Hopeless Prospect

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: In Your Face, Deliver a Message, Espionage, Protected Territory, Take Prisoner

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waif
Rusty Alyce
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
Desolation Engine
Scavenger
Abomination

Pool: 4
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Huckster), Protected Territory

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe2 & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Desper LaRaux
Mr. Ngaatoro
Rough Rider
Huckster
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 7
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Scavenger), Espionage

Turn 1:

Right during the deployment I had a dilemma: Sidir was in the middle, so should I deploy my Def 3 chunk of desolated flesh to middle, where it might do something, or to board edges where it might be a bit safer?

Because of the building in the middle, I chose to deploy it quite deep in my deployment zone to rush it to building that offered LoS block for the thing. Wastrels got the initiative and Luna dug up a Timeworn Blade for McCabe. 

After taking cover in the center, my other models stalled as much as they could, with Hollow Waifs just shuffling around and concentrating. Eventually Outcasts had to move a bit more forward, and Scavenger activated to push Ashes and Dust for a bit. 

But that was after McCabe had taken a double walk and concentrated for a bit near center line. Rusty Alice brought her gun to bear, dealing .. two points of damage, despite hitting twice. Well, at least she shot two soulstones off the Wastrel cache!

Sidir took a double walk and started shooting Rusty Alyce, getting two points of damage through Alyce's armor. 

Leveticus placed a scheme marker to bluff Espionage, and walked behind some barrels to try to unmake Hopeful Prospect. 

Marlena Webster took position to tether both Rusty Alyce and Leveticus. By then Mr. Ngaatoro and Hopeful Prospect had paired up, approaching center line from bottom of the map. Huckster concentrated, and rather unfortunately managed to Black Joker the Secret Passage. 

In the center, McCabe and Sidir were holding the center point against Rusty Alyce and Desolation Engine. Just a little further up, Desper had crossed the centerline and was stalked by Abomination. 

Top of map had Rough Rider to take a shot at Ashes and Dust, which missed and then the tasmanian devil took a full 14" walk next to Rough Rider.

Turn 2:

Going from top to bottom, Rough Rider and Ashes and Dust just looked at each other, shrugged and carried on with their own stuff. Ashes and Dust dropped strategy marker and scheme marker, while Rough Rider just rode past the thing, walked for a bit and dropped strategy.

Scavenger was not able to move past gravestones, so it just took a walk and shot Desper LaRaux with shotgun, doing a bit of damage. Abomination also charged Desper, but only managed to give Desper a free 3" leap. Oh well. Desper leaped a little to place a strategy marker just past Abomination's walk range and went to engage Scavenger. This was one of the last activations of the round, and certainly raised suspicion that Explorer Society had just tagged their prisoner.

Hollow Waifs kept shuffling about, the one in top-right quarter walking to catch Desper under entropy aura, where he already was anyway. 

And then the middle, wow, what a mess. Lucas managed to stun Rusty Alyce, and we misplayed one thing a little and gave Sidir one Fast too many. Well, at least Lucas forgot about his own Fast the turn before. 

Sidir and Lucas shot Alyce down to four health remaining. She activated and decided to heal a couple of point instead of shooting. Which she also tried, twice, without much of an effect this time around. However, Desolation Engine was now free to activate and it charged Sidir. The ten point amalgamation of living flesh and machine only managed to take a parry to the face. 

Marlena Webster walked on top of size 2 pipe to cover more area with her tethering aura. She also tried to take a shot at Hopeful Prospect, and that prospect certainly had reason to be hopeful, as this attack also missed. Leveticus took a double walk and placed strategy marker before Hopeful Prospect and Mr. Ngaatoro tried to hack him up. That was five points of damage caused by Leveticus without him doing anything. 

Huckster was able to teleport a little closer, but failed the second Secret Passage - much to my frustration, too, as Huckster was my prisoner target!

Both players scored strategy, and Explorer's Society also tagged their prisoner for a 2-1 lead.

Turn 3:

Going from top to bottom, Ashes and Dust waited until Rough Rider activated to go and place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. Eventually Scavenger did the same. Rough Rider was able to shoot one Hollow Waif dead and heal Desper a little.

