Guilty Dreams

 A Christmas game of Malifaux with 50 soul stones. Without pictures this time, because a) horrifying proxy terrain, b) 75% unpainted models, c) 40% unassembled models and d) no camera.

Standard deployment Break the Line.
Scheme pool: Bait & Switch, Research Mission, Let Them Bleed, Hidden Martyrs, Outflank.

My list:

Jack Daw (outcast) & Ligeia
Montresor
2x Guilty (one of them was martyr)
Hanged with Servant of Dark power (martyr)
Drowned
Prospector

Pool: 2
Schemes: Bait & Switch (Guardian), Hidden Martyrs

Opponent:

Hoffman & Attendant
Melissa K.O.R.E
Guardian
3x Hunter
Riotbreaker

Pool: 2
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Research Mission

Turn 1:

I have Prospector far on the right, trying to sneak to one strategy marker. A little closer to middle are Hanged, Guilty and Montresor. In the middle of board is Jack Daw, Lady Ligeia and Drowned. Guilty and Johan Creedy are handling the left.

A big blob of Hoffman, Guardian, Mechanical Attendant and Hunter approach from the middle. Left has just one Hunter, and a little on the right we have last Hunter and Riotbreaker, plus Melissa far right.

I try to bring Jack Daw to give Guardian an upgrade, but fails to deliver. Hanged does better job, and middle Hunter received Forbidden Knowledge, while interacting with a strategy marker after Montresor stared it to walk twice.

Turn 2:

On the left Guilty activates first and interacts with strategy marker, charging Hunter afterwards. Jack Daw gives upgrades to Guardian and Mechanical Attendant. 

Hoffman charges Hanged, Guardian and Hunter mauls Jack Daw, and Mechanical Attendant tries to shoot Lady Ligeia. Terrifying, -1 willpower from Jack and Lady Ligeia's betrayal ruin Guild's capability to deal damage in the middle. And I had been a little worried about the safety of Jack on turn 1...

Prospector interacts with marker. Hunter on right deals moderate damage to Guilty with two negatives, but this happened to be to my advantage. Last attack by Hunter I won, but cheated to fail - minimum damage killed my guilty martyr.

And right next Montresor comes to execute the Hunter, bringing me a more or less fresh Guilty on board.

Last, Johan Creedy Red Jokers the Hunter on left dead. 

Situation was grim for Guild, when points went 2-0 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 3:

After Jack Daw executed Guardian, Hunter and Mechanical Attendant, we called the game done.

So, yeah... it was a brutal match-up for Hoffman. Maybe even one of the worst match-ups available in Malifaux? I do not know, but for certain I feel a little...

... Guilty.

End of a chapter

I was visiting family and friends back in Kuhmo, and there we had an "epic" conclusion to our Touch of Evil campaign.

 It's been seven and a half years since the campaign began. 

Our mission was to fight and win every villain there is - from all the expansion as well as the web exclusives. If heroes died in showdowns, they were out for the rest of the campaign.

So, Shadow Witch it was with our last remaining heroes, Abigail the occultist and Captain Hawkins.

And then, after two turns Shadow Track was already almost half gone. Way to end a seven year campaign. Or?

Once more elders were dying left and right, spawning Spectres as they went. Situation would have been hopeless if it wasn't for the loyal militia of Captain Hawkins. Many a lives were lost... but at least Spectres disappeared as fast as they emerged.

Heroes also seemed to figure out themselves how to "game" Shadow Witch. Subsequent two draws from mystery deck were Traitor's Blood, which has a hero kill off an elder. I guess it went something like "You can't believe how sorry I am, but this is for the best for the community."

Soon enough there were only two elders left that had highest honor, so that was a lot of pressure off from the shoulder of heroes.

Once Captain got the militia engine running, and Abigail got Sacred Chalice, Shadow Track stopped in its... well, tracks. It was as if heroes had some hope. Captain even managed to buy musket and silver bullets. 

It wasn't all fun and games, though, because constant struggling against the odds kept heroes away from securing clues against the final showdown.

Which soon had to happen. When Sacred Chalice emptied, Shadow Track was at it again.

Heroes barely got to start the showdown. Shadow track was at one.

Strangely enough, Captain Hawkins blows half of Shadow Witch's wounds away with first attack - and survived the 13 or so fight dice attack. Abigail scored no wounds, but was saved by Hawkins with Honorable Gesture.

Then Captain shoots the villain down to one wound remaining, but was KO'd after his feat. Just one wound, Abigal, please! She was able to do five dices worth of attacks, none of which was a 5+.

Next something miraculous happened. Shadow Witch failed to KO Abigail, so she still had the chance to make this a victory. But that needed a 5+ on two dice.

...

Throughout the showdown, Abigail had made 10 dice worth of attacks. None of which was a 5+.

Maybe Abigail was the Shadow Witch all along...

Thus ended the Touch of Evil campaign.

Fine Art of Deployment

 Had a 50ss game of Malifaux. Here I have almost no pictures since my earlier camera broke and I needed to use manual settings on an unfamiliar SLR camera. I really do hope that new micro-SD memory card fixes the previous camera... because...

Anyway, the game.

Strategy: Break the Line with Wedge deployment

Schemes: Assassinate, Claim Jump, Outflank, Breakthrough, Vendetta

My list:

Molly & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Forgotten Marshal with The Whisper
Hanged with Grave Spirit Touch
2x Crooligans
Night Terror
Rabble Riser

Pool:3
Schemes: Outflank, Breakthrough

Opponent:

Asami & Amanjaku
Ama No Zako
Fuhatsu
Lone Swordsman
Samurai with Trained Ninja (Claim Jump)
Akaname

Pool: 8
Schemes: Assassinate, Claim Jump

Turn 1:

As a fun fact, we had to flip for initiative four times because of even results. 

I was the defending player, so I placed my strategy markers on the furthest points of the middle line, right next to table edge. Along with Crooligans. Another two markers were in the middle where you'd expect.

Well then... there was this Obsidian grenade launcher called Asami on the other side of the Wedge deployment zone. With essentially three gatling gun attacks. 

So maybe I'll deploy as a hugeish blob in the middle of the board? What could possibly go wrong?

Looking back, I should have scrapped the idea of contesting middle of the board completely, and focused on the edges. But that's not what I did, and as a result Rabble Riser was at two health remaining, on fire. Philip and the Nanny at half hit points remaining, on fire. Night Terror and Molly, a couple of points in and Night Terror on fire, plus no soul stones remaining. Not to mention needing to waste three actions points to remove the Obsidian Oni before it activated.

Lone Swordsman was nearing my Crooligan on the left. Ama No Zako used double-walk and Dark Bargained itself to make an interact on a strategy marker on middle-right. Necrotic Machine ran towards marker on middle-left, because apparently there were no viable targets for Emergency Syrette and its heal...

Well, at least Molly had given Rabble Riser another activation, who charged Fuhatsu and Hanged managed to land its upgrade on Fuhatsu.

Turn 2:

Lone Swordsman butchers Crooligan with just one action point, and thus manages to lob strategy marker on the left towards my side of the board.

I jump at my chance to possibly kill Fuhatsu - Hanged places its anti-healing aura on, and lands a moderate wound to the henchman despite being on a negative damage flip. Fuhatsu is at three wounds now and unable to reliably heal!

Well, except that then the gunner hit Hanged with Daze trigger, and uses Scatter to place the aura well beyond 4" range. Fuhatsu is at five!

Rabble Riser (now at one health and burning) charged Fuhatsu and after attacking three times. After all the stones and whatnot, Fuhatsu is at three!

Molly then does a double walk and kills the henchman by telling him a real disturbing story.

All good, although Molly was now in the middle of board.

At least Ama No Zako had been busy with killing another Rabble Riser that Forgotten Marshal had summoned earlier, and Night Terror. 

Asami used her hair strike on Philip and Nanny, pulling them away from a strategy marker they were hugging. Then a gigantic arachnotaur appeared behind Molly and in-between the aforementioned strategy marker. 

Thus robbed of their meaningful target, Philip and Nanny charges Asami that had no Protected targets nearby. After all I had Red Joker in my hand, and while I had an inkling that I should have saved the card for something else, at least Asami was at five wounds remaining after Pram Ram.

Jorogumo then removes Philip & Nanny from the equation.

Both players score strategy, and Ten Thunders reveal Assassinate. Scores are 2-1 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 3:

Because I'm kind of worried Molly might soon kick the bucket, she has one last chance to start asking questions from Asami. Irreducible damage would have been nice, but opponent was at full hand. Asami gets to one health remaining from Molly's unending stream of questions, which incidentally was the same amount of health Molly had.

I still had one chance to kill Asami, and that was using By Your Side on Crooligan and delivering the killing blow. It was the heat of the moment that told me Asami would die to minimum damage. Yeah, sure, but that didn't count for soulstones...

