Way to go

 ... and the old year ends with a round of Skip bo.

Three players. 

Snow Cathedral

During my Christmas trip we played a three player Pillars of the Earth game. 

Apparently once in three years is good enough of a pace for this game. 

First boon cards were rather impactful - the extra worker and a free stone for each round. Or so we speculated. Next round there were pretty good boons too, the fortune teller and extra wood for each round. Or so we speculated.

Two of the players hoarded all of these boons, but surely enough it was the third player who eventually won the game. It was a close race, though, as there was only one point difference with the first and second player, with the winner scoring 52 points.

Those Bright Green Fields

 A couple of Christmassy Malifaux games.

First game:

Strategy: Standard Covert Operation

Scheme pool: Sabotage, Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration, Catch and Release, Hidden Martyrs

My list:

Seamus, Aka Sebastian Baker & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle withGrave Spirit's Touch
Bete Noire
Jaakuna Ubume
Rotten Belle
Dead Doxy
Gravedigger

Pool: 5
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Catch and Release (Dead Doxy)

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa K.O.R.E
Guild Steward
Guardian
2x Hunter
Riotbreaker

Pool: 4
Schemes: Catch and Release (Hunter), Hidden Martyrs (Attendant & Guardian)

Turn 1:

Seamus took a slice off of Madame Sybelle and raised another Dead Doxy while nearing the middle. After some movement shenanigans by various models Jaakuna Ubume was able to place the scheme marker for Leave Your Mark and activate Drowning Aura. 

I don't quite remember what was dealing damage to Jaakuna, possibly Melissa. However, she took more damage than I was comfortable with. And as it happened, Gravedigger was just a little too far from getting within healing range. 

And then I was reminded that Guardian actually had Fast from Hoffman.

I guess it's a kind of a consolation that I wouldn't have had time to heal Jaakuna when Jaakuna was attacked not once but twice by Guardian. But she didn't go down with one attack so the mech took three points of damage from hazards and vengeance. 

Bete Noire charged in to Guardian, trickling in a little damage. 

Guild side, Hoffman was in the middle with almost all of his crew within 6" with Riot Breaker and Hunter going left, Hoffman, Guardian and totem in the middle, Melissa and Hunter on the right.

Bete Noire and summoned Doxy were holding the middle with Madame Sybelle behind them. Seamus and Rotten Belle were on a hill a little to the left, and Catch and Release Doxy, Gravedigger and Copycat Killer were hiding far on the right.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists won initiative, which meant Seamus pushing out Urban Legend with Alone in the Dark. He also took Doxy by the hand, handed her a bladed bouquet and sliced a bite off of her. So Madame Sybelle in a way had now spawned both a Dead Doxy and Dead Dandy.

Mechanical Attendant came to repair Guardian a bit, and Madame Sybelle attacked Guardian and did a blast over Mechanical Attendant, but Undivided Attention was more of the thing, really.

Hoffman wasn't thrilled about the Alone in the Dark portion of Urban Legend, but activated anyway, gave Fast for Guardian and tried to attack Dead Dandy. Guardian was seriously buggering Madame Sybelle, so Gravedigger had to come to heal her.

Hunter on the right used this to its advantage and shot a harpoon to Gravedigger, dragging him to terrain hazard. Melissa, however, had to finish him and try a shoot Madame a little.

Since there was so much healing available to Guild, I didn't find it meaningful to attack Guardian with Bete Noire. Instead, she had gained Fast from Pounce so she walked to Mechanical Attendant that had three health remaining. No kill.

Catch and Release Doxy used Seduction to kill the Attendant instead.

Riotbreaker and Hunter were seriously teasing Seamus, but at least it was my master taking the heat instead of Rotten Belle, who was carrying claim token.

Copycat Killer continued with low profile, just concentrating.

Both players scored strategy, Guild both their schemes and Resurrectionists Leave Your Mark for a grand total of 3-2 for Guild.

Turn 3:

Seamus put his auras on again and tried to damage Catch and Release Hunter for a bit, but not doing much at that. Riot Breaker came to take a shot at Seamus. Madame Sybelle and summoned Dead Doxy were finally able to remove Guardian with most thanks to Seamus' aura.

But when Hunter mauled Seamus down to four health remaining and I was out of soulstones, it was time to escape the stage with Copycat Killer. 

Another Hunter took a shot at Dead Dandy and dragged him to a terrain hazard. I don't quite remember where Melissa had been shooting.

Much to my astonishment Hoffman was not able to kill Copycat Killer.

Both players scored strategy, and resurrectionists also got their second scheme, Catch and Release from Melissa.

Scores go even 4-4.

Turn 4:

Fourth round was absurd when everyone just kept failing, over and over again. Hoffman struggled to kill Copycat Killer but finally did it. Sybelle was not able to kill Guild Steward, Melissa was not able to kill Seamus and the best that Riot Breaker and one of the hunters could do was to kill Rotten Belle who had like three boxes remaining.

Despite the lack of major breakthroughs in the actual combat, points were scored. Both players received their strategies, and there were three schemes for Leave Your Mark. Now, they only needed to stay there for another round...

Scores go 5-5.

Turn 5:

I suppose Seamus was a little frustrated from not being able to kill as he pleases and had his revenge on poor Melissa, killing her against all odds. This was serious setback for Guild because now the last strategy point was out of their reach.

In the middle, both summoned models were killed and two out of three schemes for Leave Your Mark were removed. 

So in the end it all boiled down to Bete Noire, who had a claim token and had been buried last round. She was able to secure a location within 2" of strategy marker and outside of melees, so game ended 7-6 for Resurrectionists.

Game 2:

Strategy: Corner Cursed Objects

Schemes: Spread Them Out, Public Demonstration, Hidden Martyrs, Secret Meetup, Breakthrough

Jack Daw, Ensouled & Lady Ligeia

Montresor

Yannic Waller

Hanged

Crooked Man

2x Guilty

Prospector

Pool: 3
Schemes: Public Demonstration (Yannic and Guilties), Hidden Martyrs (Crooked Man and Prospector)

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness

Kitty Dumont

Gwyneth Maddox

Mr Graves

2x Illuminated

Tanuki

Pool: 5
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Tanuki and Illuminated), Secret Meetup (Kitty and Montresor on a huge hill on my side)

Turn 1:

Corner deployment with no super fast crews meant that engagement on first turn was a bit limited. Hanged managed to land Forbidden Knowledge on an Illuminated and Jack Daw did a moderate damage on it with Inaudible Whispers.

I had Yannic, a Guilty and Prospector coming from right behind the house, with a loose blob of Guilty, Crooked Man, Hanged and Jack Daw getting to middle. Montresor and Lady Ligeia were a bit behind.

Ten Thunders were in a tight blob instead, with only Hungering Darkness and the aforementioned Illuminated a little distance away.

Turn 2:

Second round was intense when Lynch launched Hungering Darkness to Jack Daw. This act certainly dominated the entire round. I activated Hanged to put up Entropic Curse and stagger Hungering Darkness with noose.

Hungering Darkness started attacking Jack with some minor damage... except for the last attack. That one dealt whopping seven damage. At least damage block shaved a couple points off and incorporeal mitigated one, but still over 50% health gone after second enemy activation was too much.

At least Jack Daw managed to heal adequately and make a severe payback against the beast. Gwyneth wasn't able to do much, and neither did Crooked Man who tried to Earthquake the nice line of Lynch, Gwyneth and an Illuminated.

Mr. Graves moves and charges Crooked Man and Red Jokers some damage in to Crooked Man. 

A Guilty ran to protect Crooked Man and failed to stagger unpainted Illuminated. Another Illuminated tried to scintillate Hanged and Crooked Man, but managed to damage only Hanged.

Yannic walked and charged Mr. Graves with Run and Gun, giving in severe damage with negative flip which also sped Hungering Darkness' demise. Tanuki tries to heal Mr. Graves for a bit, but fails.

Even Lady Ligeia scores a blast off of Mr. Graves, so Mr. Graves is at one health remaining while Hungering Darkness is at two. Kitty Dumont pushes unactivated Illuminated a bit and goes to help Hungering Darkness and Mr. Graves.

But its too late when Montresor just pings Mr. Graves dead with Asphyxiation. Either he or another Guilty landed staggered on Kitty.

I did not try to kill Hungering Darkness because I wanted to score Public Demonstration. 