Desper failed to leap, so he had to walk to place a scheme marker on my deployment zone. 

In the center things were heating up. Abomination walked to deny healing for McCabe and Sidir while Wastrels were busy setting up their Fast-train. Fast Sidir hacked Desolation Engine into an Abomination, who actually did, like one or two points of damage or so. Entropy and built-in tome trigger caused more damage to Sidir than all the combined attacks of my crew. 

Rusty Alyce was able to chip four points of health off from McCabe. Fast Huckster failed to use Secret Passage, so she just walked to place a scheme marker on center line, before she noticed an enormous teddy bear towering over her, just wanting to give a hug. Marlena Webster had walked to engage the prisoner. 

Mr. Ngaatoro, Leveticus and Hopeful Prospect were locked up in a weird brawl that didn't seem to be going anywhere. But unfortunately last attack from Mr. Ngaatoro hit and scored two points of poison, meaning neurotoxins would be active next turn, too. 

Both players scored strategy, Outcasts got their territory protected and prisoner tagged, and Explorers got Espionage. This was when opponent realized he had completely forgotten about the scheme marker required in his own deployment zone for the End condition.

What sort of 4D chess was this Huckster playing?! First she Black Jokered Secret Passage after concentrating, and now there was important reason for her to go back to Explorer Society deployment zone.

Scores balanced out at 4-4.

Turn 4:

Wow. Just wow. 

I don't think I have seen such carnage in Malifaux before - or at least, only few times. 

Fast Lucas McCabe brandished his lash, and he started striking at the tormented and miserable amalgamations of undead flesh and machine, killing both of them with two strikes. No-heal auras were thus long gone, so Marlena had to try and kill Sidir that only had like three health left. Marlena healed with a severe in an attempt to endure until next turn and took her swing - and took two points of damage from parry. Oh joy.

Nope, she didn't. Sidir butchered her and her teddy with two attacks, and started to shoot with his machine gun just for giggles - and look at that, Red Joker on damage against last remaining Hollow Waif. 

Brutal.

Huckster placed an explosive now that center only had Rusty Alice nearby and took a walk towards own deployment zone. Apparently Alice was a wee bit shaken, watching the carnage unfold, and pretty much missed all of her attacks.

On top side, Rough Rider went to protect one strategy marker Wastrels had planted after Ashes and Dust dropped an explosive to woods and flew to protect the marker it had dropped earlier. 

Scavenger also dropped a strategy marker and shot a severe damage against Rough Rider. 

Desper failed his jump again and had to walk to place strategy marker. 

Below, Leveticus and Mr. Ngaatoro continued their deathmatch, which looked a whole lot more threatening now that all Waifs were gone. 

Despite me putting all the effort into killing Mr. Ngaatoro early in turn, Leveticus only managed to score a weak damage against the henchman. In response, Mr. Ngaatoro beat the old man down to two health remaining. When did they start this game of chicken? Turn two?

Anyway, an honorable mention goes to Hopeful Prospect. He took one shot at Leveticus that missed, and got damaged because of it. And he lost his remaining three health points just because of activating. Poor guy.

Scores continued with a 5-5 tie.

Turn 5:

Leveticus finally scored his kill, and still had action points to place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. 

Rusty Alyce tried to attack McCabe twice, but neither shot hit home. Using the rapid fire felt a bit useless as Sidir still had five health remaining, but I still decided to go for it. And a severe it was. Way too late, but at least I got another kill. 

Rough Rider starts shooting at Scavenger, who bids his time to figure out what to do. For sure he'd not stay in enemy table side, though. Except... he did. Just not in a way I expected.

Lucas McCabe activated and placed a scheme marker on centerline, and started shooting the Scavenger. Double moderates on both attacks were enough to score a kill.

So, now we can add summary execution of prisoners to the long line of Lucas McCabe's heroic actions. In our games that guy has been so beyond abhorred in his moral choices that I should compile an actual list. 

Anyway, we ended game there because Scavenger was the last part able to affect game state in any meaningful way. 

It was a hard fought 7-7 draw when both crews scored full points from strategy, and everything else but end condition of Take Prisoner. 

