Rusty New Year

Two 50ss games of Malifaux 4th Edition.

Strategy: Corner Recover Evidence

Schemes: Public Demonstration, Scout the Rooftops, Reshape the Land

My list:

Rusty Alyce & 2x Hollow Waif
Marlena Webster
Ashes and Dust
Maurice
Vee
Scavenger
2x Abomination

Pool: 4

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 3

Turn 1: Amalgam picks Public Demonstration on Lynch, Honeypot picks Scout the Rooftops

I built up an awkward chain of activations to bring Rusty Alice to pick up the first strategy marker. I had placed it quite far to the left, well out of easy reach of both Amalgam and Honeypot models.

So in the end, Maurice tossed Ashes and Dust into mud for 2", and then Ashes and Dust went to drop a scheme marker for Alyce to jump into. Then all it took was a double walk and interact.

Honeypot had placed their marker closer to center, but terrain on my side blocked an easy denial of picking up that one. I had originally chosen Public Demonstration on Lynch based on his positioning - I thought he also might take a double walk and interact to pick up the evidence. However, I didn't take into account various abilities Honeypot had for additional movement. Instead plain Illuminated went to pick it up.

I didn't have any options to block Scout the Rooftops either. At least Honeypot wasn't fast enough to get the second point from scoutings.

After Illuminated had picked up strategy marker, I was sure Amalgam lost their scheme points this turn. However, Scavenger had advanced mid-field. He had shot the scoring Illuminated with shotgun without much of an effect. Although failure, this baited Lynch to eclipse himself closer and start hacking at Scavenger. I still had one Abomination left to activate, and it took a double walk to hug Lynch.

Both players scored strategy and one point from their schemes for a 2-2 tie.

Turn 2: Amalgam picks Detonate Charges, Honeypot picks Leave Your Mark

Amalgam minions were lit this turn. Scavenger and Abomination scared Lynch away after they brought him down to six health remaining or so. The second Abomination was able to kill the Illuminated that had picked up strategy last turn. 

After Lynch escaped, Hungering Darkness entered the brawl in his place, and got shot four points of damage from Hollow Waif thanks to a Red Joker.

Honeypot wasn't quite as adept at dishing out damage, but didn't fall much behind. Especially Maurice was a sorry punching bag, missing all of his attacks. At least he bled Injured all over enemy models while going down to four health remaining.

I was quite powerless to stop Honeypot from leaving their mark on the centerpoint, especially after Mr. Graves, Kitty and Illuminated spawned a total of four scheme markers there. Rusty Alyce could have gone and removed one of those, but instead she went to a terrain to place two scheme markers to it, thus scoring extra points from scenario.

Vee is amazing model to spawn a bunch of scheme markers, too. Her and Marlena were able to score Detonate Charges for two points from Hungering Darkness.

Both players scored strategy, but Amalgam did it twice. Both crews got two from scheme, so Amalgam got the lead at 6-5.

Turn 3: Amalgam picks Grave Robbing, Honeypot picks Take the Highground

With great trouble Amalgam was eventually able to score Grave Robbing reveal from Hungering Darkness. Ashes and Dust was able to pick one enemy remains for the second point, but Mr. Tannen used his invisible hand to turn another remains into a scheme marker. So I needed to kill one more model for two points from scheme. I certainly tried, but Mr. Graves was too difficult to take down with the models I still had left to activate.

Oh well. At least Rusty Alyce was able to royally screw Honeypot by taking a walk to contest bridge terrain that was controlled by Kitty Dumont. She took a shoot at Beckoner to summon Abomination, and shoved Kitty off the bridge for good measure anyway.

Mr. Tannen had one terrain for Take the Highground, but the summoned Abomination was now contesting the second piece Honeypot had.

Illuminated was able to take a double walk to scale on the hill, but would have needed to also succeed in his bonus action, since you have to go 100% supported with scale terrain. This action failed when opponent didn't have any cards in hand, which robbed Honeypot scheme points this turn.

Honeypot did manage to claw strategy point from Maurice, though. Hungering Darkness gave the point for Amalgam, so Alyce's lead grew to 8-6.

Turn 4: Amalgam picks Runic Binding, Honeypot picks Make It Look Like an Accident

Mr. Graves was able to fell a Hollow Waif from top of terrain, but she was left alive with two health remaining or so. To deny Make It Look Like an Accident, she tried to hide behind the same building she had stood on. Lynch did some odd shenanigans with eclipses and whatnot, and went to kill her anyway.

Vee had managed to craft a perfect Runic Binding if Lynch had stayed in place. I was weighing if I should reveal the scheme for just one point now that Honeypot had surely secured two. In the end I decided to take the one point as I was ahead in points anyway.

Various models were able to kill the summoned Abomination. Rusty Alyce attempted a hail mary set of perfect actions. First, she needed to shoot Beckoner dead with one shot, then Scrounge to Abomination's corpse to touch both Abomination's strategy marker and pick up Beckoner's strategy. She managed just that, and we called it a game. Game ended in 10-8 victory for Rusty Alyce. At best Lynch could have narrowed it down to 10-9.

