Nostalgic Annihilation

Played a 50 point game of Warmachine earlier this week. It was a 50 point game with random scenario from main rulebook. It was Annihilation.

Skorne
Lord Arbiter Hexeris [+27]
- Agonizer [6]
- Basilisk Drake [8]
- Bronzeback Titan [17]
- Tiberion [19]
- Aptimus Marketh [5]
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor [4]
Legends of Halaak [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Venator Flayer Cannon Crew [5]

vs

Cygnar
Commander Coleman Stryker [+30]

- Ironclad [12]
- Lancer [10]
- Lancer [10]
Rorsh [15]
Rangers [9]
Steelhead Riflemen (min) [8]
Stormguard Infantry (max) [15]


Cygnar started. And I have to say Annihilation was a great change of focus. It was actually fun to play a simple scenario with no flags, objectives, zones and whatnot.

Sure, it's a poorly balanced scenario for those who want to meticulously calculate their wins at all cost - especially shooty list could have just sniped a single solo from my list and retreat for remaining rounds, in theory at least.

But at least here was a good match up.

Cygnar had a devastating start when I lost not one but two members of Legends of Halaak. I had forgotten about their no-knockdown ability and left one of them standing away from base contact. Earthquake fell, and then rangers started shooting. Def 16 didn't help against Rangers, though, and a lucky hit downed another Legend.

Hexeris used feat next, and I think it was okay turn. Six stormguards, three steelheads and four rangers fell.

Opponent got rid of Master Tormentor and the last remaining Legend and used following turn for positioning. Ironclad and Rorsh & Brine were flanking. Bronzeback Titan was looking scary enough and Brine didn't have the courage to charge him. Hexeris was caught by Ironclad, but used Repulsion to get away.

Stryker had his feat going on after losing one Lancer. Though Tiberion did fine work, even he wasn't able to wreck Lancer with +5 arm buff in one turn.

Brine finally engage with Pig Farm on. And I will probably have nightmares from those damage rolls for times to come, as they were absurd. Second last attack did only two points of damage or so, and last attack scored no damage. In all other damage rolls there was not a single die below four pips, with no shortage of fives and sixes.

Bronzeback was left with something like three hit boxes remaining.

And then Bronzeback frenzied. Well, at least he needed that Unyielding. But this fail check was a disaster.

I could have brought Tiberion to deal with Ironclad after Hexeris would destroy Lancer. Bronzeback could have killed Brine. But not when I wasn't able to activate it.

It was second last turn in game, so I decided to try assassination instead.

Hexeris destroyed Lancer but failed to drop boosted Black Spot on Blurred Stryker.

Then Basilisk Drake failed to hit, too.

Tiberion got a free charge against Stryker, but missed boosted charge attack. And all other attacks too, except for one that dealt five points in. I had three boosted POW 20 coming, hitting on 9+. One could have even had a damage boost. But only a single hit with poor damage. Oh, and obviously shield and tusk attacks missed, too.

And to rub it in, last attack that hit scored critical smite, which would have pretty much guaranteed a POW 14 spray hit from Basilisk Drake... that had already activated.

Earthquake knocked Hexeris down, and then Rorsh came to shoot Lord Arbiter very dead.

Effortless painting

I took a picture of these just to make a painting update.

What we have here is a piece of terrain (a cage of some sorts), three models and markers for Malifaux.

Models are rushed paintjobs with Citadel Contrast Colors. I'm pleased with the results considering how much time and effort went into making these. Which wasn't much of either. Models are not official ones. They're Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures or whatever those pre-primed D&D miniatures are called. Some of their scale matches that of Malifaux' quite nicely.

Then I made a multi-purpose markers for Malifaux. Kingdom Death bases are two pieces each, so they are like four-in-one markers now. Each of the eight markers can function as miscellaneous marker or Corpse, Scheme or Strategy marker.

Second Game of Malifaux

So I had my second game.

It was 35 soul stones. Is just added a Mindless Zombie to my crew, because last time I felt that one just... isn't enough.

We still kept the simple scenario of Reckoning.

