Muh Windmill

 Dead diary, today I played a four player game of Scythe. It was a practice game for upcoming Fenris campaign.

Factions randomized were Republic of Polania, Saxony Empire, Crimean Khanate and Rusviet Union.

I played the Rusviet Union, and as I had a secret campaign objective to be in Factory space and have zero upgrades, I thought it wise to rush into the space. I just needed a mech for that. I screwed up with my early movements a little, so I couldn't finish a mech in a timely manner, so I decided to go and check the random event. I got an early recruit bonus from it at the cost of popularity, which I used poorly on structure building bonus. Should have picked mechs since everyone began building them left and right. Heh.

Nevertheless, I arrived first on the Factory tile and shooed some Polanians nearby before Olga snatched another random event from the speculative hands of Polania. There I invested in oil fields.

I tried churning out mechs as rapidly as I could, but that was probably sub-par tactic since Rusviet gains no extra resources when building mechs, and on top of that they have (what to me seems like) the highest cost of mechs. As a result I was constantly starved of coins. Oh well. Live and learn. 

I think I actually fought the least during whole game, with two wins and one defeat. Just what did I do, then? I didn't have that many workers, upgrades or recruits either. And I think I was the last player to get all of their four mechs online. 

Well, I did keep the Factory to myself and even built a windmill there. Think about that!

Crimean Khanate was closest faction to me from the beginning of the game, yet there was no aggression between us. And I'm not sure what Crimeans did, either. They did control plenty of zones, kind of, but mostly just kept to themselves when they were not teasing Saxonia and were drawing disturbing amounts of money with everything they did. Yet, they must have done something right since Crimean Khanate won the game.

Saxony was in a tough spot between Crimeans and Polenians and appeared to be fighting all the time, usually using excessive force to deal with both attacks and defenses. I didn't pay much attention to their matters, as Saxony was furthest away from me and I don't think we interacted in any way throughout the game.

Polenia, on the other hand, was everywhere at once. But that was to be expected, or so I've heard. They were continuously leeching resources from my actions because of some early enlists. Apparently they managed their central bank efficiently enough, as Polenia placed second.

Final scoreboard:

Crimean Khanate: 93
Republic of Polania: 78
Rusviet Union: 66
Saxony Empire: 39

Scourge of a Grove

 Had a 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list was:

Cryx

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]

 - Deathripper [6]
- Nightmare [18]
 - Slayer [10]
 - Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Misery Cage [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
 - Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Wraith Engine [15]

Opponent had:

Circle

 Baldur the Stonecleaver [+31]

 - Woldwatcher [8]

 - Woldwrath [37]

Gallows Grove [2]

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (min) [12]

Shifting Stones [3]

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max) [15]

 - Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha [4]

Scenario was Most Pit from main rulebook. Nightmare picked Woldwrath as its prey target, and then Cryx started game by rushing forward. Circle played more cautiously, but still brought Woldwatcher and Shifting Stones to contest middle zone.

As Circle didn't make an approach, second turn Cryx was still just running forward and lined up Wraith Engine, Bane Warriors, Slayer with Grave Wind and Nightmare ten inches away from Woldwrath. 

Skinwalkers attempted to screen Woldwrath, and were mostly killed by Wraith Engine and Bane Warriors. 

To get things going, Grave Wind was cycled to Nightmare, who then charged stone-formed Woldwatcher that had Mortality on. The bugger was left alive with two hit points.

I trusted that sweet Def 15 enough to bring Nightmare within charge distance of Woldwrath. But then I learned that the thing has knockdown effect on its melee attacks. Whoops. There went my 18 points. And a bunch of Nyss Hunters charged Deneghra. Four of them, actually. And they were hitting on 9+. Three of them hit, and brought Deneghra down to five hit points remaining. Yikes.

However, there was Gallows Grove within charge distance of Deneghra. And there was Baldur right behind the tree. I sensed a possible assassination, so Wraith Engine ran to Baldur to spread some Dark Shroud. Deneghra charged Gallows Grove and destroyed it with Scourge, which also knocked down Baldur. 

Deneghra had used her feat, and she cast Mortality on Baldur. Deneghra had four swings to cut through automatically hit Arm 12 target. It was more than enough to score a caster kill.

