Battle of the Upgrades

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Covert Operations

Schemes: Assassinate, Catch and Release, Sabotage, Hidden Martyrs, Secret Meetup

My list:

Dr. McMourning, Insanitary & Zombie Chihuahua
Rogue Necromancy
Rafkin
Corpse Curator
Kentauroi
Nurse
2x Canine Remains

Pool: 6
Schemes: Assassinate, Sabotage (House in enemy deployment)

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Jessie Halliday
Rough Rider
Cryptologist
3x Ruffian

Pool: 6
Schemes: Assassinate, Secret Meetup (Cryptologist & Rafkin and box pile in the middle-left.)

Turn 1:

McCabe advanced in a strict line formation in the middle, I don't think I've seen such a straight-ish line in Malifaux before. It was Ruffian, then Lucas-Jessie-Cryptologist-Luna in almost base contact conga-line, two Ruffians, Sidir and Rough Rider. 

Luna dug up a scrap marker which Lucas turned into Timeworn Blade for Sidir. Most opponent's models were raining lead on Kentauroi, which caused it to lose its extra legs - a sacrifice I wouldn't have had to make!

Resurrectionists started slow with Rafkin spewing Poison all over the place and then Canine Remains wreaking havoc on Corpse Curator for corpse markers. McMourning used Desperate Plot on Rogue Necromancy (no upgrades), Kentauroi (legs) and Corpse Curator (legs). McMourning also tried to craft projectile vomit on Zombie Chihuahua, but failed.

Unfortunately Sidir had managed to land Slow on Kentauroi, and I had to use Ride With Me instead of Shrug-off to get McMourning away from the place called Stuck. 

Catalyst from Rafkin, Nurse and Perverse Metabolism had Kentauroi at full health when turn ended and I regretted giving up on extra legs so easily... but that's what hindsight tends to do.

Rogue Necromancy and Zombie Chihuahua take a walk behind my building to form up a formidable rightmost flank. Rogue Necromancy even tried to puke over the enormous gathering of wastrels, but didn't get a hit.

Kentauroi takes a charge at a Ruffian and killed it with Rear Up trigger.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists won initiative, so Kentauroi charged Lucas McCabe. Both hits landed and dealt respectable damage, but Lucas used a stone to block three damage out of the six. Another Rear Up was nothing to write to blog about. But, Lucas also received poison +2 from a lucky crows. 

Lucas then did seven damage with three attack, gaining three more poison.

Zombie Chihuahua runs to engage Sidir and tries Blood Poisoning on Kentauroi, obviously failing at that. Opponent didn't prioritize killing Kentauroi, though, and instead dragged Sidir away from melee with Rough Rider and started shooting McMourning.

Nurse goes to heal Kentauroi but does that only for one, but at least she got tomes for Shielded +1. And even now opponent didn't take care of the horse and was shooting McMourning with Sidir instead. This lead me to suspect opponent might have Assassinate. Sidir also triggered Quick Reflexes and tried to shoot Zombie Chihuahua. At point blank range. With a machine gun.

McMourning then activates, pushes Rafkin a little forward with Desperate Plot, heals Kentauroi with bought trigger on Plastic Surgery, and then he took a double walk behind Rogue Necromancy. Looking back at that choice it was a horrible mistake to do. 

Luna and Cryptologist then whack Kentauroi dead.

A Canine Remains runs to engage a Ruffian that was looking suspiciously claimative. Another ran within 2" of  leftmost strategy marker. Both Ruffians shoot Nurse off the board, and had it not been for one Black Joker, Rafkin would have lobbed three formaldehydes over Jessie, Luna and Cryptologist. But only two happened. 

Rogue Necromancy takes an aimed vomit at Ruffian and scores moderate damage. That's even more poison, distracted and damage for Cryptobiologist and Jessie. 

Corpse Curator charged Luna and dealt two damage, enough to secure kill in the end phase. It also tried to attack Lucas through a corpse marker but failed the attack. And failed the Cursed Sludge, which I would've needed to claim marker with Corpse Curator...

Sidir had tossed Timeworn Blade first to Ruffian who was shooting Nurse, and Ruffian tossed it to Jessie, who came to shoot Corpse Curator with her harpoon. 

Both players score strategy, Resurrectionists with Canine Remains and Ten Thunders with Jessie. Ample poison on Lucas also gave Resurrectionists Assassinate for 2-1 scores.