Overall, the game went on slightly more fluidly than last time, with less time spent on scouring details from rulebook. Some form of tactical thinking may have also developed, since last game neither of us used Concentrate even once. This time it was used almost every turn with at least one model.

Maybe next time I'd feel confident enough to try a different scenario.

However, the game itself.

My team was:
Seamus + Copycat Killer
Rotten Belle
Bete Noire
Madame Sybelle
Mourner
Mindless Zombie

4 soulstones
Schemes: Power Ritual, Deliver a Message

vs.

Dr. McMourning + Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Kentauroi (with Grave Spirit's Touch)
Flesh Construct
Nurse

4 soulstones
Schemes: Power Ritual, Claim Jump (Flesh Construct)

We had corner deployment. I had this great plan to plant Mourner's corpse marker within 3" of corner, and eventually when Bete Noire would bury herself, she'd come up there and replace corpse with scheme marker and place schemes to both adjacent with dynamic duo of Seamus and Copycat Killer. Nice plan, eh?

Well, except that first activation in the whole game (flesh construct) gave me a hint that opponent was aiming for Power Ritual, too. And opponent had this horribly fast unit of Kentauroi.

Seamus took a shot against the Kentauroi and dealt a severe injury. I was surprised that the minion fell down to one hit point remaining. I had Red Joker in my hand, so I could have killed Kentauroi with one hit.

Good thing I did not. This prompted a reckless action from McMourning - he charged Seamus and replied in kind with four damage points and two poison counters. It was severe injury that I lowered with a soul stone. He still had one action remaining, so I used Red Joker for Seamus' defense. Even a minor injury with two poison counters would have eventually caused Seamus' death.

My Mourner comes to deliver a message to McMourning. There may have been some bad puns involved.

Bete Noire kept harassing Chihuahua. I just wanted an easy kill for Reckoning, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that even had Bete Noire succeeded, I would've gained nothing because of Chihuahua's Insignificant rule. Oh well. At least the doggie received some good pets.

Seamus killed Sebastian on the northern left corner of board. But not before Sebastian could score a point from Power Ritual.

Throughout this time Kentauroi had been healing a little, and came to contest lower right corner, where I hadn't had time to plant a Scheme marker with Rotten Belle. I realized I wouldn't be able to complete Power Ritual's end condition. And it was all because Seamus missed one attack on Sebastian.

Madame Sybelle had been on the middle for too long. Flesh Construct was attacking her. I was suspecting opponent might have Claim Jump again, since Flesh Construct is such a perfect piece for that scheme.

Madame used up all my remaining soulstones. But against all odds she did survive long enough. When she succumbed on last round of the game, she had a stack of six Poison counters after McMourning attacked her.

Seamus activated and dropped a Scheme Marker close enough to McMourning to deliver the final message.

Score was 3-4 in favor of Seamus.

Opponent was quite terrified of Seamus, and I have to agree the flintlock pistol has absurd damage track. Even minor injury deals as much damage as severes on some models. After two games I can't make an accurate judgement, but on the other hand... in this game at least it was Seamus who pretty much did all the job. All other models in my team were not doing any damage at all that was of consequence. Mourner delivered the original message to McMourning and that's it. Anything else my models did were just standing in the way of enemy.

First game of Malifaux

It's been a long time coming. Many years, in fact. I've been intrigued by Malifaux, yet never enough to actually start. There have been no players or no enthusiasm or I've felt other miniature games take too much time from already lessened pool of hobby hours.

But somehow I got tricked into trying.

So I tried.

Resurrectionists looked like a faction I'd enjoy. Unfortunately opponent had already taken the starter box I'd have liked most, so I picked the one that seemed next interesting. I ended up with Seamus and his Redchapel Shadows.

Lucky that I did. Because to me it looked like McMourning played with a tight group of survivable models. Seamus, on the other hand, seemed to be more into absurd movement shenanigans. At least Copycat Killer and Bete Noire gave me such an impression.

We decided beforehand to play Reckoning strategy to keep things as simple as possible. We also decided schemes in advance from randomized group of five.

