Chilled Rat Cubes

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Covert Operation

Schemes: Breakthrough, Catch and Release, Set the Trap, Load 'Em Up, Vendetta

My list:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Mad Dog Brackett
Obedient Wretch
Prospector
Catalan Rifleman
Malifaux Rat

Pool: 5
Schemes: Set the Trap, Vendetta (Nix on Blessed of December)

Opponent had:

Rasputina & Wendigo
Blessed of December
Arcane Effigy
Ice Golem with Soulstone Cache
Ice Dancer with Magical Training
2x Silent Ones

Pool: 6
Schemes: Breakthrough, Load 'Em Up (Ice Pillar)

Turn 1:

Catalan Rifleman, Obedient Wretch and Prospector put scheme markers for Benny as fast as possible, because I was afraid of Rasputina shooting my rats dead before they would be able to form a Rat King.

Fortunately opponent wasn't too concerned with emerging scheme markers and Benny was able to make a Rat King just fine. However, it was then when Rasputina just shot Rat King off the board with two blast attacks, damaging Mad Dog Brackett and Benny Wolcomb quite a bit in the process. 

The mentioned gang was traveling south on the left side of my deployment zone, slowly as ever.

Hamelin and Prospector were greeted by the Ice Golem in the middle, and Prospector was left alive mostly because opponent forgot about flurry. Ice golem was the only Arcanist model past center line.

Blessed of December went to top corner marker, so Nix sniffed in its general direction and went to close in for vendetta.

Ice Dancer was going for bottom corner marker. Silent One and Arcane Effigy were somewhere getting to center-right strategy marker while Wendigo, Rasputina and another Silent One were sitting in their deployment zone. 

Mad Dog Brackett destroying an Ice Pillar, there were still five of them when turn ended.

Turn 2:

Outcasts won initiative, so Prospector put a scheme marker with bonus action and disengaged from Ice Golem. Now the thing was at least in hazardous terrain. 

Almost the entirety of my turn could be summarized as: I tried to kill the Ice Golem.

All the Stolen vomited on it, Hamelin moved it a bit in hazardous terrain, Mad Dog Bracket shot it with armor piercing rounds, Catalan Rifleman shot it. Benny only tried to use Swarm Them on it before going to a little better position for future scoring.

Sure, Silent Ones kept healing the thing, but still that was egregious amount of resources needed to kill an enforcer, especially when you take into account how much it stalled my advance.

But finally, as the very last activation for me, Obedient Wretch tossed a rat on the golem and down it went. 

The kill came with a cost, however. Nix had tried to go and bite Blessed of December. But Blessed had the two inch push built into its melee, so my strategy points looked grim. Nix used a focus point and three soulstones in defending against the attacks, but still Blessed landed a hit. However, it didn't push Nix away from strategy marker range and came to engage the spectral hound instead, while Ice Dancer tagged bottom corner strategy marker.

Killing Ice Golem sure gave me some hope, but still the situation was tad oppressive.  I managed to keep the amount of ice pillars steady, but it took a lot of action points. Malifau Rats and Stolen are good for the job, though, unless the kids need to puke on something.

Anyway, scores went 0-1 for Arcanists.

Turn 3:

Nix managed to beat the heck out of Blessed of December and possibly might have even killed it if not for their vendetta. The target leapt into safety and let them both score top corner marker.

Prospector is finally killed by a Arcane Effigy. 

And my crew? Well, most of the action points for me this turn went into dealing with ice pillars. Ice Dancer started speeding towards my deployment zone from the left with a screen of ice pillars. Mad Dog Brackett had to remove those so that Obedient Wretch was able to walk and place a scheme marker next to Ice Dancer. 

Catalan Rifleman dropped a scheme to give Benny Wolcomb fast, who later took a double walk to place a scheme near Wendigo and a Silent One. 

Hamelin had a bit of a useless activation when I misplayed Obey - apparently Obey makes enemy scheme markers. So instead he walked Arcane Effigy into hazardous terrain. There were also some Eyes in the Walls of an ice pillar. Even those got rats inside of them!

So, points went 3-3 when both players got strategy, Outcasts both their schemes and Arcanists Load 'Em Up.

Turn 4:

Blessed of December goes to place a scheme marker on my deployment zone. Scary fast model, that one. But Bleeding Disease also has a scary range, and with two tries Nix is able to kill the vendetta target.

Rasputina staggers and slows the entire bunch of Mad Dog Brackett, Catalan Rifleman and Obedient Wretch. Mad Dog had already activated. He had tried to remove Ice Dancer, but that didn't go as planned. Instead, Ice Dancer moves into my deployment zone and places a scheme marker, with four Ice Pillars worth of LoS block. One was removed by Stolen, but still the dancer was unassailable.

Benny tried to beat Wendigo, not succeeding. 

Hamelin managed to move a Silent One away from center-right marker. Benny was the one who actually scored strategy that turn, as he could engage Wendigo but Wendigo not him. 

Scores stay even 4-4, as Outcasts score strategy and Arcanists get Breakthrough.

Turn 5:

Benny was as useless a fighter as ever, and still couldn't remove Wendigo. Rasputina on the other hand was almost able to push Wendigo to my deployment zone. Stolen tried to come and engage it but frantic flailing is frantic flailing. At least sniper rifle was far more effective, and killed Wendigo before it could place third scheme marker for Breakthrough end condition.

Obedient Wretch had ran to bottom-corner strategy marker.

Ice Dancer had placed the second Breakthrough marker and was screened by a wall of ice. Mad Dog could have blown it to hell, but what was the use because she had already activated?

Rasputina placed three ice pillars near herself, but Hamelin was able to land a zero damage Bleeding Disease on her with soulstone bought Music in the Air, thus denying Load 'Em Up.

Nix was alive, Blessed was not.

Scores jumped to 6-4 for Outcasts. 

That amount of ice pillars was just crazy. I was lucky to have picked the piper Hamelin, as now at least I had the action points and actions to remove them - and still there were twelve of them on board when game ended.