Opponent had not killed a Cursed Object model from me, and if I had not lucked out with Mr. Graves, I would not have either. Scores go 2-0 for Jack Daw.

Turn 3:

Opponent wins initiative and thus is able to heal Hungering Darkness for five. It tries to attack Guilty, but Black Jokers the damage. But that meant it lost Curse of Reckoning since no models were damaged in that activation.

I didn't want Tanuki and Lynch to continue healing the enemy henchman, so Hanged had to activate first and put Entropic Curse on. It also landed Forbidden Knowledge on Kitty and charged her in hopes of drawing a card.

Unpainted Illuminated kills a Guilty, securing a strategy point for Ten Thunders.

Lynch shot Hungering D... oh. Lynch shot Hungering Darkness to Yannic Waller, but I just realized that it had staggered! Oh well, these things happen. 

Yannic Waller fails to kill Hungering Darkness and Crooked Man fails to kill Illuminated, but Jack Daw does both. Kitty goes to place a scheme marker next to Montresor after another Illuminated, Gwyneth and what else kills second Guilty, leaving me with nearly dead Yannic for Public Demonstration.

Both players scored strategy and Ten Thunders managed to score both of their schemes so scores go 3-3.

Turn 4:

However, we quit the game. Opponent had Kitty with two health, Tanuki with one health within 6" of Montresor, and only Gwyneth was at their full health. Lynch could have healed Tanuki and Kitty for one health, but Montresor could have just pinged both of them down to one health remaining again and possibly even kill with actual action points.

Launching Hungering Darkness like that was a gamble that didn't pay off this time, although it could have had I not been able to kill Mr. Graves with such damage flips.

Decent Murder

Third lantern year hunt for Purgatorio settlement was Screaming Antelope. 

We had three players this time around. Since the settlement was still in its infancy the game was upgraded to 1.6. 

Nothing too bad happened during hunt except for seeing a carpet of ticks. Vangel, Kelpo, Alina and Hilima found the Antelope standing behind the carpet and showdown began.

Screaming Antelope wasn't too keen on hitting survivors with it's attacks, but it still gave some damage with trample and a trap. This is where Vangel the prima donna received Ghostly Beauty disorder.

Lantern Year 4 - Murder!

As it happened, Vangel murdered Kelpo, whose name translates into English as "decent".

He was going to be banished into darkness, but instead was re-rolled to come back with Immortal. So... I don't know, we got quite of a diva in our hands. Ruthless fighting art, Prima Donna, Ghostly Beauty and Immortal disorders... he sure got some character in his, well, character.

This also gave the settlement their death principle, which was chosen to be cannibalization.

Settlement innovates Inner Lantern.

Since one of the more decent survivors died so unnecessarily, another must come via shared experiences. 

A single augury intimacy gave the settlement a new decent kid also.

Next it's Butcher, though. Will Purgatorio continue to wreck monsters this easily? We'll see in a year or two...

Time of Sands

Few days ago I played two rounds of Forbidden Desert with three players.

First round went awry rather quickly when we misplayed one thing. We shuffled the end phase deck in incorrect place, which in turn spawned way too many sun beats down cards in quick succession.

But even with such a whoopsie, the game mechanics were surprisingly solid, although some "use any time" gears weirded me out a little, like the jetpack. Somehow it feels wrong to use it when it is another player's turn.

The second game was a tough race against sand. We had Navigator, Explorer and Archeologist in the team, and I must say the Navigator seems very effective indeed. Without him, we would have lost without the victory in sight.

As it happened, we still lost, but it was one damn turn away from victory. There were like seven cards in deck with one sun beats down coming, with Navigator having zero water in his flask. We were drawing four cards at the end of turn.

Surely enough the adventurers did not escape the desert.

There is something wrong with my hand

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Guard the Stash

Schemes: Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs, Spread Them Out, In Your Face, Public Demonstration

My list:

Seamus with The Whisper & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Bete Noire with Grave Spirit Touch
Gravedigger with Killer Instinct
Dead Dandy
2x Bone Pile

Stones: 5
Schemes: Vendetta (Bone Pile on Iggy), Hidden Martyrs (Bete Noire & Dead Dand7)

Opponent had:

Pandora, Tyrant Torn & Poltergeist
Candy
Dorian Crowe
Iggy
Hooded Rider
2x Sorrow
Wicked Doll

Stones: 5
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Sorrow & Poltergeist), Spread Them Out

Turn 1:

Game started with me having a card no higher than 10 in hand. Alright, no biggie.

Bete Noire walked near Dead Dandy, Seamus and Madame Sybelle in the middle and put some focus on them and walked towards center point. Pandora was about to stun her, so she had to Fade Away while she still could.

Dorian Crowe pushed most of enemy crew up for a bit and dumped his cigar on Candy. Way to provoke some temper tantrums!

I did some peek-a-boo Seamus things for a change and teleported, took a shot at Candy and teleported away. Opponent was able to play Red Joker from his hand to make the shot miss.

Hooded Rider rides with Candy, moves and charges Seamus and deals moderate damage which he blocks with a stone to one.

Copycat Killer runs from far-right near the strategy marker on my side, but doesn't teleport Seamus anywhere because I didn't want to lose Copycat Killer on the second round.

Grave Digger and Bone Pile were biding time on the left, waiting for Iggy to appear for some Vendetta.

Since Candy was a tad too far for Madame Sybelle to walk and charge, she instead walked, called Seamus from melee into safety and then took a second walk, positioning herself with a Dead Dandy so that Candy would not get my master within 4" of herself.

Dandy had tried to make a corpse for Bete to arrive next turn, but managed only to draw the silhouette of a corpse with a chalk. 

As a last activation for the round Candy got within 4" of Dandy and Madame Sybelle and even managed to Slow them. 

Turn 2:

My hand is kind of horrible, so I use a stone. Still, highest card I had was a ten. Two of them, in fact.

Madame Sybelle opens the turn and is stunned from Candy and then pushed by Pandora. She charges Candy and manages to deal a point of damage, wow! 

Pandora activates next and ruins everything. Seamus becomes Stunned and engaged in melee by a Sorrow that was summoned next to also stunned Dead Dandy. 

Fortunately Seamus manages to disengage, concentrate and shoot Candy that was engaged with Madame Sybelle. But even with two extra cards Seamus misses as opponent is able to cheat Red Joker to save her... again.

Wicked Doll and Dorian Crowe come to contest the middle-left marker along with Pandora so no chances for me to deny points there. 

A sorrow in the middle-left marker charged Gravedigger. While Dead Dandy had managed to make a corpse this turn, Poltergeist just removed it and even tossed Dead Dandy to hazardous terrain where he was then standing with two health remaining, and easily within 4" of a Life Leecher. 

Thus, Grave Digger made a corpse for Bete to appear and the two together killed the thing, which was a Hidden Martyr no less.

Bone Pile managed to land a hit to Iggy, and it was a little worrying that Iggy was reckless and brought himself to three, meaning moderate damage would now kill him next turn. Not good for Vendetta.

Copycat Killer tried to move Seamus to a little more defensible position, and another Bone Pile re-located itself to middle to heal Madame Sybelle. 

Hooded Rider, however, was able to ride, walk and charge Seamus, slapping him with full severe damage which was reduced to three. But after everything Seamus was not at four health remaining. 

Sorrow, Iggy and Wicked Doll had planted scheme markers, I had killed enemy martyr and I did not control any strategy markers, so it was a nasty 0-3 score for Neverborn.

Turn 3:

Well, look at that. Third round in a row with the highest card in my hand being a ten. This is probably some sort of a record for me. 

I had three pass tokens so I played that ten from my hand to cheat initiative. Seamus walked within 1" of building, teleported to another and took a double walk towards enemy bottom-right strategy marker.

Iggy uses reckless and goes to place a scheme marker. That would mean no Vendetta reveal for me. 

Madame Sybelle put on her aura and tried to charge Poltergeist, but the attack didn't really do anything. Activating Madame now was a mistake, I should have instead tried to shoot Iggy with Bone Pile. As it happened, Iggy activated next and went to two health remaining from being reckless. 

Pandora pushes Madame around and turns her into hazardous terrain and makes Bete Noire fade away once more and summons an additional Sorrow. Sorrows kill Copycat Killer, who leaves a corpse marker. Bone Pile could have taken three points of damage to heal two and try to scrape at a summoned Sorrow but I didn't think it was worth it and buried it instead.

