McMourning For President

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Stuff the Ballots

Schemes: Take Prisoner, Hold Up Their Forces, Deliver a Message, Espionage, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Dr. McMourning & Zombie Chihuahua
Rafkin
Corpse Curator
Kentauroi with Killer Instinct
Nurse
Gravedigger
Little Gasser
2x Canine Remains

Pool: 4
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Rough Rider), Hold Up Their Forces

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Relic Hunter & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Desper LaRaux
Jessie Halliday
Rough Rider
Cryptologist
Tanuki
Ruffian

Pool: 3
Schemes:

Turn 1:

Canine Remains took a bite out of Corpse Curator, and went to north-west marker. Gravedigger spammed Focust for most of my forces and took a double walk behind my crew, maybe still one day getting to a position to contribute to the game.

I had received four high masks in my starting hand, so Rafkin was able to accidentally drop four flasks of formaldehyde at his feet. Had opponent not had the ongoing threat of Sidir, that activation could have been Poison +9 for most of my crew. But I just didn't dare to bunch up like that.

Kentauroi took Rafkin along with a ride and walked within 2" of Canine Remains at north-west marker with the intention of going to top marker next turn.

Another Canine Remains went to south-west marker, and Little Gasser went to concentrate behind destructible boxes too far to walk and interact to either center or bottom marker. Nurse had earlier tried to push it here and there a little, but couldn't open the cap of the bottle.

Corpse Curator had gone to hide behind rocks near middle, and had Chihuahua with it. 

Opponent had been bunching up in the middle with Luna digging up a scrap and Lucas turning it into a Timeworn Blade for Sidir. He took Sidir for a ride, but fortunately wasn't able to place Sidir quite close enough to shoot EVERYTHING. Lucas, however, went to center ballot box and shot Rafkin staggered and slow with his net gun. Cryptologist was there in the middle, too. Tanuki had tried to motivate Sidir but failed.

Rough Rider and Ruffian were going to top marker. Jessie went to forest near center, while Desper LaRaux easily went past the centerline, within 1" of the bottom ballot.

Sidir was the last model opponent activated, and he swaggered a little forward and started shooting Rafkin. First attack was severe damage, how else. Second attack was mask triggered, so I was prepared to say farewell to Rafkin. But Black Joker saved him, and either the additional attack missed Kentauroi or all the damage was healed in the end phase. 

Dr. McMourning was the very last model to activate, and he gave Doctor's Orders for himself to go and make a health inspection to voters. And since brain is required for informed voting, he took out his skull saw to inspect Jessie's brains. Unfortunately one attack missed and another's damage was blocked in its entirety with a soulstone.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists managed to win the initiative, and McMourning tried to kill Jessie. He did get two attacks in and Jessie down to two health remaining. That's when he ordered himself to ballots in the middle to interact. Yeah. I completely forgot Precise ignores even hard-to-kill. Yay.

Sidir starts shooting Rafkin and kills him. Another shot goes to Kentauroi, making it slow.

Kentauroi then activates and shrugs off the slow. I was happily riding with Canine Remains until I realized that is also a bonus action. After some backtracking the centaur just went to interact with the ballots alone.

Luna dug up a scrap marker, and Little Gasser went to gas Jessie to one health remaining + poison from horrific odor. One health remaining and Catalyst nearby at least delayed her activation.

Lucas went next and brought Cryptologist closer with Ride With Me. He scrounged a Phantasmal Mask for Jessie and placed two votes in the ballots. So now was my chance to kill Jessie.

Zombie Chihuahua was not able to reach Jessie with its 0" melee range, but at least it could use Blood Poisoning. It succeeded with a focus, but damage was blocked with last soulstone opponent had. So, dog went closer and stank another poison for Jessie. 

I lost my chance to kill the henchman when Tanuki came to heal her next back to three health. 

Canine Remains on north-west counter placed a vote in and took hiding behind a small shack. 

Cryptologist started making cursed translations out of McMourning's prescriptions, and nearly killed Zombie Chihuahua in the process. Somewhat bothersome was Shielded +1 for Jessie. 

Ruffian and Rough Rider go to tease Kentauroi but in the end only manage to damage themselves with poison. 

Jessie disengages and tries to flare up Zombie Chihuahua and even shoot it with a harpoon, failing at both. 

Corpse Curator walks and charges Cryptologist, dealing a whopping two points through armor.Now the curator was in base contact with Cryptologist, with Poison +7 and even succeeded to leak out an additional point of poison for itself and Cryptologist via bonus action. Result: dead Cryptologist in the end phase.

Desper interacts bottom marker, leaps and charges Canine Remains. Fortunately the dog survives and even bites Desper back with four damage before healing back to full from poison.

Both players score strategy, and Corpse Curator and Canine Remains at Desper reveal Hold Up Their Forces for a 2-1 lead for Resurrectionists.

Turn 3:

Ruffian uses Chain Gang to dislodge himself from melee and interact to votes to top ballot box. McMourning went to finish what he had failed to do last turn and killed Jessie in two strikes. Having thus completed the health inspection, he charged Lucas to start checking if his brain is okay.

Desper killed the guard dog at south-west ballot box, interacted with it and leapt to my deployment zone.