Richard? Now that's a good boy!

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Plant Explosives (gg0 version)

Schemes: Power Ritual, Claim Jump, Search the Ruins, Detonate Charges, Hold Up Their Forces

My list:

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
White Rabbit Co.
Mourner
Dead Doxy
2x Rotten Belle
2x Dead Dandy

Pool: 4
Schemes: Power Ritual, Search the Ruins

Opponent had:

Clampetts, Fisherfolk & Bruce
Aunty Mel
Uncle Bogg
Sir Vantes
2x Hermits
Buckaroo

Pool: 4 
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Detonate Charges

Turn 1: 

Surprisingly, Seamus did not shoot anyone dead this turn.

Bayou was somewhat bottlenecked by the weird building in the middle. Uncle Bogg, Bruce and one of the Hermits got stuck on each other, and the head count almost included Sir Vantes, too, if it wasn't for the 3" push that ignores models.  Sir Vantes took position at front, ready to charge the plethora of models in his reach. Too bad only Madame Sybelle did not have a disguise.

Aunty Mel and another Hermit rushed behind a rock on right flank. Buckaroo with a bomb was soloing the left flank.

Resurrectionists offered almost a unified front piecemeal. Going from left to right, Copycat Killer had teleported Seamus within 1" of blocking terrain after the master had dropped a scheme marker to top-left corner. 

Rotten Belle with explosive token and a Dead Dandy were also there on the left front, biding their time as their only real threat was the Buckaroo... oh, and the Clampetts. But they were not directing their rage against the pair. They started tossing dynamite on the widow weeping for her recent loss that had overextended her sorrow by trying to feed on Sir Vantes' grief. She didn't succeed at that, but she certainly caught the sizzling dynamites. Mourner even shared the fireworks with Madame Sybelle, taking five points of damage herself, and three to Madame. 

White Rabbit felt uncomfortable around gremlins, so they crafted a hat for Dead Doxy and went into hiding behind a mud house to the right. Dead Doxy admired her hat in front of the hut.

I now realized I forgot to drop the corpse marker from Mourner deployment. That could have been an easy-ish scheme marker to the corner where he instead wasted an actual action point planting marker for Power Ritual.

Explosive carrying Rotten Belle to the right lured the Dandy a little closer, preparing to flank from far right. 

Turn 2:

Surprisingly, Seamus did not shoot anyone dead this turn.

Before opponent would finish what he started with Mourner, she charged the Angler master. Attack did not amount to anything, but Sir Vantes started to feel a little grief. Soon enough Madame Sybelle failed Undivided Attention with a black joker, so she, already injured, decided it's best to die with high heeled boots on. She actually did rather well against Sir Vantes, after she and Mourner were done, the knight in shining coat of snail slime was down to two health remaining.

However, Sir Vantes killed the Mourner, healed himself for two points and stunned Madame. And set Dead Dandy on fire with Bait the Waters. How does that even work out?! Bruce licked the Sir's wounds away, so in the end he was missing just one point of health.

Since situation was about to get tough for Madame, White Rabbit Co. offered her some support with a fancy new hat, and again went hiding, this time inside some fog terrain.

Hermit and Aunty Mel to the right didn't manage to kill Dead Dandy that had exposed himself. Rotten Belle to the right took position to plant a bomb next turn, while Dead Doxy started her long road towards bottom-right corner. 

Buckaroo to the left bonus walked, dropped a bomb and charged Copycat Killer, but did not score enough damage to kill. Clampetts, I think, shot a couple points of damage to Dead Dandy in the middle, leaped to forest on the left and did a scheme marker there at end of activation. She may have tried to attack Copycat Killer too, but there the bugger is still standing in the picture with one health remaining. 

Copycat Killer made a relatively big mistake in trying to shear the creature during live rodeo. He managed only to poke damage to it. Worried about the damage he'd done, he tried to plug the hole with a bullet from his half pint flintlock pistol. While Buckaroo got decent damage out of these attacks, the 6" of free movement was also a problem. 