Rise Again (and again)

During my Kuhmo visit, I played a 50 soul stone game of Malifaux. Because our table looked atrocious I'm not going to put any pictures here this time.

Details: Corrupted Ley Lines with Standard Deployment. Scheme pool: Hidden Martyrs, Bait and Switch, Catch and Release, Assassinate, Vendetta

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Mortimer
Bete Noire + Grave Spirit Touch
Grave Golem
Rotten Belle
Dead Doxy (Catch & Release)
Gravedigger

Pool: 5

Schemes: Catch & Release, Assassinate

Opponent had:

Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen (Martyr)
3x Illuminated (one had vendetta on Mortimer and one was a martyr)
Tanuki:

Pool: 1

Schemes: Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs

Turn 1:

Kitty and Gravedigger secured one strategy marker. Other notable thing that happened was Seamus' flanking pot shot at Tanuki, which entirely failed. Opponent used his only soulstone to deliver unactivated Hungering Darkness to Seamus, who failed to do any damage. Still my master was in a terrible position.

Turn 2:

Hungering Darkness deals serious damage to Seamus, and still I do not hurry him to safety. He has to endure a charge by an Illuminated, which leaves Resurrectionists master reeling with one health remaining, thanks to Hard to Kill. Whoopsie. Time to run.

Grave Golem engages Mr. Graves, Mr. Tannen, Illuminated and Tanuki with a double walk. Bete Noire enters the middle to help Grave Golem, and scratches Mr. Tannen for a couple points of damage. Mr. Tannen, on the other hand, red jokers Bete Noire on damage flip, so there was one Fade away sooner than expected.

Both Gravedigger and Kitty Dumont secure middle strategy marker. 

Dead Doxy takes a double walk to get herself engaged with Hungering Darkness. 

Scores go 2-1 for resurrectionists, as I score Catch & Release on top of strategy.

Both players score strategy, ressers catch & release 2-1

Turn 3:

Bete Noire murders Mr. Tannen, scoring Hidden Martyrs for Ten Thunders. 

Mortimer pulls some shenanigans by summoning a mindless zombie next to Seamus, then using Fresh Meat on the zombie to heal Seamus over Hard to Kill threshold.

Lynch succumbs Bete Noire to darkness, which prompts Fade Away yet again. Then he closes in to Dead Doxy. As Lynch came nearer, Seamus is feeling a bit more courageous again and takes a double walk to shoot at the Ten Thunders master. Moderate damage when all the healers had already activated was about to give me a victory point from my scheme.

Hungering Darkness and an Illuminated kill Copycat Killer and Dead Doxy before they manage to activate. Losing Dead Doxy means I cannot complete Catch & Release.

Gravedigger has to take Burning +2 from hazardous terrain to tag a leyline. Kitty Dumont is tied into melee by Mindless Zombie that Mortimer had summoned earlier.

Both players score strategy and one scheme, Hidden Martyrs by Ten Thunders and Assassinate by Resurrectionists. 4-3

Turn 4:

Tanuki heals Lynch so that he now has 7 health left. With a severe injury, Seamus would still score Assassinate.

Seamus tries to shoot Lynch again, and manages a straight damage flip. Too bad a black joker came up on the damage flip. Boo.

Kitty Dumont parks herself next to a strategy marker in hazardous terrain while Gravedigger speeds towards a strategy marker on the enemy table half. Mr. Graves tries to disengage from Rotten Belle to stop Gravedigger on its tracks, but gets to move only 1". After which Rotten Belle just runs to engage him again.

Illuminated comes and punches Mortimer down to one health remaining, thanks to Hard to Kill. Then opponent reveals Vendetta. 

Mortimer puts a shovel to that particular Illuminated's head and flips a severe. Then double team of Mindless Zombies attack the vendetta model and succeed to deal minimum damage and poison +2, spelling doom for the Illuminated in the end phase.

Bete Noire and Grave Golem have some luck in killing the other Hidden Martyr, so now opponent wouldn't be able to score any end conditions for schemes.

Both players score strategy, and Ten Thunders had their vendetta for 5-5.

Turn 5:

Seamus is tied by Hungering Darkness and an Illuminated.

Mr. Graves fails to engage Gravedigger tightly enough, so it escapes and gets next to enemy strategy marker. 

Kitty Dumont moves 5" with her bonus action and takes a double walk to get herself to the remaining strategy marker on my side of the table.

