Deep Satisfaction

 Had a couple of 50ss game of Malifaux. Both of us have been getting weary of Gaining Grounds season 3 - it's been going on for, what, fifteen months now? - so we decided to shake things up a little with season 1.

Strategy: Flank Symbols of Authority

Schemes: Vendetta, Leave Your Mark, Research Mission, Take Prisoner, Runic Binding

My list:

Hamelin with Servant of Dark Powers & 3x Stolen
Mad Dog Brackett
Benny Wolcomb
Nix
Disease Containment Unit
Prospector
Winged Plague

Pool: 4
Schemes: Research Mission, Vendetta (Benny and a Hunter)

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa
Peacekeeper
2x Hunter
Guild Mage
Riotbreaker

Pool: 2
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Vendetta (Peacekeeper and Mad Dog Brackett)

Turn 1:

Nix, Prospector, Disease Containment Unit and Winged Plague place the scheme markers for Benny's rats. I was afraid that various enemy long range shooters would be able to snipe off one of the rats, so I waited and waited until they activated - and surely enough Melissa almost killed the Winged Plague as she was speeding towards marker I had placed to bottom-right corner.

Guild Mage, Mechanical Attendant, Hoffman, Riot Breaker and Peacekeeper were stomping towards Plague in the middle. Benny's Vendetta Hunter was going to harass Mad Dog Brackett on left side of the board, and another was hiding behind the lower building on the right. 

I had a horrible hand, no card higher than seven, so Loyal Rats with Tiny Hats was a bit of a gamble. And once Benny failed the first attempt, I decided to buy an extra card with a soulstone. Lucky I did - would have failed without it!

Hamelin was then able to craft a Rat King out of the cute lil' rats, take a double walk and place a scheme for Mad Dog Brackett. He took Fast from it, and ran near top-left corner where there were two symbols of authority, and tossed Blasted Away at one of them.

Winged Plague charged Melissa with Hamelin's bonus action, missed but managed to give her a blight token with end phase movement trick.

Turn 2:

Benny's vendetta Hunter was barely able to charge Mad Dog Brackett, which pretty much tied Hamelin's hands for that round - the hound-cat-robot-thing needed to be lured off for Outcasts to get any strategy points this round.

Winged Plague Scraped a super tainted claw attack at Melissa. Since every other model than Mechanical Attendant would kill the Winged Plague with weak damage, I thought to try and slow down Melissa by making a scheme marker out of her blight tokens. In the end, opponent didn't take the bait, but at least it took both of Melissa's actions to kill the minion.

But, Hunter from behind a building emerged and claimed one of my strategy markers. Whoops. Didn't realize that was so easy.

Prospector became stunned and charged the Hunter, dealing random singular points of damage. 

Hoffman had overcharged proxied Peacekeeper, and went to telegraph Leave Your Mark by placing a scheme in the middle. 

Rat King gnawed it away and went to offer Diseased aura for Hoffman and proxied Riotbreaker in the pond. Unfortunately Riotbreaker and Guild Mage were able to kill the king. Also Peacekeeper landed its harpoon on Disease Containment Unit and charged it dead. 

Nix placed a scheme marker for Benny and walked to drink Peacekeeper's and Hunter's spirit. Only Peacekeeper had anything to drink.

Since most enemy models had now been activated, it was time to make my gambit for strategy points. Hamelin walked and lured Benny's Hunter away from Mad Dog Brackett. He charged it too, but attack failed to connect.

And there appears to be something going on with vomiting kids and Hunters... Two Stolen were able to inflict four points of damage on the Armor +2 minion with three attacks.

Benny was now free to get Fast from scheme marker that Nix had placed, took a double walk and shot the Hunter with his trusty derringer. Unfortunately he had no vomit bullets in his gun, and the attack missed. But he did score vendetta with his bonus action. Phew!

The Hunter still had two points of health left. Last kid activated, walked and took a vomit on the Hunter. Dead Hunter. So it is again one of these games, where insignificant totems are the main damage dealers? Who knows, maybe.

Mad Dog went to claim a strategy marker, bringing scores to 1-2 for Outcasts when opponent revealed no schemes.

Turn 3:

Hoffman didn't want to leave free reign for Hamelin at the western flank and went to charge him, dealing a couple of damage points. 

Prospector charge Hunter that had escaped his reach with deadly pursuit, chipping steadily through Hunter's plating one damage point at a time. 

Scary, scary Peacekeeper nearly killed Nix - and in return Nix wasn't even able to scratch the Peacekeeper even once to make it fail some duels. 

So, it was time to call in the kids for help. 

They started throwing up on Peacekeeper so aggressively that Guild Mage had to reposition itself to heal the big guy. Feverishly absurd, those damn kids. And thanks to them, Nix was back online.

Hamelin beat the heck out of Hoffman, but was not able to kill him. Neither were the only kid who attacked the guild master despite his injured +3. 

Mad Dog Brackett went to place a scheme near Blasted Away marker and strategy marker. Mechanical Attendant tried to shoot the bandit, but wasn't much of a nuisance.

