Stuff the Daggers

Two 50ss games of Malifaux

Strategy: Flank Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Ensnare, Death Beds, Take Prisoner, Protected Territory, Outflank

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
2x Shikome
Gwisin
Drowned
Enslaved Spirit
Seishin

Pool: 5
Schemes: Protected Territory, Take Prisoner (Hunter!!!)
Thread: Wicked Whisper objective 2

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa
Guardian
Hunter
Medical Automaton
2x Watcher

Pool: 3
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Shikome), Outflank
Thread: Badges and Blades objective 2

Turn 1:

There was a big enough building complex on Urami side to act as a dividing element even for incorporeal keyword. 

A Shikome was aided by Seishin to go and pick first intel in the bottom-right corner of board. A Hunter walked closer to the same strategy marker and attempted to shoot Drowned. A Watcher also took a double walk towards bottom-right corner.

Guardian had tossed another Watcher towards top-left corner, which certainly awoke a suspicion in me that opponent might be trying to outflank my crew. Before the Watcher had been able to activate, Shikome tried to walk and charge it without much of an effect. Watcher was able to disengage and approach top-left corner.

Melissa repositioned from right to left and run & gunned Gwisin, and did so hard. Lost Love had to teleport in for heals. Thus, Gwisin, Ikiryo, Lost Love and Enslaved Spirit were holding the center-left against Guardian, Melissa, Mechanical Attendant and Hoffman. 

Center-right, past the building and closes to Nia marker, was Seishin, Datsue Ba, Drowned, Kirai and even a summoned Goryo were holding the area against Joss and Medical Automaton. Drowned and Goryo managed to severely injure Joss. Red Joker on damage and Black Joker in damage block is... harsh.

Turn 2:

Well... that didn't go as planned. 

Melissa runned and gunned Shikome down to one health remaining. Fortunately there were not that many threats around for her if she stayed in place. So, she picked up intel and placed a scheme marker while being guarded by Gwisin. Had she charged Watcher in the corner, chances are she might have been taken down. 

Guardian beat Ikiryo down before she was able to activate, and Mechanical Attendant grabbed a point of intel. So, pretty much just like that my left side game collapsed. Sure, I brought Enslaved Spirit to engage Guardian, but, ech.

Another Shikome dropped a scheme marker and took a flight as far from Watcher and Hunter as possible. And fortunately enough, Hunter went to participate in the fight in the middle near Nia marker, and Watcher went to place scheme to bottom-right corner.

Medical Automaton healed Joss as much as possible. And with Joss's death now out of reach, Goryo that had been summoned last turn decided to rather take down Medical Automaton. 

Hoffman changed course and went to middle, and removed summoned Goryo from equation. However, soon enough another one was summoned. Drowned, the new Goryo, Kirai and even Datsue Ba's judgement tried to kill Joss, but they couldn't quite do it. At least it drained Guild's soulstones. 

Lost Love teleported to Datsue Ba and went to place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. 

This turn I realized what a grave mistake I had done when I picked Hunter as my Take Prisoner target. 

Points, however, went: Strategy, Nia and Protected Territory for Resurrectionists, strategy and Outflank for Guild for a 3-2 lead for Kirai.

Turn 3:

I lost initiative, and tried to place Nia so far from action that opponent would have to act suboptimally to score Nia this turn.

Hoffman had to waste an action to walk within 3" of Nia, and I was happy to see that Goryo wouldn't die just yet. However, Mechanical Automaton was able to score the kill with surprise shot. What a surprise!

Drowned died, but so did Joss. After various summons and turns spent next to Nia, Kirai had fallen down to five health remaining or so. So, after killing Joss and summoning Ikiryo, she went as far back as possible behind a fountain.

Hunter took an intel and backed off as far as possible. It would be annoying, difficult even, to catch Hunter as a prisoner with incorporeal models because of Deadly Pursuit.

