Just Asking Some Questions - Why, Seamus?!

During my Kuhmo visit I had two 50ss games of Malifaux. As always, as the board looks horrifying I'll spare the pictures. 

Strategy: Flank Cursed Objects

Scheme pool: Breakthrough, Set the Trap, Load 'Em Up, Public Demonstration, Secret Meetup

My list:

Molly Squidpiddge & Necrotic Construct
Philip & Nanny
Noxious Nephilim
Bone Pile with Grave Spirit Touch
2x Night Terror
2x Crooligan

Stones: 7
Schemes: Load 'Em Up (scheme marker), Public Demonstration (Night Terrors & Crooligan) 

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa K.O.R.E
Guardian
Riot Breaker
3x Hunter

Stones: 2
Schemes: Breakthrough, Set the Trap

Turn 1:

First turn is a bit awkward. My plan was to throw up with Noxious Nephilim, walk a bit, concentrate and with next activation use Blasphemous Ritual with Bone Pile.

I had no time.

Hoffman activated Hunter that dealt damage with harpoon and dragged Nephilim to clip hazardous terrain a bit, which brought Nephilim to df 3. 

Necrotic Machine was blocked from getting to the Nephilim to heal, so Bone Pile had to activate and heal the enforcer instead. 

Opponent continued to attack Nephilim, so Necrotic Machine had to activate next and heal. My enforcer would have most certainly died had it not used defensive trigger to move out of Guardian's charge lane. Just to make it doubly secured a Night Terror flew to engage Guardian with the help of Molly's bonus action.

In the end Noxious Nephilim was left alive with one health remaining, which was a terrible prospect for its survival deep into round two. But at least mauling Noxious Nephilim had taken most of opponents activations, so nobody came to harass Crooligans that were sitting in the corners of the board.

Turn 2:

Good news for Noxious Nephilim. I Red Jokered initiative. It regenerated a little, and unfortunately failed to get any heal triggers for melee attack. But at least it nearly wrecked a Hunter and didn't die to first activation by Guild.

I still try to save it by bringing Philip & Nanny with Boring Conversation in to the thick of the fight. Doesn't help, my only way beyond Molly to do damage to enemy models was gone when Hoffman personally dealt with the threat.

Well, obviously Philip & Nanny are now the next target but at least they are able to use soulstones to block damage. And soulstones they use. By the end of the turn I only had two soulstones left, but despite me engaging enemy models with my own little minions, Noxious Nephilim was the only casualty that turn. 

Buuut it still was a bad turn because Mechanical Attendant refused to die to Molly's disturbing stories. This meant absolutely zero points for me, while Guild got strategy and Set the Trap from Philip & Nanny and Necrotic Machine that was healing them, and from Bone Pile that had appeared from a corpse to clog Hoffman's gears.

2-0 for Guild.

Turn 3:

Third turn sees the removal of Philip & Nanny and Necrotic Machine which is bad but not worst since they distract opponent enough that they don't turn their attention to my actual scoring pieces.

Crooligans had been doing their job and spawning scheme markers, and a few lucky tomes for extra scheme markers gave me Load 'Em Up this turn. Bone Pile was able to kill Mechanical Attendant, so it that was a strategy point for me too. And as the late henchman and armor +2 totem had given so much trouble for Hoffman, a Crooligan and a Night Terror were able to do Public Demonstration.

One of the Hunters had started to get too close to my deployment zone, so Molly started asking some questions, making it impossible for Hunter to score a potential Breakthrough because of Slow. In a situation like this I considered it better to spam One More Question over enemy troops to limit their damage potential.

Thus, opponent received only strategy point, so we were even 3-3.

Turn 4:

I lose all but one Crooligan, one damn lucky Night Terror and Molly. And yet a Crooligan manages to kill one of the Hunters that had strategy marker with a severe damage on negative modifiers. Unfortunately I'm no longer able to delay the one Hunter in my deployment zone, so it scores Breakthrough. At least end condition would be really difficult for Guild.

Scores go 5-4 for Guild.

Turn 5:

Last turn Hoffman kills Molly, securing himself end point from Set the Trap, and removing nearly dead low cost minions for strategy wasn't that difficult for strategy either. We did not play the whole turn, since opponent got seven points secured while I had a theoretical maximum of six. Hoffman won 7-4.