However, I didn't and wouldn't get strategy points this turn unless Seamus used Secret Passage to get to the weird building in the middle, walk and place both a strategy and a scheme marker. Although now that I think about it, maybe I could have done without a scheme marker for one more turn and shot Buckaroo instead. Oh well. 

Dead Dandy went to place a scheme marker next to a wall, and turned Mourner's corpse into a scheme marker. 

Rotten Belle to the left had taken a double walk to get into contact with enemy strategy marker. 

Scores went 2-1 for Resurrectionists, as they got their Search the Ruins.

Turn 3:

Surprisingly, Seamus did not shoot anyone dead this turn.

Madame Sybelle took some serious beating in the middle by Hermit, Sir Vantes and even Bruce. She lost her hat and used up my remaining soulstones. But still she was standing during end phase, with two health remaining! 

She tried to kill Bruce, but instead damaged Hermits. Two points got through its armor. Second attack hit Bruce, but left the puppy with one health remaining. 

White Rabbit proved to be a bloodthirsty beast when it, too, scored two points of damage to Hermits that had been pushed around by Uncle Bogg to drop a scheme next to terrain. Hermits removed itself from melee with scuttle and charged Sybelle. Uncle Bogg had placed a strategy marker, too, but according to all safety procedures he is sitting on the explosive in the picture. 

Rotten Belle to the right goes to drop a strategy marker while Hermits and Aunty Mal on that flank kills Dead Dandy and nearly Rotten Belle, thanks to a moderate damage with three negative modifiers to the flip. 

 Clampetts kills Coopycat Killer, staggers Rotten Belle and leaps to interact a strategy marker and do a scheme marker with silurid shenanigans. Buckaroo runs to remove a scheme marker from my top-left corner.

Staggered Belle wasn't going anywhere soon, so she just picked the box of explosives from ground and shambled to Bayou side of table. 

Burning Dandy in the middle did a double walk to perhaps make a scheme marker before succumbing to flames. 

Seamus took a secret passage, doubly walked to bottom-left corner and placed a scheme marker there for Power Ritual. 

Both players scored strategy, Bayou got Search the Ruins and Resurrectionists did Power Ritual for a lead of 4-3.

Turn 4:

Surprisingly, Seamus did not shoot anyone dead this turn.

Madame Sybelle, however, did score a kill against Hermits in the middle. First kill for Resurrectionists, yaaay! At least that was what I suspected would happen. Nope, White Rabbit's needle and thread was Resurrectionist's most impressive instrument of death in this game.

Dead Doxy drops a scheme for Power Ritual end and hopes Rotten Belle survives long enough to lure her, as there was now grave concern that top-right corner would be gone during fifth round. She at least had the hat. No such luck, however. Aunty Mel kills Rotten Belle to the right with her bonus action and goes pick up her explosives. Aunty's Hermits had earlier charged past Belle's engagement range to drop their explosives on my side of table. 

Bruce manages to bite off half of what was left of Madame Sybelle, and Sir Vantes carried through with the rest. 

Uncle Bogg went to secure the mud house on my right side, while Clampetts interacted a scheme, stomped almost next to White Rabbit Co. and dropped an explosive. Shenanigans brought up a scheme marker that started to look a lot like Detonate Charges on White Rabbit.

Buckaroo goes to drop a scheme marker in forest in the center on my table edge.

Situation looked grim. Due to less than ideal placement of strategy markers to the left, Rotten Belle was able to squeeze in one strategy marker adjacent to board edge - but she wouldn't be able to drop the second bomb she had with the marker Seamus had dropped earlier.

Seamus dropped a strategy and a scheme to bottom-left corner and took a double walk towards his earlier, misplaced explosive. 

Before burning to ashes, Dead Dandy placed a scheme marker for Search the Ruins end condition.

Both players got their strategy, and Bayou finally got their Detonate Charges for a 5-5 tie.

Turn 5:

Surprisingly, Seamus did not shoot anyone dead this turn.

It looked like I was at Clampetts's mercy with Power Ritual, so Dead Doxy with the hat just ran into contact with a terrain piece, out of sight of Aunty Mel. 

Seamus was able to walk to the troublesome strategy marker, pick it up, move away and drop it again. Most efficient use of 4 AP master's action points, let me tell you!

