Damn those meddling fennblades

Had a 50 point game of Warmachine a while ago.

Cryx

 Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]

 - Harrower [13]

 - Inflictor [11]

 - Malice [13]

 - Ripjaw [6]

 - The Withershadow Combine [7]

Misery Cage [2]

Necrotech [1]

Satyxis Raider Captain [3]

Soul Trapper [1]

Warwitch Siren [3]

Satyxis Raiders (max) [14]

 - Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [3]

Trollbloods

 Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain [+29]

 - Dire Troll Bomber [16]

 - Troll Impaler [9]

 - Troll Impaler [9]

Janissa Stonetide [3]

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (min) [10]

Trollkin Champions (max) [16]

 - Skaldi Bonehammer [3]

Trollkin Fennblades (max) [13]

We had a Steamroller scenario for a change. Trolls started, and their formation was Fennblades-Nyss Hunters-Champions-Battlegroup-Janissa, from left to right in a fairly straightforward line.

I had a bit less of a front, but vaguely I had Ripjaw facing Fennblades all alone, Malice and Inflictor in between Champions and Nyss Hunters, Deneghra and Withershadow Combine behind them. Harrower and Satyxis took positions in trenches opposed by Champions and battlegroup.

Fennblades ran to contest rectangular zone on left. Nyss did the same with middle zone. But perhaps the biggest surprise was Trollkin Champions and Dire Troll Bomber charging in to Satyxis. Only a third of them died, but my plans to seize the zone or at least destroy objective were ruined.

Deneghra, Combine and Malice took down four Fennblades with considerable expenditure of resources.

Trollkin Champions in defensive line and under Sure Foot were a disheartening sight until I realized the new and improved seduction on Warwitch Siren. This broke their Champions' line and allowed Satyxis and Harrower to remove whopping four Champions out of six. 

Then it's Madrak's turn to use feat. The relative kill count for Trollbloods this turn was meager - only a few Satyxis. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Because Deneghra took over half of her health as damage from charging Fennblades and a couple of Nyss Hunters!

As an emergency measure Deneghra cast Ghost Walk on herself and switched Grave Wind from Malice onto her. She flew into safety of opponent's table side. Eh? Well, there was only Nyss Hunters there after Inflictor ran to engage most of Fennblades.

Malice harpoons an Impaler to middle, but doesn't manage to kill it even with help from Harrower. At least all remaining Champions died.

Trollbloods still have trouble removing Satyxis from their zone. But they do not have trouble in removing Harrower with combined efforts of an Impaler, Madrak and Janissa. 

Cryx manages to remove enemy objective, clear left and middle zones and take the flag for a score of 4 in one swoop. Trolls had already scored one point so that wasn't that big of a swing, although still a rather impactful one. 

Fennblades wrecked my objective and even brought Deneghra down to seven health remaining. Other trolls cleared zone on right and contested middle, so points went back to 4-3 for me.

It took everything they got, but Cryx did kill all the Fennblades, clear middle and contest enemy zone for a grand total of 7-3. 

There wasn't much of a game left by then, and game was nearing end via turns anyway. Both players scored one point when opponent lobbed Malice off from their zone and charged an Impaler to contest middle.

Malice walked back to contest enemy zone, and it was game over and a win for Cryx.

And all of it just because of the addition of +2 armor in last dynamic update.

Leave it to the kids

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Symbols of Authority with Standard Deployment

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Claim Jump, Catch & Release, Hidden Martyrs, Research Mission

My list:

Molly2 & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Noxious Nephilim
Forgotten Marshal with the Whisper
Rabble Riser
Night Terror
2x Crooligan

Pool: 5
Schemes: Catch & Release (Night Terror), Hidden Martyrs (Crooligan & Nephilim)

I think in this matchup I actually had no other scheme choices. Assassinate and Claim Jump were out of the window straight away - I wouldn't be able to deal with enemy models if they stormed the middle. And Hoffman isn't an easy model to kill at least with my list. I pondered on Research Mission, but if I somehow managed to drop scrap markers, Hoffman would just eat them right away. Corpses would come from my own models, and a strategy marker for scoring would be a strategy marker I wouldn't collect. So yeah. Catch & Release and Hidden Martyrs it was.