Game looked like a draw.

But then Bete Noire activates and pops up from a corpse, takes her free charge and two attacks against Lynch.

All of the attacks hit and deal weak, moderate and moderate damage. Lynch had seven health remaining. Bete Noire wins the day.

Might be that I'll use Grave Spirit Touch on Bete Noire again one day or another... Fade Away combined with Regenerate +2 makes for an amazing durability. She was hands-down my most valuable player by killing Mr. Tannen and the Illuminated that was a Hidden Martyr, plus she assassinated Jakob Lynch. She managed to Rise Again at least three times throughout the game, which essentially equals three extra action points.

Anyway, game ends 6-5 for Resurrectionists.

This will look good on my portfolio

 One four player game of Arkham Horror, third edition.

Investigators were Diana Stanley, the redeemed cultist and Tommy Muldoon the rookie cop, plus Father Mateo and Charlie Kane, the politician.

Scenario was Tyrants of Ruin (the one with Father Dagon and Mother Hydra)

I played the politician, and what an absurd ride it was.

First he becomes the hotel portier, and soon enough was raising four dollars per gather materials action. This allowed for an entire legion of task force members.

Then, he finds a harpoon and derringer. Then he enters police station in hopes of attracting a shotgun for his campaign, but is instead blessed after finding the bunny of a little kid. And he just sat there in the police station, never getting the shotgun but yanking various horrendous monsters from the streets with his harpoon.

But this martial prowess did not end here, oh no. Charlie was after bigger game. 

Father Dagon spawns after investigators find all the required relics.

And Charlie Kane is there to greet the monster.

With his harpoon, dragging the monstrosity from Devil Reef to Falcon Point. 

Thanks to newspapers running out, Mother Hydra spawned right after. Before even finishing Father Dagon, the harpoon was put to good use again when Charlie piled the ancient, massive monsters on top of each other. Then a lightning struck both. The redeemed cultist had tossed lightnings left and right throughout the game, and with the relic book that let her focus lore at the start of each of her turns, those lightnings were a killer.

Father Dagon lay dead, and pursuing Mother Hydra went after the cultist.

The hulking monstrosity laid terror on the ferry landing beyond a body of water, and Charlie Kane brandished his harpoon and threw it to the Hydra from the other shore. And pulled her all the way from Arkham back to Innsmouth. There, he slays Mother Hydra.

If this isn't going to affect next elections, I don't know what will.

Now, Charlie Kane even wasn't the biggest star of the game. Without Father Mateo we would have lost ages ago, as we had plenty of effects that happened with Reckoning. He also prayed off plenty of wanted warrants and tainted conditions.

Diana also removed her fair share of monsters from the board, and what wasn't killed by Diana was mopped up by Tommy Muldoon.

All in all, it was a hilarious game and I don't know if Cthulhu mythos game is supposed to be hilarious. 

Fastest Road to Darkness

During my visit to Kuhmo I continued a Touch of  Evil campaign with a friend. 

We were against Shadow Witch. We got Sara the Bright Witch and Karl the Soldier as our heroes. Rather decent characters, I must say.

But they did not help much. 

Oh gods, the game was horrible. The game took a total of five or six rounds to lose, with Shadow Track falling for one whole stage on every turn. 

We were drawing two mystery cards from the first turn, and four to five mystery cards from thereafter. Murders just kept coming, and I don't think we had over two mystery cards that did not force shadow track down. 

Since it was such a short and terrifying game, we played another game right after against the same villain.

Game 2

Second game we had Dr. Edwards and Eliza the Witch Hunter going on.

This time we actually had a game. Eliza with old maps was good enough spectre-remover for a long time until she started getting knocked down in the mystery phase while getting ambushed by trees and 18 fight dice Shadow Witch. 

Seven out of nine town elders lay dead or as tormented spirits on the board.

We had seven Remains in Play cards, and Dr. Edwards did manage to get Sacred Chalice. But when the situation called for many a 3+ roll, none were made and the chalice got ditched after the first try. 

In the end we did not even get to showdown, as shadow track fell to darkness thanks to Eliza getting knocked down every turn while there was this "each time a hero is KO'd, shadow track falls by two" mystery card online.

Oh well. Still four more heroes left in this campaign.