Game 2:

Strategy: Corner Carve a Path

Scheme pool: Secret Meetup, Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark, Vendetta, Sabotage

My list:

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Bete Noire
Dead Doxy
2x Rotten Belle
Bone Pile (vendetta on an Illuminated)
Gravedigger

Stones: 5
Schemes: Vendetta, Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner
Tanuki

Stones: 2
Schemes: Secret Meetup (Gwyneth on Gravedigger), Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

There was a lake in the middle of the map, which made Leave Your Mark a tricky scheme. Because of it I started to amass my crew in the middle to perhaps get some additional movement boost. It was way too late in the turn when I realized my mistake - Gwyneth might be able to invite half of my crew to her table if worse comes to worst. 

Other than that I got the ball (= strategy marker) rolling nicely with Doxy and Seamus. Gravedigger had some difficulty with the other marker because of its base and narrow terrain paths. 

It looked like a huge brawl would be the name of the game this time. Seamus, by the way, shot an Illuminated and scored minimum damage.

Turn 2:

Or maybe not? Resurrectionists win the initiative, and Rotten Belle runs to engage Gwyneth to avoid a disaster. Three AP Hungering Darkness uses all of its actions to kill the minion, so I had to bring in bigger targets. Madame Sybelle put up Undivided Attention and charged to Gwyneth just a little past the center point. 

Vendetta Illuminated charged Madame and happened to Red Joker damage, so my tank was in big trouble. However, I was continuously lucky with soulstones blocking damage, and even Bone Pile healed more than one point. 

So even after Lynch charged in, Madame Sybelle had lost only three points of health despite receiving twelve to fourteen points of damage. Gwyneth escaped melee which didn't make much sense to me... yet.

Seamus kicked a strategy marker deep into enemy table side and failed to hit anything with his gun.

Kitty Dumont was taking her time to bring a strategy marker to where it counts. It was last activation with Illuminated around the middle that gave opponent one strategy point.

By now there were Hungering Darkness, Tanuki, two Illuminated, Lynch, Beckoner, Sybelle, Bone Pile, Bete Noire and Rotten Belle within 5" of the center point, with Seamus, Copycat Killer and Gwyneth at the outskirts.

Both players scored strategy.

Turn 3:

Hungering Darkness, both Illuminated and Lynch manage to use all of my stones and finally bring Madame Sybelle down. Lynch still had a couple actions left, so he charged Bone Pile and brought it down to one stressful hit point. 

Bone Pile activates hastly and scores its vendetta though it only had one shot at it. It ate Madame Sybelle's corpse to heal a bit. Then Bete Noire finalizes target.

Seamus kicks the strategy marker even deeper towards opponent's deployment area and fails to hit anything with his gun. He is then teleported to center area because I thought I might need his kill potential there.

Neither player gets strategy, but I had vendetta so it was 2-1 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

I cheat a 13 to initiative to bury Bone Pile. That's when opponent cheats Red Joker. As a result Bone Pile dies and so does my Vendetta's end condition. Gravedigger interacts with friendly strategy marker.

Gwyneth invites Gravedigger to play at her table, and then Hungering Darkness has a clear charge against Seamus. And what a scare it was! Resurrectionist master goes down to one health remaining.

He starts flinging Terrorizers around, healing himself to four (he took one point of damage from a cheat) and failed to hit anything with his gun.

Bete Noire nearly kills another Illuminated, but decides it is more important to kick opponent's marker deeper back into their lines. Kitty had finally secured one of the strategy markers to my side, so she was able to reach the marker that Bete tried to deny, but couldn't get it past center line.

Doxy puts scheme marker in the middle and Tanuki takes it away.

Opponent reveals Secret Meetup with Gwyneth and Gravedigger, while I get second strategy point for a game of 3-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Long story short: Copycat Killer gets black joker on damage against Beckoner. She would have died to minimum. Also, Seamus takes four attacks against remaining, unactivated Illuminated without hitting even a single time. Not the best day for Seamus, this game.

I place another scheme marker in the middle, but Beckoner is able to place her own, thus negating Leave Your Mark for both players. Mr. Tannen kills Gravedigger with despicable promises, and Gwyneth and Hungering Darkness plant schemes for the end condition of Secret Meetup.

Kitty pushes their strategy marker to my side, and Resurrectionists get nothing. Swing of two points gives 4-3 victory for Ten Thunders.

Can't go wrong with two bottles of whiskey and a shotgun

A game of Arkham Horror 2nd edition with four players.

Nyarlathotep was our adversary, enhanced with Dark Pharaoh thing where every received unique item dealt sanity damage and the final fight was a bit harder.