I was afraid that Sidir would shoot Kentauroi, who was my best and only chance at scoring Take Prisoner and strategy. Corpse Curator went to attack him, and managed to make a Sidir-repellent sludge marker. 

Lucas, however, would deny that right next by hitting it with Bull Whip and moving its 0" melee range tad away from Sidir. He also tossed a timeworn blade to the henchman while dropping a vote to the box at the same time. Zombie Chihuahua had to save the Curator, and it took a double walk to shoot it with Blood Poisoning. 

Surviving Canine Remains behind hay shack tried to run to engage Sidir, but even with Mv 6 he was out of reach. At least the dog got close enough to deny any improper advances. Turned out that there were none - Sidir killed Canine Remains with a sword and started shooting McMourning and Corpse Curator whenever a random masks gave the option for him. 

Since most important Ten Thunders models had now been activated in the middle, I decided to make my gambit. Little Gasser went to interact with center ballot once. I didn't have masks in my hand for Nurse, but I waited patiently for one to come up in discard pile. 

Rough Rider started shooting Kentauroi, only getting enough damage in for Kentauroi to heal them all in the end phase. But most importantly, Rough Rider was now more than 2" away from Ruffian. Kentauroi rode to ballots to interact twice and was careful to position itself so that Deadly Pursuit would get it to engage Rough Rider. And there was a mask on top of discard pile, too, with no enemy models left that would likely give me any flips.

But then Tanuki activated. That stupid little furry drunkard charged Zombie Chihuahua, killing it in one inebriated strike, and continued to wobble through forest near middle. Aaaargh! No more masks on top of discard pile.

Well, at least Nurse got two focuses, so she tried to offer Little Gasser painkillers with focus. And so I lost my strategy point for the round - no masks for Pushed Here And There. Tanuki would pay for this! Nurse charged the drunken furball with anger issues to sedate it for good. First attack with focus hit for two points, and Tanuki was stunned. Second attack, now with negative modifier thanks to beer goggles, also somehow hit and gave me masks - making Tanuki also staggered.

Luna charged Corpse Curator and dragged it around the board with You're Coming With Me. 

So, I lost the scenario point but at least I did get Take Prisoner with Kentauroi's deadly pursuit.

Funnily enough, that deadly pursuit also gave Ten Thunders Take Prisoner, as they had it on Kentauroi.

Scores even out to 3-3. 

Turn 4:

McMourning starts the turn getting out of Lucas' melee with Doctor's Orders, and goes to check Sidir's brain. I would have really needed him to die and surely enough I got a stellar hand. But sadly so did opponent - Red Joker made Sidir to go only down to three health, with poison +1. 

Sidir activated next and while he didn't manage to kill McMourning just yet, the damage was serious. Opponent wasn't too scared of my 

Corpse Curator went into shenanigans mode, and put up its bonus aura, making Lucas not engage him.  Then he charged Lucas and brought Sludge Marker on top of the relic hunter and McMourning. It also tried to kill Sidir with its own Blown Apart -marker, but didn't score a hit. Oh no.

Fast Lucas activated next and finished what Sidir couldn't - it went to very last attack Lucas was able to make, but Doctor went down. He did get quite a few poison from that, though, until he was able to ride like the wind away from sludge marker. He also threw Timeworn Blade for Tanuki, presumably to make it fast to come and heal Sidir. But that was out of question - Nurse concentrated and put the final dose in to Tanuki healing it from breathing. 

Desper failed to leap. I don't know what he was planning, but at least now he just took a walk and a charge to middle, engaging Little Gasser. That was devastating, because Desper had no poison and was too far from Corpse Curator's aura anyway. No interacts for me this turn. Instead, Little Gasser disengaged and charged Sidir. Sure, Sidir would die to poison even if Little Gasser did only minimum damage of one. But, the gasball had taken lessons from Tanuki and slapped Sidir dead with frantic flailing. 

On top of things, Rough Rider and Ruffian had been shooting Kentauroi, bringing it as low as one hit point. The undead horse charged Ruffian dead with just one blow, and almost killed my Take Prisoner target with another charge. Whoops. 

Lucas dismounted when his horse collapsed from all the poison.

Thanks to Desper I didn't receive another strategy point even this turn. Ten Thunders also managed to surprise me with Let Them Bleed reveal, gaining a nasty 3-5 lead.

Turn 5:

It was quite the final round of voting in the middle, when Kentauroi first charged Rough Rider dead and rode like the wind away, then rode with itself a bit more and walked within 1" of center marker after Lucast had escaped from there. 

Corpse Curator also made sure it was in the position. 

Looking back now, I should have tried to scare Desper away with Little Gasser, but I had been saving it up for a potential Hold Up Their Forces grab. But it was not to be. Nurse made an exceptional activation when she gave two interacts for Kentauroi and healed Corpse Curator back to full, pushing herself to engage Lucas. 

Had I activated Little Gasser first, Desper could have only tried to kill Nurse. But now Desper was able to take two interacts and leap away - too far for Little Gasser to reach, and one vote from Gasser wasn't worth anything.

So, nobody scored anything in the last turn. Ten Thunders won 3-5.