Second turn 4-4

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal. It was part of the Fractured Future global campaign.

Strategy: Wedge Plant Explosives

Schemes: Information Overload, Outflank, Sweating Bullets, Hold Up Their Forces, Ensnare

My list:

Dr. McMourning & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Corpse Curator
Kentauroi with Grave Spirit Touch
Nurse
Necropunk
Gravedigger
Little Gasser

Pool: 5
Schemes: Ensnare, Hold Up Their Forces
Thread: Wicked Whisper objective 1 (Two corpse markers within 3" of Nia)


Opponent had:

Youko Hamasaki, Unseen & Chiyo
Bill Algren
K.O.T.O
Shojo
2x Bunraku
Tanuki
2x Geisha

Pool: 4
Schemes: Outflank, Sweating Bullets (Bill Algren)
Thread: Moonshine Madness objective 1 (opponent within 3" of Nia gains a condition during a friendly model's activation)

Turn 1:

Sebastian started by making a Canine Remains out of Gravediggers deployment corpse. The dog proceeded to take a chunk out of Corpse Curator, and went to drop it near Nia. Gravedigger did also went to drop a corpse near enough Nia to score fracture point. With Wedge deployment, not too much effort required.

But then Shojo activated and did the most horrible thing imaginable to the dog. She called it a bad boy. What a biting insult. Canine Remains was distracted, and opponent got their first fracture point.

Corpse Curator did a sludge marker and went to place a scheme marker to drag along later. Geisha lured Corpse Curator forward, and since neither Youko nor Bill had activated, I was worried for its safety. Dr. McMourning activated and went to threaten the entire damn Qi and Gong crew. What an ego. He also gave doctor's orders for Corpse Curator to back off. 

Bill did manage to land a hit on McMourning, but doctor just healed all damage in the end phase. 

Opponent had a Bunraku going towards both points where center line met board edge, which looked a lit like Outflank. I had Little Gasser going far right, where Chiyo and Bunraku seemed to be going. On the left, Necropunk and Bunraku were nearing the outflank point.

Kentauroi was the only model dropping an explosive token during first round, and was free to go either towards the center clump or Bunraku to left. 

But the middle. Yeah. Only one piece of size 1 blocking terrain was between McMourning and KOTO, both Geishas, Shojo, Bill, Youko and Tanuki. And that terrain was destructible, too. Even for McMourning that was kind of worrying prospect. 

Turn 2:

The situation in the middle? It was most likely the messiest melee I've seen in a while. 

Shojo was able to activate Boring Conversation early on, which became quite the nuisance. I made a plan: Nurse removes the terrain and pushes McMourning here and there right to Shojo, so I can remove such a devastating aura for mainly Wp 4 crew. I wanted until McMourning had some damage. However, it seemed that the longer I wait, the more debuffs came stacking in. Youko and Bill actually killed Corpse Curator and the Zombie Chihuahua, who had heroically charged headlong into melee against models with Disguised. At least it stank a little.

Opponent didn't seem that keen on killing my slow, 4x Distracted Canine Remains which was engaging KOTO. I suppose McMourning and Sebastian were more of a concern. However, that was excellent news for my Hold Up Their Forces. 

Eventually I did bring McMourning into melee with Shojo, using Nurse. However, by then McMourning had a few stacks of Distracted and also Slow. And there were two Geishas with Distraction aura, and the Boring Conversation. Before getting to Shojo I'd have to deal with Geishas. 

Fortunately one of them had received poison from Zombie Chihuahua, and dealt 25% of her health as damage via Catalyst. I had a 13 of Rams in my hand, so I was planning on securing a kill on that Geisha to at least do something. It was hideously expensive to kill that Geisha. McMourning had to use two soulstones to get straight, cheatable flips. One for Boring Conversation, another for attacking while distracted. And of course I had to use the 13 of Rams from hand. For a single strike against a four point minion! And yet, there was still another one of them. 