Investigators for the job were Wilson Richards the handyman with shotgun, whiskey and motorbike. I played this characters. Others were Marie Lambeau, Daisy Walker and Tommy Muldoon.

The two unique items for Wilson Richards were Sword of Glory and Holy Water. So he paid two sanity for two items he can't use effectively, since he doesn't have six hands.

But at least he could make friends with other investigators by giving them items and receiving money in exchange to fulfill his personal quest of throwing 15 dollars to nothing. He succeeded thanks to contributions of Tommy and Daisy.

All the investigators were rather unfortunate in awkward places, and while game itself wasn't going straight to hell, the only character progress for Wilson and Marie were permanent injuries. 

At least Daisy was collecting enormous swathes of clues and Tommy was, well, uh. Tommy was randomly Cursed, and Nyarlathotep had some kind of horrible Cursed mechanic that would kill Tommy in just a few turns unless he could get rid of Cursed. He couldn't, but he also randomly gained Blessed, which is the same thing.

Later, Tommy received Blessed again and lost it before making even a single test.

Afterwards he made exemplary job at killing monsters, but also of receiving permanent injuries. 

At its height investigators had six permanent physical injuries and two mental injuries. This was mostly thanks to two Cthonians and their "all turn, every turn" movement pattern and ample supply of 4+ rolls, which dealt a wound to every investigator in Arkham.

Nearing the end of game we also got the sanity damage dealing version of Cthonians.

So, once it looked like the ancient one was about to awaken, Wilson Richards and Marie Lambeau got themselves killed - Wilson had double vision, which forbids him from collecting clue tokens from board. And without clue tokens Nyarlathotep would pretty much just devour him. I forget what was troubling Marie, but Wilson was replaced with Mark Harrigan who - while a perfect investigator for the final fight - received a skill that gave him -1 maximum sanity. So he had a maximum of two.

Marie was replaced with Jim Culver with the golden trumpet.

Then Nyarlathotep awoke. Investigators had a real chance of winning the fight, but some atrocious streaks of bad luck ruined the lives of Arkham citizens. For example, Daisy didn't roll a single 5+ with ten dice, and got devoured as a result. And when investigators finally started to do some real damage, bringing Nyarlathotep down to four doom tokens remaining, investigators started to run out of clue tokens and were devoured. Except for Tommy Muldoon, who accepted Nyarlathotep's invitation to join it.

Victory for Tommy Muldoon!

Venethrax vs Agathia

 A 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list:

 Lich Lord Venethrax [+29]
- Deathripper [5]
- Erebus [13]
- Leviathan [14]

Necrotech [1]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (max) [11]
Mechanithralls (max) [9]
 - Brute Thrall (x3) [6]
 - Skarlock Commander [3]
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls [2]
Wraith Engine [15]

Opponent had:

Bane Witch Agathia [+29]

 - Deathripper [5]

 - Kraken [32]

Bane Lord Tartarus [5]

Necrotech [1]

Bane Riders (max) [17]

Bane Warriors (max) [14]

 - Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]

We had a steamroller scenario. Looked like I received the short end of the stick when it came to matchup, as I kind of lost: dismember and terminal velocity on Venethrax, had a lousy feat when opponent had just one warjack apart from arc node, and even Wraith Engine wouldn't be making any Machine Wraiths this game.

I started game, and rushed Wraith Engine up from left since nothing there posed a threat for it as long as it didn't lose incorporeal.

Erebus and Black Ogrun Boarding Party were aiming to go right, while Venethrax and Leviathan were ready to go either way. Mechanithralls were spread all over the board to die as needed.

Bane Warriors and their pals were coming from the left, but didn't close the distance to their fullest to leave me without charge targets. Bane Riders did the same on right, and the rest of Agathia in the middle. She used her feat, so all but Kraken were stealthed.

I tried to jam opponent by running everything forward, engaging especially Riders so they wouldn't charge around. Wraith Engine just walked to act as an enormous roadblock. Leviathan decided to come help the situation in left rectangular zone with Bane Warriors, and Erebus hid behind a screen of trash models.

Almost all Mechanithralls died, but what's that when they'd come back soon enough? Erebus received Parasite from Agathia. Bane Warriors charged Mechanithralls, and I decided to counter-charge one Bane with Leviathan - a decision I sorely regretted after another Bane Warrior came charging in towards the crabjack and struck over half of its health boxes away with one gigantic attack.

