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.