Decaying Ghosts

 A 3rd edition game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Corner Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Protected Territory, Ensnare, Hold Up Their Forces, Information Overload, In Your Face

My list:

Kirai, Envoy of the Court & Ikiryo
Kari Zotiko
Jaakuna Ubume
Lost Love
Goryo with Grave Spirit Touch
Gwisin with Grave Spirit Touch
Gwisin
Seishin

Pool: 3
Schemes: Hold Up Their Forces, Protected Territory

Opponent had:

Kastore, Fervebt & Marathine
Barbaros
Gwyll
Leech King
Cavern Nephilim with Grave Spirit Touch
Urnbearer
Blood Vessel

Pool: 3
Schemes: Protected Territory, In Your Face

Turn 1:

There was little engagement between forces. Cavern Nephilim and Kastore went top-left, so I was hesitant to commit there. So I didn't. 

Barbaros was flying near right table edge, and the remainder of Returned were in between these two flanks.

Urami had Ikiryo nearest to Kastore, with non-GST Gwisin and intel picking Lost Love close by... too close!

Near the center point there was also a juicy gathering for Kastore - Jaakuna, Kari and Goryo all within blast ranges. 

GST Gwisin and Kirai were going bottom-right, although Kirai was still near enough the center to cover it with her auras.

Turn 2:

Kastore walked and charged Ikiryo, and blasted both Lost Love and Gwisin... with a red joker on damage. Whoopsie. Second attack killed Ikiryo easily enough.

Cavern Nephilim picked up intel and walked forward, past centerline.

In the center Kari made a gambit, walking and charging to engage Gwyll and Urnbearer, almost catching Blood Vessel. The trio beat Kari down to three health remaining.

Goryo ran away with intel, and Lost Love teleported to Kirai and went to pick up bottom-right intel, far from most  threats. He was now at two health remaining, and it looked like Barbaros might be within shenanigans+walk+charge range, so grave touched Gwisin went to engage him. And engage for Hold Up Their Forces.

Seishin took a double walk to heal the other Gwisin pitifully. Gwisin then walked to take a swing at Kastore. He did a surprise moderate with negatives, but his purpose was to Hold Up Their Forces.

Kirai went to place a marker for Protected Territory, Jaakuna did the at the center. Goryo had accidentally spawned an Enslaved Spirit, whose defensive flips were through the roof. Leech King and Blood Vessel dealt just a single point of damage in.

Both crews got strategy, while Returned got In Your Face from Ikiryo. Urami got both of their schemes for a 3-2 lead.

Turn 3:

Cavern Nephilim started dropping scheme markers past center line. Kastore removed a Gwisin, and came to threaten center. Goryo charged him and dealt four points in, and Seishin ran nearby to offer its weak heal in case Goryo survived Kastore.

Kirai was able to summon Ikiryo out of Barbaros. She also picked up intels.

Barbaros and Leech King were attempting to murder the Enslaved Spirit, and oh my god were those defensive absurd again. It still continued to survive, albeit down to one health remaining. 

Urnbearer lured Gwyll away from Kari's melee, who was then able to pick up intel after Jaakuna had picked up one too. Jaakuna was trying to go top-left, where there were no longer heavy hitting dangers around. 

Grave touched Gwisin walked to guard Kirai, and Ikiryo just took a double walk to perhaps blast Leech King, Barbaros and Blood Vessel with a projected voice.

Both crews got strategy, so Resurrectionists continued with 4-3 lead.

Turn 4:

Kastore rampaged through Goryo and Seishin, killed Seishin and charged Kirai. Gwisin took the attack, although that didn't stop her from being damaged with blasts.

Finally Enslaved Spirit is killed, but another one was summoned in its place, along with a Gaki. 

Ikiryo walked and charged into the bunch instead, but managed to die to Gwyll's decays.

Kirai continued swirling and picking up intel, also trying to save half-wounded Gaki in the process. It could have been used for Protected Territory end condition had it survived.

Goryo and Kari finally kill the Urnbearer. Kari floats aimlessly, not quite deciding if she should push for intel or Protected Territory end condition. Jaakuna does kind of same.

However, Blood Vessel leaps to Kastore, walks and uses bonus action to plant a scheme for protected territory.

Lost Love survives, and that's it.

However, thanks to Kirai's weird summons Urami was able to contest strategy markers so that Returned failed to pick three intel for this turn. They did, however, reveal their Protected Territory.

Scores continued in 5-4 favor of Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Kastore kills my extra summons, freeing Leech King and Barbaros to pick up intel - which they did. So much in fact that a single steal wouldn't  rob Returned of their strategy points this turn.