Machine Wraith removes Tartarus and a couple of Bane Warriors. Erebus, Black Ogrun Boarding Party and some operational Mechanithralls kill all but one Bane Rider.

Necrotech and warjacks on the right score two points.

But then, uh.

I've been playing Malifaux a lot lately, and this was a good reminder how the survivability of models is NOT the same here. Also I thought that opponent might get some Bane Warriors to my warcaster, but not some Bane Warriors and a fully loaded Kraken since "screen" of Mechanithralls was entirely and completely ignorable thanks to apparition on Banes and 4" reach on Kraken.

So... game over for Venethrax.

New Season of Absurd

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Corner Guard the Stash

Scheme pool: Catch & Release, Public Demonstration, Assassinate, Breakthrough, In Your Face

My list:

Seamus2 & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle with Grave Spirit Touch
Bete Noire
Dead Doxy with Killer Instinct
Bone Pile
Mourner
Gravedigger

Stones: 5
Schemes: Catch & Release (Bone Pile), Assassinate

Opponent had:

Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
3x Illuminated

Stones: 3
Schemes: Catch & Release (one of the Illuminated), Assassinate

Turn 1:

Since deployment was corner and neither of us had exceedingly fast crews, first turn consisted mostly of positioning. 

Highest card I had in my hand was a seven. I still wanted to try to summon with Seamus, so he punched Madame Sybelle with his bouquet, and managed to land a moderate wound on his henchman with three negative cards... and then proceeded to fail the summon, although I considered I had a pretty good chance of drawing at least an eight with two cards when I tried to summon Rotten Belle. And highest card I had in my hand was a seven, so it was extra insulting that I could have summoned at least a Dandy. Oh well.

I sent Gravedigger to reach strategy on bottom-left. Bete Noire and Mourner were hanging near the middle-left marker behind a building. Ten Thunders had been slow to start their journey, only one Illuminated was within walk distance of middle-left marker. Kitty was behind it.

Madame Sybelle and Dead Doxy were hampered by forest terrain in the middle as they were closing in on middle-right strategy marker. They looked like they'd be facing two Illuminateds and Hungering Darkness, with Lynch and Mr. Graves not too far behind them. 

Bone Pile was stalking Hungering Darkness and Copycat Killer positioned himself so that Seamus had the option of going to top-right marker. 

Turn 2:

Second turn was hilarious in a way - it just might have been my unluckiest turn so far in Malifaux! Fortunately opponent didn't do that well either.

Seamus did succeed to summon a Dead Doxy, though. Undivided Attention from Madame Sybelle, Scarlet Temptaion from Dead Doxy and Urban Legend from Seamus at least made it hell for opponent to do anything constructive in the middle melee. Hungering Darkness and two Illuminated were raining death on Madame, but at the end of turn she was still standing with seven health thanks to some stones, regeneration and healing from Bone Pile.

But the only damage to Hungering Darkness came from Urban Legend.

Gravedigger went to control bottom-left marker, but Kitty came to contest. Mourner had to take two walk actions to go to control middle-left marker because she was just pixels away from getting within 2" of the marker with one walk. Gwyneth came to contest.

Seeing as there were four models opponent had within 2" of middle-right marker, Seamus opted out of the business with Copycat Killer and went to control top-right marker instead. Bone Pile, my Catch & Releaser, engaged Hungering Darkness. But also Ten Thunders scored Catch & Release with Illuminated engaging Sybelle.

Scores go 2-2.

Turn 3:

Resurrectionists win initiative, which means Madame Sybelle and Undivided Attention. She kills opponent's Catch & Release piece. Then Hungering Darkness activates and fails attacks against Bone Pile. It takes another swing and kills my Catch & Release piece with Red Joker on damage. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Since Hungering Darkness activated so early, I decide to kill it now. Seamus charges the beast and fails his entire activation, doing absolutely nothing at all except for Urban Legend.

But killing Lynch's totem was very much a possibility. I really got the distraction machine going, and it was actually a hideous combo I managed to pull off. Dead Doxies took Hungering Darkness "by the hand" while Scarlet Temptation denied Hungering Darkness from cheating, moved it a bit while engaged by Seamus and Madame (meaning unresisted Distracted +1 and a melee attack from Seamus), then Seamus hitting and declaring Bloody Display, pushing Huggy within his own melee range and 1" of Sybelle... 

There were a few annoying failures in the process and Hungering Darkness still didn't die. Although it took all stones opponent had to keep it on board.