Well, I got only myself to blame here. I didn't anticipate that the entire goddamn Qi and Gong crew would pile up in the middle like that. Don't they have schemes to run?! However, I had no critical reasons to engage the hellish blob of debuff auras like that.

But now that I were there, why not bring Kentauroi there, too! It failed its attacks obviously, but the thing was to get Bill Algren engaged for Hold Up Their Forces. 

Before Dying, Corpse Curator had hauled a scheme marker near Bill, and I think it was Canine Remains who put another before going to engage KOTO.

Thus, Resurrectionists managed to reveal both of their schemes, strategy AND thread objective for a whopping four points on turn two.

However, opponent didn't fare any worse. Bunrakus were easily able to get Outflank despite Necropunk trying to engage it, and Gasser bluffing Outflank on the other flank. Bill Algren, the centerpiece model for both of my schemes, was also able to score Sweating Bullets for Qi and Gong. 

First, and possibly only 4-4 on turn 2 game of my Malifaux career.

Turn 3:

Qi and Gong had only one unspent pass token from last turn, and I felt like I really, really needed the initiative. I cheated Red Joker on initiative, but opponent cheated a 13. After re-flips I had to cheat a 13 from my hand to secure initiative.

Reason was to get rid of Distraction aura once and for all. The way how boring conversations benefit from distractions is beyond horrifying. McMourning was first to activate and remove Geisha from board before Shojo would start her ramblings. PHEW.

That... was just about the only good news this turn, though. Bunraku on right killed a bomb carrying Little Gasser before it was able to activate, and same happened with Bill Algren and Kentauroi. 

Whatever damage I was able to do was mostly healed. KOTO and Bunraku on right dropped strategy markers. Necropunk wasn't able to do enough damage to deny Bunraku on left robbing me of a strategy marker. 

Even a freaking tanuki nearly killed Nurse. However, all hope was not lost as Sebastian was able to dislodge himself from melee to drop a strategy marker next turn.

As Ten Thunders were able to deny Resurrectionists a strategy point this turn, scores went 5-4 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 4:

Well, it was all downhill from here. 

While Sebastian managed to drop strategy marker and charge to Youko, and survived admirably. 

McMourning summoned a Flesh Construct, gave Doctor's Orders to himself and went to place strategy marker before charging to Bill Alrgen. He even managed to land a devastating severe, but the damage was healed throughout ongoing turn.

Necropunk failed it's jump later in the turn, and decided to go and deny opponent Outflank. But this lead Qi and Gong not to pursue it at all, so Bunraku from right was able to re-deploy against Sebastian. Other Bunraku ran into my deployment zone.

But the most devastating activation came from KOTO, when it was able to drain life away from Gravedigger with two strums from its koto, despite penalties to damage flips. Ah well. It's not like I needed Gravedigger to score Ensnare easily next turn.

Both players get a strategy point, so Ten Thunders lead with a one point margin of 6-5.

Turn 5:

Sebastian survived Youko's onslaught, but she also moved a Bunraku away from Sebastian's melee, which meant it would have a free pass at going to rob me a strategy point. 

Because of that McMourning had to make a sacrifice - and managed to Black Joker his disengage. Second one succeeded, though, and he was able to give Sebastian Doctor's Orders to go and engage Bunraku. But, that was essentially McMourning's contribution. In the hindsight, I should have walked to block Bill Algren's way to another strategy marker of mine that had been blocked by McMourning and Nia. I just didn't take into account KOTO's ability to move Bill out of melee. 

I also messed up with Canine Remains that could have given me Hold Up Their Forces along with Necropunk it had stayed in melee with Shojo. But no, it went to engage Bill Algren instead because of... reasons.

So losing two points last turn was totally poor play on my part. Fortunately it didn't cost me the entire game, as 8-7 would still have been a loss for Resurrectionists. But in the end we were looking at a 8-5 victory for Ten Thunders.