Because of that miss-step I lost my chance to get a point off from Outflank this turn. 

Forgotten Marshal and Hanged were busy delivering strategy marker deeper into enemy lines, and because of that Resurrectionists scored their second point from strategy. Ten Thunders did, too, and revealed Claim Jump on Samurai.

Turn 4:

Starts with three models on my side, with Resurrectionists two points behind and opponent 100% scoring two end conditions, and 90% scoring full strategies. No point to continue. Victory for Ten Thunders.

I think it would have been a tough game for Molly even if I hadn't screwed up deployment so bad. My lack of hitting power didn't mesh well with an assortment of Armor +1-2, hard-to-would and hard-to-kill models.

In this particular game Grave Spirit Touch on Hanged was just dead weight - Fuhatsu didn't care about the Terrifying, and the thing didn't actually need regeneration either.

The Whisper on Forgotten Marshal was kind of dead weight too, but that was just because of pure chance - not once there was a high enough Crows coming up to do summoning.

"Influential reward"

 So we continued a four-player Scythe campaign, the Rise of Fenris.

In the fourth game Fenris actually began to show up. Agricultural Nordics, Industrial Albion, Patriotic Togawa and Mechanical Vesna were catching up their agents. There isn't much to tell about this game. No clear defining strategies had time to develop because of this over-enthusiastic world police called Vesna. Mechanical Vesna mobilized themselves to catch any and all Fenris agents they could find.

Game ended in just eight rounds. As a result, no-one got much in the way of mech mods or infrastructure mods. Final scores were:

Patriotic Togawa 29 (two Fenris agents)
Agricultural Nordics 28 (one Fenris agent)
Mechanical Vesna 27 (four Fenris agents)
Industrial Albion 17 (one Fenris agent)

Because the scenario ended so soon, we took on the fifth scenario with a big mystery box in Factory.

This time nations were Mechanical Nordics, Militant Albion, Patriotic Togawa and Innovative Vesna.

Because of my goal cards I had started hoarding power with Nordics.

Out of curiosity I uncovered the Seaworthy ability as quickly as I could and stomped to factory - the only route to ignore any influence tokens.

It was sixth round when my bear rider got to Factory. A big, stompy robot appeared and we had a cutscene.

In the cutscene an influential reward was promised to the player who'd manage to vanquish this new menace. Because it had worked so well for our Vesna player, I decided to try and uncover some hidden boons for me in the later scenarios. I was a bit envious that he already had +2 power and +3 influence at the start of every game.

So my hero punched the behemoth real hard, and the thing fell down in just one hit. I had gained a combat card with value of five, and had rolled one for the strength of the annihilator.

Bam. Scenario over. And it was the sixth round. Oh well.

Scores were:

Mechanical Nordics 41
Innovative Vesna 24
Militant Albion 19
Patriotic Togawa 16

And my influential reward, hmm, hmm?

I lost my faction and gained a new one.

One that doesn't have swimming workers. On a starting area with no village whatsoever.

Thanks, Vesna.

Asteroid belt

 Had two games of Warmachine. Format was Brawlmachine, and scenario in both games was the new Asteroids.

In first game I had:

Aphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
- Reaper [11]
- Ripjaw [6]
- Slayer [10]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [5]
Pistol Wraith [4]
Bane Warriors (min) [8]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]

Opponent had:

Commander Coleman Stryker [+30]

 - Hammersmith [12]

 - Ironclad [12]

 - Lancer [8]

Black 13th Strike Force [7]

Rangers [7]

Stormguard Infantry (min) [9]

With Mobility up, my both heavies enter the rectangular zone. They are greeted by Stormguard that are screening enemy warjacks. Rangers on right are opposed to Bane Warriors, and Black 13th is flanking from left. Pistol Wraith tries to relocate itself away from their magical pistols. Nothing especially fancy.

But then... it seems there are some things I never really learn.

One of them is trying to make an initial opening by pulling an enemy warjack with a harpoon drag.

Feels like that misses 75% of the time.

And now my heavy warjack had only exposed itself to enemy charges. I tried to bring Asphyxious to front and use feat in an attempt to deter opponent from wrecking Reaper, or at least pay a price for doing so.

At least Hex Blast from Vociferon did exceptional job, frying three out of six Stormguards.

Ripjaw charges Black 13th and kills their double pistol model.

Stormguards then charge Reaper, and take almost half of its hit boxes away. Ironclad who comes to assist is far less effective, and leaves Reaper standing with cortex and melee arm still functional.

Lancer tries to free Black 13th from Ripjaw, and kind of succeeds. Bonechicken loses its head, meaning it wouldn't hit with free strike even if it rolled a six. Gun mages try to shoot Vociferon, but do not hit or damage. 

Stryker uses feat, making my next turn difficult.

Asphyxious had gained exactly one (1) focus point from his feat.

Ripjaw moves a bit so that it contests cygnaran flag. Bane Warriors destroy enemy objective and bring back all dead Bane Warriors via minifeat. 

Heavy warjacks and Asphyxious deal with the remaining Stormguards. Asphyxious is left with three focus for damage mitigation.

Three focus points just wasn't enough, as Stryker got Earthquake on Asphyxious. Black 13th and even rangers dealt in enough damage to take out two focus points, so there really was no chance for the iron lich when Ironclad parked itself within melee range. Loss for Cryx.

Game 2:

My list in second game:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]

 - Agonizer [5]

 - Aradus Sentinel [12]

 - Cyclops Raider [9]

 - Titan Gladiator [13]

Mortitheurge Willbreaker [2]

Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]

Thrullg [3]

Venator Slingers (min) [8]

Opponent had:

Kaya the Wildborne [+32]

 - Feral Warpwolf [14]

 - Gnarlhorn Satyr [10]

 - Wild Argus [6]

 - Wild Argus [6]

Gallows Grove [2]

Lord of the Feast [5]

Gatorman Posse (max) [13]

Circle approached with Gatormen, Gallows Grove and Lord of the Feast on the left, and the rest coming from the middle.

My battlegroup was also nearing the rectangular zone while Slingers and Cyclops Raider were bracing against the Gatormen.

Winter Argus managed to freeze Aradus Sentinel for a while. Circle warbeasts did clump up rather nicely there, so Aradus took a walk and sprayed some respectable damage in to both arguses and Feral Warpwolf. Attack on Kaya missed even with a re-roll from Puppet Master.

Gatormen had ran closer, so I though I might try to get some mileage out of Hexeris' feat. 

It didn't turn out so well, as the one and only Gatorman the slingers succeeded to kill passed its Tough roll - no Dark Dominion for me.

Cyclops Raider takes an aimed (and thus stealth-ignoring) shot against Lord of the Feast, and removes the solo single-handedly. Dark Dominion for me. 

Swamp Gobber River Raider tries to act a hero, and harpoons itself to enemy objective, poking in a point of damage into Feral Warpwolf. Hexeris had cast Parasite on it, though.

Gladiator just tries to look menacing, and protect Agonizer that was providing strength penalty.

Turns out Winter Argus is able to spray the lesser warbeast dead, and as a result Wild Argus and Feral Warpwolf butcher Aradus Sentinel. Gatormen remove half of slingers - although only because they couldn't reach for more.

I try to pick the pieces that are left - Feral Warpwolf is left alive with one hit point remaining, despite the efforts of Thrullg and Cyclops Raider. Titan Gladiator charges Gnarlhorn Satyr dead.

Slingers shoot one Gatorman down, and Hexeris charges another. For some odd reason I try to shoot another Gatorman with Sunder Spirits... and didn't even succeed.

Hexeris' downfall was completely unnecessary. Winter Argus could slam him, and then Kaya spammed Spirit Fangs on him until he was torn to shreds - as he had only one transfer available. Loss for Skorne.

Cursed sword indeed

Lantern Year 12 hunt & showdown: Sunstalker level 1

Theonous, Noram, Hovelina and Bulvans will have to do for a hunting party, as both stars of the settlement had been quarreling earlier and exhausted themselves.

Hilariously enough, Theonous who had lost his arm in Triathlon of Death, had a nightmare and woke up with a two-handed Twilight Sword. 

Because he isn't courageous enough to chase the storm, Bulvans proves his braveness in an alternate way and eats some monster droppings, gaining assorted tokens.

Noram becomes Emotionless after finding some cuddling skeletons.

Showdown itself started with Sunstalker doing nothing for the first two rounds. Except, of course, filling the Solar Track. 

Even after nerfs Counter-weighted Axe is still a beast, and Bulvans deals four points of damage on first survivor turn.

It almost looked like game was over for Sunstalker after turn 2 - had not Hovelina missed her aimed Vespertine Bow attack, Sunstalker would have had no more AI cards. But as it was, Solar Flare triggered and fight continued for a couple more rounds. 

Lantern Year 13 - Elder Council

Council totaled 52 hunt experience in the population. Thus it was the worst result one could have from Elder Council. 

