Survival Elections

 A 50ss game of Malifaux, 3rd edition. My intention was to use options that I have used less often, and that I can't use in 4th edition. 

Strategy: Standard Cursed Objects

Schemes: Breakthrough, Load 'em Up, In Your Face, Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waif
Yannic Waller
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
Hard Stop Herbert
2x Catalan Rifleman
Abomination

Pool: 5
Schemes: Load' Em Up (schemes), In Your Face

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Peacekeeper
Guild Steward
Hunter
Warden
2x Watcher

Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Hollow Waifs spent their activations concentrating, while Hoffman loaded up Peacekeeper, Melissa and Attendant, before double-walking to the center of the board. Mechanical Attendant slammed a piece of destructible hazardous terrain to open up way for Peacekeeper.

Yannic Waller tried to take a cautious walk, taking cover from a wall and consolidating a Catalan Rifleman closer. 

Melissa punished Yannic with her gatling gun, dealing in a total of three damage after a damage block..I got worried for her safety, because Peacekeeper was yet to keep its peace for the turn. Marlena Webster took a double walk inside tall grass to tether Yannic's soul.

However, Peacekeeper was more into leaving a lasting mark, and took a double walk to place a scheme marker near center point. 

There were now Peacekeeper, Hoffman and Melissa near each other in the center. Although Guild Stewanuki and Mechanical Attendant were also near the trio, they had already activated. Catalan Rifleman was able to stun both Peacekeeper and Hoffman before Leveticus activated. Hoo boy. First action point was to transfer some of Hollow Waif's essence for Yannic Waller, and then blast Peacekeeper twice with Unmaking. After he was done, Peacekeeper was down to two health remaining.

One Watcher was hugging both table edges. Warden was kind of aiding the one to the right, and Hunter was with the left one. Ashes and Dust took a walk+charge at the left Watcher, dealing just one point of damage, but scoring Like the Wind for some additional movement.

Another Catalan Rifleman landed a solid two-pointer on rightmost Watcher. Augmented saw Hard Stop Herbert rolling slightly past centerline on the right, and they were hating. Oh dear. That meme betrays my age. Anyway, he dropped a scheme there. Abomination was on the same flank, trying to figure out what to do.

Turn 2:

Augmented won initiative, and so Hoffman activated. He took a walk to get near Peacekeeper and healed it for four. 

Before Watchers would do something annoying like drop their cursed token on my models, Ashes and Dust activated and secured a strategy point for me, along with a scheme marker.

Guild Steward healed Peacekeeper back to full and removed its stun. Oh well. There's plenty more irreducible damage where it came from. To keep Peacekeeper within 3" of Hoffman for In Your Face, Yannic decided to sacrifice herself for democracy. She walked near Hoffman and blasted democratic elections, healing herself, Catalan Rifleman and Leveticus, while damaging Hoffman, Peacekeeper and Warden.

Her sacrifice was in vain, though, since Peacekeeper wanted to keep peace elsewhere. It walked, charged and flurried Marlena Webster... dead. Strategy point for Augmented. So, Leveticus would have to get within 3" of the thing, then.

I started trying to soften it up first, and Catalan Rifleman was indeed able to flip a double severe with negative modifiers. I think he also stunned somebody, perhaps Melissa. However, Mechanical Attendant took a double walk to heal Peacekeeper for a bit.

So... Leveticus walked and charged in, right on top of Marlena's corpse. He managed to flip a double severe with negative modifiers with double Necrotic Decay. Boom. Peacekeeper gone. Then he casually unmade Mechanical Attendant dead. Ew. That's all I have to say. Eww. However, Leveticus was now at four health remaining without Augmented having dealt even one point. It was all my own handiwork.

Melissa and Warden dealt with Yannic, bringing her down to one health remaining. 

Hunter was speeding towards my deployment zone.

Hard Stop Herbert pushed onward, dropped a scheme near Watcher on the right, and charged the steel pterodactyl, not doing much.

The Watcher disengaged and flew to receive cover from my remaining attacks. But Catalan Rifleman didn't shoot it - he took a double walk behind a cage, where centerline meets the table edge. Hollow Waif walked and siphoned Watcher instead, but dealing only one point of damage, so it now had just one point remaining. Unfortunately Abomination that had ran to Herbert's first scheme wasn't close enough to cover Watcher inside Entropy aura.

Hunter kept creeping towards my deployment zone, which had me believe opponent might have picked Breakthrough.

So, Amalgam got their In Your Face, but so did Augmented get their Leave Your Mark. Both got strategy points for a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

Augmented got initiative again, and decided to fly with the Watcher who had one point remaining to place a scheme.

