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.