There were a couple of story events on the timeline. First, Hooded Knight challenges the handless Theonous to duel. Disappointed that a guy with just one hand can't swing the biggest and meanest sword around, he kills Theonous.

Then we have Bone Witch. It took two re-rolls to wriggle out of horrible Witch Camp results. She is taught by the witch to be a Bone Whisperer. 

Voxada and Tranaloka drink Love Juice, and it takes all but two re-rolls to succeed on Intimacy. There we have it. Hovelina and the newborn are last remaining re-rolls in Enerva settlement.

Settlement develops Sky Harpoon.

1: Taken by Elder Council
2: Hovelina's Witch Camp
3: Settlement cooks permanent evasion for Laifuseus.
4: Settlement innovates Sacrifice
5: Scrap scavenge for broken lantern
6: Petal Spiral doesn't give anything
7: Augury gives +1 understanding for Hovelina
8: Augury triggers Intimacy for Sylch and Tranaloka. Yikes. Turned out to be +1 population.
9: Shrine ritual is a success

Lantern Year 13 showdown - The Hand level 1

Laifuseus, Hovelina, Agyruu and Bulvans wrestle The Hand.

Agyruu suffers a non-permanent injury during fight. Nothing dangerous there. But then - the survivors are victorious.

Bulvans rolls "1" for applause and uses up Hovelina's re-roll. Re-roll is also "1".

At least Hovelina gains +1 permanent strength and Agyruu gains nothing. Laifuseus rolls the best result - getting +1 permanent accuracy, strength and evasion from The Hand. Then The Hand punts a lantern through Laifuseus' face. 

This didn't go optimally, as now I innovated Sacrifice in vain and didn't get to roll last Age milestone for Laifuseus. Oh well. There goes Enerva's Sleeping Virus Flower.

Lantern Year 14 - Slender Blight

This year's departees need to switch their Insanity and Survival values.

A Warm Virus has Volloka dig a memorial grave for themselves. Sylloka is so moved that gains the most useless secret fighting art there is. Volloka is transformed into Laifuseus.

1: Settlement innovates Nightmare Training.
2: Hovelina trains bow in Nightmare Training.
3: Laifuseus fails at Nightmare Training.
4-7: Auguries spent to get Intimacy. +1 population.
8-9: Voxada scavenges for two Broken Lanterns.
10: Shrine Ritual is a success.

Lantern Year 14 hunt & showdown - Sunstalker level 1

New and improved Laifuseus, Hovelina, Zoronuro and Sylloka hunt for Sunstalker.

Something weird happens right in the beginning. Sylloka's fighting art, Swordman's Promise, apparently was an omen. First hunt event against Sunstalker was again "Nightmare", and again settlement received Twilight Sword! Truly a cursed thing.

Cuddling Skeletons triggered White Secret for Hovelina, and her future became a little complicated when she received Immortal disorder, supported by well-fitting Quixotic. She gained Peerless. Boo.

Thanks to Slender Blight, survivors started showdown with less than ideal survival levels. 

This escalated quickly as Zoronuro was already taking severe injuries by turn 2. I needed to end the showdown as fast as possible, skipping the race for salt. Survivor turn 2 was when Laifuseus scored the final wound. Annoyingly, that was a critical wound to location to gain Prismatic Gills, which in turn gave Laifuseus Emotionless disorder.

Fun fact: out of 11 wounds, Laifuseus scored 10. The one other wound was made by Sky Harpoon.

Lantern Year 15 - Triathlon of Death

So, a third triathlon for the settlement. Isn't there enough people with dismembered arm already?

I took quite of a risk to choose Laifuseus and Zoronuro for the competition, but I figured Nodalus and Firbab would would lose to them in just about any category. 

Race contest from winner to loser: Laifuseus, Zoronuro, Firbab, Nodalus

Debate contest: Laifuseus, Nodalus, Zoronuro, Firbab

Fight contest: Laifuseus, Zoronuro, Firbab, Nodalus

A worthy mention goes to Zoronuro, who has been present in all of the settlement's triathlons and has steadily placed second in race contest in all three events. Firbab is a veteran, too, and placed #4 in debate contest on both occasions. 

1: Settlement innovates Scrap Smelting
2: Matchmaker of Zoronuro for Nodalus and Noanna
3: Matchmaker of Laifuseus for Nodalus and Noanna, takes one re-roll.
4: Failed Nightmare Training for Sylloka
5: Sylloka is given age, he gains Abyssal Sadist from milestone.
6-8: Zoronuro scavenges one Broken Lantern
9: Zoronuro uses scrap smelting to make 2x Iron
10: Shrine ritual is success

Settlement develops Sunspot Lantern, Cycloid helm and skirt.

I'm tempted to hunt Sunstalker again, but no. To keep things fresh, I'll go for the first-time ever Gigalion.

Lantern Year 15 hunt & showdown - Level 2 Gigalion

Laifuseus, Voxada, Sylloka, Lojuba start the hunt, and are immediately greeted by chance-encounter. Fortunately fresh-out-of-kindergarten Lojuba was still sane, and everyone received +1 courage and understanding. Fortune blessed Voxada with +1 permanent movement from triggering Bold.

Failed Start showers survivors with founding stones. I have to trash Cloth, Rawhide Boots and Stone Noses to make place for three founding stones.

Lojuba went hyper-sensitive in wailing smoke. Weeping Faces delay hunters for an additional hunt event roll. Then Laifuseus' Seasoned Hunter triggers on monster droppings for Lojuba. Lojuba investigates, and triggers Insight. Roll itself delays survivors again. Lojuba finds a Lost Survivor, and gains some fighting arts and triggers Bold for him.

Scratching Grounds trigger See the Truth for Laifuseus, who plucks out her eye to gain the sub-par Bitter ability. Or what do I know. Butcher fight is approaching fast...

Overwhelming Darkness was a tad overwhelming. Lojuba lost all survival in attempt to rescue an unknown survivor. Sylloka lost all survival to path of the insane. Even Voxada would have lost all her survival if it wasn't for Otherworldly Luck.

Lion's Sculpture forces Sylloka to use their re-roll. I really didn't want Murder on the timeline 1d5 years from now... Dark Blacksmith was far more manageable. 

Then survivors start showdown confidently. Smart Cat reveals zero mood cards and my confidence grows. The deck is shuffled and first card: Alert. Second card: Bloodthirsty. 

That combination might be too much... Sylloka uses Cat's Eye Circlet and thankfully there is one knock-down critical location coming up. Voxada tosses a founding stone at the beast. Problem solved. At least until the AI deck is shuffled again.

But then Vicious kicks in and the target becomes unreachable. Except for dashing Movement 7 survivors.

Laifuseus gets to attack lion's blind spot, and Voxada with Vespertine Bow gets to launch a full volley. That resulted in one hit, thanks to accuracy penalty from Overwhelming Darkness. But still, it was six wounds in on the first round.

Sylloka and Lojuba go to scavenge survivor corpses and ore veins. The Gigalion is easily navigated by two high-profile Movement 7 survivors. In fact, I don't think it got to make any actual AI combat card swings at all. All attacks came from trap and failure hit location that brought Voxada down to heavy injury levels.

But all in all, it went fine.

Lantern Year 16 - Clinging Mist

A disaster! Two nemesis fights in a year. And Laifuseus, Voxada, Sylloka and Lojuba are not able to take part in Manhunter fight as they are too drenched from acidic mist. Great.

Settlement develops Lion Slayer Cape and Whisker Harp.

Sylch and Tranaloka also drink Love Juice, but turned out the thing might have spoiled somewhere along the way. Sylch died.

1: Settlement innovates Scarification.
2: Matchmaker for Nodalus and Firbab, takes away one re-roll but a child is born.
3: Voxada scavenges a second Broken Lantern.
4: Voxada attempts Nightmare Training, gaining +1 permanent accuracy.
5: Sylloka takes a scarification session, gains Matchmaker and doesn't lose movement despite missing toes.
6: Idoloromias takes scarification, gaining Tough.
7: Firbalus takes scarification, becoming Blinded.
8: Nodaanna takes scarification, gaining Tough.
9: Shrine ritual is success.
10: Laifuseus burns eight survival in Nightmare Training, gaining nothing.
11: Crimson Candy for Hovelina. Too much sugar!

Year 16 special showdown - Manhunter level 3

With best survivors gone for this showdown, Manhunter has to be repelled by Luma, Zoronuro, Hovelina and Idoloromias.

Uncertain as I was, I took two Founding Stones with me to the showdown. There was a hit location that gave -2 accuracy, +1 damage for Manhunter on a critical wound, so there went one although it was a bit of a risk. 

I figured I needed Hovelina to use her Vespertine Bow more often during this showdown, I put her to tank a few hits from Manhunter to get her below Immortal threshold.

