Hatemail for the Four Winds

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Corner Plant Explosives

Schemes: Hold Up Their Forces, Information Overload, In Your Face, Ensnare, Power Ritual

My list:

Dr. McMourning with Killer Instinct & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Carrion Emissary
Rafkin
Kentauroi
Nurse
Little Gasser

Pool: 4
Schemes: In Your Face, Power Ritual

Opponent had:

Shenlong & 2x Aspiring Students
Sensei Yu
Banying
High River Monk
Charm Warder
2x Wandering River Monk
Low River Monk

Pool: 4
Schemes: Ensnare, Hold Up Their Forces

Turn 1:

McMourning kept spamming astonishing amounts of poison on his models (well, Rafkin did, actually), while Shenlong and other monks kept enlightening themselves in corner deployment - absolutely zero shots were fired between teams.

Kentauroi, Nurse and Zombie Chihuahua were going towards top-left corner. Little Gasser placed a scheme marker to my deployment corner and wobbled forward. 

Everything else was hanging around in the graveyard. McMourning crafted a soulstone out of a zombie Carrion Emissary propped up. One Mindless Zombie survived the turn.

A Wandering River Monk was going towards both top-left  and bottom-right corners, and everyone else meditating between them.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists got the initiative, and Kentauroi went to drop a scheme marker to top-left corner for Power Ritual.

After that, I tried to stall by activating Mindless Zombie, Zombie Chihuahua and Little Gasser, but opponent had Aspiring Students and other non-critical models to activate. I wanted models such as High River Monk and Shenlong to do their activations before committing to anything meaningful. But that plan had to be revised.

Carrion Emissary advanced next to a wall, concentrated and did a bunch of zombies. Before High River Monk would activate. Nurse sped up to Carrion Emissary for some Bedside Manner. Eventually this did save the bird after Shenlong and whatnot had shot the Carrion Emissary what they got. High River Monk then charged Emissary and did weak damage. But after second attack Nurse picked up the bird and cradled it away from danger.

McMourning did a thing, where he walked, ordered himself to walk a bit forward, dropped an explosive and charged Charm Warder. I didn't expect Charm Warder to die with one hit, but that just happened. 

A Wandering River Monk planted an explosive past centerline near top-left corner before walking back to safety.

Both players scored strategy, but Resurrectionists also got Power Ritual for a 2-1 lead.

Turn 3:

Looks like third turn is missing a picture. 

Well, from my perspective one of the more pivotal moments was Fast High River Monk attacking the already injured Carrion Emissary, managing to kill it with flurry attack. There went my In Your Face end option.

To avenge that, Rafkin, Nurse and whatever I could conjure up spammed and stacked attacks and Poison on the High River Monk. Success rate was only moderate, but that was enough to soften up the target for McMourning to come and finish as one of my last activation for the turn.

Kentauroi placed another scheme marker and a strategy marker to top-left corner. 

Carrion Emissary's Zombies that now had a turn to activate went to stand on the explosive token McMourning had dropped to deny easy pick-ups. Sure, they died to whatever opponent directed at them, but at least they had to direct something at them.

Banying leaped to a scheme marker somebody... perhaps Yu? ... had dropped and went to tease my explosive carrying Little Gasser. Fortunately attacks didn't hit, but Little Gasser wasted his entire turn trying to pull off Pull My Finger -trick - failing both tries. 

Shenlong had Four Wind Punched McMourning and Sebastian both within 3" of two scheme markers, so there wasn't really a way I'd be able to deny Ensnare this turn. 

I was starting to run low on zombies to guard explosives, so Sebastian went to sit on the first one that McMourning had placed. I'm not sure if guarding explosives by sitting on them is the safest course of action, but whatever that works, I guess.

Both players scored strategy, and Ten Thunders scored Ensnare easily enough. Resurrectionists struggler with In Your Face, but eventually managed to get that for a 4-3 lead. 

Turn 4:

This turn McMourning went on an amazing rampage. He ordered himself to centerline to drop High River Monk's explosive, then charged Low River Monk, killing him in one hit. He had three health remaining, but he bought critical strike with a stone. There was still one Aspiring Student in McMourning's melee range, and that went down, too. While targets themselves weren't all that impressive to strike down, the fact that they hadn't been activated yet was a biggie.

Taking notes from Sebastian from last turn, Rafkin went to sit on an explosive. Wandering River Monk came to check if Rafkin was okay because that didn't look safe.

Shenlong Four Wind Punched McMourning into contact with Sensei Yu, so Hold Up Their Forces was secured for Ten Thunders.

Banying didn't do a particularly good job at getting rid of Little Gasser, so the other Wandering River Monk had to come and finish the guy who still wasn't finished with the Pull My Finger trick. 

Nurse was able to push Sebastian away from melee with Shenlong so that he was able to go and drop a strategy marker.

Kentauroi rode to Ten Thunders strategy marker, picked it up and went in position to drop it next turn.

Resurrectionists scored strategy, and finally Ten Thunders got their Hold Up Their Forces. Scores continued 5-4 in McMourning's favor.

Turn 5:

Resurrectionists had no trouble with getting the fourth point from strategy. But both scheme end conditions were out of question. 

Sebastian was able to kill Sensei Yu, and McMourning did the same to Nurse to deny a target for Ten Thunders schemes. But all that wriggling was in vain - three Four Winds Punches were able to deliver people and scheme marker to engage Rafkin and Sebastian.

That ability just blows (four times) my mind without a TN, with such a long range, high stat and no targeting restrictions. It managed to claw a close fought 6-6 draw for Douglas and Shenlong.