Last but least, even Benny Wolcomb charged Hoffman, but could secure the last few points.

Riotbreaker had been able to place the scheme marker for Leave Your Mark without contest this time around, but so did Mad Dog reveal Research Mission. Melissa had been too far from my strategy marker, so neither player scored strategy points this turn. Scores went to 2-3 from schemes alone.

Board state looked really strong for Plague.

I had Benny quite far from other threats than Hoffman, so he'd be able to escape and run far from any- and everything next turn, thus guaranteeing a point for me. Nix might be able to screw Hunter over with Loose Bowels so that it would not be able to score strategy when that would be relevant. And Hunter wasn't that far from dying. And Hoffman himself was just about dead. Melissa wouldn't contribute to anything else than strategy point next turn.

Turn 4:

... and then, things just happened. What I love about this game is that the situation is rarely if ever as clear as it seems. Guild won the initiative, and Hoffman started to beat Benny. And surely enough, my end point from vendetta disappeared despite me having two soulstones to protect Benny. Well, my mistake for even putting Benny in a situation where bad luck would even be able to kill him. But sheesh... Hoffman is a grown up man in an exoskeleton, not a vomiting kid. He should not dish out damage like that.

Prospector goes to do his daily work of clipping a point of damage in to Hunter.

And then Peacekeeper clobbers Nix into oblivion. Two such unlikely deaths was... not ideal, to say at least. But at least Hoffman had spawned some rats around. Hamelin activated and started beating Hoffman, but somehow didn't manage to land even a single severe damage despite multiple attacks with plus modifiers for damage - injured +4 from first hit tends to do that. With last action Hamelin buys tomes with the soulstone Prospector had spawned, got an extra rat and formed a Rat King.

Kids had emptied their stomach, and somehow weren't able to do score the last damage point in to Hoffman. In the end that duty fell to newly formed Rat King, who happily obliged. 

Melissa took a strategy point and runned and gunned Prospector dead.

One of the kids had to go and charge Hunter now, and actually hit with frantic flailing. Hunter had two health remaining. But that started to look too much when Hunter killed the Stolen with one hit, and the resulting Malifaux Rat with another. 

Mad Dog Brackett took a strategy marker while Riotbreaker and Guild Mage were spawning scheme markers in the middle. 

Scores went to 3-4, still in favor of Plague, but how had the tables turned!

Turn 5:

Hunter went to take third strategy point, so there was little I could do to help that. So, instead, a frantic kid with frantic flails went to charge Peacekeeper instead in an attempt to stop if from placing a scheme marker. But let me tell you. Those heartless Peacekeepers don't care if there is a child on the spot where they need to plant a scheme marker. 

Opponent had Red Joker in hand, which was unfortunate because that way he was able to stun Mad Dog Brackett. I had had plans of taking scheme marker for Fast, then taking a double walk to get to another strategy marker and drop a Blasted Away marker with bonus action for Research Mission end condition. 

Eventhough Research Mission looked rather secured, I ultimately decided that a strategy point was 100% guaranteed if picked up. So Mad Dog ate the scheme marker anyway and charged Mechanical Attendant. Idea was that I might get Research Mission anyway from its scrap marker, but attack failed. Boo. But he did get the strategy marker. 

Another kid went to enemy table side and sacrificed itself to make a corpse marker... for science. Hamelin took a double walk and placed a scheme marker on top of the kid's corpse... for science.

Then he commanded the rat that had emerged from the kids body to charge Mechanical Attendant... for science. And look at that, the stat 3 attack hit and even got a Red Joker for damage. Shame that their damage track is 0/1/1 when alone, because that didn't change a thing. 

Guild Mage had quite a way with words, as he spoke Mad Dog Brackett dead, making all of Plague's efforts with science for naught. And to make it worse, it soon came into my attention that Peacekeeper was still very much alive, and had vendetta on Mad Dog Brackett.

Well, if I didn't get points from my scheme, then opponent wouldn't, either! Rat King gnawed one of the required scheme markers from Leave Your Mark, and that was the last consequential action for the game.

A rather exciting 5-5 draw!

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Recover Evidence

Schemes: Sabotage, Catch and Release, Take Prisoner, Leave Your Mark, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Jack Daw with Servant of Dark Powers & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Auguste Hart
Hanged with Servant of Dark Powers
Crooked Man
Drowned
Guilty

Pool: 4
Schemes: Sabotage (large cloud on bottom-left), Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Kara
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 2
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Guilty), Sabotage (a rock formation in top-right corner)

Turn 1:

Opponent picked left table edge for deployment.

Herald move enabled Jack Daw to walk to middle, plant a scheme and expose some suppressed memories for Mr. Graves. Lady Ligeia and Drowned had the ungrateful duty of removing some hazardous terrain markers from Montresor's way. The Guilty in electric chair had even more ungrateful duty of diving into water. But the keyword isn't Tormented for nothing, I guess.

Auguste Hart and Hanged were doing flanking maneuvers below. Hanged especially was horrified of Mr. Graves' fencepost, so it kept its distance until the bouncer was finally staggered. 

