Turf War

Played a game of Malifaux. We had fifty soulstones to build our gangs.

Strategy was Turf War.

Seamus with The Whisper + Copycat Killer

Madame Sybelle
Mortimer
Bete Noire
2x Rotten Belle
Mourner with Grave Spirit Touch (Tagged for Claim Jump)
Schemes: Claim Jump, Outflank


I'm not entirely sure about opponent's list, but it was something like this:

Kirai Ankoku with Grave Spirit Touch + Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Jaakuna Ubume (tagged for Claim Jump)
Lost Love
2x Gaki
2x Seishin
2x Onryo
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Claim Jump

Game started with both parties converging in the middle. Ikiryo was a scary monster that nearly butchered Bete Noire, who attempted to tie him up. Then Ikiryo was causing trouble for Mourner and Madame Sybelle, and the whole lot of my resurrectionists - I was afraid to kill it before Kirai had activated.

Mourner was the luckiest being alive... dead? Alive? Wait, what? Anyway, even if she has just seven wounds, terrifying and regeneration with enemy ignoring ruthless was quite survivable. Plenty of times Mourner went to one or two wounds remaining, but steadily climbed back to 4+ (which I would need for completing second part of Claim Jump.) Of course she healing every time enemy died nearby and being randomly healed by Madame Sybelle's Undivided Attention helped, too.

In this game Seamus was absurd. He killed Jaakuna Ubume, Gaki, an Onryo and one summoned Night Terror. That's almost one kill per turn. As a surprise bonus, Jaakuna had been the model opponent had tagged for Claim Jump. But I had some luck in drawing Red Joker to my starting hand both first and second turn.

I guess me as the player got blinded by bloodlust, and I was rather... reckless with Seamus. As he was killing things left and right, I made the mistake of killing an Onryo. Well, honestly speaking, Seamus deserved that Adversary rule.

But yeah, turn later I realized Feast of Fear doesn't actually trigger from enemy failing their terrifying check. This brought Seamus down to a healthy wound count of exactly one. And considering that every time he dealt damage to enemy models, he'd suffer one point of damage.

Opponent was losing in victory points, so he did everything he could to smack the master down he hated so much.

There were some miraculous saves for Seamus, but Adversary stacked too much odds in enemy favor. Datsue Ba weighted Seamus's sins, and they were far too heavy for him to carry any longer. It's somehow so very fitting. "Ah, hah hah! I'm killing everyone, whee! Wait... damn, now it's me who's dying!"

Losing Seamus like that robbed me of any possibility to score additional victory points from turf war, but victory was secured now. This is one aspect of Malifaux that I don't quite enjoy. Even during these few games I've played, looks like last turn can become a pointless turn too easily. I suppose in a tournament you have an incentive to try to squeeze any victory points even if it's mathematically impossible for you to win, but like this last turn can be somewhat of a lackluster.