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Guardian
Riotbreaker
3x Hunter

Pool: 2
Schemes: Claim Jump (Guardian) Catch & Release (One of the Hunters)

Turn 1:

First turn was more action packed than Molly would have hoped. It didn't help that time after time I realized how I had screwed up this or that. 

I was taking my time in figuring out how Noxious Nephilim's Memories of Blood worked. Molly and Nephilim were hiding behind a bush that also hid one of my strategy markers. 

A Hunter, Hoffman and Guardian went to the middle with the aid of Mechanical Attendant's magnet. Below, Philip & Nanny tried to gift Slow for Hunter in the middle, but failed despite advantage of 2. However, I think I got pretty good mileage out of Molly's bonus action even when I forgot that I might get to draw cards. 

But yeah. Middle of the board and below where my turn was, if not great, at least not horrible. Up in the north it was catastrophic.

Both Crooligans jumping on a strategy marker was no big deal at all. Neither was Rabble Riser that took cover from behind a rock formation. But then Forgotten Marshal came to summon in a Night Terror that used Fading to move forward. I tried to use it as a distraction for Guild, and I was so sure my sitting duck would eat up at least one activation from the enemy.

I didn't even leave it within 3" of Marshal to offer some enveloping darkness.

So, Hunter shot a harpoon at Marshal, dragged it 6" closer. Night Terror then charged the Hunter to completely wrong side - I wanted to offer enemy some Negation Aura. And I did, and it had a considerable effect, but still Melissa and Hunter were able to shoot Forgotten Marshal down to one health remaining. And because of my placement of Night Terror the Hunter was now able to Deadly Pursuit into Forgotten Marshal.

Turn 2

Guild wins initiative and proceeds to kill Forgotten Marshal right away, and with Assassin the Hunter casually Red Jokers with Critical Strike the only Rabble Riser dead.

Non-martyr Crooligan takes enemy strategy marker from north. Noxious Nephilim was guarding my middle marker with its 2" melee range. To protect Necrotic Machine and possibly even Molly, Noxious Nephilim put up Rancid Smell. Then it challenged Hunter with Bring It to draw the machine away from Molly's totem. 

Guardian lobbed Hoffman into the thick of the melee in the middle. To further protect Necrotic Machine, Molly used Parade Route on Noxious Nephilim in an attempt to leave Hoffman less room to maneuver. Turned out Hoffman didn't need that.

He had the insolence to knock aside Noxious Nephilim and get the strategy marker in middle.

But hey. Necrotic Machine survived despite all the Hunters that were raining on it!

And because Hunters were busy in the middle, Philip & Nanny ran as close as possible to enemy strategy marker that was hugging south board edge. Martyr Crooligan teleported to Nanny and got into position to interact next turn.

Summoned Night Terror kept Melissa busy, and Catch & Release Night Terror came to engage Hoffman.

Both players score strategy, Resurrectionists get Catch & Release for 1-2 lead.

Turn 3

Catch & Release Night Terror runs to enemy middle marker. Melissa kills summoned Night Terror and runs and guns Catch & Release Terror, lobbing even a grenade to it, but couldn't put a dent on the bat.

Crooligan interacts with strategy marker, and Philip & Nanny dislodge themselves from Mechanical Attendant with accidental roll-over. Unfortunately they just couldn't quite reach Melissa. Attendant starts taking shots at the baby carriage and despite them burning soulstones, their health fell to six. And even got themselves stunned, so no accidental roll-overs next turn.

Riot Breaker shoots non-martyr Crooligan, and one of the Hunters go and take one of my strategy markers. 

In the middle, Noxious Nephilim regurgitates a corpse and uses Bring It on Guardian that I suspected as a possible Claim Jump target. Yeah, moderate wound on double negatives. I had tried to regurgitate with Nephilim to make it a more enticing model to try to kill, but still requiring at least some effort.

Now it just took one swing from Guardian to finish it. Oh well. At least it was a Hidden Martyr point for me.

