Rats got no authority

 A few days ago I played a 50 soul stone game of Malifaux.

My list was:

Hamelin & Stolen
- Nix
- Obedient Wretch
- Rat King
- 2x Rat Catcher
- 3x Malifaux Rat

Pool: 5

Schemes: Catch & Release, Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Asami Tanaka & Amanjaku
- Ama No Zako
- Shadow Emissary
- Wanyudo
- Yokai
- Katashiro
- Akaname

Pool: 8

Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Breakthrough

Strategy was Symbols of Authority.

Turn 1:

Ama No Zako speeds on top of a black box near my deployment zone. Which was fortunate, at least kind of, since the creature was a henchman and Rat Catcher #1 was my Catch & Release model.

Asami summons an Obsidian Oni, who I suppose was about to blast all of my starting rats into oblivion right on turn 1, but instead Hamelin moved the rats to safer zones and ran to engage the Oni personally. 

Turn 2:

Ama No Zako comes to topple the first strategy marker, which gives me easy opportunity to score Catch & Release. Rat Catcher #2 interacts with enemy strategy marker.

Rat King attempted to dive deep into enemy territory, perhaps getting the chance to summon Rat Catcher (although both minions were alive at the time... blunder, yeah) or even score points later. None of that was to happen, when Asami summoned a Jorogumo, who was aided by the Katashiro and killed Rat King.

Nix ate Akaname, and Obedient Wretch bombarded Yokai with Bleeding Disease. By now it looked like Ten Thunders would have strong strategy presence, unless I somehow managed to kill some key pieces. 

Hamelin tried to beat Wanyudo with his black staff, but failed to do anything of consequence. Scores went 2 for Outcasts, 1 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 3:

Ama No Zako kills my scheme piece, and Hamelin fails all his attacks again, this time against Ama No Zako. Last Rat Catcher puts a scheme marker and moves closer to next enemy strategy marker.

While I manage to kill the Yokai who was sitting next to my strategy marker, opponent had no short supply of models that were able to score for turn 3. 

I thought opponent had Spread Them Out, and he didn't have that many qualifying scheme markers on board so I wasn't that afraid just yet, even if opponent evened the score to 2-2. 

Turn 4:

Rat Catcher was just millimetres out of reach of enemy strategy marker, which was a serious blow to me. On top of that, Hamelin wasn't able to get far enough to put a scheme marker 10" away from the one on the middle. Wanyudo rolled into my deployment zone, and Shadow Emissary kept the burning wheel company. Things crumbled apart. I couldn't score this round either, and opponent scored two points - one from revealing Breakthrough and one from strategy. 

It was clearly a game over for Hamelin, so we didn't play the last round. I had the potential to grab two points, and opponent had chances to deny those, while I could do little to stop opponent from gaining at least one point.