Heist at Hogwarts Transcontinental

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

My master of choice was not a master at all, but a dom. 

Strategy: Flank Turf War

Schemes: Assassinate, Deliver a Message, Breakthrough, Outflank, Take Prisoner

Madame Sybelle
Carrion Tanuki
Mortimer
Keepside Strangers
White Rabbit Company
Mourner with Grave Spirit Touch
3x Rotten Belle
Dead Dandy

Pool: 1

Schemes: Take Prisoner (coatless Witchling Thrall), Deliver a Message

Opponent had:

Sonnia Criid & Purifying Flame
Samael Hopkins
Witchling Thrall with Lead Lined Coat
Witchling Thrall

Witchling Handler

Hex Bow

Sanctioned Spellcaster

Pool: 5

Schemes: Assassinate, Outflank

Turn 1:

There was a bit of a distance between deployments, after all, so Mourner felt secure enough to blaspheme the corpse she was mourning for to give focus for Sybelle, White Rabbit, Keepside Strangers and a Rotten Belle. She took a walk and focused herself, so that she was protected by a cloud. White Rabbit crafted Mourner a fancy, nice hat for solace and comfort in these trying times.

That was until Samael, Sonnia and Hex Bow all took cover behind a wall and started blasting away at Mourner. Down to one health remaining and burning, new fancy hat already ruined.

Rotten Belle's had started to lure Carrion Effigy closer to heal Mourner, but suddenly there was no time for that and I was not ready to lose such an important piece against Ruthless thralls. Madame Sybelle had to beckon Mourner away from the fog, next to Keepside Strangers. A Rotten Belle had to walk to assist those flames away. What a miserable funeral.

Fortunately Keepside Strangers had a strong sense of decency, and they sidekicked themselves to Madame Sybelle, lobbing a basketful of snakes over fence where witch hunters had formed a conga line of execution. 

And wow, look at that. Severe damage. Hex Bow suffered the most, while Samael and Sonnia's sufferings were mitigated a little by arcane shielding. And that was just the first activation. Remaining snakes were tossed at Witchling Thrall that was to become prisoner. Now that I think about it, I wonder why I even did that. Perhaps my reasoning was to soften the thrall a bit to maybe make it heal itself instead of beating everything to a pulp. Anyway, how could I have known the thrall was a snake enthusiast, and just walked closer to see where those adorable snek were coming from.

Elsewhere the Lead Lined Coat Witchling Thrall had ran next to strategy marker on the center point. No models had seriously started closing in on the top-right outflank corner, so my trio of Mortimer, Rotten Belle and Dead Dandy felt quite at ease going for a happy picnic by wreckage of train that had been heading towards Hogwarts. 

Turn 2:

Guild easily got the initiative thanks to unspent pass tokens, and prison-to-be Witchling Thrall charged Keepside Strangers. Only one attack hit, so I didn't feel all that threatened there just yet. Carrion Effigy went to heal Mourner.

Then Sonnia activated and shot a severe Sapping Flames at Keepside Strangers. Whoop-de-doo what an action that is with Pyrotechnics. Keepside Strangers, Rotten Belle, Carrion Effigy, Madame Sybelle, Mourner and White Rabbit & Co. were all set on fire with just two blast markers. Horrifying. Sonnia also summoned a Hex Bow from Keepside Stranger's fires. 

Situation quickly jumped from concerning to alarming. Fortunately Hex Bows weren't succeeding in their attacks all that much, so I scrambled together a desperate plan to score at least the reveal of Deliver a Message: White Rabbit would make a hat for Keepside Strangers and take a double walk closer to Sonnia. Then Strangers would sidekick themselves to White Rabbit and go give a message to Sonnia, who was furthest in the line of the firing squad. 

I shouldn't judge the hat makers too harshly when they failed to sew a hat while they were burning. But fail they did, so they just had to take a double walk near Samael that had not yet even activated. I did have a couple of good cards in my hand, though, but it was still a precarious situation - opponent needed to just score moderate or two weaks to kill the hatters. 