One Sorrow went to contest strategy marker where Seamus was. Remaining Bone Pile went to control bottom-left strategy marker but was contested by Dorian Crowe. Grave Digger killed Iggy and left a corpse for Bete to reappear. She did so and went to control strategy marker. 

Hooded Rider and Wicked Doll also spawned some scheme markers, so opponent now had enough for Spread Them Out end condition. Situation was looking grim indeed.

Scores went to 1-4 for Neverborn.

Turn 4:

Woohoo! I got my first severe card to my hand this turn. And it was eleven. And it was the only one. Baffling.

But, opponent wins initiative. Sorrow close to Seamus activates and lands a stun on him and while I manage to dodge one of its attacks with my precious eleven, second attack hit home and would have killed Seamus if not for hard-to-kill. 

But, now Seamus was at one health remaining and Sorrow had Life Leech.

We ended the game there with a quite of a victory for Neverborn.

Interviewing the Flutist

 A 50ss Malifaux game on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Carve a Path

Schemes: Assassinate, Breakthrough, Hidden Martyrs, Leave Your Mark, Spread Them Out

My List:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Disease Containment Unit
Catalan Brawler
The Midnight Stalker with Soldier for Hire (kind of a mistake...)
Obedient Wretch
Prospector
Malifaux Rat

Stones: 4
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Brawler & Obedient Wretch), Assassinate

Opponent had:

Nellie, Voice of Disorder & Printing Press
Phiona Gage
Allison Dade
Auguste Hart
Guild Steward
2x False Witness
Field Reporter

Stones: 4
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Steward & One False Witness), Spread Them Out

Turn 1:

Well, since most of the enemy team would be able to control my Interacts, I thought best course of action would be to try and smuggle my strategy markers from toppest of tops and bottomost of bottoms. Midnight Stalker was tasked with tops, and team of Prospector, Disease Containment Unit and Obedient Wretch were dealing with bottom. They were joined by a Rat King that was created from one Stolen and Eyes in the Walls.

Nix, Catalan Brawler, Hamelin and a couple of Stolen were focusing on the middle. Nix, especially.

Especially Nix.

Phiona used "bring it" to move Nix way past center line relatively early in the game. I managed to save the dog by Obeying Phiona away from melee with the 2" push from trigger and attacking Guild Steward, then Obeying Nix into forest. Last action was the aforementioned Eyes in the Walls on a scheme Obedient Wretch had set up. 

Since opponent was still teasing Nix with odd damage points, Catalan Brawler walked and placed some condor security more than 8" away from enemy story chasers.

So, enemy had Phiona, Nellie, Steward, Allison and False Witness coming from the middle. A lone False Witness was punching the ball on top, and below were Auguste, Printing Press and Field Reporter.

Turn 2:

Midnight Stalker and False Witness on top are able to push their respective strategy markers to opponent's side. 

Nix charges in to the middle of enemy crew and heals to full by drinking some spirits. Opponent forced Nix to make an Interact, but there was no excluse interview close enough so it "only" spammed a ton of Focused +1 on journalists and gave a point of irreducible damage to my henchman.

But since there now was a scheme marker, Catalan Brawler came to offer his services.

Hamelin removed one enemy scheme marker and failed the rest of his activation, except for stunning Phiona. She was also Staggered from Brawler.

Opponent mauled Catalan Brawler down to three health remaining (picture shows two, but that was before we remembered that Cruel Disappointment had saved him one point of damage.)

I took too long to react on the bottom side of things - Auguste parked over my strategy marker below and with Exclusive Interview that was a nasty place to be. He also nearly killed Obedient Wretch, and had Disease Containment Unit engaged.

Prospector came and planted a scheme marker which Disease Containment Unit used as a rapid response target, pushing Obedient Wretch and self out of melee. Then she blasted Printing Press and Field Reporter once. Sadly not twice. 

Both players score strategy.

Turn 3:

Miraculously Hamelin wins initiative, and Catalan Brawler saves his butt with Juggernaut... at least for a while. He also tosses Nix into mud and makes a futile attempt at attacking Phiona.

It certainly takes a lot of work to remove Catalan Brawler, but eventually that just happens. Hastily Obedient Wretch takes a run towards my deployment because losing both Martyrs in one round would suck big time. 

One of the better moves for this round was when Midnight Stalker kicked enemy strategy marker back to their side and leaped to engage False Witness. Witness did manage to deal a couple points of damage to the honorable gentleman, but situation there was now locked. For both sides, though.

Nix is able to weather whatever is left of the middle storm.

Disease Containment Unit was still trying to fry the Printing Press and Field Reporter, but kept failing.

Auguste kicks my strategy marker back to my side a little, but this was a mistake - Hamelin was able to Obey Prospector to the marker, who interacted twice and got it past centerline. Hamelin also tried to kill one of those infuriating False Witnesses with Piper's Influence and Bleeding Disease, but failed at that.

Field Reporter parked close to Hamelin so that he'd have to start discarding come next activations.

This turn scores went to 1-3 for Outcasts as I was able to reveal Hidden Martyrs while denied opponent a strategy point.

Turn 4:

Up until fourth turn I had not been able to kill a thing, but that changed surely enough.

Nellie started to soften up Nix but failed to do much of a progress - and then Nix just healed the damage that had been inflicted.

Phiona was a bit more adept in killing Nix with three attacks. Hamelin then killed Phiona, who had eleven blight tokens at the time, with two Bleeding Diseases and used Obey to bring Prospector to my strategy marker.

Field Reporter managed to bring strategy marker to my deployment zone against all odds.

Rat King was able to chew Printing Press down.

False Witness in the middle placed a scheme and walked for a bit, and False Witness on top died for a bit after Midnight Stalker activated. Allison Dade slowed him down and even shot a couple of points off with derringer.

Obedient Wretch moved a bit and interacted a scheme.

Auguste was busy with rats but eventually managed to move out of melee, only to become slowed by Rat King that was pushed back into contact with Rapid Response by Disease Containment Unit who also healed my remaining martyr, Obedient Wretch, over half of her health remaining. 

A Stolen managed to shoot False Witness dead. Who was, by the way, opponent's Hidden Martyr. 

 Prospector pushed strategy marker around, and scores went to 2-3 for Outcasts, although at the time we thought it was 3-3 because we missed the insignificance of a Stolen.

Turn 5:

To deny opponent a point from Hidden Martyrs, Hamelin smashes Guild Steward and takes eight points of damage in the process, essentially scoring the point from Hidden Martyrs for opponent now. Great job.

Allison shoots Midnight Stalker, who is - yay - saved by his Hard-to-Kill from the purchased upgrade.

But then Midnight Stalker fails to leap, so he can't get to charge Nellie in a futile attempt to scrape assassination points.

Stolen manages to shoot dead Field Reporter, who went to place a scheme marker in my deployment zone.

Prospector had been obeyed by Hamelin, so she is able to double-interact the marker to enemy deployment zone.

Nellie manages to land third scheme marker 10" away from each other scheme marker, but is not able to teleport Auguste Hart away with False Reality, so Obedient Wretch is able to run to get engaged with Auguste, scoring me Hidden Martyrs end condition.

Scores in the end go 4-5 for Outcasts.

Burning Pram

 I gave another Malifaux demo on Vassal for a potential player with whom I had already played a demo game earlier.

We expanded the complexity to:

25 soulstones with masters

Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: Assassinate, Search the Ruins, Breakthrough, Detonate Charges, Claim Jump

My list was:

Molly + Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Rabble Riser
Night Terror
Crooligan

Stones: 2
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Detonate Charges

Opponent had:

Dr. McMourning + Zombie Chihuahua
Rafkin
Flesh Construct
2x Guild Autopsy

Stones: 1
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Breakthrough

Since it was essentially a demo I won't go into that much detail. Suffice to say that with this low model count it was kind of difficult to deny points which, I think, fits well to a demo game. After all it's more fun to score points.

Dr. McMourning got a really good stacking of poison going on, but this also caused Experimentals to move in one big group. This left Crooligan, and to some extent Night Terror, to plant strategy markers and scheme markers without anyone stopping them. 

Turn three was rather interesting for me. I had managed to save one thirteen from last round. I had to take a picture from cards I drew. 

And as opponent was throwing away cards left and right I couldn't even refill my hand with Molly. This all caused, for example, Philip & Nanny to fail to put up Boring Conversation. And that was their death sentence. In the end they survived the activation phase with two health remaining. But they had a staggering amount of Poison +13, which Necrotic Machine failed to remove because of my hand.