Mr. Graves took some interest on Seamus and introduced the master to his fencepost. This took all of my stones and still damaged Seamus for five. Doxy with Killer Instinct was later able to turn the remains of Bone Pile into a soulstone.

Illuminated deals severe damage to Bete Noire with just one attack, so it was time to Fade Away. But then it is free to charge Gravedigger down to two health remaining. I manage to escape with Accidental Roll Over, and as Kitty left bottom-left strategy marker, Gravedigger was able to use Deadly Pursuit to go and control it. 

Kitty, Gwyneth and Lynch bring Mourner down to one health. 

Bete Noire pops up from a corpse Gravedigger had created after accidental roll over, charges Lynch and scores me Assassinate.

Scores go 3-4 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Ten Thunders wins initiative, and activates Hungering Darkness and heals back to seven health. At least this made it possible for Bete Noire to kill Lynch, who goes down with just one attack. Bete Noire takes second action to bring herself to control bottom-right marker.

Mr. Graves takes unhealthy interest over Seamus again, but thanks to a lucky damage block Seamus still has enough health not to be considered half-assassinated. 

Illuminated on bottom-left kills Gravedigger and controls the strategy marker.

Kitty Dumont kills Mourner and controls middle-left marker. Illuminated in middle kills Madame Sybelle, and Gwyneth tries to kill Bete Noire, failing at that.

Then. It is quite rare that five absolutely crucial duels work in your favor.

There were Illuminated, Mr. Graves and Hungering Darkness contesting middle-right marker and situation was that even if I had all of my models within 2" of the marker, I still wouldn't control it. I only had Doxy, Bete Noire and Seamus alive that were relevant to the scenario. Summoned Doxy and insignificant totem weren't much of a help.

But eventually an absurd plan started to unfold.

Seamus amputates Copycat Killer - check.
Seamus summons Rotten Belle without soulstones or required cards in hand - check.
Seamus succeeds in Urban Legend - check.
Summoned Doxy charges Illuminated so that Hungering Darkness is again under Scarlet Temptaion - check. 
Take By the Hand on Illuminated works - check.
Summoned Belle manages to lure Mr. Graves away from strategy marker - check.
Dead Doxy with Killer Instinct Takes By the Hand Hungering Darkness and pushes it away from marker - BLACK JOKER.

So that was it, then. Or?

Dead Doxy starts to cane Hungering Darkness and first attack deals weak damage and gives Distracted +1. Second attack gets Red Joker for damage. Caning Hungering Darkness dead certainly was less elegant way to solve the problem, but it somehow it worked. So yeah, I lucked out there.

We did not play fifth round, since I got a strategy this turn while opponent did not and could not reveal scheme, so scores went to 3-5. 

If opponent scored strategy and gets a point from scheme, scores would still go 5-6 as I had secured Assassinate. 

Undivided Distraction

 A 35ss game of Malifaux with a starting player.

Strategy: Standard Turf War

Scheme pool: Dig Their Graves, Vendetta, Breakthrough, Search the Ruins, Harness the Ley Lines

My list:

Madame Sybelle & Carrion Effigy
Mortimer
2x Rotten Belle
Bone Pile (vendetta on Angelica Durand)
Jaakuna Ubume

Stones: 2

Schemes: Dig Their Graves, Vendetta

Opponent had:

Colette Dubois & Doves
Cassandra Felton
Angelica Durand
Coryphee
Mannequin
2x Showgirl

Stones: 0

Schemes: Dig Their Graves, Search the Ruins

Turn 1:

Rotten Belles took the strategy markers on my table half, while a Showgirl and a Mannequin did the same on the other side.

Jaakuna Ubume and Madame Sybelle try to make a scary aura fortress but as of turn one it accomplishes little.

Angelica and Cassandra push Coryphee around, who then charges Bone Pile and engages Rotten Belle. It punched Bone Pile, like, real hard and brought it down to one health remaining. This was not ideal situation as Bone Pile had vendetta on Angelica... not to mention that Coryphee was less than 2" away from my strategy marker and able to walk on and off melee as it pleased. 

Mortimer had started spewing out corpses to act as homing beacons for Bone Pile. Then we misplayed Presto-Chango and ended up with Colette within one walk away from my deployment zone and Mortimer on roof of the factory in the middle.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists win initiative so Bone Pile was saved. 