Kara, who had no intel token, was coming to greet Hanged and Auguste, so my sabotage didn't look so easy after all.

Hungering Darkness charged Jack Daw, and Montresor offered emotional support by charging Hungering Darkness back. Nobody was really doing anything in the melee. But the important bit was getting that sweet suffocation aura to center point.

Mr. Graves, and Illuminated and Jakob Lynch were only a tad behind Hungering Darkness, with Tanuki being the only one of the bunch over 6" away from Montresor.

Another Illuminated and Gwyneth Madddox were hiding between the two buildings north-west. Beckoner had been biding its time in activation order, and eventually launched herself rapidly towards rock formation at top-right corner of the map... surely it wasn't going to sabotage my rock formation?! Damn them! I'm gonna sabotage their smoke formation, then!

Turn 2:

Then came the second turn... where nothing happened. Nothing at all. 

Every plan and attempt was foiled, and nothing worked for either player.

Ten Thunders had a little more luck in beating an intel token off from Montresor, but did not manage to claim it or kill Montresor. 

Jack Daw unsuppressed the memories of an Illuminated next to Mr. Graves, and Hanged was able to unlock some forbidden knowledge in Kara, making it have a psychotic break.

While it wasn't apparent yet that whatever we tried would fail but too many models had already failed activation, I decided that having Tanuki heal those precious damage points I had managed to cause would be catastrophic. So Hanged activated Entropic Curse.

And yet the Tanuki healed Mr. Graves. Only one point with a severe, but still that was an insult to injury, or, well, heal actually.

Beckoner went to place a scheme marker to the rock formation, but that wasn't quite enough to sabotage it yet. 

Only point that was scored this turn was Leave Your Mark from the scheme marker placed on first turn.  

Turn 3:

Last turn it had looked like everybody and their pet was highly resistant to dying. But that was about to change in one of the most brutal turns I have seen. 

Montresor activated and was cursed to watch how Crooked Man would fail its first earthquake, but blast spectacular damage on Mr. Graves and Jakob Lynch. I had no crows in hand, so it was a lucky shot when Montresor did his bonus action and flipped crows straight from the deck, killing both Mr. Graves and Illuminated. 

Joy was for such an action was short lived, when Jakob Lynch activated and succumbed Montresor to darkness, turning the resilient henchman into an insignificant Depleted. 

Auguste went to pick Illuminated's intel.

Another Illuminated who had hanged with Gwyneth started flinging absolutely horrifying scintillating clouds that were able to reach Drowned, Jack Daw, Crooked Man, Lady Ligeia and Guilty. I was lucky to pass most checks naturally, but Drowned fell down to one health remaining. 

I had Black Joker in my hand, and so Hanged was able to teleport to Tanuki with Horrifying Whispers. First attack missed, so I lost hope of killing the miserable furball. Which wasn't exactly a bad thing, because I also wanted to draw cards - I had not received even a single crows to my starting hand or at any other point I drew cards. And Crooked Man needed those to place third scheme marker for Leave Your Mark. Anyway, Hanged declared Weigh Down trigger for +1 damage, and flipped a Red Joker for damage. I can't quite describe the deep, sincere and transcendental satisfaction of killing an uninjured Tanuki with a single strike. 

Gwyneth shot Drowned dead and charged Jack Daw, which started to look like a critical mistake when it became apparent that no other model was able to reach a strategy marker and claim a victory point for Ten Thunders that turn. It was probably. I don't remember who in the end killed the Depleted that once had been Montresor - either Jack Daw or Lady Ligeia. 

Guilty placed a scheme marker and walked on top of it. 

Kara charged Auguste, and Hungering Darkness and Lynch probably kept mauling Jack Daw. He was down to two health remaining when turn ended, which made next round's initiative quite of a concern.

Crooked Man charged Kara and failed to place a scheme marker with Malifaux Mining Law. 

Beckoner was not able to place the required second marker for Sabotage. 

Scores went 2-0 for Outcasts, when they got strategy.

Turn 4: 

I had two unspent pass tokens from last round, and I got a 13 to my starting hand. I cheated fate with that to activate Jack Daw first.

Fun fact: this was second time in row I received no crows in starting hand.

And Jack Daw had to heal himself - he spent all three action points to activate Hungering Darkness' suppressed memories and thankfully succeeded with the last. Thus, thanks to Kara's psychotic proximity, he was able to heal two with bonus action and one when activation ended. 

Illuminated didn't wait to get engaged and walked to pick strategy marker for a victory point.

Hanged did the same with Tanuki's remains and walked to Outcast sabotage target. 

Auguste survived what Lynch was able to throw at him, but wasn't as lucky when Hungering Darkness abandoned its position and tickled Auguste dead with his tentacles. 

Kara attacked Crooked Man, leaving him with three health remaining. I was afraid that Kara would be able to kill Crooked Man next turn, so the cat's psychosis lead it into contact with intel dropped from Auguste, trying to persuade it to spend an action point before charging Crooked Man.

