to kill Malisaurus? (Well, yes it was, but I've faced it only thrice)

Gorar tries to kill Onryo but fails while Onryo succeeds to remove Titania's totem.

Jaakuna has the time to use Drowning Aura, but since both Autumn Knights had Inhuman Reflexes this didn't help much - it just charged over Jaakuna and she died to Blade Rush. 

Datsue Ba... yeah. This was the second turn in a row when she failed every single action, and the round before that she managed to take a few points of damage in herself while not dishing out any herself. 

Shikome goes to place a scheme marker close enough my selected sabotage building and within enemy deployment zone. Gwisin interacts a marker to enemy deployment and walks to contest lower middle marker. So it was no strategy points for anyone. However, Breakthrough for me put the game 4-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Titania kills Onryo from enemy top marker and probably caused the death of summoned Goryo. Datsue Ba manages to kill the damnable Autumn Knight, finally!

Waldgeist below comes and takes a charge at Kirai, landing her away from contesting strategy.

Gwisin removes enemy scheme marker and runs to contest bottom-right marker. We did not continue beyond this since it was clear that Kirai would go to contest strategy marker and Shikome would do the same and spawn a scheme marker in enemy deployment zone, getting final score to whopping 6-2. 

But yeah, the game was way tougher than score indicates. When turn three was starting I was sure I'd lose. 

Hybrid Warmachine

 Had a 50 point game of... Warmachine, I guess?

With the advent of Mk4, we wanted to give the new ruleset a try. However, available unit cards were few and far between, so we did a sort of a hybrid run. This means that absolutely nothing can be said about the balance of the game, only how the new ruleset feels and plays.

So, we played with the new rules but with old cards. No command cards either. Any AoE attacks would be 2, and blast damage halved rounded up +1. Max unit size 6, able to split a full ten sized unit into two units of five.

Based on this game, new core rules are okay. Game still feels familiar and Warmachiney. Unit movement was the most noticeable change. Lack of facing was the next one on the line, and that's actually the only thing that bothers me. The game has been streamlined so much in other parts that I don't see a reason why facing had to be removed. If back strike bonus was too strong it could have just been removed altogether. Two inches of melee range on a 50mm base is enormous engagement range - let alone on 80mm or 120mm.

But this was just one game with incorrect model rules. This meant that Unstoppable didn't exist at all, which is a rule that certainly mitigates the effectiveness of 360 degree engagement range. 

My list:

Cryx

Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
 - Erebus [13]
 - Inflictor [11]
 - Ripjaw [6]
 - Slayer [10]
Bane Lord Tartarus [5]
Ragman [3]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]
Warwitch Siren [3]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (min) [7]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [5]
Soulhunters (min) [10]

Opponent had:

Cygnar

Major Beth Maddox [+30]
- Firefly [7]
 - Hammersmith [12]
 - Ironclad [12]
 - Ironclad [12]
 - Lancer [8]
Black 13th Strike Force [7]
Rangers [7]
Stormguard Infantry (max) [15]

Scenario was Reinforcements from the new rulebook.

Cygnar started, and formed a long front with warjacks on the left, Stormguards in the middle and rangers and Black 13th on right.

Cryx was running as a one huge blob in the middle with Soul Hunters and Black Ogrun Boarding Party positioned to flank from right. 

Firefly managed to fry Ragman with electro leap. This was first time I used Ragman in years. Not impressed with him, I must say. Entire unit of Boarding Party was shot dead. Stormguards formed a screen for Cygnaran warjacks. Behind them were the light jacks, with heavies forming the third line.

Cryx loaded all helljacks to full and started carving through Cygnaran infantry. 

Inflictor opens and Asphyxious (who uses feat) open up a charge lane for Erebus to get to Cygnaran light warjacks. Damage and attack rolls are on the poor side, but both jacks are at least stationary. Tartarus joins the fight and evens out the bad rolls of Erebus - Firefly falls to three hit boxes left, with cortex gone. Tartarus kills a Stormguard with last attack as I thought immovable 40mm base essentially acted as a protection for me.

Slayer and Vociferon kill the last Stormguards. Asphyxious received eight souls from the swans.

Soulhunters go incorporeal and charge Black 13th. Incorporeal charges seem a bit obnoxious with the new unit movement rules. People die, and the cavalry repositions to engage as many targets as possible.

Blocking enemy heavies' charge lane with stationary Firefly proved far more effective than I ever hoped for - only Erebus was destroyed, pretty much. Two Soulhunters were also removed.

Much to Asphyxious' disappointment, Cygnaran focus had only amounted to three additional souls. Only eighteen focus to use, boo hoo. So... after Tartarus, Asphyxious, Inflictor, Slayer and Iron Mongers, Cygnar was down to one Ironclad. And that was mostly because Slayer had botched its rolls. 

Asphyxious was in the front, but had a focus camp of seven. He had also cast Cloak of Ash on himself.

Although that didn't help against Ironclad. Who managed to land a knockdown hit. Next came almost fully loaded Beth Maddox raining death on Asphyxious - but thanks to his focus camp he survived with around six boxes remaining. 

Tartarus took Cygnaran warcaster down with just one hit.

Once a king now a beggar

 Played a game of Carcassonne again. It was five players.

Early in the game I took a risky decision concerning a few farmers - three, in fact - and it was a gamble that didn't pay off. The fields looked really promising, but in the end the important field I "stole" with two farmers gave me one city worth of points. Third farmer got absolutely nothing because I never got a piece to expand to neighboring fields...

To make my matters worse, I ended up in a situation where I had zero workers left. I don't remember where I actually placed the last one, but I thought it was worth the risk involved. I had like three different spots that would give workers back to me. Needless to say, I never got those. Or the piece to expand my farm.

What I did get was monasteries, endless, endless monasteries where I couldn't place workers at all. 

There may have been some lessons learned.