I bring Jaakuna Ubume to discourage Colette from starting to spam her abilities in my backline. Well, se didn't spam her abilities in my backline. She walked deep into my deployment zone and started interacting. Rotten Belle was buried with a sword trick.

Coryphee brings a Rotten Belle down to one health remaining, and most of my remaining activations from then on were spent on raining attacks on Coryphee. Madame Sybelle and both Rotten Belles finally managed to bring down the dancer - well, at least partially, since there still was this Mannequin around.

Mortimer slaps dead one dove on top of the building and digs up a zombie. I don't know, maybe it was suck on the chimney or something? 

Effigy comes and takes a shot at Angelica Durand. It was a couple of points of damage, but Angelica had flipped masks. Effigy was transported right into melee with Angelica and was quickly greeted by both a Mannequin and a Mechanical Dove that pecked it down to one health with a red joker.

So, second turn was nearing end and I had three of my models at one health remaining.

Scores go 1-1.

Turn 3:

Jaakuna Ubume leaves Colette to her own devices and relocates to catch Cassandra, Angelica and Mannequin within her drowning aura. Angelica had managed to activate before that and kill Carrion Effigy, scoring Dig Their Graves.

Mindless Zombie jumped down from the building, nearly getting killed in the process. Bone Pile re-emerges from it and charges Angelica Durand. It managed to score me vendetta, but didn't quite survive a furious attack by Mechanical Dove. No end condition for Vendetta for me now.

People and former people are also dying left and right around Madame Sybelle. Mannequin had died, Rotten Belle had died, and finally Showgirl died to Madame Sybelle, scoring Dig Their Graves for me. 

So, both players score both of their schemes when Colette spawns a few additional scheme markers on my deployment zone, but reveals Search the Ruins instead of Breakthrough. Arcanists also have two strategy markers whereas Resurrectionists sport only one, so scores go 4-3 for Arcanists.

Turn 4:

Mannequin in the middle is blasted off from board, or perhaps drowned off, by Jaakuna. I flip one of the farthest strategy markers neutral, which also takes Cassandra out of action in a way.

Angelica moves away from drowning aura to place scheme markers. This opens up way for Madame Sybelle walk to middle marker and interact it twice. Last remaining Rotten Belle also gets one strategy marker after Colette had interacted one of my first strategy markers neutral.

Mortimer slogs towards Arcanists' strategy marker behind the industrial tower and takes a random charge against Showgirl, not doing anything.

Resurrectionists score second point from strategy, evening out scores to 4-4.

Turn 5:

Neither player manages to wrestle third point from Turf War. Arcanists spawn enough scheme markers to get end condition of Search the Ruins and Resurrectionists do the same for Dig Their Graves. Game is decided with the last activation made by Cassandra, who removes one Resurrectionist scheme. Suddenly there was not enough graves. 5-4 for Arcanists.

Remember Dismember

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Flank Symbols of Authority

Scheme pool: Breakthrough, Vendetta, Claim Jump, Hidden Martyrs, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Dr. McMourning & Zombie Chihuahua Mortimer (Vendetta on Samurai) Rogue Necromancy Rafkin (Martyr) Kentauroi 3x Canine Remains (one of them martyr)

Stones: 7

Schemes: Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs

Opponent had:

Asami Tanaka & Amanjaku Ama No Zako Fuhatsu (Martyr) Jorogumo (Claim Jump) Samurai Tengu (Martyr) Akaname

Stones: 6

Schemes: Claim Jump, Hidden Martyrs

Turn 1:

When deploying, I kind of noticed how most of my models were tied to each other somehow. All perverse metabolists obviously wanted to be near Rafkin except perhaps for the Canine Remains, but they on the other hand were required to move corpse tokens around. So, I had one giant blob of Resurrectionists on a strategy where objectives were spread near and far.

In addition, the start was real slow for my crew. First, Rafkin had to activate and spam Poison around.

Next Mortimer activated and did a corpse, and I erroneously beat Rogue Necromancy with dismember, which is enemy only trigger. I blame amputation trigger for this, which is fairly similar but works on friendlies too. After these two activations I had used over half of my deck, and had two cards in hand remaining. Must be some kind of a record here.

Asami had summoned an Obsidian Oni, and I was all too familiar with what they could do to a tight formation. Thus, I took care of it with

Kentauroi and Rogue Necromancy, the latter of which got a lucky Pouncing Strike and went to engage Jorogumo and Asami.