Guilty charged Illuminated, not doing anything. Gwyneth continued to play card with Jack Daw. 

Beckoner was finally able to sabotage rocks.

Crooked Man failed to place a scheme marker - but he did flip the correct suit. But card value was five, when the action needed a six.

Both players scored strategy, and Ten Thunders got sabotage for a situation of 3-2.

Turn 5:

Third turn in a row I received no crows in starting hand. Why, why was I Tormented like that? 

But in the end it didn't bother as much, because Kara activated first and killed Crooked Man before it had a chance to activate. So even if I had had crows, I could not have used them.

Then something of an unexpected turn of events happened. Hanged placed a strategy marker after Lynch had secured a strategy point for Ten Thunders.

Hanged flipped Black Joker on terrifying check against Hungering Darkness. Nice, some mileage out of Forever Doomed. Then it attacked the beast with Horrifying Whispers - and opponent flipped Red Joker on defense. I was able to cheat a Masks 1 to teleport back into action.

My grand plan was to attack Hungering Darkness, score a tomes and drop third scheme marker. Well, highest tomes in my hand was a four, and Hanged had spent all of his luck already. No scheme for me.

Ten Thunders weren't doing anything of consequence with their last actions except for Beckoner, who scored Sabotage end.

I did consider it somewhat excessive, when opponent cheated a severe card when Guilty tried to disengage from Illuminated and Gwyneth. But soon enough it would make all the sense in the world - I mean, he was Guilty, and opponent had Take Prisoner as their scheme.

But fortunately Guilty had gone far enough that Jack Daw was able to teleport to him with Suppressed Memories, place the third scheme marker and walk over it to protect his final mark.

So, Outcasts did not receive strategy point this turn while Ten Thunders did. They also received end condition from both of their schemes, but so did Outcasts. It was a 5-5 draw, although it feels like a victory for Ten Thunders because they missed one point just from a slight lapse of attention.

RRRRRAMPAGE

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Corner Covert Operation

Schemes: Assassinate, Sabotage, Public Demonstration, Hidden Martyrs, Catch and Release

My list:

Dr. McMourning, Insanitary & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Corpse Curator
Kentauroi
Nurse
Guild Autopsy
Little Gasser

Pool: 3
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Nurse & Little Gasser), Catch and Release (Kentauroi)

Opponent had:

Rasputina & Wendigo
Snow Storm
Blessed of December
December Acolyte
Silent One
Ice Dancer
2x Hoarcat

Pool: 4
Schemes: Public Demonstration (Hoarcats and Blessed of December), Assassinate

Turn 1:

At first I had glanced that finally not so agonizing pool of schemes. But then when I had to actually pick them, I realized how bad it was. I had no reliable tools to get Assassinate when opponent had way to deal with big hits, and I hadn't paid attention how badly my side of the table favored Sabotage. And picking two from the remaining three schemes would mean a big chunk of my weakest models were important for victory points.

So, I ended up with Catch and Release and Hidden Martyrs. This way I only had three important low cost or minion models instead four to five. 

Since I didn't have reliable corpses on board after deployment, I activated McMourning first and took a leg off of Rogue Necromancy, then built it a new and improved leg. And yet there was still enough organic matter left from the initial amputation, that Sebastian was able to craft a Canine Remains of it. And yet there was enough left from the Canine Remains, that Canine Remains picked its own remains and dropped them somewhere nearby. 

It was quite not five loaves of bread and two fish, but it was close.

Rasputina blasted some damage to McMourning and Canine Remains, so I relocated Nurse to offer some assistance if need be. I got scared with all the ice pillars and potential blasts, so Little Gasser took a double walk towards bottom-right strategy marker, hugging the table edge and hiding behind a hill.

Corpse Curator, Guild Autopsy and Rogue Necromancy were hauling their slow and undead bulk through a forest. I figured top-left strategy marker would be way out of my reach unless I brought my fasted model, Kentauroi, to that flank. It rode for a bit with Sebastian, and continued to walk behind a batch of destructible terrain.

Acolyte had taken a vantage point from top of a small building. One Hoarcat was running towards each corner strategy markers.

Blessed of December was at center-left strategy marker with Snow Storm and Wendigo a little behind. 

Ice Dancer was in the opposing forest, with Silent One being silent a little further back. 

Turn 2:

Rasputina slows McMourning and kills Canine Remains before it is able to activate and spam more corpses. 

Acolyte of December opens fire twice on Kentauroi, dealing weak damage with each shot. This was... troublesome, since there were two victory points tied to that model. So I figured that I try to put some poison on it and heal with Sebastian's Blood Poisoning. The horse-thing was also Slowed, which would require some Nurse-shenanigans.

So, Corpse Curator tried to tease Blessed of December a little by dredging up an ice pillar marker and attacking through it, but it didn't do that much.

However, Hoarcat at top-left strategy marker activated early and went into position to claim the spot. This opened up a possibility of getting rid of the destructible terrain and walk-charge-ride-with-me to get there myself, too.

So, Guild Autopsy went to slam the terrain to death. 