Molly and Necrotic Machine do impressive job in dealing with two Hunters and Hoffman himself. Molly even gets to do the full three irreducible damage to one of the Hunters, and thanks to her encouragement, Necrotic Machine doesn't even die and prevents Guardian from scoring Claim Jump.

Both players score strategy, Resurrectionists score Hidden Martyrs. Sadly though Guild reveals Catch & Release on one of the Hunters engaging Molly.

3-4 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4

Beginning fourth round, much to my horrification I realized I had three pass tokens. That's quite a model difference when the entirety of enemy list has Armor +2...

I had this grand plan of activating Necrotic Machine first and dealing some damage in to a Hunter that was at four health, and then using accomplice to activate Molly to finish the job. It had a promising start when Necrotic Machine dealt severe injury on a negative flip. Sadly remaining attacks missed. But, the thing had only two health remaining. 

With first action Molly tried to use parade route on Catch & Release Hunter to bring it to a more reasonable position. This failed, so Molly started swinging her baton at the Hunter with two health. Attack hit and dealt a damage. Last action point was a baton attack again, which hit its target. With two negatives obviously, of course, it was the black joker that came up! That would have been my first kill in the game.

But no, Hoffman just healed it back and then even killed my Most Valuable Player, the Necrotic Machine. 

Night Terror charges Mechanical Attendant dead, so I did, in fact, get my first kill this turn. A four point totem. Whee.

Philip & Nanny walk around Melissa and use Boring Conversation. Since they were stunned, that was all. Crooligan teleports to Nanny and goes to interact with second marker in the middle. Melissa then disengages and goes running and gunning against Crooligan, once again accomplishing nothin.

Guardian threw the healed Hunter around, and then it walked and charged martyr Crooligan. Two points of damage were taken - still above 50% required for Hidden Martyrs!

One Hunter runs to a strategy marker while Catch & Release Hunter disengaged and ran as far as it could.

Guild scored Claim Jump with Guardian, but failed to take a strategy marker. Scores are 4-5 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5

Crooligan teleports to Philip & Nanny, interacts with last strategy marker and charges Riot Breaker in hopes of surviving all attacks the construct would make. But no, Riot Breaker bashed Crooligan with its shield - twice - so now the kid was at one health remaining and nowhere near engaging a valid target. Well, let's not be too harsh on the child - he scored three of the four markers I managed to gain! And come to think of it... it was a Crooligan who took the first symbol of authority.

One of the Hunters interact a strategy marker, and the Catch & Release version runs to bottom-right corner.

Molly concentrates real hard and has Guardian parade over the hills and far away - too far to get it back within 2" of center point!

Melissa nearly shoots Catch & Release Night Terror dead, so it takes flight behind some crates to benefit from concealment and cover.

Philip & Nanny charge Hunter to prevent it from attacking my point scoring Night Terror. But that was of no use when it just disengaged, walked and used Deadly Pursuit to come and engage the terror. If I just would have placed it a quarter of an inch further...

Oh well. Both players scored strategy, and Guild even got Catch & Release end condition. 

A real tough 6-6 draw that lasted until the very last activations of turn 5.

Breakthrough

 I did a demo of Malifaux on vassal. I used the same teams as earlier, which were for me:

Philip & the Nanny
2x Crooligan
Shikome

And for the opponent:

Sebastian
Flesh Construct
2x Guild Autopsy

I tweaked the scheme pool a little, this time offering Breakthrough, Leave a Message, Detonate Charges and Search the Ruins.

If I ever get to offer more demo games, I might switch Detonate Charges for Assassinate as every single scheme this time required scheme markers.

My scheme was Breakthrough again while opponent had taken Search the Ruins. 

This time my forces weren't too impressive. The only kill was scored by Shikome with a severe damage against Guild Autopsy. Flesh Construct ate one Crooligan and killed another, but at least they bought enough time for Philip & Nanny to speed up to enemy deployment zone to spawn some scheme markers.

Shikome lasted surprisingly long, considering she was against stat 7 Sebastian. He was even brought down to three hit health remaining. I would have tried to attack him one last time with Philip & Nanny on round 5, but opponent won initiative and ran to safety with Sebastian.

Game ended 2-5 for Experimental.