So this is what it took: Datsue Ba ran and charged behind Hunter. Non-incorporeal Lost Love teleported in such a manner that opponent would have to pursuit into severe terrain. That, however, would still not be enough. I tried to move Shikome as close as possible, but I still thought opponent might be able to push over 1" away from Datsue Ba and not get within 1" of Shikome. Thus, summoned Ikiryo shrugged off slow and ran to block Hunter from moving at all. 

Sheesh. But a victory point is a victory point, I suppose.

Another Shikome eventually either died to Melissa or Watcher, and Guardian slapped Enslaved Spirit dead with just one hit as was expected. 

Guild received Nia point and strategy, and Resurrectionists got strategy and Take Prisoner for 5-4 lead for Kirai.

Turn 4:

As Hunter was already far away from my side of table, I decided to just kill the prisoner. Ikiryo was able to do that, freeing Datsue Ba and Lost Love to go to scheme Protected Territory end condition.

Hoffman managed to maul Kirai dead even when I tried to block Hoffman's move with Nia marker. 

Shikome went to pick intel, and Mechanical Attendant walked right next to strategy marker for upcoming turns.

Gwisin was miraculously able to survive Guardian and Melissa. Most likely because Melissa had slowly been scraped down to one hit point remaining, which is not good news against Vengeance +1. 

No points were scored this turn for either player.

Turn 5: 

Hoffman came to rob Shikome of her intel. However, Hoffman had been injured for quite a bit throughout beating various vengeful models. Ikiryo set her sight on Kirai's killer, walked and charged Hoffman dead. 

Gwisin was able to land a final hit on Melissa, which ruined Guild's chances to receive third intel. However, Guardian smacked Gwisin back which ruined any chance for Resurrectionists to use Lost Love to claim intel from, wherever. He was needed to score Protected Territory end condition.

So, both players gained end condition from one of their schemes for a narrow 6-5 victory for Kirai.

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Stuff the Ballots

Schemes: Protected Territory, Deliver a Message, Outflank, Sweating Bullets, In Your Face

My list:

Molly, Chaotic Conductor & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Archie
Noxious Nephilim
Carrion Effigy
Rabble Riser with Killer Instinct
2x Crooligan

Pool: 4
Schemes: Deliver a Message (Archie), In Your Face
Thread: Wicked Whispers

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Soul Battery
Tanuki
2x Illuminated

Pool:
Schemes: Sweating Bullets, In Yo Face
Thread: Adrenaline Rush

Turn 1:

A single Crooligan was deployed right next to both ballots at the table edges as you'd expect. However, Hungering Darkness charged the one on right, so she teleported back to my deployment to get some heals from Effigy.

The second Crooligan took some cover behind a wall, as he saw other enthusiastic voters coming to the same ballot. Mr. Tannen and Illuminated, to name a few. 

Molly shuffled Noxious Nephilim near Nia marker to throw up required corpses for fracture points. Lynch started shooting at it, but Necrotic Machine made good job at stitching the nephilim. Archie positioned to within easy message delivery range of Mr. Lynch. 

Rabble Riser took a full run way past centerline, maybe one day getting behind enemy lines to vote. 

Molly, Necrotic Machine, Philip & Nanny and both beaters were holding up the middle, while Ten Thunders had their master and Mr. Graves nearby, with Tanuki and Illuminated hanging around and Gwyneth failing to hit the jackpot and thus getting no fracture points just yet. I felt relatively confident at this set-up.

Turn 2:

... Except that Lynch used Looming Dark to pull Hungering Darkness into melee with all of my Df 4 beaters. This took my by surprise as I was sure Honeypot would plant a vote to the rightmost ballot. Nope, Noxious Nephilim nearly died. 

Since its demise looked imminent, I activated Nephilim only for it to throw up what it just had regenerated, thus scoring Nia point. 

I think it was Gwyneth who killed Noxious Nephilim next, again failing with jackpot. No fractures for Honeypot this turn. 

Lynch started shooting Archie, and did a horrifying job at that. He had, like, two or three health remaining after those derringer shots.,

But then Molly made a weird super activation. She healed Archie back to full with Deja Vu's and shenanigans, and encouraged Archie to boldly walk with pride to deliver a message for Mr. Lynch. Now, I don't know what written in the message, but Honeypot got furious. Or maybe it was just the way how Archie walked. I don't know. But Mr. Graves and Illuminated beat Archie back down to two health remaining.