This was all fine and dandy until Snowstorm made an ice tornado that also slowed McMourning and Rogue Necromancy. So there was quite a few models suffering from Slow now.

McMourning activated and pushed Nurse forward with Desperate Plot, giving her an extra leg, and summoned a Flesh Construct. 

I had waited far too long with my plans, and Blessed of December decided to jump out of its position and decidedly killed my Catch and Release model. Yeaaaaaah.

Nurse decided to remove slow from Rogue Necromancy, and the thing along with summoned Flesh Construct charged Snow Storm and Wendigo, just tickling Wendigo a little.

'Sebastian went to toss off some formaldehyde, because he was out of reach to charge Blessed of December. I didn't have high enough cards in my hand for Sebastian to call for another Man's Best Friend. 

Silent One healed Wendigo and Ice Dancer shuffled some pillars around. 

Since opponent clearly didn't let me activate Little Gasser after Hoarcat on the right had activated, I had to fly the gas balloon to center-right strategy marker to have a claim this turn.

By then situation didn't look good. Only McMourning would be able to bottom-right strategy marker next round, as center-left marker was quite contested. 

Scores go 1-1, both points from scenario.

Turn 3:

Since all sorts of gamins pop up when enough elemental or other kind of energy have high enough of a concentration, this turn should have seen a Carnage Gamin appear. 

Sebastian charges Blessed of December, as he was in range now that Blessed had used deadly pursuit to come closer to corpse marker. First attack hit and dealt some damage. I was wondering if I should turn the Kentauroi's corpse into a dog, but decided against it. Weak damage and Blood Poisoning would be enough to kill the enforcer. Also second attack hit - this time dealing weak+critical strike damage. However, the Blood Poisoning obviously failed.

Blessed of December had the option to either leap away or eat the corpse and butcher someone to heal even more. Blessed chose violence, too, but was just as successful as Sebastian. Guild Autopsy was left with two health remaining.

December Acolyte took a shot at Guild Autopsy and killed it despite friendly fire and cover. And with the next shot, down went the Zombie Chihuahua. 

Corpse Curator needed to land one point of damage to secure kill on Blessed of December with poison. Much to everyone's surprise, it dealt two! Hooray. And even got to place a toxic sludge marker with bonus action.

In the middle Rasputina had activated earlier in the turn, pushing Rogue Necromancy and Flesh Construct a little back before putting pillars in front of them, making it impossible to charge Snow Storm or Wendigo. Or herself, for that matter. 

McMourning took a walk, gave Rogue Necromancy's attack for Flesh Construct and pushed the summon to an ice pillar, giving it excess fat upgrade. 

Snow Storm charged Flesh Construct right after, and beat it down to two health remaining, upgrade being taken down with the first hit. 

So Flesh Construct activated and took a point of damage. And did what was most likely one of the most absurd activations I have ever witnessed. First attack on Snow Storm? Severe damage, that was reduced by a couple of points with a soulstone. Second attack was Pouncing Strike, so Flesh Construct declared that, dealt some damage again to Snow Storm and killed Wendigo with one savage bite. Last action was also Pouncing Strike, and damage killed Snow Storm and Flesh Construct jumped to Rasputina, dealing three damage that was actually zero because of an ice pillar. 

Silent One comes to try to remove Flesh Construct but fails at that. Little Gasser walks and charges Silent One and even flails frantically a couple of damage points.

Nurse went to claim center-left marker, but to my surprise Hoarcat from unclaimed top-left strategy marker walked and charged her and left her with one health remaining. 

Hoarcat at bottom-right was biding its time, just concentrating. Ice Dancer skated about and blocked Rogue Necromancy from reaching her with direct charge.

So instead Rogue Necromancy had to make an indirect charge, walking first. Nurse's chance to claim was neutralized by the Hoarcat, so Rogue Necromancy just needed to engage Ice Dancer. Too late, way too late I remembered about the Butterfly Jump. This meant Rogue Necromancy had to kill the dancer with just one strike. 

And, uh, it kind of did. Charge Through and focus made for a lot of plus modifiers for damage and surely enough it came up as severe, with Infect. 

So that was a brutal turn to the extreme. 

Scores go 1-1, since everyone was too busy bashing each others' heads to the concrete instead of scoring points.

Turn 4:

Nurse was fortunate enough to survive December's first activation - most likely because Rasputina was a little busy handling the Flesh Construct - which surely enough died. Nurse was able to heal herself a little and even got Shielded +1 for a little extra survivability. Walking and poking Hoarcat with surgical instruments, however, amounted to nothing.

It did take all of my good cards from hand, but Nurse survived Hoarcat's activation, again back at one health remaining. 

Rogue Necromancy walked and charged to Hoarcat at bottom-right strategy marker. Idea was to wait until Hoarcat activates and push Rogue Necromancy away from it with Desperate Pace. Instead, Hoarcat disengaged and went to purr at McMourning. McMourning wanted to pat the fine cat, but unfortunately he did it with rusty tools, three times no less. Cat was dead at that point. 

