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.