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
Heroes remaining: 4

Stashed investigation: 3

Zero kills

 Break the Line with Corner deployment. Scheme pool: Vendetta, Claim Jump, Let Them Bleed, Outflank, Research Mission.

My list was:

Kirai + Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
2x Shikome
Gaki
Crooligan
3x Seishin

Pool: 7

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Outflank

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch + Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Tannen
Lone Swordsman
Wanyudo
2x Illuminated

Pool: 6

Schemes: Vendetta (Mr. Tannen and Shikome 2), Claim Jump (Kitty Dumont)

Turn 1:

Despite corner deployment, things started happening right away. Seishins and Datsue Ba made it possible for both Shikomes to interact with a strategy marker.

A huge blob of Honeypot entered the middle field and not at all that slowly - Kitty Dumont with her 5" push and two 6" pushes of her own compensate the otherwise sluggish nature of the keyword.

Also, Wanyudo with its speed 7 and Lone Swordsman with Creep Along came to contest the lower-left area that I had figured I'd dominate quickly enough. Change of plans was imminent.

Crooligan was doing -not outflank- things on top-right. 

Turn 2:

Shikomes play football with the strategy markers, and even a surprise Gaki manages to toss the marker close to middle on the enemy side. All strategy markers there now. 

However, it was not without cost. Hungering Darkness comes and kills the Shikome on top-right. Datsue Ba charges in, trying to tie Hungering Darkness up. Easier said than done while Lynch still lives.

Wanyudo injures Shikome that was key in scoring Outflank. That scheme looked grim, especially when Lone Swordsman left Ikiryo (the partner of Shikome) with two damage boxes remaining.

In the middle, a Drowned is dead. Long live another Drowned! Auras of Mr. Tannen and Lynch combined put a dent in the survivability of that particular piece, and Delirium proved to be an annoyance to highest degree.

Resurrectionists score strategy.

Turn 3:

And what I feared did happen. The remaining Shikome died, too. And then Hungering Darkness goes after Crooligan on top-right corner, and while the kid doesn't die again just yet. Lone Swordsman and Ikiryo just played basket ball with a strategy marker, Goodbye Outflank, pretty much.

Once again Drowned dies in the middle, and Kirai summons a Shikome to keep opponent busy. Datsue Ba tosses one strategy marker further up the enemy board side, but an Illuminated that was earlier pushed by Kitty Dumont said no.

Resurrectionists score another strategy point for 2-0 score.

Turn 4:

Hungering Darkness finishes Crooligan and is later teleported by Lynch to Kirai. Thanks to heroic efforts of the Crooligan at least the beastie was unactivated.

Kitty dislodges herself from melee with Shikome by using her bonus action. Then she pushed a newly summoned Drowned back and went to hang around the center point.

Wanyudo had brought one strategy marker to my side of the board. Ikiryo and Lost Love both pushed away another strategy marker so it was above 8" away from center line. 

Datsue Ba attacked the Illuminated that had come to challenge the strategy marker. Both were now locked in combat forever after.

Resurrectionists score third strategy point, Ten Thunders their first and they also reveal Claim Jump on Kitty Dumont. Scores go 3-2 for resurrectionists.

Turn 5: 

Last turn Lynch and assorted pals manage to throw another strategy marker (the one in the middle) on my side of the board, within melee coverage of Hungering Darkness so there was no interacting with it now.

After Kitty Dumont had activated I gleefully dazed her away from the center point with summoned Drowned. Little did I consider Hungering Darkness had Obey. 

Hungering Darkness also healed itself back to full, and there was one Illuminated who was at full health, too. Good bye Let Them Bleed. Or...? The last action Hungering Darkness does is an attack against Kirai. Who has Vengeance +1, just like every model in the keyword. Stat 6 only needed to get through Def 4. 

To add an insult to injury, I flipped Red Joker for her defense. 

Fortunately opponent revealed Vendetta on Mr. Tannen against my Shikome. This way I at least didn't lose the draw to a most unfortunate Red Joker.

Resurrectionists score no points, while Ten Thunders get strategy, Claim Jump and Vendetta, bringing the 5-3 victory for Ten Thunders.

It was then that I realized I had not removed even a single model from enemy. In fact, opponent had more models on the table than at the start of game - Shikome had succumbed and became a Depleted.