December Acolyte ran to collect a point from top-left strategy marker while Sebastian was running towards it too. 

Little Gasser continued to flail frantically: "Why are you not killing me?? I'm the Hidden Martyr!" Yeah... enemy didn't consider that thing enough of a threat to kill casually. 

Anyway, Corpse Curator was able to creep to claim center-left strategy marker, meaning I had third point pretty much secured thanks to Rogue Necromancy.

Turn 5:

Silent One started to shoot McMourning rather successfully through ice pillars, which lead me to suspect Assassinate. So instead of contributing meaningfully to anything else, the good doctor fled the scene with all of his action points. 

Rasputina wasn't able to accomplish much, so Nurse got to activate and heal herself again for a little. Hoarcat failed to kill her, and even December Acolyte missed its shot. I even cheated to save the Nurse. 

Here the joke is on me, since not protecting her that much would have given me the Hidden Martyr point. I had been completely fixated on letting Little Gasser be the one who does the dying, and keeping Nurse denying the center-left marker from being claimed by Hoarcat.

However, both Corpse Curator and Sebastian could have easily gone to engage the kitty. Although if I had done it with Sebastian, result would have been catastrophic since I would have just given opponent the Public Demonstration. 

Also Little Gasser was four points, Silent One six. So that's one half checked from Hidden Martyrs end condition. But thanks to no melee range Silent One was not engaging the Gasser. 

So... we had a game where zero points were scored from schemes.

However, it was a close 2-3 victory for Resurrectionists as Rogue Necromancy was able to claim third marker, while opponent got none.

Moderate Damage

 Since my Warmachine opponent moved elsewhere, we played a 50 point game using War Table website.

My list:

Orgoth - Sea Raiders

 Kishtaar, The Howling Silence - Second Sight & Hex Blast
-Jackal, Arc Node, Hunter Rifle, Pneumatic Spike
-Tyrant, Hunter, Harpoon, Ripper
Reaver Commander
Assault Reavers + Reaver Standard
Strike Reavers
Ulkor Barragers

Command cards: Break Through, Infiltration, Old Faithful, Power Swell, Savagery

Opponent had:

Cygnar Unlimited

Commander Coleman Stryker
-Cyclone
-Defender
2x units of Stormguard Infantry
2x units of Rangers
Field Mechanics
2x Trencher Sniper

Command Cards: Break Through, Blessing of Gods, Old Faithful, Infiltration, Power Swell

Orgoth started the game, and bunched up all of their infantry in the rubble just past their deployment zone in the middle. Jackal and Reaver Commander were going to rectangular zone on left, and Ulkor Barragers and Tyrant were going to right. Kishtaar was lagging behind since she wanted to cast Second Sight on an Ulkor Barrager.

Stryker cast Snipe on Cyclone and Arcane Shield on Defender. Cyclone was going to zone on the left with a sniper and rangers nearby. 

Remaining Cygnaran forces were in the middle or going to right, which was a worrying concentration of troops. A ranger or the sniper took a lucky shot at an Ulkor Barrager and killed the thing.

Kishtaars short control range was problematic, and I couldn't advance as far with Jackal as I would have liked. Jackal landed an amazing hit on Cyclone, but unfortunately missed the one gained from Open Fire after I had decided to not use feat this turn yet.

Orgoth infantry managed to thin down enemy troops - at least a unit of Rangers and some random Stormguards were removed. Not enough for me not to suffer next turn. Most notable kill was Tyrant shooting a harpoon through sniper. Yay.

Stryker obviously used feat and wreaked havoc on my infantry. Two Strike Reavers and one Assault Reaver with flag survived. Reaver Commander died as well and one additional Ulkor. Tyrant took a Defender shot, but damage roll was manageable.

Would Kishtaar's feat be enough to offset Stryker's? 

To an extent, yes. Kishtaar started my third turn and opened fire with Jackal. She also killed around three Stormguards, which was rather impressive because of that +5 armor.

Despite Kishtaar's feat Jackal wasn't able to land a critical hit on Cyclone with two attempts. Both shots dealt damage, but it started to look dubious that I would remove the heavy jack this turn. I tried my everything, though. I used Break Through card on the two Strike Reavers to get a combined ranged attack against Cyclone, which didn't do much. Even the Reaver Flag was positioned to the front to offer that -1 Arm aura. 

Tyrant made a scary activation, where it charged and killed remaining Cygnar infantry models in the middle and took a boosted, feated shot at Cyclone. What a relief it was when damage roll was not one point over the required to destroy the warjack. Thus I managed to open scenario points. 

Thanks to Power Swell, Kishtaar had a bank of one focus points. Opponent decided to go for an assassination. 

Stryker was not able to knock her down. Damage roll was moderate at best. Then Rangers used Break Through and went to mark Kishtaar, and made exceptional attack rolls. Two out of three attacks hit and dealt moderate damage. 

Defender took an aimed, boosted shot at marker Kishtaar and dealt moderate damage after she spent her only focus to block damage.

And still the warcaster was standing! With three health remaining.