Well, it was only a weak. And even Keepside Strangers survived long enough to deliver a message for Sonnia. After doing that, well, I can only say that Sonnia has never heard the saying "never shoot the messenger!" ... or, in the case of White Rabbit, "never watch with glee how the messengers burns to death in front of your eyes without you doing as much as lift a finger to help them"

I was worrying that the Witchling Thrall in the middle would take interest in helping out his brother, so Dead Dandy departed from the picnic trio to shake his cane furiously at Lead Lined Coated Witchling Thrall. Results were what's you'd expect in such a scenario.

Mortimer also took a slight detour and went to dig up a zombie from the middle of railroad tracks.

Picnic Belle went to flip top-right turf for Resurrectionists.

Thrall with the coat still had some resemblance of respect for an angry old man with a cane and hit him only once with enhanced fists. Unfortunately this excited either Purifying Flame or Sanctioned Spellcaster to drop a point of damage and Burning +1 to his top hat, which killed Dead Dandy in the end phase.

However, Witchling Thrall that needed to be alone, stayed alone. Madame Sybelle walked to engage it, but tried to beckon it to Rotten Belle for a charge at the row of Witch Hunters past the fence. Both Beckons failed, though.

If we look at just the scored, round was good for Resurrectionists that claimed a 3-1 lead. 

Turn 3:

Madame Sybelle started by disengaging from Witchling Thrall, and charged the Witch Hunter line. She killed the already injured Hex Bow, and even tickled Samael for a bit. She was also engaging the summoned Hex Bow. Soon enough she was also engaging Witchling Thrall, who charged her in the back. I don't quite remember all the actual attacks that rained on Madame Sybelle, but after Witchling, Samael, Hex Bow and Sonnia, she was down to three health remaining and Burning +6. Perfect for assassination.

Carrion Effigy tried to heal Rotten Belle and Mourner that had both been slowly cooking for a couple of turns. Mourner went to try and do some extra damage in to Samael, but results were not exceptional. Rotten Belle also tried to make her parasol count for something, but Sanctioned Spellcaster did not want to take a closer look. 

Mindless Zombie that had been summoned earlier walked and charged Witchling Thrall that had the coat. I suppose that's the way how to deal with such a melee monster - feed trash models to it. Unfortunately it did not have the appetite for Mindless Zombies - that one was eventually removed by a well placed single shot from Witchling Handler's collier revolver. Coatling Thrall, that had received Fast from Sonnia, was then free to go and try to dig up more zombies from inside of Mortimer. Fortunately all attacks missed. Mortimer was a bit more effective at landing hits, but they were just dropping weak ones against Lead-Lined Coat. 

Another Rotten Belle that had been hiding near my bottom-right strategy marker positioned herself to perhaps act more meaningfully during rounds four and five, as my choice of activating models seemed like it might become more limited in the near future. 

Miraculously I didn't lose other than Mindless Zombie that activation phase, although Carrion Effigy did burn out from the board in the end phase.

However... next turn would start with Madame Sybelle, Mourner and a Rotten Belle with enough burning to die without extra input from enemy - though Mourner had regeneration and was far away from anything, so maybe she'd survive.

Points went to 4-2, when Resurrectionists got  strategy and Guild got Assassinate but no strategy thanks to Hex Bow dying out in the top-left quarter.

Turns 4-5:

Resurrectionists had gained the edge in pass tokens last turn, so it was their free reign to pick a model to activate. Madame Sybelle killed Samael before she was put down and turned into a Witchling Stalker. 

After that it was mostly just Guild scrubbing the board with remaining zombies. Mortimer managed to survive as a blocker for a while, but even he succumbed at the end of turn four. Prisoner Witchling Thrall was able to kill Mourner, and whatever models there were in center had easy time dealing with two Def 4, Wp 4 models that were Rotten Belles.

At the end of fourth turn Resurrectionists still technically had the lead at 4-3, but Guild had essentially secured Assassinate end. Resurrectionists began last turn with just a single Rotten Belle, hidden behind the train.