Yannic had to activate to advocate for democracy again, giving her the sorely needed health point to get her above Hard-to-Kill threshold. Other than that she didn't do much, except drain action points from opponent. Because of Hard-to-Kill, it took both Melissa and Warden to kill her. Melissa did shoot Catalan Rifleman down to one health remaining. I wanted to try to save him, and brought Abomination in to the fray instead. Unfortunatly it was only able to get Warden within no-heal aura, but at least it took Hoffman's entire activation. Augmented got their strategy point that way. 

Either the Catalan Rifleman at one health or Hollow Waif to the right killed Watcher, scoring strategy for Amalgam.

Hunter did a scheme marker NOT in my deployment zone, so it wasn't the breakthrough I suspected. Now my guess was all spread out. 

Hard Stop Herbert climbed on top of hill to place a scheme marker, while the Catalan Rifleman hiding behind a cage did the same. Ashes and Dust dropped sixth marker.

Leveticus took a double walk out from tall grass, and charged in between Hoffman, Melissa and Warden. At the end of turn. Warden went down to one health remaining.

Guild Steward only healed Warden for a bit, and went to place a scheme marker suspiciously more than 10" away from both Watcher's scheme, and one that Hunter placed earlier this turn. 

So, Augmented got their Spread Them Out, but so did Amalgam get their Load 'Em Up. Both got strategy for a 4-4 tie.

Turn 4:

Leveticus wrecked Warden for strategy point, and dealt some damage to Melissa. As he was engaging both Melissa and Hoffman, he was quite annoyingly there, blocking interacts. And he had used Necrotic Decay to get to two health remaining, so a very juicy target indeed. Somehow Hoffman had to spend all of his action points in killing the old man, before he got teleported to Hollow Waif to the right. 

Since Melissa was now unengaged, I was worried that she might do some miraculous flips and yeet Leveticus to the Waif on the left, so Hard Stop Herbert took a point of falling damage, Onward and walk to stand in front of Leveticus. 

Melissa did indeed try after dropping a scheme marker, and dealt moderate with negative modifiers against Herbert. No blast trigger though.

Guild Steward also dropped a scheme marker and walked into position to do even more next turn. Hunter dropped a marker and went to tease Hollow Waif. Hollow Waif teased Hunter back, and tried to position so that Deadly Pursuit couldn't be used to best effect.

Ashes and Dust just kept hanging around in the enemy deployment zone.

My easiest curse token targets had been the Catalan Riflemen, but the one who had a single point of health left had started running towards bottom-right corner, and was out of reach. The other one was hiding behind the cage. Warden had carried a curse token, so Amalgam gained a narrow lead of 5-4.

Turn 5:

Melissa did the unimaginable, and walked and charged to take a shot at the Catalan Rifleman who was literally in contact with two table edges. And scored the kill. 

Opponent was able to place all and every scheme marker for Leave Your Mark and Spread Them Out without me being able to do anything to that. Ashes and Dust got In Your Face uncontested.

However, the other Catalan Rifleman took a double walk to Melissa and bonus action interacted her his own curse token. Herbert charged Melissa, but she was able to block all damage with soulstones.

So, it was Leveticus' job to deal the last remaining three wounds in. However... there was a 13 and Red Joker coming up with Sanguine Evocations, so game was pretty much decided there and then. Leveticus unmade Melissa and took a double walk to get within three scheme markers for a close 8-7 victory for Outcasts.

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Covert Operations

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Set the Trap, In Your Face, Catch and Release, Public Demonstration

My list:

Hamelin, the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Yannic Waller
Fumigator
Disease Containment Unit
Tunnel Rats
Malifaux Child

Pool: 4
Schemes: Set the Trap, Public Demonstration (Malifaux Child, DCU, Fumigator)

Opponen had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner
Tanuki

Pool: 3
Schemes: Catch & Release (Illuminated), Set the Trap

Turn 1:

At least Gwyneth, Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Lynch and Tanuki were funneling though a narrow gap from the center of their deployment zone. Gwyneth had been moved around by various effects so that she was able to go to center-left strategy marker and drop a scheme marker.

Catching and Releasing Illuminated was going towards center-right strategy marker along with Hungering Darkness. Beckoner was almost hugging the table edge and running towards top-right strategy marker. Bottom-left was covered by the other Illuminated.

I realized I had not remember to hire a Malifaux Rat to my crew to do the final act of coronation. But I still carried on with the task of making enough rats to form a Rat King. 

Tunnel Rats and Fumigator placed one scheme markers and traveled towards the upper half of the board. Yannic Waller was leading the way. She took a point of burning along the way from hazardous terrain, because Fumigator and Tunnel Rats had managed to block other ways.

After placing her own scheme marker, Disease Containment Unit managed to lure a rat out of Fumigator's scheme marker with Rapid Response. 

Malifaux Child slapped the fourth marker and went to benefit from concealment from inside the tall grass. 

Nix went kind of halfway between bottom-left and center-left strategy marker. 