Gwyll managed to shoot Kari down to one health remaining. Didn't know ghosts decayed this effectively. 

Lost Love had managed to teleport away to safety to Jaakuna, who was holding the marker for Protected Territory.

However, having lost both Gaki and Enslaved Spirit before they were able to activate, I wasn't able to make enough scheme markers to counter Marathine's removals.

Cavern Nephilim easily got to my deployment and to drop a scheme there. 

Kirai tried to summon a new Ikiryo to Blood Vessel in an attempt to deny a point from Protected Territory, but failed to score masks on Thirst for Vengeance. I did have a twelve of masks in hand, though, but I had to save that one.

GST Gwisin got to engage Leech King, and Goryo disengaged from Gwyll, walked and used bonus action with the aforementioned twelve of masks to teleport to Barbaros for Hold Up Their Forces.

Counting scores, Urami got fourth strategy point plus Hold Up Their Forces. However, Returned scored their third strategy point as well as both schemes, so we were looking at a tough 7-7 draw.

Machine Gun of Injustice

A 50ss game of Malifaux 4th Edition on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Informants

Schemes: Grave Robbing, Public Demonstration, Breakthrough

My list:

Jack Daw, Spirit of Betrayal & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Kari Zotiko
Guilty
Guilty 2
Drowned
Drowned 2
Crooked Man
Bone Pile

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe Tomb Delver & Cryptologist
Sidir   
Desper
Jessie   
Rough rider
Rough rider
Ruffian 
Huckster  

Turn 1:

Schemes: Tormented: Public Demonstration on Lucas. Wastrel: Grave Robbing with Remains

Tormented picked Public Demonstration on McCabe. Wastrels picked Grave Robbing with 

True to the deployment's name, two flanks quickly formed. 

A Guilty, Kari, Lady Ligeia, Montresor and Jack Daw were on one, butchering up a Huckster and summoning a Drowned to Jessie.

Well, Jack Daw was kind of part of that flank a until Desper LaRaux yanked him from strategy marker in the center and planting him to face Rough Rider's and Sidir's gun barrels. 

To the right, models were piling up to a strategy marker near the center of top-right quarter. First, Crooked Man ran to contest the marker, trying to lure McCabe nearby. Due to some luck, this eventually succeeded after a Cryptologist, Rough Rider and Ruffian had failed to kill it. Granted, Crooked Man did have cover as he was inside a building.

Miraculously enough, McCabe was not able to score the kill either. However, one of the Rough Riders managed to score the kill. A hired Drowned and Bone Pile contested the marker, but Wastrels had it with Cryptologist, Rough Rider and McCabe. But I still had a Guilty left to activate that I had planned to onward-walk and walk to drop a scheme near McCabe for double points on Public Demonstration. However, Onward failed even with an empower.

Wastrels scored Grave Robbing with Remains marker, and Tormented also got a point from Public Demonstration. Both got strategy thanks to Desper hooking Jack Daw away from center.

Game was tied at 2-2.

Turn 2:

Schemes: Tormented: Assassinate Jessie. Wastrel: Leave Your Mark

Sidir shot Jack Daw down to four health remaining, so Kari had patch him up as well as he could. She also used soulstone trigger to move him to a slightly better defensive position. My next activations were Montresor charging Jessie, who was staggered, and almost killed her. Jessie was able to heal herself a bit, but finally Jack Daw scored  double points from assassinate.

Lucas, Cryptologist and Ruffian managed to kill both Bone Pile and Guilty as I was securing assassination. Both Rough Riders and Desper block center marker and drop two scheme markers for Leave Yout Mark. One Rough Rider was especially well placed so that Lady Ligeia and another Guilty were not able to go place even one scheme marker block Leave Your Mark double points. At leastLady Ligeia was able to claw Rough Rider down to three health remaining. 

Both players got strategy and doubles for their schemes, so scores were tied at 5-5.

Turn 3:

Schemes: Tormented: Runic Binding. Wastrel: Reshape the Land

Somehow Sidir was able to shoot both Jack Daw and Guilty dead in one activation. Sure, Daw was down to two hits with a raise, Guilty required just one without a raise. Rough start for a turn, but at least the dying ended there. Oh wait, it didn't. Later Lucas McCabe drowned Drowned in bullets, despite it being in cover and concealment. 

A Drowned and Montresor plant the required schemes for Runic Binding, which easily enough scores two points. But I was running out of action points now that Jack Daw and Guilty were gone before they were able to activate. Wastrels were able to drop scheme markers with impunity, with there being little I could do to remove them even if I suspected Reshape the Land.