My team was:
Seamus + Copycat Killer
Rotten Belle
Bete Noire
Madame Sybelle
Mourner

1 soulstone
Schemes: Breakthrough, Search the Ruins

Dr. McMourning + Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Guild Autopsy
Flesh Construct
Nurse

4 soulstones
Schemes: Dig Their Graves, Claim Jump (Flesh Construct)

First round didn't see much action - Seamus tried to take a shot at McMourning but failed miserably, and Flesh Construct attempted to come and score Claim Jump, which didn't happen because of first turn.

Second turn things started happening. Bete Noire was fighting with Flesh Construct, and Mourner took away Ruthless from the construct. Turns out the weeping of this widow is enough to soften the rotten heart of a necrotic construct.

Dr. McMourning charges Madame Sybelle, which opponent mistook for Seamus. Madame used my only soulstone to prevent damage, and managed to survive the onslaught with seven health points remaining.

Then I piled up on McMourning, and damn this doctor was next to impossible to pin down.

I didn't count the damage I dealt, but I think the total combined would have killed Doctor McMourning twice over.

Let's see. The doctor took full wrath of Madame Sybelle twice, Rotten Belle twice, Mourner once, Copycat Killer once and Seamus twice. And even when Seamus took a successful attack with flintlock pistol against McMourning when he had three health remaining (meaning even weak damage would kill him), black joker came up. This might skew my perception on how difficult it is to kill master models.

But finally Seamus deals with the doctor charging in with bag of tools. Truly this was Cause for Celebration which prompted another flintlock attack that dropped Guild Autopsy with one hit.

Bete Noire was a model I enjoyed a lot. She didn't do much damage, but on the other hand she was against Flesh Construct with a hefty stack of poison, so I don't know what should I have expected. Mourner was my first model to go down, so suddenly it was quite a bit more dangerous to stand next to Flesh Construct. However, once models started dying, it opened up options for Bete Noire to get buried and then spring back into action right away.

I suppose that's how I like my specialists. Doing all sorts of fancy stuff, but eventually having negligible presence in game...

Well, except that she was key model in bringing victory for Seamus. There was some confusion in how we resolved winner - there were quite a few ifs and buts, mostly because we realized a bit too late that Zombie Chihuahua just didn't have what it takes to dig up a scheme marker. But speculating last turn did give Seamus a victory with one victory point.

Copycat Killer was an amazing model that enabled Seamus to act as a serious damage dealer exactly where needed as well as putting up scheme markers for Search the Ruins and Breakthrough.

Minions Bore Gifts

I'm not sure what it means, but I'm baffled how Dungeon Lords feels like a recent addition to my board game collection... yet it has been about four years since I last played these with friends in Salo. But last weekend this all changed. In all of these games we had three players.

First game we played was without expansions, except for monsters and adventurers and such that comes with Festival Season. This was to reacquaintance people to game mechanics. Fun moment here was probably when I had to shoot my Demon with monster catapult just to survive second year adventurer attacks.

Second game was with Festival Season expansion. Though I scored last in this round, I believe I can say I won the bragging rights as I had both dwarf paladins in my jail when game ended.

Last game was with Festival Season, as well as first time ever with Minions Bearing Gifts. We used straightforward variant. I'm not sure how other players felt it, but it did affect my game a lot during second year - that priest preventing a point of damage was annoying nuisance that continuously ruined my plans. So, it was a good expansion. Because I had been such a paladin magnet in first two rounds, I kept low profile on Evil-o-Meter in this game. A spell that made me release a prisoner cost me the game, as I was one point behind from winning player.

Each player won once, so I suppose we need to settle who's the most evil Dungeon Lord in... umm... next four years?

Munchin'

For the longest time I got to play a game of Munchkin. I was visiting some friends, and had a three player go at it. In all these years Munchkin hasn't changed much. Green player had a strong opening by slaying Potted Plant. My Halfling Warrior, who was actually a dwarf who was actually human eventually bought his way to victory, except for the last level which was gained by slaying, I believe, the undead horse.

Each player was within hair's breath away from victory, as we were all level nine.

Oh, it seems that "longest time" here actually means it's been over nine years since I last played this card game.

How it flies. Time and all that.