So, last turn was pretty much just a matter of if Guild won 6-4 or 5-4. After shenanigans Hex Bow was able to run to Outflank corner. However, Witchling Thrall had more difficult a job in interacting bottom-left strategy marker and running within 3" of the other Outflank corner. Without handling from Handler the thrall fell short of his goal by about two inches. A 5-4 victory for Sonnia. 

Kill-stealing the kill-stealer

 Visited some friends in Vaasa, which meant a round of Arkham Horror, 3rd edition.

Scenario was Silence of Tsathoggua.

Investigators we had were Jenny Barnes the dilettante, Wendy Adams the urchin, Mark Harrigan the soldier and Stella Clark, letter carrier.

Investigators had a smashing success in their first few turns. In fact, two clues were found in the very first round. Stella bought shotgun with money from Jenny, and deliverer Mark to fight some monsters. As expected, he removed those with zero effort.

Same could not be said about the dilettante, who rolled and re-rolled a total of nine dice, but scoring only a single point of damage to grasping fungus.

Really early there an anomaly emerged in Riverdown district, but investigators were able to normalize things in just one round, too. 

It all seemed... too easy. 

However... Jenny started getting spammed by Lore checks with her mighty lore of 1, and despite focusing and re-rolls other players managed to pick only one doom token from the board at a time. Letter carrier became Tainted. Harrigan was more than adept at beating down monsters, but then again, that's all that he did. And that did not count too much for the scenario victory, except for when he shot down the elite Dhole that had been experimented upon, almost wrecking Corpse Picker on the same turn. 

For the longest of time only one Clue token was on the scenario sheet, while doom tokens kept popping up in there. Even Jenny had managed to pick up clues and had two in her possession, but did not succeed in planting even one of them on scenario sheet after six dice worth of rolls. I sure felt useful with my character.

After the letter carrier punched a street kid, clues started dripping where they should, and a new wing was opened in the science building to test the found Mi-Go stuff. Unfortunately, a street was eaten off the city by a gigantic maw. So investigators were in a bit of a hurry.

And soon enough, Tsathoggua awakened as investigators were unable to stop the amount of doom spiraling out of control. 

What struck me as a bit odd was how easy it was to stop Tsathoggua from gobbling up the city - although we did have perfect investigator for that, Stella, who was able to add a success by spending a focus point. Which meant that converting clue tokens into stops cost only one clue from scenario sheet. 

Anyway, we were a bit unprepared as the awakening happened so unexpectedly. This left into drastic measures. Harrigan had the Mi-Go brain box thing, so Jenny gave Harrigan her determination to find Isabella as well as her glamorous dress. Next, Harrigan absorbed Wendy's talents and personality, and most importantly, a lucky cigar case.

So, two investigators were robbed of their personalities and Harrigan, in his new fancy dress and brandishing a shotgun, went to shoot Tsathoggua for a bit. 

A Dhole had spawned in the same district as science building, and Stella had enough health to survive for two rounds, so there was somewhat of a limit. However, first round of attacks dealt twelve damage in to Tsathoggua. That's an impressive number of wounds for seven dice worth of attacks. Combined with automatic damage from tokens on scenario sheet, this meant the big bad evil had just four health left after first attack. 

Robbed of her personality Jenny, as a final act of defiance, tried to kill steal Tsathoggua with Astral Projection. Well, that amounted only to one extra damage.

Next turn.

Before Harrigan activates, Jenny tries to kill-steal the beast again with Astral Projection. She had three re-rolls at her possession, so she just might do that! Alas, two extra damage was the best she could do.

But then Wendy, the other robbed investigator, announced she would intervene in my kill-steal attempt. And there it was, two extra successes. So, that just happened. Kill-stealer got kill-stealed.

Guess Who Just Got a Promotion

 A 50 point game of Warmachine over War Table.

My list:

Oriax the soul Slaver
-Molok
-Ravener
Assault Reavers & Standard
Gnashers
Halexus the Warlord

Opponent had:

Khador Winter Korps
-Great Bear with Slam, Heavy Cannon and Blasting Fist
-2x Dire Wolves with Evasive, Ice Hammer and Scrap Saw
Shock Trooper Gunners
Winter Korps Infantry, 2x Auto Cannon, Standard
Winter Korps Infantry, 2x Rocketeer

For once my army was not hopelessly outnumbered. It was only outnumbered in all fronts. Khador had three heavies versus my two, and three infantry units versus my three. Oh, wait, I had one solo while Khador had zero. 