Turn 3:

Resurrectionists wins initiative, so Corpse Curator activates before it dies to wreak maximum havoc annoyance before it curates itself. It fails to land a hit on Cryptobiologist, but does score moderate damage on McCabe even with two negative modifiers. But the most important thing was to get a Sludge marker below Cryptobiologist and Lucas.

Ruffian in the middle failed to kill Zombie Chihuahua, so to make itself even more annoying, the totem doggo activated Annoying and went to engage Sidir.

Rough Rider walked for a bit, then rode Cryptologist out of melee with Corpse Curator and healed the target for three. Then it shot Zombie Chihuahua dead. 

Jessie Halliday was only on three health remaining, so I wanted her dead. Rafkin charged, and since he had metallic arms, he was able to make three attacks - one of which hit - and dealt one damage after opponent used soulstone to block damage. Still two health remaining and Hard to Kill.

Jessie activated, so I discarded a card for Catalyst on Rafkin to trigger. Jessie failed to disengage, and did some archeological digging on my sludge marker instead. 

McMourning walked a bit forward and desperately plotted on Rogue Necromancy and Rafkin. Rafkin's hidden bombs dealt a point of damage on Cryptologist. Plastic Surgery gave the doctor a bit of poison before Sidir started to rain death on the master. Machine gun brought him down to six health, but he had enough poison to heal himself back to eight, so no Assassinate for Ten Thunders this round.

Canine Remains without claim token charged a Ruffian in the left, dealing no less than three points of damage. This prompted Ruffian to kill the second Canine Remains that had claim token and which had not activated yet.

Rogue Necromancy walks and ambushes forward to place a scheme marker near my sabotage target. It didn't feel good to use a ten point beater enforcer as a scheme runner, but you do what you gotta do.

Then a kind of a miracle happened, when Lucas failed to kill Corpse Curator with four attacks. He did remove Curator's extra leg and punch it down to two. I had been so certain I would lose the Curator especially when Lucas had Timeworn Blade. I guess I needed to figure out a new target for the pretty gravestone I had already carved.

Anyway, lastly Lucas rides with Cryptologist past Corpse Curator. Cryptologist beats Rafkin for a bit, most notably getting rid of his poison. And five health. 

Opponent had put everything into making sure Secret Meetup would trigger this turn. Well, everything except measuring how far Rafkin was from the terrain piece. To make matters worse, Ten Thunders had already claimed the strategy marker that he could have claimed this round, so it was a zero point turn for Lucas. McMourning got one from strategy, so scores went 3-1 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Sidir activates first and makes a couple devastating attacks at McMourning, bringing him down to three health remaining, and a trigger shot at Rogue Necromancy dealt six damage. Such a flip was certainly worrisome, but the thing had hard to kill at least. 

So, McMourning was more of a concern. He took a nudge walk to get within three corpse tokens, created a Flesh Construct and walked the heck out of there. Well, not out of 2" from strategy marker, though. Next?

Freaking Rough Rider shoots Rogue Necromancy. Terrifying? Nothing! Three negatives on damage flip from accuracy? Moderate on four cards! Which means only one health remaining. What is happening in here? Second shot, that's what happening, which scores a hit and kills Rogue Necromancy. 

I guess that Sidir and Rough Rider thought that "if you're acting like a 5-point scheme runner, we're going to act like you're a 5-point scheme runner, too!" Even Zombie Chihuahua survived more attempted attack actions than Rogue Necromancy.

So, there went at least one sabotage point. At least the pretty gravestone got a target.

Corpse Curator charged Lucas and managed to dismount him with a severe damage. Then it placed another sludge marker. Replacing the model removed Lucas from melee, so he walked for a bit, placed a scheme marker close to secret meetup terrain and shot Rafkin down to one health remaining.

Then something went wrong with the meetup. Rafkin killed Cryptologist.

Ruffian failed to kill Canine Remains, who then disengaged and took a bit at Lucas, even making a point of damage. Flesh Construct killed Rough Rider, and we called it a game. 

For last round, even in pure theory it was game over for Ten Thunders. Canine Remains denied strategy point for opponent. While Ten Thunders did score Assassinate, Resurrectionists got their third point from strategy for a total score of 4-2. Even in most unlikely circumstances scores would go 5-4.