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Boundary Dispute

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Harness Ley Lines, Public Demonstration

My list:

Rusty Alyce, Rider Remade & Soul Battery
Marlena Webster
Vee
Hard Stop Herbert
Scavenger
Abomination
Necropunk
Angel Eyes
2x Bloodwretch

Pool: 3

Opponent had:

Hoffman, Steel Sculptor & Mechanical Attendant
Peacekeeper
Melissa KORE
2x Hunter
Warden
2x Watcher

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Amalgam: Public Demonstration on Peacekeeper. Augmented: Public Demonstration on Hard Stop Herbert.

Early on Vee pushed Alyce and Marlena a wee bit forward. That was the first mistake. 

Hoffman gave Melissa fast and extra walk, so she got into position to blast Rusty Alyce four times, hitting with each shot. Each shot dealt two damage. 

I had a bunch of 13's on my hand, so Marlena Webster took a walk and shot Melissa with her healing shot, but only managed to heal two points from Alyce.

And then Peacekeeper walked and used Wrecking Ball to charge Marlena. Fortunately it did only three damage or so, but this left Marlena a prime target for assassination next turn.

However, Peacekeeper was now in easy to reach position for Public Demonstration, and that was indeed what happened. Rusty Alyce jumped over a fence to get Peacekeeper within 6", and summoned two Abominations to the demonstration target before galloping away much like brave sir Robin.

Hard Stop Herbert and Bloodwretch were delivering a strategy marker to top, where it looked like Warden and Watcher would be the main adversaries. 

Another Watcher as well as Hunter were delivering two strategy markers towards bottom, where I had Scavenger and Bloodwretch.

I was able to present Augmented a dilemma to either score one point from Public Demonstration or one point from strategy, but not do both. They took the strategy.

Amalgam took the lead with 3-1, as their public demonstration was a SMASHING success.

Turn 2: Amalgam: Detonate Charges. Augmented: Assassinate on Marlena Webster

Peacekeeper started smashing Marlena as the first activation of the turn, scoring Assassinate both reveal and end condition instantly. It still had actions left to smash Necropunk in one hit.

I wanted to bring Rusty Alyce to middle, but Melissa's gatling gun had put the fear of god in Alyce. Both Abomination and even Bloodwretch went to engage Melissa. They were all dealt with easily enough, but Melissa wasn't able to blast everyone dead, as she had to scale on top of terrain to yeet my strategy marker back whence it came.

Angel Eyes took a shot at Watcher, who stumbled out of her reach with crew card shenanigans. The thing leaped to bully my strategy markers even more. Finally Scavenger was able to put an end to the Watcher's rampage over my precious little markers, and out of spite scrounged Watcher's corpse off from board. Which was a short-sighted mistake.

Vee was important model to score Detonate Charges, as she passed Secret Inspection checks left and right without cheats. This left Hard Stop Herbert able to walk, scale and interact Augmented strategy marker away, which in the end was the factor that forced Melissa's hand.

Lastly, Rusty Alyce charged Peacekeeper after detonating some charges, and managed to dish out five damage or so. However, she was now in a precarious position even if she had managed to heal up back to seven or so, and Augmented had the start next turn.

Only Hoffman scored strategy this turn, but Rusty Alyce got two scheme points easily enough.

Amalgam was still leading with 5-4.

Turn 3: Amalgam: Graverobbing. Augmented: Detonate Charges

... and this is where everything fell apart.

Although Peacekeeper failed to kill Rusty Alyce, she was equally unable to kill Peacekeeper. I had the option to run away with last action, but instead I was greedy and tried to finish the thing for graverobbing purposes. I didn't have the cards to secure that, so obviously it failed miserably, and now Alyce was sitting with two health remaining.

Hoffman healed Peacekeeper a little, charged and killed Rusty Alyce.

Peacekeeper was at three health remaining without Shielded. Abomination tried to claw it dead. I thought that if I a managed to land a total of two points and Injured to the robot, it'd die. But damage was only one, without Injured. So Mechanical Attendant just moved, schemed and healed Peacekeeper back to unfortunate amounts of health.

I still threw everything I got at Peacekeeper to score schemes, but killing took the effort of my entire remaining crew. The flips were absolutely miserable.

However, Scavenger was MVP of sorts. He took off from melee with Hunter, Scrounged to Guild scheme marker and shot the Peacekeeper dead. This gave me a point, and denied a point for Augmented. But the thing was, Scavenger was my second to last activation - it was impossible to get extra point from Graverobbing. And Augmented dominated the strategy markers, and most of the board so totally that we didn't continue the game even if Amalgam was still leading the scoreboard with 6-5.

Turn 4: Amalgam: Runic Binding. Augmented: Take the Highground.