Rotten Belle was thus able to place my fourth explosive to the ground, and there was exactly enough scheme markers next to terrain to score Search the Ruins.

Clampetts had no trouble in getting to my top-right corner to convert my scheme marker there, so Power Ritual was ruined.

Throughout turn I had been burning through my stash of pass tokens and DAMN wasn't the mobile hat booth of White Rabbit Company more popular than it has ever been! Bruce, Buckaroo, Uncle Bogg and Sir Vantes all trampled over each other to reach the booth. 

Idea behind using up my pass tokens was to wait until everyone had activated, miraculously score masks trigger from Beckoning Call to remove a Bayou scheme marker, and then try to move or disengage if need be away from remaining scheme marker. But eventually White Rabbit got staggered by Clampetts, so now White Rabbit would have to do with 1.5" of movement inside tide markers. 

Well, that plan fell short at the masks -trigger part that never happened.

Bayou had brutally enforced their Detonate Charges end condition, and had more than enough markers for Plant Explosives and Search the Ruins. 

And as Resurrectionists lost their Power Ritual while scoring remaining points, it was still a 8-7 loss for Seamus. 

Also... absolutely mind-blowingly, Seamus did not even shoot at anyone in this entire game. 

But They're Just Cannons

 A 50 point game of Warmachine on War Table.

My list:

Kishtaar with Wind Storm & Inviolable Resolve
- Ravener
- Jackal with Advance Deployment, Clawed Fist and Hunter Rifle
- Jackal with Advance Deployment, Heavy Bolter and Hunter Rifle
Ulkor Barragers
Assault Reavers & Standard

Opponent had:

Ilari Borisyuk with Avenging Force and Something
- 3x Dire Wolf with Evasive, Cannon and Scrap Saw
Sergeant Lazarenko
Sergeant Sergei Krol
2x Winter Korps Infantry with Rocketeers & Standard

Scenario was Recon from Steamroller 2024.

Khador started, and their formation was rather symmetrical one. Infantry Korps at flanks, warjacks and warcaster kind of there in the middle, and sergeants were supporting the infantry units, Krol on the left and Lazarenko to the right.

Orgoth hid a Jackal, Ulkor Barragers and Ravener behind a forest, another Jackal and Warwitch Coven to the left and Assault Reaver unit going into Dust Devil objective terrain, getting stealth from a command card.

And Kishtaar. Well. Yeah. I realized I had no good target for Inviolable Resolve either in range, or even in the list, she just cast Wind Storm and ran to objective. Whoo boy. Not to self: check those threat ranges once in a while.

So, despite Wind Storm, a Dire Wolf was able to charge nine points of health off of Kishtaar. Ouch.

Other Dire Wolves were less successful in their endeavors, and one of the Jackals only took a few points of damage. 

Ilari and Lazarenko were proccing their Prowl inside of a batch of tall grass, Lazarenko claiming the 30mm objective. Infantry Korps unit to the right played Stealth on them to offer some protection against harpoons of Assault Reavers.

The other Winter Korps unit went to secure enemy flag terrain along with Sergeant Krol.

On my turn, first models to activate were Ulkor Barragers that removed half of Winter Korps from the left, as well a few boxes off from centermost Dire Wolf.

Then, thanks to my interesting choice with Kishtaar's placement, she was now in a bad place. She did use her feat, cast +2" range spell, shot with a Jackal and spent her own shots at the centermost Dire Wolf, but could not wreck it. She had zero focus points, again. At least Power Swell gave one.

However, I did not consider that enough of a protection. Jackal with ranged attacks only had to spent its entire payload against the Dire Wolf, and even then got it only down to one hit point remaining. There were no other attacks I had available, so Rifle-Claw Jackal had to spent its feat shot against the Khadoran heavy at one health remaining. Both Jackals formed a wall of steel to block LoS to Kishtaar, and the ranged-only version even had Shield Guard card played on it.

Assault Reavers went to shoot Infantry Korps to the right. Being their Prey target, four models able to attack reduced the number of Korps by equal amount while still controlling flag zone.