Unfortunately one Trencher Sniper was left to activate. And with the last possible attack to make against Kishtaar, Cygnar dealt the killing blow with moderate damage. 

"Ah, how exciting! A proper murder mystery."

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Cursed Objects

Schemes: Vendetta, Catch and Release, Spread Them Out, Public Demonstration, Leave Your Mark

My list:

Seamus Baker & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle with Grave Spirit Touch
Mortimer
White Rabbit Co.
Bete Noire
Dead Doxy
Dead Dandy

Pool: 6
Schemes: Vendetta (Mortimer on Mr. Graves), Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Hungering Darkness & Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Kara
2x Illuminated
Tanuki
Beckoner

Pool: 2
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Vendetta (Hungering Darkness on Mortimer)

Turn 1:

Plenty of severe terrain made this horrible map a slog for my crew - not to mention me wanting to keep my distance from Hungering Darkness. As a result I really didn't get out of my deployment zone. Only Dead Dandy was running towards fulfilling some Spread Them Out. 

Madame Sybelle was at the tip of my deployment zone, where Seamus came to cleave her arm off and turn it into a Mourner. 

I suppose opponent might have charged deeper, but a hatted Bete Noire charged to Illuminated pair, dealing respectable four points of damage after Tanuki had activated. 

Hungering Darkness just charged Bete, slapped her for four points of damage and planted a scheme to center point. Yup. Not gonna challenge that anytime soon.

Mortimer had activated early, placing a corpse for Madame to blaspheme off the board. 

Turn 2:

Ten Thunders won initiative, and started flinging scintillating clouds to Mourner, Doxy and Madame Sybelle. They were passing those checks rather well, though. Out of four scintillating clouds only two hit Mourner, one Dead Doxy and one Madame Sybelle. 

Sybelle was my first model to activate, and she regenerated and put up Undivided Attention with rams trigger, healing her back to full. She managed to beckon the slightly injured Illuminated a little closer. After the other Illuminated had done its thing, Seamus activated to walk into the river and activated Urban Legend with unnecessarily bought masks for Alone in the Dark. 

Mortimer was already too front. Had not Red Joker saved his resist roll against Beckoner's lure, he might have been in a terrible position for Hungering Darkness to charge into.

Mourner interacted Illuminated for one point of damage, and fed on his grief. I managed to get a straight damage flip and cheated the severe in. Illuminated was now with only one health remaining!

Gwyneth tried to come and shoot Mourner dead, failing at that. I had worried a wild Tanuki would have appeared and healed the Illuminated. My hand was trash by now, so I decided to charge Dead Doxy into the Illuminated. Idea was that if Doxy failed to deliver the kill, I would have at least possibility of giving her a hat with White Rabbit, with automatic one point of damage from gaining Distracted. 

Fortunately she succeeded with her second attempt.

White Rabbit & Co. gave Seamus a fancy hat, which enraged Mr. Graves. He toppled Seamus' top hat with a fencepost - he landed a severe damage. Soulstone's damage block was two and the hat removed another two.

Jakob Lynch slapped Dead Doxy hard. She died. Boo.

But, Mortimer's Vendetta target was now in reach. Bete Noire appeared from Doxy's corpse, charged Mr. Graves and attacked him three times. Every single one of them missed. Great. Although that was because opponent kept spending high cards from his hand, so I guess they were away from Hungering Darkness' damage potential.

Tanuki removed Distracted from Hungering Darkness, which had come from unrequited love. The furball also gave focus for the monster. 

Mortimer activated next, and tried to land a shot at Mr. Graves anyway - but failed. He did manage to make a Mindless Zombie out of Red Joker, though. 

Finally Hungering Darkness activated, walked and charged Mortimer. I was suspecting a vendetta, which would be terrible news, really. I had next round to score Vendetta reveal, at most. 

Mortimer had to spend soulstones to block damage, and thankfully one attack missed, leaving Mortimer with six health remaining. 

Kara had tried to attack Bete Noire, but also didn't land a single hit. Soul companions, those two. 

Lastly, Copycat Killer ran as far as he could and teleported Seamus hopefully for some scheme shenanigans.

Scores go 1-2, when both get strategy and Ten Thunders reveals Leave Your Mark.

Turn 3:

Hungering Darkness... Yeah.

That thing activated first, and slapped five points of damage to Mortimer. Then it killed Copycat Killer with one hit, which needed more than a weak damage. Lastly, it tickled White Rabbit Co. for five points of damage. That hurt, and even more when Hungering Darkness revealed vendetta on Mortimer. This was misplay on my part. Before game I had read that The Real Power rule would remove Hungering Darkness' totem status, which it doesn't. 

Madame Sybelle activated Undivided Attention, healing Mortimer, Mourner and White Rabbit company. She charged Mr. Graves, sinking in four points of damage. She also lashed Kara with tomes, dealing three points to the cat and Jakob Lynch. Not a bad activation per se, but pales in comparison to Hungering Darkness.

Tanuki activated next and healed Mr. Graves to seven health remaining, which was just enough that weak damage with Mortimer's Decay wouldn't give vendetta.