Resurrectionists  were able to kill the already gravely injured Rough Rider. My losses were not quite 3:1, because Kari had been able to summon a Drowned, but it was a non-interacting, non-contesting model.

Both crews scored two points from schemes, but since Lucas McCabe had shot Drowned that had been controlling bottom-right strategy marker, Tormented lost a point from strategy.

Scorest went 8-7 for Explorer Society.

Turn 4:

Schemes: Tormented: Ensnare. Wastrel: Search the Area.

Both crews scored a point from their schemes. Tormented had quite a few movement shenanigans, but failed to utilize them well enough to push a required number of Wastrels away from contesting strategy markers, and so Explorer Society reached full 11 points again 8 by Resurrectionists.

Coughing in the audience

 Strategy: Wedge Recover Evidence

Schemes: Ensnare, Take the Highground, Harness the Leyline

My list:

Hamelin, Piper & Benny
Nix
Fumigator
Tunnel Rats
Ratcatcher
2x Stolen
2x Prospector

Pool: 3

Opponent had:

Colette, Star of the Show & 3x Mechanical Doves
Shadowlark
Cassandra Felton
Blackbird
2x Showgirl
Altus Keene
Irena Keene

Pool: 2

Turn 1: Plague picked Take the Highground, Performers attempted Ensnare

Plague started and got strategy point with Tunnel Rats. 

Colette walked, Sleighed a decoy marker near Tunnel Rats and bedazzled them twice, drawing up secrets with both.

Hamelin walked, gave a walk for Tunnel Rats to get out of likely Ensnare, summoned rats and moved rats and Nix with Piper's Dance.

Irena walked, charged a Malifaux Rat and blasted away one of the earlier scheme markers.

Benny summoned rats and resupplied.

A Mechanical Dove walked and charged and killed Tunnel Rats with crow trigger.

Fumigator took a double walk to stand next to deployed enemy strategy marker. Caustic Mist summoned a new Tunnel Rats and did damage to Colette, and we erroneously (I think?) delivered Shadowlark to Fumigator. Wordening could use some clarification. I would've considered "attack" to refer to attack action, but opponent intuitively associated damage to attacks. 

Showgirl walked to beckon Shadowlark closer, but quickly regretted that because of hazardous. 

Rat Catcher double-walked on top of terrain and summoned a couple of rats.

I tried to stall with Malifaux Rats, but opponent just activated Mechanical Doves 

And then Shadowlark went to town with Fumigator, leaving it to one or two health remaining. 

Stolen took a double walk to enemy strategy marker and summoned a couple of Malifaux Rats. 

Altus zapped a couple of Malifaux Rats with arced Shatter Illusions.

Last Stolen and a Prospector didn't do very meaningful activations, but another Prospector went to control the Highground.

A Showgirl and Cassandra go to Keene siblings. 

Nix ran on top of terrain inside enemy deployment for scheme.

Performers failed to score points. Plague got two.

Turn 2: Plague picked Search the Area, Performers took Reshape the Land on Decoy markers.

Shadowlark, Colette and Blackbird kills a Stolen, played whack-a-rat and seriously damaged Tunnel Rats, as well as picked up strategy. After Irena picked up another strategy, I didn't even bother for this round.

Hamelin and Benny summoned quite a few rats that were eventually cleared out by Altus and Mechanical Doves. Hamelin managed to black joker Haunting Melody on Nix, which was especially bad for Search the Area. 

Tunnel Rats moved and escaped the venue by walking and using Secret Passage to drop a scheme marker for Search the Area now that 

Cassandra and Showgirl were beating Benny, who summoned more rats. Benny was able to damage Showgirl down to one remaining, but Altus was able to heal her back to full.

Shadowlark and Colette put down the required decoy markers for Reshape the Land one pointer.

Nix placed two schemes for Search the Area, which Plague scored with one point thanks to Hamelin's black joker.

Plague got a point from scheme, while Performers got a point from strategy as well as one from their scheme for a 3-2 lead for Plague.

Turn 3: Plague picks Breakthrough, Performers took Public Demonstration.

For strategy extra point, Tunnel Rats dropped a scheme with trigger before being killed by Mechanical Dove... again. 

It shouldn't have been that hard, but it took Prospector, Benny, Stolen AND Hamelin to kill one Showgirl. And it happened at a good point too, because opponent could have revealed  Public Demonstration. Benny got tome trigger from his rat summons, and planted it on the centerline. With the marker that Prospector dropped last turn, Plague was able to score two points from Breakthrough.