In the end scores went 8-6 for Molly with opponent missing end condition from Breakthrough and one strategy point.

The Newest New

So here is the first full game of Warmachine Mk4 using up-to-date everything. Had to invent new tags, too. And my statistics... damn... what am I going to do with my spreadsheets? I play Warmachine so little these days that getting in enough games for them to mean anything is going to take forever. 

Sob.

Anyway, my list:

Dark Host
Scaverous
-Corruptor
-Reaper
-Inflictor
-Deathripper
-Ripjaw
Bane Warriors
Bane Warriors + Officer & standard
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech

Opponent had:

First Army
Siege2
-Defender
-Cyclone
-Ironclad
3x Trencher Infantry
Trencher Cannon Crew
Rangers
3x Trencher Sniper

Scenario was the only relevant scenario from rulebook.

Cygnar started game. I gravely underestimated both distance and accuracy of Trenchers, but at least I had the sense to play stealth card on smaller unit of Bane Warriors. My reasoning was that the other unit had both Tough and recursion from officer.

After Trenchers had taken their second turn, both units consisted of a single member. Fortunately Trenchers had to come close on the right side of the board, so Tartarus was able to slice and dice two additional Bane Warriors to the unit, and a couple of Excarnates brought them along even more.

Second turn was also when Scaverous used his feat. A well placed Feast of Worms gave Scaverous five souls after Reaper and Bane Standard Bearer went into soul shopping.

Cygnaran heavien and cannons and whatnot had been shooting Inflictor, which I strategically kept in reserve forgot to activate. But it was in a relatively good spot with Necrotech and Old Faithful repairing it.

During first two rounds I managed to remove all Trencher Infantry units.

Turn three Cygnar removed Bane unit from the right and kept shooting Inflictor, bringing it down to, like, four boxes remaining or so.

Reaper removed Ironclad with the help of Dark Shroud and Feast of Worms. Inflictor was still being repaired and forgotten to activate. Admonia and Withershadow Combine in general were making lucky 10+ rolls to hit entrenched Trenchers, although souls helped a lot there.

Deathripper ran to contest enemy flag, so I gained advantage of one point.

Turn four my warjacks couldn't believe their luck. All of them remained intact, albeit each were crippled with just a few boxes remaining. Bane Warriors were gone, though. 

I have to do telekinesis shenanigans to get Necrotech to repair Reaper. Bane Lord Tartarus is also nudged a little forward, and he charges Cyclone. Reaper finishes the heavy jack. 

As Siege had not managed to remove Deathripper and Scaverous moved to control my flag, point difference went to three in Cryx's favor.

Fifth turn both of my heavies and Deathripper are removed from board. Admonia also runs into rocket turret's counter blast and dies. Ripjaw arcs a Feast of Worms on Defender, and Tartarus manages to kill the already damaged Cygnaran warjack.

Necrotech creates a whole lot of scrap thralls. Point difference goes to four in Cryx's favor, so we end the game.

Mature Audience

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Flank Cursed Objects

Schemes: Breakthrough, Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration, Set the Trap, In Your Face

My list:

Molly2 & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Archie
Noxious Nephilim
Rabble Riser with Grave Spirit Touch
Rabble Riser
Night Terror

Stones: 5
Schemes: In Your Face, Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Nekima & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
Mature Nephilim
2x Young Nephilim
Lilitu
Black Blood Shaman

Stones: 4
Schemes: In Your Face, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Opponent started with shooting Mature Nephilim with Hayreddin and pulsing off focused with Black Blood Shaman. On my side Noxious Nephilim regurgitated a corpse marker and Rabble Riser who had Grave Spirit Touch pulsed focused for my crew,

I had brought Rabble Riser a tad too far, so Mature Nephilim was able to fly and charge it, triggering shove aside, clumping up my crew even worse than it already was. Necrotic Machine took a point of damage, and second attack against the Riser brought it to one health remaining.

Molly had to activate to heal the minion a bit, cheating a precious severe from my hand on the heal flip. Remaining attacks she tried to poke some fun at the Nephilim with her baton, but the Nephilim was too mature for her childish slapstick humor. 

Remaining Nephilim crew was vomiting corpses left and right and then eating those corpses with appetite. I didn't want to bother them and let them have their fun instead. At least that's what I passive aggressively tell everyone on my blog because Nekima didn't invite me to her party. 

Rabble Riser moved out of Archie's way, then Nekima took a double walk and charged the un-upgraded Rabble Riser, leaving him reeling at two health.

Archie pushes with Molly's ability,  leaps next to Mature Nephilim and slaps it around, leaving it alive with one health.

Philip & Nanny managed to land slow on Mature Nephilim, and Necrotic Machine gave the upgraded Rabble Riser a healthy dose of black joker on heal flip.

At the end of first round I had three models completely out of my deployment zone. 

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists win initiative, so it's one dead Mature Nephilim in the hands of Archie. Nope, not a single attack connected even with mournful memories.

Black line is deployment

Mature regenerates and at least doesn't do much of a damage on Molly's models as a consolation.

And then Molly is there to tickle Mature Nephilim again with her baton. She had not learned her lesson. This Nephilim didn't even crack a smile. Tough audience. But at least parade route succeeded, but I didn't check the lines beforehand well enough and turned out I could only get one irreducible damage on the thing, and three ticks of Black Blood on my models.

Eventually grave spirit touched Rabble Riser killed the Mature Nephilim that had cursed object on it. Then? A Young Nephilim grew into an additional Mature. 

Nekima scored a strategy by killing the regular Rabble Riser and failed to do anything against Archie. 

Philip and Nanny slowed both Nekima and the new and improved Mature Nephilim. Noxious Nephilim did good job in attacking Nekima, but with all the healing going on in enemy team I wasn't convinced I could take her down.

As I had lost an unactivated Rabble Riser I was woefully behind (or forward?) in activations so I didn't dare to mess up the obvious plans of Neverborn to score Leave Your Mark. 

But, I had managed to score In Your Face with Mature Nephilim so scores went even, 2-2.

At the end of second round I still had only three models completely out of my deployment zone.

Turn 3:

I had Red Joker in my hand and won the initiative after a little cheating contest. I decided to activate Archie first since I had my doubts if he was to live for another round. I still tried to heal him as much as I could - the problem was that whatever heal I could get in was pretty much canceled by Black Blood.

Anyway, Archie used Leap to engage Black Blood shaman. He was able to secure straight flip with Red Joker, and got a severe. Second strategy point for me.

Hayreddin single-handedly killed Archie, though. Nekima then takes a swing at Noxious Nephilim and tosses a corpse marker with proper suit to stun Necrotic Machine and Rabble Riser. Riser survived the damage and charged Nekima. 

And killed her! Rabble Riser killed Nekima! What is this! Yay! Hooray! 

Oh yeah, Rabble Riser was stunned and had essentially killed Nekima with Critical Strike. 

At least Noxious Nephilim was able to finish the job and start slowly wobbling towards enemy deployment zone.

Molly makes a feeble activation, failing to heal Philip & Nanny but succeeding to heal Necrotic Machine. My last soulstone is spent on saving Philip & Nanny from just about dying when Mature Nephilim charged them and got a severe for damage. Necrotic Machine is able to heal her for a bit.

Blood Hunter charges Noxious Nephilim, and I can't get an angle for Night Terror to go and plant a scheme in the middle - Lilitu and Young Nephilim had been positioned so that I had no window to interact. Because of that Night Terror went to kill Blood Hunter, but failed at that.

Scores go 3-4 for Neverborn when both players score Strategy, and Neverborn had killed Archie while he was close enough to Nekima.

Turn 4:

Hayreddin kills both Necrotic Machine and Rabble Riser, securing strategy. Noxious Nephilim does the same for Resurrectionists by killing Young Nephilim. 

Lilitu had failed to kill Rabble Riser, but we already know his fate. 

Mature Nephilim decides to ignore Philip & Nanny who had backed into safety, thus kind of ignoring themselves. Once opponent had only Blood Hunter remaining, Night Terror felt bold enough to leave melee and plant me Leave Your Mark.

Scores even to 5-5 in this one of the toughest games in recent memory.

Turn 5:

Hayreddin and two Mature Nephilims (Lilitu had grown at this point) kill Night Terror, thus getting a strategy point for Neverborn. However, the little guy survived long enough for opponent to be unable to plant third Leave Your Mark scheme on the table.