Instead of scoring In Your Face with Archie, the poor guy had to leap away from action, and even cheat himself down to one health remaining to succeed at the leap. Two walks later he was getting patched up by Carrion Effigy.

It took three angry voters, Mr. Tannen, Soul Battery and Illuminated to scare away an underage voter, who teleported to center ballots and crammed it full illegal votes. Three, in fact, because of Nia's Adrenaline Rush. 

Philip & Nanny had succeeded in slowing down Hungering Darkness, but Tanuki was just as good lifting Lynch's totem's mood up from sluggishness. 

Suddenly situation looked a wee bit worrying, but at least Necrotic Machine landed double poison on Hungering Darkness, greatly reducing its survivability with neurotoxins. 

Since Hungering Darkness had left rightmost ballots empty, buffed up Rabble Riser ran there to place votes next turn.

Resurrectionists scored strategy and Deliver a Message. Opponent had received strategy and both schemes for a 2-3 lead for Honeypot.

Turn 3:

Resurrectionists got the initiative, and tried to ruin enemy plans with Boring Conversation. Philip and Nanny were able to slow Hungering Darkness again, and Tanuki did exactly same it did last turn.

Hungering Darkness was under neurotoxins and Carrion Effigy's no-heal aura. To relieve itself from the plethora of debuffs, Hungering Darkness activated and indeed managed to scrap Necrotic Machine. Gosh and darn. 

It was time to see what Molly's parade baton was all about, as Hungering Darkness only had five health remaining. I figured my best chance would be to do a singular, mighty hit. My hand was already running low, so Molly concentrated, positively reinforced herself and took a swing at the beast, using focus both on Terrifying and attack flip. Annoyingly it only resulted in a tie, so damage was flipped with negative modifier. Nonetheless, severe 6. 

Unfortunately situation in the middle still looked bleak. Mr. Graves exposed Crooligan for the fraud he was and punished the kid with a fencepost. Lethally. Fortunately opponent was rather busy with removing Crooligan's earlier votes and to stuff their own into center ballots. 

Archie took a crazy 19"+base size sprint behind enemy lines, with the remaining Crooligan teleporting to him and placing votes to enemy ballots. Rabble Riser secured another box, providing Resurrectionists with a victory point. Noxious Nephilim's and Crooligan's corpse in the middle also gave me a Nia point.

Ten Thunders received center and leftmost ballots, with an Illuminated already having ran within 1" of a ballot box on my side. 

Scores evened out to 4-4.

Turn 4:

Honeypot models were closing in the middle, so after Carrion Effigy had put up Aura of Decay Molly brandished her trusty baton again, and started to maul Mr. Graves. And look at that! Only Hard-to-kill saved the casino bouncer.

I worried that Mr. Graves would idolize Archie's retreat in similar situation, but Mr. Graves was of tougher determination. Instead, he managed to deal damage back to Molly.

Because of this my center pretty much collapsed. Fortunately Philip & Nanny was able to ask a tough question that killed Mr. Graves, giving Resurrectionists their In Your Face. And not a moment too soon, as a couple of next Honeypot activations were able to put an end to Molly's carnival.

Archie & Crooligan tag team secured third strategy point for the Forgotten, but Honeypot were just as effective voters. 

With Resurrectionists second scheme and both players scoring strategy, Forgotten claimed a tiny lead of 6-5.

Turn 5:

Last turn started with Philip & Nanny and Carrion Effigy surrounded by both Illuminated, Lynch, Tanuki, Mr. Tannen and even Gwyneth within derringer's reach. It certainly did not look good. 

I just had to hope for best that Philip & Nanny would survive the onslaught and back off with deadly pursuit to deny Ten Thunders Sweating Bullets end condition. And it almost worked - it was the very last activation's very last action that finally removed Philip & Nanny from board.

Archie scored In Your Face, but Ten Thunders got both of their schemes and even Nia point for a close victory of 8-7 for Honeypot.