But, as Mortimer had already beaten up Rogue Necromancy, and there was an Oni explosion and even a dark bargained attack against my 10-point beater, I was suddenly looking at two of my 50mm based models in middle of board nearing death, with Rogue Necromancy at one health.

My plan of getting Dr. McMourning in some relevant place and summoning a Flesh Construct there would just work even if it had been legal. Fortunately this mistake at least had McMourning entirely waste two of his action points in moving forth, then healing Rogue Necromancy with blood poisoning, moving back to summon a Flesh Construct, which also failed to accomplish anything.

Kentauroi was blasted away by either Samurai or Fuhatsu, which was unfortunate as the mobility of my list just went down a few notches too many. I had considered keeping McMourning as a sort of cruise missile to anywhere needed, and Ride With Me would've been a necessity for that.

Canine Remains tried to keep their heads low from enemy shooting, except for the hidden martyr that was reasonably visible to perhaps eat away an enemy activation while giving me a point.

Turn 2:

Since Ten Thunders won initiative, I lost Rogue Necromancy without a fight.

Amanjaku had blocked the strategy marker I had been aiming to get this turn. Flesh Construct tried to take care of that, but failed while a Canine Remains succeeded. But then Asami just summoned a Jorogumo to block that place, like, forever, for at least this turn.

The Jorogumo kills the wrong puppy for me.

Zombie Chihuahua had tried to go and hopefully delay enemy models from scoring strategies. That didn't work out when Ama No Zako killed it with one strike, walked and took a strategy marker anyway.

Rafkin doesn't do anything useful, and while Dr. McMourning did summon additional Flesh Construct, it took once more two action points to even get into position. That Flesh Construct was of exceptional quality, however, when it took down what was left of Jorogumo in the middle with one strike, charged Akaname and killed that too. Little did I know it back then, but Jorogumo had been the Claim Jumper.

Scores go 1-0 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 3:

Samurai charges my hidden martyr dog and kills it. Then I spend quite a few activations in grinding through Samurai's ungodly Armor +2, and get within threshold for Mortimer to get his vendetta. Which he did.

Dr. McMourning took a strategy marker and charged into melee with both Asami and Fuhatsu. This didn't work as planned when Fuhatsu managed to stun Dr. McMourning and push him away from catalyst range.

Flesh Construct tried to attack Asami, and she did get to around two health remaining. Then she just left the melee, ate three markers to heal for six and walked to middle. ThereAsami summoned... was it Akaname? And Tengu to engage Rafkin and last remaining Remains. Canine Remains surprised everyone when it took Akaname down with just one critical striking bite. Tengu flew away from the scene, and Rafkin was free to try to come and kill Samurai, failing at that.

So I had Mortimer and Rafkin almost in base contact with each other and Samurai there with like two hit points or so. Two strategy markers too in the close vicinity of the melee.

Ama No Zako took a strategy marker, and scores went 2-3 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

I think it was Resurrectionists that won the initiative, because taking down Samurai succeeded without that much of a hassle.

Dr. McMourning chooses to take strategy marker instead of contributing to fight. Being stunned ain't nice with such a damage track that relies on critical strike to deal with the likes of Fuhatsu.

Ama No Zako and summoned Tengu go and take third strategy marker. Asami summons a Jorogumo that kills Rafkin.

Flesh Construct finishes Asami and comes to engage the summoned Jorogumo.

Turn 5:

Last turn Dr. McMourning went and scored third Symbol, and remainder of my resources went into keeping Mortimer alive.

One of the Jorogumos also failed to kill a Mindless Zombie that was summoned last turn with one strike, so it couldn't lend its spear to damaging Mortimer.

Fate was on my side this time, when I ran Flesh Construct to engage Ama No Zako. Fuhatsu then shot the Construct, who flipped black joker. This was second time when I black jokered an action that opponent wanted to fail. Second try worked better, and Ama No Zako was free to remove my Vendetta model. But it was not to be.

Tengu took last strategy marker from my side, and scores went 4-6 for Resurrectionists.