Hamelin took a walk forward and removed the scheme marker Gwyneth had placed, before obeying Mr. Graves to charge Tanuki. Bwahahaha. Unfortunately the little **** didn't die to fencepost-to-face.

Benny did a bunch of rats and walked on top of a hill.

Turn 2:

... and that was eight pass tokens for Ten Thunders. 

Hungering Darkness walked and charged Yannic Waller, slapping  her for severe damage. So she was at one health remaining, and burning. Fortunately democracy saved the day! Or... at least the turn. She did the elections and healed her back to two.

Beckoner went to top-right strategy marker and placed a scheme marker. Tunnel Rats did the same. 

Catch-and-releasing Illuminated walked near center-right strategy marker and tried to scintillate clouds somewhere. Benny, who was able to snatch Fast from a free scheme marker, walked within 2" of center-right marker and started shooting the Illuminated without much of a result.

Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Lynch and Gwyneth claimed the center, re-establishing a scheme marker. Lynch was able to shoot respectable damage in to Hamelin with unrespectable Derringer.

Disease Containment Unit had been slowed by Hungering Darkness, so she wasn't able to move far enough to score Public Demonstration. Malifaux Child couldn't either. 

Rats formed into Rat King and tried to get closer to action with its two actions - remaining vigor from a delicious cheese offered by Stolen.

Last Illuminated went to bottom-left strategy marker and placed a scheme marker there.

Fumigator and Nix went to place required markers for Set the Trap. Hamelin obeyed Disease Containment Unit and Malifaux Child near Jakob Lynch. 

Outcasts managed to get both of their schemes, and claimed top-right strategy marker. Opponent took center-left, which seemed to be a hotspot to contest.

Scorest went 3-1 in favor or Hamelin.

Turn 3:

Since there was no tanukis nearby, Mr. Graves applied fencepost to Malifaux Child for lethal results. 

Rat King wanted to avenge the boy, and did get three attacks out to Mr. Graves, bringing him down to one health remaining. But Tanuki cheered him up above Hard-to-Kill threshold.

Benny Wolcomb went fast again and charged Illuminated that was holding center-right strategy marker. My intent was to kill the thing and claim that marker, but Benny did only like two points of damage. Tunnel Rats teleported nearby and tried to shoot the Illuminated with trench gun, without much of a result. Irony here was that I essentially offered Ten Thunders their Catch & Release this way. Oh well.

Yannic Waller managed to activate before Hungering Darkness, and used the power of democracy to survive for yet another turn. Hungering Darkness did bring her back down to one health remaining, though, and she still had burning. Fumigator had to assist that away for her not to die.

Gwyneth had done quite the move. She managed to call Hamelin, Disease Containment Unit and Rat King to play at her table - Hamelin being far from Stolen now, with only five or seven health remaining. I think she did some additional damage in to Plague master, so not only one but two Stolen had to walk close by. But even so, Hamelin decided to ditch the situation and went  outside of Boring Conversation range. He obeyed already activated bottom-left Illuminated away from strategy marker, and tried to remove scheme marker from under Gwyneth Maddox, failing at that. 

Nix walked in front of Hamelin to act as a bodyguard. 

Lynch went to place a scheme near Benny. 

Beckoner claimed top-right strategy marker, I claimed center-left. Ten Thunders got their Set the Trap, but also Catch and Release from Benny's voluntary embrace. 

Scores evened out to 4-4 tie.

Turn 4:

...and then everybody died. Hungering Darkness finally killed Yannic. Benny and Tunnel Rats were able to catch and release Illuminated from his life, thus denying a point.

Gwyneth and Mr. Graves killed Disease Containment Unit and Rat King. Hamelin obeyed Mr. Graves to raise Tanuki to fencepost. I think Mr. Graves actually passed the resist, he just obeyed Hamelin out of his own volition. However, Tanuki didn't die. Instead, Tanuki was obeyed to swing at Mr. Graves who was at one health remaining. Unfortunately Tanuki missed, too.

It was probably Nix that then was able to kill Mr. Graves, but not finish Tanuki.

Ten Thunders claimed bottom-left marker, Outcasts center-right for a 5-5 tie.

Turn 5:

Hungering Darkness and Lynch were able to kill my last public demonstrator, so that was a point off from me.

Tunnel Rats were able to teleport behind Lynch and drop a scheme with trigger, and charge him to engage. Mr. Tannen had come to center-right strategy to perhaps claim it, but Nix was obeyed to engage him.

Hamelin was able to walk and disengage to bottom-left strategy marker to claim it.

Game looked very much like a stalemate, as Lynch had a scheme marker next to Benny who was at less than half health remaining. He had already tried to injure Lynch down to half health remaining.

... and once again, rude, spitting kids won me the game. He started throwing up at Lynch from top of a hill, missing with first attack, but landing a solid (ew...) three points in with his last attack. Lynch was not at half of his health remaining.

It was a close fought 7-6 game in favor of Outcasts.