Two 50ss games of Malifaux. These were played over a week ago during my Kuhmo visit, so details are likely gone from my memory. Both players were slowly getting a tad tired of Gaining Grounds 4, so we shook things up a little by playing gg1 strategies.
Game 1:
Strategy: Corner Public Enemies
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Research Mission, Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Claim Jump
My list:
Kirai & Ikiryo
Kari Zotiko
Jaakuna Ubume
The Ferryman
Lost Love
2x Drowned
2x Seishin
Pool: 6
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Breakthrough
Opponent had:
Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa K.
Peacekeeper
Guild Steward
Guardian
Hunter
Watcher
Pool: 5
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Ferryman), Claim Jump (Peacekeeper)
Scenario was such a killy one, but corner deployment made the first round mostly about closing in. Early on Hoffman have Fast to Peacekeeper, which made me a cautious. I overdid my defenses, slapping Twisting Mist for Jaakuna Ubume. Concealed Serene Countenance model should survive most shooting opponent might have at me.
Sure enough, round boiled down with Peacekeeper running so close to center point that I was kind of scared of next turn. Ferryman and Kari were near enough to charge.
Kirai tries to save the day by summoning a Goryo that manages to charge Peacekeeper and land Adversary on it.
All of my crew was coming from bottom-left quarter except for Ikiryo, who was hiding behind a dwarven house to perhaps launch a Lost Love to enemy deployment zone next turn.
Entirety of Augmented pretty much mirrored my movements, too, when all but Hunter were closing in from top-right quarter, sans Hunter that was hiding from Ikiryo on the opposite side of dwarven house.
Turn 2:
But something would have to hold up Fast Peacekeeper. Kirai summoned an Onryo for the job. However, she was dubious about a single five point minion holding up a buffed up 10 point enforcer, so Kirai went into hiding.
Fortunately Onryo gave hard time for Augmented. Melissa didn't land even a single hit, so Peacekeeper had to kill Onryo before moving suspiciously close to center point.
One of the Drowned managed to distract and poison Peacekeeper a little, while the other charged at the thing. Would I have to rush my models against the thing piecemeal, one by one? How about my bounty tokens?
Well, Jaakuna Ubume charged Hunter so that it wouldn't go to engage Ikiryo. She did the drowning aura. Hunter was in for some bad time, as every action it failed gave a point of damage, and every attack that actually hit would deal two. It nearly scrapped itself in trying to remove Jaakuna. It did well enough, so Kari had to heal Jaakuna with her entire activation.
And then Guardian came to swing the greatsword at Jaakuna. She survived, and had caused seven or eight points of damage via vengeance and drowning aura in total.
Desperately trying to get bounties to score, Ferryman tried to wreck the Hunter. Ferryman managed to claw only a couple of damage points, which left Hunter with two. Looked like Ikiryo would have to delay her proceedings to not lose points from this round.
Lost Love teleported to Ikiryo and gave her Fast with a trigger. He tried to heal the damage he had caused, but didn't get it quite right.
Ikiryo projected voice over Hunter. She had Focus +1 from last turn, and used that to get through friendly fire - and scored a severe wound! Yay, two bounty tokens and two action points to get as far from the action as possible.
Both players scored strategy, but no schemes were revealed. It was a 1-1 tie, but situation on board looked miserable from my point of view.
Turn 3:
And surely enough, Kari spent most of my soulstones. Lost Love had to teleport in to double-heal Kari, and so did Kirai. Without the teleport, of course. But, in the end phase, Kari was all alive and well. Same could not be said about Guardian and Peacekeeper that had been hitting themselves for quite a while.
As situation in the middle had devolved into a gigantic melee, Ikiryo was able to walk and plant a scheme for Breakthrough. Yay. Kari had survived to give me Let Them Bleed. But no robots were dismantled this turn, while opponent had plenty enough bounties.
Opponent did no reveals, so Urami took the lead with 3-2.
Turn 4:
And in the middle... uh. Huh.
Kari died, which put heals back on the menu for Augmented. I needed to hurry to get kills. Guardian went down easily enough, but unfortunately that meant that Hoffman and Tanuki doubled up on heals for Peacekeeper.
Drowned kept putting dents into Peacekeeper, and another Drowned charged Melissa, who was also near the middle by now.
Opponent needed four tokens for a victory point, which wasn't available. Kirai had managed to kill Guardian and Watcher, so that was the three bounties required for a point. Scores went 4-2 for Resurrectionists.
Turn 5:
Opponent had a chance for a difficult draw. We played until it became impossible to achieve.
And the only proper way to get at that was to punch some damage in to Tanuki after it had activated. Let Them Bleed was secured. Breakthrough was, too.
Oh, but Guild can't have Tanuki's, you say? Okay, okay, Guild Steward, then. Anyway.
Opponent also got both of their scheme end conditions for a 6-4 victory for Kirai.