The cactus that decided a game

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Break the Line

Schemes: Research Mission, Detonate Charges, Breakthrough, Bait &  Switch, Death Beds

My list:

Molly2 & Necrotic Machine
Archie
Noxious Nephilim
Forgotten Marshal
2x Crooligan
Gravedigger
Bone Pile

Stones: 3

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Breakthrough

Opponent had:

Pandora2 & Poltergeist
Klaus Norwood
Candy
Iggy
Hooded Rider
2x Sorrow

Stones: 7

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Breakthrough

Turn 1

Gravedigger used Blasphemous Ritual to put some focus over the blob of Necrotic Machine, Noxious Nephilim, Molly and Archie. I had deployed a Crooligan right next to strategy marker on left. Iggy came to tie up that flank, not doing much damage. Same happened on the right with another Crooligan and a Sorrow, except this time Crooligan took some damage and got Stunned. Pandora activated and summoned an Aversion, replacing the Slow with Fast.

Crooligan didn't want to take another beating from a three-AP model, so it teleported to Molly.

Forgotten Marshal summoned a Night Terror and took a shot against Poltergeist that was hanging around in the middle forest. For fun and profit the damage flip was Severe even with negatives. 

This was my first game I had Archie on board. He activated, took a parade, leaped to strategy marker, interacted and charged the Poltergeist dead. This was rather risky since Hooded Rider had not activated yet. 

Then I activate Molly, and move Archie even further to the Rider and interact with strategy marker again. I got so carried away doing these movement shenanigans that I actually brought Archie away from Molly's Remember the Lost aura. Well played. Fortunately opponent wasn't able to kill Archie. Noxious Nephilim used Bring It on Archie, but sadly only after Hooded Rider had activated. 

Candy somehow arrived in the middle of my crew, getting Noxious Nephilim, Molly, Croolihan and Necrotic Machine to that annoying aura of hers. Necrotic Machine tried to poke two Poisons on Candy to at least deny her triggers next turn. It got only one in, though.

Turn 2

Neverborn wins initiative, so it was time to say farewell for Archie. 

The Night Terror that was summoned earlier took a casual 8" move with Molly, walked and interacted to enemy deployment zone. Sorrow came to block my rather apparent attempt to get Breakthrough. Then Iggy somehow completely failed at its three AP activation to kill Crooligan. Crooligan slaps Iggy dead with just one attack, so it was still able to interact the marker to opponents side. 

Bone Pile buried itself.

Pandora nearly kills Gravedigger and turned it into a hazardous terrain. Then she brings another Poltergeist on board. Noxious Nephilim charges it for a couple points of damage.

Forgotten Marshal moves and interacts a strategy marker, plus summoned another Night Terror. Night Terror charged Hooded Rider and triggered "you're coming with me", bringing Rider further away from middle for no reason.

Crooligans and Aversions and Mollies, Klauses and whatnot were playing football in the middle with the end result of my having three marker past centerline, while Pandora was next to one strategy marker that was still on center line.

Molly had dropped a scheme marker near Candy, and Necrotic Machine scored me Detonate Charges on Candy with Ceaseless Advance. 

Score of 2-0 for Resurrectionists looked promising, although the actual situation on board was so-and-so.

Turn 3

Well, uh. 

Then I saw a turn that is probably one of the most devastating turns I have had to suffer in Malifaux.

Sorrow kills Night Terror in enemy deployment zone. Gravedigger and Necrotic Machine die to whatever, Necrotic Machine just from activating. A Crooligan tosses a strategy marker a bit, and another Crooligan teleports to Molly and charges Hooded Rider in an attempt to buy a chance for Bone Pile to appear nearby and go to score Breakthrough.

Then Hooded Rider activates and kills both Crooligans with just its bonus action. And game had looked so good just a while ago...

Noxious Nephilim kills Poltergeist and tries to tie Sorrow in melee.

So... Opponent scores Detonate Charges, Breakthrough and Strategy, and I had four models left. At least I got strategy and Breakthrough as well, so I was still in lead with 4-3.

Turn 4

My crew is overrun completely. Noxious Nephilim died to a freaking Sorrow. Forgotten Marshal is down to one health remaining. Molly dies, but only after she went to toss a strategy marker back to enemy side. 

Forgotten Marshal puts Hooded Rider into pine box just for giggles.

Bone Pile buries itself, so at the end of round I got only one model with one hit point on board. Not ideal.

Still, situation wasn't entirely hopeless. Opponent had failed to bring a second strategy marker to my side, and I still had three of those.

Scores: 5-3 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5

Candy, Pandora and Sorrow lay like five scheme markers on my deployment area. 

Forgotten Marshal runs to a cactus and dies, so opponent wouldn't be able to score Detonate Charges. But I can't stop opponent from getting strategy markers to my side as I now only had one (1) model left.

Neverborn scores Breakthrough and strategy, and game ends in close fought draw 5-5.