First few rounds survivors were trickling in about two wounds per turn. This was mostly due to stakes - by turn three there were three stake traps removed.

And then there was this joy of drawing two actual trap cards in one round.

I think it was the correct choice to give -2 accuracy tokens and +1 damage token. This all but negated Tomb Stone attacks. Zoronuro, the dedicated tank, took severe damage in by taking three hits of four damage to body armor. This scored only one severe injury roll, though, which came up as only two bleed tokens.

Despite constant danger, situation seemed to be in control - but all defensive points were dwindling rapidly. Eight hit locations throughout survivors would get instant severe injuries if they took more than 2 damage (and there isn't that many damage 1 attacks for Manhunter...), Hovelina was at one Insanity (started with 16), Zoronuro had 3 insanity (started with 14) and 2 survival, Luma had 3 survival.

Fortunately Manhunter had also started taking damage. Survivor team wouldn't have lasted much longer, but Hovelina launched a final volley hitting with all three attacks with Vespertine Bow when Manhunter had two cards left. I had planned her to hit two times, though - now she had to take First Strike location that would cause a severe injury.

Intracranial Hemorrhage. Bam. Instantly useless survivor. At least the remaining two wound attacks succeeded, killing Manhunter. 

Idoloromias is nominated to be the veteran for Tools of War. Sylloka is nominated to be the survivor for True Meaning of War.

With remaining endeavor Hovelina tries to cure her hemorrhage with Crimson Candy, but has to skip next hunt instead.

Well. That was only half of the fun. Next...

Nemesis Encounter - Butcher level 2

Laifuseus, Sylloka, Voxada and Idoloromias are the chosen champions for this fight that Enerva needs to win - 31 resources from which 5 are iron is too steep price to pay. Not to mention the life of Laifuseus, the survivor that will carry Enerva settlement to post-watcher greatness, if anyone.

A quick rundown of my abilities reveals that if we consider Butcher's base accuracy to be 4+, two survivors (Laifuseus & Idoloromias) are only hit on a 10+ (Idoloromias wears Tool Belt), Voxada on 7-9+ (depending how many movements had been used) and Sylloka on 6+. 

Tactics blessed survivors with Quad Strike, which ought to be devastating in this lineup. Three survivors have reach (Vespertine Bow, Sky Harpoon, Counter-weighted Axe) and one doesn't have any weapons at all. 

Voxada screws things up by failing to wound Butcher and inviting him closer because of it. This is where I decide to go all in.

I noticed a neat potential combo for Sky Harpoon and Twilight Sword - you might be able to yank the monster right next to you, and do the cumbersome attack. But it was too late for Sylloka, he had already moved. But at least he got in a wound with dash + normal action. 

After all but the surges of Laifuseus and Idoloromias, Butcher had taken in five wounds. Idoloromias checked the hit location deck, and trap was coming up. Laifuseus surged for block on her shield.

Then Butcher proved his utter feebleness against Laifuseus.

I mean.

There was at least a challenge with Manhunter. This showdown... Out of the nine AI cards Butcher was able to draw, only one attack hit. And that was against Sylloka.

Sunstalker level 2, here we come!

Lantern Year 17 - Hunt Re-enactment

Favorite survivors must be Laifuseus. But the least liked? I supposed that's the last unnamed survivor with no re-roll left. Laifuseus and Hunree play out the last showdown against Butcher. Laifuseus gains Last Man Standing fighting art.

1: Settlement innovates Bed.
2: Matchmaker for Undebea and Phenial gives off a baby.
3: Matchmaker Undebea and Phenial makes another baby, albeit with a re-roll.
4-5: Zoronuro sleeps off his broken rib in Bed.
6: Voxada burns 8 survival on Nightmare Training to gain +1 bow proficiency... and he even had Otherworldly luck!
7: Hovelina cures her intracranial hemorrhage with Crimson Candy.
8: War Room plan.
9: Shrine ritual is success.

Lantern Year 17 hunt & showdown - Sunstalker level 2

Since the party proved to be so effective, Laifuseus, Voxada, Sylloka and Idoloromias start to hunt a next level Sunstalker.

Black to Blue and Empty Pool didn't cause much of anything, but first actual hunt event was Time Lapse. It took one re-roll, but correct result was going to replenish those anyway.

Laifuseuskaja's person in alternate reality apparently was rather similar to her - she received Vermin Obsession again. Syllogi gained Revenge which complements his character's overprotective tendencies. He also triggered Age, and gained Double Dash over Swordman's Promise. Voxanius got squeamish, which will prove troublesome because he has binge-eating disorder too... need to find another consumable gear than monster grease. Menoloromias got traumatized.

Overwhelming Darkness didn't do much of anything, as the penalty tokens could be removed right in the next space by Sonorous Rest. The actual hunt event, however, was Solar Winds. I knew I took a risk in bringing monster grease, and now they were gone. As well as half of Voxanius' survival.

Showdown.

First bubble that Sunstalker makes isn't really doing anything, as was expected. But then is survivors' first turn.

While Voxanius and Syllogi scored in three wounds, it was Laifuseuskaja's time to screw things up. 

Trap was drawn twice on the first round. To make matters worse, Voxanius had inflicted Severed Tentacle persistent injury for Sunstalker, and second AI card sprayed Sylloka and Laifuseus with bleed tokens they now cannot remove... Was this effectively the end of Enerva settlement? 

At least there were some seeds of a catastrophe sown on survivor turn 2. Laifuseuskaja took a couple of knockbacks, and because of Motion Sickness disorder, that was two bleed tokens more. 

However, this time trap didn't come to stop the wounding machine. Sunstalker received seven additional wounds, so if survivors plan their movements extra carefully... maybe there will be tomorrow for us all?

Viscous UV beam, despite hitting on 6+ scored four hits out of five attacks towards Syllogi. 

But then Voxanius manages to score a wound to Sunstalker. And there was Deathblow location coming up. I decided to ditch the another salt pillar and send Laifuseuskaja in for the kill. Which she did. 

Lantern Year 18 - Season of the Spiderling

As if Sunstalker wasn't enough, I have to endure the anxiety-inducing event of Season of the Spiderling.

Laifuseuskaja, Voxanius, Syllogi and Hovelina are the defending warriors. It took two re-rolls and the lives of two innocent by-standers, but the battle was a victory that handed out both Axe and Bow mastery for the settlement. 

1: Settlement innovates Momento Mori.
2: Matchmaker for Chantur and Noanna, Noantur happens without an incident.
3: Matchmaker for Chantur and Noanna. Noanna dies.
4: Voxanius removes her broken rib. I mean... cures it.
5: Noantur breaks his genitals during scarification ritual.
6-9: Voxanius tries to scavenge for a broken lantern, but gains only a point of courage. 
10: Settlement cures leather.
11: Shrine ritual is success.

Kholkho and Undebea drink some love juice, and it once more costs a re-roll.

Settlement develops Cycloid vest, Bone Pickaxe, and two Monster Greases back.

There are a few options on what to hunt now. I need more salt for Sunstalker gear, I need more Gigalion stuff for Gigalion gear, and I could probably take on Dung Beetle Knight now, and Necromancer's Eye from Lion God would be useful in upcoming showdown against King's Man level 2.

Lion God it is.

Lantern Year 18 Hunt & Showdown - Lion God level 1

Laifuseuskaja, Syllogi, Nodaanna and Noram are supposed to bring home the new and improved Cat's Eye Circlet.

Hunt was otherwise uneventful, except for 4x hide resources from Flesh Fields and Noram losing all survival in Overwhelming Darkness.

The actual showdown, on the other hand, got eeeeenteresting right from the start when Lion God drew Woeful Majesty. Then it performed just performed heft, but all in all this showdown has the ingredients for a campaign-ending disaster. 

Survivor turn wasn't exactly a success either. Although five wounds were inflicted that doesn't matter much thanks to Woeful Majesty. Syllogi nearly loses his hand to monster reaction, but Laifuseuskaja manages to save him by first pushing Lion God on top of Syllogi, and then yanking the monster back to herself so that it no longer was adjacent to Syllogi. This, however, damaged Laifuseuskaja badly when Lion God bashed her into giant stone face. Next AI turn the God manages to hit Laifuseuskaja twice with a natural lantern 10. So... that's already two locations at heavy injury level and it isn't even the second turn!

Since a plenty amount of wounds were done, I change tactics and try to trick Lion God into cycling its AI deck via continuous mourning.

Survivors didn't even need to suffer through that many mournings, as there were a few advanced cards (non-relentless) that were easily played around.

Noram was culling monster hit location deck by taking aimed Vespertine Bow shots from locations that made the world explode with bleed tokens.

Then came the big turn. Bam. Everyone lost all armor, survival and insanity and got four bleed tokens. And all terrain got archived. I did this with a surged Rawhide Headband, so I still got everyone's full activations left. Except for hemophobic Nodaanna.