Game 2:
Strategy: Wedge Symbols of Authority
Schemes: Sabotage, Spread Them Out, Vendetta, Take Prisoner, Runic Binding
My list:
Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Ferryman
Malifaux Child
2x Hanged
2x Guilty
Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Runic Binding
Opponent had:
Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Soul Battery
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Illuminated
Beckoner
Tanuki
Pool: 6
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Ferryman), Sabotage (Fallen arch in bottom-left quarter)
Turn 1:
We were playing Wedge from left to right.
I had two strike teams of Guilty and Hanged attempting to flank. Oh, and Malifaux Child, too, was flanken' at the bottom. Oh yeah. All the kid did was to pull Kitty Dumont to center line. What's this? This is no McCabe? Surely Lynch would not take children as prisoners?
Montresor, Lady Ligeia and Jack Daw guard one symbol of authority near my wedge corner. Montresor gives Ferryman a walk, so it was able to either go charge Kitty Dumont, or place first marker for my schemes. It decided to interact while still able.
I don't remember who or what shot a severe damage to Ferryman. It was probably Lynch with his derringer. Suddenly no access to Kari's heals... felt.
Hungering Darkness went to harass my second Guilty/Hanged team on top, but there were no exchanges just yet.
Turn 2:
And surely enough, Jakob Lynch offered the figurehead a free sample. The undead mermaid shook off the ropes, descended down from the front and started doing brilliance right there. Lynch had convinced her to become Honeypot's new Beckoner.
Jack Daw goes to place a third scheme marker for Runic Binding, and charged Mr. Graves. As a move it was... less than ideal because of Black Blood. But I needed Jack to stand on top of the scheme marker so that the multitude of as of yet unactivated models would not just go and pick it up.
Montresor was in range to perma-stagger Mr. Graves. Lady Ligeia made a shout at Mr. Tannen, bursting the little man's ears with a shriek. Shriek blasted a nearby Beckoner, staggering her too.
Guilty and Hanged below tried to engage and hold up people near the wreckage of Ferryman.Before Soul Battery had activated, Hanged gave him the psychotic upgrade when opponent no longer had any cards in hand. That was a 3" push towards the triangle of Runic Binding.
Jack Daw's valiant sacrifice paid off, but he wasn't in a good shape at all. This lead to a weird move by me. Guilty on top had charged Hungering Darkness to tie it up. Hungering Darkness didn't do too much damage, so Hanged gave the Forbidden Knowledge for Guilty and teleported next to it. Then he hit Guilty with the noose and walked away, healing Jack Daw for one.
Beckoner, Mr. Tannen and Jakob Lynch in close proximity are a terrible bubble for Jack to be in.
But, at least I scored Runic Binding, while opponent got nothing. A 1-0 lead for Tormented.
Oh, Malifaux Child had disengaged from Kitty, hopefully activating soon enough next turn to drop a scheme marker, until Kitty comes to claim the prisoner.
Turn 3:
Shock and awe! Illuminated kills Guilty, Hungering Darkness kills Guilty. I'm not sure if I have ever had eight card hand, but next turn I would.
Shock and horror! After draining pretty much every resource at my disposal, Lynch is able to give Jack Daw a firm handshake. I suppose that's what Jack Daw's tormented spirit was looking for, because he disappeared after the fact.
Montresor and Lady Ligeia are able to finish off Mr. Graves.
Hanged on top places a scheme and walks towards the unknown.
The ultimate shock!
At the end of turn three, scores were still 1-0. Has it ever been so before? Not going to check, but it must be about as rare as having scores of 4-4 at the end of second turn.
Turn 4:
Hungering Darkness goes to pick up first ever Symbol of Authority.
Hanged on top and kid below continue to walk and drop schemes.
Montresor could have dropped a scheme marker and charged on top of it, trying to kill Mr. Tannen. But instead I chose violence, trying to remove Mr. Tannen with two attacks. Reason was Hanged below that had managed to drop two scheme markers next to Illuminated with lucky triggers.
Too bad that Lynch turned Hanged into another Beckoner. Thus, Illuminated had all the time in the world to remove both scheme markers with just one action.
What a mess. I didn't get a point this turn, but fortunately opponent wasn't going that strong either. Perhaps because they had already killed their chosen prisoner. But, Ten Thunders took the lead at 2-1, when they finally had enough markers for Sabotage.
Turn 5:
Hopeless turn. Hopeless game.
Somehow I had failed in my scheme marker placement in such a way that I had the capability to get Spread Them Out or a strategy marker, but not both.
Two points for me throughout the game. Woohoo.
Kitty was able to pick up a strategy marker, and also go to place the required scheme marker for sabotage end condition.
A clear 4-2 victory for Jakob Lynch. And let me say, he deserved it. He killed Ferryman, Jack Daw and Hanged, plus managed to summon ten stones worth of extra models.
Jakob Lynch 1 is my #1 opponent in play count, and out of all of my masters that has played a game against him, Jack Daw1 is the only one that hasn't scored even a single victory. And this was third such game.
But I guess black blood and all those cheat auras count for something if I have to park Jack Daw in the range of every one of them.
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