Fortunately opponent wasn't that effective with attacks, either. I lost only Rat Catcher, second Stolen and the Tunnel Rats, plus every rat my crew was able to summon. 

In three turns I had managed to kill a Showgirl. Strategy was not looking good.

But, Plague did manage to get the extra points for Recover Evidence, and two for Breakthrough. Performers also got the extra evidence point as well as regular point, but Public Demonstration failed. Scores went 6-4, so chances were it wouldn't matter that much that I was so far behind on attrition.

Turn 4: Plague picks Frame Job, Performer picks Detonate Charges

Plague managed to kill the other Showgirl, too, and Hamelin picked up both strategy markers. 

I also had the opportunity to bluff each possible scheme with my first move - moving with Prospector's bonus, dropping a scheme and charging Cassandra Felton. This could be Frame Job, build up for Assassinate as Cassandra was barely above half of her health, or even Public Demonstration since Prospector was a minion.

Irena came to butcher up the Prospector, netting Plague two Frame Job points.

Arcanists managed to get just two scheme markers to Benny Wolcomb, but they also picked up two strategy markers.

Game ended in a 9-6 victory for Plague.

No Fronts

 A 50 pts game of Warmachine Mk4 over War Table.

My list:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra & Deryliss
-Harrower
-Seether
-Slayer
-Deathripper

Mechanithralls +3x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
2x Necrotech
Machine Wraith

Opponent had:

Cygnar Storm Legion
Major Anson Wolfe
 +Onslaught, Force Hammer, Snipe

-Stryker with True Sight head, Voltaic Halberd, Heavy Mag-Bolter
-Courser with Arc Node head, Voltaic Spear, Electrified Shield

2x Stormguard Legionnaires with Standards
Arcane Mechaniks
Sharpshooter

Scenario was Two Fronts.

Second turn I did a Harrower + Lucky Penny Soul wraithshot thing to trigger overrun for Seether, who had Spectral Steel on. The thing charged to enemy 50mm marker, and mauled Stryker down to two health remaining, thanks to two rolls of only 4 with two dice. Well, at least someone was there contesting the 50mm marker.

Mechanithralls were just able to charge a unit of Legionnaires and remove half of them, the important bit being that they contested enemy 40mm.

Cygnar struggled to remove the Seether, but ultimately did so. Both units of Legionnaires removed half of Mechanithralls. Board state looked like an interesting battle might be coming up, but Cryx got two points from 50mm and 40mm markers, thus also claiming the two point bonus, while Cygnar only got one point - thus giving the win already for Mortenebra.

My Very First Ashen Core

 A 50ss game of Malifaux 3rd edition, with the addition of terrain scaling and jumping from 4th.

Strategy: Standard Raid the Vaults

Schemes: Take Prisoner, Sweating Bullets, Information Overload, Power Ritual, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Leveticus, Pariah & 2x Hollow Waif
Rusty Alyce
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
Vee
Soul Battery
Scavenger
Abomination

Pool: 2
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Ashes and Dust), Power Ritual

Opponent had:

Kastore, Awakened & Marathine
Barbaros
Gwyll
Leech King
White Eyes
Cavern Nephilim
Urnbearer

Pool: 3
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Barbaros), Information Overload

Turn 1:

Amalgam was quite evenly distributed along their deployment. From left to right I had Hollow Waif, Ashes and Dust, covering the bottom-left corner. Ashes left a scheme marker there, tool Rusty Alyce and Marlena were just beyond bottom-left corner's strategy marker, while Leveticus went already to cast a useless Soul Harvest. My idea was to limit regeneration overheals that way, but only Leech King actually cared about that.

Scavenger, Abomination and Soul Battery were around the centerpoint. Vee placed a scheme marker to bottom-right corner and took a walk forward, as I had no targets for intel gathering. Last Hollow Waif was at the right table edge, biding her time.

Most of Neverborn Resurrectionists walked and concentrated, plus had their overheal shenanigans. White Eyes was coming from the left, hugging table edge there. Cavern Nephilim was next, inside a ruined building. Leech King was behind the building, near  top-left strategy marker and Urnbearer next o Leech King. 

Gwyll went on top of building, next to top-right strategy marker. Kastore was a bit further on the same building, having enthralled Scavenger to charge Soul Battery. Barbaros was past the building, so all Returned henchmen and master was in top-right quarter, and Ashes and Dust for sweating bullets was in bottom-left corner. Yay.

Marathine had gone to place a scheme marker past centerline near center-right strategy marker.