Philip & Nanny tried to kill Blood Hunter from blocking Noxious Nephilim's way into Neverborn deployment but left the totem alive with one health. Fortunately Molly succeeds to concentrate and move the thing with Parade Route. 

Noxious Nephilim is then able to cruise 13" into enemy deployment.

Opponent scores fourth strategy point and Resurrectionists get end condition of In Your Face.

That's 6-6. What a game!

Who Is Watching the Watcher?

Some Kingdom Death solo since the board was set up.

Lantern Year 23 showdown - Butcher level 3

Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina, Tranaree and Zoronuro confront the Butcher, and it was rather uneventful. It could have gone south if wrong target would have been picked when Butcher got Lantern Frenzy going on, but instead the target became Laifuseuskaja, whom Butcher hit only on 9+ even with the accuracy tokens!

However, two to four attacks per round against a single target was no joke even with 9+ hits. Laifuseuskaja had to burn her surge each round to use Block on her beacon shield, so progress was on the slower side when it came to wounding the monster since the only one who could reliably wound had to spend her resources on defense. Well, that, and the fact that the 8+ "armor save" on Butcher could have almost as well been the 1.3 version's 6+, so often the nemesis seemed to make those rolls.

There wasn't that much brain damage on rotation. Only one survivor frenzied as a result of infectious lunacy, although both Tranaree and Laifuseuskaja had zero insanity at the end of the showdown.

But, the showdown steadily grinded itself away and it was time for new lantern year.

Lantern Year 24 - Glossolalia

Hovelina who already has no jawbone left receives the Endless Babble ability.

For the first time ever my settlement manages to build the Mask Maker thanks to Butcher dropping the forsaker mask without roll.

1: Settlement innovates Forbidden Dance
2: Forbidden Dance for Laifuseuskaja - success.
3: Forbidden Dance for Voxanius - failure.
4-6: Face Painting for +2 on intimacy
7-8: Two matchmakers for the plant people, +2 population.
9: Scarification for Voekele, blinded.
10-11: Laifuseuskaja and Zoronuro drums for some insanity.
12: Shrine Ritual is success.

Then I should pick a last hunt before the big fight with Watcher. Since I'm leaving Laifuseuskaja to wait for a year and because Antelope Mask looks inviting, I think I'll pick the boring fight against Screaming Antelope level 3.

Lantern Year 24 hunt & showdown: Screaming Antelope level 3 Gigalion level 3

Zoronuro, Hovelina, Menoloromias and Chanial start to hunt for the Antelope. A non-choice of Opportunists as well as Devouring Ground from Antelope hunt events brings survivors to Overwhelming Darkness in no time. Everyone just receives penalties to accuracy and evasion there.

After Overwhelming Darkness not much happened. Just the pickaxe broke, and level 3 Gigalion attacked the survivors.

Fortunately the Dead Monster from the hunt event gave me a headstart and I didn't have to struggle with the smart cat moods. Still, the first round was costly. 

Hovelina managed to land two wounds - one of which critted the fuzzy groin. Hoo boy. Showdown just got serious. Zoronuro also manages to wound the monster but with a reprisal reaction, losing total of nine points of armor. 

And first four cards showed trap coming up, so I had to juggle around that. I decided to take a risk with Menoloromias the Luma-murdering-spear master-to-be, and for the first time ever I got use out of spear specialization. I'm not sure if it was first time ever, but certainly feels so!

The two cards are, then, failure reactions. First card Menoloromias failed to wound (he needed 5+ after all), got attacked. Since he is immortal, he just took the brain damage and was able to fail the second required 5+, this time getting grabbed. 

First AI card is Ground Fighting, but then Vicious kicked in and as Menoloromias was still immortally insane he was not able to dash away. 

He started showdown with, like, 26 insanity. After first round he was sitting at light injury level in brain. To make matters worse, I noticed he has the Stark Raving disorder, meaning he continues to be immortal thus rendering his second-highest armor levels useless. 

At least there was Ground Fighting in play now. This gave a good opportunity to loot three egg sacs, dead monster and acanthus plants. 

Annoyingly, there was trap coming up again.

Vicious caused big trouble in getting to monster's blind spot, but Hovelina had 6+ Understanding so she was able to take aimed shots at the beast without taking brain damage. After a failure reaction with a forward sprint, Zoronuro was able to dash to its blind spot and start swinging counterweighed axe with his mastery, causing two permanent injuries on top of fuzzy groin.

Vicious, however, made it relatively easy to mitigate drawn AI cards with Hovelina dashing just out of reach. Although with Movement 9 (it had gained one -1 move token from a critical location) it required some planning.

My greediness for axe master guaranteed crits cost me the dear life of Zoronuro. He just couldn't make that roll even with a re-roll, and got a basic attack instead - obviously rolling "2" for the one and only severe injury he had to take. RIP Zoronuro, you were with Enerva from LY 1. 

What was supposed to be a secure showdown turned out to be excruciation exercise on tip-toeing. Slowly and steadily Hovelina thinned down the hit location deck, but there were still five to six wounds to be done after the deck was emptied. 

Since Hovelina was uninjured and had at least four armor in each location, she fished out the trap with grave results. She was in Tall Grass and Gigalion had one negative accuracy token. Still three attacks out of five hit her, causing a severe injury. Since she was Necromancer, chances for her to die were at 30%. She didn't, but this scared me to such extent that Hovelina ate fresh acanthus right away to get body armor back up. 

There were two Size Ups and Ground Fighting in the discard pile, so I thought I would be able to make it slowly. But it took so many turns that Hovelina was starting to run out of survival points. When there was only one AI card in the discard pile - Ground Fighting - I thought I had it made. 

But then the persistent injury that gave Gigalion wounds on a "1" before it draws AI made its first "successful" roll and wounded the Ground Fighting away. Hovelina was too close to dash away with her last survival point. Only one survival meant Hovelina would not be able to dodge hits if she wanted to dash away from Vicious. 

So, Chanial made a valiant sacrifice and dashed next to Hovelina. Tactics card had been Diversion Tactics. 

So, Gigalion hulked to Hovelina and took five dice worth of attacks hitting on 4+. Three of them hit. One was mitigated by Diversion Tactics, another by Fencing and the last attack thankfully went to a location with armor. Hovelina then dashed away, leaving Chanial to be torn to shreds with six damage grabs. 

Chanial didn't die, merely had to skip next hunt. 

After that showdown was essentially done. Hovelina could run too far for Gigalion to catch her, and as she had somehow stolen the cat's testicles with bow and arrow, it would not target anyone else. And then with Vicious it would just run away from as many survivors as possible. 

Eventually the "1" would come up.

Chanial and Menoloromias ate the Gigalion's eyes. Pheeew.

After such a difficult showdown at least the rewards were juicy, too. Twenty-nine resources were gathered in total throughout the hunt and showdown.

Lantern Year 25 - Triathlon of Death

Well it's been a while since settlement did one of these, but it's only fitting it happened on the eve of the final mid-boss. It's the fifth Triathlon for this settlement, so somebody will feel sorry for not gaining one more pair of rawhide boots.

Hovelina, Laifuseuskaja, Nodalus and Agyruu take part in the triathlon. Laifuseuskaja is - again - the race contest winner, Nodalus second, Hovelina third and Agyruu last. No surprises there. 

Debate contest is won by Hovelina, second place is for Laifuseuskaja with Nodalus third and Agyruu last. Would I get first banished survivor from Triathlon?

Fight contest goes easily to Laifuseuskaja, with second place for Hovelina. Third place is Agyruu so he isn't banished. I suppose Nodalus, the survivor with two dismembered arms, isn't exactly a prime candidate for triathlon duels.

1: Settlement innovates Storytelling for that extra survival limit. 
2-3: Face Painting for intimacy.
4: Matchmaker and Love Juice give settlement +2 population.
5-6: Face Painting for departing x2 success.
7-9: Menoloromias is finally cured of his delusions of immortality.
10: Nightmare Training for Laifuseuskaja
11: Momento Mori for Naoran, who gains the courage and understanding of Zoronuro.
12: Voxanius gets rid of Binge Eating with bloodletting.
13: Shrine ritual is success.

Settlement develops Red Charm, Drums, Scrap Dagger and another Beacon Shield. 

And then we have it.

Lantern Year 25 showdown - The Watcher.