Well, Ilari had his feat turn, and Beat Back on Dire Wolf cannons were able to open up LoS for both Dire Wolves during Hour of the Wolf. Fortunately Ilari had been spending his time shooting at Assault Reavers for secured feat procs, so his sniper shots downed only two of those. Remainder of Winter Korps in the right took out a third Assault Reaver.

First Dire Wolf shot against Kishtaar was shield-guarded by Jackal, but the other one was not. Damage roll, however, was not enough to end the game. She now had three hit points remaining.

Winter Korps on the left were able to seriously injure Shield-Guarding Jackal - so much so, that it only had about two boxes remaining in Movement. 

But hey, game continued. Did Kishtaar learn her lesson yet? Oh no, why would she! She just kept shooting at a Dire Wolf, killing of Sergeant Lazarenko with ricochet shots. She was, again, left with just one Focus for damage block. Oh well.

Ulkor Barragers went to pick up cache and killed all but one Winter Korps on the left. I had tried to repair broken Jackal with Old Faithful, but rolled a beautiful "1" for the amount. War Witches gave two points of focus for it, and one for the still functional Jackal. 

Broken Jackal killed the last Winter Korps on the left, which meant Khadoran flag terrain was no longer controlled. Ulkors were also blocking enemy 30mm objective. 

Assault Reavers retreated to Orgothian flag terrain zone, and Orgoth went to have four point advantage in scenario thanks to an off-point gained earlier.

However, Kishtaar still had to survive a grenade pod barrage from Sergeant Krol and a fully boosted cannon shot from Dire Wolf. Big cannon missed, and so did the little cannons. We ended the game there, as scoring two while denying me every point was unlikely with the forces currently on board. Victory for Orgoth.

Richard, nooo!

A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Flank Turf War

Schemes: Assassinate, Search the Ruins, Take Prisoner, Breakthrough, Claim Jump

My list:

Madame Sybelle with Grave Spirit Touch & Carrion Effigy
Bete Noire
White Rabbit Company
Flesh Construct
Gravedigger
Rabble Riser
2x Rotten Belle

Pool: 4
Schemes: Take Prisoner (One of the Buckaroo's), Breakthrough

Opponent had:

Clampetts, Fisherfolk & Bruce
Uncle Boggs
Aunty Mel
Sir Vantes
Hermits
2x Buckaroos

Pool: 5
Schemes: Assassinate, Search the Ruins

 Turn 1

Madame Sybelle did not consider turfs adequately settled last time around, so the henchman master and Clampetts had to settle the scores again.

Both Buckaroos went towards top-left quarter, and since the other one of them was my chosen prisoner, I dedicated a Rotten Belle, Rabble Riser and Bete Noire for the pair.

Another Rotten Belle and Gravedigger went towards bottom-right quarter, trying to hide behind the building.

White Rabbit Company crafted a hat for Flesh Construct, who I thought would be taking damage soon enough, as he was Aunty Mel's adversarial target. Hermits blasted White Rabbit Company, which had me worried for their safety, so Madame Sybelle tried to act as a body block between them and Bayou. It kind of worked, though Madame certainly was in a precarious position after Sir Vantes pushed her closer.

Flesh Construct was my last model to activate, and it went to flip center marker for Resurrectionists. Aunty Mel took a shot at the thing, dropping its fancy hat already.

After interacting top-right strategy marker, Clampetts went near the center point to toss dynamites around. Aunty Mel was nearby as their back-up.

Sir Vantes led the charge of Hermits, Bruce and Uncle Bogg from Bayou bottom branching flank. They just had to cut through Madame Sybelle to follow through. Easy, right?

Turn 2:

Only thing more annoying than to tie up a Buckaroo is to tie up two Buckaroos. It was a weird mess how that panned out, but eventually Rabble Riser and Bete Noire managed to kill one. Take Prisoner target took a run towards bottom-left quarter, but fortunately it was well within Rotten Belle's reach to go and engage.

Aunty Mel killed Flesh Construct without breaking a sweat, and picked White Rabbit Company her next target. Hastily they sewed a hat for Madame Sybelle before trying to get as far from action as possible. I think they also beckoned Aunty Mel within 2" of Madame. At least they attempted that.