Syllogi cleared two bleed tokens from Laifuseuskaja, who then took a swing at Lion God. She had to take it from whiplash zone, because one of the locations had a knockback reaction.

Of course now Laifuseuskaja who hit on 2+ managed only two hits with speed 3. Both were criticals, though. One location gave an extra wound on critical, too. Too bad Cudgel was still in play and got into discard pile.

There was still one blind card in AI deck, and Noram would need to make his aimed shot that wounded on 5+. And wound he did.

Now there was only Cudgel left in AI deck, which translated into basic action against Laifuseuskaja. Excess of lantern 10's didn't show up, so I started breathing a little easier.

Syllogi used Sky Harpoon's special ability and scored a wound. Laifuseuskaja cut Lion God to pieces.

Syllogi has to use his re-roll on The Knowledge Worm story event. Nodaanna already had used her re-roll to survive a brain trauma.

Oh my phew. What a teeth-grinding showdown.

Lantern Year 19 - Triathlon of Death

Well well. Fourth triathlon during the running of Enerva settlement. Laifuseuskaja, Nodalus, Noram and Lojuba enter the race. 

Race contest: Laifuseuskaja, Nodalus, Lojuba, Noram 
Debate: Laifuseuskaja, Noram, Lojuba,  Nodalus  
Fight: Laifuseuskaja, Noram, Lojuba, Nodalus 

Sadly Laifuseuskaja's victory on racing contest was wasted, as she has already gained +1 movement in her lifetime. But the thing I was after here was Laifuseuskaja's shield proficiency, of which she gained one level.

Nodalus, on the other... hand... became possibly my first ever survivor with two dismembered arms. 

1: Settlement innovates Drums.
2: Matchmaker for Kholkho and Undebea. 
3: Matchmaker Kholkho and Undebea. Undebea dies.
4: Settlement builds blacksmith
5: Settlement makes leather
6-7: Laifuseuskaja takes some sessions in Petal Spiral, not gaining anything.
8: Shrine ritual is success
9: Scarification for Unkho

Settlement develops an additional Round Leather Shield.

But this is enough of Kingdom Death for the year. Probably. Maybe.

Next time around is King's Man level 2. 

Enerva settlement

Population 34, Survival limit 12 (manhunter hooch), +3 on depart, (+3 survival, insanity from Knowledge Worm) +monsterlevel on arrival 

Luma
Voxanius otherworldly luck
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
Hunree XXX, played monster in Hunt Re-enactment on LY 17
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, +3 insanity, Vestiphobia from lost companion.
Noram XXX SKIP NEXT HUNT
Hovelina XXX 
Mallestik XXX
Kholbab XXX
Pheruu XXX
Chanram XXX
Lojuba XXX SKIP NEXT HUNT
Syllogi XXX
Tranch XXX
Noandalus XXX
Nodaanna XXX
Menoloromias, saved by Lojuba during Overwhelming Darkness
Firbalus, Blinded via Scarification, +1 courage XXX
Phebea XXX
Undenial XXX
Noantur, destroyed genitals via scarification. +1 courage. XXX
Kholbea
Unkho, +1 courage and Tough from scarification.

1x Screaming Brain
1x Muscly Gums
1x Shank Bone

1x Huge Sunteeth

1x Stink Lung
1x Shadow Ink Gland
1x Shark Tongue
2x Cycloid Scales
1x 1000 year sunstone

1x Bladder
1x Beast Steak
1x Fresh Acanthus
4x Broken Lantern
1x Love Juice

1x Sinew (organ)

1x Lonely Ant

4x Red Vial
5x Leather

6x Iron

Barf-fest Malifaux Style

Two 50ss games of Malifaux.

Game 1: 

Symbols of Authority, Standard Deployment

Schemes: Claim Jump, Detonate Charges, Bait and Switch, Hidden Martyrs, Spread Them Out

My list:

Hamelin & Stolen
Benny  Wolcomb
Nix (martyr)
Midnight Stalker
Malifaux Child (martyr)
Rat King
Rat Catcher
Winged Plague

Pool: 6
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Detonate Charges

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
3x Illuminated (one of them was the martyr)
2x Depleted
Tanuki (martyr)

Pool: 1
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Detonate Charges

Turn 1:

Opponent made a mistake in deploying the strategy markers, and one of them had to be put rather far up the board. I capitalized on this by putting Midnight Stalker there and assisted with Hamelin himself. First turn Hamelin lured an Illuminated closer and slapped a blight token on it. Stolen then launched a volley of vomit on the thing, and even Winged Plague tried to attack the Illuminated. But the thing was left alive with a couple of health remaining.

This flank was contested by a Depleted, two nearby Illuminated, Kitty Dumont and Hungering Darkness so Hamelin and Midnight Stalker did feel a little threatened.

In the middle of the board, I tried my best to make Benny Wolcomb factory running with Malifaux Child and Rat Catcher, but that didn't go too well. Rat King ran as far as it could, and Nix hanged close to it. They were met by Lynch and Mr. Graves, and the Illuminated on the right could reasonably well redirect their attention to middle board.

A single Illuminated was trying to sneak its way towards my strategy markers at left board side.

Turn 2:

Midnight Stalker leaps to strategy marker and interacts a scheme marker near Tanuki just in case for Detonate Charges. 

The Illuminated I had tried to kill earlier regenerated and bonus actioned itself near full health again, and punched my Winged Plague dead. Kitty, Hungering Darkness and that Illuminated received a shower of blight tokens as a result.

Hungering Darkness charged Hamelin and dealt more damage than expected. In return, Hamelin and the vomit orchestra would have actually killed the totem if it wasn't for opponent's only soulstone.

Rat King goes to engage Illuminated that was ogling my strategy markers. Rat Catcher places a scheme marker near middle of the board, and is charged by Mr. Graves who fails to destroy my model.

Benny Wolcomb makes a miserable activation, getting only three rats on the board. Two of which, along with one Stolen, were instantly removed by an Illuminated and its scintillating cloud.

Malifaux Child and Nix place strategy markers to score Detonate Charges from Mr. Graves, and Kitty Dumont does the same for Midnight Stalker.

Scores go 2-1 for Resurrectionists

Turn 3:

Opponent wins initiative, and Hungering Darkness manages to heal itself almost back to full, and continue to maul Hamelin. This time, however, Hamelin and the remaining two Stolen destroy the Honeypot henchman.

Midnight Stalker goes to claim another strategy marker, and Kitty Dumont picks up first strategy marker for Ten Thunders.

Lynch kills Rat King that was engaging enemy strategy piece. Nix comes to replace the minion - enemy getting to collect strategy markers seemed exceedingly difficult for now. This, however, left Mr. Graves confronted by just Malifaux Child and Rat Catcher. And Benny Wolcomb, I guess.

Malifaux Child (hidden martyr) attacks Mr. Graves furiously, triggering Black Blood twice. Mr. Graves didn't take the bait and killed Rat Catcher instead.

Both players score strategy, bringing points to 3-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Opponent has one attempt at removing already severely damaged Midnight Stalker, but it doesn't go as planned, and Midnight Stalker is able to claim third strategy marker.

Hamelin tries to damage Kitty Dumont, but doesn't do much.

A berserk, drunken furry that is Tanuki charges one of my Stolen and kills the kid. Mental image is rather disturbing. It was probably Depleted that killed last remaining Stolen, so Hamelin was now out of "get-out-of-jail-for-free" cards. 

Kitty doesn't bother with killing Hamelin, and instead speeds towards one of my strategy markers. She, however, doesn't have the action points to interact with it.

Illuminated tries to murder Nix, and I happily aid him even to the point of cheating fate to lose a defense duel. But it just isn't enough to kill the puppy. Reason? Opponent showed absolutely zero interest at killing Malifaux Child who was my other martyr. And I wanted at least one point from the scheme.

An Illuminated runs to the strategy marker that already had Kitty next to it, and Benny Wolcomb followed with Mr. Graves right behind, making broad swings with that fencepost.

Resurrectionists score strategy for 4-2 lead.

Opponent concedes in favor of another game.

Game 2:

Corrupted Ley Lines with Flank Deployment
Scheme pool: Assassinate, Claim Jump, Research Mission, Breakthrough, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Dr. McMourning with Grave Spirit Touch & Zombie Chihuahua
Rogue Necromancy
2x Flesh Construct
Guild Autopsy
Nurse
Gravedigger
Mindless Zombie

Pool: 5
Schemes: Claim Jump (one Flesh Construct), Assassinate

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness (Claim Jump)
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
3x Illuminated
1x Depleted

Pool: 3
Schemes Claim Jump, Let Them Bleed

Turn 1:

Alright, this game had probably the fastest start until now in my career as a malifauxer. 

Honeypot had Kitty as their lodestone carrier, and Resurrectionists had given it to Gravedigger.