Turn 2:

Leech King was able to summon a Giant Leech right next to Leveticus, who did two pings of Soul Harvest next, and finished off the Giant Leech with a lucky melee attack.

Cavern Nephilim does an Echolocation to Marlena, blasts damage to Alyce and uses its second action to maul her. White Eyes walked, charged Ashes and Dust and leaped to Rusty Alyce to attack her, too. And lands a Red Joker on damage. Damage block reduced that by two, armor by one and one was transfered to Marlena. It felt wild to mark only two boxes of damage from Red Joker.

Alyce has to stay in melee with both models to contest bottom-left marker... although I don't quite know why. I guess I still had some hopes to deny Returned a point. As even Vee took a walk, Gathered Intel for Soul Battery, and didn't get tomes for her own burial. Soul Battery rant to contest bottom-left strategy marker, too.

Urnbearer comes to contest center-left marker that was held by only Leveticus, so Ashes and Dust had to walk and charge her, not doing much. 

Kastore enthralls Abomination to slam a bush in front of it and charged the thing. Abomination survived, but was finished off by Barbaros.

Scavenger was staggered and stunned from last turn, so he wasn't able to do much.

Hollow Waif slammed a part of the hedge maze and takes a shot at Kastore, not doing anything.

Gwyll exists, staying disguised on top of a building.

End phase thing of Kastore drops third required marker for Information Overload reveal, and both crews get their strategy point for a 2-1 lead for Kastore.

Turn 3:

Bottom-left quarter sees some fierce combat. It takes the combined efforts of Rusty Alyce, Marlena Webster and Hollow Waif to finally kill the gravely injured White Eyes. Soul Battery doesn't do much of anything, but he does explode into two soulstones. 

Cavern Nephilim and White Eyes attacked Rusty Alyce, so much so that I was almost out of soulstones again despite Soul Battery's sacrifice. Last to join the fray was Kastore himself, who took a double walk and charged Marlena. I don't blame him, both Rusty Alyce and Marlena were starting to be low on health - but so were Cavern Nephilim and Kastore himself after a lucky shot from Scavenger's shotgun and Hollow Waif's gun.

Leveticus walked, pinged Leech King and Urnbearer for a point of damage, and killed Urnbearer with a strike. Leech King charged him, and so did Barbaros. Well, technically he charged Ashes and Dust, but that inbuilt Shove Aside is a thing. After Barbaros was done, both Ashes and Dust and Leveticus were low on health. Well, Ashes wasn't that low, but a bad Cage Fighter coupled with Black Blood might rob me of Sweating Bullets. So, Ashes and Dust just had to concentrate and shrug.

Scavenger and Vee were controlling center-right, Leveticus and Ashes and Dust the center-left. Cavern Nephilim had bottom-left all by itself, so both players got their strategy. Both also reveal Sweating Bullets, so scores go 4-3 for Kastore.

Turn 4:

Somehow Marlena Webster survived the onslaught of Kastore, and that spelled doom for Kastore. Sure, Returned master took kind of a risk, but Marlena was like down to three health or so - she should have been removed with four master action points. 

But instead Rusty Alyce and Leveticus make the Returned master Gone. 

Buuut... after Leech King and Barbaros were done, Leveticus was down to one health remaining and Ashes and Dust was transformed to Ashen Core and Dust Storm. 

Cavern Nephilim did a scheme and went on top of tower, still contestin bottom-left marker. This eventually forced Marlena to go contest it.

Vee had walked and healed Leveticus, and was contesting the center-right marker with Gwyll. Where did Scavenger go? Well, he was able to score Masks with Weird Device to get an 8" teleport, then walk to control top-right strategy marker.

This evened scores to 4-4.

Turn 5:

Barbaros sure enough killed Leveticus with bonus action and charged to beat Vee. Gwyll went to place a scheme, contesting center-right marker, but did so near enough Vee that she was able to engage both henchmen for Sweating Bullets.

Rusty Alyce walked within 6" of centerpoint and tried to finish off Leech King, but failed to do so. Instead the King engaged her. Giant Leech was also summoned.

Hollow Waif at one health remaining went on top of the tower where Cavern Nephilim was, but it took both of her actions. Fortunately Cavern Nephilim failed to kill her with one attack, so it wasn't able to drop a scheme. 

That was pretty much the last deciding factor, as now Marlena and Scavenger were able to deny Kastore the Information Overload.

Outcasts got Power Ritual reveal, and both players got Sweating Bullets end condition for a 6-5 victory for Leveticus.