Assassination Doubles

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Break the Line with Standard Deployment.
Scheme pool: Assassinate, Outflank, Claim Jump, Research Mission, Breakthrough

 My list:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Benny Wolcomb
Nix
Mad Dog Brackett
Midnight Stalker
Rat Catcher
Prospector
Malifaux Rat

Pool: 1
Schemes: Outflank, Research Mission

Opponent Had:

Asami Tanaka & Amanjaku
Ama No Zako
Fuhatsu
Samurai
Charm Warder (Claim jumper)
Obsidian Oni

Pool: 7
Schemes: Outflank, Claim Jump

Turn 1:

I placed my scheme duo of Midnight Stalker and Mad Dog Brackett far-left to do a strategy, score Research Mission and half of Outflank. They were directly opposed only by Amanjaku, so I had already secured billions of victory points by then. Or so it felt at the time. Then Amanjaku randomly tore half of Mad Dog's health away with just one strike. Bothersome, yes, but it still was only a pesky little insignificant totem. Or so it felt at the time.

Continuing from left to right I had Hamelin hiding behind the forest with kids a little further back. Hamelin didn't do much else than get a summoned Obsidian Oni Stunned. Behind the forest there was Fuhatsu, and and a little closer to middle Obsidian Oni and Asami.

Past midpoint after Hamelin I had a blob of Prospector, Rat Catcher, Benny Wolcomb and a turn 1 created Rat King engaged by the aforementioned Obsidian Oni. Ama No Zako and, less surprisingly, Charm Warder were nearing on them.

Next to this rat machine was Nix, and Samurai was guarding over the rightmost table edge.

Turn 2:

Midnight Stalker moves strategy marker, leaps along with it and interacts a scheme marker.

Amanjaku doesn't do anything useful, but neither is Mad Dog able to remove it from board with just a cigar. But at least he gets the third required marker for Midnight Stalker.

Ama No Zako comes to beat the Piper, and Obsidian Oni has set the ground on fire near the middle, and has placed itself next to strategy marker in the Hamelin's forest. 

Hamelin Obeys the Obsidian Oni back to middle of the board within 4" of unactivated Asami, Charm Warder and Fuhatsu. Then he uses Piper's Influence to stun Fuhatsu in an attempt to minimize possible damage on Midnight Stalker.

Plan was cute, but Fuhatsu just shoots the vampire wannabe dead despite not hitting with every attack. 

Asami pushes Obsidian Oni back to strategy marker and summons a Tengu. 

The turn 1 summoned Obsidian Oni delays Rat Catcher, Rat King and Benny to a troublesome degree - Rat Catcher disengages and interacts a scheme nearby. My plan was to wait until Oni explodes to gnaw Rat King to scheme marker and toss one of the strategy markers. Had I succeeded this earlier, I could have seized the control of playing football with the marker, Charm Warder needing to throw it back to middle line. Had I succeeded later, Rat King could have started throwing the marker back at middle line. But as it turned out, I didn't succeed at all. Obsidian Oni didn't die until the very last action point of Rat King, thus leaving the strategy marker on my side.

Nix tossed rightmost strategy marker to Ten Thunders side while Samurai shot the dog with everything it got. Prospector was nearing right-side Outflank area.

Neither player reveals schemes, but both score strategy.

Turn 3:

Nix charges Samurai and looses bowels to keep that strategy marker on enemy side. 

Charm Warder manages to draw LoS to Nix and blasts it with four damage from chaos theory action thing. This leaves Nix with just one health remaining. Prospector had come to interact a scheme marker for Outflank, but suddenly felt rather vulnerable when Samurai kicked the rotting ghost puppy dead.

Benny Wolcomb charges Charm Warder, not doing much, but at least opening way for this gnaw-walk-interact shenanigan for Rat King. Although now I wonder if the summon token from Benny's rats would have been inherited by the Rat King after it had been tangled together by the one Malifaux Rat I had bought with soulstones? (answer: yes, they would)

Ama No Zako and Obsidian Oni go full-ape on Hamelin, actually removing not one but two of his Stolen. Such power came with a cost: by now Asami had fallen to three health remaining. 

While Hamelin was still alive, he activated and Obeyed Fuhatsu to shoot Asami. She didn't quite die thanks to soulstones - she was left with one health remaining. Next Hamelin Obeys Rat King, who deals the killing blow. What a shame I had not picked Assassinate. 

However... a lot of my game winning potential was resting on the shoulders of Mad Dog Brackett. And now the blue guy right in front of him received a level up. Soon enough Mad Dog Brackett is sitting with just one health box.

At least Fuhatsu botches his activation, and there is enough of Mad Dog left to disengage and run next to scheme marker, blow-it-to-hell marker, strategy marker and Midnight Stalker's corpse marker.

Tengu takes a double walk and dark bargain to remove my scheme marker, so at least Midnight Stalker had done something useful by dying so embarrassingly - I still had three different types of markers within 4" of Mad Dog Brackett for Research Mission.

Outcasts get Research Mission and Strategy, while Ten Thunders receive no points. Scores go 3-1 for Outcasts.

Turn 4:

While I do my best to damage Charm Warder, it seems impervious to any damage. The Warder, though... With a single of Chaos Theory, the last remaining Stolen and Benny dies, and Rat King is dispatched by melee attack. And the thing also has enough action points to Concentrate on top of that.

Hamelin was at four health points, and after Obsidian Oni had activated he was still going strong at one or two points. But the thing is... Obsidian Oni had counted on killing Outcast master to remove its third flicker token. And as this kind of didn't happen, there may have been a sort of an explosion there. 

Somehow ironic that neither of us had picked Assassinate as their scheme.

My rats were annoying the heck out of opponent by tying up Ama No Zako and Amanjaku, but I suppose those health 2, defense 3, willpower 2 models can only go so far as meatshields. Amanjaku was able to charge Mad Dog Brackett, who had skulked towards Outflank area on left. Fortunately the attack missed.

Samurai fails spectacularly against Prospector. 

Eventhough I had received a crippling blow this turn, I still had plenty of points ahead of Ten Thunders. At least until they revealed Claim Jump on a model I couldn't realistically get to.

But still game was 3-2 in my favor!

Turn 5

Well... still it was me struggling for a draw.

Amanjaku wasn't in base contact with Brackett, and in such a scenario you won't make miracles with a cigar butt against essentially a 10-12 health model. Outflank was out of question.

Only way to get a draw seemed to be to disengage with a single Malifaux Rat from Ama No Zako so that the oni henchman doesn't flip higher than Weak for movement reduction and charge Charm Warder, flipping Red Joker for damage.

Guess what?

That just didn't happen.

Game ended 4-3 for Ten Thunders.