One of the Flesh Constructs tried to flank and tank top-left quadrant that didn't have much of a Honeypot presence. In fact, the entire keyword was huddling in an enormous blob in the middle.

McMourning summoned a Flesh Construct from Gravediggers two corpse markers and Mindless Zombie, gave it doctor's order and then the thing ran past middle point, where it was greeted by Hungering Darkness.

My claim-jumping Flesh Construct approached more cautiously, and it together with Rogue Necromancy tried to disgorge some poison blasts into the thick of enemy crew, but both just failed. Wow. I just realized how much of a thing barfing around was in both of my lists...

Turn 2:

Rogue Necromancy charges Hungering Darkness in an attempt to stop enemy from advancing. As a bonus it deals some convincing damage in. That damage was instantly healed by the totem, and it removed the summoned Flesh Construct. 

Mr. Graves and an Illuminated tried to remove Rogue Necromancy and did a good job. Too bad it had seven poison counters, and Zombie Chihuahua had Blood Poisoning. Must have been frustrating.

However, also frustrating was when Dr. McMourning committed to middle field and summoned another Flesh Construct, it was killed in one turn and got turned into a Depleted. 

Kitty claimed top-left strategy marker, and Gravedigger claimed marker in the middle.

Resurrectionists score Claim Jump and both players get strategy. Points are 2-1 for McMourning.

Turn 3:

Flesh Construct that tried to delay top-left quadrant destroys an Illuminated and Depleted that had come to engage it. With its last action point it comes to engage Kitty Dumont. who successfully disengages with insolence. She doesn't reach a strategy marker, though.

Rogue Necromancy was on fire this round. First it scored Pouncing Strike from Hungering Darkness, leaping to Lynch to make an attack. Then it uses second action point to attack Lynch, scoring yet another Pouncing Strike and damaging an Illuminated.

Mr. Graves killed Gravedigger, and lodestone was passed to my claim jumping Flesh Construct, who took three walks to bottom-right strategy marker.

I was worried that Lynch might leave the melee with Rogue Necromancy and run into safety, so I activated McMourning early. He walked through Hungering Darkness, used doctor's orders on himself and brought Honeypot master down to two wounds remaining. Assassination secured.

But then I had to be worried about McMourning - as he might very well die to combined efforts of Hungering Darkness, potentially two Illuminated and Mr. Tannen. And one Illuminated certainly did good damage in to the good doctor. Much to my amazement, Hungering Darkness decided to attack Rogue Necromancy instead. 

Then it was end of turn, and that maneuver started to make sense. Both players scored strategy, Resurrectionists scored Assassinate and Ten Thunders revealed Let Them Bleed that I really didn't consider opponent might have.

Scores go 4-3 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Dr. McMourning kills Lynch and summons another Flesh Construct. At this point things still looked dandy and fine.

But then I lose Rogue Necromancy, Flesh Construct in top-left and Guild Autopsy in the middle. I realize I have McMourning and two Flesh Constructs on board. Uh oh. 

Lodestone carrying Flesh Construct makes a cautious advance to a position it might possibly maybe go score claim jump next turn.

But then Hungering Darkness disengages from McMourning and moves suspiciously close to middle point.

Yup. Both players score strategy, and Ten Thunders reveal Claim Jump.

Turn 5:

I needed to activate claim jumping Flesh Construct early to toss lodestone to summoned Flesh Construct. As a result, it was brutally mauled into oblivion by Mr. Graves and Hungering Darkness. 

Dr. McMourning gives the zombie doctor's orders to remove it from melee, but regardless one Illuminated succeeded to re-engage it. Fortunately it manages to disengage and park itself next to strategy marker. Unfortunately Mr. Tannen lured it away from base contact with deliriously despicable promises.

Kitty had no trouble getting to middle marker, thus securing 8-6 victory for Ten Thunders.

Strategy thunders, claim, let them bleed vs assassinate 8-6

The Dreaded Harvester

 Lantern Year 14 hunt & showdown - Screaming Antelope level 2

Moldonial, Tyypi, Twix and Fatalia hunt for an antelope as planned back in May. I'm not sure if I have ever naturally rolled 10 on the random hunt events, but this time it did come up. The Harvester. And it gifted Fatalia with the most mysterious disorder of all - Spiral Ganglia. Moldonial received Vermin Obsession, and Tyypi became a Hoarder. Twix, on the other hand, became instantly useless when he got Apathetic. Otherwise hunt was uneventful, except Tyypi, our Vespertine Bow user, losing all survival to carpet of ticks after we had triggered Reverberating Lantern.

Showdown started with Fatalia speeding to remove Bug Patch from the board. She got a Lonely Ant from the patch - what a wonderful treasure for our Hoarder.

Vespertine Bow and Moldonial's Metal Maw were doing steady damage to Screaming Antelope, and even apathetic Twix happened to stand passively with Rib Blade somewhere in Antelope's general direction, dealing random wounds. Although survivors' defenses were lacking, only one survivor was truly suffering despite all his apathy - Twix was continously ran over by the monster, resulting in dismembered arm and double contracture. 

But the showdown went relatively fine. Twix was already ruined in the hunt phase if we're being accurate. It was a victory. One of the terrain cards was Lonely Tree, so settlement received the Lonely Fruit, too.

Lantern Year 15 - Acid Storm

Acid Storm gave settlement some scrap. Twix and Sibyllaria drank some love juice and received intimacy through Augury. As a result, Maurala's population was a lot more secure eleven than prior eight. 

Settlement endeavors:

1: Settlement innovated Bed.
2: Settlement used Augury for intimacy
3-4:  Synchronized Strike for Noitatsaved and Fatalia. 

Developments included Screaming helmet and waist armor, plus Counter-weighted Axe.

Next we might actually try Lonely Tree since it's the last year we can fight a level 2 tree. But that happens when it happens.

Its new and scary

I had two games of Warmachine with the most recent rules update, both with Brawlmachine format.

Lists were same in both games. My list:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra [+28]
 - Malice [13]
 - Ripjaw [6]
- Slayer [10]
Bloat Thrall [2]
Misery Cage [2]
Pistol Wraith [4]
Soulhunters (max) [16]

Opponent had:

Cygnar

Major Beth Maddox [+30]

 - Charger [9]

 - Defender [14]

 - Firefly [7]

Arcane Tempest Rifleman [3]

Black 13th Strike Force [7]

Stormguard Infantry (max) [15]

Scenario was Syzygy. 

Both games played out very similarly. Cryx scored their flag twice, Malice broke enemy objective and either middle zone or flag was scored third time again. Cygnar wasn't able to contest Cryx flag reliably while Soulhunters contested Cygnar flag.

I kind of wonder if Syzygy is a functioning scenario. It seems to boil down to "who can contest enemy flag longest", where ultra fast difficult-to-remove units naturally have advantage. Maybe Soulhunters were a "hard counter" for the entire scenario. But that's not all.

Had we played with the old rules, my list would have been a whopping 12 points less, while opponent would have played only 5 points down. That was seven "extra" points for me, which is a crazy number for this point size. Well, time will tell if the point cost adjustments were spot on but it certainly felt like cheating in these games.

Martyrs, martyrs everywhere

 A 50 soul stone game of Malifaux.

Turf War with Flank deployment. Scheme pool: Vendetta, Claim Jump, Hidden Martyrs, Let Them Bleed, Research Mission

My list was:

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Grave Golem
Dead Doxy (Vendetta on Obsidian Oni)
Mourner with Grave Spirit Touch (Martyr)
Rotten Belle (Martyr)
Gravedigger

Pool: 6
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Vendetta

Opponent had:

Asami Tanaka & Amanjaku
Ama No Zako
Shadow Emissary
2x Yokai (Hidden martyrs)
Obsidian Oni
Akaname (Claim Jump)

Pool: 7
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Claim Jump

Turn 1:

Ten Thunders brought their both scary models on high vantage points. Obsidian Oni and Yokai near the middle, and one additional Obsidian Oni is summoned by Asami as a hand grenade. It sets up Dead Doxy, Grave Golem and Mourner on fire. Akaname interacts with closest marker to Ten Thunders. The second Yokai speeds up to charge Rotten Belle that had arrived in base contact with strategy marker on the bottom left. Amanjaku follows Yokai around. 

Gravedigger and Mourner both do Blasphemous Rituals, and hand out focus +2 to both Grave Golem and Madame Sybelle. Resurrectionists had made a nice little blob of three models in the middle. Grave Golem tried to look menacing and distract-ey, while Dead Doxy was aiming to get a strike at her vendetta target.

Gravedigger interacted with my closest strategy marker. Copycat Killer and Seamus do their movement shenanigans and interact with top-right strategy marker. Then Seamus thought it would be a good idea to draw the attention of Shadow Emissary by taking a random weak damage shot at it.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists gain initiative, and first to activate is Madame Sybelle who goes to take a swing at Obsidian Oni. I had overestimated their durability, and she hit the thing for five points of damage in. That meant Dead Doxy might ruin my Vendetta with a moderate damage as Obsidian Oni had two health remaining. This was especially worrisome, as my lowest card in hand was 6. However, Doxy scores only weak damage and scores Vendetta.