Syllogi, Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina and Voegole are the chosen champions of Enerva settlement.

...

Yeah.

Utterly anticlimactic fight when Voegole activated to dash and move a retinue into position. Syllogi does the same so she has a retinue on both of her sides. She takes two attacks at The Watcher.

The Watcher dies.

ilo.avi

Lantern Year 26 - Haunted

Returning survivors join the chorus for some extra insanity. 

1-2: Nightmare Training for Laifuseuskaja for +1 weapon proficiency, +1 strength.
3: Scrap Smelting for two Iron.
4-7: Voxanius investigates the Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
8: A matchmaker that gives twins right away.
9-10: 2x Face Paint for battle.
11: War Room plan is made.
12: Shrine ritual is success.

Since The Watcher was such a pushover, I decided to take for a bit of a challenge.

Lantern Year 26 hunt & showdown - Sunstalker level 3

Laifuseuskaja, Menoloromias, Hovelina and Chanial hunt for the big fish.

There was no great drama during hunt except for survivors getting bombarded with events that caused loss of survival. While sonorous rest balanced it quite nicely, Laifseuskaja still had to start showdown four points short from maximum. 

Showdown itself was over in just four rounds - most of that thanks to the Sunstalker going soft on actually attacking things. Instead it tried to fry people with massive sun track damage when there were no cards on the track. Controlling AI cards with Rawhide Headband made it easy to predict when a solar flare would occur - and it did, once - to keep everyone out of light. Though a Sunspot Lantern helped a lot in this. 

I've been dreading Sunstalker level 3, but this showdown probably made me feeling overly confident in fighting it in other campaigns... 

Still, there were only three returning survivors. But that was Laifuseuskaja finally succumbing to King's Curse.

Lantern Year 27 - Triathlon of WHAT

Alright. Maybe Kingdom Death is trying to hint me to start a new healthy hobby or something. But this is just absurd. I know for certain that it just can't be a matter of shuffling poorly. The way I randomize settlement events is: I shuffle the deck. Then I start rolling a d20 one by one for each card, and I pick the one that rolled lowest. If multiple cards get the same number, I randomize one from those in the same manner. 

So... It's the sixth Triathlon of Death for this settlement. At least somebody else gets the chance to win now that Laifuseuskaja is gone for a while.

Hovelina, Menoloromias, Chanial and Agyruu begin the sports.

Everyone is shocked when Agyruu is about to WIN the race contest. Spectators throw sticks and stones on her route to such extent that she actually loses. This took three re-rolls, though. But in the end Hovelina won, Chanial was second, Menoloromias third and Agyruu felt cheated, which she certainly was.

Debate contest went as it always went, with Hovelina winning. Menoloromias came close second. Chanial just got angry when Agyruu still continued to insist that race had not been fair play. No-one listened to Agyruu, so she became apathetic.

Fight contest took one re-roll for Menoloromias to win and become spear master, Hovelina second, and, uh, Chanial was third. That left Agyruu for the last spot.

 A survivor was banished because of Triathlon of Death! Traditions just got serious.

Then, since settlement had just innovated storytelling, it was time for Edged Tonometry. Noctamum became proficient with Katana, that's it.

Troka took a flower from the hulking King's Man look-alike, which then vanished into distance while Troka became Laifuseuskaja Twice Reborn. 

Settlement develops Monster Grease, Sun Lure and Hook.

1-2: Lantern Discoveries level 2
3: Oxidized a Beacon Shield.
4-7: Voxanius investigates 9 Broken Lanterns, 2 Cocoon Membranes and a Lantern Tube from Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
5: Settlement makes White Lion Mask! 
6: Settlement makes 3x Iron with Scrap Smelting.
7-8: Face Painting for Intimacy, Intimacy with Love Juice
9: Scarification for Voegole
10: War Room plan.
11: Face Painting for battle. 
12: Shrine ritual is success.
13: Hunt for Great Golden Cat!

Lantern Year 27 hunt & showdown - Great Golden Cat!

Woo! My first time hunting a legendary foe! (We don't count the Beast of Sorrow.)

Menoloromias, Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina and Voegole start their legendary hunt. I try my luck with Sky Fishing to start the showdown immediately, but it didn't work out. Menoloromias lost his nose.

Then, survivors encounter a river that drowns Menoloromias to just one survival remaining. This hunt it sucks to be Menoloromias. 

Right after, without getting the time to use sonorous rest, a giant carries the survivors straight to showdown. Guess I got my quick start after all.

Then the showdown, yes, it began.

The thing is... there was no Great Golden Cat around, like, at all. Worst case scenario came true: first AI card drawn was Vanish. Fortunately the kitty was found hiding, but only after a total of five actions had been spent in the search - two of them from Necromancer's Eye user. 

Still, Laifuseuskaja took a risk and dealt three damage. Hovelina didn't dare to push luck any further and instead went to scavenge some debris as if there was no legendary monsters around. 

Great Golden Cat takes a swing at Laifuseuskaja but fails to connect because Laifuseuskaja is inside Tall Grass.

Next turn after checking hit locations Laifuseuskaja attacks the monster but a timeless eye hit with counterweighed axe left a failure attack reaction coming up next. Now, if Hovelina would have walked to the monsters blind spot failure would be like 12% chance or something, but I deemed that too high. Those +5 damage tokens combined with -3 on severe injury rolls certainly made me cautious.

But then the showdown started going easily enough. Only scary moment was when I didn't take into account that Laifuseuskaja would not be in the Lion's field of view if she was in blind spot, so it targeted Hovelina instead, who was fortunately able to dash away from range. 

The rewards are absurd. Laifuseuskaja got even more strength and accuracy, even more because of the stirring tale from Saga. Laifuseuskaja is the monster here with +15 permanent strength!

Anyway, another Lantern Year.

Lantern Year 28 - Weird Dream

Weird dream, huh? That must be about the seventh Triathlon of Death. But the extra insanity is helpful for sure.

Settlement develops Lantern Glaive, Lantern Mail, Lantern Greaves, and Lantern Gauntlets.

1-2: Lantern Research level 3
3-6: Investigating the Exhausted Lantern Hoard for 17 Broken Lantern and 2 Lantern Tubes
7-9: Silk Refining into hides
10: Leathermaking
11: Forbidden Dance for Hovelina, succeeds with one re-roll.
12-13: Matchmakers
14-15: Storytelling time! And it's dirty story indeed, one that feels wrong on so many levels. I had to re-roll once to get White Speaker story event. Hovelina was nominated to hear the story of Forsaker. She gained +2 permanent strength and two broken arms. Which, thanks to Eternal Will, negate the associated penalties. 
16: Voxanius investigates one more Lantern Tube because I can't figure out anything else to do.
17: Shrine Ritual is success.

Next it's going to be King's Man level 3. I suspect the killing blow to be the most serious injury here. But I think this is enough Enerva for a little while.

+3 insanity for departing survivors.

Enerva settlement

Population 47, Survival limit 14 (manhunter hooch), +4 on depart (+6 vs nemesis) (+3 survival, insanity from Knowledge Worm) +monsterlevel on arrival 

