Malifaux Vassal Tournament part I

I took part in a Vassal tournament for Malifaux. It was a round robin style tournament, which means five rounds. Here are the first three games. 

 First game was Corner Deployment Symbols of Authority, and scheme pool: Breakthrough, Vendetta, Assassinate, Claim Jump, Spread Them Out.

My list:

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Bete Noire
Grave Golem
2x Crooligan
Dead Doxy
Dead Dandy
Gravedigger

Pool: 6

Schemes: Breakthrough, Spread Them Out

Opponent was playing Neverborn:

Nekima + Inhuman Reflexes & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
2x Corrupted Hound
2x Black Blood Shaman
Mature Nephilim
+1x upgrade somewhere

Pool: 9

Schemes: ???

Turns 1-2:

An aggressive advance by Resurrectionists ensures a bloody fight ensues sooner rather than later. Turns out Bete Noire isn't holding the entire Neverborn crew all alone, and she barely survives with one health point remaining after Hayreddin says hello. 

Nekima then charges Grave Golem, who had been nearing middle field along with Dead Doxy and Seamus. Five points of damage was worrisome, since I had no idea if Nekima had any anti-demise tech available. 

Crooligans and Gravedigger score Spread Them Out on second turn. 

Seamus somehow manages to bring Nekima down to one hit point remaining. Sadly worthless minions couldn't deliver the last point, so Nekima would activate at least once more.

Turn 3:

Nekima activates first, shoves aside Grave Golem and attacks Copycat Killer. Killer doesn't die thanks to minimum damage, but then something happens as a bonus. Dead Doxy in same melee with Nekima had suffered a little from Black Blood already and was at one hit point remaining, too.

Boom. A zero-action killed two of my unactivated models. 

At least Seamus managed to kill Neverborn master, but it was a heavy price to pay. Black Blood Shaman grows up as a Mature Nephilim and tosses a corrupted hound at Dead Dandy.

I had grand plans of scoring strategy and breakthrough on this very same turn, but unfortunately it happened so that my opponent ran out of available time - just when things started getting interesting. Game scored as a victory for me, but it certainly doesn't feel like a victory. Oh well. Such happens, even on Vassal. 

Game 2:

Flank deployment, Public Enemies. Scheme pool: Vendetta, Catch & Release, Let Them Bleed, Leave Your Mark, Research Mission

My list was:

Seamus & Copycat
Madame Sybelle
Mortimer
Grave Golem
Bete Noire
Mourner with Grave Spirit Touch

Pool: 6

Schemes: Catch & Release. Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Titania & Gorar
Hinamatsu
Aeslin
Malisaurus Rex
Hooded Rider
Autumn Knight

Pool: 5

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Research Mission

Turn 1-2:

This game had a brutal start. Resurrectionists were ambushed at the Arctic Lodge and butchered to pieces - Grave Golem went dead on the first turn, as did Mortimer thanks to Red Jokerin' Hinamatsu. Mourner died at the start of second turn and somewhere in the process Titania beat up Seamus down to four hit points remaining.

I had sent Bete Noire to flank around, which was a mistake as the situation went from bad to critical in the blink of an eye. Or maybe a few blinks. 

Madame Sybelle and Copycat Killer took on Hinamatsu together, dealing in some minor points of damage.

My best luck was in getting a Red Joker with Seamus' damage flip against Hooded Rider. This had Madame Sybelle later kill the rider with a Critical Strike damage track of 5/5/6.

At the end of second round, both players scored strategy and opponent revealed Research Mission, bringing points to 1-2 for Neverborn.

Turn 3:

Seamus disengages, teleports to shoot Hinamatsu and teleports again to relative safety. Madame Sybelle only tickles Hinamatsu before dying herself to the puppet-thing. Malisaurus Rex eats Copycat Killer, and Titania, Autumn Knight and Aislin scare off Bete Noire from trying to scramble Leave Your Mark points. 

Grave Golem pops up behind Hinamatsu and smacks it dead, bringing me another strategy point. Opponent's points for this round were on Hinamatsu, so points went 2-2.

Turn 4-5:

Rest of the game isn't much of a game any more - sure, Grave Golem stood strong (which means dying repeatedly to a wet sock)  and opponent wasn't able to score strategy easily, but he did manage to munch Seamus with Malisaurus Rex. That thing charges FAR.

But it was really Neverborn playing whack-a-mole with Bete Noire and Grave Golem constantly going up and down. 