Loud bang of the flintlock had indeed aroused the ire of Shadow Emissary. When the mauling ceased, Seamus was at around half of his health remaining, plus me having three stones less. Time to escape! Copycat Killer took a random shot at Yokai that did some damage in. Then he switched places with Seamus. 

And that's when Ama No Zako charged to my master. Great. What's even better - after the Ten Thunders henchman had activated, I had zero soul stones left and Seamus was down to one wound remaining. And that was only because Hard-to-Kill.

Seamus Terrorizes Ama No Zako away from him and heals a bit. Then he takes a shot at Yokai engaging Rotten Belle, killing the oni. 

Obsidian Oni takes a swing at at Dead Doxy and she dies. But it's notthe exotic axe/maul/mace-thingy that had hit her, oh no. It was the horrible stench caused by Akaname. Doxy was at two health remaining, burning, and then poisoned.

Asami summons Katashiro, which flaps furiously at Madame Sybelle.

Grave Golem interacts with marker in middle and tries to attack Yokai. Rotten Belle interacts with marker on bottom-left.

Then it's end of turn. Both players score strategy, and opponent reveals Hidden Martyrs on Yokai. I had done my Vendetta earlier, so scores go 2-2.

Turn 3:

Ten Thunders win the initiative. It's beyond me why opponent picked Ama No Zako to activate first. I mean... there was this 12" teleporting, four action point, Def 4 master two weak hits from being dead, and Ama No Zako had essentially 3 action points and stat 6 melee attack. It's beyond me.

Yeah. I lost my master turn 3 before he got to activate.

At least Shadow Emissary fails to kill Copycat Killer thanks to an untimely Black Joker.

Grave Golem kills the remaining Hidden Martyr Yokai.

Madame Sybelle removes the vendetta Obsidian Oni and Katashiro. Then Akaname, and a summoned Jorogume pile in on the undead lady in leather. Akaname would have only needed to land one weak damage on Sybelle for her to die to its stench, but in the end Sybelle was left alive with three health, burning and poisoned.

Mourner takes a couple lucky Feed on Griefs on Akaname, killing it.

Rotten Belle interacts with strategy marker on the bottom-left and charges Ama No Zako, failing right at the Terrifying check.

Resurrectionists score strategy, taking the lead at 3-2.

However, opponent concedes. After all, Ten Thunders had lost all key models for schemes and was behind in points, and likely to kill Rotten Belle.

Where's Vesna?

 Rise of Fenris campaign of Scythe continues with not one, but two episodes. 

Last time around the empires of Europa chose to follow a path of strenuous peace. 

Episode 2 had Innovative Nordic Empire, Industrial Togawa, Agricultural Rusviet and Mechanical Saxons on the board. 

Nordics and Rusviet were the first to forge an alliance, soon followed by Togawa and Saxons. 

My Nordic Empire got a speedy start at least in terms of stars required for victory. I scored my first secret objective on the second round, and continued to churn out those stars from encounters, arriving at the factory et cetera. You know, the peaceful stuff. We were on the path of peace.

However, my second secret objective (control 3 tunnel spaces) didn't turn out so well as my forces were continuously either kicked off those tunnels by Saxons, or opponents had too strong occupying forces on them for me to challenge them or there were some wild cards in form of Togawa traps.

Because of this completely unjustified aggression, my progression and development was undermined. Both Togawa and Saxony controlled huge territories, and Rusviet, well, Rusviet controlled territories. 

Figuring I wouldn't be able to get a victory in this geopolitical climate, I decided to end the game and at least cut opponents' points short of their potential maximum.

Scoreboard was:

Industrial Togawa 72 points (purchased infrastructure mods: Spy, Automachines)
Innovative Nordic 57 points (purchased infrastructure mods: Recruitment Office, Machinery, Assembly Line)
Agricultural Rusviet 57 points (purchased infrastructure mods: Assembly Line, Recruitment Office)
Mechanical Saxony 44 points (purchased infrastructure mods: Cavalry, Machinery)

Episode 3

Second game we had Mechanical Nordic, Industrial Togawa, Patriotic Rusviet and Innovative Saxony. Objective was to find Vesna from factory.

I can't boast with having loads of experience on Scythe, but still I dare say this game was absurd.

Although my Nordics got a decent start thanks to my infrastructure mods, it was nothing compared to Saxony in this game. Those dungeon dwellers were spewing out stars to the score board like they were the Big Bang themselves. Within, like, first six rounds they had brought five of their six required victory stars. Three from secret objectives, one from mechs and one from won battles. 

That formed a sort of a protective shield around Saxony - no-one would dare to attack him, unless losing was impossible as that would have ended game prematurely had Saxoniy won. Saxony as well stomped hard on Togawas, which was important since they had already won two of the campaign episodes.

So, Saxony ends up farming the factory for Vesna with reckless abandon. He gets, what, five influence tokens, while other players got zero. 

After Vesna had been found, they just ended game with a random easy victory. 

In the end, Saxony turns into Vesna faction. Rusviet decided to change their faction to Albion.

Scenario is won by Nordic Empire thanks to tiebreaker.

Scores:

Mechanical Nordic 51 points (purchases Construction infrastructure mod)
Patriotic Rusviet 51 points (forgot to ask about infrastructure mods)
Innovative Saxony 47 points (forgot to ask about infrastructure mods, +3 starting popularity)
Industrial Togawa 34 points (forgot to ask which two infrastructure mods were purchased)

It just had to come, vol II

 Had another game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Symbols of Authority with Corner deployment. Scheme pool: Let Them Bleed, Spread Them Out, Bait and Switch, Research Mission, Death Beds

My list was:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba with Grave Spirit Touch
Lost Love
2x Shikome
Crooligan
3x Seishin
Mindless Zombie

Stones: 7

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Lucius Mattheson & Scribe
Agent 46 with Inhuman Reflexes
Hooded Rider
Investigator
False Witness
Guild Lawyer
Changeling

Stones: 6

Schemes: Bait and Switch, Spread Them Out

Turn 1:

I had originally planned to play Seamus, but the map looked terrific for some incorporeal action.

Datsue Ba turns Mindless Zombie into Focused +1 for everyone but herself, walks once and concentrates herself. 

I get completely lost in who activates when in the enemy team, since everyone is using Obey (or the equivalent) on everyone. Hooded Rider rides with Agent 46 and arrives in middle-north of the board, and takes a walk nearer middle. 

Investigator and False Witness had been walked to the middle, too, and since I didn't know what to expect I charged a summoned Goryo into those two. Ikiryo charges Hooded Rider after being moved around by Seishin. Neither Goryo or Ikiryo score any damage.

Investigator and False Witness are freed from Goryo with some scheme shenanigans, and Investigator charges Ikiryo and garrotes her down to one wound remaining. 

Both Shikomes were guided by Seishins. One went west, ending up past middle line. The other Shikome managed to interact a scheme marker on to enemy table side. However, that brought her within charge range of Agent 46, and as a result she was brought down to three remaining.

Turn 2:

Ikiryo activates first because I supposed she'd disappear next. But killing her didn't interest Investigator or Hooded Rider (who failed his Ride With Me)

Kirai summoned another Goryo, and together the goryos brough Investigator, False Witness, Changeling and Guild Lawyer to one or two hit points remaining. Most of their attacks certainly missed, but Violent Ghosts didn't need to hit in the first place.

Crooligan in south-west did a scheme marker, and Shikome that was flapping around in there too dropped another marker and charged False Witness that had strayed to middle line.

Agent 46 kills my Shikome and removes the scheme marker she put up. Datsue Ba is guided by Seishins to charge Agent 46, and then I need to make a decision to either score strategy or Spread Them Out this turn. I choose strategy, and Lost Love teleports to Datsue Ba, walks and interacts an enemy strategy marker. 

Then it becomes apparent why Ikiryo had been spared. Neverborn reveals Bait and Switch. Resurrectionists take a point of strategy for 1-1 scores.

Turn 3:

Enemy is busy removing Goryos, and one of them is indeed removed by the blob of Lucius, Hooded Rider, Lawyers and whatnot, while the other one remained. But the other one... well, I suppose this day had to come eventually. I'm sure opponent could have killed the Goryo later in turn, but it would have taken additional resources if not for one black joker. Or two black jokers, to be precise. We both flip black joker, and as enemy had higher stat than my defense... it was a definite loss for Goryo.

I didn't have high enough card in my hand to re-summon another, so I had to take Drowned instead to deal with an escaped Investigator. Kirai also uses Spirit Barrage on False Witness, killing her. 