Luma XXX otherworldly luck
Voxanius otherworldly luck XXX
Noctamum XXX
Laifuseuskaja 
Konahim XXX
Nodalus, hamstrung XXX
Firbab the First Baby XXX
Lepuri XXX +1str watcher -1 permanent strength from Lamplighter, -1 survival. Dared to investigate beneath lanthern hoard on LY 20, +10 insanity +1 permanent strength and Immortal & Flower Addiction disorders. Ate the Lantern Bud.
Nossos, with Ambidextrous, +1str watcher XXX
Kholkho, +1 str watcher Burning Focus fighting art. XXX +3 insanity, Anxiety from lost companion.
Chantur XXX +3 insanity, +1str watcher 
Phenial XXX +1str watcher
Agyruu XXX (Banished for losing in each triathlon category!)
Tranaloka XXX +1 str watcher found from silk nest, +9 insanity, Vestiphobia, Hemophobia and Secretive from lost companions.
Noram XXX 
Hovelina XXX 
Mallestik XXX +1 str watcher
Kholbab XXX +1str watcher
Pheruu XXX +1str watcher
Chanram XXX +1str watcher
Lojuba XXX 
Syllogi XXX
Tranch XXX, +1str watcher +3 insanity and Narcissistic from lost companion.
Noandalus XXX +1str watcher, Swordman's Promise from Warm Virus
Menoloromias, XXX saved by Lojuba during Overwhelming Darkness
Firbalus,  XXX +1str watcher Blinded via Scarification, +1 courage
Undenial XXX +1str watcher
Noantur, XXX +1str watcher  destroyed genitals via scarification. +1 courage.
Kholbea XXX +1 perm strength (watcher)
Noch, XXX +1 courage and Tough from Scarification.
Hunoka XXX, +1 perm strength (watcher)
Tranaree, +1 perm. strength, +1 courage, Tough (Has done scarification)
Pheboka, +1 strength (watcher)+2xp, +3understanding, +3 courage, +2 perm. accuracy (insight & bold) (Has done scarification)
Phentur XXX +1 strength (watcher) +2xp, +3understanding, +2 courage, Mammoth Hunting
Chanial XXX
Voegoran Warbling, XXX +1 strength (watch) Flower Addiction  (Insight done) Blotted Out (age)
Nagravarkele Warbling, XXX +1 strength (watch) Flower Addiction (Insight done) +1 accuracy (age)
Traalus +2 strength (watcher, insight) (bold done) (Blinded from Scarification) Otherworldly Luck (age)
Nodanch +2 accuracy (insight & age), +1 strength (watcher) (bold done) (Tough from Scarification)
Lepram, XXX +1 strength (watcher)(insight done), Heroic (age)
Voekele, +4 perm strength (intimacy, insight, age, watcher), blinded from scarification, +1 accuracy from Bold
Nagragoran, Tough (age) (insight done)
Voegole XXX (+1 perm strength from insight), Thrill Seeker (age)
Naoran (+3 perm strength from watcher, insight & bold), Combo Master (age), , blinded, Weak Spot, Sweet Battle from See the Truth, 8 understanding, 9 courage
Hunanch, +1 permanent accuracy (insight) Transcended Masochist (age)
Vole, +1 perm accuracy (insight) +1perm str (age)
Naan XXX, insight done random art (age)
Gragoran (insight done) +1 accuracy (age), +1 strength (bed)
Gorvar, XXX (insight done), random art (age) 

Inventory:

1x Shadow ink gland (organ)
Black Lens (organ)
2x Shadow Tentacles (hide,organ)

2x 1000 year sunstone
3x Salt

1x Beast Steak
2x Fresh Acanthus

1x ???
21x Broken Lantern

1x Web Silk

8x Leather

6x Iron

2x Cocoon Membrane
3x Lantern Tube
1x Black Lichen

1x Hooked Claw
1x Great Cat Bones

For masks:
Skull

Pelt

For the longest time a round of Word Winder was played a few days ago.

Ornithophobia

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Wedge Guard the Stash

Schemes: Public Demonstration, Secret Meetup, Set the Trap, Spread Them Out, Load 'Em Up

My list:

Molly & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Rogue Necromancy
Forgotten Marshal with The Whisper
2x Night Terror
2x Crooligan

Stones: 5
Schemes: Public Demonstration (Night Terrors & Crooligans), Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Colette Dubois & 3x Mechanical Doves
Cassandra Felton
Carlos Vasquez
Angelica Durand
Coryphee Duet
2x Showgirl
Mannikin

Stones: 1
Schemes: Secret Meetup (Carlos, Rogue Necromancy, fountain in middle), Set the Trap

Turn 1:

Resurrectionists advanced in an orderly fashion to middle of board, concentrating on the go. I didn't get any meaningful crows in my hand nor with The Whisper, so there was no summon from Forgotten Marshal this round.

I had deployed both Crooligans close to table edges left and right. Colette came and Presto-ed one of them in the middle of performers. We played this a little incorrectly since the Showgirl certainly wasn't 8" from the Crooligan, but I doubt situation would have been that much different even if the target would have been someone a little closer - Angelica Durand might have actually just been that much closer! 

It somehow escaped me that I could just By Your Side out of the situation and instead hoped I might delay the activations of performers long enough to make a worthwhile death for Crooligan. But Angelica just slapped it dead with one activation. At least the kid stole opponent's only soulstone. 

Other than that Coryphee duet charged Rogue Necromancy after been distracted by the monster's projectile vomit and slowed down by Philip's one more question. Terrifying coupled with Boring Conversation made the only attack a non-issue.

Turn 2:

Second turn mistakes were made...

Forgotten Marshal manages to summon a Rabble Riser on board. Then Colette Presto-Chango swaps Forgotten Marshal and Carlos Vasquez, this time with proper rule interactions. 

Forgotten Marshal barely survives Cassandra Felton's attacks but eventually succumbs to measly Mannikin. And this, this was terrible news. I even wasted Red Joker from my hand in an attempt to save Forgotten Marshal. No more Rabble Risers or even additional Night Terrors or Crooligans to act as decoys or maybe even plant a scheme marker some time along the way. 

And while Philip & Nanny continues to be a nuisance par excellence with Boring Conversation, it was not enough to save un-activated Rabble Riser from Carlos' flaming batons. He even managed to flip tomes from top of deck to create a pyre marker on Molly. 

I had tried to tease Carlos a bit with Night Terror and to get into position to score Public Demonstration, but Carlos just danced away with flames so I was forced to adapt a new plan. A showgirl-engaging Night Terror took a double walk to Colette, thus not placing any scheme markers that turn. Remaining Crooligan had to jump to Molly, not making markers either.

Coryphee Duet was doing sorry job at fighting Rogue Necromancy and decided to split apart. The other Coryphee misplayed a rule and switched positions with Carlos Vasquez.

Both players scored strategy and I had my Public Demonstration. Opponent, however, had enough scheme markers to declare Set the Trap and had conditions right for Secret Meetup.

Scores go 3-2 for Arcanists.

Turn 3:

Colette was in a troublesome position. Nearly all of my models were getting distracted. I was able to circumvent getting stunned a bit with Molly's bonus action, but I could not stop Molly from becoming stunned. At least Molly was able to finally kill one Coryphee with irreducible damage after failing so many times. My models were dying left and right so I had to prioritize removing enemy models, and being stunned left Molly one action point short of going to contest Colette's strategy marker.

I had grand plans of pushing through wall of performers with Philip & Nanny by buying extra card and masks for my attack, but even a 12 was not enough to get through them all. 

Then I tried to seize the middle-right strategy marker by teleporting Crooligan there and finally planting a scheme marker for Spread Them Out. Necrotic Machine was healing itself (it already had Burning +4 from various sources) and trying to land a hit on Coryphee. Night Terror was doing the same, but Df 6 seems to be a tough nut to crack and even when I got a hit I dealt more than one point of damage only on a severe... sheesh...

Colette had used Presto-Chango to remove Rogue Necromancy from the big melee. It managed to land a weak bite on Showgirl, and I had a terrible decision to make. I had severe mask in my hand, which I needed for Night Terror to secure Reposition from bonus action. I decided not to cheat, and the Showgirl then ran to get a strategy marker on my side of the table. 

Since I had not progressed the way I needed, I couldn't keep up with my plan to walk out of melee with Night Terror, reposition to enemy strategy marker and place a scheme marker. My only chance to affect points this turn appeared to be to reposition out of melee, charge Mannikin and kill it with just one attack and then walk back to contest. This way nobody would have got points this turn.

Well, needless to say, the bat didn't kill Mannikin even with two attacks. But what needs to be said is how those bloody damn pigeons became the main damage dealers in performer band again! Two of them single-beakedly removed my public demonstrator and my game looked that much darker.

Performers score strategy while Resurrectionists get nothing. Scores go 2-4.

Turn 4:

Not getting attacks through when I needed them had already been the beginning of the end last turn. Opponent wasn't able to dish that much damage out any more either - miraculously I only lost Necrotic Machine this turn - but contesting and scoring strategy markers with five models against eight models that were able to reposition themselves as well as enemy models proved to be impossible.

And those birds were steadily pecking Philip & Nanny's health down despite them having Boring Conversation on.

Arcanists get their third strategy point for scores of 2-5. 

Turn 5:

Well, there were good and bad news. Good news were that those damn birds were on a killing spree. This time they killed Philip & Nanny. This was good news because now opponent needed to bring Molly down to half of her health remaining to score Set the Trap. 

So, she was the next target then. And Molly made a pretty astonishing last stand and dodged every single attack directed at her. Opponent even brought Coryphee away from the strategy marker on my right side. Molly just needed to take one hit of one damage in to guarantee 50% health. She also had Burning +4, which would tick her below half health.