Third turn was such a horrid spectacle that we did not play fourth turn. It was clear Augmented would get four points, while Amalgam had a minimum and maximum of one. 

Augmented won with something around 9-7.

Fun fact: I didn't receive Red Joker in any of my flips throughout the game. Not even in checks that essentially waste Red Joker. Same can't be said of the Black Joker, who certainly made an appearance every single turn. 

Christmas Family Games

My Christmas trip saw an unexpected amount of family games.

I had two sessions of Yatzy with just two players. This was more like the expectation I had.

However, I also encountered old foe. Uno.

Fortunately that was at least the No Mercy Uno variation. Even if that deck has those crazy +10 cards, the games didn't drag on endlessly because of that blessed mechanic of dropping out of game with twenty-five cards. 

We played two sessions, with at least six games on the latter session. Player count was five and six. 

Espionage

 A three player Talisman, 4th Edition. We had all the corner expansions and the Cataclysm board, and no special ending.

We had Leywalker, Spy and Amazon in this game.

Spy had an explosive start when he got the Astral Journey spell that gave +1 Strength and Craft. Then he got to visit Guru to pick a spell from spell discard pile that had only a single spell in it... yeah, +2 Strength and Craft right from the start.

Leywalker could have had a promising start, rummaging through the remnants in the middle region, but the first card drawn sent it to Highlands via magic portal. I suppose that was somewhat of a flashing start as well, as Leywalker got the Talisman on the first round of the game.

Amazon was shuffling around here and there, getting only some minor equipment here and there, so she decided to seek her destiny in the woodlands. She did complete two paths successfully throughout the game, but did not receive a destiny in any straightforward way. However, she did pick up the item that acted like a destiny.

Spy had quite the rollercoaster of a run. Quite early in the game he got the money to go and get a flail, but that was stolen from him by the Amazon via Path of Greed. However, just two or three turn later he got to pick a "place" card from discard pile, which was den of thieves or something, so he stole the flail right back. And not too long after, Green Mist destroyed it. But he wouldn't give up, and saved up for another one. 

That all took a while, during that while Leywalker had some luck. It managed to get back to Middle Region, and found Toxic Spring there. Not only that, it also got Craft spell from the spell deck. It also had Spell Call, and was able to set up a teleportation circle to Runes space. Leywalker had also received Healing spell at one point, so he was able to soak up the toxic waters of the magical spring.

Leywalker also had the Woodlands follower that essentially gave him +2 Craft, but also lost a life whenever Leywalker gained a stat. That follower was ultimately it's downfall, as it decided to take a point of unnecessary damage instead of just ditching the follower - Craft 13 was not necessary to get through Portal of Power and Mines. Leywalker was just at one life remaining when it would have got to fight the snowbeast, so instead of taking that risk, it teleported out of Inner Region. With two lives Leywalker would've tried to fight the snowbeast at least once, but now it just teleported back to Runes that had a portal, and was ambushed by the flailing Spy. Leywalker went down. Enter Arcane Scion.

However, Leywalker had delayed Spy long enough that Amazon was able to get to Inner Region before Spy, both only a turn or two. Bitterly cold part of the Craft path delayed Amazon for a turn, so Spy got to the crown first. But then a challenger - the Amazon - appeared. Without the flail the fight could have been a little more even, but that piece of equipment just made the combat completely one-sided, and Spy absolutely dominated that fight. Since it took a couple of rounds, Arcane Scion had plenty of time to ride around the City on his riding horse and Hopper, the bunny.

Victory for Spy.

New Moon

 

I tried a new game called Luna Nova. It was a mechanic driven set-building, tile placement sort of game, where phases of the moondictated which tiles were available for you, and the moon phases were changing based on player actions. 

Simple enough once you get the hang of it, but having quite the depth in how to place your tiles for maximum effect.

I had two two-player rounds. First round went as expected, as in the early game I didn't have much of an idea what I should be building either now or in the future. 

Second round I was able to scrape a the narrowest victory possible - opponent would have won with next whatever tile she picked.

Pale O

 Two games of Paleo with two players. We played the second scenario where there was a lot of wolves involved.

First game did not go great. I think the tribe went extinct on the fourth day without even a single section of the cave painting done. Uh oh.

Second game went better. We aimed to get all the secrets open, and were indeed able to get the chieftain's suit in record time. At the same daycount when the tribe had lost in last game, we had both the sling thing, chieftain suit and first section of cave painting.

Although first three skulls appeared at a worrying pace, the downward spiral stalled for a while. Quite often the tribe struggled by the skin of their teeth to finish the day without additional skulls from hunger or accomplishing mission goals. Whenever tribe was able to make a stone spear, it had to be flinged at a big enemy soon after. At least those were big kills, though.

Paleo seemed like a fun game, though. There was plenty of variables and shenanigans that came into play, and I usually enjoy those.

 A couple of rounds of Joking Hazard. Let's make that a one session. There was some sort of expansion involved, but I don't think I heard it's name.