Moonlight charge killed Ikiryo and put my remaining Shikome down to one hit point remaining, but this didn't stop it from scoring another point of Symbols of Authority, with the aid of Seishins. 

Datsue Ba and Agent 47 duke it out, with Datsue gaining the upper hand by leaving the enemy henchman with three hit points. This had cost me plenty of soulstones, though, as I needed to spam Ram suit to prevent Agent from blocking damage with soulstones.

Lost Love drops a scheme and walks nearer another enemy Symbol. But it was a long way for Mv4 model.

However... Resurrectionists got another point of strategy, Spread Them Out and even Let Them Bleed in one fell go. Scores were now 4-1 for Resurrectionists. 

Turn 4:

To try to deny opponent from scoring Bait & Switch, Shikome charged a Guild Lawyer that had been sitting in enemy deployment zone with one hit point remaining. Didn't succeed, though. Hooded Rider fails to kill my contesting minion, but manages to ruin Lost Love's plans to score third point from strategy.

Changeling finishes Shikome with Shikome's own menacing talons. 

Agent 46 places a scheme marker on my side of the board and charges Datsue Ba. Without a soulstone Datsue lucks out with a ram suit and kills Agent 46. Lost Love teleports to Datsue, walks and interacts a marker.

The Scribe removes my last remaining Goryo, so it was time to summon a new one to tie up Lucius. Additionally Kirai put a scheme marker on the middle line.

Drowned fails to kill Investigator, but a random charging Seishin did not. What's this? Scribes and Seishins doing the heavy lifting?

No points were scored on turn four.

Turn 5:

I secured enough strategy markers on board to make Spread Them Out end condition infallible. We didn't play all the activations as the situation was clear. Neverborn scored another point of Bait and Switch, while Resurrectionists got both Let Them Bleed and Spread Them Out.

Game ended 6-4 for Resurrectionists.

The Draw

 Had a 50 soul stone game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy was Break the Line with flank deployment. Scheme pool: Vendetta, Breakthrough, Spread Them Out, Catch & Release, Bait & Switch

My list was:

Dr. McMourning with Killer Instinct & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Kentauroi (Catch & Release)
Flesh Construct
Nurse
Guild Autopsy

Stones: 4

Schemes: Catch & Release, Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
3x Illuminated (one of which has vendetta on Flesh Construct)
Tanuki

Stones: 1

Schemes: Vendetta, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

Sebastian lobs some formaldehyde on Resurrectionist models in top.

Kentauroi rides with guild autopsy and lobs a strategy marker to opponent's side but within its melee range. That might have been fancy, but Lynch manages to shoot Hungering Darkness to the horse beast. Fortune smiled at me (not sure if in a mocking manner) and Kentauroi was left with one wound remaining after the onslaught of Jakob's totem. So my Catch & Release target didn't disappear on the first round.

Guild Autopsy runs in forest as far as possible towards strategy marker in top-left corner. It's a long way though since it's a big forest...

Dr. McMourning comes to assist Kentauroi but doesn't actually do much just yet.

Flesh Construct takes a double walk and interacts a scheme marker in the middle of board.

Below, Nurse pulls Rogue Necromancy here & there with painkillers, after which Rogue ambushes, walks and throws strategy marker to the opponent's side.

Rogue Necromancy, Nurse and Zombie Chihuahua are opposed by two of the Illuminated and Mr. Tannen. One of the Illuminated threw back the strategy marker that Rogue Necromancy had interacted with.

Mr. Graves and one Illuminated struggle through forest. Kitty comes to top-left quarter near Hungering Darkness and Kentauroi.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists win initiative, and I put it on my priority list to run as far as possible with Kentauroi. It does Ride with me on McMourning and runs into bushes. Guild Autopsy puts a scheme marker top-left.

Kitty Dumont comes to interact with strategy marker that Dr. McMourning was guarding. Flesh Construct - instead of charging Mr. Tannen came to throw the marker right back.

Illuminated and Mr. Graves come to middle board to harass Sebastian, who had tried to poison those two. 

Lynch shoots McMourning around a bit with a large trout, and McMourning decides to activate next to remove Hungering Darkness from board. But the beast goes down to two points remaining because one attack fails to connect. Hungering Darkness botches its activation and does minimum damage in to McMourning, but does heal back to seven.

Below, an Illuminated murders Zombie Chihuahua. Rude. 

Mr. Tannen had activated Boring Conversation, which ruined Rogue Necromancy's activation. Well, it did bite one of the Illuminated down to two wounds, but considering it essentially had three attacks thanks to Pouncing Leap, that's not very impressive.

The other Illuminated succeeds in delivering strategy marker to my side of the board.

Score goes 1-1 from strategies.

Turn 3:

McMourning finally removes Hungering Darkness. Guild Autopsy throws a strategy marker to Ten Thunders territory.

Mr. Graves pays back by killing poor Sebastian. Flesh Construct comes to handle the situation in the middle, and deals respectable damage to Mr. Graves - down to two hit points, plus poison.

Illuminated then attacks Flesh Construct, damages, and reveals Vendetta. Now that Flesh Construct had activated, Kitty interacted with strategy marker and brought it to my side.

Below, and Illuminated comes to engage Nurse. Nurse says no, and pulls herself here & there with painkillers. She then walks and interacts with strategy marker. Remaining Illuminated charges Nurse through hazardous terrain, but fails to kill.

Mr. Tannen and Rogue Necromancy were generally useless.

As last activation, Kentauroi charges Kitty Dumont and scores Catch & Release.

Both players score strategy, Ten Thunders got Vendetta and Resurrectionists Catch & Release for 3-3.

Turn 4:

Mr. Graves kills Flesh Construct and puts up Keeping the Peace. Not wanting to risk it, Dr. McMourning walks into melee and brings the Vendetta scoring Illuminated down to one hit point. I giggled when I realized I could kill it with Black Blood from Mr. Graves. The attack hits nicely, so there was exactly one chance in the whole deck that Black Blood wouldn't kill Illuminated. And there it was, Black Joker.

Kentauroi takes a flight towards Ten Thunders deployment zone, dropping behind a scheme marker.

Illuminated attacks Nurse and brings her down to one hit point. Nurse then pulls herself here & there, walks and places another scheme marker.

Illuminated in the middle, however, brings McMourning down to two hit points remaining - which would've been four, of course, if there would have not been an unconvenient Black Joker.

Kitty Dumont charges McMourning and kills him with Unassuming Demeanor. Then she walks to my deployment zone and drops a scheme with bonus action.

Rogue Necromancy kills one Illuminated. Mr. Tannen does nothing. 

So... game had been rather even. This Ten Thunders scored Breakthrough and Resurrectionists had their Spread Them Out for scores of 4-4.

Turn 5

Guild Autopsy does a scheme marker, as does Kentauroi and runs to hug opponents deployment corner.

Below, Illuminated kills the Nurse, but Rogue Necromancy was able to interact a scheme marker and go engage Mr. Tannen.

Kitty Dumont walks, does interact for scheme and then drops another scheme with bonus action.

Illuminated in the middle walks to my deployment zone and slaps in a scheme marker.

Mr. Graves and Jakob Lynch attempt to bring one of the strategy markers 8" away from center line, but it doesn't work out.

Ten Thunders score Vendetta since Illuminated had been left alive against all odds, and Breakthrough.

Resurrectionists score Catch & Release since Kentauroi had been left alive against all odds, and Spread Them Out.

Final scores go 6-6.

The end is nigh

Shadowbrook and the nearby areas are nearing a total extinction of heroes, as our Touch of Evil campaign continues with one additional game via Tabletop Simulator. 

Game was Heinrich the Cartwright and Victor Danforth versus The Ghost Ship.

For once the shadow track took a slow and steady decline into darkness, which would have given heroes time to gear up. In theory, at least. As it turned out there were sporadic Ghost Pirate sprees, getting almost all of their counters on the map. Heroes needed to react to them, but the fights against those damnable pirates were awfully unlucky. 

Victor spent a whole lot of time in spewing out events, most of which were sub-par. 

Heinrich at least manages to find two pieces of cursed gold, and enough weapons and assorted gear to equal nine fight dice. Victor had cunning 6 and tools of science.

Suddenly shadow track was in its last stage to darkness, and heroes had to start the showdown way too early. Fortunately there was only one evil elder, although he did have the darkest secret.

Heroes had to assemble hunting party blindly, and we took Reverend Harding. And look at that. A second darkest secret, plus accompanied betrayal.

Ghost Ship had 32 wounds, and heroes managed to remove only thirteen out of them.

Good night, Heinrich and Victor.

Campaign Statistics:

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee, Reaper, Dreamweaver, Werewolf, Unspeakable Horror, Necromancer

Villains still to be defeated: 2, +2 investigation vs Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul, Karl, Eliza, Dr. Edwards, Sara the Bright Witch, Heinrich Cartwright, Victor Danforth
Heroes remaining: 2

Stashed investigation: 3