However, they would have needed to take both action points as walks away, as they were shot to pieces by Hermits and Clampetts. The Fisherfolk are also a scary good schemer, as they were able to leap, interact and end their activation to score reveal condition of Search the Ruins.

As I had been losing my turf markers left and right, Rotten Belle to the right and Gravedigger had to dedicate their activations to get a turf marker in a hard to reach place of bottom-right quarter.

So, scores went 2-2 as both players got strategy, Resurrectionists Take Prisoner and Bayou Search the Ruins.

Turn 3:

Prisoner Buckaroo disengaged from Rotten Belle, and I considered my chances about catching a model able to walk 18" a turn, take a 3" move whether I landed or missed a Lure, and able to push enemy models away with a tactical action. Good riddance, Buckaroo. Rotten Belle lured Rabble Riser closer for it to go and claim top-left quarter as Madame's turf. This also let Bete Noire to walk to enemy deployment zone and plant a scheme for Breakthrough.

Center brawl drained my resources. There were so many Anglers around, and annoyingly enough they were dealing damage only one point at a time, so they succeeded in creeping beneath Assassinate range of health. 

Aunty Mel took some good damage from Madame Sybelle, but Aunty wasn't too shabby damage blocker with soulstones either. Carrion Effigy had tried to come and somewhat restrict that, but it only had a point of health left. Sir Vantes broke the effigy to its components.

Rotten Belle on right re-took bottom-right quarter, and Gravedigger rushed towards Bayou deployment zone. Uncle Boggs had charged Madame Sybelle earlier in the turn, but had an emergency push towards Gravedigger by heroic intervention from Sir Vantes.

Clampetts had placed a scheme to a brick wall and leaped to a bigger rock formation to secure a second terrain piece for Search the Ruins end condition.

Prisoner Buckaroo had run into contact with bottom-left quarter strategy marker, but didn't have the action points to interact. Bayou did get Assassinate reveal condition, but so did Resurrectionists get Breakthrough and strategy point. It was a 4-3 lead for Resurrectionists! 

Turn 4:

In the ceter it was finally time for Madame Sybelle to fall, perhaps because opponent ran out of cards and had I cheated a little higher card, opponent would have had to shuffle deck for just one card. And look at that, moderate wound with one negative modifier. Ah well. Lesson learned. But she sure tanked like a pro in this match, and maybe even could have made it to last round.

Uncle Boggs charged Gravedigger, but dealt only two points of damage. Gravedigger then dug up a corpse and went to take a closer look - away from melee - and now able to interact a scheme. Bete Noire was doing the same at the top lane of Bayou deployment.

Rabble Riser tried to run and stun someone with his challenge, but Anglers cared little about the punk zombie.

Buckaroo got bottom-left quarter for Anglers and went into contact with another brick wall, and Clampetts walked and leaped to a crypt of sorts, tagging third terrain with a scheme marker. 

Rotten Belle at left made a futile attempt at running towards prisoner Buckaroo just to do something at least. She was essentially out of game anyway.

Bayou evens the scores to 4-4 tie with a strategy point.

Turn 5:

Game was pretty much done for at the center, top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right quarters, but there were some exciting elements going on in the top-right quarter. 

Well, center ties into that when Rabble Riser had walked and charged to try to kill Aunty Mel to neutralize bottom-left marker, burning through my hand in the process. 

Uncle Bogg also forced me to cheat and discard cards to protect Gravedigger. The Angler henchman managed to score Slow on Gravedigger that took away the option for me to score a surprise third strategy point and deny opponent one point, although truth be told - that somehow escaped my attention at the time. But with two action points Gravedigger would have been able to flip top-right strategy marker for Resurrectionists. Then he'd only have to survive Richard's charge attack without soulstones or cards in hand, easy!

However, by then I didn't even have enough cards in hand to get past Uncle Bogg's chatty. Not to mention overbearing stench of Richard, who was finally summoned into the game into contact with Gravedigger. Getting stunned would have messed up the digger's corpse inspection push.

So, Anglers scored strategy and both schemes, while Resurrectionists just got their Breakthrough for a grand total of 7-5 for Anglers.