So, Mourner activated instead. She landed a severe damage on Mr. Graves with feed on grief. Once she realized how she had struck Mr. Graves' nerve, she didn't dare to grief him any more and instead took a walk and started mourning the dead, making corpse marker in the middle essentially a scheme marker. 

I think Gwyneth activated next, but didn't accomplish much. Maybe a couple points of damage to Mourner with her derringer or so.

This was Mortimers one and only chance of getting his vendetta. He walked and shot a Decay at Mr. Graves, spending my last soulstone for an additional card. It just needed to happen.

A one. And... a joker. Black one, though.

Lynch then killed Mourner and healed Mr. Graves back to seven. Well then. 

Seamus just took a double walk and planted a scheme marker. He tried to take Illuminated by the hand, but Seamus acted shy and tried to look afraid. 

Kara finally attacked Bete Noire, who was then able to fade away, and even tossed Madame Sybelle further away from the middle.  

White Rabbit Company sewed a hat for Madame Sybelle and used Beckoning Call on Illuminated. This time Seamus didn't look so suspicious, and Illuminated happily answered his beckoning. "Why, hello Love!" attack hit and dealt some damage, which were all pretty much healed right next. Seamus complimented on his healing abilities, which distracted Illuminated to miss its first attack. I suppose the Illuminated started to figure out he was being ridiculed and got enraged and hit the funny guy for six points of damage. 

Mr. Graves made his fencepost sing on Madame Sybelle. But that was all the fencepost did. Sing. No damage.

Dead Dandy placed a scheme marker to top corner and failed to convert nearby corpse into a scheme with Proper Murder Mystery.

Mindless Zombie took a walk and started to crave Mr. Graves' brains. Then it stopped craving the brains and wandered away. Beckoner came to greet the zombie, but it didn't quite understand it was being deceived with Beckoner's touch. 

Last, Bete Noire (who had slow) appeared from the Mindless Zombie and charged Tanuki. First attack missed. Second attack did not, but only Red Joker would have granted me strategy point this turn. No Red Joker. No point.

Except for Spread Them Out. Opponent had received vendetta and strategy, for 2-4 lead.

Turn 4:

Bete Noire makes an astonishing activation. First she murders Tanuki with Red Joker and declares One with the Night. With bonus action she charges Beckoner and lands three damage. Then she interacts a scheme marker. 

Hungering Darkness kills Mortimer, no surprises there.

Madame Sybelle walks for a bit, lashes three hit points off from Mr. Graves and tries to heal White Rabbit Co. with a trigger, failing at that. 

Kara charges to re-bury Bete Noire and walks and pounces on Seamus' chest. I get worried about the safety of my master, so he activates and uses Urban Legend. Two remaining actions are spent on beating the Illuminated with a bouquet, and while that may sound like an ineffective way to kill somebody, it brought the Illuminated down to one health remaining. So, Seamus took Illuminated by the hand and attacked him once more with "Why hello, Love!", but noticed some dandruff on his shoulders and became horrified for his lack of style.

Beckoner removed Bete Noire's scheme marker. 

White Rabbit sees Seamus' dandruff distress from miles away and rushes to his aid, tossing a splendid hat on his head from across the river. And a splendid hat it was - so outrageous in fact, that Illuminated fainted at the sight of it. And never woke up.

Gwyneth goes to engage White Rabbit Co.

Mr. Graves explains to Madame Sybelle: "I'm sorry, miss. Sometimes this fencepost goes, like, singing and stuff. I don't know why it does that. But when it doesn't, it does THIS!", attacking Madame Sybelle with a negative card from being distracted. Both cards were 13, though, and I had had only one card higher than 9 in my starting hand. No longer had that, though. And it was a severe damage with severe injury.

Then, Mr. Graves continues: "And then it does... THIS!", hitting her again for moderate damage with negative fate modifiers. I get to choose if Madame if left with one health and a hat, or three health and no hat. It was the hat that fell.

But, Lynch was left to activate. Essentially Wp 3 vs Terrifying of 11 saved Madame once, but not twice. Second attack hit and killed my henchman. Jakob goes to engage White Rabbit, too. 

Dead Dandy, on the other hand, placed a scheme marker and failed to convert the corpse again. This guy. There was a big fight with everybody getting killed at most a fifty meters away from him, and all he did the entire game was run into a forest and start making up imaginary murder mysteries. Well. There's a name for this kind of action. It's called dissociation.

We didn't play the last turn, because losing both Mortimer and Madame Sybelle in such a manner shut me off from game.

Scores went 3-5 for Ten Thunders, and they had Vendetta pretty much confirmed. Even if I got two points and opponent got zero it would have been a loss. Not even a tie. 

A Skirmish Formation

 It's been a while since any kind of painting update.

So here we are. 

It has taken a gosh darn long time to paint this group up, but Orgoth Sea Raiders are finally up to 50 points painted. I did have a good excuse for delays - my left eye has been giving me hard time lately - but still excuses. 

This is the team I'm going to include in my next video, whenever that will be.