Hemophobia

 A 50ss game of Malifaux. 

Strategy: Wedge Covert Operation

Schemes: Catch and Release, Leave Your Mark, Sabotage, Set the Trap, Spread Them Out

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Jaakuna Ubume
Johan Creedy
Hanged
Crooked Man with Servant of Dark Powers
Prospector

Pool: 3
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Set the Trap

Opponent had:

Nekima, Broodmother & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
Mature Nephilim
2x Young Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot

Pool: 7
Schemes: Sabotage, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Somehow it just seems that Jaakuna Ubume is destined for turn 1 alpha strikes for me. Fortunately this time around she was still alive after turn ended. She didn't take damage, but gave three points to Mature Nephilim from just standing there. 

Main body of both crews were closing in the middle. I had Jaakuna, Crooked Man, Lady Ligeia, Montresor and Jack Daw there, with Hanged going north and Prospector south. Johan Creedy was just trying to stay relevant whether he was needed south or in the middle.

Jack Daw managed to land his curse on Mature Nephilim.

One Young Nephilim was going to south marker, the Mature was engaging Jaakuna Ubume and remaining Neverborn crew was near the middle with a suspicious lookin scheme marker within 1" of the centerpoint already. Terror Tot had grown to become a Lilitu. 

Turn 2:

Montresor makes a sub-par activation by walking twice to get Mature Nephilim within 6". At least he scored crows for his bonus and dealt a couple of points more to Mature. 

Mature then activates, charges and scores shove aside attack from Crooked Man. Other attacks went into beating Montresor.

Crooked Man was now pretty much facing Nekima, Black Blood Shaman, Lilitu and Young Nephilim all alone while already injured, so he activated to at least get an activation. Earthquake didn't roll out, but Malifaux Mining Law got the trigger to remove enemy schemes within 3" and place one of his own.

I have to tip my hat to Crooked Man's survivability, though. Lilitu, Nekima, Hayreddin and Young Nephilim all spent a good portion of their action points to remove him. Rest in peace, Crooky. 

Things didn't turn out that well for me with Mature Nephilim, though, who had been healed a little by Nekima and his own regeneration.

Jack Daw tried to shoot some curse upgrades to enemy models in the middle, but used remaining attacks on Mature, missing his big attack with Rams bought in with a stone. One attack dealt a bit damage, but so it did to Jack and Montresor, too. 

Johan Creedy just kept missing, and the only additional damage that turn came from Jaakuna managing to lure Mature Nephilim into her drowning aura. 

Hanged scored north marker and planted a scheme. Prospector had placed a scheme marker also, but wasn't able to claim because Young Nephilim charged and dealt some four damage to him.

Both players get strategy and Outcasts also manage Spread Them Out, for 1-2 lead.

Turn 3:

Montresor managed to kill Mature Nephilim which was a little surprising, and Young Nephilim killed Prospector which wasn't all that surprising. It essentially needed to fail its actions twice. 

Johan was sacrificed for some distraction, charging to Black Blood Shaman that had five boxes remaining, engaging Nekima in the process. Didn't kill, though. Black Blood Shaman failed its attacks back, which still meant some damage.

Nekima walks and kills poor Johan with blade and a black blood from a friendly model. Then she charges Montresor, engaging both Jaakuna and him. 

In the middle there was nice blob of enemy models for a devious trap that I had set. To discourage enemy models from leaving, Hanged placed a scheme up north, walked and launched itself to middle with Horrifying Whispers and proper triggers. 

Lilitu disengaged and tried to lure Hanged away but failed. I was planning to put a scheme near Nekima with Jaakuna and a few nephilim in the middle with Jack. But first Lady Ligeia had to position herself for Drawn to Betrayal. 

GASP -moment was when Young Nephilim in melee with Hanged slapped a Red Joker in Hanged's face on damage. Damage block was a healthy "1". 

I was spending all my soulstones to save him from black bloods and whatnot. I was thinking that if he'd still be at two health remaining when Blood Hunter activates, he'd be safe.

Well, not. Because of stampede. 

So that was Hanged and Johan down the very same turn. Not ideal, but at least Jack Daw moved Jaakuna and succeeded to place a scheme marker to catch Lilitu, Black Blood Shaman and Young Nephilim within 2" for Set the Trap. Jaakuna was then able to move to claim southern strategy marker and concentrate.

Hayreddin had moved close to the building, so that was sabotage all but confirmed there.

Both players scored strategy and Outcasts their second scheme for 2-4 lead.

Turn 4:

Jaakuna Ubume places a scheme marker and charges Young Nephilim. It is left with one or two health remaining and skips its activation because of that.

Jack Daw is able to charge Black Blood Shaman and kill it with two strikes, and is then free to interact a scheme marker over 10" from Jaakuna's scheme. 

Young Nephilim in the middle and Blood Hunter kills Jack Daw by failing at everything. To add insult to injury, the killing blow was dealt by Blood Hunter, the insignificant totem. 

Nekima savagely mauls Montresor and procs his Demise, but doesn't kill. Lady Ligeia tries to blast Blood Hunter and Young Nephilim first with focus, and later again with Montresor's help. But Black Joker, that had been popping up every turn for me foiled one Cursed To Watch action, so she didn't have focus to yell real loud. 

Hayreddin secures Sabotage, and Outcasts no longer had a deny-able scheme marker in the middle, so Neverborn also got Leave Your Mark. Neither player got strategy this round, so scores went even 4-4.

Turn 5:

Outcasts had +3 to their initiative flips from pass tokens, so Lady Ligeia was able to activate first and quickly run to engage Blood Hunter and Young Nephilim.

I started using pass tokens. Nekima procs Montresor's demise once more, and still doesn't kill. 

However, I didn't dare to just empty my tokens because I was afraid that Young Nephilim below might kill Jaakuna Ubume. Hayreddin had ran to northern strategy marker. Young Nephilim and Hayreddin had only been able to secure Sabotage end condition, so I made a gambit to pull Montresor out of melee with Nekima.

Blood Hunter immediately attacked him, dealing a point of damage.

Whatever the case, I needed to wait Young Nephilim's at Jaakuna's activation first so that it wouldn't just come and engage Montresor. 

Well, it did and blocked Montresor's path to the strategy marker and managed to deal one point of damage - now Montresor was at one health remaining, with demise procced twice during game. 

Since Montresor can't ignore severe terrain and he couldn't kill anything (he'd die even if he managed it) so it was game over.

Outcasts got Spread Them Out end condition, Neverborn Sabotage end and strategy for 5-6 win for Neverborn.