In the end, it was a steady victory for Neverborn with 5-2, when he scored both end conditions from his schemes.

Game 3:

Scenario was Recover Evidence with standard deployment. Scheme pool was Breakthrough, Vendetta, Assassinate, Spread Them Out and Runic Binding. This time I was against fellow Resurrectionists. I thought I might as well give Kirai a go with following list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
2x Drowned
2x Seishin
Hanged with Grave Spirit Touch

Pool: 9

Schemes: Breakthrough, Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Molly & Necrotic Construct
Rogue Necromancy
Archie
Forgotten Marshal
2x Crooligan
2x Night Terror

Pool: 4

Schemes: Breakthrough, Spread Them Out

Turns 1-2: 

These turns saw lots of action. I had deployed Ikiryo, Kirai, Seishin, Drowned and Lost Love around middle of the board, Datsue Ba far left and Hanged, Seishin plus another Drowned far right. Ikiryo challenged a Crooligan in mid-field right next to Rogue Necromancy, and Kirai summoned an Onryo to tie up Archie. Datsue Ba failed to startle a little kid, but did enter midline almost unchallenged.

Ikiryo brought a Crooligan down to one hit point remaining, having it drop its intel marker. Rogue Necromancy obviously bit a severely damaged Ikiryo in two halves, having her drop her intel marker. 

Night Terrors and one Crooligan bunch up on the right, and Hanged manages to put its upgrade on one of the Night Terrors and remove half of its hit points. Another Night Terror runs to a forest deep in my side of the board, which probably meant opponent had Breakthrough as his scheme. But the Night Terror did not survive a spiritual triple barrage by Kirai - who flipped two 13's with a negative flip on attack against target in concealment, and then a red joker for her last attack.

Neither player revealed any schemes yet, so points were 1-1 at the end of second round. 

Turn 3:

I waste Kirai's, re-summoned Ikiryo's and Drowned's full activations trying to take down Rogue Necromancy at 6 hit points. Only Drowned managed to do two points in. More damage was done to my models via Molly's Lethe's Caress.

Datsue Ba speeds into enemy deployment zone, hopefully getting a point of Breakthrough next turn.

I learned that Hanged are not  especially good models against Night Terrors - the attached upgrade only helps them! Had not Seishin managed to walk another Drowned twice, I'd have had bat beasts flapping in my deployment zone to whom I'd not be able to do a thing. But the Drowned came and secured another strategy point to me. 

Enemy Crooligans schemed somewhat, but nothing I considered worrisome just yet. I had my Gaki sitting next to evidence marker, most likely giving me third strategy point on turn 4, so I didn't want to commit it to remove enemy scheme markers.

Archie fails to jump but does not fail to destroy Onryo. 

Kirai scores strategy, getting ahead in points 2-1. 

Turn 4

Forgotten Marshal had been a bit of a useless model for the entire game, failing at every summon he tried to make. To make up for his deficiencies, he killed two of my models with Peacebringer. Gaki and Seishin were gone. Fortunately Gaki had already managed to pick up Evidence marker. 

Datsue Ba interacts for a scheme marker and walks as deep into enemy territory as possible. Hanged walks to enemy deployment zone on the other side of board. 

Archie leaps and smacks already injured Drowned dead with one attack, and flurried a second attack at Ikiryo, killing it too. With his final action Archie picked up evidence marker.

Kirai barrages a Crooligan dead and re-summons Ikiryo, who then positions for next round to collect that particular Crooligan's evidence or scheme marker. 

Rogue Necromancy chases Datsue Ba, but doesn't get near enough to deny Kirai a point.

Kirai scores Breakthrough and Strategy, and Molly scores Strategy for 4-2

Turn 5

Lost Love collects last evidence marker for Kirai, and Kirai collects enemy scheme marker since I was suspecting opponent had Spread Them Out. 

Rogue Necromancy slaughters Datsue Ba, who had left a scheme marker deep into enemy deployment zone. But not deep enough - Molly was able to reach it with her marker removal ability. This meant I wouldn't gain Spread Them Out. 

Archie leaped, walked and schemed into my deployment zone. Kirai parked right next to the big boy. 

Kirai scores Strategy for a final result of 5-2 for Kirai.

Up until fourth turn it was a difficult game, and even there had its terrifying moment when Peacebringer downed two of my models, while one died to Molly's Caress and one to Archie. But as I had some success in denying Molly's scheme runners, losing that many models in a couple of activations wasn't enough to turn the tides that were favoring Kirai.