Rematch

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal. Based on the earlier experiences of players in question, Jack Daw1 & Hoffman1 is a rough, rough match-up for Augmented. We wondered if the ruthless Wardens would be able to bring any solace for that, and this is that game.

Strategy: Flank Corrupted Ley Lines

Schemes: Claim Jump, Sabotage, Catch and Release, Runic Binding, Spread Them Out

My list was:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor with Servant of Dark Powers
Jaakuna Ubume
The Ferryman
Hanged
Crooked Man
Guilty

Pool: 4
Schemes: Catch and Release (Hanged), Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa KORE
Guardian
2x Warden
Watcher
Medical Automaton

Pool: 5
Schemes:

Turn 1:

Montresor heralded himself within about 6" of the center point, and the lodestone was loaded up on Ferryman. Guild had it on Watcher.

I hesitated to come in view of Augmented arsenal in the middle, so I tried to delay activating anything on top. This meant Lady Ligeia creeping behind the house, and Guilty plus Ferryman going to bottom-left strategy marker to tag it. 

Opponent was playing the same game as I did, so in the end I had to open up the middle. Jack Daw sped through the house and landed Curse of Injustice on a Warden that had taken position four or five inches below the center point. He was then able to push the bot to strategy marker at the center. 

Jaakuna walked to lure Crooked Man a little away from my deployment, and Montresor was cursed to watch how Crooked Man would take another step closer to centerline.

Hanged cursed Guardian with forbidden knowledge.

Hoffman had pulsed power tokens all around him, and took a double walk closer to center. He gave Guardian Fast. While Hoffman's position looked nice for some staggering shenanigans, Guardian entered the fray soon enough. Threat saturation just got real with only two models involved.

Guardian removed Hanged's upgrade, and Mechanical Attendant tried to fix its mental scars from forbidden knowledge. But a blowtorch can only do so much in a case like that, and only one damage was removed. 

Fortunately Montresor was able to stagger Hoffman, and Melissa missed her shot against Montresor anyway. 

The other Warden was going towards top-right strategy marker, and finally when Crooked Man activated, he first tried to use Earthquake on the bunch of models at the middle. Failing that, he charged Warden and scraped the paint off of the machine. Malifaux Mining Law got passed, with a scheme marker to boot.

Joss was approaching Guilty and Ferryman south to the biggest house on board, and that was turn one.

Turn 2:

Hoffman overcharged Guardian again, but only charged Hanged. This resulted in a loss of soulstone, as while the other attack failed with Black Joker, second attack compensated by delivering in a severe. After damage block Hanged was left with five health remaining.

I got a little worried about my Catch and Release as a whole, so Jaakuna Ubume activated, lured Hanged away and walked to protect Montresor with Drowning Aura.

But then Melissa activated and shot a weak damage on Jaakuna, followed by second shot with cheated Red Joker on damage flip. So she disappeared.

After such a display I didn't want to see that greatsword hacking on Montresor, so Jack Daw spent two activations landing Curse of Injustice on Guardian before charging in. 

Unfortunately, though, Guardian was not yet staggered, so Mechanical Attendant was able to repair it for a couple of damage points and push it into melee with Montresor. 

Montresor didn't have much other choice than to walk into melee with the Guardian, stagger it with melee attack and asphyxiate Hoffman, Warden and Guardian. 

Medical Automaton rushed to center to offer some healing starbucks oil for Augmented models around. 

But now there was an unhealthy amount of robots in the middle, and Lady Ligeia appeared to shout at them. And shout she did, also staggering Medical Automaton. 

Ferryman also ran to hug the center marker and succeeded in marking Guardian with no-heals for this turn. That starbucks just wasn't delicious enough to heal. I suppose things taste somewhat more bland when you're suffocating. Anyway. Guardian then smacked Montresor. And a damage flip was second black joker in a turn. The one attack that did hit landed a moderate au naturel, so that could have been far worse for me for sure. Even damage block came up as a severe.

Warden on top injured Crooked Man slightly, and the other Warden tried to knock away Ferryman from center objective, but didn't score any hits. Crooked Man tried earthquaking Mv 2 Hoffman, but he was protected by the selfless Mechanical Attendant, who also became staggered.

Hanged walked and charged Hoffman for Catch and Release, and Joss did a hasty reposition towards center. Watcher fluttered to tag the center.

First turn ended with a 2-1 lead for Resurrectionists. Although no robots had been wrecked yet from Augmented crew, situation did appear rather grimy for Guild. In regards to Montresor's auras, Augmented had just about the worst possible arrangement there could be. 

Turn 3:

Jack Daw got the initiative, and Hanged decided to pull out of melee to protect a scheme point. It offered some more forbidden knowledge with masks for Warden on top-right quarter and took a couple of swings the the thing. First one missed, but second one dealt double severe despite negative modifiers.

This left Hoffman free to charge Montresor, and sure enough Charles was able to pound Montresor down to one health remaining. This forced Montresor to activate before it was too late. He did a whopping five points of damage with bonus action. He also gave a walk for Crooked Man and did a point or two of damage in to Guardian. 

Guardian procced Montresor's demise, but more importantly, knocked the already activated henchman 4" away from other staggered models that were down to one or two health remaining. 

Jack Daw activated next, took a walk to get within 6" of Crooked Man and tossed the lodestone for Crooked Man. With last action he dismantled Medical Automaton with dead man's collar. After that I thought I needed more cards than suffocation aura as the affair with Montresor had been resource intensive, so Jack Daw used Fickle Tormentor.

Mechanical Attendant healed Guardian before I got to apply the final few points of damage. Remaining turn devolved into bashing the other Warden who was giggling with one hit point remaining. First Warden tried to kill itself by attacking Ferryman, failing at that. Then Ferryman gave Catch of the Day for Melissa and tried to kill Warden, failing at that. Lady Ligeia concentrated real hard and tried to yell Warden, who was still at one hit point remaining, down. Failing. At. That.

Eventually Crooked Man managed to quake the Warden dead before dropping a scheme marker with bonus and going to tag top-right quarter. Sheesh.

Joss charged Ferryman and did five points of damage through armor. Fortunately the second attack missed. Melissa also failed to dispatch Lady Ligeia. 

Guilty continued to spam scheme markers, and Watcher disengaged from Ferryman - only to engage Jack Daw. 

Scores went to 3-3, when both players scored strategy, but Guild also got their Catch and Release with Watcher.

Turn 4:

Although Guild survived last turn far better than how it looked like, it took only a few activations for us to call it a game. Ferryman activated first and flailed uselessly around. He did manage to land Mark of Vengeance on Watcher, though.

Watcher then disengaged from Jack Daw and flew to top-left quarter to tag strategy marker, but the poor bird was now with one hit point remaining. 

Montresor activated and did not Black Joker his bonus action, so the Watcher died. 

That was when we ended. Outcasts had pretty much secured six points at that point, while Guild would at most get five. 

Joss and two Wardens couldn't get their Ruthless to bear all that much throughout the game, so maybe this game was inconclusive when it comes to our little test. But needless to say, Jack Daw is still a rough, rough matchup for Hoffman.