I had brewed up a plan how I might at least score Spread Them Out reveal condition. The plan was to wait until as many performers had activated as possible, then walk and ambush with Rogue Necromancy within 2" of Molly and assist Distracted away from her. Then she would put the last required scheme marker next to some eligible model with One More Question trigger, but as it happened, I did not take the most direct path with Rogue Necromancy. Assist could not reach Molly.

There was no other game for me left other than point denial, and that Molly did good. She removed required scheme markers for Secret Meetup, had lured away the scoring Coryphee and flipped a severe to block damage from burning with my last soulstone.

So final scores are "only" 2-5 instead of 2-8, for Arcanists.

Casual Eighteen

A friend visited my place for a few days. It's been a few days since these games were played so details have been lost from memory.

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Carve a Path

Scheme pool: Spread them out, Set the trap, Breakthrough, Public demonstration, Hidden martyrs

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Jaakuna Ubume
Hanged with Servant of Dark Powers
Crooked Man
Dead Outlaw
Guilty

Stones: 5
Schemes:

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
2x Tanuki

Stones: 3
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

For some reason I placed Hanged way top behind a large factory building to push a strategy marker. Well, there was a reason, though... I wanted to make staggering machine as efficient as possible and the only model I could part seemed to me to be Hanged. I also wanted both martyrs as far from each other as possible.

In the middle two bubbles were nearing each other with Jaakuna Ubume in the front of Jack Daw's side. Mr. Graves attempted to punish Jaakuna for being almost at the center point, but succeeded only in dealing damage to himself via hazardous terrain.

Turn 2:

Outcasts win initiative, and Jaakuna punts a marker even further and puts up drowning aura and lures an Illuminated into it. 

Mr. Graves then hits Jaakuna twice and she dies, just like that. I had hoped for a little more value out of her. At least Jack Daw managed to land Curse of Injustice on a few models, most notably Hungering Darkness.

Hanged continues to push one of my strategy markers far up while Kitty does the same in the middle. Hanged also managed to land its curse on her.

An Illuminated kills Guilty, thus giving me a point from Hidden Martyrs.

Hungering Darkness and a few other models try to break Jack Daw, but don't really do much with actual attacks. The real damage was this pulse that gave slow for Jack and Montresor.

Dead Outlaw gives fast for Crooked Man from a scheme marker I had planted last turn for movement shenanigans. As a last model to activate, he took a double walk and put a scheme marker close to Mr. Graves and Illuminated, while one of the earlier schemes was still close enough to Hungering Darkness.

Jack Daw reveals both schemes, and both players get strategy for a total of 1-3 for Outcasts.

Turn 3:

Well it was an intense turn.

Montresor opens by making a devastating activation, blasting two points of damage for a Tanuki, Illuminated, Mr. Graves and Hungering Darkness - and then a little more for Tanuki and Illuminated (and himself) from black blood. Attack with noose brought Mr. Graves and Tanuki down to one health remaining. 

It was certainly not to be, because then Tanuki just healed him back over hard-to-kill threshold.

Opponent really puts everything to killing Montresor - and, for the first game ever, Montresor actually dies even after triggering his demise. But at least Mr. Graves and Tanuki behind him finally die when Crooked Man makes a proper earthquake. Or, well, Mr. Graves doesn't die just yet - it takes Dead Outlaw to finalize him. 

Hanged and Kitty do their thing with strategy markers. Crooked Man also kicked one of my markers to opponent's deployment area. A Tanuki struggles with one of the Ten Thunders strategies, but unfortunately I don't have the model count to intervene.

Both players score strategy, and opponent reveals Hidden Martyrs on a Tanuki and an Illuminated. Scores go 3-4 for Outcasts.

Turn 4:

Hanged kick strategy to enemy deployment and lands in the thick of action with On Your Heels. Crooked Man and Dead Outlaw manage to kill Mr. Tannen and the Illuminated for enemy Hidden Martyrs, and killing that Illuminated brought back Guilty.

Jack Daw charges Tanuki that was delivering strategy marker, but fails to do anything important.

Then, to my horror Kitty starts spamming scheme markers on my deployment zone and thus Ten Thunders is able to reveal Breakthrough.

Scores go even 5-5. 

Turn 5:

Jack Daw gets a second try at Tanuki, but the furry little bugger just doesn't die or even get staggered. It manages to disengage, and Hungering Darkness obeys it to push last Ten Thunders strategy marker to my deployment zone. 

In the middle my useless minions fail at trying to injure Lynch enough to make Set the Trap end condition a possibility, and even worse - Hanged dies, too. I'm left with just strategy points, while Ten Thunders get their Breakthrough for a score of 7-6 for Ten Thunders.

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Guard the Stash

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Secret Meetup, In Your Face, Vendetta, Catch & Release

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Grave Golem
Noxious Nephilim
Lost Love
Shikome
Seishin

Stones: 7
Schemes: In Your Face, Secret Meetup (3x3 building, Noxious Nephilim and Gwyneth)

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Illuminated
2x Tanuki

Stones: 1
Schemes: In Your Face, Load 'Em Up (scheme)

Turn 1:

Well, look at that pretty picture. From my side you can see Grave Golem, some swirly parts of a Goryo and half of Noxious Nephilim!

Well, that's because Kirai is hiding under the rectangular red roofed building, and most of my other models (Ikiryo, Datsue Ba, even Lost Love) were behind the stone wall, just behind the building.

Shikome could have been seen on the roof with Hungering Darkness if that thing didn't kill it with one hit!

Opponent knew I had blast, but apparently he did not consider it much of a threat. Truth be told - neither did I. I haven't had much of a success with blasts earlier. But I wanted to still threaten opponent a bit, give him a lesson not to bunch up like that.

Ikiryo, who had been walked into position with either Datsue Ba or Seishin, concentrated and projected her voice at Mr. Graves who was in cover. Hits. Red Joker comes up for damage. 

Ouchie. Losing Shikome to one hit suddenly didn't bother that much when that attack dealt in total eighteen points of damage if we count the two points from Mr. Graves' black blood ability! Eighteen!

Yeah, nobody died and opponent had quite a bit of healing available but still...

Turn 2:

Ten Thunders wins initiative, and goes straight into trying to save Mr. Graves with foul-mouthed motivation. First model I activate is however Goryo, who lands Mark of Vengeance on Mr. Graves. Goryo then walks and charges into the fray and promptly dies there, splashing adversary all over the place. Goryo died within 3" of Lynch, so it was In Your Face for Ten Thunders.

Another aimed blast from Kirai kills Mr. Graves and Tanuki and has Mr. Tannen reeling with one health and Jakob with not enough. Mr. Graves, however, was within 3" of Jakob Lynch, so it was In Your Face for Resurrectionists.

Situation could have been utterly hopeless for Ten Thunders if it wasn't for Hungering Darkness who harassed Kirai and tied her resources. She had tried to summon a Drowned for a bodyguard but that bodyguard wasn't very impressive. Keeping Kirai alive took just about every resource I had at my disposal.

When Noxious Nephilim went to the secret meetup building to contest the strategy marker from opponent, it was no strategy points for Ten Thunders and one for Resurrectionists. Scores went 1-2 for Kirai.

Turn 3:

Illuminated and Tanuki try to wrangle a strategy marker from Noxious Nephilim, but the beast is able to even the model count by smashing Tanuki into bits. 

Datsue Ba just endures and endures, although it takes all of my remaining soulstones and forces Lost Love to tellyport next to the granny for some spiritual healing. I was also planning to use Lost Love to plant some schemes to the secret meetup building because Gwyneth didn't seem too keen on coming there.

Even Grave Golem tried to heal Datsue Ba, but failed the bonus action with black joker. But now it was in position to run to enemy deployment for end condition of In Your Face.

My melee capabilities in the middle were also a bit of a farce, although something seems to have killed Mr. Tannen - I just don't remember what. It may have been Kirai who disengaged from Hungering Darkness after being mauled by the monstrosity. 

Drowned manages to stun-slam Hungering Darkness and took a flight to aid in the Nephilim's fight against Illuminated. Curiously enough this turn nobody scored additional points. Because of this we decided to continue play since there was a chance for draw for Ten Thunders.

Turn 4:

Well, that chance went soon down the drain when Datsue Ba continued to defy death and Noxious Nephilim finally killed the Illuminated.

What a weird game, but a victory for Kirai.