And what a solo that was.

Khador started. Zahara and both Dire Wolves claimed top-left rectangular zone, while Great Bear, rocketeer unit and Shock Troopers were pushing through a bottleneck in the middle. Autocannon unit was skulking near enemy flag, threatening my rectangular zone with at least contesting.

Halexus claimed my flag, and Assault Reavers were taking cover in craters partly inside the center circular zone. Molok got Inviolable Resolve, and Oriax hid behind the character warjack. Ravener hid in forest, going to score my rectangular zone.

Khador just kept advancing, Zahara and Wolves protected by the forest at left. Oriax had cast Windstorm, so Khador's ranged targets were somewhat limited. Still, the Rocketeer unit lunged forward and started shooting Assault Reavers in craters. They actually killed two of them with direct hits. 

Great Bear went contesting circular zone, with Shock Trooper Gunners backing it up. Autocannons went somewhere in between circular zone and my rectangular zone without contesting either. However, they were in a rather well defended spot.

Ravener had easy time collecting points from my rectangular zone. But then I had a decision to make. Should Halexus keep the flag, or go on a rampage?

Why, rampage of course! You don't win games by earning points, now, do you? And surely enough Halexus got his prime target - closely packed infantry formation. He absolutely massacred those, and still had three souls after he was done. Whoa. He was also contesting Khadoran rectangular zone.

Unfortunately I had called Gnashers from ambush. To at least do something with those, they just went to engage Zahara and a Dire Wolf, so opponent might have some trouble clearing the zone entirely.

Assault Reavers picked Shock Trooper Gunners as their next prey, but they managed to kill only two of them. 

Oriax used feat and loaded up Ravener and Molok. He also cast Star Crossed, which was completely forgotten about. Oh well... At least Molok set itself on fire and killed two khadoran infantrymen.

Gnashers... were just removed. It only took Zahara and Dire Wolf to do that, so one Dire Wolf was free to kill Halexus. It looked all but inevitable when first attack critically froze Halexus. And yet, after Khador passed turn, Halexus was still standing. Those damage rolls were absurd.

Great Bear and last remaining Shock Trooper Gunner only removed three Assault Reavers. Those guys were really pushing their luck. My objective, however, did not do so well after autocannons destroyed it. So, points went even.

Orgoth reprisal was brutal. Those souls really make things happen. Ravener gobbled up three souls, and Oriax made himself incorporeal and charged last remaining contestant from my rectangular zone. Halexus was thawing, while Assault Reaver killed lone Gunner still on the center zone. And Molok, well, that beast tear Great Bear to pieces in just one activation. And because Halexus was still contesting enemy rectangular zone, Orgoth received two point lead.

So, Khador started their fourth turn. Dire Wolf proceeded finally to smash Halexus off the board... and still did not do that. However, that was because of Tough roll. Zahara used enough velocity to lend her axe to Halexus' cerebellum, and the pesky solo was finally over.

Another Dire Wolf had to go to engage center zone and try to wreck Molok with some amazing rolls. While damage was okay, it did not break any systems. Orgoth remained leading by two points.

Next, however, Orgoth did a daring operation. Molok used Break Through and walked away from melee with Dire Wolf, engaging  enemy rectangular zone. So, it had to destroy Wolf and contest for me to win game this turn.

However, four strength 19 attacks just were not enough to remove a Khadoran heavy even if that heavy was the slightly lighter variant.

Last Assault Reaver activated and decided to lob his harpoon at the heavy that had lost it's movement. It was engaged in melee and had concealment. Essentially Rat 5 vs Def 11. It was a hit, and double sixes came up as the damage roll. That was more than enough to score center zone. Oriax went to enemy flag, while Ravener stayed in my rectangular zone for a 5 point difference for Orgoth.